SOUTHAVEN – Students celebrated the 73rd anniversary of Sacred Heart School with crazy sock and shoe day on Sept. 16. (Photo by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)
By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Two Catholic women judges are on the short list of possible candidates to fill the vacant Supreme Court justice seat after the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The judges are Amy Coney Barrett, a federal appellate court judge in Chicago, and Barbara Lagoa, a federal appeals court judge in Atlanta.
President Donald Trump told reporters the afternoon of Sept. 19, and rallygoers later that evening, that he intended to pick a Supreme Court nominee in the coming days, and it would likely be a woman.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, pledged hours after Ginsburg’s death that he would hold a vote on Trump’s nominee to fill the court vacancy despite blocking President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016, after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death that February, because it was an election year.
To move Trump’s nominee through the Senate would require a simple majority vote. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said that if he wins the election, he should be the one to nominate Ginsburg’s successor.
One of the first names to emerge as possible contender for Ginsburg’s seat – raised while mourners were gathered on the steps of the court chanting, “RBG!” – was Barrett, a 48-year-old who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit Court, based in Chicago.
The judge, a former law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a mother of seven, is not an unknown. She was viewed as a potential candidate for the nation’s high court in 2018 after Justice Anthony Kennedy retired, a slot that was filled by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Barrett, a former clerk for Scalia, was the focus of Senate grilling during her 2017 confirmation hearing to serve on the 7th Circuit, when she was asked about the impact her faith would have on her interpretation of the law.
When Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, asked Barrett if she considered herself an “orthodox” Catholic, Barrett said: “If you’re asking whether I take my faith seriously and am a faithful Catholic, I am. Although I would stress that my present church affiliation or my religious beliefs would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge.”
The other name that emerged as short-list contender for the Supreme Court – and quickly gained traction as a potential election boost for the Trump – was Lagoa, the 52-year-old Miami-born daughter of Cuban exiles.
Last year, Lagoa spoke at a Florida reception of the St. Thomas More Society after the annual Red Mass, which prays for lawyers and judges, at St. Anthony Church in Fort Lauderdale. She said her Catholic education instilled in her “an abiding faith in God that has grounded me and sustained me through the highs and lows of life.”
Lagoa, a judge of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, asked the audience if “one could be a strong advocate for one’s client and still be a Catholic?” She answered the question by saying faith was “more than going to Mass every Sunday, and to me at least, it means having a personal relationship with God that in turn informs how we treat others.”
She also gave the example of St. Thomas More and said he shows how legal professionals should not compartmentalize professional lives from spiritual lives to justify a lapse in faith or moral conviction.
“Perhaps it starts with reminding ourselves, even when it is hardest, of the dignity of each human being – even the most difficult opposing counsel – and it also starts with reminding ourselves that none of us are perfect and that we ourselves can contribute to or exacerbate a difficult situation,” she said.
Tom Tracy, who writes for the Florida Catholic, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Miami, contributed to this report.
By Danny McArthur (Daily Journal)
TUPELO – For María Pérez, a member of the Hispanic Ministry at St. James Catholic Church in Tupelo, the ongoing pandemic has had a profound emotional toll.
Perez, who considers herself a very affectionate person, said being unable to interact physically with people has been incredibly difficult. For her, friends are family, and not being able to hug and talk to others has been a struggle. And the pandemic has made her husband, Salvador, incredibly anxious.
Faith, she said, is pulling them through.
“My faith has been the strongest, knowing that nothing is bigger than the Lord,” she said in Spanish. “Everything will pass except the love and compassion the Lord has for us.”
Faith guides the members of the St. James Hispanic ministry in nearly all aspects of their lives. It’s something the pandemic hasn’t changed.
Impact in the church
When the pandemic began, the church had to close its doors to in-person services. St. James Hispanic Community Coordinator Raquel Thompson said they began focusing on access. Services were recorded and posted on Facebook so families could participate from home.
“It affected a lot of the people spiritually to not be able to be in the church. I think it had a big impact,” Thompson said.
