Ukraine: A Thousand Days of Suffering… and Love

In this week’s General Audience, Pope Francis commemorated the 1000th day of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine (which was Tuesday, November 19) by sharing with the whole Church and the world an extraordinary testimony that was sent to him by a young person in Ukraine. It refers specifically to the Pope’s frequent references to the terrible suffering inflicted on the Ukrainian people in these past 1000 days of war. The writer wanted Francis to emphasize that the suffering of Ukrainians is not simply a passive affliction. Through their faith in Jesus Christ, suffering Ukrainians are learning to love in more profound ways: to love God, one another, their country, and even—perhaps—to love their enemies and persecutors.

This student’s experience indicates the grace of God that is being poured out on Ukraine at this time, a grace that is sustaining the faith of many Ukrainians and shaping their mentality (even if only a few might speak as this student does). Perhaps we may hope that Ukraine might emerge from this terrible ordeal with a new kind of patriotism, a new way of understanding and experiencing their national identity as a form of love and solidarity that reflects the light of the Gospel, as a special commitment to a more human way of living born of the transformative reality of faith—a way of living that is a blessing for the whole world.

Here is the text of Pope Francis reading this great and moving letter:

I received a letter from a young Ukrainian university student. It reads: "Father, when, on Wednesday, you remember my country and are able to speak to the whole world on the thousandth day of this terrible war, I ask you not to speak only of our suffering but also of our faith. Although it is imperfect, that does not diminish its value, because it paints, with painful strokes, a portrait of the Resurrected Christ. There have been too many deaths in my life recently. It is difficult to live in a city where a missile kills and wounds dozens of civilians, and you are witness to so many tears. I would have liked to flee, would have liked to go back to being a child in my mother's arms, would have liked to remain in silence and in love, but I thank God because, through this pain, I am learning greater love. Pain is not only a road to anger, and despair, if based on faith, it is a good teacher of love. Father, if pain makes you suffer, it means that you love. And so, when you speak of our pain, when you remember our thousand days of suffering, speak of our thousand days of love, too, because only love, faith, and hope give a real meaning to our wounds."

Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai and the End of the Free Press

The Orwellian nightmare of Hong Kong’s implosion continues…

What does the imposition of dictatorship on a free society “look like”? Hong Kong shows us, among other things, that legitimate actions are retroactively criminalized and nonviolent reasonable opposition figures are subjected to mass arrests and imprisonment. 

We have just seen the “miscarriage of justice” against the “Hong Kong 45.” Today, Jimmy Lai took the stand in his own defense in the other ongoing Hong Kong “Show Trial.” His “crime”? Publishing an independent newspaper, the Apple Daily, that was the trustworthy news source for millions of Hong Kong people during the pro-democracy movement (between 2014 and 2020). 

The newspaper was shut down by the Chinese Communist Party’s imposition of its “National Security Law.” As the head of an independent media organization (i.e. a “free press” as guaranteed by Hong Kong’s Basic Law), Jimmy Lai spoke with foreign leaders, including the USA Vice President and Secretary of State. Now he is accused of “colluding with foreign forces to subvert Hong Kong’s government.” 

The 76-year-old—who came to Hong Kong as a young man fleeing the madness of Chairman Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” (who came as a “refugee”)—built up his lucrative business from many years of hard work, during which time he also encountered Christ and converted to the Catholic faith. If convicted (or, rather, WHEN convicted), he faces life imprisonment. He once commented that he hoped prison would give him the time to read many books that he’s always wanted to read.

Pray for Jimmy Lai. Pray for Hong Kong. Pray for China—where 1/6th of the human race lives and suffers oppression, where the dignity of the human person is violated every day by the Fascist-Leninist PartyState.

November’s “Autumn Impressions”

“More Autumn Impressions” (mid-November 2024). 

I have been sharing the inspirations of Fall on social media since 2014, via photos, videos, and various explorations in digital art. I’ll never get tired of it!😉

Hong Kong: The “Politics of Suffering”

The “trial” has finally been brought to a conclusion, and the “HONG KONG 45” have all received jail sentences. What this ruling means is that legitimate, nonviolent efforts by the pro-democracy movement to participate in the political process in Hong Kong are now regarded as a “threat to national security.” It would seem that all hope is lost for a “self-governing” Hong Kong free from the harsh and heavy hand of the Chinese Communist PartyState. 

But suffering injustice with patience is the hidden strength of nonviolent resistance to dictatorship. I remember in 1983 when Communist Poland declared martial law and put the leaders of the “Solidarity” movement in jail. None of us could have imagined the changes that were soon to come. 

Let’s pray for people like Benny Tai and Joshua Wong (pictured above); let’s continue to stand with them, remember them, “co-suffer” with them (in whatever small ways we can). May justice and the dignity of the human person prevail in Hong Kong, Ukraine, Sudan, the Middle East, Russia, China, and in our own nations—through the wisdom and goodness and merciful love of God.

