John Janaro's Blog, page 34

April Flowers!

The Dogwood and Cherry Blossom Trees along with Buttercups and Tulips in many different hues display their bright banners all around us this time of year.

Remembrance and a Question: "Have We Gone Numb?"

Marking the 17th anniversary of the horrific and excruciating ordeal of Virginia Tech University.

Many, perhaps, have forgotten this day. In the past 17 years, there has been so much more violence: so many school shootings, public venue shootings, and innocent people dying, bleeding and dying at random, people dying because they were in “the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time,” because violence came, unbidden, to a place where they should have been safe, and with an explosion of bloodshed, stole their lives from them. 

This is not a television show. This is the reality of our society—the society we are making for ourselves out of our anger and negligence, our undisciplined cravings and the brutality of our relationships, our neglect of the defenseless, our crass ignorance, our cowardice. And beyond the intolerable atrocities that shock us on the news, there is a whole hidden world of assault (hiding in plain sight) where many innocent human persons—our brothers and sisters—are attacked, brutalized, wounded again and again, or killed and discarded. This is what happens in a society that is too busy, too distracted, too self-absorbed, where people don’t want to see the pain beyond the media spectacle and the ugly curiosity it generates. This is what happens in a society where hearts have grown small, where love has grown cold.

Are we becoming NUMB? Have we made ourselves comfortable with a society full of murder and violence and fear—a "culture of death" that places so little value on the inalienable dignity of every human person? I must examine my own conscience on this question. It would do us all good to be "unsettled" (and more) by the killing that goes on and on and on… 

But #VirginiaTech, I will never forget your sorrows. For the last 17 years, your beautiful and inspiring commemorations of the 32 Hokies who were gunned down on this day help bring consolation and healing. I join you in remembering those who died, those who survived, and all their loved ones, and all my Hokie peeps today.

🧡🤎💔 #VirginiaTechHokies #RemembranceDay

"Never Give Up" on Jesus, No Matter What...

Rejoice! Christ is Risen from the dead, Alleluia!

We are in the Easter Season. We celebrate with joy what has been accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We celebrate the glory of His victory over death and evil.

But we don't need to pretend that we ourselves are no longer suffering. Everyone endures trials and tribulation of one kind or another. There is immense suffering at all levels of life, from the depths of our hearts to the desperate struggles of nations and peoples. Our times are likely to see worse things...

Nevertheless, let us remember that Christ is Risen, and that He remains the center of history, the Source of our strength, the goal of our journey through this world.

Jesus is Lord! He defines and gives measure to every moment of our lives, directly, personally, by the power of His love for each one of us. All of life: the aspirations and successes, the compassion and courage and works of love we do, and the disappointment, the suffering, the sins, the failures, the weakness, the most appalling afflictions and all the incomprehensible, banal, repetitive, small, and apparently meaningless moments we endure and live day after day. He remains with us in the fullness of His victory. He dwells among us, He is "God-With-Us" and He has endured every sorrow so as to stay with us and draw us to Himself--to draw forth even the renewal of our freedom, and the growth of our freedom...if we will let Him. We can't begin to imagine how much He loves each one of us, how much He loves every single human being.

"Never Give Up" on Jesus. He is Risen! Rejoice...even when sometimes that "joy" feels like nothing but the bare grip by which we hold on to Him in the dark with wild hope and refuse to let go of Him even when everything seems crazy or lost.

The "Horizon of Eternity"

"Jesus does not eliminate the concern and search for daily food. No, he does not remove the concern for all that can make life more progressive. But Jesus reminds us that the true meaning of our earthly existence lies at the end, in eternity. It lies in the encounter with Him, who is gift and giver. He also reminds us that human history with its suffering and joy must be seen in a horizon of eternity, in that horizon of the definitive encounter with Him. And this encounter illuminates all the days of our life. If we think of this encounter, of this great gift, the small gifts of life, even the suffering, the worries will be illuminated by the hope of this encounter."

~Pope Francis

Inspired By Spring…

“Inspired By Spring 2024, no.1” (#DigitalArt #JJStudios).

Freedom for the Ukraine Byzantine CATHOLIC Church

The Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church celebrated Easter this year according to the Western calendar. This is the Church of native Ukrainian Christians in full communion with Rome, which is relatively small but tremendously important both for Christian ecumenism and as a consistent and vivid witness to Ukraine's independence as a people and a culture.

For them the fire of Easter candles was unwelcomely augmented by the fire of a renewed Russian bombing campaign.

The importance of an Ukraine free and independent of Russian political power, or even a so-called Russian "sphere of influence," is perceived with particular clarity and urgency by Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics, who have a long and painful history of struggling for freedom against the “errors of Russia.” Perhaps it could be said that they originated the path that in recent years has been taken up by the now autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox communities in Ukraine. For six centuries, these Orthodox churches—following the widespread rejection of the Reunion Council of Florence and the fall of the Byzantine Empire—were subjected to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church even as their people were subjected to the ruler of Muscovy, who proclaimed himself the heir of Constantinople's imperial status. Moscow declared itself to be "the Third Rome" and its rulers took the title of "Caesar"—the Divinely-appointed "Czar" of a "Holy Empire."

