Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 353

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Here is my latest article for Crisis website. It's on the Anglican Ordinariate.

Bizzy

If only you knew what this week was like! The end of the school year for St Joseph's Catholic School, but also the end of the school year for our little parochial school in the parish. So many graduation ceremonies and so little time! Added to that the fact that this married priest had to ride the emotional roller coaster of his oldest son graduating from high school and getting ready to head off for college, and then there was the bishop's visit with a dinner for priests and added to this is the fact that the English in laws are visiting for the graduation ceremony and things are moving forward quickly for our building committee and capital campaign to build our new church, and then of course I am trying to get sixteen high school students all ready for the El Salvador Mission trip and there is not quite enough money and if any readers would like to donate to our expenses they may do so through the 'Donate' button and all money will be used wisely I promise and then I had a deadline for an article for This Rock  magazine and you'll have to forgive me if the poor old blog has had to lose some attention. A whole week and no blogging!!?? I'm sorry about that folks, but eventually I will get back on track and will keep going.



In the meantime, pray for our family, for our parish and for our school and our mission trip.

Way, Truth and Life - A Little Trinity

When Jesus Christ says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father, but through me" is he pointing to the Holy Trinity?



Here's my reasoning. The Way can be understood as the physical aspect of our being. It's the walk we walk. It's the life we lead. It's the body we have. It's the actions we do. It's the deeds we decide on. It's the body.



The Truth can be understood as the mental or intellectual aspect of our being. It's the doctrine we believe. It's the philosophy we follow. It's the analysis we understand. It's the thought, the concept, the decision and the dogma. It's the head.



The Life can be understood as the spiritual, intuitive, relational, emotional aspect of our being. It's the relationships we have. It's the emotions we feel. It's the intuitions we have. It's the life that we live. It's the compassion we feel and the love that we love. It's the heart.



These three aspects, Body, Mind and Spirit make us into little Trinities. In us the three are at war. They are discordant. They are not in harmony. The end of the Christian journey is to be fulfilled and completed and whole and in balance and 'self actualized' and to be all that we were intended to be. In other words--to be saints. Saints have the three aspects of body, mind and spirit in perfectly graced balance.



So if these three aspects of Body, Mind and Spirit are meant to be one, when Jesus says he is Way, Truth and Life he is saying that he is fulfillment of the Body, the Mind and the Spirit. He completes the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of who we are. Life in Christ is therefore life that is completed physically, mentally and spiritually. In Him we come to wholeness. In Him all that is lacking in body, mind and spirit is completed, purged, fulfilled and made One.



And this is where the Holy Trinity comes in. That if I am Body, Mind and Spirit--a little Trinity, then I am called to be three in one and one in three total unity and total trinity. This is what I aim to become in Christ and by his grace and through his church, for through his church I am given three aspects of my redemption and sanctification. I have sacraments which minister to the Body and Doctrine which ministers to the Mind, and Grace--the infilling of the Holy Spirit, which redeems my Spirit.



The Church teaches us that what one person of the Holy Trinity does, all do. So, for example, when God spoke the world into existence he did so through the Divine Word (who was in time incarnate as the Son) and through the indwelling and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, at the incarnation God the Father became enfleshed as God the Son through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Likewise here, the Son speaks of being the Way, the Truth and the Life and so indicates that he IS the physical aspect, the mental aspect and the Spiritual aspect of Man, and therefore also he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One Unity. Blessed Trinity.



The Holy Trinity is therefore, not some abstruse doctrine, but a living and vital concept that renews me from within and is hidden within the simple gospel teaching that Christ himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life.



Disclaimer: This post is a piece of speculative theology, and I am quite open to correction by a real theologian (or bishop) if I am wrong.

