March for Life, Part 2: Stumbling upon half a million people.

Actually, the final estimate was 650,000--give or take a few tens of thousands.

After stumbling upon Fr. Justin and making a scene, Lita and I left the Dominicans and explored the other signs and flags nearby, finding interesting groups such as Pro Gay Pro Life and Seculars for Life and Hemophiliacs for Life. But the temperature was in the 20s and we felt cold so we decided to enter into the hordes of people where we could leech off their body heat and be out of the wind. As the emcees warmed up for the rally by shouting out to various states and groups and projecting live video on the Jumbotron we eventually realized that we were behind the stage! And walking to the other side we saw a seemingly endless sea of more than half a million people. I was amazed to see armies of jubilant high school and college aged people, making up far more than half the population present. And they were all so joyful. As Fr. Wells said during his homily at the Comcast Center: “Then He sends us out to march joyfully, to protest prayerfully, to give evidence to the world that life is good and we cannot deprive anyone of their God-given right to live.” Far from the somber severity I had expected, the atmosphere was filled with hope and joyful celebration of life and community. The sense of community would increase right through to the end of the March.

Secular Pro-Life (from Lita)

The rally included oodles of live and taped speakers including politicians, ex-abortionists, women who regret their abortions, people who were conceived through rape, various religious leaders, the new organizer of the March (The previous organizer, Nellie Gray, passed away last year at age 88.), and a Tweet of encouragement from Pope Benedict XVI!

Lita took an abandoned sign, after getting permission from a pack of teenagers, but we hid it in a bush when we decided to go into the Smithsonian Castle to warm up. I saw no signs of civil disobedience (certainly nothing worse than our sign-hiding offense) but the DC natives made it clear that they were not happy to see us (see what I mean?), from threats of confiscating property and pre-scolding us for anticipated disobedience to blank looks in response to innocent questions and an overall tone of unfriendliness. It certainly felt like the staff at the Smithsonian Café would have refused service if they had thought it would be legally permissible. But from so many years in grad school I know how frustrating it can be to find oneself caught, even for a few minutes, in the middle of a crowd of teenagers, no matter how well intentioned. And maybe that explains how they became so exasperated. Anyway, after a few humbling experiences, we managed to purchase hot tea and snacks. I ate my breakfast of cheddar and sour cream potato chips while we had a nice chat about vocations and Opus Dei and corporal mortifications and many other things.

Lita's "stolen" sign and proof that she definitely did not need a new hat.

By the time we left the sign was gone but I had gotten instructions from Jeremy telling us the whereabouts of the Mount St. Mary’s seminarians. So we set out on a confusing trek through the crowd, frequently led astray by various miscommunications. But, perhaps led by the Holy Spirit, we eventually found them toward what seemed like it might be the front of the March, although we still couldn’t see the leaders.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of this March for Life 2013 blog post series!

March for Life, Part 1: Stumbling across Fr. Justin.

I prayed the rosary on the Metro from Greenbelt to Smithsonian feeling a little nervous about the cold temperature and the impending snow but comforted by the Catholic and March-for-Life chatter going on around me. I had half expected to feel isolated and alone, enduring the disapproving glares of a few straggling DC commuters. I finished praying and tried to relax until Smithsonian where I shuffled off to find Lita who was already outside waiting.

A couple of men peddling winter hats—actually they claimed they were free—approached us immediately. “But…. We already have hats.” Eventually they gave up on the hats and just asked for money. But alas, Lita was carrying plastic and I only had a fifty dollar bill and didn’t feel comfortable asking for change. (I’m sure FrC would have given them the fifty dollars and his own hat, unless he knew for sure they were after drug money.) So I said we would pray for them and they took it well, with one man offering prayers for us too.

We weren’t sure where to go but there was a steady stream of people with matching neon scarves so we followed them. We got to the National Mall and saw a stage set up with a bunch of people beside it. I would guess we could see about 100 thousand people, far fewer than the typical crowds of 400 thousand. But we assumed that most people had not arrived since many, including my friend Jeremy, were currently participating in Mass for the Feast of St.Paul’s Conversion with a full house at the Verizon Center (the Eucharistic Jesus on the Jumbotron!). From the homily by Fr. Griffin: “In the face of a culture that says you can’t find happiness without indulging every sexual urge, we respond with the beauty and peace of holy purity in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.” Later we found out that mega Masses were also celebrated at a stadium in VA and at the Comcast Center in College Park.