Open this LINK to learn more by reading the BBC article cited in the picture.

“My Words Will Not Pass Away”

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, we contemplate eschatology and the ultimate kingship of Jesus Christ who is Lord of history and Savior of the human race, who has poured Himself out in love and mercy so that we might find freedom from sin and its illusions, and fulfillment in sharing His eternal life with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Pope Francis spoke beautifully at the Angelus of November 17 about the words of Jesus in the Sunday Gospel. Death and the end of all things can appear traumatic and terrifying, but Jesus has promised that He will remain with us. If we hold fast to Him, He will lead us through every trial to the fulfillment of the Kingdom where God will be all, in all. In His wisdom and goodness we will find—renewed and transformed—the meaning of everything in this present life that is shaped by His mercy and His companionship, all the mysterious ways by which He draws us to Himself.

Here are some of Francis’s words from the Angelus:

In the Gospel of today’s liturgy, Jesus describes a great tribulation: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light” (Mk 13:24). Faced with this suffering, many might think of the end of the world, but the Lord seizes the opportunity to offer a different interpretation, saying: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mk 13:31).

We can take a closer look at this expression: what will pass and what will remain.

First of all, what will pass. In some circumstances in our life, when we are going through a crisis or experience some failure, as well as when we see around us the pain caused by wars, violence, natural disasters, we have the feeling that everything is coming to an end, and we feel that even the most beautiful things pass away. Crises and failures, however, though painful, are important, because they teach us to accord everything its due weight, not to attach our hearts to the realities of this world, because they will pass: they are destined to fade away.

At the same time, Jesus talks about what will remain. Everything passes away, but His words will not pass away: Jesus’ words will remain for eternity. He thus invites us to trust in the Gospel, which contains a promise of salvation and eternity, and not to live under the anguish of death. For while everything passes away, Christ remains. In Him, in Christ, we shall one day find again the things and people who have passed away and who have accompanied us in our earthly existence. In the light of this promise of resurrection, every reality takes on a new meaning: everything dies and we too will one day die, but we will lose nothing of what we have built and loved, because death will be the beginning of a new life.

Brothers and sisters, even in tribulations, in crises, in failures, the Gospel invites us to look at life and history without fear of losing what ends, but with joy for what will remain. Let us not forget that God is preparing for us a future of life and joy.

“Do Not Go Off, Do Not Run In Pursuit…”

Jesus said, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Then he said to his disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’ Do not go off, do not run in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:20-25).

Mother Cabrini: An "American Immigrant"

Francesca Cabrini (1815-1917) was the first "naturalized" U.S.A. citizen to be canonized (she was born in Italy). Immigrants of those days loved "Mother Cabrini," who took care of them and showed them the face of Jesus.

"Prayer is powerful! It fills the earth with mercy, it makes the Divine clemency pass from generation to generation; right along the course of the centuries wonderful works have been achieved through prayer" (Saint Francesca ["Frances"] Cabrini, feast November 13).

God our Father, who called Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini from Italy to serve the immigrants of America, by her example, teach us to have concern for the stranger, the sick, and all those in need, and by her prayers help us to see Christ in all the men and women we meet.

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.

--Collect, November 13

Saint Josaphat: Sign of Hope For Ukraine

Today marks an important feast day especially for Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics, who are not only suffering along with all Ukrainians the ongoing brutal attacks of Russian aggression, but also face even now religious repression in every part of Ukraine that Russia illegally occupies. Saint Josaphat Kuncevic was the first modern Ukrainian Catholic martyr, but by no means the last.

Josaphat followed the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kiev and a group of Ukrainian and Belorussian bishops who entered into full communion with Rome in 1598. The “Union of Brest” preserved the Byzantine liturgy and the spirituality and practices of the Byzantine tradition while also recognizing the juridical primacy of the Bishop of Rome for the Universal Church. From this reunion were born what are today known as the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church and the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church.

At the beginning of the Seventeenth Century, the reunion was an occasion of great controversy among the population and clergy. Josaphat himself became a Byzantine Catholic Bishop and worked tirelessly not only in defense of the Papacy, but also to reform the clergy according to the great heritage of the Eastern Church and to catechize the common people and serve them. Many were drawn by his preaching as well as his humility and holiness, but others opposed him vehemently, preferring the benefits of patronage that local nobility gave to the orthodox churches.

Saint Josaphat sought Church unity with great fervor, but also great charity. He knew that his enemies were plotting his death, yet he remained among his people to guide them and, as much as possible, resolve disputes and overcome the violence of his enemies with the nonviolence of Christian love.

On November 12, 1623, he was put to death by a lynch mob of his enemies.

