EXCERPT - The Center of the New Testament (von Balthasar)

Without a doubt, at the center of the New Testament there stands the Cross, which receives its interpretation from the Resurrection.

The Passion narratives are the first pieces of the Gospels that were composed as a unity. In his preaching at Corinth, Paul initially wants to know nothing but the Cross, which "destroys the wisdom of the wise and wrecks the understanding of those who understand", which "is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles". But "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (I Cor 1:19, 23, 25).

Whoever removes the Cross and its interpretation by the New Testament from the center, in order to replace it, for example, with the social commitment of Jesus to the oppressed as a new center, no longer stands in continuity with the apostolic faith. He does not see that God's commitment to the world is most absolute precisely at this point across a chasm.

This excerpt from Hans Urs von Balthasar's Short Primer for Unsettled Laymen fromInsight by Ignatius Press continues here.
To buy Short Primer for Unsettled Laymen go here.

MUSINGS - Lord, loosen our lips

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
(John 3:16)

God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ - by grace you have been saved -
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:4-7)

To remain silent in the face of God's grace would be an inestimable ingratitude. Thus the righteous pray, "Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!" (Psalm 137:6)

Today's Readings: Sunday, March 26th, 2006.

MUSINGS - One word can change the world

For most of us, it is far too easy to imagine that our lives really matter. The Annunciation screams a resounding "No" to all such self-deprecation. Sometimes the fate of the world hangs on a single "Yes"!

Today's Readings: Saturday, March 25th, 2006.

ANSWERING MISTER BROWN

About three years ago I was asked by the ladies council of my home parish, Our Lady of Angels, Woodbridge, Virginia, to lead a study that would address the issues raised by Dan Brown's novel, The DaVinci Code. While that study was able to assist a small group of concerned Catholics, it could do little more!

Since that time I've watched as many articles and books have been published to assist Christians - both Catholics and non-Catholics - in their efforts to respond to Mr. Brown's historically false and spiritually dangerous claims regarding Jesus Christ and the Church. One or two have also attempted to coordinate a more widespread parish or congregation based response.

The DaVinci Antidote is one such comprehensive resource. It is a coherent Catholic response that enables parishes everywhere to tackle the issues raised by The DaVinci Code. I hope that you would consider using these resources in your parish!

BTW - If you are able to coordinate a parish-wide response, you might want to consider purchasing a few copies of The DaVinci Deception and giving them to your friends.

MUSINGS - Understanding and embracing

And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34).

It is a common enough error. Even so, it's important to keep in mind that having a correct understanding of the faith is not identical with embracing it. We must move beyond knowing about God to knowing Him; from information to trust!

Today's Readings: Friday, March 24th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Speaking & listening

THEOLOGY 101: God speaks in words and in power.
"If today you hear his voice..." (Psalm 95:8a).

SPIRITUALITY 101: If we are to hear, then we will need to incline our wills.
"...harden not your hearts" (Psalm 95:8b).

Today's Readings: Thursday, March 23rd, 2006.

MUSINGS - What you desire most!

If you wish to be thought wise, then obey God's commandments (Deut 4:5-6). If greatness is your aim, then teach others to do so as well (Matt 5:19).

Your need for significance has been anticipated and met in God's call to you.

Today's Readings: Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006.

MUSINGS - Forgiveness from the heart

Human pride is never so great as when it imagines that the forgiveness that we extend to each other may be compared to the forgiveness which we have received from our heavenly Father. It is for this reason that Jesus reminds us that the forgiveness the Father requires must be from the heart.

Today's Readings: Tuesday, March 21st, 2006.

DVD - The Journey Home Interview

On Monday, February 13th, I was Marcus Grodi's guest on EWTN's The Journey Home cable television show. It was an incredible opportunity to give witness to the tremendous grace God has given throughout our family's journey home to the Catholic Church.

If you would like to get a DVD of the show, click the button below. When you do, you will also be helping to support our family as I continue my theological and spiritual formation in anticipation of the priesthood.

EXCERPT - The Paradoxes of Christianity (G.K. Chesterton)

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait. I give one coarse instance of what I mean.

Suppose some mathematical creature from the moon were to reckon up the human body; he would at once see that the essential thing about it was that it was duplicate. A man is two men, he on the right exactly resembling him on the left. Having noted that there was an arm on the right and one on the left, a leg on the right and one on the left, he might go further and still find on each side the same number of fingers, the same number of toes, twin eyes, twin ears, twin nostrils, and even twin lobes of the brain. At last he would take it as a law; and then, where he found a heart on one side, would deduce that there was another heart on the other. And just then, where he most felt he was right, he would be wrong.

