Like Children

"That's not fair!  You hate me!"

How many times have we heard children say those words after their parents have told them "No"?  Children only hear their parents frustrating their desires for happiness.  It never dawns upon them that their parents could be acting in their (the child's) best interest.  As adults we come to understand that that is exactly what good parents are supposed to do!

"That's not fair!  You hate me!"  Those are the same charges leveled against the Church and individual Christians when they say "no" to behaviors (especially those of a sexual nature).  There is no attempt to step back and consider the possibility that this "no" might have an entirely different motivation - one grounded in reason and authentic love for all concerned.

You would think we would have learned not to jump to conclusions so quickly.

The Die is Cast ...

Watching the news these past few days, and thinking back over the past year of headlines, I feel a tremendous sadness.  We head farther and farther away from God, with many openly thumbing their noses at Him in internet comboxes.  I think my sadness is that of Jesus as He approached His beloved city:

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Luke 13:34-35)

He saw the choices she had made, could read the ones she was about to, and knew how it would end.  And yet, He continued to speak out - and He charged the Apostles to continue speaking out after His Resurrection.  In the end, you and I will not be judged on how successful our efforts were; but upon our faithfulness to the call.  And the only way I can see of remaining joyful is to keep our eyes fixed firmly on the Prize that has been promised, knowing that in the midst of the Trinity all the trials and persecutions we suffered in life will melt immediately away.  More than that, God will look upon our endurance of them as beautiful expressions of our love.

My Big 'Ole, Happy Announcement!

I have been waiting for a long time to share this good news:  Just after Thanksgiving, Angelico Press will publish my new book, tentatively titled  

Through, With, and In Him

The Prayer Life of Jesus and How to Make It 
Our Own   

Here is the description from my proposal:

Taking its lead from the Catechism (CCC 2740), this book opens readers eyes to the startling reality of Christian prayer: Jesus pours Himself out to the Father, in the Spirit, through their words and actions. A unique element of the book is its in-depth treatment of prayer in the Jewish home, synagogue, and Temple. By considering the words and actions common to every first century Jew, as well as those unique to Jesus, readers will be shown how His prayer is continued in the Catholic Church’s sacraments and traditional devotions and practices. Chapters follow the chronological order of Jesus’ life. Each begins by focusing upon His prayer at a given stage of life and then shifts to exploring how His prayer is continued in the Church. The final chapters of the book are devoted to what the author has come to view as the two greatest means, outside of the Eucharist, for bringing our prayer and lives into profound union with Jesus’ own ...

I will share more in the days ahead!  Oh hey, here are some early reviews.

 

The Christology of "Man of Steel"

I am not offering a review.  (Although for the record, the film was awesome.)  The similarities between Superman and Jesus are well-known and have been pointed out by many over the years.  But I honestly don't know when the writers and director of a Superman production have gone to such lengths to try and point beyond the character in blue and red to his Antitype.  And I mean that literally:  When this Superman has to contemplate handing himself over to his enemies, he does so in a church, before a stained-glass window of Jesus during His agony in the garden!  Superman then allows himself to be arrested and handed over for what he well knows could be a death sentence.  

But there's more than that.  For me the most spiritual lines in the movie were these two, both spoken by Superman to military officials:

1. "Just because you can't control me doesn't mean I'm your enemy." 
2. "I'm here to help, but it has to be on my own terms."

Wow - that speaks to me of the sovereignty of Christ.  He cannot be bent to our will ... precisely because He loves us too much to let Himself be.  He will act for our good - but with Divine wisdom. 

There is more to be said, but I don't want to muddy the waters - plenty to meditate on in just those two quotes.

The BIG Unveiling - Check Out YOUCATholic.com

INTRODUCING

As many of you know, I experienced the bulk of my conversion as a middle school and high school student, so when I caught wind that author and blogger TJ Burdick was building a new website to act as a faith clearinghouse for youth, I offered to help in whatever way I could.  TJ generously allowed me to join his team of catechists and bloggers, and I am incredibly pumped up about sharing this site with you. Check out the description:

YOUCATholic.com is a community of like-minded, traditional Catholics that have been called to teach and learn the Gospel together using New Media. It consists of an open forum, a leveled series’ of nine-week courses that certified catechists have designed to feed you the meat of your Catholic faith and various other resources that can enhance your spiritual life. It is a formation program that allows you to get to know your faith independently using the YOUCAT, YouTube/Vimeo and blogging/vlogging to help guide you toward the profound truths that are found in the Catholic Church.

