Are We Ready For War?

Vladimir Putin gave a speech today. He mocked the West’s lack of resolve. Is he right? 

I'm sure the entire Duma applauded loudly and long. When Stalin used to address the Politburo, no one wanted to be the first person to stop clapping. The story was that the first person to stop clapping would be arrested and never seen again.

Someone was arrested yesterday in Moscow because she had donated 50 rubles to an anti-Putin organization. And yet, in a few weeks the world will witness the outrageous charade of Putin's "reelection" for six more years as "President" of the Russian Federation.

Everyone knows this is a fake election.

The frozen blood of Alexei Navalny cries out to heaven from the ice of northern Siberia against all the lies of Putinism. As does the blood of Ukrainian women and children, victims of war crimes, and the blood of the poor Russian conscripts used as human weapons thrown recklessly at Ukrainian positions by a nihilistic military that has no regard for theirs or anyone else's lives. And Ukrainian soldiers who are running out of ammunition to defend themselves... who can account for that?

The Western world—in particular my own nation—is constituted by the most materially wealthy, powerful, and physically comfortable people in the history of the human race. Does this entail no responsibilities in regard to the rest of the world?

Western Europe and the United States of America are already effectively "co-belligerents" with Ukraine: ironically, Putin is right about this. In a 21st century war, money, weapons, and training are more than "virtual boots" on the ground. But the West's contribution to this war is weak and cowardly. Eastern Europe—Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia—cannot afford to be weak. They are preparing for war. As Russia shifts to a "war economy," it will need to continue fighting wars. The ex-KGB clique that has effectively centralized the Russian Federation will find plenty of pretexts to visit destruction upon its other neighbors if it succeeds in Ukraine.

It has been verified that North Korean weapons are being used by the Russian military in Ukraine. North Korea can only do what China permits it to do. China defines itself by politics, and unlike Russia's mafia-state, the Chinese Communist Party is pervasive and continues to refine methods and systems for managing a materialist consumer society. They are constructing the ideals and methodological “tools” that will look more and more like “political wisdom” to those who want to live in a technocratic society that ignores the existence of God.

China is sharing its "methods" on every continent in the world. They take material risks and sometimes fail but they seem to "learn" (according to their own criteria) and keep going. Their influence will continue to grow.

In the West (in the United States) we expect to "win" without really risking anything. Both parties and several American Presidents have played different kinds of games since 2014, when Putin first seized and annexed Ukrainian territory and threw down the gauntlet at the structures of international law. 

Ours is the strategy of a decadent civilization. Our political leaders are reckless, narrow, and ignorant—and the ones who claim to represent morality (especially on points that I myself believe are necessary to human dignity) bring disgrace to the advocacy of human dignity by pretending to champion it. They trivialize these sacred things by their craven political ambition and slavish adherence to an irresponsible and vindictive partisan leader. 

Do we really want to foster awareness in our society of the dignity of every human person created in the image of God? Or do we just want our side to “win” ugly political battles shaped by a vulgar will for power? If we think these people can fix our society, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

I don't advocate war. I hate war. Initiating and sustaining dialogue on every possible level—not capitulation, not surrender, but dialogue even in the midst of a fight—is essential for moving beyond conflicts and overcoming the perpetuation of the cycle of violence. Meanwhile, self-defense is also necessary, and the Ukrainian people are fighting against the ongoing invasion, occupation, and oppression of their country by a ruthless enemy force that has effectively trampled on the basic structures of international law and has thereby constituted itself a Rogue State. 

Certainly, the world needs better ways of restraining and containing these “Rogue States” that are controlled by lawless political cults (like the neo-Stalinist cult in Putinist Russia and the war-mongering, obtuse, idolatrous Kim-Dynasty cult in North Korea). Right at the present moment, however, the Ukrainians are alone in this effort, depending on fickle and feckless Western “aid.” They are running out of bullets, while the American Congress has adjourned itself for a “vacation”—a shameless ploy by its leading party to “extend the chaos” for the political benefit of a profoundly disturbed man who admires Putin, and has a fetish about becoming President of the United States again. This Fall, both parties (in what some have called America’s “Duopoly”) will once again present voters with two ridiculous candidates for President. There is nothing surprising about this, and in itself it doesn’t mean we should give in to cynicism. What we need is patience: the work of building up the USA’s dysfunctional politics is going to be long, laborious, and lacking in the glamor to which we are presently addicted.

