Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 168
February 9, 2013
God initiates. Man responds. Jesus calls. Man answers.
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, February 10, 2013 | Carl E. Olson
Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
1 Cor 15:1-11 or 15:3-8
Lk 5:1-11
God initiates. Man responds. Jesus calls. Man answers.
Such is the dynamic relationship at the heart of salvation history and at the center of human existence. “Through an utterly free decision,” the Catechism explains, “God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men.” Today’s readings offer a challenging view of God’s revelation of Himself, His call to specific men, and His desire for all Christians to be “fishers of men.”
Let’s take a brief look at three men caught up in the divine drama: the prophet Isaiah, the apostle Paul, and Peter, the head of the Apostles and the first Pope. In many respects they were quite different from one another. Isaiah was likely from an upper-class family, was apparently well educated, and was married to a prophetess (Isa 8:3). Paul was also highly educated, the prize student of the great rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), and, prior to his conversion on the Damascus Road, a fervent enemy of the budding Church. Peter was certainly fervent as well, but was a fisherman and a blue-collar businessman. Yet, however different they were from one another, each man was called, in dramatic and personal fashion, to proclaim the Word of God in difficult, harrowing circumstances.
Some seven centuries prior to Jesus and the apostles, the prophet Isaiah had a dazzling vision of the throne room of the Lord of hosts. Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, initiated contact with the prophet and called him to the task of proclaiming the glory of God and exhorting Israel and Judah to repent of their sins. Isaiah recognized and confessed his own sinful state: “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips…”
As the Catechism says so well, “Faced with God’s fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance” (CCC 208). When man sees himself in the light of God’s holiness and recognizes his desperate plight, he can then admit his sinful state and be given the grace needed for the work of God. “See,” Isaiah was told by the seraphim, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”
Paul was also transformed and purified by a heavenly vision. Having held the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen, the first martyr, the young Saul was intent on persecuting the Church in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3). Then, while traveling to Damascus in search of more Christians to arrest, “a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him” (Acts 9:3). As he wrote to the church in Corinth, in today’s Epistle, “Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Whereas Isaiah’s sinful lips were purified by fire, Paul’s blinded eyes were healed by the prayer and hands of Ananias, a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Paul eventually spent time with Peter (cf. Gal 1:18), whose life contained more than a few instances of dramatic response to God’s call. Luke’s account of the miraculous catch of fish sets the stage for one such moment; it begins with the note that the crowds following Jesus were eagerly “listening to the word of God.” Some of the early Church Fathers, such as Ambrose and Augustine, saw this event as both historical and metaphorical: the boat of Peter represents the Church in history, going forth to catch men through the guidance of Christ, the head of the Church. Peter, who would eventually be the Vicar of Christ (Matt 16:16-18), accepted by faith the command of Jesus. Upon witnessing the miracle he responded with the same humility as Isaiah and Paul: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Yet Jesus does not ask only Peter and the apostles to be fishers of men; He asks it of every son and daughter of God.
God is calling. How will we answer? Jesus tells us to cast our nets. Will we?
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the February 4, 2007, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
February 8, 2013
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Hastening the Reform of the Reform; or, the End of Clown Masses
Hastening the Reform of the Reform; or, the End of Clown Masses | Joanna Bogle | Catholic World Report
A new book on Latin and the liturgy stresses the importance of continuity, not contentious campaigning.
The Incarnation did not happen silently. The Angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, and she heard and responded. There were actual words, a dialogue using voices.
In the very beginning of all things, God used words. He spoke, and things came into being: “Let there be light.” And Christ is the eternal Word, the Word made flesh who came to dwell among us. At every Mass, the priest uses words, Christ’s own words, and Christ comes to dwell among us: the Word made flesh.
The gift of speech is one of God’s greatest gifts to us: the gift of languages is one of the things that makes us different from the rest of God’s creation, that distinguishes us as human beings and reminds us that we are made in the image of God.