Is there a young person in your life who wants to understand their Faith better? Have you been looking for a resource that you and your kids can explore together? Or maybe you are a religion teacher looking for a way to spice up your lessons?  Visit YOUCATholic.com

I bet you are saying to yourself "YOUCAT, YOUCAT ... where have I heard that before?"    That's the title of the Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. Written in a lively, more-youth-engaging style, YOUCAT uses creative, youth-oriented photos, graphics, and text to presents the Faith. Plus,YOUCAT is keyed to the Catechism, so it is easy for youth to go even deeper in their study of the faith.  Released last year, it could not have received a more stellar endorsement than the one given by Pope Benedict in its Foreword:

"I beg you: Study this Catechism with passion and perseverance.  Make a sacrifice of your time for it!  Study it in the quiet of your room; read it with a friend; form study groups and networks; share with each other on the Internet." 

(Maybe you have heard concern voiced regarding the YOUCAT; let me refer you to this post to try and put your mind at ease.)  The Church clearly has a lot of faith in this resource - she passed them out at World Youth Day in Madrid and plans to pass out over one million more at this year's event in Rio!

At YOUCATholic.com you can find exactly the kind of online community for growing in the Faith envisioned by Pope Benedict. Here's the list of topics in Course 101:  

1. Why did God create you? 
2. Does God Exist?
3. Was Jesus really God? 
4. Why are Mary and the Saints so important?
5. Are non-Catholics saved?
6. Why do Christians get baptized?
7. Why Confirmation?
8. Why is the Eucharist so important?
9. Final reflections

Click on any of those and you will find a story from real life, reflection questions, video, references to paragraphs in the YOUCAT with comprehension checks, and a final question for journaling.  (And I am honored to say that your's truly wrote Course 202.)  But don't be content with my measly explanation of the site - check it out for yourself!  YOUCATholic.com

Concerned About the YOUCAT?

"Hold on Shane, I've heard strong concerns expressed regarding the YOUCAT - that it waters down the Church's teaching on sexuality."  Yes, I heard those too; but I do not believe that to be the fact.  Look at this excerpt:

403 How is sexuality related to love?
Sexuality is inseparable from love; they go together. The sexual encounter requires the framework of a true, dependable love. (CCC 2337)
When sexuality is separated from love and is sought only for the sake of satisfaction, one destroys the meaning of the sexual union of man and woman. Sexual union is the most beautiful bodily, sensual expression of love. People who look for sex without love are lying, because the closeness of their bodies does not correspond to the closeness of their hearts. Someone who does not take his own body language at its word does lasting damage to body and soul. Sex then becomes inhuman; it is degraded to a means of obtaining pleasure and degenerates into a commodity. Only committed, enduring love creates a space for sexuality that is experienced in a human way and brings lasting happiness.
{SIDEBARS} “One cannot live a trial life or die a trial death. One cannot love on a trial basis or accept a person on trial and for a limited time.” —Pope John Paul II (1920–2005), November 15, 1980
“Everything that makes a sexual encounter easy hastens at the same time its plunge into irrelevance.” —Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005, French philosopher)

The YOUCAT then goes on to talk about chastity, the Sacrament of Marriage, homosexual acts, contraception, etc.  When looking at the YOUCAT it is important to keep a couple of points in mind:

• It is a 300 page presentation of the Faith, in contrast to the 800 page Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Written for youth, it does not claim to present the Faith with the same fullness of the CCC

YOUCAT is meant to be a reliable introduction to the Faith that will familiarize youth and equip them to make use of the CCC.
The only passage I have come across thus far that I personally had a concern with had to do with Scripture. Mind you, the passage does not actually say anything that is incorrect.  I am simply concerned that, given the current climate in which it is common to limit our belief in Scripture's freedom from error, the passage could be misconstrued:

15  How can Sacred Scripture be "truth" if not everything in it is right?
The Bible is not meant to convey precise historical information on scientific findings to us.  Moreover, the authors were children of their time.  They shared the cultural ideas of the world around them and often were also dominated by its errors.  Nevertheless, everything that man must know about God and the way of his salvation is found with infallible certainty in Sacred Scripture. [106-107, 137]

The passage does not say anything technically false, but it would definitely benefit from further explanation.  But again, this is an introductory work ... granted approval by Pope Benedict and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - and they're no theological slouches! (For the curious, I have written a lengthy post on the question of whether or not there are mistakes in the Bible.)