But there is a more immediate problem. We have been (more than) helping the Ukrainian military in a here-and-now real-live-action “shooting-war,” and at the present moment they need more help. Perhaps there are better ways to help Ukraine defend itself and eventually rebuild its ravaged nation. We should find better ways. But right now, they depend on the pattern of assistance we have been giving them, and to cut them off in the midst of their need would be a betrayal. It would be dishonorable. 

Is there any sense of honor left in the USA? Have we sold it all to satisfy our greed, our lusts, our grasping cupidity, our aimless curiosity, our insatiable urge for comforts and living-standards the likes of which the world has never known before, and our endless anxiety about our own security?

I rarely speak about my country's politics, but many reasonable voices are speaking these days (i.e. voices other than the usual ones of the spectacle-chasing, flattering-and-condemning, entertainment-driven American mainstream media). So I'm not entirely a fool here.

And I cannot be silent as G.U.L.A.G. opens its horrible jaws once again…in 2024! How is this possible? In 2024, Stalin’s GULAG is back, and it has not even a semblance of shame, operating right out in public view with cynical incompetence—arresting, imprisoning, torturing, and killing (in one way or another) people condemned not only for their dissenting opinions, but for speaking the truth. 

I cannot remain silent as the frozen skeletal remains of Alexei Navalny's body are (finally) buried in the earth tomorrow.

February Art From JJStudios

February 2024 was not very dramatic in terms of the local weather, but I was able to work up a few of my “digital sculptures” from photographs. I experimented with a few different styles and color patterns. Here are the features from beginning to end of the month.

Two Years of “Martyred Ukraine”—Dare We Forget?

FEBRUARY 24th is here once again. With my prayers and my tears and the anguish of my heart, I cry out to the Lord for the suffering Ukrainian people… and also for the suppressed and broken Russians and the minority peoples who live under an iron yoke, and also for Eastern European nations that are still on high alert against dangers that they once thought were left in the past. This day reminds us that we live in a world at war. In particular, war rages in the lands on the inland seas from Europe to the Middle East. It has been a decade since Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution of Dignity represented that ancient nation’s decisive turn toward Europe and what was left of the best ideals of Western civil society (which they may well understand and appreciate much better than we do). They knew only too well that the alternative was submission to despotism. Ten years ago, the despotic regime began seizing Ukrainian territory, and two years ago today, it sent its armies in full force to conquer and subjugate the entire nation in violation of international law and the regime’s own prior solemn agreements.

Two years later, Ukraine continues to defend itself and fight to regain its rightful territory. Meanwhile, war seethes slowly like fire that may yet spread to places we cannot imagine. No one can predict the course of war. Many times in the past, history has approached the “threshold” of a “world war”—an intractable multi-national conflict of tumultuous destruction. We don’t know what decisions and/or chance events might push us over that threshold. For Ukraine, “tumultuous destruction” is already a present experience. It is intolerable. Dialogue must be carried out wherever possible, with whoever is sincere and might—at present or in the future—be able to bring the war to a responsible conclusion that respects international law. 

Not only does the safety of the Ukrainian people depend on respect for its borders, but the common good of the whole world requires fraternal solidarity between nations on this fundamental, “structural” level of physically defined and politically independent entities, even if this system is not perfect or doesn’t seem to account for regional complexities or the mobility of 21st century populations. There must be ongoing sincere dialogue on these issues. But one country (or the corrupt regime that controls it) cannot simply decide that its smaller neighbor has no right to exist and that its military is thus authorized to invade it and perpetrate violence and mayhem with impunity. Nor can nations invade to cut off pieces of other nations and claim authority over them. If Putinist Russia’s violent seizure of Ukrainian territory is permitted to stand, it will set a precedent that will threaten the territorial integrity of nations everywhere. 

And Ukraine has endured and fought against this horrible invasion for two years, with tremendous loss of life and wanton wreckage and destruction of its territory. There are no easy ways to “end the war” without setting the stage for other wars if Putinist imperialism is rewarded in any way. Right now the Ukrainians seem to bear the burden of this violence alone, and some think Ukraine is “a far away country” whose problems ought not to concern us. But the Russian invasion not only threatens the wider region and allies that are pledged to defend one another (i.e. NATO); it threatens to legitimize a new level of savagery in international relations everywhere, a new pretext for the strong to prey upon the weak. The fires of war may suddenly fall upon those who thought themselves safe and secure.

