The Triumph of the Cross

Yesterday was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which is apparently a much bigger deal in the Orthodox Church. This is probably because it was inspired by the Emperor Constantine's mother, Helen, finding the remains of the cross used to crucify "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews." At least that's the story. But it's a big enough feast in the Catholic Church to get me musing about the triumph of the cross. This is probably boring, so I should mention that at the very bottom there is an awesome excerpt from a letter about the gruesome torture of early Christian martyrs.

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How radiant is that precious cross which brought us our salvation. In the cross we are victorious, through the cross we shall reign, by the cross all evil is destroyed, alleluia.

[Morning Prayer, Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, Antiphon 3]

This life is an epic spiritual battle between forces of good and evil. But Jesus has already won the battle for us.

God did not create sin or evil or death but rather creatures capable, by an act of free will, to choose sin and commit evil deeds. Sin always results from a turning away from God and, therefore, "is nothing short of cooperation with evil, a willful act of assent to the force that wishes to destroy every good thing and leave nothing but death and destruction in its wake." [Conversion Diary] This communion with evil rather than good is a poison that brings death.

The role of Jesus is not to step in and free humanity from any responsibility for our actions, even though our collective sins cause the innocent to suffer. In fact, Jesus is the greatest example of a suffering innocent. Jesus does not remove all Earthly suffering. It's wrong to think that if I'm faithful enough I will never enduring suffering (and certainly not unjust suffering!). Jesus himself said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." [Luke 9:23] In fact, Jesus insists that anyone who wants to follow him needs to start suffering.

It is wrong to think that if I just pray often enough, or loudly enough, or with enough emotion God will always give me what I want. To expect that I will receive whatever I want if I just believe that God will give it to me is not Christian thinking. It is the type of new age spirituality touted by The Secret. Instead, when we look to Jesus, we find that he himself prayed, "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." [Luke 22:42] Let's just say the cup was not removed…

The plans of God are all ordered toward the salvation of souls. Sometimes it's easy to see the spiritual goods that come out of suffering. But sometimes the goods are hidden and all we can see is fruitless anguish. In the Old Testament, Job demanded that God provide an answer as to why he was suffering. God replied with many more questions: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth??? Tell me, if you have understanding." Job finally got the message: "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." Sometimes it's just too much to comprehend.

John Lennon may have imagined a world with "no religion" and "all the people living in peace." However, from the Christian point of view this is nothing but mystical wishful thinking. We work toward alleviating suffering because we love our neighbors, not out of a hubristic expectation that we can create heaven on Earth (if only there were no religion and everybody drove Volvos and never criticized anyone and only bathed once per week and so on and so on).

So what was the role of Jesus if not to prevent sin and evil? The role of Jesus is to restore us to perfect communion with God--i.e. redemption, regaining possession of the ultimate good. The result is becoming what God created me to be, which is free from sin and death. That is the ultimate prize, and something that clearly doesn't come to fruition in this life.

Sin results from disobedience to God's ways. As St. Paul explained so well in Romans, no human being was capable of perfect obedience to God's laws, and so everybody was condemned. God became man to fulfill the requirement of perfect obedience. And so Jesus is the only person who can enter Heaven (perfect union with God) by his own merit. By obedience he atoned for the sins of mankind. "As one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men." [Romans 5:18] Through communion with Jesus in his human nature we are also in communion with Jesus in his Divine nature and, therefore, achieve communion with God. Freedom from death without communion with God is a curse. As St. Ambrose said, "Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing."

Theologians argue as to whether or not Jesus had to be crucified in order to restore that communion. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that by taking his first breath as a baby he had saved the world. Couldn't he have been perfectly obedient to God in his carpenter shop until dying of old age? But the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate triumph of good over evil. The cross mocks the devil because his plan backfired.

Think about it. The devil tempted humanity to turn away from God and to serve worldly gods, seeking passing goods rather than eternal ones. Then God decided to be born as a human being, limiting himself (as St. Paul said, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped) so that he can interact directly with his creatures on the worldly/temporal level. But the devil was able to foil God's plan again, by manipulating the humans into committing the worst possible evil. They decided to kill God! (Now Jesus was not "killed" so much as gave up his spirit when the Father decided it was time, but as far as the humans were concerned they were killing Jesus.) It was not until the evil deed was done that the centurion finally realized its severity, as he exclaimed "Truly, this man was the Son of God!" [Mark 15:39] And for about three days the devil must have been elated. But then somehow Jesus was alive as if nothing had happened. He was different because he could walk through walls, but he was alive and could eat and run and hug his friends. And he promised the same to anyone who came after him so long as they are his friends (something he himself will judge). That is the good news that people are willing to proclaim even under penalty of death. This is what allowed the martyrs to face death without fear.*** They were eager for the eternal reward!

