9/11 Readings

It never ceases to amaze me how using Lectionary readings enhances worship and also speaks to the heart. This week was truly special because of 9/11 falling on a Sunday. The readings are ones that truly speak to the heart on this day of remembrance. The theme of forgiveness is very prevalent, and should give us pause, especially considering that the readings follow a schedule and were set for this date many years ago. It is amazing how God speaks and uses the Scriptures to touch our hearts.

I can't imagine the thoughts and feelings of those who lost loved ones on this day ten years ago. I also imagine that there are still those who feel anger and bitterness as they are reminded every year of this tragedy, especially this year. I hope and pray that many of those affected are able to hear these words and can heal from the pain if they still feel that bitterness.

10 years ago...

No theological discussion today, but rather some reflection as I remember what happened this fateful day ten years ago.

I remember it so clearly, much like my parents remember the assassination of JFK or my grandparents remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a Tuesday, and I know that only because one of my favorite bands, P.O.D., had just come out with their album Satellite. I was a senior in high school. It was second period, around 9:45, when I heard about the planes crashing into the Twin Towers of NYC. There was a sense of disbelief, shock, and confusion. There was no way this was happening to us. Just then, a correspondent who was in the Pentagon said they felt shaking. That was from the impact of that plane crashing.

We spent much of that school day watching NBC news (one of the few "outside" stations we could pick up in our school). During third period, both towers collapsed. It felt like a dream, like something that could never happen in real life, especially in America. Shortly afterwards, a "rumor" spread that a plane had crashed near Shanksville. All of us were skeptical; after all, we lived in Somerset County. Nothing exciting or dramatic happened here. A local news break, however, confirmed this rumor. Again, more disbelief and shock. What in the world was going on? Eventually, our administration told teachers to continue class as usual. How could we though, after what we had already seen and heard?

Phone calls began coming in to our area. After all, the national news could only say that a plane crashed in western PA, or Somerset county. Schools were wondering what to do. While not nearly as catastrophic as NYC, there was still chaos in our small world. Eventually, we were left out early along with other schools in the area. I think administrators realized that it was better to return home, perhaps to our families who also might have left work early.

The news stayed on much of the day at our house. It was unbelievable seeing the video and pictures of the events that had transpired that morning. I can only imagine what those in the towers had experienced, especially those who right in the path of each plane as it crashed.

Much has changed since then as we all know. Airport security has tightened dramatically. New rules and regulations have gone into effect, and others have been revised. Immediately following the events, there was a sense of unity. We were all Americans, all people who had witnessed a horrible tragedy in our nation. Leaders and politicians felt a common bond as was shown by Congress singing "God bless America" on the steps of the Capitol.

Now, it seems we have forgotten much, at least until this time rolls around every year. The bickering and fighting continue in our politics and the mentality of us vs. them still reigns supreme in our world. Many considered the events of 9/11 a wake-up call, but it seems we simply hit the snooze button and fell back into our old ways.

"I call you friends"

On yet another Maundy Thursday, I contemplate the Gospel reading said every year at services in all Catholic churches. Jesus, taking off his robe, washing the feet of his disciples, and telling them to do likewise (John 13). While I reflected on this last year (see April 2010 posts), I wanted this year to look at John 15.

Typically, Christians are most familiar with Jesus' teaching on being the vine, with us being the branches. What strikes me most is what happens after that lesson, which we read starting in verse 11:

"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." (John 15:11-15)

What prompted this thought was a song I sang at the Newman Center in West Chester, which I attended while visiting Alyssa on weekends. The song is called "We have been told", and I had one of the verses running through my head, which goes like this: "You are my friends, if you keep my commands. No longer slaves, I call you friends."

Imagine the apostles' possible surprise at this statement. Here, the teacher and master they had been following for three years, now turns to them and calls them his friends. What a table turner! Now, I'm not too familiar with rabbinical structures during the first century, but I have a hunch that no other teacher did that with their disciples. Jesus seeks more than just our blind obedience; he wants to know us intimately. He wants to be our friend, our best friend if you will. Thinking about it moves me, because it shows how great his love is.

How often do we fail in this regard? I'm sure many of us have had friends we have lost touch with or have not talked to for quite a while. Some of those people we no longer consider friends; others we can talk to them after some time like nothing has changed. I have people in my life that fall under both categories. However, Jesus wants to be that friend that we talk to every day and that we want to spend time with. I know I disappoint consistently and need to strive to be a better friend. What steps do you take to better your friendship?

Saints

Much criticism has been made about Catholicism and its belief in praying to the saints. Many of us are familiar with at least some names of the saints, most notably Jesus’ apostles along with other major figures in Christian history. But where does this belief stem from, and how did these great figures become saints?

To begin, we are all called as Christians to be saints. This is why, in addition to saints’ feast days, Catholics celebrate All Saints Day on November 1, as a way to celebrate the men and women in our lives who have been great influences. Christ calls us to be holy, and as any study of those who have the title “Saint”, these people had their own struggles in life. A prime example is St. Augustine of Hippo, a man who engaged in sexual immorality before converting, and who later became recognized as a “Doctor of the Church” for his writings on the faith.