For associate pastor Father César Sánchez, who started at St. James on July 1, the church wants to show their congregation that they are never truly closed. As a priest, it was harder to celebrate and preach to a camera, but Sánchez saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of social media to reach more people than before.
“In these two months, July and August, from our point of view as a church, we never closed the church,” Sánchez said. “I told people; ‘the gospel is not closed. Even though you cannot come to the church, the church comes to you in your house by online and Facebook Masses’.”
Even once St. James reopened, it was important to keep everyone safe. Thompson has more than 250 registered families in her ministry and said the church overall ministers to over 400 families. There are also many families that do not register.
Services look different these days. Rather than having 300 to 400 people at Spanish Mass, attendance is limited to 150. There are also more Mass services on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to cover spiritual needs. Aside from limiting the number of people inside at a time, they also began requiring masks and social distancing. Sanitation occurs between each Mass.
Socially distanced
Several church members cited feeling socially affected by COVID-19. For Oralio Martínez of Tupelo, the pandemic has affected her family mentally. She said she is grateful to God that her family has not suffered financially, although their lives have definitely changed.
“We have to be home, we can’t go anywhere,” she said in Spanish. “We’re scared to go out because there are so many people or where there’s a lot of gatherings. We’ve been very limited.”
Marco López said the change brought on by the pandemic has been drastic and difficult for a family accustomed to spending time together going to Mass, attending his grandson’s baseball games, or doing activities.
But the pandemic has also taught López the importance of spending time with his family. An employee of BancorpSouth, López said working at home during the pandemic has allowed him to spend more time with his wife, Verónica Salgado.
“We used to have gatherings, especially on Sundays after Mass with some of our friends, so not having that was an impact. For social distancing, we couldn’t do that … but what we couldn’t do with other families, we did with ours,” López said.
The family takes turns having Sunday Mass at home at either his home or with his daughter who lives in Shannon, and they have lunch at home together instead of going to a restaurant.
Role of faith
The church represents a bit of normalcy in strange and difficult times. Martínez recently sent her son back to school, saying it was important he have something familiar. She thinks it is more beneficial for him to return to school with his peers.
Sánchez said faith plays an important role in the Hispanic community and is the reason they have seen more people return to in-person services.
“They really need to pray and want to come to the church and pray because they know during this time, we need to increase our faith, our prayer,” Sánchez said.
López said what is getting his family through this time is prayer. Salgado began praying with the Divine Mercy Chaplet on Facebook Live with friends in March, and López said he believes it has brought them together and strengthened them.
“We overcame the situation of being at home and quarantining through prayer. We keep doing that … We’re almost six months into it and we fall in love more with that prayer,” López said.
For María Pérez, faith is the reason she sent her children back to school rather than distance learning. She admitted to feeling some initial anxiety about sending her kids back to school. But then, she thought about how returning to society, even a changed one, holds lessons for her children to learn.
The way through the pandemic, she said, is through caring for each other.
“I want my children to know that you cannot live in fear. No matter what happens, you must confront the situation,” Pérez said.
And have a little faith.
“Remember, centuries back, we’ve had epidemics and things like this, and people come out of them,” she said. “Have confidence in the Lord that this is permitted for a reason and to keep living your life and try to live your life as gracefully as you can.”
(This article was published by the Daily Journal of Tupelo on Sept. 6, 2020. Follow the author at danny.mcarthur@journalinc.com; Twitter: @Danny_McArthur_. Ana Acosta, Raquel Thompson and Berta Mexidor provided translations for this story.)
By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
JACKSON – Catechetical Sunday, an annual event in the church that sets the theme for the year of faith formation, was observed last Sunday. This year’s theme is from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, “I received from the Lord what I have also handed on to you.” Out of his personal relationship with Jesus Christ, St. Paul speaks emphatically that what he received from the Lord, is both the Eucharist and the content of the faith. All the baptized are invited to stir into flame the gift we have received, handed on to us through faith formation in our homes and in our churches. We are grateful to God for all catechists who embrace the church’s mission of faith formation and evangelization.
