Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 27

Fr. Spitzer's Brilliant Examination of the Whole of Reality

by Fr. James V. Schall, S. J.

We have, with the publication of Fr. Robert Spitzer's quartet of books on "Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence”, a major event in Catholic intellectual history, indeed in the history of philosophy.

We began…by noting that our view of consciousness is the new field upon which the academic and cultural battle between materialism, panpsychism, and transcendentalism is being waged. We now see that the outcome of this battle will not only affect our personal view of life’s purpose, the world, human dignity, and human value, but also the culture’s outlook on these important ideas and ideals. Jesus’ proclamation that ‘the truth will make you free’ (Jn. 8:32) is particularly important here—for if we and the culture falsely underestimate our purpose, dignity, value, and destiny, we will also unnecessarily restrict our freedom and potential to reach beyond the material world into the domain of perfect truth, love, goodness, and beauty.” — Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, The Soul’s Upward Yearning: Clues to Our Transcendent Nature from Experience and Reason (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015), p. 267.

I.

Let me begin by saying that these remarks are not properly a “review” of the extraordinarily brilliant book cited above. Robert Spitzer is a Jesuit colleague from many years; we taught together at Georgetown for a number of years where he was a most popular and effective teacher. He studied at Gonzaga University, St. Louis University, the Gregorian University in Rome, the Weston School of Theology and the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America under Paul Weiss and other members of that most distinguished faculty. His dissertation on the objective nature of time remains something of a classic.

Spitzer is currently at the Magis Center in Southern California where he has continued to develop a coherent overall synthesis of all branches of knowledge into one intelligible whole. I know that sounds impossible but no other way is adequate to describe the work and mind of Robert Spitzer. His academic background covers almost every field from business to science to literature to metaphysics to studies in Scripture. His earlier books, especially his Cosmological Proofs for the Existence of God along with his work in questions of life and ethics, are themselves testimony to a most comprehensive mind. He is frequently on EWTN and runs the Napa Institute; he lectures widely to business and professional audiences. Besides these accomplishments, Fr. Spitzer’s eyesight has been such that he can barely see. He has learned to remember what he needs to know. Yet, he seems to remember everything by being read to or using various devices on the computer.

Robert Spitzer, in addition to being a mesmerizing speaker and teacher, has, as this book attests, a clear and organized mind that knows, like Aquinas, where everything belongs in its proper order. One of the pleasures in reading The Soul’s Upward Yearning is surely its awareness of the reader who can be overwhelmed with the technical language and demonstrations necessary to make its points. Everything is repeated, reduced to clear argument—then said in another way, then repeated, later summarized. Spitzer deals with the most difficult of concepts in physics, cosmology, psychology, and philosophy. To read him is itself a philosophical education of a kind that few teach anymore, not merely because they do not have Spitzer’s range of knowledge, but they do not see how things from differing disciplines fit together. Spitzer was also, to add another dimension to his career, president of Gonzaga University. He can recount vividly the continued rise of its famous basketball team in which he had a hand.

This book is Volume II of a Quartet of four books under the general heading of “Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence”. Volume I is titled Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts (Ignatius Press, 2015). What I deal with here is the second volume of this quartet of books. The first volume is on happiness, a thorough and complete analysis of this reality in our lives. The second volume deals with what goes on inside of us, what do we know and how do we know it. The third volume addresses revelation, that is: What is it that is revealed to us and how does it relate to what we are and know? The final volume concerns the consequences of our freedom, both the questions of suffering and those of evil, along with the opposite of what our final destiny looks like. All together they simply provide a liberal education the likes of which can be found in few if any colleges today.

II.

The first thing to note in reading Spitzer is that the word “clue” often appears in what he is presenting. The word appears in the sub-title of this book on Yearning, a word he takes (as his introductory passage indicates) from St. John of the Cross. But, as the similar introductory passage in Volume I attests, the theme also comes from Augustine’s “restless hearts”. The questions of most concern to human beings begin here—inside of us. Spitzer’s approach commences with what we experience in ourselves and how we explain what we find. Unlike Aquinas and Aristotle, though not opposed to them, he begins with introspective desires and longings which we all have whether we like it or now, the desire for happiness, the longing for an explanation of things, ourselves, our existence, included.

