Lin Wilder's Blog, page 24

Same Kind of Different as Me, the Movie

Same kind of different as me, the movie

“Sometimes you successful folks can rise up so high reaching for more stuff that you miss knowing God. But you can never stoop low to help somebody and have God miss knowing you”
― Denver Moore

I’d never heard of this film or the book and for the first ten, maybe fifteen minutes, disliked it. I kept hoping that my husband John would feel the same way and turn it off… and find something absorbing. Although I knew Renee Zellweger played the leading female role, she looked too different to captivate me. The Zellweger of Cold Mountain and Chicago looks nothing like Renee in the 2017 film, Same Kind of Different as Me,. Unrecognizable.

But the quality of her acting hasn’t changed- if anything, she’s better. Quite a statement because I thought she was extraordinary in Cold Mountain and Chicago.

Noticing that John seemed to like the movie, I kept my mouth shut and now smile ruefully at the speed with which I can form a judgement. And be wholly wrong.

This is an excellent film; it’s excellence is primarily due to Renee Zellweger. Before explaining more, just a couple of reminders about the concept of excellence:

It’s rare.And shouts its presence.Because so much is merely acceptable…truthfully, mediocre.True in everything from meals to art to books to sports to movies.We know it when we see it

By fifteen or twenty minutes into the movie, I was riveted.

Why?

Zellweger’s outstanding performance.

This is a true story

of Debbie Hall”s dream. And the integration of an unlikely trio: Debbie, her wealthy international art dealer husband Ron, and Denver Moore, a homeless paranoid black homeless man. After that first fifteen minutes when it felt like just another banal tale of an unhappy marriage, that is.

For those of us familiar with the personalities involved in homeless shelters and kitchens, the depiction and personalities of the shelter in Fort Worth is a familiar one. The character Denver Moore seems hopelessly enraged, paranoid and murderous. In the “old days” he’d have been locked up as a paranoid schitzophrenic.

Here is how the authors’ website describes the film:

A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.

An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel.

A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.

A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana… and an East Texas honky-tonk… and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda… an upscale New York Gallery… a downtown dumpster… a Texas ranch. Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, it also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

Renee Zollweger’s Debby Moore is spellbinding.

Neither overwritten or overacted, Zollweger’s Debbie is a woman to learn from, even maybe imitate.

Certainly to remember. And the transformation of the hate-filled Denver Moore is far too implausible to be fiction.

“Mr. Ron, I was captive in the devil’s prison. That was easy for Miss Debbie to see. But I got to tell you: Many folks had seen me behind the bars in that prison for more than thirty years, and they just walked on by. Kept their keys in their pocket and left me locked up. Now I ain’t tryin to run them other folks down, ’cause I was not a nice fella-dangerous-and prob’ly just as happy to stay in prison. But Miss Debbie was different–she seen me behind them bars and reached way down in her pocket and pulled out the keys God gave her and used one to unlock the prison door and set me free.”

Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different as Me

And here is just one more of Denver Moore’s keen observations:

“when you is precious to God, you is important to Satan. Watch your backside, somethin’ is gettin’ ready to happen”

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The Futility of Man’s Wars vs Heavenly Weaponry

Image provided by Fr. Chris Kanowitz

The futility of man’s wars vs heavenly weaponry

It’s been a remarkable week.

Last Sunday, we celebrated the Assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary body and soul into heaven. The day before, August 14th, the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Saint and Martyr of the Immaculate. And then we see the horrific images of terrifed Afghans fleeing Kabul.

“John, those people were hanging onto US planes then fell to their deaths.”

“Same thing happened when we pulled out of Viet Nam,” my husband replied to me.

“My clients used to tell me about the Vietnamese during the US evacuation. Certain that the Viet Cong would kill them for aiding the Americans…same thing. They hung onto the helicopters and transport planes until they could no longer.”

“Those who don’t know history are condemned to repeat it.” Edmond Burke’s and George Santayana’s quote overlays countless years of the futility of man’s wars:

Military jounalist Sara Cammarata’s words can describe any war. Just change the name of the place. And hugely expand the timeline.

The government’s unrealistic timelines — devised on the “mistaken” belief that the choices in Washington could “transform the calculus of complex Afghan institutions, powerbrokers and communities contested by the Taliban” — is one of seven lessons explained in the report that the U.S. must learn after almost two decades of war.

Military.com

Therefore, regardless of political views,

each of us feels profound sorrow for the loss of life and the devastation of Kabul. A city once known as the “Paris of central Asia.”

And wonder openmouthed at the arrogance and ignorance that informed the post 9/11 invasion of that composite of tribes, factions and animosity called a nation.

Russia had spent untold amounts of lives and money in nine years of war in the cobbled together country known as Afghanistan. Reasonably then, we ask one another, “What could possibly make the Americans believe the outcome would be any different than it was for them forty years ago?”

These separate events cohered in my mind over the past week.

And evoke the painting seen at the beginning of this piece.

The Franciscan monk who created the haunting image, The Madonna of the Holocaust, wrote this:

God of Our Fathers, let the ashes of the children incinerated in Auschwitz, the rivers of blood spilled at Babbi Yar or Majdanek, be a warning to mankind that hatred is destructive, violence is contagious, while man has an unlimited capacity to cruelty. 

Almighty God, fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares . . . nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” 
Amen. 

Catholic365

Last Sunday’s Assumption of the Mother of God

felt different. For one thing, the Solemnity occurred on a Sunday and therefore celebrated at weekend masses inviting deeper rumination.

In his thirteen minute homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption, Bishop Barron exhorts us with “God’s Warrior Queen.” Emphasizing the juxtaposition of Mary with the phrase, “Ark of the Covenant”, he reflects on the reasons for the correlation. “Mary goes up to Judah to visit Elizabeth”, “John the Baptist leaps in Elixabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice.” These are echoes of King David’s joyous retrieval of the Ark from Judah.

“There’s something overwhelming” going on here…” Bishop Barron states,

God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in the sky;
it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns,
and on its heads were seven diadems.
Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky
and hurled them down to the earth.
Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,
to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
Her child was caught up to God and his throne.
The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
    “Now have salvation and power come,
        and the Kingdom of our God
        and the authority of his Anointed One.”

The warrior queen is equipped with heavenly weaponry: Love and mercy.

The Creator’s weapons dissipate the Tohuvavohu. “It’s a splendid word for the awfulness of desperate illness, loss, betrayal, unexpected death and all the horrors implicit in each of our lives, isn’t it? Tohuvavohu.“

Is there a better list of remedies for coping with the Tohu wa-bohu of 2021?

Listen to the Higher VoiceMake yourself an arkAccept your missionPlace all our trust in heavenly weaponry.