Pope Talks to the Astronauts

Caption Competition. Entries in the combox

The Sin of Schism

Mohammed by Salvador Dali
I'm still working my way through Anthony Esolen's excellent translation of Dante's Inferno, and have walked through the ninth ditch of Malebolge--which holds the schismatics. They are tortured by being split in half by a demonic sword. It's a harsh image and Esolen captures the earthy Italian of Dante describing one of the schismatic souls as a barrel with the "midstave split apart...so burst wide from the chin severed down to where we fart." Yucch.



It is interesting that Dante puts Mohammed and his son Ali into the circle of schismatics. He follows the medieval understanding of Islam as a Christian schism. The imagery is violent because schism eventually leads to violence. Notice the violence of Islam. Notice the violence of the wars of religion and centuries of revolution and bloodshed after the Protestant Revolution in Europe. When Christendom is broken heads must roll.



As usual, in Dante's vision the punishment fits the crime. Schismatics sin against unity and so they themselves are split asunder, and as usual, the visual and violent imagery that Dante uses reflects an inner, psychological and spiritual reality. Schism splits us asunder. It divides the church. It divides families. It divides communities. It divides the individual. We cannot have unity within ourselves if we are out of unity with one another and with Christ's church.



Schism, in all its forms, is simple assumption that "I know best." My own opinion becomes the truth. My own Biblical interpretation becomes dogma. My own limited understanding becomes the benchmark for all knowledge. My own private interpretation or personal revelation is the only truth and all the truth. The kind of individualism which our society exalts is simply the sin of schism writ large. Each man and each woman a law unto themselves with no unifying factor, no unifying belief, no unifying set of morality, no unifying authority structure.



The result of this schism for the individual is modern man's search for identity--his search for a soul. We don't know who we are, so consequently we make an image for ourselves. We are 'self made men' and proud of it. We try on different persona. We re-invent ourselves. We are cut off from the source of unity and we suffer from an inner schism which has become a chasm of emptiness within.



On a societal level (and I feel this living in the USA) we are just as divided and broken, with no real shared sense of religion, values or goals. We have no shared culture. It is visible in the shallow, diffuse and superficial American society. It seems that nothing is real. Nothing has an inner integrity. When you go down the shopping street it is like Disneyland. Here a Mexican restaurant made to look like a hacienda. There an Italian restaurant which is a fake Tuscan villa. Here a church built in Gothic style and next to it a fake neo classical style church. The schismatic society is one big smorgasbord of quality and trash all thrown together buffet style for each individual to sample and then move on to the next artificial experience.



These are surface observances from a schismatic society. We're split up into millions of little groups with no real connections between them. We're a confederation of contradictions: ethnic groups, religious groups, political groups, broken families, broken lives--all the result of schism and a flight from unity. In fact, the only thing these groups seem to have in common is a shared hatred of any authority or any system that might provide unity in the midst of sectarian chaos.



This is why, increasingly, my Catholic faith is so vitally important. There is nothing else in this modern society which can give anyone a connection with the deepest sources of unity. All other religions are themselves schismatic and sectarian. No other philosophy or culture can transcend all the plethora of divisions except the Catholic faith. The Catholic faith provides the source of unity for the individual and the society. We draw together around the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic faith and this leads us to an inner unity as individuals, but as each individual approaches unity they also come closer to one another, and so societal unity begins to come about.



This is difficult to articulate, but I realize that through the unity of the Mass, through the unity of the church, by being part of one flock following one shepherd, my own tendency to schism and individualism is corrected. There is a deep sense in which, the more I make a loving submission to the church, the less I matter, and the more I am being gathered up into a far greater cosmic unity than I could ever have imagined.



This unity obliterates my shallow individualism, but it does not obliterate my personality. Instead it fulfills my personality. Instead of being in pieces it brings me to a place of peace. Searching for, and living in the Unity brings me at last to the place I ought to be. This is one of the greatest and unexpected blessing of becoming a Catholic--that I am called to mover further up and further in to the Unity. Bit by bit I take my place within the ranks of the blessed and find "my peace in his will."



I do not profess to have attained this, I feel like I have only begun the journey, but at least I believe I can see the destination.

