After suffering an injury from the glorious MudBowl....actually lets start there
So this is perfectly Catholic and nerdy and masculine and yeah...for the last 40 years or so, the Josephinum plays a MudBowl. The Theologate Papal Bulls versus the College of Cardinals. This year, we actually had a real life bull...costume present!!!
Theology won, dignum et iustum est and it is quite nice to have that trophy in our pub again! Though it is technically flag football, yeah it kinda ends up not being at time...many injuries were suffered but that is just part of the fun.
Also, THE IRISH ARE NOW 10-0, NBD!!!! BEAT THE HERETICS (I MEAN JESUITS), NOW TO BEAT THE DEACONS AND CONTRACEPTION...
So yeah, a week full of tests and papers. I also presented a paper this weekend at the Pop Culture Symposium we host which was on friendship this year, I talked about dancing as it appears in the Trinity, Dante's Paradiso, the Holy Mass, and...Lady Gaga. When I get a chance, I will post that up
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So I wanted to write a minute on misericordia. I had done some recent research on this since I had hoped to present a paper at the recent Center for Ethics and Culture Conference at Notre Dame this year on Justice, the Crowning Virtue and offer a discussion of mercy, for Aquinas, as the crowning virtue which, itself, is rooted in justice but a notion of justice that would have been inconceivable to the Greeks.
I wanted to offer a brief meditation on the priest in the confessional as sitting in the place of the Divine Tribunal of God.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but its servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ. He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior, experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, and lead the penitent with patience toward healing and full maturity. He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord's mercy." (1466)
this is a striking passage. Now only must the priest love truth, "HE MUST PRAY AND DO PENANCE FOR HIS PENITENT, ENTRUSTING HIM TO THE LORD'S MERCY."
This priest does not simply sit there, hear the sins, and administer absolution in some romanticized version of Divine Justice...we beg before the throne of the Triune Tribunal and are granted absolution. The priest, as a true mediator dei, is moved to a profound amount of mercy such that he makes penance along with the penitent.
As Aquinas notes in the Summa (IIaIIae, xxx, 1, corpus):
"As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei ix, 5), mercy is heartfelt sympathy for another's distress, impelling us to succor him if we can. For mercy takes its name "misericordia" from denoting a man's compassionate heart [miserum cor] for another's unhappiness. Now unhappiness is opposed to happiness: and it is essential to beatitude or happiness that one should obtain what one wishes; for, according to Augustine (De Trin. xiii, 5), "happy is he who has whatever he desires, and desires nothing amiss." Hence, on the other hand, it belongs to unhappiness that a man should suffer what he wishes not."
One thing to note at the get-go...mercy is not pity. I am of the strong opinion that Aquinas converts Greek pity (a vile thing it was) to the Christian virtue of mercy. True virtues, in the Aristotelian scheme, ought not to clash. Justice to the Greeks governs one’s relationship with others in an ordered way such that there is a sustained or constant willingness to extend to each person what he or she deserves. This is not far from our modern conception of justice.
Lady Justice, as we depict her, carries a sword, exemplifying her coercive power, scales weighing the competing and warring parts in each hand, and a blindfold indicating her impartiality and dedication to a reasoned and objective ruling, not a ruling rooted in passions. The just man, as the Greeks conceived of it, was one who could show no partiality and as Plato illuminates in The Republic, the just man’s reason rightly orders the will to control the passions. Hence, there is little shock that pity plays no role in the action of justice as a virtue; pity is an emotion that clouds the man’s ability to practice his virtue in accord with his reason.
In this post virtue world (to lean on MacIntyre’s After Virtue), one finds the tendency to confuse misericordia with pity and set it in a drastic dichotomy against justice. On the one hand, justice dictates that each is given his due. On the other hand, mercy seems to dictate that each is given what is not his due. In a sense, the contemporary mind views mercy as entailing something less than justice be done. This supposed clash, then, finds a climax in the writings of Aquinas. One has, on the one hand, Aristotle posits in the Rhetoric that pity is felt (as a passion) for those who suffer undeservedly since we do not pity but blame those who suffer as a result of their own wicked actions. On the other hand, in the Gospel of Matthew, one sees God, Incarnate in Christ, moved with pity at the mere sight of the crowds around him, trouble and abandoned as sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36). Christ (The Pantokrator) stands as a judge figure quite different from Lady Justice as conceived in antiquity and today.
The Judge both forgives sinners and condemns the wretched as He sits upon His judgment throne; His right hand of justice is slowed by His left hand of mercy. In typical iconography, Christ the Judge holds the book of names in one hand and blesses with the other; not simply with the sword and scales. The view of mercy as pity creates a tension between the movements of the heart (misericordia; literally the movement of ones heart to sorrow - miserium cor) and the demands of reason (justitia); a tension depicted eloquently depicted in Dante’s Inferno when Virgil (a representative of reason and an ancient) rebukes Dante for his pity on the damned: “… There is no place for pity here. / Who is more arrogant within his soul, who is more impious / than one who dares to sorrow at God’s judgment?” (Canto XX, 30-32).
Yet for Aquinas, the two share a most intimate relationship. Aquinas unites the Greek crowning virtue of justice with the Augustine’s greatest virtue, mercy. Mercy “does not destroy justice,” as Aquinas noted, “but is a certain kind of fulfillment of justice.” “Mercy without justice, he added, “is the mother of dissolution.” Aquinas quite subtlety transforms the Greek passion of pity into the Christian virtue of mercy.
[I hope to write a paper on this one day through the lens of Dante’s interaction with Virgil (fitting types of mercy and justice) in the Inferno. It is my belief that Virgil’s lack of understanding is precisely that misunderstanding present today. Through this I would hope to redefine the virtues so that, with a correct understanding of justice and mercy, one can see their intimacy that hearkens to the words of Portia in the Merchant of Venice: “The quality of mercy is not strained / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven / Upon the place beneath… / It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings; / It is an attribute to God himself, / And earthly power doth then show likest God’s / When mercy seasons justice.” (The Merchant of Venice, IV, I, 179–197).]