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Custody of the Senses: Path to Sanity

A cartoon illustration depicting the 5 senses. Smell, touch, hearing, taste and sight.Custody of the senses: Path to sanity.

Think about these words for a second. The word “custody” connotes legal guardianship: We understand it to mean supervison or in charge of a person, child or entity. Therefore the phrase, “custody of the senses,” means that each of is guardian of our senses- what we decide to touch, smell, hear, taste and see.

That is more than an arresting thought, isn’t it? And calls into question all that we permit to enter those five sensible gates of ours.

Fr. Marc Foley writes that curiosity,

… increases our distractability and destroys the tranquility and quietude of our souls. It is an inner restlessness that is dying to know the latest gossip or dying to tell a juicy tidbit of news. It is often a symptom of a very corrosive spiritual syndrome that the desert writers of the fourth century called acedia (sloth). Curiosity is an indication that inner alienation is taking place…Consequently, the mind is easily distracted. But this is what it wants.

As exhausting as it is to be fitfully yanked around from object to object, from fantasy to fantasy, from impulse to impulse, it is nevertheless less painful than to be with oneself. To paraphrase the poet Yeats, because we are not being held by our center, mere anarchy is loosed upon the mind. But acedia is not just anarchy of mind, but anarchy of life. For when a person is no longer centered in his own life, his life becomes dissipated in the lives of others. Curiosity, gossip, eavesdropping, a voyeuristic bent of mind, always having one’s ears attuned for the latest scandal dal or Byzantine intrigue-these are symptoms of vicarious living. Meddling in everyone else’s business is a symptom of not having one’s mind on one’s own business.

The Love that Keeps Us Sane

The Book is sub-titled, “Living the little way of St. Therese of Lisieux”

St. Therese has never been a saint I’ve felt drawn to. However, early in this simply worded book on the Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24, one sees instantly that author Foley’s perspective is radically different.

“Many books have been written on the “little way” as a means to holiness,” he writes. “This is not one of them. This is about Therese’s spirituality as a means of preserving sanity in an often insane world.(Italics mine.) Perspective was at the core of Therese’s sanity. She saw all things in the light of eternity. This vision gave her a sense of proportionality that kept her sane.”

I’ll wager I am not the only one who sits up straighter when reading those words. Apparently the saint would have disliked the saccharine, sentimental books I had read before. The woman presented in this book is my kind of girl: a warrior.

I wrote those words in an article I called Sanity: Stillness, Addiction and Love two years ago after reading the book the first time. Recently, though I came across it in my Kindle laptop library and decided to read it again.

In the relentless cultural assault of need to know, herein lies wisdom.

Therese “minded her own business.”

“I noticed that she never asked for news. She never asked a question to satisfy her curiosity.” Therese’s sister Celine states this about the sister thought to be a poor example of a Carmelite by most of the nuns who knew her.

These practices of restraint, which traditional spirituality ituality has labeled as “custody of the senses,” may sound archaic to the modern ear; they smack of an outdated spirituality. But if we practice them rightly, we will discover that they can help keep us sane.

Custody of the senses helps keep us sane because it curbs curiosity and helps heal the impulsiveness that underlies it.

Impulsiveness is a form of insanity that deprives us of self-determination because it robs our choices of intentionality. In his book Neurotic Styles, psychologist David Shapiro writes the following of the experience of impulse: It is an experience of having executed a significant action, not a trivial one, without a clear and complete plete sense of motivation, decision, or sustained wish. It is an experience of an action, in other words, that does not feel completely deliberate or fully intended.

The Love That Keeps Us Sane

.

What Consumes Your Mind Controls You Life written on desert road

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It is Good for Us to Be Here: The Understatement of All Time

Photo Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSBIt is good for us to be here…the understatement of all time.

Peter’s words, “It is good for us to be here…” make me smile at the massiveness of the understatement. I reflect on what it must have felt like to those three Apostles. Jesus tells them to come up to the mountain with Him. After a nanosecond, the smile fades into…awe, wonder and ineffable gratitude.

Had He extended such an invitation before? Come up to the peak of Mount Tabor and pray with me. Usually we read that Jesus went up to the mountains and prayed. Alone. Perhaps then, they knew this would be special, maybe they were even excited.

But no human mind could have conceived of THAT, not can we… now.

Witnessing Christ’s body be glorified into a celestial brightness that could barely be viewed by human eyes. The sight of Moses and Elijah standing next to Jesus-this man they walked with, ate with…

Only this past week have I taken time to be thankful for the fact that we celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ twice each year: On the second Sunday of Lent and on August 6th. I am not aware of another solemn day in the Christian liturgy that is celebrated twice, but is there one more fitting than His Transfiguration?

To consider not just His Transfiguration but our own. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing but I call you friends, for all things I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.”

This is my Son whom I have chosen, Listen to Him.

Jesus selects just three to go up to the mountain to pray with Him: Peter, James and John.

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John,
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them, 
and his clothes became dazzling white, 
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. 
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, 
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, 
“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents: 
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; 
from the cloud came a voice, 
“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves, 
questioning what rising from the dead meant

Peter draws our attention for it is he who speaks.

Although I try, I cannot imagine what Peter was thinking when he heard The Voice:

This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Listen to Him.

Clearly, Peter feels impelled to say something. Even though it probably sounded inane to his own ears. “Lord, it is good that we are here…let me build three tents, one for you, one for Elijah and one for Moses.”

Ever considered how and why we know so much about Peter? His flaws and virtues?

On the one hand Peter has faith like none of the other eleven. But on the other, he seems to lack even the barest knowledge about himself and his capabilities. Peter had the guts to ask the Lord to command him to come. Until… he looked away from the face he adored and realized that he was committing an impossible feat: walking on water.

Most likely, Peter was among those incapable of exorcizing the boy:

“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you? 
Bring the boy here to me.

“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Peter and all the Apostles reveal the inimical effects of fear. Over and over and over. Making them capable of anything from the noblest to the most craven of acts. And it seems that even Peter cannot predict how he will act. Precisely like us.

And yet Jesus bothers to change his name from Simon to Peter; a name that means ‘rock.’

The Lord goes further. This patently flawed human receives the keys to the kingdom. He is told that the sins ‘he forgives will be forgiven in heaven.’ Doesn’t it feel like we are looking in a mirror when we ponder the Apostle Peter? Even, maybe especially when Peter attempts to defend Jesus against His coming Passion?

“Jesus was no cold Superman, ” Guardini writes, ” he was more human than any of us. Entirely pure, unweakened by evil, he was open and loving to the core. His ardor, truth, sensitivity, power, capacity for joy and pain were unlimited, and everything that happened to him happened in the immeasurableness of his divinity. What then must have been Jesus’ suffering!…

…” Jesus’ will to the Passion is not to be broken, but at the thought of it, his whole frame shudders in the grip of unspeakable pain. We feel it in his furious reply to Peter, when the disciple, well meaning but puny of heart, tries to dissuade him…”The will to sacrifice stands fast but it has been torn from Jesus’ human nature and is throbbingly sensitive; he can bear no tampering with it.”