“You people want to kill me. You wait in ambush for me in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, in the marketplace, everywhere. Here I am; I came to you as a Shepherd. You know I would be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for union of the Church under Saint Peter and his successor, the Pope” (Saint Josaphat).

Saint Josaphat, pray for us. Pray for the unity of all Christians. Pray for the reunion of Christians East and West. Pray for a just and lasting peace for the people of Ukraine, and a renewal of their fidelity to Jesus Christ and commitment to human dignity.

Communion and Solidarity for All of “America”

The popular elections for the President of the United States of America are over. I have carried out my very small task on behalf of the candidate of the American Solidarity Party, a political movement that represents ideals that need to grow—in my opinion—if the United States is to survive as a nation. For all its colossal wealth, power, and influence, the United States is only one of the nations on this great hemispheric continent (north, central, and south) that constitutes the proper reference point for the term “America.” In my opinion, the tumultuous and in many ways transitional times in which we live constitute a challenge for all the nations of “America” to recognize the bonds they share and to live in greater solidarity. Through such a solidarity and communion, “America”—from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego—might one day become “great” in its contribution to the long history of humanity.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of history, and His Mother Mary has taken up a unique kind of “presence” at the geographical center of this “America,” through her astonishing and scientifically inexplicable image on the hill of Tepeyac at the edge of Mexico City: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In January 1999, I traveled to Mexico for the closing of the “Synod on America,” where Pope Saint John Paul II presented the fruit of the dialogue carried out by bishops from all over the hemispheric continent. He proposed that American solidarity had not only an evangelical significance, but also a temporal significance in its increasing interdependence and in the responsibilities of the rich nations to help their poorer neighbors. I think this event of 25 years ago was a prophetic moment. It is a light for judging the larger context of our particular circumstances, and a great encouragement for prayer. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of America—of all of America—pray for us.

Some words from Saint John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America (1999):

“I asked that the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops reflect on America as a single entity, by reason of all that is common to the peoples of the continent, including their shared Christian identity and their genuine attempt to strengthen the bonds of solidarity and communion between the different forms of the continent's rich cultural heritage. The decision to speak of ‘America’ in the singular was an attempt to express not only the unity which in some way already exists, but also to point to that closer bond which the peoples of the continent seek and which the Church wishes to foster as part of her own mission, as she works to promote the communion of all in the Lord...

“The Church is the place where men and women, by encountering Jesus, can come to know the love of the Father, for whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (cf. John 14:9). After his Ascension into heaven, Jesus acts through the powerful agency of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete (cf. John 16:17), who transforms believers by giving them new life. Thus they become capable of loving with God's own love, which ‘has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us’ (Romans 5:5). God's grace also enables Christians to work for the transformation of the world, in order to bring about a new civilization, … ‘the civilization of love’”

“I Shall See the Bounty of the Lord”

Jesus came to announce the coming of the Kingdom of God, and to initiate it Himself by atoning for sin and overcoming the limitations of this earthly life through His death and resurrection. Insofar as we love God’s wisdom and goodness, we will not feel entirely “at home” in this present life. 

We are called to follow Jesus, and when we work for goodness, justice, and peace in this world, we do so as instruments of His love and mercy. We are called to show forth the glory of Christ in the midst of whatever circumstances we live in—however difficult and confusing they may be—confident in the Holy Spirit that God will bring to fruition all that He has promised.

Summer in November!

Meanwhile, in "news" that has nothing to do with the U.S.A. elections, IT'S EIGHTY DEGREES today... in November... in the Northern Hemisphere!😳

To make that comprehensible to the rest of the world, we're talking about 26.7 degrees Celsius.

“Our Citizenship is in Heaven”

Four years ago, I posted this New Testament text, in which Saint Paul reminds the early Christians of Philippi that the common mentality in the society in which they live is not the source and measure of their identity. But Paul doesn’t propose merely replacing the human social mores of first century Asia Minor (which were in some ways analogous to the attitudes of the dominant culture in the USA today) with a “better” mentality—an attitude that might be less shameless and more “respectable,” but still founded on a preoccupation with “earthly things.”

Saint Paul reminds the Philippians that their identity as Christians already establishes them as citizens of the New Creation, because they are incorporated into the Risen Christ and live in the hope of His glory. Here and now they participate in the “first fruits” of the Kingdom of God by the grace of the Holy Spirit and in the “hastening” of His final coming by living and sharing the Gospel they have received. What they have received—what we Christians have received—is a gift of grace that is the truth of the destiny of every person and of the whole of creation. Our identity and the purpose of our lives every day, is to cooperate with the Lord by allowing His presence, His glory, and His mercy to shine through our whole humanity, so that He might draw others to Himself.

That is who we are. We belong to Christ on election day and on every other day. Let us not be distracted by earthly power, or drawn into forgetfulness by its idolatrous pretences. Let us not be discouraged by the inevitable disappointments and failures of earthly things, earthly societies, earthly powers.