Here I am!! Cold but happy. (from Lita)

The night before, Cardinal Wuerl celebrated a Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with so many other bishops, priests, and deacons that Jeremy says the procession lasted 40 minutes! The Mass kicked off an all night prayer vigil with confessions available and concluding with another Mass the next morning (both Masses were broadcast on EWTN). Really, the prayers started in earnest nine days before the March, with nine day novenas and Mass intentions offered in all 50 states and even in other countries. The anticipation reached a crescendo with Mass for the Feast of St. Paul’s Conversion—what a great feast day for the March for Life!

There is what Fr. Larry A. calls "The Mean Jesus".

I missed the Mass at the Basilica Thursday night because I was at my weekly rosary prayer group where the ladies gave me tips (e.g. use a museum bathroom instead of the Port-a-Potties) and packed me some snacks for the trip. The next day I was running late and caught Mass at Our Lady of the Fields where I ran into 90 year old Joe who offered more snacks if I had time to stop by his place. He quickly packed me a bag of fruit and we said a prayer together and then I was on my way.

Anyway, back at the Mall, we marveled at the giant and fancy signs and flags all around. We approached one black and white Religious Order that Lita thought she recognized but they turned out to be Dominicans. And I knew one of them! Like the awkward scientist that I am, I pointed at his face and said, “I know you!! You’re Fr. Justin.” And like the mild mannered Dominican he is, he acted like he didn’t notice my awkward rudeness and pleaded guilty.

Gasp!! It's Fr. Justin. And here's the proof. (from Lita)

I had only seen this man on two occasions, first at his priestly ordination and second at Meghan and Greg’s wedding (although I had been in the same room with him once, without seeing him, at the Dominican House during Compline). Now knowing at least TWO other people at the March, I felt quite comfortable.

Liebster award--whoo WHOO!!

It is like the chain letter of blogging, and I am a winner!

I copied that first sentence from Meghan. So double-thanks, Meghan! BTW, I copied this post from sarahexnihilo.blogspot.com since it has a sweet picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

___________________
The Rules:
Thank the person who nominated you and link your post to their blog.
List 11 facts about yourself then answer the 11 questions given to you.
Create 11 more questions for your 9 nominees, all of whom have 200 or less followers.
Comment on their blogs informing them of their Liebster Award nomination.
___________________

Facts about me:

1.)       While I was still a kid, all of a sudden the Lemonhead boxes had SAY NO TO DRUGS printed inside the flap. I was partially convinced that this was code to indicate that they contained actual drugs or poison—convinced enough to cause some genuine fear, but not convinced enough not to eat them.

2.)       I was also afraid that the mouse poo in our outdoor stairwell would give us Hantavirus.

3.)       Also while I was still a kid, Andy and I used to skate around the hard wood floors in our socks, pretending to be competitive figure skaters. We choreographed routines set to sweet 80s music—what a good brother!!

4.)       I used to watch Andy play video games because he claimed it was more fun to play with someone watching. This conditioned me to spend hours watching college friends play Snood.

5.)       Once, I think on Andy’s birthday, we spent an entire day watching and rewatching Young Einstein.

6.)       During my short hair phase, I once chemical burned my scalp while bleaching my hair blonde.

7.)       Once (kid again) I ate all of the stenciled fake snow off of my mirror and, as a baby, I stuck my finger into an electric pencil sharpener.

8.)       I really do not like licorice.

9.)       I had brief stints in both high school and college cheerleading.

10.)    I’ve been told that I would really thrive in the prison environment—it was a compliment.

___________________

           

Answers to Meghan’s questions:

1.) What is the best book you've read lately?

I am reading Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain and it is pretty amazing.

“We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.”

2.) Do you have a favorite painting/piece of artwork, and if so, what is it?

