John Janaro's Blog, page 202

The Depth of Wisdom and Knowledge

"Oh, the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are His judgments
and how unsearchable His ways!
For from Him and through Him 
and for Him are all things.
To God be glory forever. Amen" 
(Romans 11:33, 36).

Fall in Photos...So Far

It has been a warm and dry Autumn season until recently, with a disappointing lack of color. Now we're finally getting a bit of rain, and we may still see the "big maple tree show" that usually comes late in the season.

Some pictures that I have posted on Instagram:

The smaller maple leaves began to turn red early last month. Because of dry conditions, Happy Creek almost disappeared. Only a few leaves were changing down by the creek in mid October. Meanwhile the October rose bush bloomed and soaked in the sun. By October's end we began to see some variety of color. More variety. This leaf was good enough to "pose" on the ground. At the beginning of November, more color but still lots of green.

And here are a couple of digital graphic pieces that I have teased out of what the season has had to offer:

Farms and rolling hills at sunset. November "Hunter's Moon" rising at days end.

Music, Faith, and the Beauty of Reality

I have a wide range of interests and ways of appreciating music. This magnificent art of creating from sound—with all its ways of projecting itself forth and interrelating in the diverse proportions of melody, harmony, and rhythm—has fascinated me all my life.

I hope to write more specifically about music and those who make it in the next couple of months. One of the things that strikes me as important is how many people of faith are involved in musical creativity in very diverse styles and formats, with various purposes. While I have always loved and for many years studied classical music, my attention in writing will mostly be given to more modern musical forms (vocal and instrumental), especially as they have interpenetrated with the gigantic expansion of technological power and communications media.

Christians have always made music for use in public liturgical prayer. Today we see the genre of the "hymn" expanded into broader contexts and contemporary styles which are awkward for formal liturgy and can obscure the need for continuity with the precise objective gestures of the liturgical rites. But contemporary music certainly can be helpful for many kinds of prayer, and is often inspiring in the kind of more informal gatherings that come under the heading of "Praise and Worship."

I appreciate the work of Christians in making music on religious themes for prayer gatherings and even for wider listening. Here, of course, it is always important to remember that an inspirational theme cannot substitute for the inherent quality of the music itself. I have been glad to find many proficient creators and performers of contemporary styles of music using Christian themes in recent years.

Of course, I listen to music not only by Christians but also by people of other religions, cultures, and particular modes of grappling with basic human questions. One does not have to be Christian to make great music (obviously).

Not many of those who use contemporary idioms in mainstream ("secular") popular music are well known for their outstanding religious profile. It always seems surprising to find a "pop artist" with a serious faith, and yet there are more than we realize. It may not be something they articulate in the content of their music. They don't often (if ever) sing songs about Jesus. Nevertheless it may still be faith that gives deeper shape to the appreciation for humanity that nurtures their creativity and commitment to excellence in their craft.

Faith in the Incarnation existentially affects every aspect of human life and activity, which means art and music too (even that which we consider "entertainment"). The freedom to make music and art of various kinds must be affirmed. True art of whatever kind must be free to aim for beauty, to the expression of the vast array of beauty and the making of beautiful things.

Beauty, however, is not the tame and obvious thing we often expect it to be.

Beauty is a transcendental, found in different ways and on different levels throughout the whole range of being. It is in the simple and immediately agreeable places, of course, but it also takes complex forms, searches out subtle correlations, lives within difficulties and paradox, and gives light to tragedy and suffering.

The witness to beauty, like the witness to truth and goodness, always embodies a profound empathy for reality, and thereby probes the depths of human experience. Beauty of any kind points toward the ultimate questions, the drama, the longing, and the fulfillment of all things. For precisely this reason it can often be unpredictable, and it is always mysterious.

There is much for Christians to consider about music and beauty and the surprising possibilities for creativity in our time—possibilities that we must discover and appreciate, and take up according to each one's particular artistic vocation. We need not fear to do this as long as we remain rooted in the love of Christ.

Indeed we must take risks to find and foster and build up the good that grows in so many places, at "the margins" too—all along the roads of the world where God has us travel, where we must trust in Him, not be afraid, be creative. It's not easy and we make mistakes, but if we pray and stay close to Jesus and if we support one another and reflect on these things together, we will have strong roots and our branches will grow in many ways.

We can help one another by finding ways to grow in fellowship, to share the experiences and challenges of a common vocation to follow Jesus Christ using our dispositions and talents as creative artists (even when our art varies widely in its forms, media, and/or themes and proximate purposes).

Along with poetry, music has a particular place in my own vocation both as an artist and as a philosopher. In particular, I perceive how music can awaken the soul to God. Music is such a very special way of making room for the love of God to work in the world—not just explicitly Christian songs but every expression that is true and good.

Our songs need to find many ways of addressing themselves to reality, including things that are vulnerable and fragile, unsettling and painful, flawed and seemingly irresolvable. God wants our art in all these places.

