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.]
