Sunday, October 13, 2024

True Wealth is Being Loved By God

The Gospel reading for Sunday, October 13, 2024 challenges us to remember that being loved by Jesus, belonging to Jesus, and following Him are our true wealth. And since the Father has sent Jesus as the gift of His love to bring us to salvation, we must never lose hope. If we allow Him to free us from our illusions of mastery over reality—from all the ways we grasp at things and seek to wrench some sort of (ultimately always inadequate) "happiness" from them—then our arms will be free to adhere to Him every moment, every day, every step on the road to the Kingdom of God. In hope we have confidence in Him for whom all things are possible.

Consider the opinion held by some biblical scholars that this rich man who encounters Jesus and goes away "sad" doesn't necessarily stay away from Him. He remembers Jesus's "look of love" and eventually does become a disciple. In fact, he may be Saint Mark the Evangelist himself, the author of this Gospel, the only one of the evangelists who mentions in this story that "Jesus, looking at him, loved him."

God loves us, and all things are possible to Him. Never give up hope. Trust in Jesus, always.

"As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus answered him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'

"He replied and said to him, 'Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.'

"Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, 'You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

"Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.'

"They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, 'Then who can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, 'For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.'"

~Mark 10:17-27

Friday, October 11, 2024

The Simplicity and Courage of Saint John XXIII

Today is the celebration of the saint who was Pope when I was born in 1963. In part, my parents named me “John” in his honor (as well as my grandfather and Saint John the Baptist), so with his canonization in 2014 I acquired “another patron saint.” (My son John Paul and my daughter Teresa similarly acquired “retroactive patrons” when St John Paul II and St “Mother” Teresa of Kolkata were canonized.)

St John XXIII’s celebration is today, not because it is the anniversary of his death, but because on October 11, 1962 he officially opened the Second Vatican Council. His papacy only lasted five years, but it was momentous for the Church and the world. The 1960s saw the rapid emergence of “the new epoch” of unprecedented global interconnectedness and interdependence driven by the gigantic scope of technological power with all its vast possibilities and dangers. This world was (is) more desperately in need of God, but also more enthralled than ever with ideologies of allegedly “scientific” materialism and human self-sufficiency.

John XXIII attributed the idea of the Council to an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he surprised everyone by announcing it in the first months of his papacy—on the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, January 25, 1959. In addition to opening the first session of the Council and shaping its fundamental orientation, John XXIII wrote two landmark encyclicals (Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris) developing Catholic social teaching in light of worldwide challenges that remain with us today:

“Man is not just a material organism. He consists also of spirit; he is endowed with reason and freedom. He demands, therefore, a moral and religious order; and it is this order—and not considerations of a purely extraneous, material order—which has the greatest validity in the solution of problems relating to his life as an individual and as a member of society, and problems concerning individual states and their inter-relations.

“It has been claimed that in an era of scientific and technical triumphs such as ours man can well afford to rely on his own powers, and construct a very good civilization without God. But the truth is that these very advances in science and technology frequently involve the whole human race in such difficulties as can only be solved in the light of a sincere faith in God, the Creator and Ruler of man and his world.”

~Mater et Magistra 208-209 [May 1961]

Thursday, October 10, 2024

My Latest Portrait in Honor of Christina Grimmie

Remembering the astonishing, magnificent, heroic Christina Grimmie after eight years and four months.

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Life, Possibility, and Surprise

Flowers in the Fall. Every year I find more of them!

I have been getting out in this beautiful October weather. The days are getting cooler, the sun has been bright, and the air is fresh.

So I made a video with a few reflections on getting old, how it feels peculiar and difficult, but also on the wonder contained in every moment, the sense of abundant experience and also the possibility to grow, to be surprised, to discover more and more that — whatever the circumstances we face — life deep down yearns to say “yes” and to express gratitude.

Here’s the VLOG:

Monday, October 7, 2024

Prayer and Fasting for Peace

“On this day, I have urged everyone to observe a day of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting are the weapons of love that change history, the weapons that defeat our one true enemy: the spirit of evil that foments war, because it is ‘murderous from the beginning’, ‘a liar and the father of lies’ (John 8:44). Please, let us devote time to prayer and rediscover the saving power of fasting!” (Pope Francis).

Sunday, October 6, 2024

A Rosary For Peace

This evening, Pope Francis assembled at the ancient Basilica of Saint Mary Major with bishops and others from around the world who are in Rome for the current Synod. They prayed the Rosary for peace, anticipating tomorrow’s feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and also the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack that precipitated the ongoing, terrible war in Gaza. This war continues to rage and has now spread to Lebanon. With the Israeli military fighting Hamas and Hezbollah—proxy forces of Iran—the specter of further escalation and even open war between Israel and Iran is a grave concern. Millions of innocent civilians find themselves in the crosshairs of destructive forces that seem willing to attack them with indiscriminate and disproportionate means that some say amount to “total war.”