The primary reason for the belief in asking the saints for help is the belief in “the communion of saints,” found in the Apostles’ Creed. Those departed brothers and sisters are no less a part of the Christ’s Church than we are who are still living. Thus, asking saints for their intercessions is not nearly so different than asking a friend to pray for us. We also see the saints interceding on our behalf in John’s vision in Revelation 5:8 and 7:9-14. We should be able to take some measure of comfort that our loved ones who are in heaven also may intercede on our behalf!

The communion of saints is something we see (in part) in the letter to the Hebrews, notably chapter 11, which is known as the “faith” chapter. Here, the author goes through various figures we find in the Old Testament, praising them for their faith. Granted, Roman Catholicism only recognizes figures from the New Testament onward (the Eastern rite does have Old Testament saints), but we see how looking to the saints can bolster our own faith.

Here some may ask, “But isn’t that communing with the dead?” Prayer is not holding a séance; we are not seeking to gain information, but rather are asking for help. Also, as Christians we believe in eternal life, so those saints and other departed brothers and sisters are still very much alive with God in heaven. This is another belief of saints: that they are assuredly in heaven.

Another objection may be, “But we should go directly to Jesus with our prayers.” True, our prayers should be focused on Him. But once again, we ask friends to pray for us, and throughout the Bible, we see many people asking others to do the same, such as Paul in his many letters to the churches of the time. The apostle James also writes,

“The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.” (James 5:16-18)

We see in Scripture time and again how those who follow God’s will on earth are effective in their prayers. How much more so then are those who have been made worthy to be in God’s presence!

This is something I am still learning about of course. I know only a handful of patron saints, like St. Thomas Aquinas, patron saint of education, or St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, patron saint of teachers, yet I find it comforting that even when I ask others on earth to pray for me, that perhaps my grandparents and other relatives are also praying for me. Perhaps in better understanding this teaching, you can as well.

Pro-life

“I am pro-life.” We hear this statement very often in our world today. But what does it mean? To most, it means being anti-abortion. However, ask those same people their opinion on contraception, capital punishment, war, or homosexuality, and you may get some interesting answers.

In a nutshell, Catholicism takes all such issues as life issues. Most of these issues focus around romantic relationships, especially the sacrament of matrimony (marriage). In Catholicism, a valid marriage is one that meets certain criteria: fidelity (the couples intend to be faithful to their vows), indissolubility (essentially “what God has joined together, let no one separate”), and openness to children. It’s this last criterion that makes some people uneasy when mentioned with some of the above issues.

As some may recall, a few months ago Pope Benedict made a statement about contraception and male prostitutes that caused people to scratch their heads and go “Huh?”. A statement made later provided some clarification. Essentially, the contraception ban is only for married couples. If we follow the logic, it makes sense. Only married couples should be engaging in intercourse, therefore contraception should not be used by anyone calling themselves Christian.

But what’s the big deal with contraception anyway? What contraception does is, in a sense, divorce sex from babies. Sex is no longer a procreative act, but one just for pleasure. As Christians, we are all called to give our complete selves to God. Contraception more or less says to God, “I give everything to you, except my fertility,” or “You can have control God, except in the bedroom.” Many historic leaders wrote about the consequences of a contraceptive society, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Gandhi, even the atheist and psychologist Sigmund Freud. All say that such a society (to paraphrase) will go down the tubes.

Following the criteria mentioned above, one can see why homosexual behavior then is seen as a sin. Openness to children is an impossibility. This is why Catholicism is staunch in its stance on this, while other denominations have begun allowing same gender marriages. At the heart of this, writes Christopher West, an author and one who has thoroughly studied Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, is a large insecurity among people with themselves. Images are portrayed everywhere as to what being a man or woman in our society should be. However, we are called to a different path, that of the cross. From the beginning, God intended man and woman to be together (Genesis 1 & 2).

What are those with homosexual tendencies to do then? Catholicism teaches that they are to lead chaste lives and strive to follow God’s calling, being the man or woman He created them to be. By no means is this an easy journey, and not everyone “makes it.” However, I believe God rewards our efforts, for we all fall short of His calling in our lives from time to time.

Side note: I spent quite a few weeks on this topic with the youth group I was working with. Much of the material I pulled from came from Christopher West’s book, “Good News About Sex and Marriage.” This post just touches on some major points from the talks I had with the youth. War and capital punishment will be upcoming!

Mortal and Venial sins

After being “offline” for about a year, I wanted to refocus on some questions that had come up during our tour of the sacraments and make this more about your questions than my own agenda. One question that came up was about sin and why Catholicism differentiates sins as either mortal or venial. As always, our friend the Catechism will help us.