But Spitzer is nothing if he is not at the same time thoroughly scientific and reasonable. This is where the word “clue” comes in. Spitzer knows scientific method backwards and forwards; he respects what it is and what it claims for itself. In this sense, this book is a thoroughly scientific book, provided with all the daunting scientific evidence needed to make his points. But these books are not only “scientific arguments”. They are also meditative reflections, even catechetical lessons and apologetic inquires. These books are thus multi-layered. They are meant for the scholar, the well-educated, and the common man, as well as for those who doubt that any case can be made for reason or the coherence of the Catholic understanding of things. Yet, it all fits together. There is something quite exhilarating in seeing these relationships spelled out in a manner that, with a little effort, we can follow.

Spitzer follows Newman’s famous notion that many strands of thought, many different arguments and experiences can come together to provide a “proof” that each of the arguments by itself may not be able to provide.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

The Catholic Origins of Thanksgiving

Images via Wikipedia and us.fotolia.com

The Catholic Origins of Thanksgiving | Dale Ahlquist | CWR

Myths about the pilgrims and religious freedom have obscured some surprising truths about this great American holiday.

Did you know that Thanksgiving is a Catholic holiday? True, it’s not on the Church calendar. And it is celebrated only in America, whereas Church holidays are universal.

Our national holiday is certainly an event that has taken on a life of its own, with an established tradition involving turkey and mashed potatoes, football, shopping, and a four-day weekend—which is fascinating since none of those things have anything to do with the original event that gave rise to annual celebration on the fourth Thursday in November. But any time a nation does anything in unison that involves families getting together and counting their blessings, it is a good thing. “Thanks,” says G.K. Chesterton, “is the highest form of thought.” And he mentions the fact that the worst moment for an atheist is when he is thankful and suddenly realizes he has no one to thank.

But what is the origin of this holiday?

What most people believe is a variation on what I was taught in public school in the 1960s. The Pilgrims came to Plymouth on a ship called the Mayflower. They were the first English settlers in America. They came for religious freedom. And they had a big feast with Indians, and that was the first Thanksgiving. That about sums it up. And that is what Chesterton calls “The Myth of the Mayflower.”

First of all, they were not known as “pilgrims” till about 200 years afterwards. They were Puritans, a radical Anglican “low church” sect that loathed the “high church” Anglicans that happened to include the King of England. In fact, about 30 years after the Puritans arrived in America, some of their fellow Puritans back in England arranged for King Charles I to have his head chopped off.

Secondly, there were at least nine other British settlements before the Plymouth colony.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

New from Ignatius Press: "The Lost Mandate of Heaven"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

The Lost Mandate of Heaven: The American Betrayal of Ngo Dinh Diem, President of Vietnam

by Dr. Geoffrey DT Shaw

Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, possessed the Confucian "Mandate of Heaven", a moral and political authority that was widely recognized by all Vietnamese. This devout Roman Catholic leader never lost this mandate in the eyes of his people; rather, he was taken down by a military coup sponsored by the U.S. government, which resulted in his brutal murder.

The commonly held view runs contrary to the above assertion by military historian Geoffrey Shaw. According to many American historians, President Diem was a corrupt leader whose tyrannical actions lost him the loyalty of his people and the possibility of a military victory over the North Vietnamese. The Kennedy Administration, they argue, had to withdraw its support of Diem.

Based on his research of original sources, including declassified documents of the U.S. government, Shaw chronicles the Kennedy administration's betrayal of this ally, which proved to be not only a moral failure but also a political disaster that led America into a protracted and costly war. Along the way, Shaw reveals a President Diem very different from the despot portrayed by the press during its coverage of Vietnam. From eyewitness accounts of military, intelligence, and diplomatic sources, Shaw draws the portrait of a man with rare integrity, a patriot who strove to free his country from Western colonialism while protecting it from Communism.

"A candid account of the killing of Ngo Dinh Diem, the reasons for it, who was responsible, why it happened, and the disastrous results. Particularly agonizing for Americans who read this clearly stated and tightly argued book is the fact that the final Vietnam defeat was not really on battle grounds, but on political and moral grounds. The Vietnam War need not have been lost. Overwhelming evidence supports it."
— From the Foreword by James V. Schall, S.J., Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University

"Did I find a veritable Conradian 'Heart of Darkness'? Yes, I did, but it was not in the quarter to which all popular American sources were pointing their accusatory fingers; in other words, not in Saigon but, paradoxically, within the Department of State back in Washington, D.C., and within President Kennedy's closest White House advisory circle. The actions of these men led to Diem's murder. And with his death, nine and a half years of careful work and partnership between the United States and South Vietnam was undone."
— Geoffrey Shaw, from the Preface

Geoffrey Shaw, Ph.D., received his doctorate in history from the University of Manitoba, with a focus on US diplomatic and military history in Southeast Asia. From 1994 to 2008 he was an Assistant Professor of History for the American Military University. He has written and spoken widely about US military involvement in Vietnam and the Middle East. Currently he is the President of the Alexandrian Defense Group, a think tank on counterinsurgency warfare.