Meanwhile, the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, with Russia occupying a third of Ukraine’s sovereign territory while it continues to push west along the front and rain down bombs daily all across Ukraine, targeting civilian infrastructure so as to break down the Ukrainian people’s access to water, heat, and electricity. The Pope has spoken of his closeness to the people of what he always calls “Martyred Ukraine.”

Francis has invited Catholics, Christians, and all people to observe tomorrow’s feast as a day of prayer and fasting for peace. “Invited” means it’s not obligatory, dear Catholics, but it’s still worth doing and much needed. It’s a plea to the Lord, a work of mercy, and a sign of our solidarity with those who are currently suffering greatly from the evil effects of these wars and others that we never hear about. 

We need miracles in this world that is so dominated by violence. Let’s humble ourselves, make sacrifices, pray and beg the Lord for miracles of grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing. The tenderness of the great heart of Mary reawakens our trust in Jesus who is Lord of these difficult times and of all history.

In today’s Rosary, Francis once again showed his particular devotion to the Mother of Jesus through the ancient icon specially venerated by the people of the city of Rome and know as “Maria Salus Populi Romani.”

Here is a portion of a prayer he addressed to the Mother of God after the Rosary:

Turn your maternal gaze upon the human family, which has lost the joy of peace and the sense of fraternity. Intercede for our world in danger, so that it may cherish life and reject war, care for those who suffer, the poor, the defenseless, the sick, and the afflicted, and protect our Common Home.

We invoke you for the mercy of God, O Queen of Peace! Transform the hearts of those who fuel hatred, silence the din of weapons that generate death, extinguish the violence that brews in the heart of humanity, and inspire projects for peace in the actions of those who govern nations.

O Queen of the Holy Rosary, untie the knots of selfishness and disperse the dark clouds of evil. Fill us with your tenderness, uplift us with your caring hand, and grant us your maternal caress, which makes us hope in the advent of a new humanity where “… the wilderness becomes a garden land and the garden land seems as common as forest. Then judgment will dwell in the wilderness and justice abide in the garden land. The work of justice will be peace…” (Isaiah 32:15-17).

O Mother, Salus Populi Romani, pray for us!

Friday, October 4, 2024

Saint Francis on Being "Servants" of Everyone

Happy Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi!

"We must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do his work" (Saint Francis of Assisi).

Thursday, October 3, 2024

“I Say I’m Just Fine, But I Don’t Feel Alright on the Inside”

I want to ask for your prayers, in light of recent circumstances.

Yesterday afternoon, I fell in the kitchen. I'm not entirely sure what caused me to fall, but I fell down, full body, on my left side. I immediately got up again and looked myself over. I knew I hadn't broken any bones and I felt no evidence of any strains or sprains. There seemed to be nothing more than just a few bumps and bruises. It wasn't the first time I've fallen, obviously – I have had a broad range of very peculiar mobility problems since the year 2002, but I haven't fallen in quite a while.


I've been very careful. I've been in the process of gradually trying to build up my strength by daily walks, trying to get a stride going. I bring my cane for assistance, but I find that sometimes, when I have a good stride going, I can do alright without it, and I tuck it under my arm. I don't take long walks, but I have been working on trying to strengthen my general mobility. So it was disappointing to fall in the kitchen yesterday. However, I felt fine. I should have remembered more clearly that a fall like that could blossom into other symptoms typical of my condition. I have most recently referred to this condition as “Long Lyme,” and indeed – in light of troubling cases of “Long COVID” that have emerged in recent years since the Pandemic – the medical profession in the United States seems more open to researching whether there might be enduring physical causes of what some have called “post-Lyme-syndrome.” There is, of course, lots of research showing that borrelia bacteria can remain in the body, and that they have their own protective mechanisms for evading the immune systems of at least some people. Then, of course, there is the fact that for years and years a significant percentage of Lyme patients have consistently complained about recurring and sometimes debilitating symptoms even after completing the standard course of antibiotic treatment.


But I digress. Let me return to “the fall.”


I should have taken it very easy (physically and mentally) for the remainder of the day. But instead, I “shook it all off” and continued with my day, mostly doing work in a sedentary position or laying on my bed surrounded by books and my usual gadgets. And then, at around six o'clock in the evening, I decided to go out for my walk. I had not noticed significant pain in any part of my body – by which I mean “no new pain”; just the same old, same old pain. 


And I am very much accustomed to pushing through pain, the normal kind of pain that comes from whatever residual abnormal factors remain from my health condition or have gradually arisen and increased with age. So I'm used to “pushing myself through” these usual aches and tiredness. I took a long walk, and pushed myself. I knew I was pushing myself, and I wanted to push myself. Usually, it's worth it.