In recent decades, especially in the English-speaking world, the words used in the Church’s sacred liturgy have been miserably inadequate for the glory of their task. Of course, the words have fulfilled their required purpose—as a bleak, ill-decorated church is adequate for Mass and provides protection from the weather for the Holy Sacrifice. But the very nature of the Mass, and the nature of human beings created to worship God, requires something better than that.
Now Father Uwe Michael Lang has examined all of this in a readable book exploring the subject of words, language, and liturgy. The Voice of the Church at Prayer: Reflections on Liturgy and Language (Ignatius, 2012) could not have come at a more opportune time: the new Mass translation—already it does not feel so new—is in use in parishes across the English-speaking world, the “reform of the reform” is well under way, the debates and discussions over liturgy have matured and are better informed than for many years passed, and the younger generation of priests is one that seeks authenticity, reverence, and beauty in the celebration of the sacred mysteries.
February 7, 2013
What Evangelicals Can Learn From Catholics
What Evangelicals Can Learn From Catholics | Joseph Pavicic | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
The biggest thing that Evangelicals can learn from Catholics is how to worship … liturgy, when celebrated reverently, can also give worshipers a connection to the sacred that is just not available through the type of worship service … in Evangelical churches.
Several years ago, I wrote an article for
HPR entitled: “What Catholics Can Learn from Evangelicals.” I argued
that Evangelical Protestant churches do a better job of teaching
Scripture to their congregations than most Catholic parishes.
Evangelicals are also more comfortable with evangelizing their neighbors
than are Catholics. These remain areas where the Catholics can learn to
improve by emulating their Evangelical brethren. However, Evangelicals
also have a lot to learn from Catholics.
The idea of Evangelicals learning from Catholics is not really a
novel one. Many Evangelical missionaries study the history of Catholic
missions to improve the effectiveness of their own missionary activity.
Some Evangelicals, obeying St. Paul’s dictum to “test everything; hold
on to what is good,” even study the writings of John Paul II on the
theology of the body. But during the Evangelical heyday of the 1980s, it
was possible for Evangelicals to view the Catholic Church as similar to
the mainline Protestant churches—as an institution that was waning in
influence. There was little reason to learn from a church that looked
like it was losing relevance.
The intervening years, however, have shown that the Catholic Church
did not suffer the same fate as the mainline Protestant denominations.
Under the leadership of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the Church was
able to eliminate much of the confusion that prevailed in the wake of
the Second Vatican Council. Rather than becoming irrelevant, the
Catholic Church has continued to boldly proclaim the uncompromising
Christian message to a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christian
beliefs. Under these circumstances, it makes sense for Evangelicals to
view Catholics as allies. Although there are many treasures within the
Catholic Church, the two that Evangelicals might find most beneficial
are liturgical worship and an emphasis on unity.
Liturgical Worship
The biggest thing that Evangelicals can learn from Catholics is how to worship.
February 6, 2013
Pope's audience focuses on Creation, reason, faith, and Sacred Scripture
The Vatican Information Service's report on Benedict's most recent General Audience, given today:
Vatican City, 6 February 2013 (VIS) – Continuing his catechesis on the symbol of Christian faith, the Holy Father's General Audience today focused on the
phrase “Creator of heaven and earth”, explained in light of the first chapter of Genesis.
“God,” the Pope said, “is the source of all things and the
beauty of creation reveals the omnipotence of the loving Father. As the origin of life … He cares for what has He has created with unceasing love and
faithfulness. Creation, therefore, becomes the place in which to know God's omnipotence and goodness and becomes a call to faith for believers so that we might
proclaim God as Creator. … In the light of faith, human intelligence can find the key to understanding the world In Sacred Scripture. Particularly … in the
first chapter of Genesis, with the solemn presentation of divine creative action … The phrase 'and God saw it was good' is repeated six times. … Everything God
creates is good, and beautiful, full of wisdom and love. God's creative action brings order and infuses harmony and beauty into it. In the story of Genesis, it
later says that the Lord created with His word and ten times in the text the phrase 'God said' is repeated... Life springs forth, the world exists, so that
everything might obey the Word of God.”