Praise for The Lost Mandate of Heaven:

"This masterpiece will likely emerge as the definitive work on this troublesome subject. An exceedingly well-written and engaging read, replete with significant revelations and exposés."
— William L. Stearman, Ph.D.,Director of the National Security Council's Indochina staff, 1973–1976

"A remarkable book that finally sets the record straight with copious documentation on the assassination of Diem, which was ultimately responsible for our loss of the war. A must read."
— Admiral John M. Poindexter, U.S. Navy (ret.), National Security Advisor to President Reagan

"Shaw has produced a truly monumental and highly readable account. Any serious student of the Vietnam War must read this book."
— Colonel Andrew R. Finlayson, U.S. Marine Corps (ret.), Author, Killer Kane

"It took half a century for someone committed and brave enough to unravel the Machiavellian plot to assassinate President Diem."
— Nghia M. Vo, Director of Saigon Arts, Culture, and Education Institute (SACEI)

"Amidst a new time of national strategic misdirection and hubris, the case of Diem demands to be revisited. This book is essential reading."
— Thomas A. Marks, Ph.D., Author, Maoist People's War in Post-Vietnam Asia

"Geoffrey Shaw has done a commendable job in unraveling the intricacies of the most wrong-headed political decisions of the Vietnam War."
— Stephen Sherman, Editor, Vietnam Veterans for Factual History, Indochina Series

"In this important book, Geoffrey Shaw illuminates the critical conflicts within the U.S. government over support for South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem prior to his assassination."
— Mark Moyar, Author, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965

"Utilizing newly released documents, Professor Shaw, in his riveting book, reveals how the anti-Catholic crowd in the U.S. State Department manipulated President Kennedy to authorize the removal of South Vietnam's first president, Ngo Dinh Diem."
— George J. Marlin, Author, Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy

Why we’d all be Catholic if we really thought about it

(us.fotolia.com | Sergey Nivens)

Why we’d all be Catholic if we really thought about it | Thomas M. Doran | The Dispatch at CWR

And why the only rational alternative to Catholicism is fatalism-hedonism

In the modern world, where we shouldn’t presume to tell others what’s true and false, good and bad, or right and wrong, saying we’d all be Catholic if we really thought about it is sure to provoke scorn and ire. What about happy and generous Buddhists, Muslims, Lutherans, atheists? Didn't this sort of close-minded thinking go by the board a hundred years ago? Isn’t this the problem with ISIS and Al-Qaeda, that they think they have a corner on the truth?

The novelist and essayist Walker Percy, who converted to Catholicism from secular humanism, once wrote a self interview in which he had the following exchange with himself:

Q: How is such a belief [in Catholicism] possible in this day and age?
A: What else is there?

Q: What do you mean, what else is there? There is humanism, atheism, agnosticism, Marxism, behaviorism, materialism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism, Sufism, astrology, occultism, theosophy.
A: That’s what I mean.

So, here goes. And yes, those with other belief systems share some of these things. And no, no other belief system embodies all of them.

• Catholicism insists that every person is created to be great, a hero, to rise above human weaknesses and mistakes, to be more than just a smart animal, and that becoming this hero has permanent significance.

• Catholics are convinced that heaven is a glorious adventure, not eternal boredom or conformity or mindless obedience, and if heaven is real, as Catholics believe, even the longest and most fruitful life on Earth is just a speck compared to life in heaven as your best self.

• What if hell—the misery of self-absorption and separation from your Creator—is real, and people actually go there, as Thomas Aquinas, Dante, C. S. Lewis, and others have described and depicted? For Catholics, hell is the willful rejection of the means the Creator gives us to get to heaven, where our Creator ardently desires us to be.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Cardinal Sarah: "God is disappearing from society...no one is interested in God"

The African cardinal's new book addresses gender ideology, the definition of marriage, the mission of the Church, the joy of the Gospel and loss of faith

At the presentation of his new book Cardinal Robert Sarah said that Western society is rapidly forgetting God, and expressed his desire to help people rediscover him through both prayer and witness.