Where will we all be on February 24, 2025? Or 2026 or 2027? Wherever we are, however dire the circumstances, I hope we are not brought there from lack of courage and/or preoccupation with our own comforts. That would be to our shame.

I don’t think I can say anything on my small blog that will make much difference on how people perceive these events. But saying a little is better than nothing at all.

I stand with the people of Ukraine, unjustly and brutally invaded two years ago by the shameless Putinist Oligarchy that controls Russia, that continues to perpetuate violence and oppression against Ukraine, suffocates all opposition in its own country, and murders those who speak out against it.

May God have mercy on them, on their oppressors, on me, on all of us.

Jesus, Only You Can Work This Miracle in Me

There are peculiar problems that can arise for people with my type of mental illness to make a “healthy” (and realistic) examination of conscience, but we must find ways nevertheless (if necessary with help from others who can be trusted). We are no less sinners than anyone else, and we must repent, be converted, deny our egotistical self-centeredness, and open our hearts to the working of the Holy Spirit.

It is thus possible for me to examine my daily life, to gaze reasonably on my actions, to recall this, and that, and this, and that, and all the fruits of my negligence and entrenched habits. It is with sorrow that I see—in all my circumstances—selfishness, grasping, and pride nipping away at so many earnest and good aspirations and efforts, and defining so many others.

Yet Jesus and His mercy are here, and so I’m not beating up on myself (as I’m so often tempted to do). I repent, and place before God my "desire for the desire" to recognize Him and love Him well, and to offer everything... even the pride.

Take me, Jesus, in all this mess; love me especially in those places in my heart where I don't even know I need You.

"God resists the proud" — I know this is true, Jesus, but I'm begging You to take me with all my pride because I don't know what to do with it. Make me humble and true. It will take a miracle, but I come to You as the blind man did, begging You to give me my sight, with faith that You—and only You—can work this miracle in me. And I also know that even with my repeated forgetfulness and failure, the miracle is still happening. Jesus I trust in You.

The Chair of Saint Peter and Father Giussani

February 22 is the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (the “chair”—cathedra—is the bishop’s “seat” in his diocese, indicating his authority as successor to the Apostles). White is today’s liturgical color and the “Gloria” is sung!

So this means that some celebration is appropriate. The ministry of the Papacy is a great gift to us all.

This day is also the nineteenth anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Monsignor Luigi Giussani. We have only begun to benefit from the great wisdom that the Lord gave him:

“Here is the paradox: freedom is dependence upon God. It is a paradox, but it is absolutely clear. The human being – the concrete human person, me, you – once we were not, now we are, and tomorrow will no longer be: thus we depend. And either we depend upon the flux of our material antecedents, and are consequently slaves of the powers that be, or we depend upon What lies at the origin of the movement of all things, beyond them, which is to say, God” (Luigi Giussani).

Alexei Navalny: The Russians Also Have Their Heroes

One of the most implacable Russian critics of Putin’s neo-Stalinist regime, Alexei Navalny died “inexplicably” on February 16, 2024 at the “Polar Wolf” Arctic Penal Colony. +Memory Eternal. May the Lord receive him in Peace. It’s tragic but hardly surprising to learn that the infamous Gulag is back in business.

Navalny had already survived the Russian secret services’ attempt to poison him in 2020 with a toxic nerve agent. During months of recovery and extensive rehabilitation in Germany, Navalny worked with independent investigators and a documentary team to identify the Soviet Russian undercover operatives who tracked his movements and ultimately doused his underwear with what was meant to be a fatal dose of “Novichuk.” But he survived, and the originally independent documentary Navalny was picked up for distribution by major networks including CNN and HBO. This documentary’s significance unfolds in the process of its being made, portraying the tentacles of espionage, the actual unmasking of vast secret surveillance and murderous plots against peaceful citizens whose only “crime” is telling the truth, and the moral bankruptcy of a legal system that brazenly engages in “disappearing” Putin’s opponents.

This great documentary (see trailer HERE) tells the compelling story of how Alexei Navalny—a lawyer from Moscow, a husband and father, a man of no particular political ideology who simply loved Russia and wanted a life of basic freedom and human dignity for Russian people—led an anti-corruption movement that used then-still-accessible Russian media platforms to expose the massive criminality of the Putin-Inner-Circle’s unscrupulous kleptocracy.