So anyways, that was a tangent but what is the point. The priest in the confessional must must must be of one heart with his penitent. It is not simply the penitent and the confessor, but the two working together. As Aquinas, quoting Augustine says, mercy is a deep connection of the heart, through heartfelt sympathy, in which the two are united. One can see this time and time again in the Gospels, Jesus moved to sorrow and is this not the very reason of the Incarnation, God becoming man so that he may, in our lowliness, lift us up so that we may become God!!!
Let the priest sitting in that Tribunal of Mercy, then, been so steeped in mercy, formed in that Most Sacred Heart of Jesus that we so often invoke for mercy. For is not the priesthood, above all else, the very love of God?!?!?!
It has been an extremely busy October so while I have posts written, I didn't get around to getting them onto the interwebs and posting them...soon enough
Notre Dame has a couple of tough games ahead before USC...tough because they can turn into trap games. So foster your Marian devotions and pray for them. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us! Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for them!
Yesterday was All Souls Day!!!!!!! I just love that day... after Christmas and Triduum, it doesn't get much better than that in my book. Church praying for the Souls in Purgatory...just all makes such good sense.
Today is Mudbowl. Theology versus College here at the Josephinum...I am really looking forward to this.
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So tomorrow I will be instituted into the ministry of Acolyte. Out of the kindness of your hearts, I ask you to pray for me as I progress ever closer to ordination.
“I thank Thee, O MY GOD, for all the graces Thou hast granted me: especially for having purified me in the crucible of suffering.” ~ Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Today is the Feast day of the beautiful Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the saint for whom all revolved around grace. The Gospel reading today plays in nicely with her feast and name... that of the Christ addressing his Disciples as they are disputing over who is the greatest:
I found the readings for the Novus Ordo Mass today particularly interesting (up at Mass here at the Seminary before, you know, God was even awake :p...) So I wanted to offer a brief thought on the readings as regards childlikeness and childishness, a favorite theme of mine that I already covered before (http://morelacemoregrace.blogspot.com/2011/10/child-likeness.html). It all, however, comes to a climax, in my mind, at the invocation of Wisdom and the vindication of Wisdom by her children. One of my all time favorite depictions of Lady Wisdom/Philosophy is in Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae...maybe one day I will post the paper I wrote for Dr. Gersh at ND on the last book of this work.
"Kings removing their diadems take up the cross, the symbol of their
Saviour's death; on the purple, the cross; in their prayers, the cross;
on their armour, the cross; on the holy table, the cross; throughout the
universe, the cross. The cross shines brighter than the sun." - Saint John Chrysostom
Today is the Feast of the Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis. Let us always remember the Glory of the Cross upon which Christ was crucified and our salvation won - O Ave Crux, Spes Unica! While Good Friday celebrates the Passion of Christ which includes the Crucifixion, today Holy Mother Church celebrates the Cross as the instrument of our salvation upon which Christ, both Priest and Victim, offered himself to the Eternal Father in reparation for our sins.
It has been ages since I have been
here I know... I had been without a computer for so long but I have
written many posts... I will just have to post them all at some point.
Today
is the Feast of the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What a great
feast!!! (http://morelacemoregrace.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-off.html)
For the moment, I simply want to catch people up on my life (for those who care).
I
have moved seminaries and am no longer in Latrbobe, PA at Saint
Vincent's Archabbey. I am in my second year of Theology at the
Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, OH and I love it!
Out of the goodness of your hearts, I beseech your prayers as I will be installed a Lector of the Roman Catholic Church tomorrow on the Feast of the Annunciation by my beloved Bishop, the Most Rev. Roger J. Foys. Though no longer treated as a minor order :'(, only men en route to the Orders can be installed a Lector and will serve as another significant stage as I progress, with the Grace of God Almighty, to Holy Orders.
Let us keep our beloved pope in our prayers and he visits such a violence-torn country and may his presence amongst the people of God in México prove to be an inspiration to re-energize their faith and grow in holiness.
On this the Feast of the Blessed Spouse of the Holy Virgin and Foster Child of the Incarnate Word, I wish to focus briefly on one of his titles; St. Joseph, the Terror of Demons!
The first time I heard of this was running around Montreal with Fr. Roy on a Saint Andre pilgrimage to the Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal. Now not much has really been written on (that I know of) so bear with me...
Today is also the independence day of the greatest republic in the union...TEXAS!!!
Now I need to note that it is also an Ember Day so what to do...penance and fast or celebration and feast????!?!?!?!?!?!?
Yet, the infamous cholo gerardi alerted me to the longstanding Texas Independence Indult?! It's a First Class feast for all Texans! no fasts of any sort!!! As he notes, Bl. Pius IX, in his Motu Proprio entitled Texas Badassico stated, "I'd better let those people eat meat on Friday, because I don't want any trouble."
One
of the things I have been contemplating recently is the question of
intellectual formation in a program for priestly formation. To set the
stage, however, it is important to look at how seminary formation came
about and the reasons for it.
Friends, I have been and still am without a real functioning computer since Dec which makes writing on a blog rather difficult...I refuse to use my cell phone. I have recently written a couple of things for Notre Dame's Right to Life Blog surrounding the atrocious HHS Mandate and the debates resulting from it. You can find it here and here.
Recently I have been reading (amidst the other 13 books I am working through...oh how I much more I would enjoy life if I could actually read all the books on my list) The Great Divorce which gives a fascinating, though purposefully not doctrinal, portrayal of Purgatory. This lead me to a contemplation of sin and vulnerability. Before I get there, it is important to note that it is LENT. I love this season, 40 days for penance penance and more penance.