“I would like to help people discover God in their lives, because many of us have lost God,” Cardinal Sarah told CNA at the Nov. 20 presentation of his new book, God or Nothing.

“God is disappearing from society, from culture, from the economy, no one is interested in God,” he said, which is why he thought of the need to bear witness to the fact that “God exists, that God is our life.”

Without God, the cardinal said, “we are nothing. Without God man doesn't know where he is, where he is going and therefore it's a testimony of faith. Without God we are lost.”

Released last month, “God or nothing” was officially presented yesterday in Rome’s Santa Maria dell'Anima church.

In addition to Cardinal Sarah, brief interventions were also given by Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy; Archbishop Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Papal Household and Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

Published so far in French, English, Italian and German, the book offers Cardinal Sarah’s insights on current hot-button issues, such as gender ideology and the definition of marriage, as well as the mission of the Church, the joy of the Gospel and the “heresy of activism.”

Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, spoke with CNA before the event began, saying that although it’s not easy to put God back into the minds that have forgotten him, “through our testimony, through our life, we can help people to love God.”

“Not only by reading my book, because it’s not enough to read a book. But you must have an experience… a personal encounter, a personal experience with God.”

Continue reading on the CWR site.

Christ the King deserves our praise, obedience, and adoration

Stained glass window at the Annunciation Melkite Catholic Cathedral in Roslindale, Massachusetts, depicting Christ the King in the regalia of a Byzantine emperor (John Stephen Dwyer/Wikipedia)

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, November 22, 2015, The Solemnity of Christ the King | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Dan 7:13-14
• Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5
• Rev 1:5-8
• Jn 18:33b-37

“Would Jesus feel at home among the opulence of The Vatican?” The question was put to me recently after I’d written defending the Church’s ownership of cathedrals, churches, and artwork.

My article, in turn, was in response to remarks made by a professional baseball player—a fallen away Catholic, it turns out—who had visited the Sistine Chapel and later remarked to a reporter: “They could sell all those things, auction them off and probably feed half that world's starving population. There is that much wealth stored in the Sistine Chapel. For it just to be sitting there I think is a crime.”

There are numerous flaws with such myopic thinking, including the athlete failing to recognize that no other Christian group in the world operates as many charitable organizations, orphanages, schools, hospitals, hospices, and shelters as does the Catholic Church. And what about his multi-million dollar contract, paid for by fans coming to watch grown men throw and hit baseballs in huge, expensive stadiums?

Yet, if the stadiums and the teams were sold, what then? Are sporting events evil? Is it wrong to make a good living being an athlete? Of course not.

Which brings up a point directly related to this great feast day: cathedrals, churches, and works of art were created over the course of many centuries as essential features of the Church's worship of Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings. Today’s reading from the opening chapter of The Apocalypse describes Jesus as “the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.” If Jesus really is God, he deserves our praise; if he is King of all, he deserves our obedience; if he is the Alpha and Omega, he deserves our adoration.

Sacrosanctum concilium, Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, observed that “the fine arts are considered to rank among the noblest activities of man's genius … These arts, by their very nature, are oriented toward the infinite beauty of God which they attempt in some way to portray by the work of human hands; they achieve their purpose of redounding to God's praise and glory in proportion as they are directed the more exclusively to the single aim of turning men's minds devoutly toward God.” (par 122). Man was created out of God’s overflowing love, and man returns that love by expressing his love for the Lord, who is king and “robed in majesty,” through prayers, words, songs, art, and architecture.

Ultimately, the cathedrals and statues and artwork belong to the King. This is all the more meaningful when considering that the Eucharist—the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ—is kept in the houses of God. Sure, the Eucharist could be kept in a closet or a gymnasium, but is that any way to show respect and love for the King? 

Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Some Christians have mistakenly thought this means they should have no part of churches, vestments and artwork. But it should be understood in light of the Incarnation, which Jesus referred to a moment later, saying, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

The Son was not of this world, yet he came into the world. He had no beginning, but was born a babe in a manger. He was all-powerful, yet suffered and died. And when he rose from the dead and ascended to the Father, he did not shed his humanity. He is standing in heaven—the Lamb, human and divine, “as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6)—surrounded by cherubim and elders singing ceaseless praise.