Navalny did not cast himself as a Western-style liberal. He has been criticized by Western media for his past outreach and strategic alliance with Russian “right wing” nationalist groups (although he sought to connect with people all over the political spectrum). Navalny also didn’t oppose Putin’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but he soon changed when he saw the unfolding of the Putinist plan for the subjugation of Ukraine, and he condemned the regime’s neo-Stalinist expansionism.

Three times they tried to poison him, and they nearly succeeded in 2020. No one would have blamed Navalny for accepting the refuge offered by numerous countries in 2020—the chance to live in greater safety but also in exile. He chose instead to return to Russia, to carry on his work as much as possible or at least to live in solidarity with the suffering of his people. But he was immediately arrested upon his arrival in Moscow in January 2021, and soon after was convicted of “extremism” and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Transported numerous times through the prison system, he finally ended up at Polar Wolf, built on the site of a Stalinist gulag camp far above the Arctic circle. We have as yet no way of knowing whether he died from the effects of slow and tortuous treatment at the hands of his captors over the past three years, or whether he was finally dispatched in a more direct fashion.

But it is clear that Alexei Navalny was killed at the age of 47 by the ruthless Soviet Russian regime led by Vladimir Putin. He was murdered for speaking the truth.

This may seem a rather beguiling quotation from a man facing death (although it was known that he never lost his sense of humor). What does Navalny mean by this text? Perhaps he echoes the words of another famous Russian dissident who said, “Live not by LIES!”

Pope Francis Begins His Twelfth Lenten Journey in Rome

On Wednesday February 14, Pope Francis began his twelfth Lenten Journey as Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, Servant of the Servants of God. 

I remain grateful for his ongoing apostolic ministry, and I pray for him. May the Holy Spirit continue to sustain, strengthen, and guide him in his papal mission until it is fulfilled.

“Catholic Saints”: The Coptic Martyrs of 2015

February 15, 2024 marks the first public liturgical commemoration of the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Egypt in the Roman Catholic Church since their insertion into the official Roman Martyrology last year by Pope Francis. This is the ninth anniversary of their being brutally beheaded on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea by ISIS Islamist Terrorists for refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. 

Who can forget how ISIS recorded this murderous act and posted the video to YouTube and distributed it to media outlets all over the world? Many of us saw at least parts of this video, where flesh-and-blood men—ordinary Coptic Orthodox Christian working men doing migrant work in Libya—repeated the name of Jesus as a prayer during the last seconds of their lives. In this world of global interactive media, what was meant to be a propaganda video instead allowed millions of people to see the faces of their fellow human beings giving their lives for their faith. It was terrifying in many ways, yet the truth being lived before our eyes was compelling and convincing. 

Twenty of the martyrs were Egyptian, but one was from Ghana (listed here as unidentified "worker" but I'll revise it when I find his name). He was not baptized Christian, but had been arrested with the others. When commanded to convert to the ideology of his violent Islamist oppressors, he pointed instead to his brother workers and said, "their God is my God." Thus dying for his faith in Jesus Christ, he obtained what the ancient Christian tradition called "the baptism of blood."

These martyrs were members of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, which has not been in full communion with the Catholic Church since the year 451, but which has retained valid apostolic succession through the ("monophysite") Patriarch of Alexandria, and therefore has the sacraments, the Divine Liturgy, and the Eucharist. Last May, Pope Francis decided to recognize the holiness of these 21 martyrs of 2015 who were already being celebrated as saints in the Coptic Church. They are now officially honored as saints in the full sense of the term by the Catholic Church.

We should remember them and prayer for their intercession, especially for Christian Unity, which their sacrifice embodies as a "beginning" and stands as a sign for all who believe in Jesus and profess His name—the name they loved more than earthly life.