This isn't so unrelated to sin; essentially is prohibits us from forming relations with others (especially God) by forming a relationship with the utterly oppresive and self-centered Satan.
This season we are asked to increase (which implies that there is a regular practice and schedule of penance like no meat on fridays or opting out of desert on friday) our works of penance, fasting, frequent Confession, mortification, almsgiving .These increased practices force us to open ourselves up to the other and to God. From personal experience, I love fasting because it literally forces me to lean on God for support and strength; especially when the only thing I have to eat is His Most Blessed Body. Penance makes us vulnerable and how often do we need to be reminded of our own vulnerability and to make ourselves vulnerable to others. Giving money to the poor, confession, fasting...whatever penances you perform, they force you to love others and not yourself.
Here, then, is a recent paper I had to whip out (in a night...some things never change) for a class here on sin as self-centeredness
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“Nam mysterium jam operatur iniquitatis : tantum ut qui tenet nunc, teneat, donec de medio fiat. Et tunc revelabitur ille iniquus, quem Dominus Jesus interficiet spiritu oris sui, et destruet illustratione adventus sui eum: cujus est adventus secundum operationem Satanæ in omni virtute, et signis, et prodigiis mendacibus, et in omni seductione iniquitatis iis qui pereunt: eo quod caritatem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent.” (2 Thes. 2:7-10)
In the first few chapters of Genesis, one encounters a rather dramatic narrative of God’s creation of the κόσμος (the created order), of man’s particular creation, and mankind’s subsequent fall from God’s grace through the eating of the forbidden fruit. As John Paul II quite eloquently notes in both Mulieris Dignitatem (§9) and his general audience on March 5, 1980, ‘Even though what is written in the Book of Genesis is expressed in the form of a symbolic narrative, as is the case in the description of the creation of man as male and female (cf. Gen 2:18-25),at the same time it reveals what should be called “the mystery of sin”, and even more fully, “the mystery of evil” which exists in the world created by God.” That is to say, we have the cosmic mystery of creation, the mysterium iniquitatis and even the resulting mysterium mortis. As St. Paul notes in his second letter to the Thessalonians, the mystery of sin is already at work. Yet, what exactly is sin? Quoting Saint Augustine's De civitate Dei (14, 28), the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that sin is "love of oneself even to the contempt of God" (1850). Sin, then, is a radical self-centeredness; a state of existential solitude and isolation from God and neighbor. As Saint Augustine explains it, it is a disordering of the hierarchy so that man replaces God at the top of the hierarchy of beings. As a result, one is incapable of loving God or neighbor…or anyone that is not the self. That a radical self-centeredness and isolation is wrong simply requires a look to our human nature where we find that our εὐδαιμονία is rooted in our nature as social and political beings. We belong in a polis and we require communities to flourish.
Here Aristotle provides a great exposition of this truth. In the first book of his Politics, Aristotle argues that humans are, by nature, social and political agents. This quite easily echoes the first two chapters of Genesis. The Genesis account of creation eloquently displays our innate desire for communion with others. When God brought the animals before Adam, none provided that sense of completeness and wholeness. Thus, God created Eve of Adam’s own flesh and the two were united, quite intimately, in the covenant of matrimony. One of the many readings one can take on Dante’s depiction of the Inferno is the agony those in Hell experience due to the hyper-isolation and alienation experienced there (The Inferno, Canto iii, vv. 34-39). On a similar note, Primo Levi in Se questo è un uomo, describes the Lager as his own Inferno and the only thing that gets him through is his friendship with a Frenchman named Jean who he teaches Italian and Dante; the self-giving of himself to Jean made him feel most human in a place stripped of any sense of humanity. On a similar note, this openness to others can be seen in Shakespeare’s Tempest where Miranda truly sees (in contrast to the illusions of Prospero) for the first time upon encountering in Ferdinand another in whom she can place her heart in.
Aristotle continues by noting in a discussion of why the polis is naturally formed from man’s political nature, that the polis is self-sufficient and therefore most desirable. This notion of a desire and search for self-sufficiency is precisely what stands in contra to the Yahwistic account of man as one with an innate tendency to seek communion with others and it is in this contrast that sin makes its famous appearance in the Genesis drama. At the root here is vulnerability to others. The saintly and virtuous place their heart in the other; there is an absolute openness to the other even if he will be rejected. The prime example of this, of course, is Christ who opens himself (quite literally on the Cross with arms extended) to the world and sinners, knowing that he will be rejected. As Dante portrays it, those in Hell are there for their hearts lie completely in themselves; their live were lived according only to a principle of self-gratification. For example, in the classic movie The Song of Bernadette is a scene when they are interrogating St. Bernadette on the miracles to see if she is ‘insane.’ When they ask her ‘what is a sinner?’, she replies that a sinner ‘is one whole love evil.’ Not one who does evil; that is secondary. Rather, at the root of a sinner is one whose heart lies and rests in evil; that is to say, the self and not God as properly ordered.
This then, we see most eloquently portrayed in the drama of the first chapters of Genesis. Post-fall, what were once beautiful and good (καλοκαγαθός) unities and communions between Adam and Eve and between God and Adam/Eve have since been horribly disordered. In an attempt to be self-sufficient, Adam was forced to isolate himself from Eve and God. Self-focused, Adam and Eve worry about themselves for the first time, noticing their nakedness and literally hiding themselves from one another with clothing. Rather than gazing at the other, they are utterly preoccupied with themselves. Further, when God returns, Adam is found hiding behind the tree, literally setting a boundary between himself and God. As Benedict XVI wonderfully states, “The human being lives in the suspicion that God’s love creates a dependence and that he must rid himself of this dependency if he is to be fully himself. Man does not want to receive his existence and the fullness of his life from God. He himself wants to obtain from the tree of knowledge the power to shape the world, to make himself a god, raising himself to God’s level, and to overcome death and darkness with his own efforts. He does not want to rely on love that to him seems untrustworthy; he relies solely on his own knowledge since it confers power upon him. Rather than on love, he sets his sights on power, with which he desires to take his own life autonomously in hand. And in doing so, he trusts in deceit rather than in truth and thereby sinks with his life into emptiness, into death. Love is not dependence but a gift that makes us live. The freedom of a human being is the freedom of a limited being, and therefore is itself limited. We can possess it only as a shared freedom, in the communion of freedom: only if we live in the right way, with one another and for one another, can freedom develop.” (Benedict XVI, Homily Delivered to the Papal Household on the 40th Anniversary of the Closure of the Second Vatican Council, 8 December 2005.)