The Faithful Departed of Every Time and Place, United in Christ

Saints and holy souls come from every time and place and all manner of circumstances. Indeed, the embrace of God's love in Jesus Christ has an amplitude and generosity beyond anything we can imagine. As November begins, I find myself thinking about those who attain salvation who may never have seen the inside of a Catholic church during their life on earth.

People who do not know about Christ are still loved by God and led by His grace, and if they search for Him and follow what their conscience shows them to be His will, He leads them (in some mysterious way) to say "yes" to the Person of Christ present in their lives, and thus they can be saved by Christ and joined to the Church even if they have never heard of either. This must also be true of people who have "heard" of Christ and the Church, but do not understand them properly through no fault of their own.

Jesus, by becoming man, has united himself in a certain way with every human being. The secret drama of every person's real life is their decision to say "yes" or "no" to Jesus Christ as He makes Himself present in their circumstances and draws them to Himself during the course of their life's journey. Since Christ’s coming, there have been many people who have never heard of Him, but they have sought God's will, and have sought through the knowledge that was available to them to do what they thought God wanted of them. They love the good, and in that love God's grace is at work so that they can somehow encounter and accept the person of Christ through love even if they do not know His name. 

If a person truly wants "God's will," then they want Christ even if they aren't conceptually aware of it, because Christ is God's will, and Christ places that desire in them. Jesus Christ is what every human person is really searching for. He is the only answer to the longing of the human heart. 

And so all those who truly search for the Mystery of life, who persevere in seeking and begging for that Mystery which alone corresponds to their hearts, will be led in a vital way to respond to God's revelation of that Mystery: Jesus Himself. Thus many who do not know "about" Jesus in a way that they can express or articulate, can still say "yes" to Jesus in their lives through love, through fidelity to the grace that God gives them, and through mysterious ways that we don't understand.

There are various theological theories about how this can happen, and I am not proposing any of them here. Nor am I saying that someone who actually comes to recognize the truth about Christ and the Church can reject it in favor of some other path that he or she prefers. If I am truly searching for the One who loves me, and then He shows Himself to me in Person and reveals His Name, how can I not accept Him, let myself be embraced by Him, and embrace Him in return? If fear or my own preferences were to prevail at this point, it would mean the failure of my search rather than its fulfilment.

What I want to point out is the simple fact that God’s grace is central to the life of every human person, and it has ways of working even in those whose connection to the Church cannot be seen by us. It is something to remember on the day in which we celebrate all the saints, and during the month in which we pray for all the "faithful departed." God’s mercy is a mystery, and its greatness will one day surely surprise us all.

The "Pharisee in the Church Today" is Me

Pope Francis says there are Pharisees in the Church today.

Some people say, "When he refers to 'Pharisees' he's talking about the conservatives!" Others have noted that it was precisely the Pharisees who favored things like divorce and were therefore confronted by Jesus's radical Gospel teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.

These are typical ways of "interpreting" Francis. But I find them frustrating. I already know this debate well enough. I'm interested in something else, namely, what do the Pope's words mean for me, right now?

This theme about Pharisees in the Church today is part of a consistent message of Pope Francis. What guidance for my own life do I find here? Is it even relevant to me? I don't think political terms like "conservative" and "liberal" are helpful when looking at the Church. I also oppose divorce. I know that Christian marriage cannot be dissolved, and that this clear teaching of Christ cannot be changed: "They are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Matthew 19:6).

Yet I recognize myself in the Pharisee. Pope Francis's challenge, to me personally, has always been to provoke me to look beyond my narrow way of loving people.

Yes, we really do need to witness to the truth in love. But it's so much easier, for me, to cosy up in a comfortable corner with the truth, and to say to (or at least think about) others: "This is the truth of what you should be like. Now take your messy life and go away. You bother me. Go fix yourself and maybe come back when you fit into my comfortable coherent little world."

That's the Pharisee that I am!

I thank God for the mirror that He has put up to my face these past five years through the witness of the Pope. The problem for me is my own self-love, my own satisfaction, my fear of risking my comfort in order to grow closer to God. And I so easily disguise my own laziness and love of comfort in the garb of a "prudent, balanced judgment," or a pious detachment from "worldly" things.

Woe unto me...the Scribe, the Pharisee, the hypocrite!

I am the "Pharisee" because I fail to trust in the grace of Jesus to change my heart. I am so timid! I am afraid to allow Jesus to empower me to really go beyond myself, to find the margins beyond my own self-sufficiency and the real people who are waiting there, desperately in need of my love.

The Spirit Blows Like Wind in the Trees

"Those who are led by the Spirit of God
are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, 'Abba, Father!'
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him."