In other words, Christ’s Kingdom does not belong to the world, but his Church—the “seed and beginning of this kingdom” (CCC 567)—is in the world. And it is growing, mysteriously, not through bloodshed, tyranny, or coercion but through the body and blood of the King, through truth, and through conversion.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the November 22, 2009, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

The Eucharist and the Rule of Christ

The Eucharist and the Rule of Christ | Fr. James T O'Connor | From The Hidden Manna: A Theology of the Eucharist (2nd edition) | Ignatius Insight

God the Father has put everything under Christ's dominion, and he shall rule until all powers opposed to him have been subdued, the last of them being death itself (cf. 1 Cor. 15:25-26). This present stage of Christ's rule is something we often profess in the liturgy (especially in the Feast of Christ the King) and in private devotion.

The meaning of the Lord's subjection of all reality in its present stage is, however, something upon which most of us do not often reflect. It means that, in some mysterious but real way, the risen Jesus influences, shapes, and directs all things so that out of all persons and things he is shaping the future visage of creation as that creation moves toward his glorious return. Even the sinner—whose very sin is at least implicitly an attempt to thwart the sovereignty and dominion of Christ—operates now within the overall plan of the Lord for the establishment of his Kingdom.

The ways in which Jesus exercises this dominion vary. Over creatures to whom he has given intelligence and free will, his action is such that it respects his natural gifts. Nonetheless, his power to move us by attraction, the arranging of circumstances, the example of others, the holy inspiration that comes from the reading of Scripture, interior grace that conveys the delectatio spoken of by Augustine— these and many other ways are some of the means by which he reigns efficaciously over intelligent creatures. As Vatican Council II said:

Constituted Lord by his Resurrection. Christ, to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given, already works in the hearts of men by virtue of his Holy Spirit, not only stirring up a desire for the age to come but by that very fact also animating, purifying, and strengthening the noble intentions by which the human family strives to make its life more human and to subject all the earth to that goal. [16]

Over the lesser beings of creation his power sometimes is not necessarily more powerful (for his attractiveness and inspirations are powerful indeed) but more direct and immediate. And such is the case with the elements of bread and wine, simultaneously products of his creation and of ours, "fruit of the earth and work of human hands". At the Consecration of the liturgy, the heavenly King touches these elements directly by and through the power of his Spirit. He touches them so mightily that—if we may put it this way—he extracts from them their very reality, dominating it and attracting it (forcefully pulling it even) toward himself, so subjecting it to himself that its own true being is lost to it as it becomes the very Lord who has mastered it.

The mystery of transubstantiation is a totally marvelous change but not one wherein the Lord descends from heavenly glory to "enter" under the appearances of bread and wine. Rather it is one in which he, not coming down, lifts the creaturely realities to himself, drawing them up to where he is now with the Father. He draws them to himself in such a fashion that he subjugates them and so transforms their own being that it becomes identical with his. The very being of bread and wine is lifted out of itself in a mighty spiral of ascent, is subsumed by and converted into the reality of Jesus seated in glory. By drawing the reality of all the elements scattered throughout the world unto and into himself, Jesus maintains his own bodily unity. The elements are changed into him, not he into them. If he did to the appearances, the species, what he does to the very reality of the bread and wine, then, once the Consecration of the Mass was finished, the priest would be left with nothing before him on the paten or in the cup, and Christ would appear in glory. For then not only the being but the very appearances that manifest that being to the world would have been subsumed into the exalted Lord, and human history on earth would have reached its conclusion. [17]

Myles Connolly has caught this truth well in his little book Mr. Blue. There the book's hero, Blue, gives an imaginative scenario of the kingdom of the Antichrist. The last priest on earth, hunted by a universal dictatorial government, has determined to offer the Mass one last time. He goes to the roof of a building, vests, and begins the liturgy. His "treason " discovered, a plane is sent to bomb the building on top of which he is celebrating. The target sighted, the bomb is prepared for deployment just as the priest reaches the consecratory words of the Roman Canon: Hoc est enim corpus meum.