This, then, is precisely the nature of sin; a radical self-centeredness in which man becomes a navel-gazer. Rather than live in the community we were destined to be (and innately desire), we isolate and alienate ourselves from others in this radical pursuit of self-sufficiency.
Hodie * beata Virgo Maria puerum Iesum praesentavit in templo, et Simeon repletus Spiritu Sancto accepit eum in ulnas suas, et benedixit Deum in aeternum
From fisheaters: The eve of this Feast is the absolutely last (and best) day for taking down the Christmas tree, putting away the creche, etc. In some Latin countries, the creche isn't just put away, but is replaced with a figure of the Child Jesus sitting on a chair, acting as a sign that it is time for the devotion to the Divine Childhood to give way to a focus on the grown-up Savior and the public ministry, forty days of fasting, and Passion to come.
In any case, when Candlemas is finished, all feelings of Christmas give way to the penitential feelings of Septuagesima and then Lent. The English poet, Robert Herrick (A.D. 1591-1674), sums it up in his poem "Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve" -- and reveals a folktale in the process:
Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve
Down with the rosemary, and so Down with the bays and misletoe ; Down with the holly, ivy, all, Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall : That so the superstitious find No one least branch there left behind : For look, how many leaves there be Neglected, there (maids, trust to me) So many goblins you shall see.
This very ancient carol also speaks of the departure of Christmas on this day. It is called "I Am Christmas," and was written by James Ryman, a Franciscan Friar, ca. 1492. Note that the reference to Hallowtide (the days of the dead centering around All Saints Day) here refers to the fact that it was during Hallowtide that monarchs used to announce where they would be spending Christmas.
I Am Christmas
Here have I dwelled with more or lass From Hallowtide till Candelmas, And now must I from you hens pass; Now have good day.
I take my leve of king and knight, And erl, baron, and lady bright; To wilderness I must me dight; Now have good day!
And at the good lord of this hall I take my leve, and of gestes all; Me think I here Lent doth call; Now have good day!
And at every worthy officere, Marshall, panter, and butlere I take my leve as for this yere; Now have good day!
Another yere I trust I shall Make mery in this hall, If rest and peace in England fall; Now have good day!
But oftentimes I have herd say That he is loth to part away That often biddeth 'Have good day!"; Now have good day!
Now fare ye well, all in fere, Now fare ye well for all this yere; Yet for my sake make ye good chere; Now have good day!
Hence, today at Compline, we move into the beautiful ave regina caelorum:
From here, I will leave you with a great sermon by Blessed Cardinal Newman from the second volume of his Plain and Parochial Sermons (oh what a blessing it would be to hear sermons like this in our Churches...the people are fully capable of meditating on the mysteries and not just feel good theology but deep and meaningful mystagogy!!!) - Have a fruitful septuagesima!!! and may the Divine Child bless you; the same Divine Child that was presented in the Temple which we commemorate today and for this brief period between the last lingerings of the Christmas season and the beginnings of Lent and Septuagesima!
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Sermon 10. Secrecy and Suddenness of Divine Visitations
"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." Luke xvii. 20.
{107} [Note 1] WE commemorate on this day the Presentation of Christ in the Temple according to the injunction of the Mosaic Law, as laid down in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus and the twelfth of Leviticus. When the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, the first-born of the Egyptians (as we all know) were visited by death, "from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle." [Exod. xii. 29.] Accordingly, in thankful remembrance of this destruction, and their own deliverance, every male among the Israelites who was the first-born of his mother, was dedicated to God; likewise, every first-born of cattle. Afterwards, the Levites were taken, as God's peculiar possession, instead of the first-born [Note 2]: but still the first-born were solemnly brought {108} to the Temple at a certain time from their birth, presented to God, and then redeemed or bought off at a certain price. At the same time certain sacrifices were offered for the mother, in order to her purification after childbirth; and therefore today's Feast, in memory of Christ's Presentation in the Temple, is commonly called the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Our Saviour was born without sin. His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, need have made no offering, as requiring no purification. On the contrary, it was that very birth of the Son of God which sanctified the whole race of woman, and turned her curse into a blessing. Nevertheless, as Christ Himself was minded to "fulfil all righteousness," to obey all ordinances of the covenant under which He was born, so in like manner His Mother Mary submitted to the Law, in order to do it reverence.
This, then, is the event in our Saviour's infancy which we this day celebrate; His Presentation in the Temple when His Virgin Mother was ceremonially purified. It was made memorable at the time by the hymns and praises of Simeon and Anna, to whom He was then revealed. And there were others, besides these, who had been "looking for redemption in Jerusalem," who were also vouchsafed a sight of the Infant Saviour. But the chief importance of this event consists in its being a fulfilment of prophecy. Malachi had announced the Lord's visitation of His Temple in these words, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple;" [Malachi iii. 1] words which, though variously fulfilled during His ministry, had their first accomplishment in the {109} humble ceremony commemorated on this day. And, when we consider the grandeur of the prediction, and how unostentatious this accomplishment was, we are led to muse upon God's ways, and to draw useful lessons for ourselves. This is the reflection which I propose to make upon the subject of this Festival.