Ignatius Press, the publisher of the English translation of the YOUCAT has written a thorough response to concerns here.  What I have focused on thus far is Section Four of the YOUCAT - Prayer.  And let me tell you; it is beautiful!  Good, youth-oriented, practical catechesis - and you can even learn the Our Father and Hail Mary in Latin (something you don't find in the CCC).

GUEST POST - Pope St. Gregory the Great

Yesterday I shared how I felt called to consider the sinful attitudes that lurks beneath the surface.  Today we have a message of hope and encouragement in that regard from a giant of the Faith, Pope St. Gregory the Great.  Coming to us from the Liturgy of the Hours, Pope St. Gregory speaks of the transformation we undergo not just as individuals but corporately as the Church.  At present we are that field composed of wheat and weeds, but the Kingdom will come in all its fullness:

Since the daybreak or the dawn is changed gradually from darkness into light, the Church, which comprises the elect, is fittingly styled daybreak or dawn. While she is being led from the night of infidelity to the light of faith, she is opened gradually to the splendor of heavenly brightness, just as dawn yields to the day after darkness. The Song of Songs says aptly: Who is this who moves forward like the advancing dawn? Holy Church, inasmuch as she keeps searching for the rewards of eternal life, has been called the dawn. While she turns her back on the darkness of sins, she begins to shine with the light of righteousness.

This reference to the dawn conjures up a still more subtle consideration. The dawn intimates that the night is over; it does not yet proclaim the full light of day. While it dispels the darkness and welcomes the light, it holds both of them, the one mixed with the other, as it were. Are not all of us who follow the truth in this life daybreak and dawn? While we do some things which already belong to the light, we are not free from the remnants of darkness. In Scripture the Prophet says to God: No living being will be justified in our sight. Scripture also says: In many ways all of us give offense.

When he writes, the night is passed, Paul does not add, the day is come, but rather, the day is at hand. Since he argues that after the night has passed, the day as yet is not come but is rather at hand, he shows that the period before full daylight and after darkness is without doubt the dawn, and that he himself is living in that period.

It will be fully day for the Church of the elect when she is no longer darkened by the shadow of sin. It will be fully day for her when she shines with the perfect brilliance of interior light. This dawn is aptly shown to be an ongoing process when Scripture says: And you showed the dawn its place. A thing which is shown its place is certainly called from one place to another. What is the place of the dawn but the perfect clearness of eternal vision? When the dawn has been brought there, it will retain nothing belonging to the darkness of night. When the Psalmist writes: My soul thirsts for the living God; when shall I go and see the face of God?, does he not refer to the effort made by the dawn to reach its place? Paul was hastening to the place which he knew the dawn would reach when he said he wished to die and to be with Christ. He expressed the same idea when he said: For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Beneath My Mask

Yesterday seemed to have a theme to it - "Who are you under the surface?"  I came across it both in the Liturgy of the Hours and the first reading at Mass.  St. Dorotheus (4th cent) wrote:

The man who thinks that he is quiet and peaceful has within him a passion that he does not see. A brother comes up, utters some unkind word and immediately all the venom and mire that lie hidden within him are spewed out. If he wishes mercy, he must do penance, purify himself and strive to become perfect. He will see that he should have returned thanks to his brother instead of returning the injury, because his brother has proven to be an occasion of profit to him. It will not be long before he will no longer be bothered by these temptations. The more perfect he grows, the less these temptations will affect him.

And then at morning Mass the Book of Tobit ended in this same vein.  The blind Tobit refused to believe that his wife had earned a bonus through her needlework and she tells him off:

So she retorted: “Where are your charitable deeds now?
Where are your virtuous acts?
See! Your true character is finally showing itself!”  (2:14)

Ouch.  I know Tobit wasn't the last husband to be put in his place by an insightful wife.

I totally identified with both readings.  I will seem to be going along well enough, loving my neighbor; and then someone wrongs me or someone I love, and all of that venom comes to the surface.  Those occasions are when Jesus puts me in front of the x-ray machine and shows me how much work remains to be done.  And I think Dorotheus was right on the money when he said that it will take concentrated effort to overcome such deep-rooted sin.  I don't think I can brush it off forever with a comforting, "You'll do better next time."  No, at some point each of us "must do penance, purify himself and strive to become perfect." We either do it now or in purgatory.  In the end we must be perfect as our Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48).