1. Saint Milad Makeen Zaky, pray for us.

2. Saint Abanub Ayad Atiya, pray for us.

3. Saint Maged Solaiman Shehata, pray for us.

4. Saint Yusuf Shukry Yunan, pray for us.

5. Saint Kirollos Shokry Fawzy, pray for us.

6. Saint Bishoy Astafanus Kamel, pray for us.

7. Saint Somaily Astafanus Kamel, pray for us.

8. Saint Malak Ibrahim Sinweet, pray for us.

9. Saint Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros, pray for us.

10. Saint Girgis Milad Sinweet, pray for us.

11. Saint Mina Fayez Aziz, pray for us.

12. Saint Hany Abdelmesih Salib, pray for us.

13. Saint Bishoy Adel Khalaf, pray for us.

14. Saint Samuel Alham Wilson, pray for us.

15. Saint [Worker from Awr village], pray for us.

16. Saint Ezat Bishri Naseef, pray for us.

17. Saint Loqa Nagaty, pray for us.

18. Saint Gaber Munir Adly, pray for us.

19. Saint Esam Badir Samir, pray for us.

20. Saint Malak Farag Abram, pray for us.

21. Saint Sameh Salah Faruq, pray for us.

The Miracle of “Reconciliation”

“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

As the season of Lent begins, I want to give special attention to this text from today’s liturgy. This is how much God loves each one of us; this is how close He draws to each of us. Jesus “carries the burden” of our sins and opens the way to something new: a new life that overcomes sin and death, and that begins now—a transformation, a New Creation, that begins now, in Him.

Reconciliation… beyond anything our sinful humanity could have imagined. Reconciliation with God, and with one another. What a miracle! God finds me, though I had turned away from Him. He carries me on His shoulders and brings me back to the Father’s house, if I let Him, if I recognize my poverty and brokenness and let Him heal me.

And what a miracle! The persons whom I regarded as obstacles to my ambition, as objects to be manipulated for my own purposes, as enemies—I now call them “my brothers” and “my sisters.”

Reconciliation is a new beginning, and we must return to it again and again, because we fail every day, and because we must grow in this new life.

But it is an inexhaustible wellspring of mercy, “deeper” than the inertia of our weakness and forgetfulness, “deeper” than all our sins. “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

The “Papa and Anna Show”

Here is a video (link is not visible on YouTube but only through this post). Recently, I had a few minutes to chat with my younger granddaughter Anna Rose, chubby-cheeked and wide-eyed and lovable at two-and-a-half months old.

It’s a bit of fluff. Obviously, I talk TO her (and the viewers) while she fusses a little and smiles a little and scrunches up her face in various ways and sucks her passy. Nana was with Maria in another room, and Maria was not happy about something, so you will hear her “complaining” from time to time in the background, toddler-style.

Well, Lent begins tomorrow in the Roman Rite, and of course I am not ready. That, I suppose, is one of the reasons why it’s good that we have this annual season of penance, charity, and preparation to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We enter this time together, as the communio of the Church.

Here is the actual link to the video. Happy Mardi Gras!

Christina Grimmie is a Daily Inspiration

Remembering Christina Grimmie for seven years, eight months. I am grateful for her inspiration every day.💚

This is a Digital Portrait by JJStudios:

Walking With Jesus in the Midst of the World

As Christians we place our hope in the mercy of God who has become our companion in Jesus. Jesus wants to be with us, to remind us that we are not alone in front of the enigma of existence. We struggle every day with life, its joys, its suffering, its mysterious and inescapable destiny, but we know that He is here to respond to our poverty with His divine and human compassion.

And as we experience this compassion, we are called to proclaim it, to share it with one another and everyone in need. The call of God's love and mercy extends beyond ourselves; He burns with love for every person, and He longs to enkindle that flame in our hearts. For this reason the Christian is called to live and to manifest something new in the world.

This is our world, full of sin and violence, ugliness, stubbornness and willful ignorance. But God loves the world and wants to save the world through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, whom He has given for everyone. He brings forgiveness of sins. If by the gift of God we have encountered Jesus and experienced His forgiveness, we are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to participate in Christ’s mission, His giving of Himself. He doesn’t take us out of the world, but calls us to adhere to Him in the midst of the world, to walk the roads of the world along with every human being who is entrusted to us on the path of our daily lives, accompanying them with the richer and more joyful, more hopeful humanity that Jesus gives us as we follow Him. We know that Jesus Christ is the only hope of the world.

This is our poor world, confused, struggling and seeking, full of human persons who have been created in the image of God and redeemed by Christ, and who travel along obscure and winding paths searching for the One who loves them and calls each of them by name.

It is a world in which so many do not yet know Him, or do not know Him enough, or perhaps hold onto Him mysteriously in the depths of their hearts but without knowing all of the beautiful ways He wants to help them, strengthen them, and be a light to their steps. It is also a world of many who have rejected God or who ignore God, even as He continues to passionately seek them out and draw them to Himself. God's mercy works secretly in their hearts, but it also works through us and wants to manifest itself and give itself through us.

