Beyond a 'Darth Vader' view of secularism | National Catholic Reporter

Beyond a 'Darth Vader' view of secularism | National Catholic Reporter"

Excellent piece by John Allen on the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, beginning today in Rome. Pray for them.

When will American Catholics learn that we are a mere 6% of the Catholic population of world, and open our eyes to the reality of global Catholicism?

(Shameless promotion:  The Early Christian World Pilgrimage can help start the process.)

Development of Doctrine: St. Vincent of Lerins

Today's Office of Readings has a piece by St. Vincent of Lerins, who died in 445, on the development of doctrine that is relevant for us today, especially following last month's beatification of John Henry Newman, whose "Essay on the Development of Doctrine" has been so influential in modern theology and Church teaching, as well as misunderstood by the advocates of both "radical change" and "return to tradition."

	An instruction by St Vincent of Lerins

The development of doctrine

Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.

The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.

The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.

The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.

In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

The writers of the New Testament consistently record that Jesus has promised to be with us, his Church, until the end of time, as the head is to the members of a body, and that requires that the Church be true in its belief.  That means that the primary place where infallibility resides is in the believing Church as a whole. The infallibility of the teaching Church, the bottom line of which resides in the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome, exists only to serve the faith of the whole Church, the whole Body of Christ.

Vincent and, much later, Newman insist that development of doctrine must be organic growth, not revolutionary change.  It seems to me that this depends more than anything on a humble, open, and patient dialogue between the believing Church and the teaching Church.   Magisterium always must be a two-way street.  Magisterium is always a ministerium.  The "big" (magis) exists only to serve the "little" (minus).  The representatives of Christ-the Head must always respect the real presence of Christ in the members as well.

St. John Chrysostom: relevant words to us today

We think we live in bad times?  Here's an excerpt from a letter of St. John Chrysostom (c. 350-407), bishop of Constantinople, which he wrote from prison near the end of his life to his dear friend and colleague, the Deaconess St. Olympias:

Please listen to what I have to say.  I am going to try to make you a little less depressed and get rid of the dark clouds in your mind.  Why are you so worried, sad, and agitated?  Because the storm that has attacked the churches is harsh and menacing, and because it has wrapped everything in unrelieved darkness?  Because it is reaching crisis point?  Because it brings dreadful shipwrecks every day, while the whole world collapses about us?

We see the ocean whirling up from its uttermost depths and sailors' bodies floating on it.  We see others overcome by the force of the waves. . . . It is all so hopeless they can only scream, groan, cry, and weep. . . .  Everywhere monsters of the deep rise up and threaten travelers.  But no mere words can express the unutterable.  No terminology I can think of can adequately convey the terror of these times.

Though I am aware of all these miseries, I never cease to hope.   I always remember the universal Pilot.  He does not rely on steersmanship to suffer the storm and come through it.  He merely nods to calm the roaring oceans, and if he takes his time in doing so, well that is the Pilot's way.  He does not stop dangers straightaway, but banishes them only when they get close to their most ghastly point, and almost everyone has abandoned hope.  Only then does he show us marvels and miracles.  Only then does he reveal the power which he alone possesses, and teach the suffering how to be patient.

Quoted in the new full edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints, September, p, 112.   St. John Chrysostom, continue to pray for us.

Homily today: the prodigal . . .

I recorded my homily today, and thought it might be worth sharing.  See Luke 15:1-31.


If the above player doesn't work in your browser, you can download the MP3 file here:

http://www.archive.org/details/HomilyFor24thSundayYearC

How can we live with pain . . .?

Here is the talk that I gave at the meeting of our Good Shepherd Seniors' Group, "Young at Heart," at their lunch meeting on Saturday, September 11, 2010.  They asked me to speak on "How can we live with pain and the other things that are just 'not right' in life?"



If the player does not work on your computer, you can download the MP3 file here:

http://www.archive.org/details/HowCanWeLiveWithPain

Invocation at Memorial Service Beverly Hills, California, 9/11/2010

We remember the countless innocent people whose lives were taken away nine years ago today, as well as those who have suffered and died in the many events of its equally tragic aftermath.

But today we especially commemorate, and in a very real sense celebrate, those who have given their lives so that others may live, abandoned their own safety so that others may live secure, freely laid down their lives so that others may be free.

How tragic when life is taken by violence born of fear, anger, hatred, and mistrust. How precious is the life that is freely given for the sake of another.

May we honor the lives of these men and women – these heroes – by not yielding to the illusory satisfaction of revenge or retaliation. Rather, may we face the challenges of our world today with the courage to echo, in the priorities our lives, the timeless and ever-relevant words attributed to St. Francis, who also lived in a time marked by conflict, war, and violence:

May we be instruments of true peace.
When confronted with hatred, may we bring love,
in pain, forgiveness,
in doubt, faith,
in despair, hope,
in darkness, light,
in sadness, joy.
May we seek not so much to be comforted as to encourage,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For in giving, we receive,
in forgiving, we are reconciled,
and in dying, new life is born.
Amen.

Note: It may come as a surprise that the beloved and traditional "Prayer of St. Francis" appears not to have a very long tradition behind it, has often been paraphrased, and has been used in many civic occasions such as this.  So there is ample precedent for my use of it here.

You can listen to it as delivered at the "9/11 Day of Remembrance" ceremony here:


or download it at this link.

http://www.archive.org/details/BeverlyHills911Memorial-Invocation

This is no way to end religious illiteracy | National Catholic Reporter

Excellent piece on media and religious illiteracy by John Allen.

This is no way to end religious illiteracy | National Catholic Reporter