The Catholic Church and Private Revelation

A friend tells me it is Saturday already in Japan, and no one is reporting the rapture. Of course there is still some time to go before Saturday, May 21, 2011 comes and goes completely, but I'm planning a homily for Sunday morning...



I'm so grateful for the authority of the Catholic Church--which provides a check and balance against private revelation. If a Catholic priest starts spouting about dates for the end of the world, or some peasant girl reports seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a baker sees the face of Mother Teresa in a bagel the Catholic response is really very pleasing.



The Catholic authorities treat all such claims with admirable forbearance and good manners. "You have seen the face of Jesus in a burned marshmallow and he said to you, 'have s'more' and you interpreted this to be a sign and message from heaven? How interesting. Well, certainly supernatural occurrences are possible, and we wouldn't want to discount it immediately, but let's investigate it shall we? and when we've looked into the whole matter we'll decide whether you have heard a voice from heaven and had a vision from God or not. Is that alright with you? Very good. Don't call us. We'll call you. Next?"



What is delightful about this response is that it does not reject the visionary or mystic with cynicism or ridicule. Catholics believe that strange things do happen. We believe that saints levitate, dead bodies remain incorrupt, that apparitions occur and the Holy Spirit supernaturally guides the church, and that one of the ways he may do this is through personal insights, new understandings and mystical experiences.



So the Catholic Church weighs it all up, checks sacred Scripture, checks the new revelation or mystical experience against the 2000 year tradition of the church and says 'yes' or 'no'. Lest people think that the Catholic Church always says 'No', consider the acceptance of the Divine Mercy devotion given to St Faustina, the acceptance of the Sacred Heart devotion given to St Margaret Mary, the acceptance of the various approved Marian apparitions, the acceptance of the new set of mysteries for the Holy Rosary, etc.



What interests me specifically about the recent high profile prediction of the Rapture is that I was brought up in a fundamentalist church where dispensationalism was the interpretative key. We had an awful lot of sermons on Bible prophecy and the 'end times'. We were taught that the Rapture was just around the corner, and although our pastor never set a date he always taught that it was 'just about to happen.' Other Christian teachers may correct this misinterpretation of the Bible and correct the theological errors or show the logic to be flawed, but it is really only the 2000 year, living tradition of the Catholic Church which can put such teaching into its true and rightful perspective.



Which brings me to a larger question of private revelation and private interpretation. Mr Camping and his followers are, no doubt, a sincere group of Christian believers who have come to the real and genuine belief that Jesus will come again on May 21. They believe it so much that they have invested in an advertising campaign, given up their jobs to spread the news and they believe it is God's will with all their heart. They are out to convince all who will hear.



Now, how is this, from a philosophical point of view, any different than any other Protestant group passionately embracing some innovation, new belief or practice? How is it different, for example, from the Anglican Church deciding to ordain women to the priesthood? Like Mr Camping and his followers, the Anglicans are a very sincere and well meaning group of Christian believers who really, honestly and truly do believe that the Holy Spirit is leading the Church to ordain women as priests and bishops. They have their Bible verses all lined up. They have their arguments in place and they are just as passionately and firmly convinced about the rightness of women's ordination to the priesthood as Mr Camping and his followers are of the imminent return of the Lord tomorrow.



"Whoa!" you can't really compare Anglicans to the Camping-ites surely?!" I am the first to admit that most of the Anglicans arguing for womens ordination to the priesthood are more articulate and educated than Mr Camping and his cohorts, and many might say that the proposal to have women ordained to the priesthood is much more sane, much more eminently sensible than Mr Camping's outrageous predictions and prognostications. Furthermore, the Anglicans are probably more amenable, urbane and reasonable. Women's ordination may seem far more rational than the rapture (although others would argue that such a novelty is even more preposterous) Be that as it may, my point is that underlying both Mr Camping's bizarre prophecies and women's ordination is the same quicksand of private interpretation and private revelation.