But at the end, as I approached my house and began to slow down, I began to realize that I had pushed myself too far. Nevertheless, I still had things to do. I continued to slow down in order to regain balance in my body, and I drank plenty of water in order to make sure I was well-hydrated. 


Then I had a meeting on Zoom. During that meeting, I was sitting and feeling very, very uncomfortable. I was beginning to feel pain all through my body, but especially in the left thigh. Maybe I’d sprained something. But also, maybe I’d started to “relapse.” There’s always the possibility of triggering a “flare-up” of the Lyme disease bacteria that are presumably latent and inactive in my system, or triggering whatever-else-it-is-that-causes-renewed-symptoms (“Chronic Lyme,” “Post-Lyme,” “Long Lyme,” or maybe even a new infection from some recent tick bite I failed to notice — this is the Shenandoah Valley, after all). I’m used to periodic flare-ups, and I generally know how to get through them. But some flare-ups are more severe than others. .


This is what a big Lyme flare-up feels like: pain comes rolling down your body “like an avalanche,” as Avril Lavigne – the famous singer-songwriter “pop-punk-princess” and fellow Lyme sufferer – describes it in another of her poignant and compelling songs (“Avalanche”). This song dispenses with the unnecessary “emphatic-profanity” that Avril has used in too many of her songs since her third album (sorry, Avril, but it's too much, and it just projects vulgarity and anxiety – not the “tough-rock-chick” …ah, but this is another story for another time).


The pain was still predominantly in my leg. It was not the kind of pain that was going to make life unbearable. But it was enough pain to make me have a new source of discomfort. The fact is that I'm not very good at handling pain. I don't like pain, obviously. Who does? I am not very good at handling pain, especially acute localized pain.


I've had to slowly sort of manage the aches that are customary in my life and learn how to deal with them using various different “tricks”: Deep breathing and slow movement exercises (not Yoga or any particular system). Careful stretching and making sure I move around all through the day, taking Tylenol when I need it (in measured quantities) and some key supplements, as well as some of my other medications, which are also good for pain management. There is one firm rule: No Opioids Allowed! I had lots of those in the early 2000s, but when they had to raise the doses, I developed intolerable “side-effects” and had to stop them. Thus I was saved from the “Opioid Crisis” that the pharmaceutical industry recklessly foisted on my country’s population near the beginning of the 21st century. Dealing with the “side-effects” was wretched, but it took me out of the opioid-prescription-circus long before it spiraled out of control and caused so much suffering. I don’t know how it would have turned out for me, but I thank God that I was removed from that dangerous model of pain management. I would have been too weak and too stupid to handle it on my own.


But back to my present story of falling in my kitchen, and straining my left leg by trying to “walk it off,” and the concerns I have at present.


Last night it was difficult to find a position to sleep (or, I should say, it was more difficult than usual, for more precise reasons). Blah! There was a new and troubling experience of pain in my legs, primarily in my left upper thigh. It felt like a stretch pain, like I had stretched or strained a muscle, with maybe some interior bruising. (Meanwhile, the “avalanche” was rumbling —musculoskeletal pain was rising in both legs, the back, and both shoulders.)


Why would anybody want to analyze a strain on a blog post? It's kind of funny in a way, because it's like, okay, I stretched that muscle a little too much, and I got a strain. I have compresses, I have magnesium, vitamin C, etc. etc. But when you have “Long Lyme” disease, you can't ever just take it for granted that a strain is a strain, a fall is a fall, and that's it. You have to pay attention to how things are going over the course of the next week or two to see if other parts of your body are starting to act “strangely.


Very few people understand what this is like—this up-and-down disease combined with all my other problems, my OCD and depression. I felt like I was recuperating from the difficulties of the summer. Now I’ve got to start over. Other people express sympathy, but it’s only natural for them to think, “it can’t be that bad; he looks fine.” I’ve been dealing with this for over 20 years. What use is there in bothering other people about it? I get why Avril sings: “ask about me, I’m quick to change the subject” or “I say that I’m just fine, but I don’t feel alright on the inside…


So it's back to bed rest again (mostly laying on my right side), and trying to take shelter from any “avalanches” of pain. I hope I don't find myself singing, “I think I'm running from an avalanche, I think I'm running from an avalanche, I think I'm running from an avalanche…


Whoa-ho-ho, whoa-ho-”… NO!


Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Happy Feast of the Guardian Angels

Happy Feast of the Guardian Angels.⭐️ Thanks to my guardian angel (always working “overtime”) and the angels of my family members for all your care, which is greater than we realize.🙂

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Saint Thérèse: Trust Brings Us to Love

"C’est la confiance et rien que la confiance qui doit nous conduire à l’Amour" (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux).