In the Triumph of the Cross, we see that even the worst sin can be forgiven and every evil transformed into a greater good. It's a transformation rather than a manipulation. Every suffering is a mini crucifixion through which we can be transformed by suffering, dying, and rising. "Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." [Hebrews 12:1-2]

For the joy set before us, let us endure the cross, despising the shame, and run the race with perseverance until we too are seated at the right hand of the throne of God!

***From a letter by Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr (from the Divine Office, OOR August 13):

With what praises can I extol you, most valiant brothers? What words can I find to proclaim and celebrate your brave hearts and your persevering faith? Examined under the fiercest torture, you held out until your ordeal was consummated in glory; it was not you who yielded to the torments but rather the torments that yielded to you. No respite from pain was allowed by the instruments of your torture, but your very crowning signaled the end of pain. The cruel butchery was permitted to last the longer, not so that it might overthrow the faith that stood so firm, but rather that it might dispatch you, men of God, more speedily to the Lord.

The crowd in wonder watched God’s heavenly contest, this spiritual battle that was Christ’s. They saw his servants standing firm, free in speech, undefiled in heart, endowed with supernatural courage, naked and bereft of the weapons of this world, but as believers equipped with the arms of faith. Tortured men stood there stronger than their torturers; battered and lacerated limbs triumphed over clubs and claws that tore them.

Savage and prolonged beating could not overcome such invincible faith, even when the bodies of God’s servants were so mangled that no whole members were left to suffer punishment, but only wounds remained. Enough blood flowed to quench the fire of persecution, a glorious river to cool even the burning heat of hell. What a divine display it was, how sublime and magnificent! How pleasing did the sworn allegiance and loyalty of his soldiers render the dead in God’s sight! In the psalms, where the Holy Spirit speaks to us and counsels us, it is written: Precious in the sight of God is the death of his holy ones. Rightly is that death called “precious,” for at the price of blood it purchased immortality and won God’s crown through the ultimate act of courage.

How happy Christ was to be there, how gladly he fought and conquered in such servants! He protects their faith and gives strength to believers in proportion to the trust that each man who receives that strength is willing to place in him. Christ was there to wage his own battle; he aroused the soldiers who fought for his name; he made them spirited and strong. And he who once for all has conquered death for us, now continually conquers in us.

The disorderly chasuble.

These head holes are rather ornate, therefore
the men are not wearing chasubles. QED

When a person believes in Divine Providence, or any sort of supernaturally ordered universe, ordinary events take on special meaning.

One day I was driving to Mass and, glancing at my clock, saw that it was virtually impossible to get there on time. And I hate being late, especially for Mass. But on this particular day I was really not looking forward to the walk of shame, having to traipse past the priest while scanning the crowd for the last empty pew. Some people don't seem to mind walking in late, and perhaps that's because they have good reasons. But I never have a good reason. I always could have set my alarm clock a few minutes earlier, or gotten dressed a little faster or forgone watching that obscure Youtube video a friend posted on Facebook. Anyway, I really hate being late.

So, yet again, I started calmly but purposefully praying that somehow things would work out in my favor so that I could get in before the priest. (No, I am not above asking God to free me from the consequences of my foibles.) I pulled into the parking lot and as I walked toward the church I saw the priest ahead of me and knew I was just a little bit too late--RATS!!--but then another man stopped him!! I looked long enough to see the man adjusting Father's unruly chasuble*, delaying him enough for me to sneak in first. So I was able to make it to a pew shortly before the dinner bell rang to signal everyone to stand up for the entrance antiphon. (The bell probably has a more official name, but they didn't teach us that in Jesus Class.)