The Muscovite Russian Empire soon appropriated the history of "Kyivian Rus" and swallowed its lands and peoples. But there were a few churches among the southern Rus who continued to work for full communion with Rome, and finally achieved it in 1596. The ensuing centuries were not easy for the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church. This Church was illegal in the Orthodox Empire of Czarist Moscow. Moreover, its adherents struggled (even though they were supported by popes) to preserve their distinctive Byzantine and Slavonic heritage in Latin Catholic Poland, while finding a greater measure of tolerance in the multi-ethnic, multi-national, somewhat chaotic Habsburg confederation. 

Through it all they never forgot that they were Ukrainians. In the 20th century, the cruelest of all the Czars—Joseph Stalin—tried to "liquidate" the Ukrainian Catholics by a forced merger with the Russian Orthodox Church that he manipulated and controlled.

Many Ukrainians—Orthodox and Catholic—emigrated to the West in those dark years. Ukrainian Catholics flourished in North America and elsewhere. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I was within walking distance of the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic cathedral of the regional eparchy. From my youth I knew about Byzantine Catholics and was able to participate in their profound liturgical life.

I also knew about Ukrainians and their nation, their beloved Ukraine which they (rightly) regarded as a "captive nation" of the Soviet Union. Many years ago, I made the mistake of asking a Ukrainian woman if "Ukrainians were basically like Russians." With firmness and dignity she replied, "We are not Russians. We are Europeans!"

There are some important and very particular dangers that most Westerners (including Western Catholics) don't understand about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Latin-rite Catholic Church is permitted to exist freely (albeit carefully) in the Russian Federation at this time. Churches are not tolerated, however, if they follow the Byzantine Liturgy and Byzantine spiritual traditions while also expressing full communion with the Pope. Russia itself has not (yet) had an enduring Byzantine Catholic presence among its own people, the only exception being the brief flowering of an authentically Russian Byzantine Catholic Exarchate in 1917 after the abdication of the last Czar (which I have written about here). Sadly, the success of the Communist Revolution put an end to this young church (or, I prefer to believe, planted it deep in the earth like a seed still destined to grow and bear fruit).

The Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church endured even after it was driven underground by Stalin, however, with support from the Ukrainian diaspora communities, and it emerged again after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the establishment of an independent Ukraine. The democratization of Ukraine has guaranteed full freedom of religion to the Byzantine Catholic Church. By stark contrast, invading Russians have already proven that the Putinist fantasy of a "Great Russia" that absorbs Ukraine into itself has no place for a Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. In the areas invaded and occupied by Russian troops, Ukrainian Catholic churches have been shut down or destroyed, and Byzantine Catholic priests have been driven out of the regions or arrested and tortured.

Here we see one of many reasons why Russia must not emerge from this criminal war with so much as an inch of illegally conquered or "annexed" Ukrainian territory. I raise this point, among other reasons, in the hope that it might stir the consciences of some fellow Catholics in the USA who are tempted to believe the lies of Putinist propaganda, or blindly follow American politicians who propose to solve "in one day" the profound problems of this war, or who dishonor our country by withholding promised support that Ukraine needs to continue to defend itself.

But the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic bishops themselves make the case for the legitimacy of national self-defense, the need for assistance, and all the reasons why Russian aggression is criminal and indefensible in a thorough and admirably clear statement released last month. This is the statement from the Synod of bishops in Ukraine, who minister daily to soldiers and their families, civilians in bomb shelters, migrants and refugees and all the victims of Putinist violence. It is worth reading. Here is the link: Rescue the Oppressed from the Hand of their Oppressors.

Please, read this document. 

Latin-rite Catholics must not remain ignorant about the sufferings of our Eastern-rite brothers and sisters, who deserve our special attention even as we pray and work for the upholding of the inalienable human dignity of every person afflicted by this horrible war. And the realities addressed by the Ukrainian Catholic bishops are among the key issues for an honest and constructive dialogue that might prepare the way for a just and lasting peace.

Easter Octave: The Sunday of Divine Mercy

We come to the conclusion of the “eight days” that constitute the superabundance of our celebration of the “Day” of Christ’s Resurrection: “This is the Day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad” (Psalm 118:24). Now follow the days and weeks of the Easter Season, culminating in Pentecost.
It is also Divine Mercy Sunday, instituted by Pope Saint John Paul II in recognition of the deepening of awareness in the Church of the centrality of God’s merciful love at the heart of the Paschal Mystery. The body of Jesus, pierced in the heart by a lance, pours forth blood and water, which indicate the sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism through which the Risen Jesus gives Himself to us and conforms us to Himself.
Today’s Collect: .God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast
kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,
increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed,
that all may grasp and rightly understand
in what font they have been washed,
by whose Spirit they have been reborn,
by whose Blood they have been redeemed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

The writings of Saint Faustina—the twentieth century Polish nun who conveyed the details of the image and the key elements of the devotion to God’s Mercy—indicate that Jesus willed the Sunday after Easter to be specially dedicated to His Mercy.