YES! Our Lady of Guadalupe

3.) How do you feel about Tuesday?

It’s ok, I guess. I prefer Monday and Thursday because they seem more optimistic. On Monday I have a full week ahead of me to make amazing progress. By Thursday I may not have made amazing progress yet but there are still two whole days to catch up.

4.) Do you have any wilderness survival skills, and if so, what are they?

No. None at all.

5.) How many (and which) languages do you speak?

One.

6.) Got any funny stories you'd like to share?

Sorry, can't think of any. I'm not very funny.

7.) What is the weirdest recipe you've made and loved?

The Solution to Canned Spinach

The first time I made it with an expired can of spinach and liked it enough that I bought a new, unexpired can to make it again.

8.) Are you right-handed or left-handed?

Righty. If Lefty were cut off I might not notice much difference.

9.) What would be your ideal vacation?

I would like to go back to Spain and see all the amazing Catholic things that I didn’t care about at all the last time I went there.

10.) What is the age from which you have your earliest memory?

Maybe 5ish? I’m not good at remembering things.

11.) Can you separate an egg without using some sort of man-made egg separator?

YES! I’ve never even heard of an egg separating device.

___________________

Questions to the nominees:

1.)          What is your favorite animal?

2.)          What is your favorite day of the work week?

3.)          How many pets have you had and what kinds?

4.)          What is your favorite blog to read?

5.)          Have you been to Boulder, CO and, if so, do you think it’s some sort of dream land?

6.)          What was/is your favorite thing to do on a snow day (if you’ve ever had one)?

7.)          Do you own a Snuggie?

8.)          What was the last movie you saw in the theater?

9.)          What is your favorite cookie recipe?

10.)       Did you ever own any NKOTB merchandise?

11.)       Which is your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

___________________

Also copied from Meghan:

Those I would like to nominate for the Liebster Award (also, I will not at all be offended if you are not interested in making your own big long post like this. But either way, I still wanted to let you know that your blogging is appreciated. Also, if you are not one of these people but feel like answering any of those questions in the comment section, I'd be all in favor of that)!

BTW, a lot of these blogs seem to be dead, but since I know hardly any bloggers I’m giving those blogs a chance to be resurrected. (And I still didn’t make it anywhere near 9.)

1.)   Dana

2.)   BPS

3.)   Meredith

4.)   Chris (his blog is extra dead!)

5.)   YOU?? (Please let me know if you have a blog and would like me to nominate you for the Liebster Award.)

A Miracle of Chance.

Mother Teresa holds an armless baby

When man is conceived, when a human nature comes into being as an individual, concrete, subsisting thing, a life, a person, then God's image is minted into the world. A free, vital, self-moving entity, a spirit informing flesh, a complex of energies ready to be set into fruitful motion begins to flame with potential light and understanding and virtue, begins to flame with love, without which no spirit can exist. It is ready to realize no one knows what grandeurs.--Thomas Merton

 

The March for Life is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It was completely different than I expected and afterward I felt so intensely joyful! I hope to post about the event soon, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve been typing up general thoughts and figured I’d share them here.

For years I felt that it was obvious that a woman should not be forced to carry a pregnancy to term if she does not want a baby—even if the only alternative is abortion (admittedly, those mangled fetus pictures are super creepy). No matter what caused this looming threat of biological motherhood, whether it be missed birth control pills, broken condoms, one night stands, etc, I felt that so long as the pregnancy was terminated early enough there was nothing to get upset about. (I did conveniently avoid thinking about abortions beyond the embryo stage.) A zygote isn’t a baby, I reasoned; it can’t survive outside of the womb, it can’t feel pain, it has no consciousness. It’s just a couple of cells, for cripes sake!, put it in a test tube and diddle around with it, it doesn’t matter. The baby that would have been born will never know what it’s missing. Better never to have been born than to live knowing that his mother didn’t want him. The baby that would have been born has not been realized yet.

…however, that last thought was the downfall of my old way of thinking.

The human life that would have come into existence has not been realized yet, BUT the full potential is there upon conception.