The recently promulgated Directory for Catechesis advances the Lord’s Great Commission with clarity “to make disciples of all nations.” It states that catechesis must be at the service of the New Evangelization so that every person may have a wide-open and personal access to the encounter with Jesus Christ.
St. John Paul II zealously taught that “the purpose of catechesis is communion with Jesus Christ.” The fruit of this communion is mission, a life well lived in service of the Gospel. Catechesis requires that we accompany those entrusted to us in the maturation of the attitudes of faith. “The church’s closeness to Jesus is part of a common journey: communion and mission are profoundly interconnected.”
The Directory for Catechesis further expounds that the church is called to proclaim and teach her primary truth which is the love of Christ because the essence of the mystery of the Christian faith is mercy incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. Catechesis can be a realization of the spiritual work of mercy, “instruct the ignorant.” Catechetical action, in fact, consists in offering the possibility of escaping the greatest form of ignorance which prevents people from knowing their own identity and vocation in Jesus Christ. St. Augustine affirms that catechesis becomes the “occasion of a work of mercy” in that it satisfies “with the Word of God the intelligence of those who hunger for it.” By virtue of our baptism, the family, the church community and catechists are charged with the task to awaken that hunger.
The recently celebrated feast of St. Matthew on Sept. 21 illustrates this vision for faith formation. His first encounter with Jesus Christ was nothing less than a hunger awakened that was satisfied. The Venerable Bede, an English Saint of the 7th century, writes movingly. “Jesus saw the tax collector and because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said “follow me.” This following meant imitating the pattern of his life, not just walking after him. There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. By an invisible interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, Jesus instructed him to walk in his ways, being summoned from earthly possessions to the incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.” For the catechist and the catechized, we pray for a heart and mind open to those inner impulses, prompted by the light of grace, that enables one to respond to the merciful gaze and call of the Lord.
Amid the pandemic far too many are not experiencing catechesis and evangelization in the accustomed gatherings in the parish community. This is a challenge for families and programs, but it is not insurmountable. The domestic church in collaboration with parish leadership can cultivate the treasures and content of our faith in life-giving ways. The merciful gaze of Jesus Christ is present wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
Of course, the cornerstone of the treasury of our Catholic tradition and content of faith, is the Mass. The dispensation of the obligation to attend Mass in person is still in place, a necessary accommodation. Yet, all families and individuals are encouraged to attend Mass if health allows, either on the Lord’s Day or during the week. Rightly, we are vigilant to keep the virus on the outside looking in for the sake of our physical health. But even more so we must remain vigilant to nurture our relationship with Jesus Christ to remain strong spiritually and mentally to engage all that life throws at us.
With St. Paul we are committed to the mission that he articulates. “I received from the Lord what I have also handed on to you.” “May the God of endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other in accord with Christ Jesus.” (Romans 15:5)
Por Obispo Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
El Domingo Catequético, evento anual en la iglesia, que establece el tema para el año de la formación de la fe, se celebró el domingo pasado. El tema de este año es de la carta de San Pablo a los Corintios: “Lo que yo recibí del Señor, les he transmitido”. De su relación personal con Jesucristo, San Pablo habla enfáticamente que recibió del Señor es tanto sobre la Eucaristía como del contenido de la fe.
Se invita a todos los bautizados a encender el fuego del don que hemos recibido, que nos ha sido transmitido a través de la formación de la fe en nuestros hogares e iglesias. Estamos agradecidos a Dios por todos los catequistas que abrazan la misión de la iglesia de formación de fe y evangelización.
El recientemente promulgado Directorio para la Catequesis declara con claridad la Gran Comisión del Señor, “de hacer discípulos en todas las naciones.” El Directorio afirma que la catequesis debe estar al servicio de la Nueva Evangelización para que cada persona tenga un acceso personal y abierto al encuentro con Jesucristo.
