.St. Cyril: Not Trying to Take it All In

Today is the feast day of St. Cyril, a fourth century orthodox bishop who fought the Arian heresy. I came across a quote of his that I find appealing. He was asked why he bothered trying to write about a God he, admittedly, couldn't fathom.

"But some one will say, If the Divine substance is incomprehensible, why then do you discourse of these things? So then, because I cannot drink up all the river, am I not even to take in moderation what is expedient for me? Because with eyes so constituted as mine I cannot take in all the sun, am I not even to look upon it enough to satisfy my wants? Or again, because I have entered into a great garden, and cannot eat all the supply of fruits, would you have me go away altogether hungry?.. I am attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe him, knowing nevertheless that I shall fall short of glorifying God worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to attempt it at all."


(The words in red are hyperlinks from the piece on the website from which I took this.  I was unaware that they would remain red when I published this and don't know how to change them.  So please know that as hyperlinks on this site, you might think of them as eunuchs -- contributing to prayerful thought, but themselves unfertile.)

Bienvenidos al Papa! (We've much work to do)

On Wednesday, the Catholic Cardinals elected the first pope ever from the Western Hemisphere – Francis I. Let's hope that this new world pope can spearhead a new type of vision for a church that very much needs one. It's time to address a church culture that has allowed drift, corruption and the horrors of the sex abuse scandal that's rocked the faithful for the last ten years and its victims for decades – and presumably, much longer.

Several years ago, I expressed to a good Protestant friend my horror, anger and reflected shame at the scandal. He counseled me that perhaps this would be an occasion for the Church to examine it fearlessly and come to grips with it through a collective penance and purging of its soul. I certainly hope he's right, though I've yet to see that to my satisfaction.

I continue to pray for the victims – primarily those who suffered the abuse directly – but also the Catholic faithful (especially good and innocent priests who are left to suffer the consequences; my former pastor once told me that the collar has been made to sometimes feel like a target) and the wider world. Non-believers whom the Church seeks to evangelize are only left less prone to receive Jesus as a result of this monstrously counter-productive activity. This, of course, is just a polite euphemism for what it really is – perhaps the gravest of sins.

I'm left to constantly remind myself that the Church is made up of very imperfect people who continue to betray the truth of the Christian message of love and forgiveness that promises salvation to the world. Here's hoping that that message, and the Church, can somehow rise above and beyond the sins of her children.

St. Francis of Assisi, our new pontiff's patron, pray for us.

Young Man v. Young Earth

As a Christian, I wish that everyone would come to know Jesus Christ, but evangelization is not a function of our public schools. And the myopic, stupid notion that a literal reading of the Bible can be seen as a scientific text or the basis thereof – or that a literal reading is even a valid interpretation of sacred Scripture in the first place – is not only childish but dangerous.

I have no truck with atheism but am in agreement with its proponents that religious instruction has no place in the public classroom. And the dumbass brand of Christianity that promotes fundamentalist, Creationist, so-called “scientific” theories is an embarrassment to the faith that I know and believe in.

Jesus loves us all. He loves the fundamentalists and, as with everyone else, wants to save their souls. But when they claim that the universe is 6,000 years old and that, therefore, man and dinosaurs must have co-existed, I think he must roll his eyes at the idiocy his saving presence has inadvertently spawned.

All of this is not to say that the young man in this interview is an atheist; the interview doesn't address his belief in God or lack thereof. And frankly, I'd never heard of the kid before seeing this interview. But whatever his spiritual convictions (or again, lack thereof) I'd be proud as hell if my kid was doing at his age what this young man is doing.

http://billmoyers.com/segment/zack-kopplin-on-keeping-creationism-out-of-public-classrooms/

Lord of the Starfields

As a catholic, I'm very proud of the fact that there's an astronomical observatory on the grounds of the Vatican. We find no cowardly and anti-logical fear of the spectacular findings of science in the holy city-state. People criticize the Church for that very thing in its suppression of Galileo in the seventeenth century.

But the Catholic Church has recanted of its treatment of Galileo and, unlike much of Protestant Christianity today, has embraced the universe he proposed. As this article states, it was a Catholic priest/scientist who first proposed the theory of the Big Bang. Today, another catholic priest -- the just-retired Pope Benedict XVI -- recently established an institution which seeks to resolve the perceived conflicts between science and religion – the Vatican's Science and Faith Foundation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-giberson-phd/pope-benedict-science_b_2679021.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP_CwMr7yvc

Ben Folds XVI (or The Pope Throws in the Alb)

A few minutes before I left for work yesterday, as I was waiting for the morning weather forecast, the bombshell hit. Pope Benedict had announced he was resigning. At that time, I only heard the basics they gave: the Pope had determined that, at age 85, he was no longer fit to administer the See of Peter, the “Holy Bark” that is the Church. They said the last time a pope resigned was over six-hundred years ago. (Actually, 700 years since a precedent for Monday's announcement – see the attached link.)