And I was struck by how strange it is that, again and again, I arrive somewhere exactly on time. If I had been stopped at one more or one fewer traffic light I would not have been perfectly punctual. Now, until I have time to perform a rigorous statistical study, I'll go ahead and assume that this perceived punctuality is quite significant and surely indicates Divine Intervention. Is it not the American way to persist in one's assumptions for as long as convenient? At any rate, I'd like to thank God for disorderly chasubles!

*According to my laptop dictionary, a chasuble is "a sleeveless outer vestment worn by a Catholic or High Anglican priest when celebrating Mass, typically ornate and having a simple hole for the head." Note to self: the head hole is NOT ornate. It is simple.

"God is good and the light is bright!"

Fr. Charles J. Canterna
photo by Clarence B.Garrett, 1978
from "Street Priest" by Dan Rodricks
in Marylanders of the Century

Father Chuck Canterna shares Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s beliefs of equality, non-violence and a deep faith in God with all his heart. To Father Chuck, who is a prison chaplain, everyone is equal in God’s eyes, even the worse (sic) criminals. He rejects violence in favor of love. His faith in God is the basis that helps him love everyone equally and to live non-violently, even in the most violent of places.
--Keegan Knox's submission, finalist in Baltimore's Champions of Courage

“I plant the seeds, God does the watering.” “The first three I approach might reject me,” says Chuck. “And then the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth. But then the 10^th—that guy might be open to God, open to the Spirit. He might respond. I might be able to get him to go inside himself and find meaning and purpose to his life, and maybe a light comes on and the guy finds the Spirit. I’m just there to help him connect to the Spirit."
--"Street priest" by Dan Rodricks, Marylanders of the Century

Woman, the gateway to eternity.

Us Baltimore bridesmaids were talking with a new friend at the rehearsal dinner and I was reminded of a post that I wanted to write for Mother’s Day. Since I was actually home for Mother’s Day this year I missed that deadline. But it’s still Mother’s Day month and the month specially devoted to Our Blessed Mother Mary, so Happy Belated Mother’s Day! This post is about how being a good mother is the greatest thing a woman can ever do.

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These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.” Acts 1:14, 21-22

Women are capable of spiritually counseling others and, although some might not believe it, many women are capable of keeping secrets. Women can be very prayerful and, in today’s world, seem to be the more naturally spiritual gender. (Silly, since every person is spiritual by nature.) Women are obviously capable of saying the words that the Priest says during consecration. If a woman is physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually capable of doing what the Priest does then why can’t she be a Catholic Priest?? 

Because it’s not her role. It’s a special role that God gave only to men.

The Twelve Apostles

Well that’s not fair. Everything I get to do at the Mass men can do too (lectoring, distributing communion, cantoring, etc.) but I can’t do everything the men can do. So I’m taking a back seat. I’m stuck in a subordinate role; subservient since the bishops are the teaching authorities of the Church. So yeah…. see how the Catholic Church oppresses women? Jesus may have ordained only men, but that was back when women were property. We’ve been liberated and I want a Church that empowers women!

HOLD ON. Without getting into the theology of why the Catholic Priesthood is a male vocation (John Paul II gave a superficial explanation in Odinatio Sacerdotalis), we can reasonably say “Ok, so if this is a gender thing, then why don’t we women have our own special role in the Church??”

We do. And it’s a special role that God gave only to women.

Does anyone know what it is?

Our Lady of the Laundry

It’s called MOTHERHOOD!
    

Only a woman can conceive and give birth to a child. In a healthy family, the father takes a back seat to the mother, dutifully assisting as life develops within her. Without mothers there would be no priests. Without Mother Mary there would have been no Jesus.

This is why the Catholic Church venerates the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most perfect of God’s creatures. With her free will she said yes to God and became the Mother of the Savior. As a friend explained it, God could have chosen any way to become incarnate in the world. (In fact, we might have expected Him to fashion an adult body for Himself, from nothing.) And yet he decided to be born. He chose a woman to be his gateway into this world, thereby elevating Motherhood to the woman’s most important role. "When you became man to set us free you did not spurn the Virgin's womb."

Our Lady of the Eucharist

  
“If he had wanted simply to be seen, he could indeed have taken another, and nobler, body. Instead, he took our body in its reality. Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body; he made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself. In this way he received from mankind a body like our own, and, since all were subject to the corruption of death, he delivered this body over to death for all, and with supreme love offered it to the Father.” –St. Athanasius

To the orthodox Catholic, a woman being ordained to the priesthood is as unnatural as a man being impregnated and giving birth to a child. We may try to force God’s hand by “ordaining” women or developing Junior-esque technology to impregnate a man, but that does not make it natural or right.