Groups such as the Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League and Pro-Life Nonbelievers point out that if life is all there is, it should be treasured and protected. Just think of all the parameters left to chance and yet, at this particular moment, one very specific combination of DNA will produce a particular person who would not exist under any other circumstances! Hence, a miracle of chance occurs. Maybe the barometric pressure is just right and a butterfly flaps its wings in Southeast Asia, Chandra and Bob drink a little too much and go to bed together--a new life is conceived. The concept is there and has begun to be realized. There is something special about this zygote. It’s different from any zygote conceived later under more convenient circumstances. It is unique. And to choose abortion is to ensure that the person who is fully conceived in this zygote will be deprived of the chance to live.

To think of pregnancy only in terms of its effect on a woman's body is silly. Time and again I've heard happily pregnant friends say things like "Now the baby is the size of a pea!" and "It's amazing, you can already see the baby's heart beat!" Maybe I’m wrong, but they don’t seem to see it as just an inanimate lump of cells that will at some uncertain future date morph into a human baby should the mother deem it convenient to allow the lump to do so. If you are pregnant and considering an abortion, the whole concern is that if you don't tamper with yourself then, barring unforeseen complications, nine months from now you'll have a baby. In the words of my buddy Matthew on the morning after pill: "You get pregnant and it gets rid of the baby." It doesn’t matter when a baby becomes a baby, when it becomes viable, when it starts to feel pain, etc. A baby would have been born had you not chosen abortion, but now it will never live. A life has been deemed disposable. A life has been quenched. Mother Teresa said, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” I would paraphrase Mother Teresa for the modern crowd and say, “It is a poverty to decide that a person who would have lived will never live so that you may live as you wish.”

The “woman’s body, her choice” claim begs the question of whether or not she should have chosen to be sexually active knowing that 1.) no contraceptive method is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy, and yet 2.) she is unwilling to carry a pregnancy to term. To be sexually active under these conditions, as a large percentage of the population seems to be, is to accept abortion as a means of birth control. (Ignoring, for now, the issue of voluntary sterilization.)

There are countless examples, including gospel singer Fred Hammond, of ‘abortion survivors’ after botched abortions failed to terminate the pregnancy. And to deem abortion as a termination of pregnancy is horribly misleading in cases of ‘live birth abortion’. Much safer for the mother (I suppose pro-abortion advocates would prefer the term patient?), in live birth abortion labor is induced pre-maturely and the preemie is left to die from exposure. (Can someone explain to me how this is not infanticide? We know that tremendous amounts of effort would be exerted to save the life of a preemie resulting from a planned pregnancy.) Quite obviously, abortion survivors would not be alive today if the world had its way.

By demanding the ‘choice’ of circumstances under which my baby will be born, I treat human lives as interchangeable. This is true of all such ‘planning’ of parenthood but is especially true in the case of disabilities. As ‘moral’ philosopher Peter Singer points out: “neither hemophilia nor Down's syndrome is so crippling as to make life not worth living from the inner perspective of the person with the condition. To abort a fetus with one of these disabilities, intending to have another child who will not be disabled, is to treat fetuses as interchangeable or replaceable. If the mother has previously decided to have a certain number of children, say two, then what she is doing, in effect, is rejecting one potential child in favor of another. She could, in defense of her actions, say: the loss of life of the aborted fetus is outweighed by the gain of a better life for the normal child who will be conceived only if the disabled one dies.” Indeed, the presence of a group of Hemophiliacs for Life at the March for Life implies that at least some disabled persons deem their lives worth living. We act like this is a surprise, but how do we expect to know, before the baby is a baby, whether or not this particular individual would choose to give up his chance at life if given the choice? In the eyes of the individual, the life of a 'normal' child may not even be the better life.

And so the choice of a 'normal' child over a disabled child is ultimately more in line with the thinking of Claire Rayner, who says, "The hard facts are that it is costly in terms of human effort, compassion, energy, and finite resources such as money, to care for individuals with handicaps... People who are not yet parents should ask themselves if they have the right to inflict such burdens on others, however willing they are themselves to take their share of the burden in the beginning." Wait, that’s worse than I remembered! Did I read that correctly? According to Claire, not only is a handicapped life not worth living and no parent should want to be responsible for that, but even with regard to the way disabilities affect society in general, parents should not have the right to give birth to a handicapped baby, even if they are themselves willing to accept the burden, due to the burden it imposes on others?