“But does it still make sense to talk about creation,” the Pope wondered, “in this age of science and
technology? The Bible isn't intended to be a natural science manual. Its intention is to reveal the authentic and profound truth of things. The fundamental
truth revealed in the stories of Genesis is that the world isn't a collection of opposing forces, but has its origin and stability in the Logos, in God's
eternal reason, which continues to sustain the universe. There is a plan for the world that springs from this reason, from the Creator Spirit.”
“Men
and women, human beings, the only ones capable of knowing and loving the Creator,” are the apex of all creation. “The creation stories in Genesis … help us to
know God's plan for humanity. First, they say that God formed man out of the clay of the ground. … This means that we are not God; we have not made ourselves;
we are clay. But it also means that we come from the good earth by an act of the Creator. … Beyond any cultural and historical distinctions, beyond any social
difference, we are one humanity, formed from the one earth of God who … blew the breath of life into the body He formed from the earth. … The human being is
made in the image and likeness of God. … We carry within us His life-giving breath and all human life is under God's special protection. This is the deepest
reason for the inviolability of human dignity against any temptation to judge the person according to criteria of utility or power.”
In the first
chapters of Genesis, “there are two significant images: the garden with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the serpent. The garden tells us that the
reality that God has placed the human being within is not a savage forest, but a place that protects, nourishes, and sustains. Humanity must recognize the
world, not as property to plunder and exploit, but as a gift from the Creator … to cultivate and care for respectfully, following its rhythms and logic, in
accordance with God's plan. The serpent is a figure derived from oriental fertility cults that fascinated Israel and that were a constant temptation to forsake
the mysterious covenant with God.” That is why, “the serpent raised the suspicion that the covenant with God was a chain that … took away freedom and the most
beautiful and precious things in life. The temptation becomes the building of a world of one's own without accepting the limits of being a creature, the limits
of good and evil, of morality. Dependence on the love of God the Creator is seen as a burden to be overthrown. … But when our relationship with God is
distorted, when we put ourselves in His place, all our other relationships are altered. Then the other becomes a rival, a threat. Adam, after have succumbed to
temptation, immediately accuses Eve. … The world is no longer the garden in which to live in harmony, but a place to exploit, one in which … envy and hatred of
the other enter into our hearts.”
The Pope emphasized one last element of the creation stories. “Sin begets sin and all the sins of history are
related. This aspect leads us to speak of what is called 'original sin'. What is the meaning of this reality, which is so difficult to understand? … First, we
must keep in mind that no person is closed in upon themselves. … We receive life from others, not only at birth, but every day. The human being is relational: I
am only myself in you and through you, in the loving relationship with the You of God and the you of the other. Sin alters or destroys our relationship with God
… taking the place of God … Once that fundamental relationship is altered, our other relationships are also compromised or destroyed. Sin ruins everything. Now,
if the relational structure of humanity is altered from the beginning, all humans enter the world characterized by the alteration of that relationship; we enter
into the world changed by sin, which marks us personally. The initial sin disrupts and damages human nature. … And humanity cannot get out of this situation
alone, cannot redeem itself. Only the creator can restore the correct relationships. … This takes place in Jesus Christ follows the exact opposite path of Adam.
… While Adam does not recognize his being as a creature and wants to supplant the place of God, Jesus, the Son of God is in perfect filial relation to the
Father. He lowers himself, becomes a servant, walks the path of love, humbling himself even to death on the cross in order to restore the relationship with God.
Christ's Cross becomes the new Tree of Life.”
“Living by faith,” Benedict XVI concluded, “means acknowledging God's greatness and accepting our
smallness, our creatureliness, letting God fill us with His love. Evil, with its burden of pain and suffering, is a mystery that is illuminated by the light of
faith, giving us the certainty of being able to be freed from it.”
"The Daring Realism of Divine Love"
by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Catholic World Report
“The
event of the Incarnation, of God who became man, like us, shows us
the
daring realism of divine love.