But wait…. motherhood is great and all, but shouldn’t women have a role in the Church?

One of the consequences of our human weakness is that we separate our life into two categories: spiritual and non-spiritual. In the spiritual box are my time at Church, my daily prayer, maybe some volunteer work and a few other things. In my non-spiritual box are things like work, recreation, chores, family time, etc. The problem is that everything should be in the spiritual box. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

The mystical Body of Christ, the Church, is a living organism composed of many members. The living Church consists of every Baptized member and the life of the Church extends into everything that we do. This is why a Catholic business owner can’t just set aside his/her faith and provide birth control to employees because it’s not happening within the church. It may not be happening within a church but it is happening within the Church.

The Church is the Bride of Christ. The two are of one flesh.

So to me, the role of Mother is tied with Priest for “most important role” in the Church.

 

As a society we’ve become somewhat ungrateful toward mothers and we often see motherhood as a burden. We want to relieve mothers from as much mothering as we possibly can so that they are free to do other more important things. I’m not against childcare, but there is a strange push for mothers to gain ever greater independence from their children. Sometimes we cynically scoff when a mother says that giving birth to her children was the most important thing she has ever done. We scream about overpopulation and abort and sterilize and contracept and ‘plan’ our parenthood down to unsustainable birth rates below the population replacement level. We spend our tax money on ‘preventative care’ to eliminate the threat of pregnancy. And we are offended when our culture is referred to as a culture of death. But could anyone call this a culture of life?

Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path. Isaiah 3:12

For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Luke 23:29

These are warnings. When our Priests lead us astray, young people are out of control, and women feel the need to take over there is something wrong. When pregnancy becomes a curse and more and more women prefer to remain childless we have problems. We don’t need men to mother children and women to serve as Priests. We need strong, traditional male priests and devoted, natural mothers.

It's not every day you get to have your picture taken
with Jesus and a bunch of Vietnamese people!

All Baptized persons are part of the royal priesthood. My mom didn’t have to be ordained to be my first priest. My mom taught me what forgiveness looks like. And she taught me how to love. Thank you, mom, for having the courage and hope to give me a chance when doctors advised you to terminate the pregnancy. I’m alive because, whether you realized it or not, you chose to leave things in God’s hands. Go mom!!

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A Poem for the Third Sunday after Easter, by John Keble

[A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.--St. John xvi. 21.]

Well may I guess and feel
Why Autumn should be sad;
But vernal airs should sorrow heal,
Spring should be gay and glad:
Yet as along this violet bank I rove,
The languid sweetness seems to choke my breath,
I sit me down beside the hazel grove,
And sigh, and half could wish my weariness were death.

Like a bright veering cloud
Grey blossoms twinkle there,
Warbles around a busy crowd
Of larks in purest air.
Shame on the heart that dreams of blessings gone,
Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and crime,
When nature sings of joy and hope alone,
Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time.

Nor let the proud heart say,
In her self-torturing hour,
The travail pangs must have their way,
The aching brow must lower.
To us long since the glorious Child is born
Our throes should be forgot, or only seem
Like a sad vision told for joy at morn,
For joy that we have waked and found it but a dream.

Mysterious to all thought
A mother’s prime of bliss,
When to her eager lips is brought
Her infant’s thrilling kiss.
O never shall it set, the sacred light
Which dawns that moment on her tender gaze,
In the eternal distance blending bright
Her darling’s hope and hers, for love and joy and praise.

No need for her to weep
Like Thracian wives of yore,
Save when in rapture still and deep
Her thankful heart runs o’er.
They mourned to trust their treasure on the main,
Sure of the storm, unknowing of their guide:
Welcome to her the peril and the pain,
For well she knows the bonus where they may safely hide.

She joys that one is born
Into a world forgiven,
Her Father’s household to adorn,
And dwell with her in Heaven.
So have I seen, in Spring’s bewitching hour,
When the glad Earth is offering all her best,
Some gentle maid bend o’er a cherished flower,
And wish it worthier on a Parent’s heart to rest.

My TV debut! Or not. The world may never know.