San Juan Pablo II enseñó con celo que “el propósito de la catequesis es la comunión con Jesucristo.” El fruto de esta comunión es una misión, una vida bien vivida al servicio del Evangelio. La catequesis requiere que acompañemos a quienes nos han sido confiados en la maduración de las actitudes de fe. “La cercanía de la iglesia a Jesús es parte de un camino común: la comunión y la misión están profundamente interconectadas”.
El Directorio para la Catequesis expone además que la Iglesia está llamada a proclamar y enseñar su verdad primaria, que es el amor de Cristo, porque la esencia del misterio de la fe cristiana es la misericordia encarnada en Jesús de Nazaret.
La catequesis puede ser una realización de la obra espiritual de la misericordia, “instruir al ignorante”. La acción catequética, en efecto, consiste en ofrecer la posibilidad de escapar de la mayor forma de ignorancia que impide a las personas conocer su propia identidad y vocación en Jesucristo. San Agustín afirma que la catequesis se convierte en “ocasión para una obra de misericordia” en cuanto satisface “con la Palabra de Dios la inteligencia de quienes tienen hambre de esta.” En virtud de nuestro bautismo, la familia y la comunidad de la iglesia, los catequistas tienen la tarea de despertar esa hambre.
La fiesta de San Mateo celebrada recientemente el 21 de septiembre ilustra esta visión para la formación en la fe. Su primer encuentro con Jesucristo fue nada menos que un hambre despertada que fue satisfecha. San Beda, El Venerable, un santo inglés del siglo VII, escribe conmovedoramente. “Jesús vio al recaudador de impuestos y porque lo vio con los ojos de la misericordia y lo eligió, dijo: ‘sígueme’.” Este seguimiento significó imitar el patrón de su vida, no solo caminar tras él. No hay razón para sorprenderse de que el recaudador de impuestos abandonara las riquezas terrenales tan pronto como el Señor se lo ordenó. Tampoco debería sorprenderse que, descuidando su riqueza, se uniera a una banda de hombres cuyo líder, según la evaluación de San Mateo, no tenía ninguna riqueza en absoluto. Por un impulso interior invisible que inundó su mente con la luz de la gracia, Jesús lo instruyó a caminar en sus caminos, siendo llamado desde las posesiones terrenales a los tesoros incorruptibles del cielo y su regalo.”
Por el catequista y el catequizado, oramos por un corazón y una mente abiertos a esos impulsos internos, impulsados por la luz de la gracia, que permitan responder a la mirada y llamada misericordiosas del Señor.
En medio de la pandemia, muchos no están experimentando la catequesis y la evangelización en las reuniones habituales de la comunidad parroquial. Este es un desafío para las familias y los programas, pero no es insuperable. La iglesia doméstica, en colaboración con el liderazgo parroquial, puede cultivar los tesoros y el contenido de nuestra fe de manera vivificante. La mirada misericordiosa de Jesucristo está presente allí donde dos o tres se reúnen en su nombre.
Por supuesto, la piedra angular del tesoro de nuestra tradición católica y el contenido de la fe es la Misa. La dispensa de la obligación de asistir a Misa en persona sigue vigente como una adaptación necesaria. Sin embargo, se anima a todas las familias e individuos a asistir a Misa si la salud lo permite, ya sea en el Día del Señor o durante la semana. Con razón, estamos atentos para mantener el virus “afuera mirando hacia adentro” por el bien de nuestra salud física. Pero aún más debemos permanecer atentos para nutrir nuestra relación con Jesucristo en permanecer fuertes espiritual y mentalmente para involucrarnos en todo lo que la vida nos depara.
Con St. Paul estamos comprometidos con la misión que él articula. “yo recibí esta tradición dejada por el Señor, y que yo a mi vez les transmití.” “Que el Dios de perseverancia y aliento les dé la buena actitud mental hacia el otro, Dios, que es quien da constancia y consuelo, los ayude a ustedes a vivir en armonía unos con otros, conforme al ejemplo de Cristo Jesús.” (Romanos 15:5)
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – If people took seriously the Gospel call to forgive one another, the world would be a much better place, Pope Francis said.