There was a moment of awful silence. Then, a burst of light beside which day itself is dark.... The earth burst asunder. And through this unspeakably luminous new day, through the vault of the sky ribbed with lightning, came Christ as he had come after the Resurrection. It was the end of the world! [18]

It is fantasy, of course, but it is also real in that it is founded on a truth. Were Christ to let happen to the sacramental Species or appearances what should follow from the change of reality in which they formally had their being, it would be the Parousia, the Second Coming in bodily appearance of [he Lord. If, developing the imagery of St. John Chrysostom, [19] we may use yet another fantasy, one created by Lewis Carroll, to help with an analogy to illustrate what is being said, then let us imagine what it would be like not to have the Sacred Host or the Precious Blood pass into our mouths but rather to have us be enabled to pass directly into them.

To have us pass, that is, through what remains of the bread and wine, viz., their appearances. Were we able to do this, we should find that, having passed through the appearances, we would be standrng with Christ in heaven itself, at the Father's right hand. And not only would we be standing there, but everyone who, anywhere in the world, was capable of doing the same thing, would be standing there with us united in Christ. This would be so because the Eucharistic appearances are themselves the boundary between the visible and invisible orders of creation, the horizon at which earthly time and the everlasting aeon of the blessed touch. The appearances are the window whose far side holds "what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9).

The analogy may appear to contain more of Lewis Carroll than of reality. In fact, however, the reality of the Eucharistic Presence is in itself and in its consequences (for time, geography, spatiotemporal relationships, and interpersonal relationships) more fantastic than fantasy. It is more true, more real than the narrow, almost one-dimensional view of reality from which we often suffer because of contracted intellectual vision. It was a wideness of vision vis-à-vis reality that nourished the imaginations of a Leonardo da Vinci, a Jules Verne, and so much of yesterday's "science fiction". The first glimpse may at times have distorted the reality, but so much of yesterday's fantasy is, in essence, the quickly superseded "fact" of today. The potentialities latent in God's universe have only begun to be realized by mankind . Indeed, one of the "side benefits" of his revelation of some aspects of his Mysteries is that it compels us to stretch our minds and imaginations to make room for the not-yet-experienced, the wonderful, the awesome.

By the Christian Mysteries philosophy is enriched and experiential science is challenged. And certainly this is preeminently true of the Mystery of the Eucharist. By its very nature, this Mystery touches upon the natural and philosophic "mysteries" of time, place, the nature of matter and of human bodies, their physical and metaphysical structures, the visible and invisible realms of the universe, their relatedness and compenetrability, etc. Just as he stretches the heart, so the Eucharistic Christ stretches the mind. The analogy given above limps, not because it is "fantastic" but simply because it is not daring enough.

By his power, then, as Universal Lord to attract all things to himself, Christ "lifts" the creaturely realities of bread and wine, draws them to himself, changes them into himself, leaving the appearance of the earthly realities as vehicles for the heavenly exchange by which he physically comes to us as our food while drawing us to himself through and in the Eucharistic species.

In this way we can be helped to understand the affirmations of Aquinas and Paul VI. The Lord himself is not moved locally, nor is he locally "in place"; what "happens" to the Sacrament happens to the appearances. It is they that are doubly consecrated, moved, broken, multiplied in many ciboria and churches throughout the world, etc. Having been, however, "destructured" of any real being of their own and preserved miraculously, the appearances of what were bread and wine mediate to all who touch them, receive them, worship before them the Person whose Flesh and Blood they contain and whose reality their own former reality has become.

Thus, what happens to the appearances directly happens to the Lord's Body and Blood per accidens, since it is only through the sacramental species that he is physically accessible at all on this side of the divide that separates the visible and invisible dimensions of creation, both of which already contain spiritual and material-physical elements.

ENDNOTES:

[16] Vatican Council II, Guadium et Spes, 38.

[17] St. Thomas (Summa Contra Gentes, IV, 63, 12) appears to contradict this opinion. His remarks, however, are predicated on the presumption that Christ would not will the end of the world at such a moment.

[18] Myles Connolly, Mr. Blue (Garden City, N.Y. ; Doubleday, Image, 1961), pp. 63-64.

