Christ is Risen! He is truly risen!

This is the Day of the Resurrection … Let us be all united in heart, and let us give glory to God on this solemn festival. Let us address as brothers even those who hate us, as also those who love us, and have helped us, and have suffered anything on our behalf. Let us forgive all offences for the Resurrection’s sake: let us give one another pardon.

Yesterday the Lamb was slain and the door-posts sprinkled with his Blood; while Egypt mourned for her Firstborn. But the Destroying Angel and his sacrificial knife, fearful and terrifying, passed over us: for we were protected by the Precious Blood. This day we have wholly departed from Egypt, and from Pharaoh its cruel tyrant and his oppressive overseers; we are freed from laboring with bricks and straw, and no one forbids us celebrate the festival of our passing over, our Pasch, and to celebrate, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and carrying with us nothing of the ancient and evil leaven of Egypt.

Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with Him. Yesterday I died with Him; today I am quickened with Him. Yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him. Today let us offer to Him Who has suffered and Who has risen for us--you think perhaps I was about to say, gold, or silver, or precious things, or shining stones of rare price, the frail material of this earth, which will remain here, and of which the wicked and those who are slaves of earthly things and of the prince of this world possess the greatest part--rather, let us offer Him ourselves, which to God is the most precious and becoming of gifts. Let us offer to His image what is made in the image and likeness of this image. And let us make recognition of our own dignity. Let us give honor to Him in Whose likeness we were made. Let us dwell upon the wonder of this mystery, that we may understand for what Christ has died.

Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become Gods, since He for us became Man. He took upon Himself a low degree that He might give us a higher one. He became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich. He took upon Himself the form of a servant that we might be delivered from slavery. He came down that we might rise up. He was tempted that we might learn to overcome. He was despised that we might be given honor. He died that He might save us from death. He ascended to heaven that we who lie prone in sin may be lifted up to Him.

Let each one of you give all to Him: offer all to Him Who gave Himself in exchange for us: as the price of our Redemption. But should anyone come to understand this mystery in Christ, and that what He did He has done for him, he shall give nothing unless he gives his own self.

St Gregory Nazianzen

How America's Catholic Church crucified itself

A very interesting article appears in the The Sunday Times this morning giving an English analysis of the abuse scandals in the Roman Church. I can't say that there is anything refreshing about it, but it is good that such reports are being made beyond our borders. The crisis, if it is a crisis, will only be dealt with if it is perceived as real by all parties concerned, those on the inside and those looking in.

Since we know that the Church will survive this moment--doesn't Jesus somewhere say something like the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it--I can't see why we are not moving more vigorously toward the necessary acts that will bring healing and reconciliation to those who have been harmed by abusive priests and also by a hoard of our esteemed successors-to-the-Apostles who seem to be witless when the moral rubber hits the road.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me that there are a great number of Bishops who ought to be engaged in public acts of penance. If they did their own time in prison--some place rather more sever than that recently enjoyed by Martha Stewart--that might go a very long way to achieving the restoration to which all their current posturing speaks.

Reactionaries in the Church and Society take the opportunity of this dark moment to rattle their sabers for rapid social change. Some demand that all homosexual men be rooted out and expelled from the Priesthood and Religious Life and banned from the Seminary. Others wish to abolish the Latin discipline of celibacy. Still others demand the ordination of women to the Diaconate and Priesthood. Homosexuality is not the cause of child abuse. Celibacy is not the cause of child abuse. Masculinity is not the cause of child abuse. I promise you that should we ever have married women priests, some number of them will one day be guilty of child abuse.

As a society we may never be able to stop the sexual abuse of minors. Parents do it, sisters and brothers do it, family friends do it. IT is a betrayal of trust, and at its root that is something that you can't simply prevent. WE can prevent a culture of SILENCE that fosters a social dynamic which allows abuse to happen a second, third, or fourth time.

The abused and those who abuse them (especially in the context of the Church) are sons and daughters of God, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, they are our brothers and sisters--that never stops. WE have a duty to them. Each of the abused and each of the abusing have perduring spiritual, emotional, and material needs which we, as their brothers and sisters, must meet in charity and justice. Jesus death; his burial, his resurrection from the dead; his ascension into Glory; and his long-awaited return requires this of us.

We have learned from men and women with AIDS that SILENCE=DEATH. We have learned from Jesus that, The Truth will make you Free. Our challenge at this juncture in history is to model the notion that TRUTH=LIFE.

If kids knew that they could tell and their parents would still love them, if kids knew that they could tell and their lives would not be made worse for the telling, abusers would have ever fewer opportunities for future abuse.

If abusers, and/or potential abusers knew that there was an alternative to jail and remarkable public humiliation, perhaps they would tell on themselves.

Why are we waiting to be sued into bankruptcy and corrosive self-destruction? Why not face the problem head on as the pastoral problem it is? Why not just fess up to the fact that some awfully shady horrors can happen? Why not invite all who have been abused to come forward, quietly or publicly? Real abusers could be put in jail or other remedial situations, along with the Bishops that moved them from parish to parish. The abused could benefit from what ever kind of counseling they and their families want or need for the rest of their lives; and, perhaps from reasonable public settlements. This model might prove to be expensive; but it would have to be less expensive, less corrosive than our current obsessive wrangle with liability, secrecy, and shame.

