Papal Christmas Messages, and the Latest Article

Here are some significant moments from the Pope's Christmas messages. Also, I have a new article.

The infinite distance between God and man is overcome. God has not only bent down, as we read in the Psalms; he has truly “come down”, he has come into the world, he has become one of us, in order to draw all of us to himself. This child is truly Emmanuel – God-with-us. His kingdom truly stretches to the ends of the earth. He has truly built islands of peace in the world-encompassing breadth of the holy Eucharist. Wherever it is celebrated, an island of peace arises, of God’s own peace. This child has ignited the light of goodness in men and has given them strength to overcome the tyranny of might. This child builds his kingdom in every generation from within, from the heart.

~Pope Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass Homily,
for the whole homily, click here

Here is his annual message to the world:

“Verbum caro factum est” – “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14). ... This message is ever new, ever surprising, for it surpasses even our most daring hope. First of all, because it is not merely a proclamation: it is an event, a happening, which credible witnesses saw, heard and touched in the person of Jesus of Nazareth! Being in his presence, observing his works and hearing his words, they recognized in Jesus the Messiah; and seeing him risen, after his crucifixion, they were certain that he was true man and true God, the only-begotten Son come from the Father, full of grace and truth (cf. Jn 1:14).

~Pope Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message,
for the whole message, click here

And for my Vatican year in review Zenit article, click here.

Don't forget to leave those lights up and to keep wishing folks a "Merry Christmas" for another 12 days. Live Catholic! It is still the Christmas season until Epiphany (Jan. 6).

Merry Christmas to all!

CDF Steps In to Bring Clarity to Pope's Comments on Condoms

This should help bring clarity and finality to the question of condoms and male prostitution.

(Big "way to go" to L'Osservatore Romano for helping ignite a controversy, as if we needed another.)

Note From The Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith (via EWTN.com)

Conversation with Carl

Thanks to the one who occasioned me to write the following response/blog by bringing to my attention this quote from Carl Sagan, agnostic astronomer who died in 1996.

“The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying … it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity” (Carl Sagan).

I wish he were alive today, because this is interesting on a couple of levels and worth conversation.

First of all, let us consider the idea of “an oversized white male” in the sky. Materialism is the rule of the day in the scientific community, but materialism was not an error of the time during the painting of such images of God the Father in the heavens. St. John writes, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (1:18). God, we see, is immaterial. And so artists throughout history have attempted to give expression to the ineffable. Is He really a large, gray-haired Caucasian male in the sky? Of course not. His size is an artistic attempt to express His majesty; His white hair, traditionally a sign of wisdom, his omniscience. So, watch out for the snares of the materialists, who betray the intent of Christian artists.

Not only is God immaterial, but so are his angels—not to be mistaken for little rosy-cheeked cherubic cupids of Roman myth. We confess in Christianity even prior to the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) that he created “the seen things (Gk: oratōn) and the unseen things (Gk: aoratōn).” Thus, there exists the world of immaterial substances, and certainly Sacred Scripture bears witness to this.

Secondly, I never cease to be awestruck by the non sequiturs that effuse from the lips of scientists who attempt to wax metaphysical. It does not follow that to believe in an Orderer of the universe is “to pray to the law of gravity.” No Christian engages in such nonsense; the law of gravity clearly is not God nor does it follow that believe in an Orderer implies worship of his laws. Rather, we adhere to His laws (some of which are harder to break than others).

However, it would be hasty to altogether dismiss the intent of the point—that the idea of an Unsourced Source of all things does not inspire belief, gratitude, trust, love. Such an exclusively Aristotelian notion of God is quite uninspiring indeed. What then?

The reality goes back to that verse quoted above, that “the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father … has made him known.” Yes, God did order the universe and all its elements. Yes, God holds all things (oratōn kai aoratōn) in existence. Yes, God is the Unsourced Source, the Font of all Being. But the Son has made known that He is Father, that He is almighty, that He is justice, that He is mercy, that He is love.

And so only such a God who tallies the fall of every sparrow is worthy of mankind’s trust, for how much more costly are those made in his image and likeness? Only such a God who has care over and knowledge about all his creatures as to number the hairs on their heads (Mt 10:30) deserves their hopes. Only such a God who sees man’s suffering and sin and becomes man to share our condition, deliver us and feed us by his body, and sanctify us by His Holy Spirit may make us worthy to offer him eternal love and devotion. Only such a God who adopts us as one family under His Most Holy Mother can know the depths of our needs.

Only such a God who greets us in the manger at Bethlehem merits more wonder than the sum of what we give the countless stars He set in motion. For each one, He maintains their course, as for us.

To all who read this, may your hearts in these last couple days of Advent continue to be prepared for the coming of the Lord, and I wish the best of Christmas blessings!

The Great Thing about Teaching Writing at a Catholic school...

Every now and then, I get to write something fun, too!

Anadiplosis is a scheme in writing in which the last word or phrase in one clause becomes the first word or phrase in the next clause ... and so on and so forth.

Here is one from St. Paul (color-coded so you can see what I mean):

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.
And those whom he predestined he also called;
and those whom he called he also justified;
and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Rom 8:29-30).

In Greek (you don't need to know the language to see the parallels, but if you do, feel free to geek out a bit):

ὅτι οὓς προέγνω, καὶ προώρισεν συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς·
οὓς δὲ προώρισεν, τούτους καὶ ἐκάλεσεν·
καὶ οὓς ἐκάλεσεν, τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσεν·
and οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσεν, τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασεν.