Excerpted from Chapter 6 of G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. For the rest...GO HERE!

If you would like to read the book, then click the following link:

Orthodoxy

MUSINGS - A Divine-Human Resonance

"Joseph did as the angel...had commanded him" (Matthew 1:24)
"Jesus went...to Nazareth, and was obedient to them" (Luke 2:51).

There is a remarkable resonance between the Gospel for today and it's alternate. In the one, Joseph faces the implications of Mary's pregnancy. In the other, Jesus is confronted by Mary and Joseph. One hears the voice of an angel. The other, the voice of his mother. Both respond in kind with a steady heroism...aka obedience.

Today's Readings: Monday, March 20th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Love is at hand

He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, and...he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace" (John 2:15-16)

Love of God and love of neighbor are both present here! How do we know? Because God is at hand. We cannot see it because we have collapsed love into passion. Today's Gospel is a reminder that love is much more than that!

Today's Readings: Sunday, March 19th, 2006.

IRELAND'S TRUE GLORY

SAINT PATRICK'S BREASTPLATE

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

-------
This is the true glory of the Irish and their noblest dream.
Thanks for the reminder, Miss Trish!

MUSINGS - Joseph, childhood & hope

Ever since I was a child, Joseph has fascinated me!

I heard Joseph's story from my mother's lips first; full of drama and intrigue. I can remember how she spoke of his dad's favoritism and the trouble it stirred up between Joseph and his brothers. Since my mom and dad had fought successfully against any similar urges they might have had, the fear of parentally enhanced sibling rivalry was never a part of my experience. So it was easy for me to see how to rise above it.

When mom spoke of the wicked machinations of Joseph's brothers, and Rueben's cowardly compromise, I wondered how it was possible for brothers to behave like that. But since my mom was older and bigger than me, and, since she had never lied to me before, I figured this part of the story had to be true, too. I comforted myself with the thought that this is what happens in bad families.

I was impressed when mom told us about how Joseph had - through hard work - advanced in his master's house. I was so captured by the ease with which Joseph escaped from the clutches of Potiphar's evil wife that I didn't even mind that it landed him in prison. I had never been to a prison of any kind, so I imagined that it couldn't have been all that bad! And after all, Joseph was God's guy!

I know that my mom told us about the two men that Joseph helped while in prison. You know, the one that got strung up by the neck (whatever that meant), and the one that got to go live in the palace again. The first man never returned the favor, and the other just forgot about Joseph. In any event, Joseph kept doing what good guys always do: He kept trusting the Lord, because in the end God would do right by him. God always did.

And - by the way - that's just what happened.

Eventually, Pharaoh needed a dream deciphered and Joseph's forgetful former fellow-prisoner suddenly had a revelation. As the story goes, he said to Pharaoh, "I know a guy who can interpret dreams." With that Joseph was sprung!

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream. Then, he saved the Egyptians from starvation - along with a bunch of other people. After that he was made second in command, and Pharaoh even gave him a beautiful wife. Finally, and true to form, Joseph saved the very wretched brothers who had thought to kill him, but who decided to sell him into slavery instead.

I heard Joseph's story many times in my childhood. For all that, there was one detail that I had never noticed: Jospeh didn't know how his story was going to end. He had to go through it blind!

By the time this detail had caught my attention, I had had an encounter or two with strife-torn families. I had also tasted the shameful fruit of cowardice, been wrongfully accused, and had learned something of the power of temptation. The experience of these all too common human weaknesses - coupled with that long unnoticed detail - has altered the way I read the story of Joseph today. Joseph was a man, just like me. Yet, he remained true to God no matter what life dished out.

This has changed my view of Joseph forever. This Lent, I hope that it changes me, too!

Today's Readings: Friday, March 17th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Restorer of the human heart

Despite all the sophisticated spiritual, religious and/or theological moves that we employ to justify ourselves, few of us are happy with anything less than genuine fidelity from our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, co-workers or friends! In the world of relationships, you are what you do!

It's the same way in the life of faith: The blessed are alive with the works of justice. But, our practiced delusions about this are so powerful that we very easily forget the witness of the Scriptures (Luke 16:29-31)! Keep this in mind the next time you are bothered by the distracting demands of Lent. ...and give thanks.