A group of Christian individuals becomes sincerely and truly convinced of a particular belief or a particular devotion or a particular practice, and what authority on earth is able to make the call as to whether they are right or wrong?



Either there is such an authority or there is not. If there is not, then anything goes, and whatever your sincere opinion is about religion, it is nothing more than a sincere opinion and yours is really just as valid as the next person's. The Camping-ites or Mennonites, Anglicans or Adventists, Mormons or Methodists, Lutherans or Snake Handlers, Church of God or Assemblies of God or Church of Christ or Disciples of Christ or Christian Disciples or the Four Square Worldwide Church of God or Christian Science or....



Or then there is the Catholic Church.

Gone Camping

Fundamentalist radio preacher Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world for Saturday, May 21, 2011. That's right. Put it in your calendars. Buckle your seatbelts. End of the world this Saturday.



I won't go into all the Bible quotes about 'no man knows the day or the hour' or the fact that Camping is a well known, ignorant anti-Catholic radio guy. I wish we could just ignore people like him, or write him off as a nutcase.



Unfortunately, a good number of American Protestants take him seriously, and an even greater number who may not take Camping and his prediction seriously have bought in to the whole rapture, end of the world scenario. A recent survey said something like 52% of Americans believe Jesus will come again on the clouds and 'rapture' all the born again Christians. This all comes from a Biblical interpretation system called 'Dispensationalism'. Dispensationalism basically says the Bible (and therefore the whole of human history) can be broken down into different 'dispensations' of time. By understanding all this you can 'de-code' Gods plan for mankind by understanding the hidden clues in the Bible.



The whole thing was cooked up by a fellow called C.I.Schofield in the late 1800s. The 'Schofield Reference Bible' is a version of the King James Bible with copious study notes that helps people read the Bible through the dispensationalist lens, and it is considered the best Bible version by armies of fundamentalist Protestant Americans. This is side comment, but what tickles me about this, is that these are the same folks who blame Catholics for believing in late, man made doctrines like the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin...so go figure.



There are too many things wrong with Camping and his approach to even give time to. First of all is to observe that Camping is the end result of the ridiculous Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura. It's Camping and his Bible. He's on the air every day telling people not only that the Catholic Church is wrong, but all churches are wrong. "Don't go to church where you'll get false teaching. Just listen to Mr Camping."  The proponent of sola Scriptura will argue that not everyone is quite as looped as he is. Maybe not, but their methodology and foundational assumptions are the same. Whether it is a sophisticated Episcopalian liberal theologian or a conservative and sensible Presbyterian pastor or a left wing New Testament scholar or a snake handler or Mr.Camping--they've all got no more authority than each other because for each of them its just them and their Bible.



The second totally weird thing about Camping and his gang is their spooky, superstitious understanding of not only the Biblical texts, but the Bible itself. They treat the Bible as some sort of supernatural boy hero code book. As if God was in the business of hiding secret dates and times within the numbers and letters of the Bible and within a secret code language of the Old Testament prophets. The sacred Scriptures are the inspired account of God's workings in and with his people the Jews--finally culminating in the incarnation of the Word of God. The Scriptures are not a fortune teller's codebook.



The third alarming thing about Camping an Co. is their lamentable ignorance not only of the whole sweep of Christian history, but their ignorance about their own American Protestant history. Don't these guys realize that from the year dot American Protestants of all stripes and sects have been interpreting the Bible and coming up with cataclysmic prognostications which always pan out? They should put down their Schofield Reference Bible for once and read the history of the Mormons, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Millerites, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Disciples of Christ, the Jack vanImpe-ists and Tim LaHayes and learn a few lessons. Along with this ignorance of history is an astounding ignorance of human psychology. There is a simple kink in human beings which makes them suckers for the end of the world theories. It's the fact that there will be an and to the world--especially their world. Usually the end of the world people are simply projecting the fact of their own death. They're going to die, so they predict the whole world will die instead. It's a sick kind of twist in the human heart and imagination.