"It is trust that brings us to love and thus sets us free from fear. It is trust that helps us to stop looking to ourselves and enables us to put into God’s hands what he alone can accomplish. Doing so provides us with an immense source of love and energy for seeking the good of our brothers and sisters. And so, amid the suffering of her last days, Therese was able to say: 'I count only on love.' In the end, only love counts. Trust makes roses blossom and pours them forth as an overflow of the superabundance of God’s love. Let us ask, then, for such trust as a free and precious gift of grace, so that the paths of the Gospel may open up in our lives" (Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation C'est La Confiance 45 [October 2023]).

Monday, September 30, 2024

Are We Headed Toward a New “Totalitarianism”?

Recently a colleague (who is an agnostic) shared his thoughts about the crises facing our world today under an apocalyptic horizon which he called “the sixth mass extinction” of life on earth, which would include the possible extinction of humans. In a broadly Darwinian key, he noted that relentless evolution pushes forward, and the survivors among living species are the ones that succeed in adaptability and competition. In light of current dangers and these classical Darwinian categories, he wondered — not unreasonably — whether universal human brotherhood/sisterhood, global aspirations and concerns, and other humanistic ideals are still worth pursuing. Isn’t it “natural,” rather, for human individuals and groups to fight for survival—a prize that will only be given to those who are sufficiently strong and clever? But we cannot “throw away” the large portion of humanity that can’t “keep up.” Ultimately, my colleague sided with the continued relevance of personalistic humanism, indicating that together we can find new and creative ways to “adapt” and turn competition toward collaboration for the good of all.

Questions are raised here that need to be taken seriously. Some people seem to want to set aside the (superficial but genuine) aspiration for universal human fraternity that the West took for granted 60 years ago. We see this among “religious fundamentalists” (i.e. ideologues and terrorist factions), extreme nationalists, and factionalists of all kinds, but also in the brave new worlds of “transhumanists” and tech billionaires with strange ideas. The notions that only elite and competent human individuals deserve to survive a global catastrophe, or that the human community is a “herd” that requires “thinning out,” are gaining traction among people across the political spectrum.

In light of these concerns and my own desire to uphold universal human fraternity—which I know to be founded in our creation in the image of God and our common destiny in Jesus Christ—I conveyed my own reflections with the desire to facilitate further consideration and dialogue.

The result is something far from a complete exposition. It represents fragments of expression in light of my own ongoing historical, philosophical, and theological studies regarding the dignity of the human person. Inseparable from all of this are my prayers and longing to see the face of the Mystery who fulfills all things, and the faith that impels me to stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in the obscurity of their search, and to “co-suffer” with them.

I share below (with minimal changes) what I wrote, as a reminder to myself and for the interest of my blog readers:
________________________________________________________________

You are profoundly correct in your idea of what is necessary to avoid the sixth mass extinction: an unprecedented “adaptation” and an overturning of the concept of unbridled competition, breaking free from “hyper-individualism” and going beyond the “I” to the “you” and the “we.” 

The new adaptation must be more aware and purposeful (and not merely “reactive”) than humans have ever achieved. What will help move in this direction is “dialogue” that leads to mutual understanding, respect for persons and things in the inherent positivity that “diversity” expresses (analogia entis), and a common effort toward harmonious collaboration as fruit of dialogue (without any forced conformity, but in freedom and mutual love). Humans must have an analogous “dialogue“ with the natural world, “listening” to the needs and the beauty of the natural world, and taking care of the world as the gardener tends a garden. This also leads to a kind of “collaboration” on different levels, where human reason contributes from an awareness and wisdom that articulate the value of nature. Technology still plays an important role, but it is relative and subordinated to a greater wisdom. Humans will retain (and in fact make more fully manifest) their place at the “summit” of the natural world through dwelling-in-it in wisdom and love.

The model of the 20th century was that of human power and anthropocentric rationality imposing itself on the natural world. This model has failed.

Overcoming hyper-individualism is a particularly difficult challenge. We must learn the lessons of recent history. “Individualism” is really a myth, which can become a pernicious lie. We are exhorted to a radical existentialism of being self-sufficient, of “being ourselves” independently. But in reality, humans are much too fragile for such an isolated posture. They inevitably must find a “we” in which to ground themselves and experience validation (not to mention the material necessities of life). Interpersonal and communitarian relationships (I-Thou and We-You) are the only way this can be achieved with respect for human dignity.

But humans have tried (and still try) other ways. The myth of individualism creates anxiety, leading humans to seek some kind of communal bonds based on partisan security or a “collective affirmation” that “carries away” the self into something apparently “greater”—thus “I” becomes “we,” but only by debasement.