God’s action, in fact, was not limited to words. On the contrary,
we might say that he was not content with speaking, but entered into
our history, taking upon himself the effort and burden of human
life.”
— Pope
Benedict XVI, Audience, January 9, 2013 (L’Osservatore
Romano,
January 16, 2013)
“There
is a fundamental criterion in the Christian interpretation of the
Bible. The Old and New Testaments should always be read together and,
starting with the New, the deepest meaning of the Old Testament is
also revealed.”
— Pope
Benedict XVI, Audience, January 9, 2013.
I.
This
year’s general audiences of the Pope are on faith. Each one is
instructive. He tells us, in the January 9th
Audience, that “the great mystery of God” is that “He came down
from heaven to enter our flesh.” This entering our flesh was an
event, not an imagination. It is generally thought that the idea of
God becoming man while remaining God is unimaginable. Looked at from
another angle, Benedict calls it a “daring” realism. That is, it
really happened. In so doing, God risked the possibility of being
rejected by man. The drama of Christ on the Cross includes this risk.
That is, Christ as man was free; otherwise His sacrifice made no
sense. He did freely choose His Father's will for Him.
The
fact that the Word was made “flesh,” as we read in the Prologue
of John, means that in Christ everything that is human was called to
be saved. This salvation “affects man in his material reality and
in whatever situation he may be. God assumed the human condition to
heal it from all that separates it from him.” Ultimately, it
enables us also to call God “Abba, Father.” We could not do this
on the basis or our own nature alone. The capacity had first to be
given to us.
Yet,
once it was offered to us, in each case, it had to be accepted and
lived freely by the one who receives this gift. Here we are dealing
with something “that utterly defeats the imagination, that God
alone could bring about and into which we can only enter with faith.”
A
gift, Benedict tells us, is a sign, a sign of love and affection.
Continue reading on the CWR blog.
Related articles
On God's "Unrest" and Human Silence
Why Do We Need Faith?
On the Pope's recent essay in the London "Financial Times"
Benedict XVI on the "What" and "Why" of Baptism
The Question of Suffering, the Response of the Cross
No New or Different Church
Man, the Infinite, and Everything In-Between
Pope Benedict XVI, the "Mediocre" Marksman
Reimbursement for Stay-At-Home Moms?
Reimbursement for Stay-At-Home Moms? | Sister Renée Mirkes | Catholic World Report
What the Church can contribute to the on-going debate
It all started during the 2012 presidential
campaign. Ann Romney, reaching out to female voters—especially independents in
swing states—publicly commiserated with their angst over job and economic
uncertainties. In a terse, staccato tone, Hilary Rosen, Democratic activist, shot
back on CNN: As a lifelong stay-at-home mom who “never worked a day in her life,”
Ann Romney is the least qualified woman
to champion the financial worries of working mothers.
Round One
Movers and
shakers in high places quickly came to Ann Romney’s defense. President Obama, in
one of his “let me be perfectly clear” pontifications, informed Rosen (and her
think-alikes) that anyone who fails to grasp that “there’s no tougher job than
being a mom…needs to rethink their statement.” Eager to underline the president’s
insight, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden weighed in with
similar sentiments.
Many thoughtful female bloggers in
not-so-high places agreed with the federal hierarchy—the Rosen remark was
demeaning, superficial, petty, and unfair. They were eager to steer the
national conversation about women and work toward harder questions, moving it from
the no-brainer conclusion—“A mother’s work at home is hard and worthwhile”—to substantive
questions like, “How does a mom balance work outside the home with work inside
the home?” and, “Is there any way to realize the stay-at-home dream of women
with moderate incomes?” Against a backdrop of thoughtful questions like these, the Rosen/Romney
kerfuffle morphed into a national conversation about a whole set of complex
issues.
Round Two
The second
round included a debate about how best to reward women for their work and their motherhood; how
best to give those low-to-moderate income women who want to swap their jobs for
home-work the opportunity to be stay-at-home moms (SAHMs), and how best to
balance job and childrearing for work-outside-of-home moms (WOHMs).