~Romans 8:14-17

(image above: The Spirit Blows Like Wind in the Trees, my digital graphic design)

The Young Heroism of Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano

October 29th commemorates Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano, an Italian girl who died of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in 1990, a few weeks short of her 19th birthday. 
Chiara Luce was a young person of our own time. She had aspirations and plans for her life. She loved to sing, to play tennis, and to swim. She had a hard time with math in school. She cherished her family and friends. When she fell ill, it was very hard for her. She wanted to live. In the long odyssey of her cancer treatments, she knew the force of her own human hopes that she might be cured. 
But Chiara Luce was also a girl of great faith. Shaped since childhood by the charism of the Focolare movement, she recognized in her illness a deeper calling from her suffering Lord. She accepted and even embraced this new, arduous, painful path, and offered her life in union with Jesus's cry of abandonment on the Cross. She said:

"I offer everything, my failures, my pains and joys to Him, starting again every time the Cross makes me feel all its weight. The important thing is to do God’s will. I might have had plans about myself but God came up with this. The sickness came to me at the right time... [and] now I feel like I am wrapped into a wonderful design that is slowly unfolding itself to me."

She was able to endure beyond her own capacity for endurance, because she trusted in Jesus, because deeper than all the very real pain was the mystery of relationship with Him.

"What a free and immense gift life is and how important it is to live every instant in the fullness of God. I feel so little and the road ahead is so arduous that I often feel overwhelmed with pain! But that’s the Spouse coming to meet me. Yes, I repeat it: 'If you want it Jesus, so do I!'"

I have mentioned before about Chiara Luce Badano and the very special friendship that (I can't help putting it this way) she initiated with me in Christ, in the "communion of saints" several years ago. I rely on her help, and I believe she has opened my eyes to recognize the extraordinary courage that the grace of God has engendered in some apparently "ordinary" young people in the present time.  Even in the tumult and complexity of today, the young generation remains a reason for hope. Youth are made for heroism, and if we try to love them, guide them, and prepare the ground for them, we should not be surprised by what God can accomplish in their hearts. It is encouraging to realize that Christ can bring them so far beyond our poor, flawed efforts as parents and educators. 
But it is not only for this that Chiara Luce is my friend. She also shows me the truth about my own destiny. But I am no longer young. I have grown old and complicated. I have woven badly many threads of my life and there are lots of knots. 
Chiara Luce amazes me, and, quite frankly, scares me in some sense. I find myself dizzy and powerless, gasping for air in the atmosphere she inhabits. But I am also drawn in my heart, fascinated and filled with longing even in front of these things that seem frightening and incomprehensible.
I acknowledge that I am far from God, broken, and above all proud. Only the humility that trusts in the transforming presence of Christ in my life can change me. I don't know how to "imitate" a saint like this. I can only beg for the grace of Christ to awaken and deepen in me the awareness that the circumstances of my own life are His gift through which He draws me to Himself. 
Blessed Chiara, pray for me. Pray for us.

*********************************************************
This is an unofficial (i.e. non-liturgical) English translation of the Collect for her feast day. My hope is that God's grace will indeed "transform deeply my soul" -- beginning with an attraction to this light of love, a desire to live with this serene trust.
Father of infinite goodness,
who through the merits of your Son and the gift of the Spirit have set alight with love Blessed Chiara Badano, transform deeply our soul so that, following her example, we too become capable of always doing Your holy will with serene trust. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, Amen.

Josefina Turns 11 Years Old

When I started this blog she was 4 years old. The other kids were 13, 12, 10, and 8.

Here we are, some seven years later. A lot has happened, or is in the process of happening. Two kids are in college. Another is a senior in high school who spent the first half of this year living in France. Another rides horses and is one test away from a black belt in karate.
Josefina, nevertheless, is not overshadowed by her older siblings. In some ways she's the only "child" left in the house, and she's certainly the smallest person around here. But she can fill a whole room with her personality.
That has always been true.
We're still having the "extended Birthday celebration." Tomorrow, she's going to bake her own birthday cake, and (I hope) we will gather everybody plus "Uncle Walter" for a family party. She's had some fun the past few days with her friends, doing this and that.
Jojo has basically grown up with me always being the one around the house. Though she is certainly a "youngest child" and a "Daddy's girl," she has also been a bright light to me on very dark days.
And she makes a perfect cheese omelet.
We are so proud of her, and so grateful for her.

Standing With Those Who Grieve

This is not an actual note written to any specific person. Rather, this is a draft of some basic considerations expressed in words by a writer who usually uses far too many words. 

What I would actually say to a friend who is grieving would depend on so many incalculable and utterly particular circumstances. But these words outline something of what I have tried, in different ways, to express before and what I would hope in the future to communicate to someone going through this pain.

"I'm so sorry for your loss.

"What you're going through right now is beyond anything I can imagine. Still I want to be with you, somehow, in your sorrow.

"I don't know how I can help. I wish I could explain the ways of God, but years and years of studying theology have taught me mostly that I do not understand God, but still I must stay and trust in Him. Grief is a long road. I just want to reach out to you and be a brother in the Lord.

"I believe with all my heart in the mystery of God's love in Jesus Christ. All of us are inside this mystery, and while we journey together we try to bear one another's burdens—even when we can't do or say much, we try, and I believe His love is somehow even in that 'trying.'
"That is my hope as I offer my heart to help, however I can, or else just to stand with you in your suffering, to stay together in Jesus."

Happy John Paul II Day!

Happy John Paul II Day! 
Eileen and I are grateful for this moment, and for all the moments of the monumental witness of his life.