It was fitting that we would meet up with Karin at the end of the March for Life, since she was also there for my first, much warmer protest at the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally in Baltimore on March 23, 2012.

Unlike at the March for Life, the mood here was more reactionary. Karin is in the back of this photo (from WBAL-TV\Tommy Culp) with her pink sweater. As you can see, the group was somewhat disgruntled.

We were pretty wimpy about our first protest. With the vast majority of our coworkers salivating over the proposed HHS Mandate, we felt uncomfortable going public with our intention of attending the protest—I guess because it’s easier to brave confrontation with strangers than with close acquaintances whom we’ll see on an almost daily basis. But I had the consolation of knowing that my supervisors care little to know how I spend my vacation time. In the end, we conquered our fears and got the time off from work. Step one complete!

We met FrC at his church and walked to the rally where he, in his collar, was immediately swarmed by people and lost to the crowd. It was a beautiful day with roughly 150 people gathered, and there were many familiar faces. We listened to a handful of speakers from various faith backgrounds, including a Rabbi who was concerned about future encroachments on religious freedom that might follow the upholding of a conscience-violating mandate. Then we shouted some slogans and prayed some prayers and that was about it. For our first protest we were actually a bit disappointed, having expected some type of march or other activity.

A man from a tv station (I can’t remember which one.) asked to interview us. He asked us why we came to the rally. As far as I remember our answers went something like this: Karin explained that she is a Lay Missionary of Charity and that it’s part of her vocation to live in accordance with her faith, and that the ability to live her faith fully is under threat due to the HHS contraceptives mandate. Then I explained that I am a recent convert to Catholicism and I see that our American culture has progressed into a moral liberalism and I would like to see the restoration of some good Christian orthodoxy. (Gasp!! Perhaps that was a little too honest.)

FrC finally made his way back to us, happy we were still there, as he felt it his duty to walk us back to the car. For whatever reason, he decided he would eat that day and insisted on buying us lunch at Subway. He had a Subway gift card, now that his family discovered that food cards are the one thing he won't immediately give away. He was excited and amused to hear that we had been interviewed and confessed that he had prepared for potential interviews, thinking they might be looking for priests. Since none of the three of us watch tv we have no way of knowing if it ever aired, but I suspect not, because the camera man never told us where to look so I was shifty-eyed, trying to decide if I should look at the camera or the man with the microphone. Maybe they used Karin’s part and cut me out.

Fortunately, now I’m media trained and ready for the next time some reporter wants my opinion on a highly controversial and incendiary topic. Surely it's only a matter of time. ;o)

Sede Vacante: Let the Conclave begin!

A lot of people have asked me, "What’s the deal with the Pope?”

There seems to be an unlimited supply of conspiracy theories and alleged scandals floating around the media—from the Pope fleeing both assassination threats and warrants for his arrest to the Pope finally throwing in the towel and caving to the never ending pederasty cover-up accusations. All of the allegations are, of course, backed by definitive proofs! This goes to show that when it comes to the Catholic Church, the National Enquirer is tied for the most accurate secular news source. (See news stands for the hidden story behind the papal tumult as the Enquirer goes behind the scenes at the Vatican in "Exclusive cover story: Pope Brain Cancer Bombshell.")

However, I’m inclined to believe what the man said. He is old and feeble. He can’t travel around the world the way he used to—he has a pacemaker and has been seen using a walker. And watch the poor man try to use an iPad. (See how he pushes the button and nothing happens?? Ugh. Now I feel like an 85 year old.)

However, I did read this article speculating that the Blessed Virgin Mary asked Pope Benedict XVI to abdicate. (That sounds crazy. But I assure you it’s not. ;o) She talks to both crazy people and sane people.) Early in his Papacy, Benedict asked for prayers that he would not succumb to the ‘wolves’, which many feel referred to certain Vatican officials who habitually opposed the Pope, partly due to aversion to change. (Scheming bureaucrats hindering fruitful progress? We have those kinds of wolves in North America too.) The author suggests that the time is right for a new, invigorated Pope who will lay the smack down on the wolves and get them out of there. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