February 5, 2013
Guess who's cashing in on contraception?
David Catron writes that the "central issue of the public debate over the Obama administration’s contraception mandate" has been that of religious freedom, a focus that is "hardly surprising." But why, he asks,
would the Obama administration, having won the legislative struggle to get Obamacare passed and fought a brutal legal battle to prevent it from being overturned by the Supreme Court, risk another visit to that fickle tribunal by insisting on this egregious mandate?
As the old saying goes, "Follow the money!"
Contraception is big business, and the HHS mandate promises to turn it into a cash cow for companies like Barr Laboratories. How? Avik Roy explains: “Under the current system, drug companies have an incentive to compete on price.… Under the new mandate, this price incentive disappears.” Insurance policies that covered contraception prior to the mandate encouraged patients to forego pricey products by charging higher co-pays than for generic equivalents. The HHS mandate forbids such co-pays, so there is no incentive to choose “Brand X.”
Roy goes on as follows: “Drug companies will be able to market ‘branded’ contraceptives at premium prices, knowing that women are free to choose the most expensive, designer product because it will cost them the same as the cheapest generic.” In other words, the contraception mandate is a license to steal for Big Pharma. Does that explain why President Obama and his Commissar of HHS, Kathleen Sebelius, are willing to endure another round of legal battles? Yep. The fix was obviously in at least as far back as 2009.
Read Catron's entire column on the American Spectator site. Roy, in his March 2012 piece for The Atlantic, highlights the fiscal insanity of the situation, which essentially boils down to the Big Government artificially driving up costs so that both Big Government and Big (Drug) Businesses benefit:
Under the current system, drug companies have an incentive to compete on price. If you have health insurance that covers birth control today, your insurer is likely to charge you a higher co-pay for expensive, "branded" versions of birth control over cheaper, generic ones. If you don't have health insurance, and you're buying the Pill directly from the pharmacy at Wal-Mart, you have even more incentive to shop on price.
Under the new mandate, this price incentive disappears. Insurers will be required to pay for any and all oral contraceptives, without charging a co-pay, co-insurance, or a deductible. This "first dollar coverage" of oral contraception kills the incentive to shop based on price.
If history is any guide, this significant change will drive up the price of oral contraception. Today, Tri-Sprintec costs $9 a month. In 2020, don't be surprised if it costs $30. Drug companies will be able to market "branded" contraceptives at premium prices, knowing that women are free to choose the most expensive, designer product because it will cost them the same as the cheapest generic. Prepare yourself for multi-million-dollar Super Bowl ad campaigns from competing manufacturers.
If you were surprised that PhRMA, the pharmaceutical trade group, backed Obamacare, now you can see why: the HHS contraception mandate alone will be a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle for the pharma industry. If your health insurance plan allowed you to buy a television, of any price, without any cost-sharing on your part, would you buy a 13-inch CRT or a 60-inch flat screen?
Roy concludes, "The contraception contretemps is a case study in how thoughtless laws and policies drive up the cost of health care, making it less accessible to those who are most in need. The path to truly affordable health care involves moving in exactly the opposite direction: restoring the notion that health insurance is meant as protection for catastrophic costs, and letting people buy birth-control pills for themselves."
But how "thoughtless", really, are these laws and policies? Most people associate "crony capitalism" with Republicans, and not without good cause in many cases. However, cronyism really knows no bounds in D.C., a town that thrives on power, which ultimately boils down to controlling as many aspects and details of citizens' lives as possible. Aaron M. Renn, in a recent essay for City Journal, examines the current prosperity enjoyed in D.C., writing:
February 4, 2013
Portland’s new archbishop: “I’m a teacher at heart”
Portland’s new archbishop: “I’m a teacher at heart” | Jim Graves | Catholic World Report
Archbishop-elect Sample discusses the liturgy, sex abuse scandals, social media, and more.
Archbishop-elect
Alexander Sample, 52, will be
installed as the 11th archbishop of Portland, Oregon on April 2, succeeding the
Most Reverend John Vlazny.