I say, we are today reminded of the noiseless course of God's providence,—His tranquil accomplishment, in the course of nature, of great events long designed; and again, of the suddenness and stillness of His visitations. Consider what the occurrence in question consists in. A little child is brought to the Temple, as all first-born children were brought. There is nothing here uncommon or striking, so far. His parents are with him, poor people, bringing the offering of pigeons or doves, for the purification of the mother. They are met in the Temple by an old man, who takes the child in his arms, offers a thanksgiving to God, and blesses the parents; and next are joined by a woman of a great age, a widow of eighty-four years, who had exceeded the time of useful service, and seemed to be but a fit prey for death. She gives thanks also, and speaks concerning the child to other persons who are present. Then all retire.
Now, there is evidently nothing great or impressive in this; nothing to excite the feelings, or interest the imagination. We know what the world thinks of such a group as I have described. The weak and helpless, whether from age or infancy, it looks upon negligently and passes by. Yet all this that happened was really the solemn fulfilment of an ancient and emphatic {110} prophecy. The infant in arms was the Saviour of the world, the rightful heir, come in disguise of a stranger to visit His own house. The Scripture had said, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple: but who may abide the day of His coming, and who may stand when He appeareth?" He had now taken possession. And further, the old man who took the child in his arms, had upon him the gifts of the Holy Ghost, had been promised the blessed sight of his Lord before his death, came into the Temple by heavenly guidance, and now had within him thoughts unutterable, of joy, thankfulness, and hope, strangely mixed with awe, fear, painful wonder, and "bitterness of spirit." Anna too, the woman of fourscore and four years, was a prophetess; and the bystanders, to whom she spoke, were the true Israel, who were looking out in faith for the predicted redemption of mankind, those who (in the words of the prophecy) "sought" and in prospect "delighted" in the "Messenger" of God's covenant of mercy. "The glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former," [Haggai ii. 9.] was the announcement made in another prophecy. Behold the glory; a little child and his parents, two aged persons, and a congregation without name or memorial. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation."
Such has ever been the manner of His visitations, in the destruction of His enemies as well as in the deliverance of His own people;—silent, sudden, unforeseen, as regards the world, though predicted in the face of all men, and in their measure comprehended and waited {111} for by His true Church. Such a visitation was the flood; Noah a preacher of righteousness, but the multitude of sinners judicially blinded. "They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." Such was the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Likewise as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." [Luke xvii. 27-29.] Again, "The horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them." [Exod. xv. 19.] The overthrow of Sennacherib was also silent and sudden, when his vast army least expected it: "The Angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand." [Isa. xxxvii. 36.] Belshazzar and Babylon were surprised in the midst of the king's great feast to his thousand lords. While Nebuchadnezzar boasted, his reason was suddenly taken from him. While the multitude shouted with impious flattery at Herod's speech, then "the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory." [Acts xii. 23.] Whether we take the first or the final judgment upon Jerusalem, both visitations were foretold as sudden. Of the former, Isaiah had declared it should come "suddenly, at an instant;" [Isa. xxx. 13.] of the latter, Malachi, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple." {112} And such, too, will be His final visitation of the whole earth: men will be at their work in the city and in the field, and it will overtake them like a thunder-cloud. "Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left." [Luke xvii. 35, 36.]
And it is impossible that it should be otherwise, in spite of warnings ever so clear, considering how the world goes on in every age. Men, who are plunged in the pursuits of active life, are no judges of its course and tendency on the whole. They confuse great events with little, and measure the importance of objects, as in perspective, by the mere standard of nearness or remoteness. It is only at a distance that one can take in the outlines and features of a whole country. It is but holy Daniel, solitary among princes, or Elijah the recluse of Mount Carmel, who can withstand Baal, or forecast the time of God's providences among the nations. To the multitude all things continue to the end, as they were from the beginning of the creation. The business of state affairs, the movements of society, the course of nature, proceed as ever, till the moment of Christ's coming. "The sun was risen upon the earth," bright as usual, on that very day of wrath in which Sodom was destroyed. Men cannot believe their own time is an especially wicked time; for, with Scripture unstudied and hearts untrained in holiness, they have no standard to compare it with. They take warning from no troubles or perplexities, which rather carry them away to search out the earthly causes of {113} them, and the possible remedies. They consider them as conditions of this world, necessary results of this or that state of society. When the power of Assyria became great (we might suppose), the Jews had a plain call to repentance. Far from it; they were led to set power against power: they took refuge against Assyria in Egypt, their old enemy. Probably they reasoned themselves into what they considered a temperate, enlightened, cheerful view of national affairs; perhaps they might consider the growth of Assyria as an advantage rather than otherwise, as balancing the power of Egypt, and so tending to their own security. Certain it is, we find them connecting themselves first with one kingdom, and then with the other, as men who could read (as they thought) "the signs of the times," and made some pretences to political wisdom. Thus the world proceeds till wrath comes upon it and there is no escape. "Tomorrow," they say, "shall be as this day, and much more abundant." [Isa. lvi. 12.]
And in the midst of this their revel, whether of sensual pleasure, or of ambition, or of covetousness, or of pride and self-esteem, the decree goes forth to destroy. The decree goes forth in secret; Angels hear it, and the favoured few on earth; but no public event takes place to give the world warning. The earth was doomed to the flood one hundred and twenty years before the "decree brought forth," [Zeph. ii. 2.] or men heard of it. The waters of Babylon had been turned, and the conqueror was marching into the city, when Belshazzar made his great feast. Pride infatuates man, and self-indulgence {114} and luxury work their way unseen,—like some smouldering fire, which for a while leaves the outward form of things unaltered. At length the decayed mass cannot hold together, and breaks by its own weight, or on some slight and accidental external violence. As the Prophet says: "This iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out (or bulging) in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant." The same inward corruption of a nation seems to be meant in our Lord's words, when He says of Jerusalem: "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." [Matt. xxiv. 28.]