This leads to the development of what could be called “artificial tribes”—sometimes on a small scale or only partially extended, sometimes large and virulent enough to swallow up whole nations and peoples. Ideologies and Image-ologies (I need a better word for this) can reduce the “I” to a mere part of a party: the “vanguard of the dialectic of history” or a “member of the ‘Volk’ and its historic mission, the Master Race” or “revolutionary worker-peasant-soldiers wrecking havoc and destruction in obedience to The Great Helmsman,” or whatever. What is both strange and ironic is the fact that this “I” subsumed by an artificially postured “we” seems to aim inescapably toward a totalitarian “thou,” a leader who is charismatic at first, but has no authority adequate to the dignity of the human person, and therefore must use power and violence to unite the collective and define it—inevitably in opposition to some “enemy.” Thus Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao… and others too, but there is much to learn from the recent history of these architectonic “exemplars” and the people who suffered (often after “serving”) one of these three historical monsters within the last hundred years. Contrary to our assumptions, we have only begun to scratch the surface of understanding these histories of totalitarian-violent-mass-subjugation and how it was able to degrade and deform the humanity of ordinary people who were “just like us.” (Particularly vivid are the stories of the soul-destroying idolatry of Mao Zedong that the Cultural Revolution generation of Chinese youth are finally beginning to express in their old age. These have been a particular focus of my recent studies.)

The true, interpersonal “I-Thou-We” needs freedom and a genuine “authority” (one that gives human dignity its real foundation, and that is the source and sustenance of freedom). Humans cannot help wanting justice, truth, beauty, happiness, love. The human heart has a conscience that never ceases to urge the person in this way. It would be a step forward for our world if people committed themselves to an ongoing intelligent and ardent search for the source of this conscience.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Vincent and Francis “On the Margins”

September 27th was the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul. He began “going to the margins” in the year 1617. His followers in the “Vincentian Family” of religious congregations and societies are still serving poor, forgotten, suffering, marginalized people 407 years later.

And Pope Francis continues to reach out to poor of all kinds. After a short time recovering from his inspiring pilgrimage to East Asia, the Pope embarked on another trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, historically Catholic lands that are now afflicted by many kinds of “poverty,” especially spiritual poverty. Among other things, he visited the 600-year-old Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. His words sought to address a deeply impoverished “intellectual world,” so much in need of renewal that it might seek truth and wisdom for the benefit everyone.


Friday, September 27, 2024

A Birthday Message For Avril Lavigne

I wish you a Very, Very Happy 40th Birthday, Avril! 

(Of course you’ll never see this, but I’m still writing in a personal way…and meaning it too.)

I will always be grateful to you for the beautiful song that was born from your own suffering heart, that brought comfort to me in my own pains (due to the awful illness we both know only too well). You inspired my soul (and many others) and helped me find the words to ask “God [to] keep my HEAD ABOVE WATER” when I was drowning. 

Thank you. Thank you so much.

And thanks, too, for so much amazing music you have given us! 

Don’t forget that great restless heart in you that wants “forever,” that longs to “taste” the “beautiful…permanent ‘no way’!” calling out from the depths of everything. You have a tremendous heart, Avril—a heart that wants to touch the stars, that yearns for the presence of an “innocence” that is “brilliant,” that trusts a mysterious “someone” to “take [you] by the hand, take [you] somewhere new.” 

You’ve been having fun being a rock star in these recent years of good health—with the Lyme disease treated and in remission—but you’ve also shared in song that there are times when the “body’s achin” and you “don’t feel alright on the inside.” Sometimes you “can’t take it, take it, take it” and you “can’t fake it” and “it’s like [you’re] running from an avalanche…” 

Whoa-ho-ho, whoa-ho-hooooo.” 

Whoa-ho-ho, indeed! You always have those simple words or bending vowels (“Don’t let me drow-ie-ow-ow-n!” - for “drown”) to just “drive it home.” Yeah, I’ve felt something like those aches, that overbearing weakness, and those capricious avalanches that look like they’re going to wipe me out. I’ve often felt like that! It’s so terribly lonely, so full of a “crying out” that seems to go “unheard” by anyone around us. I believe in the God who hears this cry, but it can still be so hard…

When an artist can make a beautiful thing (a song) out of her own suffering, then especially those of us who have suffering like this in our own lives are astonished and deeply moved. The beauty is like a sign that our cry is being heard. It brings a touch of comfort to us in the midst of our afflictions. We are grateful beyond words. We will never forget you. 

Avril, you have a voice that can speak deep down in people’s souls. I hope and pray that you will use that voice for many years to come. You have proven that rock’n roll can be fun, and also that it can be powerful as a way of communicating compassion—of doing works of mercy. 