Is there a “so what” for us?

Yes, I think so. Can we perceive Peter as a teacher? One who knows his own will can’t be trusted and that his heart holds evil.

Yet Peter transfigured into the man who wrote this:

“This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. (Italics mine)
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

A man who learned to trust. Not in himself, never. In Jesus, wholly, unreservedly.

Beyond reason.

Of course, beyond reason!

“There perhaps has been no time in modern history as the present where our personal holiness matters. We cannot delay in allowing God to transform us, to experience a sort of personal transfiguration. On our own, we can do nothing to bring down the forces of evil in our midst. With God working through us all our efforts are supernaturalized, joined to Him.”

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Reflections on George Bailey- It’s A Wonderful Life

Reflections on George Bailey-it’s a wonderful lifeReflections on George Bailey-It’s A Wonderful Life.

Until I met my husband, I had neither heard of nor watched Frank Capra’s classic film, It’s A Wonderful Life. From the very first moments of the movie, I was hooked. In fact, each Christmas season, we watch it at least once, sometimes twice, despite being able to practically recite the dialogue along with Jimmy Stewart, Henry Travers (Clarence) and Donna Reed. One would think that after seeing a movie over twenty-five times, it would lose its effect. But it never does.

Why?

From the very beginning, I felt dropped into a world of clarity. The black and white of the filming operates metaphorically: the decisions of ordinary people in an “average” American town for good or evil profoundly affect everyone- even the entire world. Despite its total absence of overt religiousity, It’s A Wonderful Life portrays the consequences of virtue and vice, pride and humility…of good and evil. Sometimes subtly, and occasionally, dramatically. Always, my heart swells with the messages offered by this beautifully written and acted film.

We learn about George when the movie opens. In an absolutely delightful heavenly narration, we quickly see that young George Bailey is wildly ambitious. His goals are crystal clear and remain consistently so throughout his childhood and early adult life. George plans to:

Shake the dust of Bedford Falls, Somewhere, USA toExplore the vast exotic places in the worldGet to college to study architectureBuild beautiful bridges and buildings“Amount to something great rather than wasting his life in a crummy Savings and Loan Business”George does none of these things.

Instead, he ends up “wasting his life” working his father’s crummy Savings and Loan business in Bedford Falls. In fact, George’s last conversation with his father contains that exact hurtful phrase about not wanting to waste his life in a dingy crummy savings and loan office.

It’s funny, because as I write this accurate but skeletal outline of the story’s primary plot, it sounds like a movie I’d dislike: dark and depressing. Because like so much in life, when we reduce anything to soundbytes, its substance-essence- is lost.

Before I tell you just why I love this film so much, a bit of background about it, from Frank Capra, the director and partial screenwriter. It’s A Wonderful Life was the famed director’s favorite. Capra explains that it was 1946- he simply could not bear making a war movie. As a Major in the Army, Capra had been tasked with producing movies about why we had to fight. Sick to death of war, Capra came across a short story called The Greatest Gift. This tale of a man contemplating suicide because of the meaningless of the life he had lived touched the film director deeply. He wanted to do a movie about goodness…even in the 40’s, Capra reminisced decades later, Hollywood films sbout goodness were rare.

The screenwriters adapted it but Capra knew the screenplay needed an antagonist: a movie about Goodness requires its opposite. He and the other American soldiers returning home knew evil, they had met it in the battlefields. And so the brilliance of Mr. Potter emerged from Capra’s pen.

So just why am I writing reflections on George Bailey in July of 2021?

There are so many reasons!

But primarily, it’s these:

George is an ordinary American man. Those of us born in small towns in rural America can readily understand the need to get out. Experience and taste the vastly different cultures and peoples on this earth.

But when young George Bailey is faced with a life-threatening crisis or a moral dilemma, he follows his conscience. And acts heroically. We see young George dive into the ice to save his little brother. Then observe the distraught pharmacist he works for and George’s costly decision not to deliver the prescription he knows is poison. We see him stepping back time and again from his dreams of college. Finally, we watch him take the blame for Uncle Billy’s carelessness as he is reduced to begging from Potter.

And yet, George is no saint.

He complains.

Even whines.

Totally loses control and rages against Mary, his kids and finally he despairs, gives into fear, sure that the plaintive prayer uttered from lips that rarely prayed, went unheard.

And the hurtful comment George made to his father evokes my seventeen-year-old self telling my mother that I could not waste my life as she had, I would become famous. Later in life, I got to apologize for my youthful stupidity. George did not.

The dialogue has some great satire, like one of my favorites here between Clarence and George:

George:
Well, you look about the kind of angel I’d get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren’t you? What happened to your wings?

Clarence:
I haven’t won my wings, yet. That’s why I’m called an Angel Second Class. I have to earn them. And you’ll help me will you?

George:
Sure, sure. How?

Clarence:
By letting me help you.

George:
I know one way you can help me. You don’t happen to have 8,000 bucks on you?

Clarence:
No, we don’t use money in Heaven.

George:
Well, it comes in real handy down here, bud!

This movie is not “religious” and yet, it’s a testament to love.

Capra and Jimmy Stewart challenge each of us with their conception and portrayal of George Bailey. The many deaths to himself required by George are subtle and are underplayed in dialogue and Stewart’s acting. Often we see only an expression. Like the one on George’s face when he sees that little brother Harry has not only married but has a job with enormous potential. Meaning that his dreams of college must die.

And the one on his face when Potter asks, “You?!” Knowing full well that it was Uncle Billy who placed the cash in the folded newspaper and walked away from it.

Potter asks again. “You are the one who misplaced the money?”

“Yes,” George replies. We can see no sense of sacrifice on George’s expression-no subtle “Well, you know how addleheaded Uncle Billy is.” Despite the rage we watch when a desperate George realizes just what is at stake from the carelessness of his uncle. He has acquired the habit of acting virtuously, it has become second nature. And makes me think of theologian Karl Rahner’s idea of the “anonymous Christian.”

Is it a coincidence that the catalyst to Uncle Billy’s forgetfulness is his goad to Potter? The pride at his nephew Harry’s heroism rubbed in Potter’s face?

Capra’s film reveals them all: Pride, greed, imprudence, intemperence, despair, faithlessnness, ingratitude and injustice.

These are flawed people and yet the citizens of George’s Bedford Falls are mostly people of good will. Aside, of course, from Potter. Clarence’s wonderfull gift to George is an exqusititely painful descent into the depravity Pottertown. Bedford Falls would never have existed had George not been born.