Note that roughly 67% of Down’s Syndrome pregnancies in the United States, and 92% in Europe, are terminated. According to Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s explanation to New York Times Magazine, “Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.” So abortion not only ‘solves’ the problem of disabilities but a host of other problems. Reduce the number of poor people and reduce crime rates, that’s great! I hate to be a buzzkill, but this is eugenics, a science that was near and dear to the heart of Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger. Funny, most of the people I know who seem to be from Ginsberg's "populations that we don’t want to have too many of" feel that abortion is wrong, even if they have had the misfortune of going through with it.

There were people at the March for Life conceived by rape, thankful for the their very existence on this Earth. The documentary Gift of Life introduces a beautiful and successful business woman, probably in her late thirties, who grew up in a wonderfully loving adopted family. As a young adult she became interested in meeting her birth parents. The adoption agency was able to provide plenty of information about her mother, but the information on her father was very limited and sounded like a police report. Her birth mother agreed to meet her and confirmed that she was conceived by rape. The mother also admitted that she would have chosen abortion if it had been available at the time. Of course, rape is one of the ‘big three’ (also incest and threat to a mother’s health) that are often cited as irrefutable grounds for abortion. So this beautiful woman knows that, under the circumstances, almost nobody believes she had a right to be born. However, she and her birth mother have grown close. And her mother has received mental and emotional healing, knowing that something good resulted from all that evil.

We understand why women choose abortion, and our empathy is good. But we should also look at the aftereffects that nobody wants to talk about. The March for Life had many women testifying as to why they regret their abortions. So many women turn to drugs and alcohol and promiscuity, hating themselves for their abortions but unable to mourn and be healed because society won’t let them admit that they’ve done something wrong. Feeling that they’ve committed one horrible atrocity they feel capable of any evil. One abortion often leads to many. They settle down and welcome children but some find themselves infertile after so many abortions. FrC says that he has begged many women not to have an abortion. “They always come back. Not always right away. Some after 30 years. But they always come back. And they’re devastated.” Those who have children are reminded every day of the one they did not want, wondering what he would have looked like, and haunted by the possibilities… the protesters were right. Women are too good for abortion.

Is it difficult to raise a handicapped child? Yes! Is it a kind of Hell to endure the pitying glances of well meaning friends, to accept the congratulations and excitement of strangers, to feel a child developing in your womb when you were impregnated through rape or incest? I would think so. Would the choice of carrying a pregnancy to term when my life is at risk and I may lose the baby anyway fill me with fear and doubt? Of course. Would I feel a sense of panic when facing the prospect of another mouth to feed, when I already have children and I’m struggling to put food on the table as it is? Certainly. Would I rather not face the judgment and condescension of others, in order to give up a baby through adoption? Sure. Does it seem like this child would endure so much suffering that his or her life is not worth living? Maybe. But what about all the inspirational people, like Nick Vujicic, who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve great things?

We are called to live lives of heroic virtue. Love your neighbor as yourself. Maybe we don’t love ourselves enough. What would Jesus do? He was willing to be scourged and humiliated, stripped naked and crucified, hated and abandoned by people he loves, to give life to those dwelling in the shadow of death.

Oh my Jesus, please never let me make a choice because the alternative is too “costly in terms of human effort, compassion, energy, and finite resources such as money” or any other selfish reason. Please never allow me to choose evil out of fear or convenience or unwillingness to take responsibility for my actions. Please give me the grace to sacrifice myself for the sake of others, rather than sacrificing others for my own sake.

St.Gianna Molla, pray for us.

The Charismatic Renewal: Clap if you love Jesus?