I wish I could just laugh it off, but the worst thing about cranks like Camping and the folks at Westboro Baptist is that they are the ones who make headlines.



No wonder so many young Americans who start to think things through consider Christianity to be a laughable religion for inadequate loonies.

Top Ten Conspiracy Theories

Guest blogger, Duane Mandible is a contributing editor to The Truth Hurts, a bi-monthly journal of politics, economics and opinion. He also contributes regularly to Freedom Monthly; Illuminations and The Sojourner. Duane is the author of Guns and Knives will Save Your Children's Lives. He is Vice President of the Sacred Society of St Philibustre, and enjoys hunting rattlesnakes, square dancing and watching re runs of comedy classics. He is unmarried.



 I try not to spend too much time reading the websites of 'major' newspapers, relying instead on my own choice of reading from which to gather the news. However a friend drew my attention recently to an article in the Daily Telegraph which is published in London, England.



In this recent article one of their journalists has compiled a list of  'top ten conspiracy theories'. I am very disappointed, but not surprised by the list. Here's their list: I am sure you will be disappointed by it as well.



1. 9-11

2. Kennedy Assassination

3. Roswell

4. Fake Moon Landings

5. The Illuminati

6. Elvis Faked His Death

7. Shakespeare Wasn't Shakespeare

8. Paul McCartney is Dead

9. Harold Wilson was a Soviet Spy

10. The AIDS virus was created in a lab to control world population



This list is typical of a British journalist who is trying to be anti-American and shore up the disintegrating British establishment at the same time. For instance, who even knows who Harold Wilson was? I can tell you he was a Labor Party British Prime Minister in  the 1970s. They weren't Soviet Spies. They didn't need to be. They were all communists to start with, as were most of the writers and actors in Hollywood at the time.



What is disappointing about the list are the much more serious conspiracy theories that the poor ignorant English journalist either ignored or knew nothing about. What about:



1. Elizabeth I of England was really a man

2. Bill Clinton is a Rockefeller love child

3. Jimmy Carter is a Kennedy love child

4. The Reagan would be assassin John Hinckley was a family friend of George HW Bush (who was Reagan's VP at the time)

5. That the two women who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford were CIA brainwashed dupes set up by Rockefeller and Bush. (Bush was then head of CIA and Nelson Rockefeller was VP)

6. That Adolph Hitler is alive on the dark side of the moon

7. The British Royal family are reptilian shape shifters who drink the blood of young children

8. Man Made Global Warming

9. 'Pope' John Paul I was poisoned by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus

10. 'Pope' John XXIII was a Freemason

11. Lady Di was executed at the orders of HRH Prince Philip and the SAS

12. The conspiracy by the buttoned maniplists in the fourteenth century against the be-ribboned.

13. That 'Pope' John XXIII's body was not incorrupt when it was exhumed.

14. That the munchkins in 'The Wizard of Oz' were not really midgets, but grown actors walking about on their knees.





Clearly the reason these other very important theories were not mentioned by this 'journalist' is that he is part of the vast media cover up which is in place to support the New World Order which will be composed of the world's great banking families, the European Union, the liberal intelligentsia and the owners of Ben and Gerry's Ice Cream Manufacturing Company.

Oddie on ARCIC

Dr William Oddie
The Catholic News Agency reports here that the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission is to resume discussions in Italy. In the article my friend William Oddie wonders what on earth can be accomplished with such talks? The talks, which were once revolutionary, are now passe.



For those of you not in the know, the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission was kicked off in the heady days of the post Vatican II ecumenism. Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher had visited Pope John XXIII in the Vatican. Which was certainly a big deal. But it remained a private meeting. Then ABC Michael Ramsay visited Paul VI and it was a public meeting in the Sistine Chapel and the pope gave him a ring to wear and they seemed to be engaged to be married, and everyone was talking about 'visible union in our lifetimes' and they kicked off the theological discussions called ARCIC.