There is one character who seems to exemplify virtue: Mary. Young Mary has a single focus: To marry George Bailey. Long before the cultural incursion of what Carrie Greiss terms, “toxic femiminity,” Mary personifies chastity, modesty, patience, humility, wholesomeness…and love. We see a helpmate in her, a woman dedicated to her husband and children. Quite literally, we watch her transform a broken down shell of rotting boards and planks into a vibrant light-filled home. Not one time do we hear a complaint from her lips.

Is it just coincidence that her name is Mary?

And is it my imagination that Donna Reed’s face always seems suffused with light?

St.Thomas Aquinas wrote that divine love is the standard for all human actions. Divine love is, of course, far different from its use in the vernacular- it is a love that seeks the good of the other for the others’ sake. It’s A Wonderful Life reveals one recipe of precisely how to achieve it.

Image and poem courtesy of Fr. Boniface Hicks

The true soldier fights not because
he hates what is in front of him
but because he loves what is behind him.

Literature is a luxury
fiction is a necessity.

There is the great lesson of ‘Beauty and the Beast
that a thing must be loved before it is lovable.

There are two ways to get enough.
One is to continue to accumulate more and more.
The other is to desire less and less.

G K Chesterton

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Real Poverty-Not Knowing What We Lack

Real poverty-not knowing what we lackReal Poverty-Not knowing what we lack.

We hear the phrase a lot: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” And recall that St. Mark qualifies St. Luke’s with two words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Until hearing a homily by EWTN priest Fr. Mark Mary, I’d not given any thought to the qualifier, “poor in spirit.” When hearing that beatitude, my mind automatically interpreted the words of Christ to mean material poverty: the poor have far more chance of making heaven than do we who have received such abundance. Real poverty-not knowing what we lack.

The Gospel passage for that day was:

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.
The names of the Twelve Apostles are these:
first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;
Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot
who betrayed Jesus.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

It is the homilist’s allusions to poverty

as a universal that I keep pondering long after listening to the sermon: Even those of us with material wealth have poverties. The more I ruminate on the paradox, perhaps especially those of us with material wealth.

We all have poverties…Things we lack, a scarcity that steals our joy, keeps us anxious, insecure and full of fear. Maybe it’s the absence of a certain job or degree. Or an inability to control our addiction to food, sex, drugs, alcohol, shopping…Or any of the myriad of ways for twenty-first century humans to distract ourselves from what is true and Good. Maybe it’s this microscopic virus that has suffused our world with panic for eighteen months now. Or the fact that we are black or female or hispanic or…and therefore warrant some kind of payment from those who are not.Our real poverty is not knowing what we lack.

The speed with which our national sense of what is moral and true has been eclipsed by a relentless stream of bizarre ideologies is dizzying. And yet millions of Americans believe-or pretend to believe- increasingly outlandish claims. Thus fitting in nicely with Vaclav Havel’s greengrocer. (more on Havel’s greengrocer momentarily.) The latest of these outlandish claims being our President’s invitation to the United Nations to investigate America’s “systemic racism.”

Is it not preposterous that the very political party that fought to keep slavery 150 years ago now trumpets racism as a rallying cry for… what exactly? But the greengrocers know the safest thing to do, correct?

Our individual and national poverty is not our helplessness, our powerlessness over any of these things or people. Or even the untrammeled anger simmering about us. Our real poverty not knowing what we lack. But first, a look at one of the drivers now controlling nations and their leaders, through the lens of a man who knows totalianism and post-totalarianism.

In 1978 Vaclav Havel wrote a lengthy essay, now a book, called the Power of the Powerless.

For a brief but excellent biography of this unsung hero, Vaclav Havel, the former President of the former nation of Czechoslovakia, click here.

Havel’s description of the greengrocer who displays in his shop, a sign saying “Workers of the World, Unite!” descibes an increasing number of American citizens. The grocery store owner displays the sign not because of Marxist passion but because the shop owner knows the penalty for disloyalty. The sign is not a symbol of any enthusiam for the regime but of his submission to and humiliation by it.

Just so were the “Black Lives Matter” and “Women for Choice” signs I saw last year in front of a frame store in our sleepy college town of San Luis Obispo during the demonstrations fueled by black activists and college faculty always up for a good riot. The BLM demonstraters demanded, and many received, reparations from the local businesses for the slavery they-and we- are told to be enraged by.

Although the word “totalitarian” is not one Americans would accept, Havel’s words chillingly describe a world-wide post totalitarian ideology which suffuses these years of 2020 and 2021: (the italicized sections are mine)

Here, by the way, is one of the most important differences between the posttotalitarian system and classical dictatorships, in which this line of conflict can still be drawn according to social class. In the posttotalitarian system, this line runs de facto through each person, for everyone in his own way is both a victim and a supporter of the system.

What we understand by the system is not, therefore, a social order imposed by one group upon another, but rather something which permeates the entire society and is a factor in shaping it, something which may seem impossible to grasp or define (for it is in the nature of a mere principle), but which is expressed by the entire society as an important feature of its life. The fact that human beings have created, and daily create, this self-directed system through which they divest themselves of their innermost identity is not therefore the result of some incomprehensible misunderstanding of history,. nor is it history somehow gone off its rails. Neither is it the product of some diabolical higher will which has decided, for reasons unknown, to torment a portion of humanity in this way.

It can happen and did happen only because there is obviously in modern humanity a certain tendency toward the creation, or at least the toleration, of such a system. There is obviously something in human beings which responds to this system, something they reflect and accommodate, something within them which paralyzes every effort of their better selves to revolt. Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary masterplan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of peoples own failure as individuals.

Power of the Powerless

What can we do? Amidst such blindness?

Alone?

Nothing.

With Him who became like us in every way but sin?

“We can do all things in Him…”trusting that even though it feels like He has turned away His face from this country, from our loved ones who have fallen away from the light, He will use it for good. And look to the Apostle of the Apostles for guidance.

” …For I do not love only in words; but my loving heart too is in unison with my heart; and so I speak with confidence, without restraint or reserve….” St John Chrysostom writes of St Paul: “There was nothing more capacious than the heart of Paul, for he loved all the faithful with as intimate a love as any lover could have for a loved one….And what marvel is it that his love for the faithful was such, since his love embraced the unbelievers too, throughout all the world?”

Real poverty-not knowing what we lack.

I lived much of my life far away from God and his Law. Therefore upon accepting a task that felt impossible: a book about the early life of St. Paul, I felt more than a little unsettled. Yet. looking back, I feel only gratitude for that year of struggle.