As I walked to work a few minutes later, I knew that the rumor mill and the late night comedy writers' rooms were already in a state of hyperdrive. And in all fairness, could you expect them not to be? This screams to be talked about, criticized, praised, dumbfounded by – and yes, laughed at. After all, old popes don't retire, they just slowly process away . . .

As many of us know, priests retire, bishops retire, but popes don't. Not normally anyway. Without knowing the history, I can only assume that other pontiffs have struggled to keep it together through illness and old age – perhaps even senility, I suppose.

It should go without saying that many people – even reasonable types that don't routinely sport aluminum pie plates as headwear – will ask the question that begs: Why? And the one hot on its heels: Is there some scandal beneath the surface that we don't know about? Perhaps something to do with the ongoing child abuse crisis that's rocked the Church in recent years? What good reason could there be? a reasonable mind might ask. After all, if he really is retiring merely because of age and growing infirmity, we need only look at his predecessor to see how that can be graciously endured.

I don't blame people for waiting for the other shoe of the fisherman to drop – or even actively looking for it. You can bet that TMZ is fervently on the case as we speak. I can also already hear the true believers excoriating the cynical secular hordes for their accusatory suspicions.

You can count me as one of the true believers, though unless they really take it too far, I won't get pissy on the nefarious agnostic nabobs of negativity. Inquiring – and not necessarily unreasonable – minds want to know, after all. In the words of one believer, “He was hired by God. He can't quit!” I can't say I'm in total agreement with the Pope or the Church on all things, but I do buy into the See of Peter pretty much as advertised. And that's the very reason that Benedict's announcement not only perplexes, but troubles me.

I can sympathize with his assessment of his own physical and mental incapacity to do one of the hardest jobs on the planet. I concur with panel members in the attached link in respecting his humility for admitting it and admiring his generosity in thinking for speculating that a new pope might better serve the Church. But whatever the Holy Father's good motives may be, I do have to wonder at the impact of this extraordinary act. It seems to me that it gives the world plausible reason to speculate on the possibility of a darker meaning behind it.

As of this writing, I haven't had much chance to follow developments. Of course, it was all over the news yesterday (Monday the 11^th; it's Tuesday evening now and I doubt I'll get this in before the timestamp moves to Wednesday.) Besides the initial report, I've since found that the Pope really has apparently gone downhill physically in recent months. And today they reported that he'll live his remaining days in a monk-like existence, praying and writing, in a refurbished former convent on Vatican grounds.

I can only join the rest of the faithful in praying that this is the right decision for Pope Benedict (soon again, I might suppose, Father Ratzinger) and the Church he's led for nearly the last eight years.

TJTM

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2013/02/11/pope-benedict-xvi-resigns

Prof. Conor Cunningham -- "Why Study Nature and Grace?"

My friend and former associate pastor, Fr. Addison Hart, is a veritable volcano of interesting and thought-provoking posts on Facebook. The other day he posted a couple of links to a video series by Nottingham University in England. It's called the "Why Study? Series". The two links he shared are “Why Study Nature and Grace?” and “Why Study Evolution?”, both with Professor Conor Cunningham. Through these, I found the "Why Study? Series", including more with Prof. Cunningham. There's a lot to be explored here and I've decided to start doing so. I find them worth sharing and begin with “Why Study Nature and Grace?”

“God sent his son into (nature) to perfect it. Not to destroy it, not to subsume it, not to moralize it, not to spiritualize it, but to make it more physical.”

• Professor Conor Cunningham
  

  
  

  
  

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8jbytgfMjU

  
  

Awakened by Infinite Sons

Saturday, Jan 12, 2013

6:20am

My sons woke me up this morning.

A short while ago, I was dreaming that I was asleep and in the dream of that sleep, there was a knock at my bedroom door. Annoyed, I roused myself into recriminating wakefulness and got up to open it. It was my son Eric. In real life, he's nearly twenty years old but in my dream, he was a three or four year-old boy. “I remember,” he said in his little three or four-year old voice, which had the hint of a lisp, “that I used to sometimes come sleep with you when I woke up scared, and it's been awhile so I thought I should come do it again.” It was puzzling to me that this little boy spoke as if he wasn't scared at all and that he seemed to be recounting this from as many years ago as it now really is. It gave the whole thing the surreal quality of the infinite. I said, “Sure, monkey. It's always okay for you to do that.” I picked him up and, holding his tiny body next to mine, started to bring him into bed – and that was when I woke up in real life.