Thoughts such as the foregoing are profitable at all times; for in every age the world is profane and blind, and God hides His providence, yet carries it forward. But they are peculiarly apposite now, in proportion as the present day bears upon it more marks than usual of pride and judicial blindness. Whether Christ is at our doors or not, but a few men in England may have grace enough safely to conjecture; but that He is calling upon us all to prepare as for His coming, is most evident to those who have religious eyes and ears. Let us then turn this Festival to account, by taking it as the Memorial-day of His visitations. Let us from the events it celebrates, lay up deep in our hearts the recollection, how mysteriously little things are in this world connected with great; how single moments, improved or wasted, are the salvation or ruin of all-important interests. Let us bear the thought upon us, when we come to worship in God's House, that any {115} such season of service may, for what we know, be wonderfully connected with some ancient purpose of His, announced before we were born, and may have its determinate bearing on our eternal welfare; let us fear to miss the Saviour, while Simeon and Anna find Him. Let us remember that He was not manifested again in the Temple, except once, for thirty years, while a whole generation, who were alive at His first visitation, died off in the interval. Let us carry this thought into our daily conduct; considering that, for what we know, our hope of salvation may in the event materially depend on our avoiding this or that momentary sin. And further, from the occurrences of this day let us take comfort, when we despond about the state of the Church. Perhaps we see not God's tokens; we see neither prophet nor teacher remaining to His people; darkness falls over the earth, and no protesting voice is heard. Yet, granting things to be at the very worst, still, when Christ was presented in the Temple, the age knew as little of it as it knows of His providence now. Rather, the worse our condition is, the nearer to us is the Advent of our Deliverer. Even though He is silent, doubt not that His army is on the march towards us. He is coming through the sky, and has even now His camp upon the outskirts of our own world. Nay, though He still for a while keep His seat at His Father's right hand, yet surely He sees all that is going on, and waits and will not fail His hour of vengeance. Shall He not hear His own elect, when they cry day and night to Him? His Services of prayer and praise continue, and are scorned by the multitude. {116} Day by day, Festival by Festival, Fast after Fast, Season by Season, they continue according to His ordinance, and are scorned. But the greater His delay, the heavier will be His vengeance, and the more complete the deliverance of His people.
May the good Lord save His Church in this her hour of peril; when Satan seeks to sap and corrupt where he dare not openly assault! May He raise up instruments of His grace, "not ignorant of the devices" of the Evil One, with seeing eyes, and strong hearts, and vigorous arms to defend the treasure of the faith once committed to the Saints, and to arouse and alarm their slumbering brethren! "For Sion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth ... Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth ... Go through, go through the gates: prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the people. [Isa. lxii. 1, 6, 7, 10.] Thus does Almighty God address His "watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem;" and to the Church herself He says, to our great comfort: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord." [Isa. liv. 17.]
So my computer crashed in December (I know surprise surprise) so i have not had time to really write anything with the whole trying desperately to salvage the files on my harddrive.
First, in memoriam of a great and legendary Thomist who passed on the 29th of January, 2010: Dr. Ralph McInerny -
Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in æternum, quia pius es. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis ; cum Sanctis tuis in æternum, quia pius es.
Recently, I have been thinking on the supposed opposition between scriptural and metaphysical modes of articulating truths in more modern theological systems. As JPII notes in Fides et ratio, metaphysical modes supposedly expose "reality in its ontological, causal and communicative structures" which in turn impedes theological understanding of the God who chose to reveal himself in a dramatic, historical, and narrative form (Scripture) and no in high and complex philosophical propositions. Eventually, I hope to lay out my view of the relationship between metaphysics and Scripture as not being 1) one in which Greek metaphysics only helped distance the Church from the personal and living God who, in His Divine Condescension, assumed a human nature and became Incarnate or 2) one in which metaphysics must in fact be redefined and organized around "scriptural points" by developing a distinctly Christian, and not simply a Greek, metaphysics. These of course, I feel are rooted in a horrible mis-interpretation of the Good Angelic Doctor. For example, Rahner states, in a criticism a so-called Thomistic approach to theology (so-called as it is just wrong), that "As a result the treatise becomes quite philosophical and abstract and refers hardly at all to salvation history. It speaks o the necessary metaphysical properties of God, and not very explicitly of God as experienced in salvation history in his free relations to his creatures." (Rahner, The Trinity, 17-18) From here, he goes on to establish a rather stark dichotomy between scriptural modes and metaphysical modes based on four principles: 1) metaphysical modes are "philosophical and abstract", 2) attention to salvation history (scriptural modes) rules out beginning with a metaphysical mode, 3) one will grant a theology of God as one, the other of God as a Trinity - the later being formed by metaphysics and allowing one to only make "purely formal statements about the three divine persons" due to the lack of the dynamism of salvation history (again presupposing that dichotomy), and 4) the Trinity, then understood in this way, is "locked within itself," remaining an object of mere abstract and formal contemplation. It is from this view that Rahner makes his most famous (and ill-advised) complaint --- "Christians are in their practical life, almost mere 'monothesists.' We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious literature could well remain virtually unchanged." (10-11)I will, however, attempt to discuss that in far more detail later; that a unified and holistic account of God as one and God as three; of a scriptural and metaphyiscal mode to ascertaining truth about God. At the moment, I want to simply talk about wisdom. In hopes of showing that Aquinas' Trinitarian theology in fact governed by salvation history in ways that people like Rahner fail to recognize - that is, that Aquinas' theology is one of "God experienced in salvation history in his free relations to creatures," - we must establish what our expectations of such a theology is and will produce. I will posit that his vision of theology is one of a contemplative wisdom patterned by the dramatic and awesome story that is Salvation History.For Aquinas, wisdom comes in 4 ways: 1) wisdom in a natural, intellectual virtue, 2) wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, 3) wisdom is sacra doctrina, and 4) Wisdom is the Son of God Himself.