More than once, I suggested he rest from the ordeal of revisiting these terrible memories … that surely he exaggerated
his feelings and actions in the telling. I begged him to consider shortening or even deleting the stoning of Abighail and her
daughter.

“What purpose does their story serve?” I asked. “How would knowing about your murderous past help any of us? The events you speak of took place more than three decades ago—years before most of your followers—including me—were born.”

“NO, Aurelius!” he insisted. “Write this precisely as I say it! All must know who I was, what I did, what I was capable of. Only then can they understand the immensity of the gift we receive! Only then will they comprehend that the words you write tonight—and all of the thousands of words I have written over the last decades—are not mine.

How could they be? How could such a contemptible man write of such truth, wisdom, beauty, mercy, forgiveness?”

Only that once did this saint raise his voice to me. During the endless weeks when I’d treated him so ill, he’d been nothing but pacific, meek, and kind. His ire was aroused only when I attempted to mitigate his self-condemnation.

My Name is Saul

Photo courtesy of Fr Boniface Hicks

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In Praise of Criticism-Albeit with Gritted Teeth

Quote Typographical Background, vector design. “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing”. Chalkboard Style.In praise of criticism, albeit with gritted teeth

About four or six weeks ago, I sent the first draft of my newest book, The Reluctant Queen-The Story of Esther– to my four readers. These four people are generous enough to read the word document online and tell me what they think. It’s not editing I want from them. Instead I’m looking for honest reactions by people who love reading a great story. And can tell instantly if there are problems in these areas:

Overall coherence“Feel” of the characters and plot. Whether or not main character-Esther- can be clearly visualizedWhether her actions and words are consistent with the way I’ve portrayed her. And…how about Xerxes? And all the others?

But, when we ask for it, we must be ready– in praise of criticism, albeit with gritted teeth. Although this drill is familiar to me, it is, after all, the eighth book I have written, when I read and heard the awful reactions from the first two readers, I confess I bled a bit. Truthfully, more than a bit.

The first reader to finish and tell me her reaction, began this way: “Lin, I know you trust me to be brutally honest…” You can guess the rest. The second reader’s reaction was just as crummy, he just said it differently. As you can imagine, it takes some time to move through the rejection and understand they are right! Everything they said was accurate. So back to work, cutting, rewriting and send again.

Then wait with baited breath.

This past Friday morning, I got the green light on the revised manuscript from three out of four readers. (The fourth has not had time to get to it.) The Reluctant Queen is now with my editor. In almost every respect, this is a far better story than the one I originally wrote.

So- do I mean it?

In praise of criticism? A wholehearted, unadulterated YES!

Honest feedback is imperative-even when it draws blood. It’s different from asking someone whether they like your new haircut. Most likely, if the haircut is awful and you are asking, they understand you’re merely asking for a reminder that it will grow back.

But with a story created solely out of the ethos, we simply cannot be objective about what we have written, it is not possible.

I wrote this after reading a blistering review of my first novel:

In a recent post, I talked about the cost of a scathing review I received from an anonymous reviewer. I did not mention that this was a review I solicited as in paid for. The cost I spoke about wasn’t the money, it was the denunciation, the rebukes…the heat in my cheeks caused by reading words that scald.  

Now, I realize the value of critics.

When we write, speak, take a position of leadership in any group, or take any type of risk, we’ll be criticized. We know this. And we do it anyway. We do it because we believe we have something to offer others.

But the reality is that criticism  hurts. I had forgotten just how much.

However, what’s intriguing to me was what happened after the third time I read the reviewer’s critique. Or maybe it was the fourth. It took that long for the reviewer’s words to stop burning.

I realized that he or she was mostly right…ergo with gritted teeth.

The Value of Critics

The process of writing a book

So-How does it feel now that you’ve done it?

Good, maybe even great. Because the process of writing this book has followed the precise path of everything else I have ever done. Whether it’s publishing articles, books, going back to school, lose weight, start exercising, the phases are the same for all of us. Although our words may differ.

What the bloody blue blazes have I done?PanicDays or weeks of running in place, busy work; like researching books that don’t help very much. But in which there may be a precious nugget of informationThen, WOWZA. Finally, what’s next?What the bloody blue blazes have I done?

A favorite author of mine is Stephen Pressfield. Remember The Legend of Bagger Vance?

Pressfield became a favorite with his book The War of Art. In this book I have recommended to every aspiring writer I have ever known, Pressfield coins this phase “resistance.”

“Most of have two lives,” writes Pressfield, ” the life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

Here’s an illustration of just why I like this guy so much:

Friends used to come to me all the time and say, “I know I’ve got a book in me.”

So I would try to help them. We’d sit up till two in the morning with me explaining the concept of Resistance and psyching my friends up to overcome their self-doubt, their vanity, their fear, their self-sabotage. I did this on about ten different occasions.

Of course nobody ever wrote their book

Steven Pressfield.com

But see, Pressfield’s “resistance” and my “what the bloody blue blazes have I done?” isn’t sbout writing a book, it’s about anything new-anything good, that is- that we decide to do. Whether it’s a decision to get that degree, start a new business, bite the bullet and get married…anything at all we aspire to do takes risk. That really scary four-letter word.

Sometimes, the risk is someone else’s decision, like when Pete Carroll got fired from the Patriots. Instead of wasting time griping or blaming, he landed the job with Seattle, and decided to go for excellence.

Accelerator to the floor, no brakes, go for it.

With each book I write, I aim for it to be better than the one before it. If you don’t get better, why keep doing it?

Panic.

But I’m no football coach, just a writer. And since this is my third historical novel, the ancient world should have been familiar territory. And in some respects, it is. Both of the first stories featured ancient Israel, Greece and Rome right around the birth of Christ and, of course, the Roman Empire. But Esther lived a few centuries earlier, during the height of the Persian Empire- The Achaemenid Kings. In both, I Claudia and the classical education of young men included the GrecoPersian wars. So the GrecoPersian wars were well-known to me.

But…from a wholly Greek perspective. Ever wonder why Leonidis and the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae (think the movie 300 or Steve Pressfield’s book The Gates of Fire ) are consistent in their admiration of the heroism of the Greeks and pejoration of the Persians? Because the historians writing about the wars were…Greek.

Until I began to wonder just who King Xerxes was, that prejudice had not occured to me. But, as in everthing, a change in perspective opens up brand new worlds. My initial panic was that I could find not find sources that were objective…until, I did. And then, the days and weeks of chasing myself in a circle ended.

WOWZA

That’s the very best time of writing a book. It’s, “I know who she is!” and “I think I’ve got this!” and suddenly chasing the story. The words flow so fast you cannot type them fast enough, it’s exciting and fun because the main characters are in charge, you’re not terribly sure where they are going to take you next.