Truth Telling seems to have been very effective in South Africa, maybe it could be very effective here. The Passion of Christ calls us to acts of courage. Perhaps we owe it to ourselves and to our children to pray for courageous hearts as well as healing and mercy.

More from St. Paul

The Little Chapter from vespers tonight had another of those twisty passages from St. Paul:

Philippians 2:12-15:

Work with anxious concern to achieve your salvation.
It is God who, in his good will toward you, begets in you any measure of desire or achievement. In everything you do, act without grumbling or arguing; prove yourselves innocent and straightforward, children of God without reproach.

You know maybe it is not always St. Paul who is the PUTZ, but the boys and girls that are responsible for the translation. Compare the following alternative NRSV translation:

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.

There are days when I downright sympathize with Martin Luther!

On the Frustration of Reading St. Paul

Exegesis is a very dangerous thing. It really should be left to the experts and the doctors in the law.

Romans 8: 8-11:

Brothers and sisters:
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you,
the One who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit dwelling in you.

I find St. Paul absolutely infuriating!

He is the grand master of totally twisty slippery convoluted rhetoric.

The Math seems to add up such that: If you have the Spirit of God in you, then you please God!
If you have the Spirit of God in you, even if you die, that Spirit is alive in you and you will be raised up from the dead, just like Jesus was raised up, by the same Lord and the same Spirit.

But then Paul can't just stop there, he just has to go on to say something like that those who do not have the Spirit of God do not belong to God. This end of the equation would seem to imply that those poor bastards are big time losers. Their lives are incapable of pleasing God, are incapable of righteousness, and every Mother's son of them are doomed to some big juicy death deader than dead!

Yes, there is a positive side to this passage. If the Spirit of God lives in you, then even the consequences of sin, which can harm you (and others), will not be victorious over you. God will overcome the consequences of sin and death in you and will raise you up just like Jesus, to a new and glorious life.

if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.

And how do we know what that is! How do we know what that feels like? What is it that we can look to, to recognize the Spirit of God dwelling in us?

Rigorists will inexorably tend to remember that helpful little phrase, "By their fruits, ye shall know them." This will tend to move toward a living tradition of interpretation that suggests--however subtly--that those who keep and embrace the law and maintain moral, material, and doctrinal purity are those who harbor the Spirit of God in their breasts!

And I absolutely believe, God Save Me, that Paul certainly had those people, and that point of view, in mind when he wrote those lines and all those other lines just like it, that seem to flow from his pen like water gushing from a fire hydrant.

It is altogether possible, but I do not have the strength of character to really believe it, that Paul did not mean to include those rigorists only in his vision of God's Soverign Mercy!

It is completely possible that Paul means to announce the comfortable and good news that once God has come into your heart--however divided it may still be--nothing, absolutely nothing can ever finally wrest it from him, snatch you away from the love of his embrace, separate you from his sovereign will to heal and save.

If that is what Paul means to say in this passage, then he could be a bit more straightforward about it.

We are supposed to read/hear this passage and be assured of God's concern for us, of our future life and happiness with God! However much I want to find that assurance here, I find a nagging subtext that says, Yeah, but only for the deserving, only for the good. Not for you!

Is it better to think that Paul is a PUTZ, or that the number of God's elect does not include you!

Neither is really acceptable. But I've always thought Paul was a shithead, even though I've also loved him.

And I hope to God, that God's mercy is bigger than my littleness, wider than my fear!

I hope that your Lent is happier than mine!

Memories

Amazing what staying power even the simplest image can have.

On the questions of students

A student asked me today--and it caught me completely by surprize! With complete candor he asked, "Are we still waiting for the return of Jesus?"

"Pardon," I said. It did not occur to me that I had heard, what I had heard.

"Is the Church still waiting for Jesus to come back?"

"Yes," I said, "we are."

I desperately wish that I had said, "Some may have given up hope, but the Catholic Church is still waiting."

He said to me, "Well, we never talk about it, do we?"

I wanted to reply, "Well what the hell do you think we're doing here?" But, of course I didn't. That would have been rude and hurtful. And would have shot the learning moment straight to hell. And I'm trying during Lent. . .

"It depends," I said. "The Liturgy is full of little reminders. You know, the mystery of faith; and later on the embolism ...as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. WE talk about it. But, are any of us paying attention?"

I suggested that he bring it up in one of his classes. It might have been wicked, but I did. Maybe it would be a good thing for third-year theologians to talk about.

I admire that this guy asks his questions! I often despair at the Church because he has these questions to ask! But he is marvelous!

The existential question is a good one, are any of us waiting in that joyful hope we hear of at Mass, or have we forgotten to wait, or simply given up? It seems like a great project for the rest of Lent! And, wasn't that just what each of us was hoping for?

From the Times this morning

Alan Hamilton writes in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka:

STANDING outside a half-wrecked Hindu temple at the top of the beach awaiting the Prince of Wales, the village elder nods sagely.

“Yes, we have heard of Camilla Parker Bowles from the television,” he says. “But we are not interested in her. We have much more important things to think about here.”

Yes, well.