After talking with some coworkers I discovered they were most confused about the matter of Papal Infallibility and how a person can go from being fallible to (pretending to be) perfect and then back to fallible again. I tried to explain that the Pope is infallible only in relation to faith and morals, under very specific circumstances, so long as he is in agreement with teachings that have been passed on for the last two millennia… and that such infallible statements have almost never been proclaimed anyway. I told them that the underlying belief is that the Holy Spirit is trusted to work through the Pope (whether he’s good or evil) to ensure that the faith does not become corrupted from what was passed on by the early Church. The infallibility is not attached to the person but to the office. So the Holy Spirit uses whoever happens to be in the office of Pope to maintain orthodoxy through infallible statements, if necessary. Here's a cartoon illustration of how the Holy Spirit might prevent a stubborn Pope from 'infallibly' issuing a fallible statement:

The thing to remember is that the man in the Chair of Peter certainly does not have to be perfect. And, in fact, in Galatians Chapter 2, St. Paul says that upon meeting Peter he “opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” In the end, Peter conceded to Paul that Christians are allowed to eat bacon (among other things). However, with respect to Papal Infallibility, we believe that if Peter had felt the need to deliberate on the matter and pray about it and utter a binding and infallible statement, the Holy Spirit would have led him to the same conclusion, regardless of whether or not Paul called him out on it. Now that Benedict XVI is no longer Pope, the matter of infallibility just doesn’t apply to him anymore, although nothing has changed regarding his personal degree of perfection.

The fact that a Pope hasn’t abdicated in so long (centuries!) makes it surprising, but not scandalous. Now ensues the media frenzy of trying to guess the next Pope. This is a hopeless task due to the fact that those in conclave do (gasp!) pray about it, and through prayer may be inclined to choose someone they would not have picked based on a list of pros and cons. A friend of mine recently returned from Africa. She was there when Pope Benedict announced his intention to abdicate and the local Cardinal made the statement that "if an African is chosen as Pope it's not because it is 'our turn' but because of the Holy Spirit." Well said!

Since I only know the names of about four Cardinals (none of whom Sarah Jones would elect as Pope), I can’t really join in the guessing. But fortunately, this year there is an app to ‘adopt’ a Cardinal to pray for before and during the conclave. Mine is 75 year old Audrys Juozas Bačkis of Lithuania. I had never heard of him before so I don’t know how to pronounce his name, but I feel like we have a pretty good chance of winning. ;o) He’s kind of a cute old guy AND he speaks English. “VOTE FOR ANDRYS—WEREWOLF SLAYER!”

I won’t pretend to understand how a conclave works. But if anybody is interested, here is an imperfect, but close enough, cartoon explanation.

March for Life, Part 3: Stumbling upon many friends!

March for Life 2013

 

With his typical exuberance, Jeremy introduced us to several other seminarians whose names I did not even try to remember in my state of sensory overload. All of a sudden the crowd started shifting, ever so slowly, and we speculated that the March had begun. We trudged forward, gently knocking into each other like cattle in a pen. We were so crowded in that there was no point in holding my all-purpose, neon-green “IHM PRAY 4 US” sign so I gave it to Jeremy and made him hold it up over his head while we passed the EWTN camera. I have no idea if we ended up on tv.

Conveniently passing the sign off to Jeremy (from Lita)

Jeremy told us all about the Vigil Mass and the event at the Verizon Center and very excitedly introduced us to the Papal Nuncio (basically the Vatican City diplomat to the USA). I have to say, it was exciting to shake hands with this bewildered man who may have at some point been personally acquainted with Pope John Paul II.

Most of the bishops, priests, and deacons (and Papal Nuncios!) were unrecognizable from afar because they were also bundled up against the cold. Not so for the Religious Orders with their habits proudly on display. One miserable man wore sandals because last year at the March he saw a barefooted Franciscan. Let that be a lesson: Never try to match a Franciscan in asceticism!

Sisters warming up with some hot drinks. (from Lita)

Although perhaps we ought to have been more prayerful, we spent most of our time pondering the origins of Catholic terms (including Nuncio) and words that we pretend to understand (such as prodigal). The March went from the National Mall to the Supreme Court but the slowness of our progress and the vastness of the crowd had a disorienting effect. We sped up and made our way through the crowds to catch up with the Mount St. Mary’s banner because we had fallen behind. Then the seminarians and some other groups dropped out at the bus stop a couple of blocks from the Supreme Court building.