Happy Birthday, Avril! God bless you!!!!

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The Big Stores are BIGGER THAN EVER!

I don’t get out and about all that much these days. I walk almost every day along the roads and rolling hills of our neighborhood, on the border between small town and countryside. We’ve lived in this house for 23 years and I’m still surprised by things I can see and hear within a 20 minute walk from my front door.

But with rain about to fall this afternoon, and with me still feeling the need for my walk, I decided to go with Eileen to the local Stuff-Mart. I wasn’t looking to buy anything. I just wanted to get out on a rainy day. So, I went on a “walk” around the store. It was a strange experience.

I used to drive around, shop, and go to all these stores for years, and I didn’t think much about it. But for the past six years, I have basically given up driving—I don’t trust my reflexes, for one thing, especially when I’m not feeling well. Also, ever since kids started getting driver’s licenses around here, there’s rarely been a car available for me to drive. Now they’re all living with spouses and children, or with friends, and they have their own cars. (Jojo is the only “kid” still at home, and she has a very busy social schedule. I still couldn't get a car even if I wanted one. But I don’t mind; I’m happy if I can just get out of the house every day. We live in a beautiful place.)

So, I wasn’t going much to stores. Then came the Great Plague of four years ago. I think many people have forgotten how strange that time was, and have readjusted to their “normal” hypermodern lifestyles again as if nothing ever happened. I expect, however, that more—perhaps worse—crises loom ahead for the coming generations. We simply can’t keep living this way for very long. Things have grown way out of proportion. Everything has become monstrous.

Of course I already know all about this phenomenon. I use the many-headed monster of the internet. But when you shop on the internet, there can be a false sense that shopping is still somehow a quaint matter. In spite of the fact that everything is for sale (including the information you give using websites and making purchases), internet shopping still feels like a “private” and focused exchange you carry out on you tablet or phone. Everything (including the ubiquitous advertising) is limited to a small space that you hold in your hand while surrounded by your own familiar environment.

The Big Box Retail Store, however, is not filtered by any media. It’s a monument to raw consumerism in all its enormity and immediacy. It’s designed to have “all the stuff” you could possibly desire for your material purposes. I suppose if you go in to buy specific things and you know where they are, you can ignore the surrounding mountains of other things.

But I just went in there to get a little walk while Eileen picked up a few particular items she had on her list.

It was GIGANTIC! These places are bigger than ever, with more sections and more shelves packed with more junk than ever.

I feel like it’s too much! We don’t need all these things to live dignified human lives. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not claiming to be better than anyone else. I am immersed as much as anyone else in this culture-of-too-much-stuff. My house is full of too much stuff. But I’m used to my own junk. That doesn’t make it any healthier for my soul.

I walked through the store and looked at the colossal shelves of junk, and wondered how long we could continue to live this way, how long would it be before everything just blows up…

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

(Still) Looking Forward to Autumn

We have humid gray clouds and leaves wet and green,

Of cooler, colorful skies and foliage of light, I dream…



Sunday, September 22, 2024

Our Earthly Path is Transfigured

Genuine Christian faith entails the conviction that created things are good. As humans, we are meant to be "attracted" by the good in creatures, drawn to desire and love them, and drawn toward God through them, drawn to love God preeminently, who is the source and fulfillment of the being and goodness of created things. The problem is not "attraction" in itself. The problem is the mess that sin has made of our humanity. It is not that things themselves are evil; rather it is our sinful self-obsession, our drive to construct the foundation of our selves through controlling things by our own power, that skews our perception of their essential, gratuitous value given to them by God.

The “world” that Jesus warns His disciples about (see e.g. John 15:18-19) is not the same as “the material world” or the created world as such. It is rather humanity’s sinful “reduction” of the meaning of creation; it is the world distorted and abused by sin (the original sin we inherit from our first parents, and our own personal sins and connivance in the dysfunctional and destructive patterns of sinfulness that weigh upon every period of human history).

We deserve to be called “worldly" (in this negative sense) insofar as we willingly blind ourselves to the whole reality of the created world. This world is meant to be the place where embodied persons are called to give and receive love in a multitude of "incarnate" gestures and expressions, which are made possible by the wisdom and goodness inherent in things created by God that contribute to the meaningful and precious environment He entrusts to us, and the beautiful path of our history - our journey toward Him. By contrast, “worldliness” is the result of the effort to cut off the world from God. Our "worldly desires” perceive only "worldly goods," i.e. things merely insofar as they are subject to our own selfish grasping and manipulation.