“Our citizenship is in heaven” with Jesus Christ our Savior.

"Many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their 'shame.' Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved" (Philippians 3:18 - 4:1).

Autumn Evenings Cut Short (But Colors Remain)

“Goodbye Evening Sunshine” (November 2, 2024). 

See you in… February, maybe? This is the weekend to set back the clocks one hour (or, in most cases, allow your digital devices to do it for you automatically). 

This means that #WinterDarkTimeBegins … and cuts off those evening hours when I like to walk. I’ll have to pay attention to the time during the day, otherwise—BOOM!—it’s dark before 5:30 P.M. The clock set-back also signals that time of year when the suns dips rapidly into shorter days leading up to the Winter Solstice. That's okay when Christmas is drawing near, but the sudden "shortening" of days in November is always a challenge to people whose moods are sensitive to the seasons (like mine).

Of course, we do have a few more weeks of colorful leaves coming up. Which reminds me that I should “dump” some other examples of Autumn vistas and impressions—in photography and/or digital art—that JJStudios has created this Fall (including the image featured above). Here are some more examples from last month, in no particular order:

The Saints and “Holy Souls” of November

Happy All Saints Day! Welcome to November 2024...

...the month in which we remember also in prayer— with confidence in the redeeming power of the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ—all our beloved dead who live in Him while yet enduring the final purification of His mercy that will prepare them for the fulfillment of beatific communion with God.

“Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”

“I Vote, Therefore I Am?” Not Exactly, But…

Yes, I already voted some weeks ago. In fact, this past summer I made a formal commitment to stand as one of a slate of thirteen “electors” in the State of Virginia for the certified write-in candidacy of the American Solidarity Party: Peter Sonski for President and Lauren Onak for Vice-President. The picture shows how to write-in Sonski and Onak on an election ballot in most States (including Virginia), where they are not listed among the printed options. Color in the dot next to “Write-In Candidate” and write in their names in the manner shown. My vote this year was an interesting and peculiar civic exercise: if you look carefully at your ballot, you will see that you are not voting directly for the President / Vice-President candidates; rather, you are voting for the slate of “electors for” the candidates. Each ticket (including write-in candidates, if they want their votes to be attributed distinctly to them) must put forth a slate of electors who are pledged to cast “electoral votes” for the ticket if it wins the most popular vote in that State. So, in Virginia, each ticket that wants to be officially tabulated has a group of 13 people who are committed to represent officially its candidates for President and Vice-President if these candidates win the most votes in the State. The “official election” of the President takes place on a day in December when electors for the popular-vote-winners in each State gather (usually at their State capitols) and cast these votes as members of the Electoral College. Thus, I realized that I was actually “running” in this election—running, that is, for membership in the Electoral College. As one of the 13 electors officially pledged to the American Solidarity Party ticket, I understood that in writing-in our candidates on my own ballot I was actually voting for myself (along with 12 other people) in the 2024 Presidential election.

That was not a position I ever imagined I would find myself in. Needless to say, I don’t expect to be making a trip to Richmond in December, nor do I have any other illusions regarding the significance of my vote for the results of this present election. Since 2016, however, I have been a member of the American Solidarity Party (ASP), and have voted for its presidential candidates and participated (virtually) in some of its events. Voting for President of the United States is a way of participating in a vast political process. However, as the practicalities of this process (and the “choices” it offers) become more superficial, unseemly, and remote from our own experiences and opinions and (most importantly) the convictions of our consciences, I think the time has come to be more “creative” in the way we participate.

The ASP is far from perfect, and at present it is very, very small. But it is a party in which the “platform” represents in detail a politics that aspires to put the dignity of every human person at the center of its concerns. It is a party that aspires to uphold the rights of persons and relationships as they are given in this wonderful mysterious reality that is our existence in this world: whether the person or persons are the poor on the margins of society who require our special concern, or desperate migrants and refugees who seek mercy from the world’s richest nation, or persons who exist as frozen embryos in a laboratory, or a mother and her unborn child (who both deserve protection and care that also continues after birth), or families which are the organic (“given”) foundation for maturing in the experience of interpersonal communion, or workers who collaborate in what is always a human enterprise, or persons who make up communities and build the institutions of civil society, or the sick and the elderly who need care and affirmation that their lives have meaning, or even criminals who need punishment and correction but also respect for their fundamental human dignity from a merciful society that doesn’t put them to death or subject them to cruelty. Then there are the issues involving war and peace, our responsibility for the environment entrusted to us, an economy on a human scale, and a wisdom regarding “progress” that serves the enrichment of whole human persons who have a transcendent destiny.

The ASP at least tries to be a personalist and communitarian political organization (perhaps this is a better word than “party”). In my opinion the United States of America will either develop toward a personalist and communitarian democracy or it will cease to exist as a nation.