God wants the beauty and the glory of His mercy to shine through us, so that those who are weary and heavily burdened by the riddle of life's meaning may see that God Himself has brought something new into history that answers and indeed overflows superabundantly all the depths of the human question.

Here we are, poor earthen vessels of His love. We ourselves are so much in need of healing and of experiencing His love and mercy. Our mission is not one of winning over the world to our party, as if the fulfillment of human existence somehow came from our own selves, our ideas, our projects—as if it were the construction of our own brilliance and coherence, the assertion of our own power.

No. Being Christian means knowing that we are weak and broken, that we depend upon His mercy in every moment, and that we must beg for His mercy to change us and make us grow in the newness of life He gives us in the Spirit. This new life is a participation in His risen and glorified humanity that begins even now, as we journey through this present life. Christ is the meaning of human life and brings everything that is truly human to fulfillment in Himself. In following Him, we don’t become “less human.” Quite the contrary, we become more human! 

We are sinners. We are not called to be disciples of Jesus by isolating ourselves and condemning the rest of the world. Our mission is to let Jesus win us, and win the world with us and through us.

Papa Tries to Get Maria to Talk About “Peter Rabbit”

It’s time for a video with the remarkably articulate Maria Janaro, who is two-and-a-half years old. She has many of her stories memorized (in some fashion) and I was hoping she could tell the Peter Rabbit story, but I used a question-and-answer format, which may have confused her.

She was certainly distracted by seeing herself on the video screen. Still, listen closely and you will hear how much she gets right. You will also notice that she is “holding back” in order to tease Papa.

My older granddaughter Maria loves to tease me. But I don’t mind a bit!☺️

This video is on a restricted setting and is accessible only through the link below:

God’s Power is Patience, Meekness, and Love

William Congdon, Crucifixion, 1962

“As Father, God wishes us to become his children and to live as such in his Son, in communion, in full familiarity with him. His omnipotence is not expressed in violence, it is not expressed in the destruction of every adverse power as we might like; rather it is expressed in love, in mercy, in forgiveness, in accepting our freedom and in the tireless call for conversion of heart, in an attitude only seemingly weak—God seems weak if we think of Jesus Christ who prays, who lets himself be killed. 

“This apparently weak attitude consists of patience, meekness and love, it shows that this is the real way to be powerful! This is God’s power! And this power will win!….”

~Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, January 30, 2013

The Love of Saint Agatha Still Matters…

February 5 is observed on the liturgical calendars of Eastern and Western churches as the feast of Saint Agatha of Catania (who was tortured and martyred c. 250). She was just a girl, but she was one of the earliest of the Virgin martyrs whose personal story is remembered in the Christian tradition. She was a courageous young woman filled with the Holy Spirit, who gave her life for Jesus Christ.

Her heroic sacrifice, her total gift of herself to Jesus, has been celebrated since ancient times. She is one of the patron saints of Sicily. Since Sicily was at that time a Greek island, Agatha is an important figure in the Eastern tradition. On this day, the Byzantine liturgy honors her with many beautiful prayers such as this one:

You were a fragrant flower of virginity and an undefiled bride of the Lifegiver; you desired the Source of all good and excelled in martyrdom. O glorious Agatha, intercede by your holy prayers for those who lovingly honor your contest.

Agatha and countless others who followed her example of courage down through the ages bring to mind the words of Saint Paul: "I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ,...to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death" (Philippians 3:8,10).

Even today, Catania celebrates Saint Agatha with a three day festival, including a procession of her remains through the city streets accompanied by crowds of hundreds of thousands of people. It is one of the largest "religious festivals" in the world.

What ancient personage has such a vital connection to real people today? This is not a celebration for Julius Caesar or some great philosopher or politician or king or movie star from the past. This is the celebration of a teenage girl who gave her life for Jesus Christ nearly 1,800 years ago!

Today, Saint Agatha is still remembered and honored with love by countless people, and she is a friend to their hearts. Real people have had real relationships with this person through the ages. They have looked to her example, confided in her, asked for her help. This is not superstition. This is the reality of the Church, the communion of saints.

This communion of persons with God and with one another in Jesus Christ cannot be broken by the power and the violence of the world. They couldn't destroy it in the year 250. Long after the powers that raged against her have been forgotten, Agatha still lives! They can't destroy it in 2024. They will never destroy it.