[19] Cf. above. Section I, pp. 46-48.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Book Excerpts:

• The Spirit of the Liturgy page
• For "Many" or For "All"? | From God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• Foreword to U.M. Lang's Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• Music and Liturgy | From The Spirit of the Liturgy | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• The Altar and the Direction of Liturgical Prayer | From The Spirit of the Liturgy | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
• Benedict and the Eucharist: On the Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis | Carl E. Olson
• Abbot Vonier and the Christian Sacrifice | Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• The Meaning and Purpose of the Year of the Eucharist | Carl E. Olson
• The Doctrine (and the Defense) of the Eucharist | Carl E. Olson
• Walking To Heaven Backward | Interview with Father Jonathan Robinson of the Oratory
• Rite and Liturgy | Denis Crouan, STD
• The Liturgy Lived: The Divinization of Man | Jean Corbon, OP
• The Mass of Vatican II | Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
• The Eucharist: Source and Summit of Christian Spirituality | Mark Brumley
• Eucharistic Adoration: Reviving An Ancient Tradition | Valerie Schmalz

Fr. James O'Connor was a professor of theology for twenty-three years at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie. He is now the pastor of St. Joseph's Parish, Millbrook, New York.

"Bridge of Spies" and the Path to Virtue

Tom Hanks stars in a scene from the movie "Bridge of Spies." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13. (CNS photo/DreamWorks)

"Bridge of Spies" and the Path to Virtue | Bishop Robert Barron | The Dispatch at CWR

In recent years, Steven Spielberg has emerged as a latter-day Frank Capra, a celebrator of core values and the courage required to defend them

My great mentor Msgr. Robert Sokolowski told a class of eager philosophy students many years ago that we should read Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics every year of our lives. As we grew older, he explained, new dimensions of the book would continually present themselves.

I can't say that I've followed Sokolowski's advice perfectly, but I have indeed returned often to Aristotle's great text for inspiration and clarification. One of the Philosopher's principal insights is that the best way to understand virtue is not through abstract study but rather by watching the virtuous man in action. Learning the moral life is, for Aristotle, something like acquiring artistic skill through apprenticeship or like becoming an actor through understudying to an established thespian. Finding a master and striving to imitate him is the key. It seems only fitting, by the way, that I learned the craft of philosophizing largely by watching Sokolowski in action.

I thought of all of this as I watched Steven Spielberg's latest film Bridge of Spies. Especially in recent years, Spielberg has emerged as a latter-day Frank Capra, a celebrator of core values and the courage required to defend them. In this most recent movie, Tom Hanks (the Jimmy Stewart of our time) plays James B. Donovan, a New York insurance lawyer who is pressed into service to provide a defense for Rudolf Abel, a man very credibly accused of spying for the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Donovan does this, not because he's convinced Abel is innocent, but because he believes in the moral principal that, in a free society, everyone deserves a fair trial. In so doing, he exemplifies the most fundamental of the classical virtues, namely, justice. Plato famously defined justice as "rendering to each his due," and Thomas Aquinas refined that definition as "a constant will to render to another his right." To state it as simply as possible, it is doing the upright thing.

So Donovan defends Abel because Abel is owed this privilege; to give him legal counsel is due to him.

Continue reading at CatholicWorldReport.com.

Robert Royal offers insightful overview of vast Catholic intellectual tradition in the 20th century

Comprehensive book examines philosophy, theology, literature, history, and more
 
San Francisco, November 17, 2015 – In this wide-ranging and ambitious volume, A Deeper Vision, author Robert Royal, a prominent participant for many years in debates about religion and contemporary life, offers a comprehensive and balanced appraisal of the Catholic intellectual tradition in the twentieth century. The Catholic Church upholds both faith and reason, and Catholicism has given risen to extraordinary ideas and whole schools of remarkable thought, not just in the distant past but throughout the troubled decades of the twentieth century.
 
Royal presents in a single volume a sweeping but readable account of how Catholic thinking developed in philosophy, theology, Scripture studies, culture, literature, and much more in the twentieth century. This involves great figures, recognized as such both inside and outside the Church, such as:

• Philosophers Jacques Maritain, Bernard Lonergan, Joseph Pieper, Edith Stein, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor
• Theologians Romano Guardini, Karl Rahner, Henri du Lubac, Karol Wojtyla, Joseph Ratzinger, and Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Literary artists Charles Peguy, Paul Claudel, George Bernanos, Francois Mauriac, G. K. Chesterton, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christopher Dawson, Graham Greene, Sigrid Undset, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Czeslaw Milosz
• Historian Christopher Dawson, and many more

Royal argues that without rigorous thought, Catholicism – however welcoming and nourishing it might be – would become something like a doctor with a good bedside manner, but who knows little medicine. It has always been the aspiration of the Catholic tradition to unite emotion and intellect, action and contemplation. But unless we know what the tradition has already produced – especially in the work of the great figures of the recent past – we will not be able to answer the challenges that the modern world poses, or even properly recognize the true questions we face.
 