“O blood and water, which poured forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you.” Trust encompasses our living faith, our personal relationship with Jesus our Savior. Trust grows through the faith that believes in His redemption, adheres to Him in hope, and grows in love for Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Triune God who made each one of us and calls us to an everlasting communion with Divine Love.

Everything is grace, the gift of God’s merciful love. With wonder and gratitude, we pray for the grace to say “yes” every day to Jesus, to follow Him on the path of the journey to our True Home.

The Mystery of Mercy Embraces Our Whole Humanity

For whatever reason[s], I'm feeling stiff and slow and tired and overwrought and confused as we approach the end of Easter Week. It's a physical thing, and there's nothing "new" about it. Rest usually clears things up, eventually. So, I shall try to get some rest.

Obviously, we have all been through tragic and difficult events. The weather has also been unseasonably cool and windy. When Spring finally comes to stay, it will bring some improvement for my tired old rheumatic beat-up Lyme-disease-damaged body (which includes the fog and the mush in my brain).

We're all provoked, I think, to let Jesus take over our minds and hearts more profoundly, to let the Spirit of the Risen Lord bring His healing mercy to the more hidden levels of our broken lives—the failures and limitations and stubbornness and resistance to God’s love and the fear and self-grasping that run so deeply in each of us, in our own personal history and our relations with one another.

Jesus is Risen from death. There are no "gaps" in our humanity that are too big for Him to fill.

Well, I'm too tired to say any more right now. Jesus, save me, save us! Have mercy on us! 

I shall never give up on the mystery of your mercy.

An Easter Week of Mourning Losses Past and Present

Me and my Dad, around 1979.

I miss my Dad, who died five years ago (on April 3, 2019). I have reflected much upon him on this blog and on so many other events that have happened since that day. This year’s remembrance of his death, however, comes during Eastertide, and at a moment in which our local community continues to mourn the terrible loss of last week.

Jesus Christ is truly Risen, Alleluia! And He says to Doubting Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29). What a precious gift is our faith! But the obscurity of death — of the final passage from this life to the fulfillment of eternal life — remains difficult for us who continue our pilgrimage through this world. We need to help one another, console one another, and pray for those who have gone before us on that final journey, as God’s purifying mercy prepares them for the perfection of union with Him.

Our Easter joy struggles to “see” through the clouds and darkness that remain on our path, and sometimes the challenge is great. We may not feel joyful — indeed, other immediate circumstances of these days might pull our emotions in many directions. But our joy still has vitality. It can still be “lived” (regardless of how we “feel”) in our persistence of moving forward on the path of the good news of the resurrection. There is much we do not “see,” but faith and hope adhere to things beyond our sight, beyond our comprehension, and sometimes beyond bearing for our fragile human psychological and emotional structure.

When we can’t “keep it together” and are overwhelmed by the exhaustion of our poor humanity, then there is no shame in “falling apart”—but let us make even of this affliction a prayer full of the poverty that opens to God our Father in humility and hope.

While I still miss Dad (very much), the loss of him and my mother has grown more over time into an "acceptance." Their "not-being-around-anymore-on-earth" has taken shape in my life as part of the current terrain of my pilgrimage. I remember them every day and feel a new kind of closeness to them, among other things through the bond of praying for them every day. "Requiem Eternam…"

This Easter, I also pray for the repose of the soul of a young man whose body will be buried on Friday. And I pray for those who have been broken by his tragic death last week, that with God’s grace and in God’s time, peace and healing will come. At every moment, the Risen Jesus is with us. He draws all our broken pieces of humanity together in Himself. He redeems our sorrows and transforms our wounds. Still, they hurt terribly. Oh God, save us! Lord Jesus, have mercy on us all. It’s so hard.

I pray for — and have really begun to long for — that Final Day when we will all be together again, with all the tears wiped away. Until then, “we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience”

Remembering Saint John Paul II

Saint John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, right after the celebration in his hospital room of the Vigil Mass for Divine Mercy Sunday.

He was, in an important sense, so much “more” than a Pope. He was a human being full of a passion for life, for the goodness of reality, and full of com-passion for suffering of every kind. He was this gigantic man for whom it was obvious that Jesus Christ was everything: “The Redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the center of the cosmos and of history” (Redemptor Hominis, 1). He lived this as a fact, as an interpersonal relationship, as an ardent discipleship, as an adventure of truth and love — and he inspired my generation to want to live this way.

He was a convincing sign that Jesus is the answer to our humanity, that He more than deserves our trust.