The Charismatic Renewal is a movement in the Catholic Church to reemphasize the importance of developing spiritual gifts, also called charisms. However, the stories I had heard about charismatic services made it seem more like just another worship style, and one I wanted no part of. I heard about dancing and clapping during two hour long Masses and preachers singling out anyone holding back and shouting things like "If you're not clapping then you don't love Jesus!" I had heard about healing services with people jumping from their wheelchairs and running around the room. Healing is good. But the image in my mind was described well by a friend: "I kept picturing those evangelical shows that would come on Sundays with those preachers that would scream and be sweating with the people with cancer, or in wheelchairs, walking on stage and falling down, and then being whisked away." But, worst of all, it all sounded so.... extroverted! Cue humiliating memories of high school dances and gym classes.

Shocked and appalled, I adamantly refused to go to anything labeled charismatic. In fact, I had told my friend Jeremy, who was very excited about the charismatic renewal, that my preferred style of worship involves neither clapping nor gibberish! But eventually, feeling guilty for being such a grumpy jerk over a trivial thing, I broke down and attended what is called a Burning Bush Adoration.

Compared to the spectacle I had imagined, this charismatic adoration was surprisingly tame, although I did hear some speaking in tongues. Here was one of the suspicious charismatic practices I'd heard about! However, the priest leading the worship service gave a good explanation of the phenomenon. He described it as having a prayer formed in the heart and being able to express that prayer in the language of the Spirit, which I had termed gibberish, without having to consciously formulate it into words. And I think I understood what he meant. Sometimes I have a prayer in my heart but it feels like such a burden to put it into words. Surely secular people have experienced this with thoughts in general. On some occasions, I've felt like I can express it in a different way, silently, like my soul singing in some heavenly language. Maybe that's like speaking in tongues.

Note: The charism of speaking in tongues refers to a person, by the grace of God, speaking in a language that he or she does not know. Without the additional grace of understanding that language, the person may not even know the meaning of what he or she just said. Therefore, another charism is the gift of understanding tongues. If I have this gift, then God may not give me the grace of speaking in languages I don't know, but through the grace of God I am inspired to know the meaning of words spoken in languages I've never known. St. Paul says the gift of tongues is worthless unless someone in the community has this gift of interpretation. However, there's another phenomenon that is often referred to as speaking in tongues, and might be more appropriately called praying in tongues or speaking the language of the Spirit, and this is what I had qualms about.

After reading "The Power of the Kingdom" by Fr. Matthew Swizdor, I've come to think that many people have a knee jerk reaction against the charismatic renewal for reasons like this: "There are many 'charismatic' circles today, especially in certain areas, who insist that one has not received the Holy Spirit unless one is 'making funny noises.' This leads some people to imitate and pretend, lest they be left out, instead of praying and searching for the quiet, transforming presence of the Holy Spirit in their souls, which is the only thing that really matters."

To me, another troubling aspect of charismatic prayer services was witnessing resting in the Spirit. This is when a person's body relaxes and falls to the ground while being prayed over. Like speaking in tongues, initially I saw no benefit to it and certainly didn't want this to happen to me. However, shortly after my introduction to charismatic events through the Burning Bush Adoration, I went to a healing prayer service with a friend. The healing service happened after Mass during a period of Eucharistic Adoration. I was praying while my friend went forward to be anointed. When I looked up I saw people helping her up from the floor! Afterward she told me about resting in the Spirit and how sometimes when she gets prayed over she feels it coming and can either fight it or let herself go. She said, when she lets herself go, she feels completely relaxed and just rests in God's presence for a while until He releases her.

Even Fr. Matthew Swizdor started out with a negative opinion of resting in the Spirit, which many people unfortunately term slain in the Spirit. He said: "The fact that people fall to the ground when touched by the Power doesn't mean they are like dead. They are enjoying a beautiful repose in the Lord, an ecstasy, a 'floating on a cloud,' and that is why I like to call it 'resting in the Spirit'. When I first saw it happen in Pennsylvania, I felt rather negative about it. I thought they were 'passing out', and that had never appealed to me as something positive. But, actually, these people were falling into an ecstatic state, an altered state of consciousness."