Here is a quick preview:

The fourth king of the Achimenead dynasty of the Persian Empire is called Ahasuerus in the
Bible and Xerxes in history. King Xerxes and the orphaned Hebrew girl, Esther, were born
with a shared destiny. The peculiar events which lead to her becoming his Queen in marriage
catapult Esther into an extraordinary role of saving the Jewish nation—and perhaps King
Xerxes—from destruction.

Before plunging into King Xerxes and Esther’s particular and lengthy tale, it is helpful to
briefly describe King Xerxes’s predecessors, emphasizing Kings Cyrus and Darius. This is so
because the passage of centuries permits a telescopic view of events. A distant view that more
readily reveals the hand of God, or fate.

Around 600 BC, the child who would become Cyrus the Great was doomed at his birth. King
Astyages of Media’s frightening dream was interpreted by the King’s soothsayers to mean that
his daughter would bear a son who would be King. Alarmed, Astyages moved the girl and the
prince back to Mede, where he could keep watch and destroy her infant as soon as he was born.
But the delegated murderer, a hardened soldier named Hapargus, could not bring himself to
destroy the baby. So instead, Harpargus took advantage of the recent death of a peasant couple’s
baby, substituting the royal grandson for the dead peasant infant. Thus, for ten years, the child
“passed.”

Until that is, the youngster’s prowess in sports, nobility of character, and leadership skills among
his peers resulted in other boys electing the boy their king came to the King’s attention.When King Astyages was told of this remarkable youngster, he knew instantly that a nature like
this boy’s could only come from royal blood and that his “loyal” servant, Harpargus, had lied.
The child had not been destroyed.

READ MORE

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Called to be prophets: Each of us.

Who, me. Portrait of questioned and shocked woman point at herself holding finger on chest and widen eyes from surprise as being picked or accused standing amazed and confused over white backgroundNot me!

You’re joking, right? Called to be prophets: each of us?

Prophets were the Old Testament men. Like Isaiah, Ezekial, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos. They were called by the Lord to prophesy repentence to the Chosen Ones: the Israelis.

Right, but it did not end there.

Last Sunday’s homily from Bishop Robert Baron is titled, You are called to be a prophet.

This one echoed in my mind and heart, hence this piece on the obligation of each Christian, each of us, to take stock.

Not of our neighbor.

Not of our politicians.

Nor our priests, Bishops or pastors.

But of our own hearts.

Perhaps in a a more profound way than ever before.

Each word of the first reading for July 4, 2021 Christian liturgy is significant…if we can perceive the Old Testament as mirror.

He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. 

Ezekial 2

How is it that Baron claims us as prophets?

Because we are baptized. Since the astounding, miraculous and eternal effects of Baptism are so difficult for us to appreciate, a while back, I wrote this piece:

When baptized, each of us is left with an indelible spiritual mark. “No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated. Through the sacrament, the Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of eternal life…Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift. . . .We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift  because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism because sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath  because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God’s Lordship.”

When baptized, we become a new creature.

Remember St. Paul writing in Corinthians, “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold the old has passed away…?”

If you doubt this, have a conversation with a convert, any one of us will be delighted to provide details.

Ezekial is sent to his own people not the pagans.

Fully aware that most of listeners believe prophecy the task on long ago Hebrew prophets, the Bishop unpacks the reading for us.

The prophet Ezekial writes during the Babylonian exile. The Jews are living among hundreds of thousands of pagans. Wouldn’t we expect then, that God would send his prophet to the pagans?

NO!

Ezekial is being sent to his own people! Because they are a people who have been chosen by God. To heed his commandments and laws but rebel. Despite their promises they walk away and do what they know is wrong. Despite their heritage, they walk away and embrace the pagan gods they know will lead them to destruction.

Precisely like you.

And me, each of us who has been baptized.

Let’s read what Bishop Barron calls our marvelous first reading again- slowly:

“Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”

How many Catholics and Christians do you know who exemplify His first two commandments?

We tend to hang around with people like us. I spent the first half of my life in academic medicine, most of my friends were atheists or agnostics like me. We were products of the American love affair with professionalism that began during the middle of the last century. The majority of us walked away from our faith somewhere in undergrad. And yet, I converted while Hospital Director in a Massachusetts mendical center. With one or two exceptions, my colleagues had been Catholic in their youth-in a couple of cases, Jewish- but were then mostly atheists. Although I tried to keep it private, my conversion attracted a great deal of attention.

So, not infrequently, I ended up in conversation with former believers who felt obliged to talk about it. Why did I, as one colleague put it- want to return to the fifth century? Almost always, he or she wanted to explain why they walked away.

We can dress it up but the 2500 year old words to Ezekial fit: we are a rebellious people.

What does this mean for us?.

Run out to the street with apocalyptic signs proclaiming the end is near?

Go camp on our atheistic brother-in-law’s couch and start to preach at him?

NO!

Turn our judging eyes and fingers inward, toward ourselves.

Dr. Anthony Lilles this in Discipline of the Christian Life.:

Pandemics, social upheaval, natural disasters, calamities and rumors of war do not excuse us the mission to share the Gospel of Christ but instead provide new occasions and opportunity to reveal the wisdom the Christian discipline commends. For the sake of the Church and the world, we need to make a new beginning in our faith. It is time to examine our hearts and renew the practices of our faith, taking them up with greater boldness and resolve.

This task even imposes on us a certain love and dedication to those whom Christ has given authority over us even when they seem to have fallen short of their responsibilities.  If we find in our hearts a certain resentment towards those who disappointed us in the Church, we must remind ourselves that it is never enough to condemn the apostles who abandoned, denied and betrayed the Lord. Indeed, how could these mysteries of our brokenness before God not be present now when they were present in the very shadow of the Cross.

Anthony Lilles

What are the practices?

“By putting us in touch with our own weakness and need for God, the struggles we confront in prayer and fasting dispose us to forgive, to have compassion, and to seek forgiveness.  Filled with compassion, we learn to pray for our enemies rather than call down hell-fire on them. We find the courage to listen to the heart of our neighbor, especially if they are children or parents. We more readily recognize our own tendency to pre-judge as driven by our own shame, inability to take responsibility for our own actions, and our need to self-justify. As did our Crucified God, we must bear with one another patiently and persevere in love, even when with this means humbling ourselves unto death.  Preserving true peace with one another requires implicating ourselves in one another’s plight, even at our own expense.”

A dear friend, an OMI priest, told me in a recent conversation, that in the end, we will be judged on one thing only.

“How well did we love?”

…Hence peace is likewise the fruit of love, which goes beyond what justice can provide.

That earthly peace which arises from love of neighbor symbolizes and results from the peace of Christ which radiates from God the Father. For by the cross the incarnate Son, the prince of peace reconciled all men with God. By thus restoring all men to the unity of one people and one body, He slew hatred in His own flesh; and, after being lifted on high by His resurrection, He poured forth the spirit of love into the hearts of men.