Each Lent you and I are given forty days to hear again the law and the prophets - and to contemplate the incredible grace secured by the Resurrection - so that our torturous hearts might be turned back toward God more completely...and fine their rest and restoration in Him.

"O God, the restorer and lover of innocence,
direct the hearts of your servants unto yourself:
that being enkindled with the fire of your Spirit,
they may be found both steadfast in faith and fruitful in deed."
(Collect, Thursday of the Second Week of Lent)

Today's Readings: Thursday, March 16th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Wasted Surprise

Why are we surprised when we get into trouble for speaking the truth? Jesus said it would happen!

Today's Readings: Wednesday, March 15th, 2006.

STORYTIME - First Communion (Frank O'Connor)

All the trouble began when my grandfather died and my grand-mother - my father's mother - came to live with us. Relations in the one house are a strain at the best of times, but, to make matters worse, my grandmother was a real old countrywoman and quite unsuited to the life in town. She had a fat, wrinkled old face, and, to Mother's great indignation, went round the house in bare feet-the boots had her crippled, she said. For dinner she had a jug of porter and a pot of potatoes with-some-times-a bit of salt fish, and she poured out the potatoes on the table and ate them slowly, with great relish, using her fingers by way of a fork.

Now, girls are supposed to be fastidious, but I was the one who suffered most from this. Nora, my sister, just sucked up to the old woman for the penny she got every Friday out of the old-age pension, a thing I could not do. I was too honest, that was my trouble; and when I was playing with Bill Connell, the sergeant-major's son, and saw my grandmother steering up the path with the jug of porter sticking out from beneath her shawl, I was mortified. I made excuses not to let him come into the house, because I could never be sure what she would be up to when we went in.

When Mother was at work and my grandmother made the dinner I wouldn't touch it. Nora once tried to make me, but I hid under the table from her and took the bread-knife with me for protection. Nora let on to be very indignant (she wasn't, of course, but she knew Mother saw through her, so she sided with Gran) and came after me. I lashed out at her with the bread-knife, and after that she left me alone. I stayed there till Mother came in from work and made my dinner, but when Father came in later, Nora said in a shocked voice: "Oh, Dadda, do you know what Jackie did at dinnertime?" Then, of course, it all came out; Father gave me a flaking; Mother interfered, and for days after that he didn't speak to me and Mother barely spoke to Nora.

And all because of that old woman ! God knows, I was heart-scalded. Then, to crown my misfortunes, I had to make my first confession and communion. It was an old woman called Ryan who prepared us for these. She was about the one age with Gran; she was well-to-do, lived in a big house on Montenotte, wore a black cloak and bonnet, and came every day to school at three o'clock when we should have been going home, and talked to us of hell. She may have mentioned the other place as well, but that could only have been by accident, for hell had the first place in her heart.

She lit a candle, took out a new half-crown, and offered it to the first boy who would hold one finger, only one finger! - in the flame for five minutes by the school clock. Being always very ambitious I was tempted to volunteer, but I thought it might look greedy. Then she asked were we afraid of holding one finger-only one finger! - in a little candle flame for five minutes and not afraid of burning all over in roasting hot furnaces for all eternity. "All eternity! Just think of that! A whole lifetime goes by and it's nothing, not even a drop in the ocean of your sufferings." The woman was really interesting about hell, but my attention was all fixed on the half-crown. At the end of the lesson she put it back in her purse. It was a great disappointment; a religious woman like that, you wouldn't think she'd bother about a thing like a half-crown.

For the rest of the story...GO HERE

MUSINGS - Social Justice 101

Attending to the details of our liturgical life matters because through the liturgy we seek to offer worship that is acceptable to the One who made heaven and earth. Caring for the widow, the orphan and the alien matters because - like ourselves - they bear in their persons the very image of the One whom we adore. The movement from God-pleasing liturgy to compassion for those in need is a short one. In fact, sometimes it begins with a greeting to the person who is sharing our pew at Mass.

Today's Readings: Tuesday, March 14th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Legalism's prey

One of the surest signs that we have fallen prey to legalism is a fastidiousness with all God's commandments save the one to be merciful.

Today's Readings: Monday, March 13th, 2006.

MUSINGS - The value of a son

Sometimes when I read the story of the testing of Abraham, I try to avoid its horrifying implications: Will God ever ask the same as me?

Most of the time, however, I wistfully brush it aside with the calm assurance that he will never ask me to place my son on the altar. Then, just when I have almost completely suppressed this story, I stumble across an icon of The Seven Sons (2 Maccabees 7:1-42) and I am shaken.