To write one, just think of one thing in a sequence that leads to another. You may like Yoda's better ("Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering"), but here is a sample, by me.

Again I have color-coded it for you in case you want to try at home.

From Fiat to Scepter
The joy of her fiat awaits the sorrows of Calvary,
the sorrows of Calvary merit the triumph of Easter,
the triumph of Easter precedes the glory of Ascension,
the glory of Ascension acquires the scepter of Queenship.

Fr. Barron on Whether to Leave the Catholic Church

All equal paths to one God? Why not leave the Church?

This is why ...

Santa Claus - Icon of Intolerance

Editorial note: I'm re-running this blog post in honor of St. Nicholas on his feast day. Time to ring in the Advent spirit with a little holiday zeal!

St. Nicholas lived from 270 to 343 A.D. in modern-day Turkey. He lived in an era of great Christian persecution and trial. Most people have heard the following story about St. Nicholas:

A poor man had three young daughters whose dowries he could not afford. Because of this, they faced a future dark with poverty and prostitution. St. Nicholas is said to have heard of the plight of the poor father. He knew such a future was no future at all. One night under cover of darkness, he filled a bag of coins and "dropped them down the chimney" of the poor man's house (in reality, he probably threw them in the window) to cover the eldest daughter's dowry. The next night, he dropped another bag of coins down the chimney. The father, now realizing someone had heard of his plight knew that the "Good Samaritan" would be returning a third night in his generosity to cover the youngest daughter's dowry. Though it is unknown whether the father prepared M&M cookies and milk, he stayed awake to discover the identity of the humble benefactor. It was Nicholas. Had the father not stayed awake, no one would have ever known it was him.

This is a very lovely story indeed! Nicholas did many very wonderful things, some of which follow.

Many might consider the following events of Nicholas' life acts of intolerance. To get to what is relevant for our purposes, we have to know more about the man beyond the legend. Nicholas one night had a vision of the Lord Jesus in glory holding the jewel-adorned Gospels and standing beside Nicholas. On Nicholas' other side was the Blessed Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, holding a bishop's stole. Shortly after his vision, the Church named Nicholas bishop of Myra. Nicholas served as bishop during a difficult, but profoundly fruitful, time for Christianity. As bishop, he was arrested, tortured, and imprisoned during the oppressive Roman persecutions (much as Catholic bishops are being treated in the same manner in China at this very moment). However, when Emperor Constantine converted, he released many imprisoned bishops, including Nicholas, who returned to his people. Christianity was now legal throughout the Roman Empire.

Intolerant Santa alert! Many pagan worship practices were still observed throughout Nicholas' diocese. Many people in Asia Minor continued to worship the Greek fertility goddess Artemis, daughter of Zeus. Nicholas knew that as bishop, he had to care for the souls of his flock, who might flock back to what he knew to be a demon-inspired fertility cult. He set out to destroy the shrines and expel the demons from the land. And so it was: through Nicholas' life-long efforts, the once-magnificent temple of Artemis in Myra and several other temples were razed to the ground.

Meanwhile, a strange new difficulty arose for the Church as it became the official religion of the empire - the state sought to get involved in disputes over Church teachings. (Nobody ever talks about the exceedingly lengthy history of state-church interference!)

One of the great controversies of the early Church had to do with the nature of Jesus Christ. Who was this man? One wayward priest, Arius of Alexandria (Egypt), felt he had the answer. Arius alleged that Jesus was not God, but was only a man. Arius in 319 challenged the Church's teaching that the Son of God was equal to God the Father and that as Son. Arius, ignoring the Sacred Gospels, erroneously taught that there was once a time when the Son of God did not exist. Arius' Jesus was no Christ at all, but only a man, and not divine. As the months and years went on, Arius gathered quite a following, a following which grew even after he was excommunicated from the Church in 321. The peace of the Church was in jeopardy. Meanwhile in his diocese, Nicholas had defended the truth about Christ with great vigor, and as St. Methodious writes, "thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas the metropolis of Myra alone was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as death-dealing poison." As division grew between Christians and this new sect, the Emperor Constantine called a council in 325 - the Council of Nicaea.

Intolerant Santa alert! At the council, Arius alleged that Jesus was only "like" God. Nicholas could bear no more. Filled with zealous love for the true Jesus, he rose to his feet and boxed the ears of the arch-heretic Arius, who fell to the ground (some accounts allege that he clobbered Arius with a magical sack of toys). The other bishops (desiring to condemn such behavior) banned Nicholas from the Council, imprisoned him, and removed him from the episcopacy. Later, several other bishops received the same vision of Nicholas surrounded by the Lord and his Mother. They soon restored Nicholas as bishop.

Arius was defeated at the Council of Nicaea thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit through holy and zealous priests like St. Nicholas and St. Athanasius (for whom it is certain that I will some day write a blog). The Nicene Creed, which affirms that Jesus is "eternally begotten of the Father: God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in being [consubstantial] with the Father..." Arianism would be wounded at the Council, and was definitively defeated by the late 4th century.

Indeed, the real "Santa Claus" was a very intolerant man - intolerant of idolatry and blasphemy - that's part of the reason he is a saint. I would not want to be on St. Nicholas' "naughty list." This sure puts "Santa Claus is coming to town" in a whole new perspective.

God bless St. Nicholas! May similar instances of intolerance abound throughout the world! It will be a better place, I guarantee it.