“How much suffering, how many wounds, how many wars could be avoided if forgiveness and mercy were the style of our life,” he said Sept. 13 before reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square.
The pope was commenting on the day’s Gospel reading, Matthew 18:21-35, in which Jesus tells his disciples to forgive “not seven times but 77 times.”
“In the symbolic language of the Bible,” the pope explained, “this means that we are called to forgive always.”
Jesus’ admonition is especially important for family life, he said. “How many families are disunited, do not know how to forgive each other? How many brothers and sisters bear resentment within? It is necessary to apply merciful love to all human relationships: between spouses, between parents and children, within our communities, in the church and in society and politics as well.”
In the day’s Gospel passage, Jesus emphasizes his point with the parable of the merciful king who forgives the enormous debt of his servant and yet that servant refuses to forgive the small debt of another servant. When the king hears about it, he hands the man over “to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.”
“In the parable we find two different attitudes: God’s – represented by the king who forgives a lot, because God always forgives – and the human person’s,” the pope said. “The divine attitude is justice pervaded with mercy, whereas the human attitude is limited to justice.”
Pope Francis told the people in the square that while he was celebrating Mass that morning, “I paused, touched by a phrase in the first reading from the book of Sirach. The phrase (in the Italian Lectionary) says, ‘Remember your end and stop hating.’ A beautiful phrase.”
“Just think,” the pope said, “you will be in a coffin and will you take your hatred there with you? Think of your end and stop hating, stop resenting.”
Pope Francis said that he knows it is not an easy command to follow because, even when a person thinks he or she has forgiven another, “resentment returns like a bothersome fly in the summer that keeps coming back.”
True forgiveness, he said, “is not something we do in a moment; it is something continuous against that resentment, that hatred that keeps coming back.”
When Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer, they say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
“These words contain a decisive truth,” the pope said. “We cannot claim God’s forgiveness for ourselves if we in turn do not grant forgiveness to our neighbor. It is a condition.”
Pope Francis summarized his talk: “Think of your end, of God’s forgiveness and stop hating. Reject resentment, that bothersome fly that keeps coming back. If we do not strive to forgive and to love, we will not be forgiven and loved either.”
Seminary is a challenging time on many levels. The seminarian is tasked with growing in his relationship with the Lord and listening to His voice. He is challenged in the classroom, and in the pastoral application of what he has learned. He is challenged when he was to figure out how to effectively preach and teach the faith. One of the biggest adjustments for a seminarian, however, might be becoming a “public person.”
When I started working at WTOK-TV in Meridian and anchoring the sportscast each night, I couldn’t help but notice when people would stare at me. I would go to Wal-Mart and someone would glance over to me and it was for just a split second longer than a normal glance. After a while I realized that people were trying to figure out where they knew me from! Some people would recognize me and come over and speak with me like we were old friends, after all, they saw me everyday. It took time for me to get comfortable with that reality, and so it was funny to me when I left television, went to seminary, and then started wearing a roman collar and noticing a similar phenomenon. When you wear clerics, you make a statement about who you are and what you are about, and people react. Many react with curiosity, others with joy (mostly Catholics ha!), and some (very few in my experience) with suspicion or even anger or hatred.
We give seminarians a chance to get used to this experience before they reach ordination. At about the halfway point of their formation, a seminarian typically receives “candidacy.” They make a public declaration that in good conscience they believe they are being called to the priesthood, and they start to wear a roman collar in public and become a public representative of the church. The seminarian begins to see the effect that the identity that they will take on with ordination will have on their life. When someone sees a roman collar, they should expect to be cared about, listened to and respected. In some ways priests need to be “all things to all people,” especially when someone is in need. This is why the men get the chance, when they are ready, to experience this before ordination. Grace builds on nature, and so if our men do not get in the habit of being there for people in a real way before ordination, they will not magically start being there for parishioners once they get ordained. Wearing clerics before ordination can give them valuable insight into the responsibility they are taking on to care for the People of God.