Sometimes God does ask for everything!

Later on in the Scriptures we are told that Abraham was able to face this test because he was confident that God was able to raise the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). It is this same faith that allowed the woman to encourage her seven sons to embrace death rather than become unfaithful to God under the Roman persecution.

Abraham and the woman could remain faithful because they believed that God had power over the grave!

"Lord, so impress upon me the reality of the resurrection that I might entrust the son of my love to you - the Resurrection and the Life! Amen."

Today's Readings: Sunday, March 12th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Obedience & freedom

One of the more interesting features of life in the 21st century is our instinct for destroying the peculiar! Few societies have waved the banner of radical individuality so wildly, yet demanded so thorough a conformity in thought and deed. "You may think and do whatever you wish," it says, "provided you don't attribute any ultimate value to your thoughts or actions." It's no wonder that so many of us are intellectually bored and emotionally numb.

You and I are wired for meaning. Despite the gargantuan efforts of social reprogrammers, most of us still find ourselves moved to tears by deeds of heroic sacrifice and repulsed when thugs manhandle the weak. And the rest of us wish we did. In other words, we have a persistent intuition that what we do really counts...and with that, that we matter.

It is to this profoundly human sensibility that God addresses himself when he calls Israel into covenant. The call itself is pregnant with significance. It declares, "You are more than the product of some meaningless chaotic collision of atoms!" Then it invites us to transcend the maddening ordinariness and flatness of our culture vision of life.

"Cast out into the deep" (Luke 5:4), is God's invitation for us to "become who we are" (Pope John Paul II). No one who has ever taken up this covenant with integrity has ever regretted it. With this invitation we are called into the grandeur of "the obedience of faith."

"And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:
you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;
and provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory
above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,
as he promised" (Deuteronomy 26:17-19).

This call to enter into covenant with God through Jesus Christ opens up the possibility of an obedience that sets human freedom on fire (see Galations 5:1). Through it God offers the power to rise above all cultural expectations of goodness to attain to the perfection that is God's very life (Matthew 5:48).

Today's readings call us to "not be satisfied with mediocrity" (Pope John Paul II, Castel Gandolfo, August 25, 1981). Through them God the Father calls each of his sons and daughters to resist the truncated and unsatisfying vision of our lives for which contemporary western culture has settled. May our journey through this Lent draw us toward a more complete obedience, and with that to the "glorious freedom of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).

Today's Readings: Saturday, March 11th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Truly righteous

Let us be done with all pretending: Grace does more than alter our status. Rather, it effects a radical personal transformation. It is for this reason - and this reason alone - that the Gospel is so full of hope!

Today's Readings: Friday, March 10th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Courage

Genuine courage always begins with our faces to the ground.

Today's Readings: Thursday, March 9th, 2006.

MUSINGS - Something about Jonah

I find a strange comfort in the story of Jonah.

It opens up simply enough. At least, simply enough, if you are a prophet. Unlike many of my charismatically inclined and gifted friends, I'm not sure that I want to have many days punctuated with a "word of the LORD." I rather like the less direct way God normally leads us.

Anyhow, according to the reading "the word of the LORD comes to Jonah a second time". Did you get that? This is the second time that God had to speak to Jonah, and it wasn't because Jonah had responded well the first time either. In fact, the first time God spoke to this prophet, Jonah behaved rather badly.

In that previous encounter, God had said, "Set out for the great city of Niniveh." Jonah, however, took off in the opposite direction. What's amazing is that Jonah is so hardened in his determination to disregard the word of LORD that he could sleep like a baby on the sinking ship of his disobedience. But God wouldn't leave it at that - so he had Jonah's sailor "friends" do what a storm powerless to do. They woke Jonah up ... then reluctantly tossed the troublemaker into the sea. And for next three days, Jonah prayed and prayed. He also feasted on whale belly food. Finally, when the days of his trauma were full, God told the big fish to burp... and - unlike Jonah - it did what it was told to do, the first time!

That's the background for today's reading, and its absolutely critical for seeing the incredible amount of grace that's been crammed into three little words, a second time. Jonah, sad to say, is too much like us. Or better yet, we are too much like him. But, "thanks be to Jesus," God comes to us a second time.

I am comforted by Jonah's story... and, I think that - when you're most honest with yourself - you are too! If so, then there's still hope for you...and me... this Lent!

Today's Readings: Wednesday, March 8th, 2006.