Thus we do violence to the world God has created in the gift of His love. We covet, take, steal, hoard, violate, and destroy things because we refuse to receive them and give them. When we forget the gift of God, we cannot engage reality: we don't know how to "possess" things with freedom, to learn from them, deepen them by "collaborating" with their riches and marking them with the seal of our own personal creativity, and thus being able to give of ourselves through them. We are the ones who have brought evil and destruction into the world; we have made the world a deceitful, harmful, dangerous place.

But God loves the world. He loves us. The Father reveals the depths of this love by sending His Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh, who dwells among us, accompanies us, dies for us (and thus stays with us even through death) so He can raise us up, heal us, and transform us by joining us to Himself and drawing our hearts to Him.

In following Him we are led to rediscover all the created things of the world in Him. We begin to see ourselves and all things as having their true meaning in Him and for Him. There is nothing reductive about this, because reality is ultimately personal and interpersonal. The encounter with the Person of Jesus is decisive because He fulfills and transcends (in infinite depth) every person and every thing.

In Him, our lives and everything on our earthly path is transfigured. Even though it doesn't often seem that way, as we trudge through the many difficult and lonely days in this life, we hold onto the truth in love and hope, through faith in Jesus who has gone before us in death to resurrection. Thus we learn to engage life and the reality of the world passionately, attentively, but with peace and joy in our hearts, because we know that Jesus Christ has saved the world, and that He is with us in all our days.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Saint Matthew: The Encounter With Jesus Changed Everything

“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him” (Matthew 9:9).


This conversion story from Matthew’s own gospel is presented in similar words in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 (except they give “Levi” as his name, but clearly it was the same man). Notwithstanding their brevity, these references to Matthew’s vocation are presented in a way that reveals the depths of his conversion.

The first thing that is clear is that Matthew was a public sinner in the judgment of his own people. He was an official within the complicated and corrupt bureaucracy that the Roman Empire had imposed upon Galilee by means of the “client state” of the tetrarch Herod Antipas. He was a representative of Roman imperial power, and he wielded this power in Capernaum on behalf of a puppet king installed by this foreign government. He also used it to his own advantage.

Why would anyone in Israel want to be a tax collector? The compensation for being ritually cut off and generally hated by the people was the accumulation of significant wealth. Matthew was officially responsible for providing the government with a fixed sum of money periodically from his region. In order to acquire this sum, however, he was free to set his own tax fees, collecting as much as he could get from the people. The tax collector’s position was virtually defined as the opportunity to practice unlimited graft and extortion. Above and beyond the required government sum and a fair wage for his own efforts, the tax collector used the force at his disposal to rob the population and enrich himself.

Matthew was, in fact, a thief and a criminal.

Then Jesus saw him. Jesus looked at the Mafia boss of Capernaum, who was in his “business office” (so to speak) doing his sordid work of squeezing people for money and keeping records of these “transactions.” A tax collector in Galilee (unlike the fishermen who followed Jesus) would have been literate in both Aramaic and Greek.

Jesus saw Matthew, the person, and loved that person. No doubt he also perceived that after Matthew ceased keeping records of his own extortion racket, he could begin an altogether different sort of record keeping. He could record the words and deeds of the Teacher in writing, and see that they were passed on.

Jesus saw Matthew and spoke to him: “Follow me.” Matthew had probably heard of Jesus from the people, and may have even watched his ministry. Before this moment, however, he had not conceived any hope that his life could be different.

The encounter with Jesus in this moment changed everything.

Matthew’s response was simple but had rich implications. Our text says he “got up” and followed. The Greek term used here, however, is the same word used to express Jesus’s “rising” from the dead. The power of Jesus’s gaze and his words had a miraculous effect, achieving something even more amazing than when he later “raised” Lazarus from the tomb. Jesus “raised” Matthew from the deeper deadness of sin, and invited him to become his companion. So also Jesus looks upon each one of us, and calls us to do the same.

Friday, September 20, 2024

The Witness of the Korean Martyrs

Here are a few words about the remarkable way the Gospel came to be preached in Korea, and the marvelous impact of Christ and the Church on this ancient East Asian culture beginning a little over two centuries ago. The blood of native Korean witnesses sowed the seeds of a Korean Church that remains vital today in the midst of many dangers in this volatile part of the world. In the words below—from my article in the September 2023 issue of
Magnificat—I give a brief overview of the historical circumstances surrounding the birth of the Korean Church by relating the story of one of the converts of that time:

Saint Mareuko Jeong Eui-Bae is one of the 103 Korean martyrs whose feast we celebrate on September 20. He is among some 10,000 Koreans who gave their lives for Christ during multiple fierce persecutions in the mid-19th century. Most were ordinary lay men and women, but some were also from the educated classes and the nobility. We know enough about the high-ranking nobleman/scholar Mareuko Jeong to appreciate the particular drama of his conversion.