There are many kinds of sin, and many lists are evident through the Bible. The Ten Commandments, Paul’s various lists in his letters, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and, for Catholics primarily, the seven deadly sins all give us an idea of the many faces sin presents itself. Catholicism categorizes sins into two categories: mortal and venial. A basis for this is found in 1 John 5:16-17, which reads, “If any one sees his brother committing what is not a deadly sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not deadly. There is sin which is deadly; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not deadly.” (CCC 1854)

Mortal sin is defined as that which “destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him,” (CCC 1855). For a sin to be considered mortal, there are three criteria that are looked upon: 1) it must be a grave matter, 2) it is committed with full knowledge and 3) is also done so with deliberate consent (CCC 1857).

A grave matter is given to us by the Ten Commandments, and also in Jesus’ response to the rich young man, which are the “do nots” of the commandments (murder, adultery, theft, false witness, defraud). The circumstances are also to be considered. For example, killing one’s parents is considered worse than killing a stranger (though both are quite grave!) (CCC 1858).

In the areas of full knowledge and consent, the catechism writes that this “presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice,” (CCC 1859). Essentially, the action is premeditated (consent) and the person is aware of the potential consequences caused by their actions. “Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest,” the catechism further states (CCC 1860).

The catechism and the Church do teach though, that “although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God,” (CCC 1861). We need to be mindful of Jesus’ words when he spoke “Judge not, that you be not judged,” (Matt. 7:1).

Venial sins are those that basically meet only one or two parts of the three criteria for mortal sins. What can also diminish the gravity of a sin are feelings and passions (potentially nullifying having full knowledge) along with external pressures or pathological disorders (CCC 1860, 1862).

While venial sins are seen as “lesser”, the great scholar and theologian Augustine warns us in writing:

While he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some light sins. But do not despise these sins which we call “light”: if you take them for light when you weigh them, tremble when you count them. A number of light objects makes a great mass; a number of drops fills a river; a number of grains makes a heap. What then is our hope? Above all, confession…” (quoted in CCC 1863)

Jesus also tells us that “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven,” (Matt. 12:31, also Mark 3:28-29). What the catechism teaches is that while God’s mercy is limitless, those who refuse this mercy and reject His forgiveness “can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss,” (CCC 1864).

The Church’s view on sin seems to be similar to our justice system when people are charged with crimes. We have misdemeanors and felonies, and we also have categories for different charges, such as in/voluntary manslaughter and murder. This is an example of how the Church sees sin as either mortal or venial. However, as humans we can never have a purely objective viewpoint and thus can not know everything about a situation like God can. This perhaps shows the great wisdom of Jesus when he made the statements we find at the beginning of Matthew 7.

To show the difference of venial and mortal sin, let us look at the sin of apostasy, which is essentially leaving the Catholic Church and a mortal sin. There are many reasons people have done this (including some readers of this blog), and many of those are legitimate, such as those affected by the sex scandals. Such reasons in a sense lessen the gravity of the sin. An example of this as truly mortal would be Lucifer. Being a spiritual being, he would have the ability to have that full knowledge and consent in choosing to leave God’s side. This is why he, as Satan, will face final judgment which we read in Revelation.

While the Church teaches that there are mortal and venial sins, the ultimate point is that regularly confessing sins keeps us aware of our shortcomings and allows us to focus on improving our lifestyle so that we can better be Christ’s example to the world.

The Good Samaritan

This week, as we celebrated Mass, our gospel reading was taken from the very familiar story Luke gives us in chapter 10: The Good Samaritan. Now, I'm sure we've all heard sermons and homilies on this story (treat everyone with respect, look out for others, help the stranger, etc.), but our parish priest put a different spin on things.

As we know, the story goes that a Jewish man falls into the hands of robbers who beat him half to death while he's traveling between Jericho and Jerusalem and leave him for dead. The priest and Levite who come along and pass on the other side do so according to Jewish laws of cleanliness; they cannot touch anything dead for fear of becoming unclean. So Jesus here once again points out that cleanliness laws are not meant to be followed so strictly that we lose sight of the greatest commandment: to love God and, in turn, our neighbor.

Here's where it gets more interesting. A Samaritan comes and saves the man, bandaging the wounds and taking him to a nearby inn where he pays the innkeeper the necessary fees and promises to pay any extra expenses on his way back through. End of story right? The Samaritan does the good deed, huzzah!

Well, think of this: Remember that the Samaritans outright hated the Jews and Jews despised Samaritans just as equally. These were bitter enemies, yet one of them chose to save his enemy. Now for a Jewish person, they would rather die, yes, DIE before they took any aid from a Samaritan. Imagine the man's surprise later if he found out who saved him!

If we were to modernize this story and put it into our context, Jesus might be saying that it was an American who fell into the hands of robbers, and a member of al Qaeda (the Taliban) saved him. How crazy would that be? Imagine the media coverage and reaction from people. Yet, this is how radical Jesus' message was to the people of his time, and how radical it is to us today. Let's always remember who our neighbors are, despite the circumstances we know one another.