I realize that there are many concerns involving this election, and that most people who vote believe it is necessary to choose one of the two “major” candidates that have been imposed upon us by a corrupt and increasingly dysfunctional political system. These voters focus on concrete issues that, in their opinion, will be better served—or at least less imperiled—by electing or preventing one of these candidates from becoming President. I understand and respect people who make this judgment regarding their own vote.

But I do believe that some of us have to begin now the preparation, organization, and procedural requirements for a new kind of politics in this country. Perhaps it’s quixotic to help build the foundations of a “new party,” but we will never know—and we will never even have a chance—unless some of us try to make a beginning. The reasonable way to make this effort is to enter the political process.

If there is to be any hope for moving in the direction of a politics that respects the dignity of every human person, a politics of solidarity, a politics of mercy, then some of us must begin to move in distinctive ways. We must try new approaches, cast votes and commit ourselves to political processes that—for now—are admittedly “symbolic.” Symbols are pedagogical for ourselves and for others, and they can suddenly become very practical in times of rapid change and instability. In my opinion, the ASP is making an effort to begin traveling this path, and I believe that I am called (in my own necessarily limited and very small capacity) to walk with them. For me, it’s worth the “risk” of my “one vote.”

This is an important point: even if we can’t do much, we can do a little. We can take a step. We can detach ourselves a little from the pervasive delusion that we live in a basically “healthy country,” or that our endemic problems can be “fixed” by a few changes in a legal system that has become unmoored from a dependable foundation in human personal dignity and the “common good.” Those whose efforts attempt to ameliorate the dangers of the present system should not place all their hopes in work that is important, but tenuous and all-too-easily uprooted by the inevitable shifts of power politics.

All of this accounts for why I have decided, with much prayer and deliberation, to stand as one of the Virginia “electors” for the Presidential candidacy of Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party, and to vote for him as a write-in candidate in the general election of 2024. I have a conviction that a movement in this direction is necessary for our nation. For me this is a way to be faithful to that conviction, and to the fundamental human needs that inspire it.

"Room" For Every Person in His Heart

Here is a prayer/reflection that I’m jotting down here for my own reference (and, of course, to share with anyone who might find it helpful):

“Jesus, on the cross you wholly embraced every person. You alone have given yourself for us with a ‘totality’ and ‘intimacy’ beyond anything we could possibly deserve or expect, beyond the measure of our understanding, yet supremely “attuned” to the depths of our humanity—our origin, our destiny, and the great desire that drives us to engage with reality in search of the fullness of meaning and goodness. 

“Jesus, you alone understand the mystery of every person, because your emptying of yourself has made ‘room’ for every person in your Heart. Guide our steps, Lord. Draw us to yourself. Draw us by the inexhaustible beauty and goodness of your total gift of Love for us.”

Also, I record here more quotations from Pope Francis’s powerful new Encyclical Dilexit Nos on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as I continue to dwell on and study the text, seeking nourishment for my own seeking, begging heart—and for every human heart:

“Our hearts are not self-sufficient, but frail and wounded… We need the help of God’s love. Let us turn, then, to the heart of Christ, that core of his being, which is a blazing furnace of divine and human love and the most sublime fulfilment to which humanity can aspire. There, in that heart, we truly come at last to know ourselves and we learn how to love.

“In the end, that Sacred Heart is the unifying principle of all reality, since ‘Christ is the heart of the world, and the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection is the centre of history, which, because of him, is a history of salvation’ [John Paul II, 1998]. All creatures ‘are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things’ [Francis, Laudato Si, 2015].”

~Pope Francis, encyclical Dilexit Nos [“He Loved Us”], 30-31

Chiara Luce: “Wrapped Into a Wonderful Design”

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. She was declared "blessed" in 2010. 

Chiara Luce was a young person of my generation, which means she was a “modern girl” in terms of the sensibilities of this emerging new epoch, and her life has much in common with young people today. She had a great passion for life, and was full of aspirations. She loved to sing, play tennis, and swim. She enjoyed popular music, and even had an appreciation of Bruce Springsteen. She was a bright and thoughtful student who loved literature but had a hard time with math. She had a boyfriend and experienced heartbreak, like countless other teenage girls. She cherished her family and friends, and had a great heart for people going through physical or spiritual troubles. She was shocked when the pain she thought was a tennis injury turned out to be bone cancer. The possibility that she might die at such a young age 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!'"

 

The Event of Love Gives Us Hope

We live in a world of poverty.

We can see the desperation of the materially poor. But we do not see the immense inner poverty that afflicts so many of us who live in what are supposed to be the "rich nations" of the world.