For this reason, all Christians are urgently summoned to do in love what the truth requires, and to join with all true peacemakers in pleading for peace and bringing it about.

Gaudium et Spes

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Is Anger An Emotion? Or Learned Reaction?

Angry frustrated man with exploding head and steam coming out of his ears on dark backgroundIs anger an emotion? Or a learned reaction: habit?

We feel it everywhere: Anger. Whether a seething whisper or bellowing roar, resentment, anger, even rage, feels like the fuel of this brand new year as the second decade of the twenty-first century heads south…The youngest child of a mother who seemed slightly to very discontented for the majority of her time on this planet, I began my acquaintance with anger at an early age.

I wrote that paragraph five years ago, but it accurately descibes what we read, watch and hear in 2021.

Hence I have revisited the question, “Is anger an emotion?”

In Spiritual Direction , Father Sakowski writes of the difficulty that anger has been for him personally this last year:

“It has become apparent to me that I have a hard time welcoming the human experience of anger and figuring out what to do with it. That becomes quite a setup for struggle and heartache – especially during years like this past one! As I look around and observe other humans all around me, I realize that I am not the only one having a hard time here.

Never mind that God created the emotion of anger; never mind that his Son Jesus was truly human and experienced anger without sinning. Many of us Christians feel a major “should” that warns us against anger – and then we find ourselves stuck.”

Apart from those statements, his article, Learning to Listen to Anger is otherwise excellent. But his opinions that God “created the emotion of anger” and that Jesus “experienced anger without sinning,” are wholly wrong. Like this priest, we are misled into thinking that the habit of reacting with anger is an involuntary emotion over which we have no control.

In fact, our culture seems to sanction, even ennoble, anger as the national norm.

Such thinking endangers our peace, contentment and our very souls, both collective and individual.

Despite the presence of anger as high on the pundits’ list of human emotions, it does not belong there.

While the experience of anger fits partly within Webster’s definition of emotion, that is “an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness,” it is volitional. We consent to anger, in many cases, welcome, those feelings of outrage, jaw and fist clenching and gritted teeth. In fact, we make it a habit.

“I cannot believe she said this!”

“Wait until I tell you what he did yesterday!”

“After all I have done for you, this is all that you can say or do?”

Indeed, anger is an “affective state of consciousness…is experienced”- but it cannot be distinguished from cognitive, willed thought.

Why do I say this?

Consider the last time you got supremely ticked off…

just like in the photo above, steam poured out of your ears.

Can you recall such an incident? And maybe the associated behaviors like slamming doors, shouting, etc. that accompanied your rage?Most likely when you were alone?

Isn’t there a hesitation? A moment of huh? Before the tsunami of rage is released?

Did I really hear that?

Did she really do that?

That hesitation is the analysis done by those of us with reason: humans. Someone or something has betrayed us…somewhere along, we’ve learned the art of supressing the sorrow, guilt or shame and learned to switch on anger. We decide that we have been treated unjustly and in more and more cases, persuade judges, juries and governments to pay for that injustice.

Anger has become, in a sense, a national commodity. And is being institutionalized.

Okay, a learned reaction, so what?

The simple answer is-we can unlearn it. Not only can, but must.

Huh?

Like all habits, we can change them. Hence, the habit of anger can be changed by making the decision to do so.

When you were considering the last time you felt like Mt. Vesuvius or the geyser at Yellowstone was about to erupt inside you, then you’ll note the tone in the simulated analysis…”I”, “I”,”I”. Ponder for a moment or ten, what is really happening.

Or, if you haven’t done that, please do so now, it’s important to know that submitting to anger is all about the ego, bruised self-image and in this culture where egos reign and self-control is considered an oymoron, it would appear that anger is another right.

Like killing our unborn babies.

Or deciding that life is too onerous.

But we can choose to stop lying to ourselves. Now.

Why should we?

Jesus is crystal clear. He makes no references to fairness or reparations.

“But I tell you, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be judged. If you say bad things to a brother or sister, you will be judged by the council. And if you call someone a fool, you will be in danger of the fire of hell.“So when you offer your gift to God at the altar, and you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar. Go and make peace with that person, and then come and offer your gift.

 “If your enemy is taking you to court, become friends quickly, before you go to court. Otherwise, your enemy might turn you over to the judge, and the judge might give you to a guard to put you in jail.  I tell you the truth, you will not leave there until you have paid everything you owe.

Like Father Sakowski, we let the world and all of its evil persuade us that our defiance is just: at masks, the people who wear them, or the people who don’t. That Jesus too got angry.

But do we really believe that Christ consented to the behaviors of a two-year-old?

Am I suggesting that we ignore those feelings of outrage, suppress them because they are “un-Christian?”

Of course not. We must use our reason to identify the source of that rage– almost always, it lies within us. In some cases, it may have festered for decades. We may not have all the time in the world to finally resolve it. Ron Rolheiser’s Final Spritual Struggle is a magnificent lens with which to view the importance of dealing honestly with the source of our anger.

As the years accumulate, the important work of age crystallizes:

We must deal with the realities of the losses, the unlived dreams, make peace with the rapidly diminishing time left. And make a crucial decision: How do we spend the time we have left? The words of Father Rolheiser provoke, challenge and penetrate.

“…..Like the older brother of the prodigal son, we are now acutely aware that someone less deserving than ourselves gets to dance and eat the fatted calf.

But this must be understood for what it is, not a sign of regression, but a critical new moment in the spiritual life. As we age and become ever more aware of our wounds, our wasted potential, and the unfairness of life, we come face to face with the final spiritual hurdle, the challenge to become mellow and gracious in spirit. The spiritual task of midlife and old age is that of wrestling with God, namely, of standing inside all of the ways in which life has disappointed and betrayed us and, in spite of that, there, understand what God means with the words: “My child, everything I have is yours, but we must be happy!”

Overcoming Anger: The Final Spiritual Struggle

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Thomas More-Patron Saint of Politicians-and Pope John Paul

Thomas More, portrait by Holbein, 1527.Thomas More, Patron saint of politicians.

This past Tuesday was the Feast Day of Saint Thomas More. Sir Thomas More was Henry Vlll’s Lord Chancellor during the King’s attempts to persuade the Catholic Church to grant him an annulment. His marriage to Catherine of Aragon was invalid, claimed the King, for it had produced no heirs. Henry argued that he should be free to marry Anne Boelyn so that the reign of the House of Tudor would be protected.

King Henry’s argument failed. So the King declared himself-and successive monarchs- head of the church through a Parliamentary move called the Act of Supremecy. A legislation proving that purely legal/politically based reasoning can justify anything, centuries ago.