Wisdom as an Intellectual Virtue For a great treatise on the Intellectual Virtues, see Thomas Hibb's Virtue's Splendor: Wisdom, Prudence, and the Human Good... it is great!!! In Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics, we see that wisdom (Σοφία) is the understanding of causes, i.e. knowing why things are a certain way, which is deeper than merely knowing that things are a certain way. In the Summa, Aquinas adopts this position when he states that wisdom is a knowledge of what is most knowable in itself, first causes, but least knowable to our intellects which know only through sense perception:
"Et quia ea quae sunt posterius nota quoad nos, sunt priora et magis nota secundum naturam, ut dicitur in I Physic.; ideo id quod est ultimum respectu totius cognitionis humanae, est id quod est primum et maxime cognoscibile secundum naturam. Et circa huiusmodi est sapientia, quae considerat altissimas causas, ut dicitur in I Metaphys." " And, since "things that are knowable last from our standpoint, are knowable first and chiefly in their nature" (Phys. i, text. 2, 3); hence that which is last with respect to all humanknowledge, is that which is knowable first and chiefly in its nature. And about these is "wisdom," which considers the highest causes, as stated in Metaph. i, 1,2." (IaIIae, 57, a2)
As Aquinas notes in the prima pars, the ultimate reality of a thing is the first cause; pure act which utterly transcends all and every genus. (Ia, 2-3). Wisdom perfects the intellect in its grasp of the highest causes, including the First and Supreme Cause (i.e., God); it is the virtue of ordering all things in accord with knowledge of God as the First Cause and all the lower first causes of particular genii. In a sense, Wisdom can be seen as the greatest intellectual virtue, for as Aquinas notes, 'for any two virtues, the more excellent virtue has the more excellent object.' Thus, wisdom can been seen is the most important because its object, First and Supreme Cause quid est Deus, is the most excellent object of knowledge. That is, the object of wisdom is God as He is understood by means of human reason unaided by revelation. There in all of this, a underlying notion of an cosmological epistemology, since, by knowing the First Cause, the Wise man "rightly judges all things and sees them in order because there can be no perfect and universal judgment that is not based on the first causes." (IaIIae, 57, a2). And it is upon this knowledge of the transcendent First Cause that the wise man is capable of judging the conclusion of particular sciences (Ibid). Thus, in demonstrating conclusions from principles, in particularizing universals, wisdom is a science. Insofar as it judges the particular sciences by knowing their principles, wisdom is more than a mere scientia:"quod sapientia est quaedam scientia, inquantum habet id quod est commune omnibus scientiis, ut scilicet ex principiis conclusiones demonstret. Sed quia habet aliquid proprium supra alias scientias, inquantum scilicet de omnibus iudicat; et non solum quantum ad conclusiones, sed etiam quantum ad prima principia, ideo habet rationem perfectioris virtutis quam scientia." " Wisdom is a kind of science, in so far as it has that which is common to all the sciences; viz. to demonstrate conclusions from principles. But since it has something proper to itself above the other sciences, inasmuch as it judges of them all, not only as to their conclusions, but also as to their first principles, therefore it is a more perfect virtue than science." (IaIIae, 57, a2, ad 1)For more on this, see my post on Newman, here, that involves a paper I wrote under teh great Alasdair MacIntyre in which I discuss Newman's eloquent view of the role theology, that is knowledge of God, serves as the key to unifying the plurality of sciences in a university curriculum by virtue of the content of Theology, namely God, who serves to unify the whole of the cosmos, and therefore, the particular sciences particular approaches to one aspect or notion of the cosmos.
Wisdom as a Gift of the Holy Ghost In the very first question of his Summa, Aquinas address the objection of whether sacra doctrina (which I will get to next) is one and the same with the gift of Wisdom from the Holy Ghost. "Further, this doctrine is acquired by study, whereas wisdom is acquired by God's inspiration; so that it is numbered among the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2). Therefore this doctrine is not the same as wisdom..." To which he simply replies: "The first manner of judging divine things belongs to that wisdom which is set down among the gifts of the Holy Ghost" That is, Wisdom is indeed one of the seven gifts.
This comes from the passage in Isaiah 11 which some claim to mention fear twice. However, the Vulgate rests upon the Septuagint which reads: "
Thus we find to spirits of fear: "spirit of... godliness" (πνεῦμα ..εὐσεβείας) and the "fear of the Lord" (πνεῦμα φόβου θεοῦ). This, then, leads to the final rendering in the Latin Vulgate as follows: "Et egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet. Et requiescet super eum spiritus Domini : spiritus sapientiæ et intellectus, spiritus consilii et fortitudinis, spiritus scientiæ et pietatis; et replebit eum spiritus timoris Domini." This then, leaves us with the traditional list of seven gifts that Aquinas works with: i. sapientia, ii. intellectus, iii. consilio, iv. fortitudo, v. scientia, vi. pietas, and finally vii. timor Domini.
A gift of the Holy Ghost allows and enables one, who possessing a fides formed by caritas, to respond to special promptings of the Holy Ghost. As Servais Pinckaers notes in his marvelous "Morality: The Catholic View," 'in the collaboration between grace and us, the virtues [think here of the intellectual virtue of Wisdom I just discussed] represent the active side of our participation; but their action needs to be completed by the gifts which dispose us to welcome the motion of the Spirit and constitute the passive, or receptive, side o the spiritual life..." The virtues work with and rely on our natural resources; the gifts, however, operate on a divine mode and in a sense, blend the two by perfecting the natural virtue.