Alas, the only people who were talking like that were some starry eyed Anglo Catholics. ARCIC always suffered from the problem that nobody knew who could really speak for the Anglicans. So the Anglican Church sent off some very sweet old duffers from Cambridge and so forth who were sort of Catholic in their theology but were mostly Anglican. They were the sort of nice codgers you might meet at high table with posh accents and wispy white hair and a brother in law who was a bishop somewhere.



They'd say things like, "You know, we've just got back from Rome and this Pope Paul fellow seems nice enough. Had a lovely lunch--beautiful wine and cheese you know--and then we chatted about the Virgin Mary for a bit before we all tootled off to our rooms for a bit of horizontal meditation haw haw. Anyway, it turns out that the Romans don't worship Mary after all, and I don't much mind a picture or two of her about the place. Rather nice in its own way, and I'm sure all that praying the rosary stuff doesn't really do any harm. Not my cup of tea mind you, but I don't see why we ought to bother about it if it pleases the old ladies in Ireland."



So then they'd write it all up and come back trumpeting the news that they all agreed and wasn't that good and what will we talk about next time do you think? In the meantime the Vatican theologians would take apart their limp and ambiguous text and end up chucking it in the Tiber, while the old duffers returned home to their queen and their quads and be surprised to find that the liberals and the Evangelicals in the General Synod of the Church of England weren't having any truck with being united with the Romans either.



The Evangelicals were more concerned to convert as many Catholics as they could through things like the Alpha Course and the Evangelical Renewal Movement and the Liberals were busy pushing through women priests, homosexual marriage and programs to give free beer to men to get them to come to church on Fathers Day.



So what of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission? Dr Oddie thinks its a waste of time. I don't necessarily agree, so I've compiled a list of things for them to discuss:



1. Is the Queen of England the head of the Church or not? If so, why is she not also a bishop? And how soon could she be made the Archbishop of Canterbury?

2. If the Queen does become Archbishop of Canterbury would she wear a miter or would the hats she already wears do?

3. When will the Church of England give back the parish churches and cathedrals to the Catholic Church? After all, the governments in Eastern Europe who took seminaries, convents, monasteries and churches are having to give them all back along with compensation. Will the British Parliament, as part of the ecumenical discussions begin proceedings?

4. Are Anglican orders valid? I mean to say, "When an Anglican orders a steak in a restaurant is his order valid or not? I think we need to know, and this is a good topic for ARCIC to discuss.

5. Could the Anglicans give the Ordinariate a few buildings to use? They have too many in the wrong places, and the Ordinarate folks would be happy to take a few of those old, city center, great Anglo Catholic barns off their hands.

6. A new sense of priorities needs to be established. The Anglicans should forget all the theological piffle and teach the Catholics how to sing hymns, how to pay organists, how to have flower festivals, decent choirs and make cucumber sandwiches.

7. The Catholics should teach the Anglicans the definition of certain basic religious and philosophical terms like 'dogma', 'truth', and 'Holy Water'

8.  ARCIC members should make it clear to both Anglicans and Catholics that they follow two different religions that are on divergent paths.

9. They should agree for meetings to be in Burnley or Scunthorpe in February rather than some nice Italian town in June. This would encourage members to keep the meetings short and perhaps discourage them from meeting at all.

10. Finally, they should put on the agenda that if the Queen is not the next Archbishop of Canterbury that they give Pope Benedict the opportunity to appoint someone, and I can think of few better future Archbishops of Canterbury than William Oddie himself.

OLR School

We're working hard to communicate how great our little school is at Our Lady of the Rosary parish. Go here to visit the website and see our new promotional video. If you live in the Greenville area, please help to spread the news about Our Lady of the Rosary School. While you're at the website, check out the new choral scholarships which will be available for next year. Musically talented children will be able to receive up to $1,000.00 per year towards tuition at our school. For this they will attend choir practice, learn to sing properly and sing in our parish church choir. If you live in the Greenville area and have a musical boy or girl in grades 3-8 and would like them to have a Catholic education, contact the school for more information.