I've come to the conclusion that these can be genuine experiences and I've lost my aversion to all things charismatic. It was actually quite humbling since I had been so determined to maintain my dislike. But little did I know I'd end up attending a weekend long charismatic conference on power in prayer and developing the spiritual gifts of prophecy, healing, and deliverance! That's right, private exorcism! That just goes to show that things can always get weirder.

If God is not one, he is not God.

October 2, 2012

Archbishop Fulton Sheen felt that because Christianity is the ultimate truth, one sees shades of it in other religions, both those existing before and those coming after, because each theology seeks for truth. So he would say that Christianity is the fulfillment of all other genuine attempts at theology. In an episode of his television show Life is Worth Living, entitled "The Yearnings of the Pre-Christian World", the Archbishop explains how the ancient world foreshadowed the coming of Christianity. Two years ago my knee jerk reaction would have been to think, "how arrogant!" Now, in addition to agreeing with him, I realize how silly it was to be offended that a Catholic Archbishop thinks Christianity is true.

Anyway, one such near-truth is Polytheism. Of course, this is the belief in many gods, for example, the Greek and Roman gods. The Monotheist asks, "how can there be order in the Universe with these competing gods?" Perhaps the Polytheist answers, "one god has more power than the others." Otherwise, how can their be any stability? What happens if the lesser gods work together to overpower the greater god? That would be a disaster. Others may believe that all of the gods are in harmony with each other in a New Age sort of Pantheism. The near-truth of Pantheism will have to be pondered on another day.

GK Chesterton claimed that Hinduism is not a religion at all, but rather a mythology with little expectation to be taken literally. It reminds me of the ancient Greeks who sacrificed to the many gods while their philosophers referred to God in the singular. Maybe the answer is that a working Polytheism isn't actually Polytheism. If we conclude that there needs to be a supreme God of the gods, Polytheism looks more like Monotheism. As Tertullian wrote in the second century AD: "The supreme being must be unique, without equal... If God is not one, he is not God."

Maybe it's a matter of semantics? If God means supreme being, then how can there be more than one?

In Judaism and Christianity, there exists one God with multitudes of spiritual beings, far more intelligent and advanced than we are, with the ability to interact with the material world. In fact, I've heard more about spirits, both good and bad, since becoming Catholic than I ever had before. We worship the one God rather than interacting with spirits directly by, for example, conjuring or fortune telling. I may ask the Angels and Saints to intercede for me by the Divine Power, but I don't call upon spirits directly. Because just like the Greek gods, some spirits have better intentions than others. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2113) says: "Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc."

And really, why not make friends with the One who has ultimate power? Because who am I to discern whether a spirit, especially an angel or demon who is far more intelligent than I am, is good or bad? genuine or manipulative? This is part of why the Church canonizes Saints. If I mistakenly ask St. Anthony of Padua to heal me, rather than asking for his prayerful intercession, then I am assured that I have not accidentally sent an open invitation to some antagonistic spirit (like a dangerous, sparkly vampire).

However, when acting in obedience to God in response to our prayers, the good angels fulfill their primary role as God's messengers. "They are all ministering spirits, sent to care for those on the way to salvation."--Feast of the Guardian Angels (Morning Prayer, antiphon)

On the Feast of the Guardian Angels we thank them for their intercession, venerate them on account of their virtue and obedience, and marvel at their intellect which is so superior to ours. This glorifies God through our appreciation, rather than worship, of His creatures. And yet, the existence of such creatures does remind us of the radical strangeness of God becoming man, an event that so dumbfounded and outraged some of the angels that they were moved to disobedience.

Prostitutes, hot pokers, and the Angelic Warfare Confraternity.

Chapel at Dominican House of Studies

I had never been to the Dominican House of Studies when Christine invited me to the enrollment ceremony for the Angelic Warfare Confraternity (AWC) on the Feast of the Archangels one year ago. I knew very little about the AWC and had no intention of joining. But the Dominicans, aptly named the Order of Preachers, put on a good show and I rashly decided to just go with it.