And now.

Decades ago in an undergraduate English class, I was introduced to Thomas More through the eyes of another atheist, screenwriter Robert Bolt. One of the more successful playwrights of the last century, Bolt wrote the screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, and The Mission. But it was A Man For All Seasons for which he was best known.

I recall well my hunger-yearning, more accurately-for something or Someone so precious that I would give my life rather than betray it-Him.

In case you would like to read the entire play, click here. I’ve done so six, maybe seven times since that long ago class.

Bolt’s fascination with Thomas More derives from the extensive research he did on him.

More was a man, Bolt writes in his Preface to A Man For All Seasons, who did not race to martyrdom unlike most of the saints revered by the Church and rejected by Bolt. Quite the contrary. More was a man of law and a loyal subject of the King of England, considering Henry to be a friend. Married with four children whom he loved dearly, Thomas More was a lover of life, good food and fine wines. He was a humanist; a concept which in the sixteenth century, conveyed submission to God and his law.

A man who did not want to die.

The years from 1529 through 1535 were years replete with attempted compromise. In 1529, Sir Thomas More was appointed Lord Chancellor of England; in 1535, More was beheaded for his treasonable refusal to sign the Act of Supremacy declaring Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and which validated Henry’s annulment from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and remarriage to Anne Boyleyn. Over and over the statesman sought conciliation- a way to reconcile the rupture between his king and his faith; a way to prevent the schism between the Church and the King. Finally, More persuades King Henry to accept his resignation as Lord Chancellor in hopes that the resignation could serve to recuse him from signing.

Bolt’s play reveals a frightened, increasingly desperate man as he seeks a way out.

MORE (Straight at her) If we govern our tongues they will! Now listen, I have a word to say about that. I have made no statement. I’ve
resigned, that’s all. On the King’s Supremacy, the King’s divorce which he’ll now grant himself, the marriage he’ll then make-have you
heard me make a statement?
ALICE No-and if I’m to lose my rank and fall to housekeeping I want to know the reason; so make a statement now.
MORE No- (ALICE exhibits indignation) Alice, it’s a point of law! Accept it from me, Alice, that in silence is my safety under the law, but
my silence must be absolute, it must extend to you.
ALICE In short you don’t trust us!
MORE A man would need to be half-witted not to trust you but- (Impatiently) Look- (He advances on her) I’m the Lord Chief Justice, I’m
Cromwell, I’m the King’s Head jailer –and I take your hand (He does so) and I clamp it on the Bible, on the Blessed Cross (Clamps her
hand on his closed fist) and I say: “Woman, has your husband made a statement on these matters?” Now-on peril of your soul
remember-what’s your answer?
ALICE No.
MORE And so it must remain. (He looks around at their grave faces) Oh, it’s only a life line, we shan’t have to use it but it’s comforting to
have. No, no, when they find I’m silent they’ll ask nothing better than to leave me silent; you’ll see.

Pope John Paul ll proclaimed More Patron Saint of Politicians in 2000

…The unity of life of the lay faithful is of the greatest importance: indeed they must be sanctified in everyday professional and social life. Therefore, to respond to their vocation, the lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to join themselves to God, fulfil his will, serve other people and lead them to communion with God in Christ” (No. 17).

This harmony between the natural and the supernatural is perhaps the element which more than any other defines the personality of this great English statesman: he lived his intense public life with a simple humility marked by good humour, even at the moment of his execution.

This was the height to which he was led by his passion for the truth. What enlightened his conscience was the sense that man cannot be sundered from God, nor politics from morality. As I have already had occasion to say, “man is created by God, and therefore human rights have their origin in God, are based upon the design of creation and form part of the plan of redemption. One might even dare to say that the rights of man are also the rights of God” (Speech, 7 April 1998).

And it was precisely in defence of the rights of conscience that the example of Thomas More shone brightly. It can be said that he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience which is “the witness of God himself, whose voice and judgment penetrate the depths of man’s soul” (Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 58), even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time.

Proclaiming St Thomas More

Conscience of a nation…

Norfolk: I’m not a scholar, as Master Cromwell never tires of pointing out, and frankly I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not. But damn it, Thomas, look at those names… You know those men! Can’t you do what I did, and come with us for friendship?
More: And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for friendship?
Cranmer: So those of us whose names are there are damned, Sir Thomas?
More: I don’t know, Your Grace. I have no window to look into another man’s conscience. I condemn no one.
Cranmer: Then the matter is capable of question?
More: Certainly.
Cranmer: But that you owe obedience to your King is not capable of question. So weigh a doubt against a certainty — and sign.
More: Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; it is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King’s command make it round? And if it is round, will the King’s command flatten it? No, I will not sign.

It’s next to impossible to miss the parallels between 16th century England and 21st Century America,

Of Pope John Paul ll and Thomas More.

And of lawyers and politcians, then and now.

And of the dark side of the law.

My sole experience as a juror was so appalling that I based a novel on it: Do You Solemnly Swear: A Nation of Law, The Dark Side. And not frequently enough do I pray for the imprisoned man who may well be innocent.

In a piece a year or so ago, I wrote of an astounding statement made in 1776 by then Carinal Karol Wojtyla:

“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church… must take up and face courageously…

We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life as a total dedication to Christ…”

The italics are mine.

Let there be no doubt of the vastness- or closeness- of the battle field

The recent decision of the US Bishops to exclude those Catholic politicians promoting abortion from the Eucharist has ignited yet more polemics from all sides, religious and secular. For readers interested in an explanation of this decision, I ask that you read Archbishop Cordelione of the Diocese of San Francisco’s highly reasoned response to the sixty catholic House Representatives and Senators, “Statement of Principles.” The Archbishop ends his fine piece this way:

Rejecting abortion is a tall order for a Catholic Democrat in the current environment, I know. But this week especially, the week when we remember St. Thomas More, is a good time to look deep in the soul and ask: Will I be God’s servant first?  

Response to the Statement of Principles

But the battle isn’t just in Washington or Sunday mass, it rages close to our homes and families. A brief conversation with parents of school-aged children will reveal a national educational agenda which is distinctly opposed to the core values of most Americans. In fact, it is anti-church and anti-gospel. In an answer to just how far ordinary Americans can be pushed, a teacher risks speaking Truth.

Tanner Cross is a Virginia teacher suspended for his refusal to bow down to gender ideology or critical race theory. Speaking to the school board, Cross paraphrased St. Thomas More’s dying words, “The King’s good servant, but God’s first.” Cross declared, “I’m a teacher but I serve God first.“

More’s letter to his daughter from prison in the Tower,

….”I will not mistrust him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink…Margaret, I know this well: without my fault he will not let me lost…do not let your mind be troubled by anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.”

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