Korean cultural life flourished for many centuries, creatively appropriating ancient Chinese literary and religious traditions into its own independent society. But by the end of the 18th century, the 500-year-old Joseon dynasty was in deep decline, and dependent on Qing-dynasty China. Meanwhile, the Joseon Neo-Confucian State had become a religious/political structure of rigid social hierarchy, with the monarch at the center, followed by the noble and scholarly classes, and with many of the common people reduced to a status of virtual slavery.

It was the scholar-officials who began searching for ways to reform this ossified society. In frequent diplomatic trips to Beijing, they met “Westerners” (including Catholic priests) and obtained books on developments in Western science, technology, philosophy, and religion translated into Chinese. Thus arose the “Sohak” movement—groups of scholars who studied “Western learning” and discussed its possible value for reforming Korean society. For most, it was mainly an intellectual examination of various Western ideas, but a few were drawn specifically to the Catholic faith. Yi Sung-hun was baptized in Beijing in 1784, returned to Korea, and baptized a few of his compatriots. By the time the first priest arrived in 1795 there were 4000 baptized lay Catholics waiting for him.

There was also aggressive opposition to the new teaching. The Joseon royal house and their Neo-Confucian supporters viewed Christianity as a threat to the Korean social order. Worship of One God in Jesus Christ undermined the religious/superstitious system of rites offered for the monarch and the hierarchical continuity of clan and family. Christianity preached that God was the Father of all people, who were brothers and sisters with a common destiny in Christ regardless of their origins and social status. Among the scholars who abhorred the new Christian teaching was Jeong Eui-Bae. 

Born in 1794, Jeong was an established professor of Chinese literature and defender of the status quo when persecution broke out in 1839. By that time the French Foreign Mission Society had sent a bishop and two priests to Korea. In 1839, Jeong Eui-Bae witnessed the brutal mutilation and execution of  Bishop Laurentius Imbert, Father Peter Maubant, and Father Jakob Chastan. (They are also among the 103 martyred saints.)

The 47-year-old scholar had seen death many times. But in these three men Jeong saw something completely new: an astonishing joy in the face of torture and death. Jeong was growing old in a society where death was covered with shadows. His studies gave no hint as to how to face death, much less to embrace it with the joy he saw on the faces of those missionaries that day. Disregarding his honorable station, Jeong obtained and read forbidden Christian books and met the people who believed in the One written about in those books. Glimpsing there the Source of hitherto unknown joy and hope, the long-cynical old professor was totally converted. He was baptized Mareuko (Mark) and devoted his newfound zeal and intellectual skills to working as a catechist and caring for the sick. The poor humble people whom the former aristocrat had once scorned he now served with love until his own martyrdom in 1866, at age 72.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Happy “Janaro Family Feast Day”

Happy "Janaro Family Feast Day"! Buona Festa di San Gennaro! 

Today is the Feast Day of the Great Ancestor of the Janaro Clan, the original Saint Januarius, fourth century bishop and martyr, and patron saint of Naples. Today the ancient relic of the vial of his “martyr’s blood” was presented for veneration at the cathedral in Naples by the current archbishop. Once again the blood liquified, as—according to a long historical tradition—it does almost every year on September 19. (Some Neapolitans fear that if the event doesn’t take place, the region will face calamities in the coming year... but I don’t know what the “record” is on such a correspondence, and in any case it’s not the point of this devotion.) The blood is ordinarily dry and solid in its container. I’m not one to be overly credulous about these things, but it’s notable that numerous scientific studies have been carried out, and none have been able to account for the phenomenon. For the people of Naples (including many generations of my own ancestors), the celebration of this day has brought joy and encouragement to trust in the love of Jesus for this particular ecclesial communion that dates back to late antiquity, and confidence in the ongoing solicitude of the saint who (1700 years ago) was its singularly outstanding pastor and witness to the Gospel.

This history, and the faith that pervades it, formed the lives of my family in the past, and was brought with my great grandfather and his brothers to the United States of America when they came to this “nation of immigrants” and settled in Boston and New York.

I don’t know if Saint Januarius/“San Gennaro” is actually our ancestor by kinship (like a Great Uncle X100) but distance in time renders it plausible. I’d like to imagine that he must, somehow, be related to us, what with the "Benevento" and "Naples" regional traditions and all... or there must be some connection, because "Janaro" (with the "J") is a variant in old Neapolitan dialect of "Januarius." Both of which are derived from the mythical Roman god "Janus," the "guardian of the gateways" and all places where people come in and go out (note that "January" is the first month, the end of one year and the beginning of another). Thus I hypothesize. In any case, according to Legend (and I should know, because I made up the legend) he is the patron saint of the Janaros. So, let’s celebrate!

SAN GENNARO, PRAY FOR US!!😊🎉