Archbishop-elect
Sample was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Marquette, located on the upper
peninsula of Michigan, in 1990. He was consecrated Marquette’s bishop in
2006. At the time of his episcopal ordination, he was the youngest
Catholic bishop in the US, and the first to be born in the 1960s.
Sample
was born in Montana and grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attended Catholic
schools there. Although he had thought about a vocation to the priesthood while
growing up, he initially decided to pursue a career in engineering. He earned
his BS and MS degrees in engineering before opting to go to seminary.
As
a priest, he served in a variety of diocesan roles, including acting
simultaneously as pastor of three small parishes. The Diocese of Marquette
serves 50,000 Catholics, and has 55 active diocesan and religious order
priests. The Archdiocese of Portland, by contrast, has 415,000 Catholics and
294 priests (including retired priests). It encompasses western Oregon.
Sample
is known for his orthodoxy and fondness for a more traditional liturgy. And,
according Marquette’s Director of Communications Loreene Koskey,
Archbishop-elect Sample is “personable, intelligent, well-spoken, and
likes to meet and talk with people.” She added that the promotion of Pope
Benedict’s New Evangelization has been a hallmark of Archbishop-elect Sample’s
episcopacy.
Sample
recently spoke to CWR.
CWR: Were you surprised to discover that you’d been named archbishop of
Portland?
Sample:
Yes. The appointment of bishops is a process that is carried out in strict
confidentiality. I had no idea I was being considered for Portland; the
nuncio’s call to me informing me I had hit me out of the blue. It was quite a
shock; it seems a little surreal.
It’s
going to be a huge change, not only geographically but in terms of added
responsibility. But I’m also excited. I’m inspired by challenges.
It
is going to be hard to say goodbye to Marquette. It’s my home. I’ve served here
22 years as a priest, and seven as a bishop. I’m not an emotional person, but
saying goodbye will be emotional.
CWR:
Before your appointment, had you ever been to Portland before?
Monday Morning Catholic Quarterback
Some insist football is like a religion, but that is surely nonsensical. If it really were so, football fans would dress up in
special clothing, travel to large and ornate buildings, join together in feasting and chanting, express praise for past heroes,
scream and shout and cry like fanatics, and set aside one day a year for a great feast commemorating the biggest and best the
sport has to offer.
What's that you say? Oh. Right.
Of course, there are obvious differences. One is that many Americans
are apparently willing to go to the rack (either this kind or that kind) for their team, make fools of themselves for
their team, get into heated arguments in defense of their team—all of which would be considered narrow-minded, negative,
triumphalistic, and fanatical if done for one's faith and church.
Don't misunderstand: I have nothing
against the Sacred High Day Super Bowl Sunday. I readily confess that I watched the commercials and I even caught some
of the game, although I went to get some coffee during the second, unplanned halftime show. Personally, I thought the lights
should have gone out during the first halftime show, which appears to have been inspired by a, well, nevermind.
There have been a number of intriguing story lines over the past two weeks that have caught my attention, despite a schedule
filled with time in Hawaii, golfing jaunts, and interviews with Vogue.. A couple of them even have something to with
football. Here are a few short routes and a couple of runs between the tackles
• "Hey, God is on
his side!" | Am I the only one who has wondered why ESPN and other entertainment networks have spent weeks
giggling and snorting over a college football player's imaginary girlfriend but have a self-imposed gag order when it comes to a
law-challenged pro player who has fathered six kids by four different women—and talks endlessly about "God"? Manti
T’eo may have made some big and silly mistakes, but his sin was having all of this go viral before being a Super Bowl MVP,
which is the ultimate "Ticket to Puff Questions Tossed by Adoring Media Types".
• The
Two Brothers | How about the Harbaugh brothers. Neat story in many ways. Did you know that Jim and
John are Catholic? Speaking of Catholic brothers, how about the recent back and forth betweenCardinal Roger Mahony and Archbishop Jose Gomez?
Continue reading on the CWR blog.
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