I lay there for a few minutes, remembering the days when, not long after his mom and I split up and he was about that same age, he used to sometimes wake up crying in the middle of the night. Even after he was well awake, he could sometimes not be comforted for at least ten or fifteen minutes. It was as if he refused to let go of the dream that terrified him.

Then, still lying in bed, I remembered a picture he drew at around that time. It was a picture of him and me as a child's stick figures, holding hands and walking under a big, round shining sun. Above us he'd drawn a large red and white heart. I still have it. You don't throw something like that away. If I wasn't so computer-illiterate, I'd post it here. I suppose, next time he's here, I'll have him show me again. (Yes, he showed me before how to post pictures to my computer, but, being the aforementioned computer-illiterate, I don't remember the simple steps. I think I have them written down somewhere, but I haven't used my camera in years and the batteries need re-charging anyway.

As it often is when woken from a powerful dream, my immediate thought was to sit down and write about it. My computer was still on from a few hours before (I didn't go to sleep until four) because I did something that left my monitor with the wallpaper still there, but all the icons missing. In that state, there was no shutdown button and I didn't know how to rectify it without shutting the computer down improperly. I knew that isn't good (or can't be anything other than neutral or bad) for it and I was too tired to fuck with it, so I just turned the monitor off and went to bed.

I remembered this when I came back to my desk just now. Pissed off that I might not be able to record this astonishing dream, I turned the monitor back on. I knew that if the compy didn't bounce back after the inevitably necessary improper shutdown, I'd have to call my other (and older) son Steve. Steve's even more of a computer whiz than his younger brother (who's also very computer-savvy) plus, unlike Eric, Steve lives just a few blocks away.

I stared at my monitor's wallpaper – again, the only thing that remained on the screen. It's a picture of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a family favorite of ours. Steve had installed it when (as a surprise when I was away) he revamped my entire PC and loaded it with a new browser and programs, including the Open Office Writer word processing program that I'm using right now. Over the years, Steve has done probably thousands of dollars worth of IT work for me and my dad.

Looking at the one-armed Black Knight (if you don't know what I'm talking about, rent the film; I regard it as the single funniest movie ever made.) I thought of Steve and considered the wonderful gift he had graced me with in the new setup.

Sitting there, I instinctively knew that in all of this, he was as much a part of my waking after less than three hours as was Eric. This entire episode was about my being father to them both.

It was then that it occurred to me, and seeming very much as if it was Steve who was reminding me,“when in doubt, hit Ctrl/Alt/Delete.” I did, and was suddenly a couple of keystrokes away from full restoration of my unit. It may not sound like much because I suppose even a ninety year-old chimp knows that old trick, but you're seeing this right now because of it. I'd like to think that Steve had something to do with it and, on some level, it's evident to me at least, that he did.

Last night (really, in the wee hours of this morning) someone posted to Facebook the picture of a fifteen year old girl who went missing a couple of weeks ago. Though I didn't know her from Eve, I knew that her parents must be in agony right now, not to mention, possibly her. Her name is Samantha and she's sometimes known as “Sammi Jo.” As I said in the post, “Don't know her, but it seems we gotta spread this far and wide. God bless you, Sammi Jo. I'm praying for you.”

I cried this morning when my little boy woke me from the dream I had where he woke me from my dreaming sleep. It was touching and a little sad to remember that he and his brother aren't little boys anymore but I'll see them soon and things will be like they always are.

Sammi Jo's parents don't have that right now and are going through what I don't even want to imagine, much less live. There's nothing more I can do than pray for her and hope that the simple act of sharing her picture on Facebook can contribute to a cloud of activity that'll bring her home. Again, God bless you, Sammi Jo.

Finally, my friend and my former parish priest, Father Addison Hart, posted a remarkable video last night. The video itself is actually less remarkable than cool -- computer-animated psychedelia of the sort we've all probably seen many times before, though above average for its ilk, I'd say. The remarkable part is the music. It's Bjork (formerly the singer with Iceland's band, the Sugarcubes, singing a beautiful version of “The Jesus Prayer.” I don't have reason to think she's a believer, but if not, she's certainly a talented voice actress.

I listened to it repeatedly as I composed this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lEhq3rkbVr8#!