We live under so much ruthless pressure. The relentless demand to obtain "results," the constant changes and the resulting ruptures of place, routine, employment, and relationships, the enormous, unprecedented power that enables us to construct the material world but also to escape problems and isolate ourselves: an environment so intense, so stressful, so overwhelming has never existed before in the history of the human race.

And we wonder why so many people suffer from debilitating physical and mental illnesses?

Some people succeed in managing all the power and possibilities placed in their hands, or they fail and get up and try again and again. But they sustain wounds and sometimes they try to hide them or ignore them. Being wounded and vulnerable are obstacles to success.

But many people are simply crushed.

Perhaps they can't be "fixed" by any of our techniques. But they still deserve to be loved. Indeed they, especially, remind us that every human person deserves to be loved simply because they are a human person.

When I say "Never Give Up," I mean never give up on the human person. And never give up on God, on Jesus.

Love people. Start with this love and maintain this love. In an environment of love we will be able to appreciate the real possibilities of a person. In this way our love can become many different kinds of "help" without becoming conditional or just another project measured by the criteria of power.

But people who are beyond any of this "help" — people who have been crushed  — can still love, even if their love doesn't "produce" anything we can see, even if their love is hidden deep inside their brokenness.

Love awakens the possibility for love in others, but this is not something we can keep tabs on. We don't know the "success rate" for "producing love" because we don't produce it. We have to just throw away our measure, and replace it with hope and trust in the God who is Love.

Jojo Turns Eighteen Years Old!

When I began this blog in 2011, Jojo (Josefina) Janaro was a little over four years old. If you’ve been here since the beginning, you’ve watched her grow up. There are lots of stories about her little kid adventures, especially in the earlier years of the blog. You know how cute she was in those days. (I think she’s still “cute,” but I’ll get in big trouble if I tell her that, because she thinks I’m looking at her like a child if I say “cute.” That’s not what I mean, but… whatever. I can tell her she’s pretty, which is true.) Jojo still looks a bit young for her age, but she has grown a lot. She has reached the 5’ foot marker, and may yet pick up a couple more inches. She no longer stands out in a whole family of short people (I was once 5’10” but I’ve shrunk a bit over the years).

I’m amazed that she’s 18. She made it! I need not tell again the story that has been repeated on the blog many times and is also recounted in my 2010 book—that Jojo was a “pre-mie,” who spent the first seven months of her life in the NICU. It seems so long ago. Before she turned two, my days as a classroom teacher came to an end. So I had (and still have) a lot of time at home with her since I went-on-long-term-disability / “retired” in 2008. I have watched her grow up, and she has had a lot of special attention from her Dad. We’ve always gotten along really well, even during her adolescence. Jojo has tried to explain to me what “goes on inside the head” of a teenage girl, while I have tried to help her “interpret” the chaos that is the mind of a teenage boy (I still remember, and it hasn’t changed that much). For at least the past dozen years, Jojo and I have been watching TV together and having discussions of the themes that come up. We’ve had some really good conversations, and I hope we will continue for years to come.

Daddy and Jojo, from a long time ago (2017)

We are so grateful to God for her. She has been a mysterious and wonderful gift entrusted to us by Christ along with our other four grown-up “kids,” and now—of course—the grandchildren too. So many great gifts! 

Happy Birthday Josefina! We love you!

What Do We Mean By “The Heart”

I have begun to read what promises to be a monumental encyclical letter that Pope Francis issued this morning, which aims to renew our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The encyclical Dilexit Nos locates the significance of the Heart of Jesus in the context of the mystery of the human heart, of each of our hearts. Here are some quotations and notes from the first part of the text, which I cite here—if for no other reason—for my own benefit as I study the encyclical. Perhaps they might be useful to others as well. Among other things, I want to quote sections of the text that struck me in a way that provokes my desire to “go deeper…”

In the first part of Chapter One, Pope Francis takes up the question: What do we mean by “the heart”? He tries to lead us to appreciate the existential centrality of the heart for the human person. “In classical Greek, the word kardía denotes the inmost part of human beings, animals and plants. For Homer, it indicates not only the centre of the body, but also the human soul and spirit. In the Iliad, thoughts and feelings proceed from the heart and are closely bound one to another. The heart appears as the locus of desire and the place where important decisions take shape. In Plato, the heart serves, as it were, to unite the rational and instinctive aspects of the person, since the impulses of both the higher faculties and the passions were thought to pass through the veins that converge in the heart. From ancient times, then, there has been an appreciation of the fact that human beings are not simply a sum of different skills, but a unity of body and soul with a coordinating centre that provides a backdrop of meaning and direction to all that a person experiences. (DN 3)

[The heart can be concealed or ignored, but it ultimately reveals the truth of who we are as persons.] “Mere appearances, dishonesty and deception harm and pervert the heart. Despite our every attempt to appear as something we are not, our heart is the ultimate judge, not of what we show or hide from others, but of who we truly are. It is the basis for any sound life project; nothing worthwhile can be undertaken apart from the heart. False appearances and untruths ultimately leave us empty-handed. (DN 6)