According to the AWC website, "the Angelic Warfare Confraternity is a supernatural fellowship of men and women bound to one another in love and dedicated to pursuing and promoting chastity together under the powerful patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Blessed Virgin Mary." The main spiritual fruits of the AWC are the protection of chastity and purity, the healing of the stains of sin against chastity and purity, and the protection from the occasion of sin against chastity and purity and from scandal. Some people have reported intellectual benefits attributed to the intercession of the patron, St. Thomas Aquinas. The AWC is centuries old and some of the deceased members have been beatified.

Two of the most obvious qualities of Thomas Aquinas were his superhuman intellect and his childlike innocence, reasons for which he is called the Angelic Doctor. The title Doctor of the Church is given to a Saint whose writing has been especially important to our understanding of theology and doctrine. GK Chesterton speculated that Thomas spent so much time in intense thought that he channeled all of his other energies, including sexual energy, into thinking.

When Thomas was a young man he ran off and became a Dominican which ticked off his parents who wanted him to be a Benedictine. Mom was so upset that she sent Thomas' brothers to drag him home and lock him in the family tower. They tried to wait him out but couldn't get him to leave the Dominicans. So his brothers came up with the fool proof plan of sending a prostitute into his room to tempt him out of celibacy. (No one could possibly turn down SEX!) Well, Thomas chased the poor prostitute out of the room with a hot poker, slammed the door behind her, and burned a cross into the wooden door before collapsing to the floor, probably nearly having heart attack because Thomas was never a slender guy. Then he went into a sort of unconscious ecstasy during which angels tied a cord around his waist that would protect his chastity and purity from any further attack. Supposedly when he woke up there was a cord around his waist.

AWC members wear either a blessed cord around the waist or a blessed medal, in honor of St. Thomas and Our Lady of the Rosary. Fr Brent informed us that, "You should wear it at all times until someone removes it from your dead body."

Fr Brent admitted to removing his before surgery and forgetting to put it back on after. He remembered it when he had unusually unchaste and impure thoughts, but the thoughts went away after putting it back on. He cautioned us that this spiritual chastity belt won't help if we don't take it seriously. One has to actually want to live chastity.

Anyway, Christine and I went into the chapel and sat quietly and I started to feel awkward, not knowing what was going on. Eventually Fr Brent and some dangerously good looking Dominican men showed up to explain the details. There were seminarians and even some priests there to be enrolled and we were told that in some places entire seminaries have joined the confraternity.  Our job as members is to pray for each of us to receive the graces mentioned above. The prayers include a prayer of St. Thomas and another prayer asking for his intercession and 15 Hail Mary prayers in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary (after the original 15 decades of the rosary). We were given some time to decide if we could commit to the prayers and the lifestyle.

We went into another room to fill out a form for the records and then we were each given a candle and processed back into the chapel. We entered by twos, so of course we stood by our buddies. But once we were inside the pairs were split up on either side of the chapel. The girl in front of me seemed really confused and tried to complain and follow the older woman she was partnered with but the Dominicans politely guided her to the other side. As soon as I sat down she said to me, "I'm deaf, can you help me?" There was a lot of reading from the booklets they gave us and I tried to follow the text with my finger in case she got lost trying to lip read what Fr Brent was saying. Sometimes we had to read responses, but that wasn't made clear in the text, so she would try to watch me and see if I was talking. It wasn't the best system but we made it through.

The candles were dripping and Fr Brent sprinkled us and our cords and metals with holy water. There was water and wax everywhere! Then some Dominican brothers came in to ceremoniously put the medals around our necks. This took forever because the cords were too small to fit over some of our heads. The deaf girl next to me took down her hair as her Dominican repeatedly tried to force the cord over her head. Eventually some of them gave up and started battling with the clasp. Finally everyone was medalled and we processed out and down the cloister walk with live Gregorian Chant. One by one our names were entered into a huge old book, again very ceremoniously. Then Fr Brent gave some final instructions and I watched the deaf girl ask her companion what he had said. The old lady helplessly shook her head until the girl gave up and asked me. After some pointing and waving around and speaking as clearly was I could she repeated back what I had told her. I wonder if she often has to deal with people who are too afraid even to attempt communicating with her.

A year later, I think it was the best way to celebrate the Feast of Sts. Michael and Gabriel and Raphael, the Archangels.