I wanted to explain this process because I often get that question, and our seminarians who have received candidacy do as well: why do some guys who are not yet priests wear the collar? The roman collar does not equal priesthood, but it should make someone confident that the person wearing one knows the Lord and wants to bring them into deeper relationship with Him.
Vocations Events
Friday, October 9, 2020 – First annual Homegrown Harvest Gala and Fundraiser (virtual)
For more information and sponsorship opportunities visit: https://one.bidpal.net/homegrownharvest2020/welcome
IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
What kinds of things help induce mysticism in our lives? I was asked that question recently and this was my immediate, non-reflected, answer: whatever brings tears to your eyes in either genuine sorrow or genuine joy; but that response was predicated on a lot of things.
What is mysticism? What makes for mystical experience?
In the popular mind mysticism is misunderstood badly. We tend to identify mysticism with what’s extraordinary and paranormal, and see it as something for the spiritual elite. For most people, mysticism means spiritual visions and ecstatic experiences which take you outside of normal consciousness.
Mysticism can be that sometimes, though normally it has nothing to do with visions, altered states of consciousness, or states of ecstasy. Rather it has to do with a searing clarity of mind and heart. Mystical experiences are experiences that cut through all the things that normally block us from touching our deepest selves, and they are rare because normally our consciousness is cut off from our deep, true, virginal self by the influence of ego, wound, history, social pressure, ideology, false fear and all the various affectations we don and shed like clothing. Rarely are we ever in touch with our deepest center, without filters, purely; but when we are, that’s what makes for a mystical experience.
Mysticism, as Ruth Burrows defines it, is being touched by God in a way that’s beyond words, imagination and feeling. God, as we know, is Oneness, Truth, Goodness and Beauty. So any time we are genuinely touched by oneness, truth, goodness or beauty, without anything distorting that, we’re having a mystical experience. What might that look like?
Ruth Burrows describes a mystical experience which radically changed her life when she was eighteen years old, a senior at a private high school for young women operated by an order of nuns, on a retreat preparing for graduation, and not very mature. She and one of her friends were not taking this retreat very seriously, passing notes to each other and pulling pranks during the conferences. At a point, their antics were disturbing enough that the nuns pulled them out of the group and had them sit in silence in a chapel, chaperoned by a teacher, whenever the rest of the class was at a conference. At first, Burrows confesses, they continued their joking around, but the hours were long and the silence eventually wore her down. Sitting alone, bored and irritated, a mystical experience graced her, uninvited and unexpected. And it came upon her not as a vision or an ecstasy, but as a moment of searing clarity. At a certain moment, sitting alone, she saw herself with absolute clarity for who she really was, in all her immaturity and in all her goodness. It changed her life. From then on she knew who she was – beyond ego, wound, immaturity, peer pressure, ideology and all affectation. In that moment she knew her deepest self purely (and the only thing that was extraordinary was its extraordinary clarity).
So, what kinds of things might induce mystical experiences in our lives? The short answer: anything that takes you beyond your ego, your wounds, your affectations, and the powerful social pressures within which you breathe, that is, anything that helps put you in touch with who you really are and makes you want to be a better person. And this can be many things. It might be a book you read; it might be the beauty of nature; it might be the sight of a newborn baby, a crying child, a wounded animal, or the face of someone suffering; or it might be what you feel deep down when you receive an expression of love, bless someone, express genuine contrition, or share helplessness. It can be many things.
Several years ago while teaching a course, I assigned the students a number of books to read, among them Christopher de Vinck’s, Only the Heart Knows How to Find Them – Precious Memories for Faithless Time. This is a series of autobiographical essays within which de Vinck simply shares very warmly about his marriage, his children, and his home life. At the end of the semester a young woman, with de Vinck’s book in her hand, said to me: “Father, this is the best book I’ve ever read. I’ve always fancied myself a very free, liberated person and I’ve slept my way through several cities, but now I realize that what I want is what this man has. I want sex to take me home. I want a home. I want the marriage bed. I know now what I need!”