“Instead of running after superficial satisfactions and playing a role for the benefit of others, we would do better to think about the really important questions in life. Who am I, really? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world? How do I want to look back on my life once it ends? What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? Who do I want to be for others? Who am I for God? All these questions lead us back to the heart. (DN 8)

“The heart has been ignored in anthropology, and the great philosophical tradition finds it a foreign notion, preferring other concepts such as reason, will or freedom. The very meaning of the term is imprecise and hard to situate within our human experience. Perhaps this is due to the difficulty of treating it as a ‘clear and distinct idea’, or because it entails the question of self-understanding, where the deepest part of us is also that which is least known. Even encountering others does not necessarily prove to be a way of encountering ourselves, inasmuch as our thought patterns are dominated by an unhealthy individualism. Many people feel safer constructing their systems of thought in the more readily controllable domain of intelligence and will. The failure to make room for the heart, as distinct from our human powers and passions viewed in isolation from one another, has resulted in a stunting of the idea of a personal centre, in which love, in the end, is the one reality that can unify all the others. (DN 10)

“If we devalue the heart, we also devalue what it means to speak from the heart, to act with the heart, to cultivate and heal the heart. If we fail to appreciate the specificity of the heart, we miss the messages that the mind alone cannot communicate; we miss out on the richness of our encounters with others; we miss out on poetry. We also lose track of history and our own past, since our real personal history is built with the heart. At the end of our lives, that alone will matter. (DN 11)

[The heart is is the vitally integrated center of all our faculties, the core of our whole person from which we give and receive love.] [My faculties of the] “mind and the will are put at the service of the greater good [of the heart] by sensing and savouring truths, rather than seeking to master them as the sciences tend to do. The will desires the greater good that the heart recognizes, while the imagination and emotions are themselves guided by the beating of the heart. It could be said, then, that I am my heart, for my heart is what sets me apart, shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people.” (DN 13-14)

Saint John Paul II Helps Married People and Families

Happy Feast of Saint John Paul II !!! 

This is a very special day in our family, because of the great grace we received at the very beginning of our married life. Eileen and I met this tremendous Pope on our honeymoon, on July 3, 1996. 

We spoke to him and told him that we were from the Communion and Liberation movement in the U.S.A.—which seemed to please him very much—and we hugged him and told him that we loved him. He was by this time at the beginning of his long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, and it also seemed like he carried in his heart all the profound sufferings of the Church and the world. I sensed the powerful and vulnerable reality of his humanity, and his own need for love and solidarity. I wanted very much to “stand with him” in that moment, when I said, “We love you, Holy Father.” He responded very deliberately and personally in English, “Thank you.” We then asked him to bless our marriage, and he traced the sign of the cross on our foreheads and said, “God bless you.” 

Thus he blessed our marriage from the beginning, some 28+ years ago. Since then we have felt the strength of his accompaniment and the great compassion of his humanity as a sign of the closeness of Jesus Christ in all our trials and our joys. This became something new and greater after his death in 2005, and we are grateful now that we can call upon him daily as a saint in the Church. 

And every night, before we go to sleep, Eileen and I still bless each other by tracing the cross on each other’s forehead. We did the same with the kids when they were growing up and we still bless Jojo, our youngest, who lives with us. 

John Paul II is a saint who intercedes especially, I think, for the strengthening of the Christian and human vocation of families, for their living communion in Christ. He also helps married couples to grow in love, to forgive each other every day, to persevere through trials, and to live together the grace of the sacrament of marriage through all the stages of married life, so that we can experience the many changes in our married life and in each other as persons as a continual “calling” from Jesus to remain in Him together, to trust in His merciful love, and to be open to each other in such a way as to be “surprised” by renewed and deepened affection, understanding, and gratitude to God and each other. .

I want to encourage people—especially young people—to take up this vocation of marriage, especially in a society that fears permanence, where people think they want to “keep their options open” forever, to “hold on to their freedom” even though freedom is meant to be used for the good. Freedom is made for love. Freedom is the capacity to give one’s self away, to take the risk of love of an “other” person, to move beyond ourselves and bring us to find ourselves again in relationships and communion. We can be sure that Saint John Paul II continues to say “Be not afraid” to commit yourselves to the lifelong human adventure of walking together with Jesus in the fundamental human companionship of marriage, which the Lord “supernaturalizes” by the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony into a sign of His healing and transforming love. Be not afraid to get married in Christ, who remains with you and whose grace is stronger than all your inadequacies, and who will bring you sustenance and joy in the Holy Spirit all through your married life. He will never abandon you and will give you the grace to endure together, with love, the many sacrifices and sufferings that come, building you up in His wisdom even when life feels like a whirlwind and you’re confused and you think you’re doing everything wrong. You will mess up a lot, which will humble you and teach you to ask for forgiveness and to give and receive forgiveness.