This is a reflective, non-polemical work that brings together various strands of Catholic thought in the twentieth century. A comprehensive guide to the recent past - and the future.

Francis J. Beckwith, Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies at Baylor University, explains, “There is no better expositor of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition than Robert Royal. Intimately acquainted with its sources, history, and contours, Royal offers the reader a compelling account of the tradition and the role that it plays, and ought to play, in the Church’s encounter with the world.”
 
Fr. Matthew Lamb, Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University, calls A Deeper Vision, “A pivotal book. Royal shows how each generation in the great Catholic intellectual tradition processes down the centuries in millennial long conversations with those preceding them. This ongoing procession contributes to a vast and complex cathedral of mind and heart, far more enduring than those of stone, wherein human dignity is discovered to be a gift, a finite participation, in the very mystery of the Triune God.”
 
“This masterful book makes clear that the past century, for all its terrible horrors, was also a time of extraordinary Christian fruitfulness” says Matthew Levering, Professor of Theology, at Mundelein Seminary. He continues, “Royal is a cultural commentator with rare scholarly breadth and balance.  His judgments regarding major 20th century theologians and theological movements should be required reading for all graduate students and seminarians. Royal is even more in his element when he assesses the great Catholic poets, historians, and novelists who graced the past century.  This masterful book comes as a much needed encouragement in the midst of the deepening storms of our own time.  For if the twentieth century shows that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, surely this too will be the ultimate story of our own century.”
 
About the Author: Robert Royal is the president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington DC and editor of the online column series The Catholic Thing. He is the author, editor, and translator of more than a dozen books, and he writes and speaks frequently on questions of culture, religion, and public life. His work has appeared in a wide variety of publications in the United States and abroad.
 
Robert Royal, the author of A Deeper Vision, is available for interviews about this book.
To request a review copy or an interview with Robert Royal, please contact:
Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com
 
Product Facts:
Title: A DEEPER VISION
The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century
Author: Robert Royal
Release Date: November 2015
Length: 619 pages
Price: $26.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-990-8 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com

ISIS at the Doors: Erasing the Memory of a Christian Europe

Soldiers pass the main entrance of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris Nov. 15.Sunday Masses were celebrated amid tight security outside the cathedral in the aftermath of Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed129 and injured 352. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

ISIS at the Doors: Erasing the Memory of a Christian Europe | Diogo Miguel Machado | CWR

By indulging our fetish for spiritual and cultural forgetfulness, we have permitted the coming-to-be of a hell on earth under the reign of ISIS.

In the wake of last weekend’s terror attacks in Paris, Europe continues to fall deeper into her spiritual and cultural torpor. As I write these words, the continent is still absorbing the shocking news that some 129 people will never see the sun rise again. For the second time this year, terrorism has struck at the heart of France. However, this time President François Hollande has declared a state of emergency and ordered all borders closed.

But more than France, the entire continent of Europe has been embroiled in a bitter border debate. It was sparked by the refugee crisis brought on by the rise of ISIS in the Middle East. And now, at least one of the Paris assailants has been identified as a refugee. The debate has vacillated between two opposing poles. Just after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, people demanded the borders be shut. Then, the dead body of a young child washed ashore at the edges of the continent and people clamored for them to be opened. With Paris in flames, we have returned again to the first position. It would seem that each new incident in this tragic narrative pushes Europe from one pole to the other.

At the heart of the debate about Europe’s borders, the refugee crisis, and immigration policy stands a question about the continent’s identity and its responsibility for the plight of Middle Eastern Christians wanting to seek safe refuge among us. For as long as they have been living side by side with radical Muslims, they have borne a bullseye target on their backs. But, this history goes back to the foundations of Islamism. For our part, we give no heed to this history, forgetting the stated goal of the reconquest of Europe in the fifteenth century: to wrest the continent from militant Muslims and return it to the Christian faith at its origin.

How did we come to this point of forgetfulness? When did we become lethargic about our spiritual heritage and start to submit to those who overtly want to impose their Sharia Law?

Continue reading on the CWR site.