Violence is only for a time. Love never ends.

The Urgency For Happiness

"Our nature is need for truth and fulfillment, or, in other words, happiness. All human movement, whatever it might be, is dictated by this urgency that constitutes us" (Luigi Giussani).

"A Light of Revelation"

Happy and blessed Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.

"Simeon was a holy and devout man who looked for the redemption of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was with him" (antiphon, morning prayer, Feast of the Presentation). Simeon praises God for allowing him to see the Christ, the One who was sent to bring God's mercy to the world: "My eyes have seen the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of all nations. A light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel" (Luke 2:30-32).

Today we rejoice with Simeon and Anna, and look forward through his prophecy, and with Mary, to the Cross whose the path we will soon begin to travel. (Picture: Fra Giovanni da Fiesole [a.k.a. Beato Angelico] San Marco, Florence).

God's Gift of Love Makes Us Fully Human

Here is the great text of Saint Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, a text that draws us close to the heart of the Gospel: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude. It does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will p cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13).

The "love" here is not just any sort of love. It is "agape" which the venerable Latin of Saint Jerome translates as "caritas" and which we know to be the theological virtue of charity.

So we're not just talking about "love" in the vague way that the word is used in contemporary English to cover a multitude of diverse actions, emotions, preferences, impulses. We mean something more here than what we mean when we say, "I love mashed potatoes," for example (though there is a common—and mysterious—reality underlying these various kinds of "love," but that's a topic for another day).

1 Corinthians 13 is talking about the supernatural virtue of charity, God's own love in which we are called and empowered to participate through God's grace and His utterly mysterious, free and supernatural gift of Himself.

All of this is true. Yet this love is also profoundly human. Look at how Saint Paul describes "agape"—patient, kind, not pompous, not rude, not grudge-bearing, rejoicing in the truth, enduring all things.

Enduring all things. That certainly seems beyond any sort of limited human love. But also patient, kind, not pompous, not rude, not quick-tempered or self-interested. It rejoices in the truth. It never fails.

This is a close, intimate love. It is a human love, the most human of loves. It is the love that we have been created to give and receive, and which we long for whether we know it or not.

Indeed, this inexhaustible Love corresponds to our whole humanity, because He-who-is-Love has entered our history. He has become flesh. The Infinite Mystery has become a man, so that He could save us, so He could embrace the whole of our humanity, so that we might be healed from all sin that alienates us from Him, and “lifted up” to share His eternal life as His brothers and sisters, children of His Father, vivified and transfigured by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus.

He is the only real meaning of human existence—the One through whom and for whom all things are created and sustained in being, the One who encompasses, fulfills, and overflows all the hopes and aspirations of our lives. Love has given Himself to us, to each and every one of us, so that we could be touched by Him and respond to Him with faith and hope, with trust, and be transformed into lovers of Him and of one another.

If I look at these verses seriously, I can't help but be struck by the fact that my life is so far from being this way. It causes me sorrow, and sometimes I am tempted to look away, to settle for some lesser kind of love. But I would have to lie to myself (and others too) because I know deep down that this love is the only thing that matters in the end. I was created for this love. You were created for this love. Every human person was created for this love. It seems too much to believe, but who would dare to deny it? If we reject this unfathomable but at the same time inescapably concrete fact, life falls apart, our humanity falls apart, and we begin to become monsters...

We are made for this Love that "bears all things," this Love that never ends.

Can we "live" this Love? Jesus is here, in the midst of our history, our daily lives, and He gives this Love to us from the Father, in the Holy Spirit. He is here even for those who do not yet know Him, but whose hearts are stirred up by the Holy Spirit to beg for a love they don't understand. They have hints and signs and mysterious interior personal and communally-shared realizations of His nearness, in the midst of their searching and whatever level of obscurity (and light) characterizes this particular moment of their life's journey. We Christians walk this road with them, struggling with our own sins and our own limits and myopia. If we have been called and gifted by Christ with the truth of the Gospel, it is to be witnesses, to serve everyone, to beg with greater awareness of our total need for Him.

Nothing prevents us from following the call of Love, of opening our hearts to the transforming power of this Love. We must never become discouraged. We may stumble again and again in the ways of love, but He is with us, always ready to lift us up and lead us forward if we let Him. We can begin again, every day, because He has come to dwell with us. God became our brother because He wants to be with us.

Let us place our confidence in Him, and begin again.