How, then, do the two relate? The virtue of Wisdom on its own is only capable of what the human intellect can ascertain and acquire through its natural powers and endowments. Wisdom as a gift however, is necessarily attached to the virtue of caritas is able to judge all things on the basis of the First and Ultimate Truth assented to through fides. Since fides is a supernatural participation in God's own knowledge, it is able to ascertain a knowledge of God beyond a mere human wisdom.
While on the one hand the intellectual virtue of wisdom perfects one's use of reason by judging things in accords with God's eternal Law, the gift of wisdom quite literally means a "connaturality with God's eternal Law" such that reason no longer performs its inquiry:
"As stated above (Article 1), wisdom denotes a certain rectitude of judgment according to the Eternal Law. Now rectitude of judgment is twofold: first, on account of perfect use of reason, secondly, on account of a certain connaturality with the matter about which one has to judge. Thus, about matters of chastity, a man after inquiring with his reason forms a right judgment, if he has learnt the science of morals, while he who has the habit of chastity judges of such matters by a kind of connaturality.
Accordingly it belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectualvirtue to pronounce right judgment about Divine things after reason has made its inquiry, but it belongs to wisdom as a gift of the Holy Ghost to judge aright about them on account of connaturality with them: thus Dionysius says (Div. Nom. ii) that "Hierotheus is perfect in Divine things, for he not only learns, but is patient of, Divine things."
Now this sympathy or connaturality for Divine things is the result of charity, which unites us to God, according to 1 Corinthians 6:17: "He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit." Consequently wisdom which is a gift, has its cause in the will, which cause is charity, but it has its essence in the intellect, whose act is to judge aright, as stated above (I-II, 14, 1)." (IIaIIae, 45, a2)
In other words, the perfection of the intellect through the gift of wisdom enables one to order all things correctly, in charity, to the God known in faith. For this reason, it is important to note that one need not be a philosopher to be a contemplative. Further still, this ordering through the gift is is not merely contemplative (as is the intellectual virtue) but is also practical since, rooted in caritas, it directs all aspects of a person. (IIaIIae, 45, a3)
Wisdom as Sacra Doctrina In his discussion of sacra doctrina as wisdom, Aquinas makes reference to both the intellectual virtue and the gift of the Holy Ghost. First, he notes that sacra doctrina as wisdom is quite different from the intellectual virtue. Sacra doctrina does not merely compliment and extend the achievements of the intellectual virtue of wisdom; this would limit it to a mere adding of knowledge inaccessible to the natural mind through reason and accessible only through faith in the deposit of faith, presented primarily in sacra scriptura. (Note that a fantastic treatment of the relationship between sacra doctrina and sacra scriptura can be found in Fr. James Weisheipl, OP's "The Meaning of Sacra Doctrina in Summa Theologiae I, q.1"). Rather, what sacra doctrina brings is both an addition of supernatural knowledge and a re-ordering of natural knowledge in light of God who is both our beginning (Question I of the Summa) and our supernatual end. This is crucial for the greater project; Aquinas works out of a notion of our exitus from God and our eventual, eschatological reditus to God. Thus, as Aquinas notes in article 6, "But sacred doctrine essentially treats of God viewed as the highest cause — not only so far as He can be known through creatures just as philosophers knew Him — "That which is known of God is manifest in them" (Romans 1:19) — but also as far as He is known to Himself alone and revealed to others. Hence sacred doctrine is especially called wisdom. "
Wisdom as the ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ Himself It is obvious the prime role Christ the Incarnate Word plays in this. As Aquinas notes in the first chapter of the Summa contra gentiles, "Divine Wisdom testifies that He has assumed flesh and come into the world in order to make the truth known: 'For this I was born, and for this I cam into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth.' (John 18:37)" The focus and content of sacra doctrina, which can be seen as uniting the both the virtue and the gift, is God's own knowledge, his Logos. At the same time, sacra doctrina involves human knowledge, created wisdom, participating in this Divine Wisdom by being supernaturally elevated to particpate more deeply in the Divine Wisdom by virtue of the gift of the Holy Ghost; all the while remaining a profoundly limited and created wisdom.
Sacra doctrina remains a wisdom in a human mode in a human mind. It is "acquired by study, though its principles are obtained by revelation." (Ia, 1, a6, ad 3) (This is in response to the objection that wisdom is a gift and sacra doctrina requires study, hence sacra doctrina could not be a gift.) This, then, is the reference sacra doctrina has to the gift of Wisdom mentioned above in the previous section.
At the most supreme and sublime level, the principle is not God known by natural reason by God's own knowledge. The interplay between grace and reason is profound; the graced human being is elevated to a supernatural wisdom of God that approaches the very contents of the Divine Logos himself, the Christ. This is the supernatural end of man, after all, the reditus back into God's very existence. A life in which we see God as God sees Himself; the Holy Beatific Vision. This is what is meant when Paul writes to the Ephesians that all will be brought back to its fullness (reditus) in Christ:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with spiritualblessings in heavenly places, in Christ: 4 As he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity. 5 Who has predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto himself: according to the purpose of his will: 6 Unto the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has graced us, in his beloved son. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of his grace, 8which has superabounded in us, in all wisdom and prudence, 9 that he might make known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he has purposed in him, 10 in the dispensation of the fullness of times, to re-establish all things in Christ, that are in heaven and on earth, in him.11 In whom we also are called by lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. 12 That we may be unto the praise of his glory: we who before hoped in Christ: 13 In whom you also, after you had heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation), in whom also believing, you were signed with the holy Spirit of promise. 14 Who is the pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of acquisition, unto the praise of his glory."
With this in mind, then, I hope to eventually show that the metaphysical knowledge gathered through the intellectual virtue of Wisdom is taken up into sacra doctrina and illuminated there within, aided by the grace of God Himself through the Paraclete's gift of Wisdom.