Dear young people, young married couples and those discerning marriage, be not afraid. Jesus has a strong hold on you; He embraces you in His crucified and risen arms and He won’t let go. Trust in Him, pray together, and never give up. Marriage is a step toward eternal life and a commitment to the continuation of human history—the history that belongs to Jesus, the history in which He has chosen to dwell. We also have the friendship of the saints on this journey (as we do in every state or circumstance of life). John Paul II is truly one of the great ones. He is a great help to anyone who seeks the presence of Christ in their lives, in the humanity of themselves and others, in the truth and beauty that draws them, in the suffering that Christ has taken upon Himself.

Saint John Paul II, pray for us, pray for married people, and for families! Pray for us all, for the Church, for the whole world. Pray for us to experience the mercy of God our Father who really loves us and wants us to live forever; to experience the mercy of Jesus Christ His Son who took our human nature to become one of us so that He could save us and transform us and dwell with us because He wants to be with us now and forever; to experience the mercy of the working of the Holy Spirit who transforms our way of seeing reality, so that everything reveals itself as a sign of the mystery, gratuity, and purpose of God who draws all things to Himself. The One God—a Trinity of three persons in ineffable communion—pours out gratuitous love so that we come into being and exist and seek the fullness of life, and pours out a greater gratuitousness in the grace that calls us, stirs up our hearts, gives us the desire for God, and draws us into a participation in Divine life, now and forever.

Begging For Abandonment to the Love of Christ

We all have this place where we suffer, where we face our own inadequacy, where we discover the smallness of our hearts and the pettiness of all our deeds.

And it is here that Jesus asks each one of us, in the most penetrating and poignant way, to believe in Him, to trust Him.

I do believe that He loves me with an infinite love, giving Himself for me on the Cross, pouring Himself out in the Eucharist, and drawing me to Himself through His ongoing companionship with me in the Church. He summons me from within the relationships entrusted to me, and the cries of the poor and the powerless whose afflictions wound my heart, whose need I recognize as my own, whose desire awakens me to share their struggles and their patience.

The love of Jesus is within the fabric of my life. It is mysterious and yet I know it constitutes “who I am” and draws me toward “who I want to be.” The love of Jesus gives meaning to everything and opens up the possibility for hope in every moment.

Why do I fail to entrust everything to this Great Lover? Why am I afraid? What more could He possibly do to deserve my trust?

Jesus, I entrust to You what seems so often to me to be such a complicated business, namely the abandonment of myself to You, the giving of everything over to You, the surrender of everything to You...even my weakness.

Jesus, I entrust "my-entrusting-of-myself-to-You" TO YOU! 

That's an awkward way of putting it. But I'm sure He knows what I mean.

I will not give up. Even if I am broken, God is still God, and still Glorious – even more clearly so, for He takes my brokenness upon Himself. Here, more than anywhere, it is clear that He is worthy of all my love. He has proven Himself. Thus, in every circumstance – even in the face of the prospect that I have nothing to give, that I am worthless, that all my aspirations in life may end in failure – the only reasonable possibility for me is to love God.

So even if I am nothing, I still have the desire—the need—to love Him. I beg that I might be able to love Him.

From nothing, God creates, God brings forth life. Jesus I trust in You. Convert me. Conquer me. Recreate me in Your merciful love. Give me a new heart.

Saint Luke, Apostle and Evangelist

Happy Feast of Saint Luke, Apostle and Evangelist. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, he was the human author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. He was also the companion of Saint Paul on some of his missions.

“I handed on to you first of all what I myself received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried and, in accordance with the Scriptures, rose on the third day" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The Radical Trust of Ignatius of Antioch

Today we celebrate Ignatius of Antioch, a man who was killed violently over 1900 years ago. We have the texts of his last letters, in which he expressed his love for Jesus Christ, whom he believed would bring him to a fulfillment beyond anything he could attain in this world, and beyond anything that could threaten him in this world. 

He understood his death as the gateway to eternal life, his martyr’s death in union with Jesus who was crucified and is risen, whose love conquers sin and death and gives meaning to all of life. Ignatius, reflecting on his approaching martyrdom for Christ, said, “Then I shall truly be a man.”

"Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God’s wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ" (Saint Ignatius of Antioch, while heading to the Colosseum for martyrdom, 110 AD).

Countless others from every nation and people have faced death with the same confidence, the same hope, surrender, and love for Jesus Christ. On this very day, Jesus is transforming peoples’ lives. Even today, the Holy Spirit is giving people the faith, hope, and love for God that enables them to experience suffering and death in Christ—the One who reveals that God is our Father, that He loves us, that He wants us live forever.

October 17: Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr, circa year 110.