Lita and I, perched on a curb in the snow (from Karin)

We hung around people-watching until we spotted the Community of the Beatitudes, a Religious Order with which Lita was on pilgrimage last summer. We had a nice chat with Fr. Anthony (if I remember his name correctly) and he invited us for a beer afterward. It reminded me of a similar invitation from the Dominicans after Fr. Justin’s ordination. (In The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton wrote that one of the only things he remembered from his first reading of the Rule of St. Benedict—the founder of monasticism—was that Benedict seemed to lament the fact that he could not convince the monks to live without wine.) Sadly, I had to use up my last 5 hours of vacation time to attend the March and needed to get back for my 3 hours of work.

Community of the Beatitudes (from Lita)

So eventually we lagged behind the Beatitudes, hoping to find Lita’s high school friend’s seminary named after Pope John XXIII. And, thanks be to God, we did find them! So I finally got to meet this Neven person for whom I’d been praying for so long. I may have gotten hugged. My memory is cloudy but, like FrC and Jeremy, Neven seemed like a hugger.

Neven and the Blessed John XXIII seminarians (from Lita)

But then these seminarians were also gone, off finding their bus. So we entered back into the crowd and made our way to the Supreme Court building where there were more speakers. We stood up on a curb to get a better view and didn’t realize until maybe half an hour later that we were not looking at the actual building but, rather, a 2-D façade that had been hung in front of the building, which was under construction.

We stood on that curb feeling frozen as snow started to fall. Next to us was a sign congratulating President Obama for his second term. The sign seemed awkwardly out of place in the midst of that crowd and the utter strangeness drew laughter again and again from the protesting youngsters.

Seriously dude, who put that there??? (from Lita)

I knew that Karin was there somewhere with her new fiancé Tim, and I really wanted to meet him. I caught her by text message and tried to explain to them where we were, which was difficult because my hands were so frozen they couldn’t properly push the buttons on my old school phone. But in the end they found us and stood by our curb and we happily took pictures together, although I couldn’t smile properly because my lip was partly numb.

The cold but happy couple! (from Karin)

Although the March for Life obviously centers on the abortion issue, it had the joyful quality of a celebration of life. The Marchers exuded a gratefulness and love for life at all stages. One cannot respect the inherent dignity of the human creature while supporting euthanasia, death penalty, embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization (in which many fertilized eggs are left unused or destroyed), or any type of action that quenches or prevents a life that would have otherwise come into being.

Even if the March does not succeed in the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, based on the armies of young people I think it is achieving an important goal. It fosters a sense of community and a Culture of Life. AND it's like a great big happy Catholic reunion!!  :o)

Every time I act in a way that respects and cherishes life it moves us closer to a Culture of Life. But every time I show a lack of respect for human life I help strengthen the Culture of Death, the results of which include bizarre manifestations of hubris such as can be found in the infamous Casey Decision. It states that, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” (Maybe this is why each heliophysicist insists on defining his/her own concept of magnetic reconnection!) As much as we love our abortions (sarcasm alert), aren’t we disturbed that the government reserves the right to define the mystery of human life? Even secular humanists find this kind of language unsettling.

 

It’s important to remember that the sins of an individual are facilitated by the sins of the community. As I was praying during the nine days leading up to the March I was reminded of the Christian concept of communion, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes thus:

Communion in charity. In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself." "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." "Charity does not insist on its own way." In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this communion.

We need to remember that even a small sin redounds to the detriment of all. I may not be struggling with mortal sin and so a small sin may not seem to have a large effect on my life. But someone else may be on the verge of falling into grave sin and the very small effect of my sin is just enough to push him over the edge. We fail to respect life in so many ways, but one common offense is the frustrated lack of charity we often display when stuck in traffic due to a car accident. Another example is jokingly making comments such as “shoot me now”. I have been guilty of both of these offenses. (Next time I will have to remind myself of the sorrow of visiting our high school friend while he was in a coma after a car accident. And I will remember the voice of the detainee who told me that he’s alive today because when he pulled the trigger of the gun he was holding to his head several years ago it wouldn’t fire.) Venial sin is still sin, and all sin is evil.

Sin is the reason that suffering and evil exist. But the story has a happy ending. In the words of St. Augustine: “O happy fault that merited such and so great a Redeemer.”

“On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken.” [Isaiah 25:8]