Reading Christopher de Vinck’s book had triggered a mystical experience inside her, not unlike the one described by Ruth Burrows. Reading the Story of a Soul by Therese of Lisieux generally does that for me.
So, here’s my counsel: seek out what does that for you. It doesn’t have to bring tears to your eyes, it just has to point you with searing clarity towards home!
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
From the hermitage
By sister alies therese
Perhaps you’ve read a couple of the wonderful books by L. Van derPost of South Africa? Besides drawing you into a tender story and then challenging you with a hard truth, he writes and shares with us an exploration of his life. Often writers (both fiction and non-fiction) take us on a trip of some sort that either ‘tells the truth’ or ‘implies a truth within a fictionalized setting.’ In either case one might discover much of the richness of the writer’s testing of his/her own life as well as the readers. The writer may offer several different threads that might, or might not, come together at some point showing some continuity and often great patience, especially when things ‘go wrong.’
I wonder if we’re in a time of rummaging around in our own lives, the church’s (especially) and our cultures to find those threads that may, or may not, come together? At what level is there no anguish? Huge fires/climate change, pandemic, hurricanes, interpersonal strife, loneliness, international disregard, where indeed is the thread that draws us together? These are a part of deficit culture … what brings us to see a culture of beneficence?
Back in 1984 Michael Ignatieff, in The Needs of Strangers, reflected this: “If we deceive ourselves about what we need, we are likely to be deceived about what strangers need. There are few presumptions in human relations more dangerous than the idea that one knows what another human being needs better than they do themselves … if we need love, it is for reasons that go beyond the happiness it brings; it is for the connection, the rootedness, it gives us with others.”
Notice our strange mixtures. Consider a blood family of three children and parents, for example, and wonder sometimes if they are connected! Maybe it will be facial, or the sound of voice, or a certain talent, or hair color. Some things will indicate that they are ‘related.’ What are the things in God’s family that show, though in very different ways, ‘we’re all related?’ What are those ‘six-degrees’ of separation that bond us? How do we put together those many strands and threads and celebrate?
Within the human community, and indeed within the community of believers, there are as many differences as similarities. Bottom line stretches to ‘human’ (all bleeding red blood), ‘we all have certain needs’ and we are on a path that calls us forward from ‘birth to death.’ Beyond that almost everything else, social status, color, attitudes, beliefs, fears, competences and the lot are as individual as we can imagine. We are strangers as often to ourselves as to others.
One stereotypical image of a beggar is perhaps a homeless person blinded by disconnection from self, family, housing, medical care and food. We have a persistent beggar within, the unwillingness to be born/change things by refusing to allow the Spirit to prompt growth. We can spend inordinate amounts of time telling others what they need, what they should do/not do, what they ought to understand. Rather we might remain silent and allow them to discover their own threads. Or we might ask questions that will help reveal the beggars within us.
We might agree that racism, not telling the truth, or the –ism you pick are evil, sinful, horrid. We might agree but what to do about it needs input from the sufferers outlining some change. Opinions and political implications and others have dictated what to do for many years and have been relatively unsuccessful. Where is my heart stuck? What does my heart have to contribute?
Ignatieff reminds us: “the theory of human needs is a particular kind of language of the human good. To define human nature in terms of needs is to define what we are in terms of what we lack, to insist on the distinctive emptiness and incompleteness of humans as a species.” To know our ‘beggars’ is to discover not only what we need, but what we have to share. To define others (the poor, the wayward, the unborn, the prisoner, the weary, the old) by what they lack is a deficit culture and we never see beyond as Jesus sees.
Van derPost in his 1973 The Seed & Sower, points this out: “… I did not understand the sabotage in the invisible dimension of my being… There is a strange, persistent beggar at a narrow door asking to be born; asking again and again, for admission at the gateway of our lives.”
If we want to be born, or allow those threads to come together within, we might encourage ourselves to act, to build the Beloved Community. Perhaps that’s the kind of love that makes a difference, that ‘good trouble’, the kind that ‘relates’ us? Might even be the beginning of real change?
BLESSINGS.
(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)