God's Temple - A Mobile Home?

A few months back I caught Peggy Bowes on Relevant Radio, fielding questions about The Rosary Workout.  One of the callers was concerned that Peggy's combining of the Rosary with walking and running was irreverent, that the Rosary should be prayed while one was stationary, stilled both interiorly and exteriorly.  Peggy's response, which I really enjoyed, appealed to the example of the Blessed Mother herself:  Luke's Gospel tells us how following the Annunciation "Mary rose and went with haste into the hill country of Judah" (Lk.1:39), to visit Elizabeth.  Isn't it natural to assume that Mary prayed as she trekked the over 75 miles from Nazareth to the outskirts of Jerusalem?  Of course it is.  And not only was Mary speaking to God; she was also meditating on Scripture - look at how quickly the words of the Old Testament (1 Sam.2:1-8) leapt to her lips when she met Elizabeth and burst into the Magnificat (Lk.1:46-55).  Prayer and meditation upon Scripture - that's the Rosary - and our Blessed Mother was engaged in it while on a 75 mile hike!  I ask you to keep Peggy's insights in mind as you continue to read.


After Mass this morning I remained seated, directing my gaze at the Tabernacle and praying.  "Lord, thank You for coming into me.  I can't believe that You have made me Your tabernacle too, and that You're coming with me as I visit my family this afternoon, as I head to work tomorrow . . . Lord, You've made my body a mobile Temple, a mobile home."  And then the connections started coming fast and furious:  God had dwelt with Israel for 400 years before Solomon built Him a stationary Temple of stone - and He was a God on the move.  His dwelling throughout those 400 years was a series of tents known as the Tabernacle.  When God picked up and moved, Israel packed up the Tabernacle and set off through the desert following Him.  The Ark of the Covenant, God's Old Testament throne, was even equipped with poles so that the priests could carry it.


Luke brought Tabernacle and Ark imagery together in the way he worded his narratives of the Annunciation and visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (Ex.40:34 and Lk.1:35; 2 Sam.6:2-16 and Lk.1:39-56).  Yes, in the Visitation Mary acted as Jesus' mobile home - the Tabernacle and Ark of the New Covenant.  You and I continue this awesome reality.  We bodily carry Jesus' presence into our homes, workplaces, etc.  That is our impetus in taking care of our bodies - giving them the right fuel, keeping them as agile as possible, and with sufficient strength to perform acts of love (e.g., helping your best friend move, throwing your kids up over your head).


Our Lord Jesus is of course the greatest example of this.  Tramping across Galilee, the Decapolis, and Judea, up on the mountains and out in the desert - He was a Temple on the move!  Like our Lord, the day will come when our bodies will finally yield to death, when we will find ourselves on a Cross, a bed of pain.  At that moment we will unite our agony and the failure of our bodies to His sacrifice.  (And like Him, we will one day receive them back, glorified, in the Resurrection.)  In anticipation of our Passover from the present order we daily offer our bodies in service to the Father, just as Jesus did - as Temples on the move.  We train our bodies (1 Cor.9:27) and through them offer ourselves as "living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God."  It is through the body that we Christians offer our "spiritual worship" (Rom.12:1).

How Could Jesus Say, "My Burden is Light"?

"Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28-30)

I have read those words many times over the past 25 years, but they really caught my attention the other night.  "What do you mean Lord?  How could Your yoke be easy and your burden light?  You had the weight of the entire world on your shoulders ... What is Your 'yoke'?  Is it Your Cross, the Cross that we are supposed to take up and follow after You?"

And then I started to think about what was most important to Jesus.  His total focus, in everything He did, was pleasing His Father.  Yes, ultimately that meant accepting the Cross onto His shoulders; but doing the will of the Father was the yoke He bore every day of His life.  And He didn't consider it a burden.  (Rather, He spoke of it as being energizing.)  Jesus did have great responsibility - saving the human race - but His mind wasn't pulled here and there, anxious about what had to be done.  No, in each moment, His goal was the same - doing what He knew the Father wanted Him to do.  

I would wager that in the vast, vast majority of situations we encounter each day, we know how God wants us to act - we know the commandments, have heard or read enough Scripture and Church teaching to have an intuitive understanding of right and wrong.  Much of our anxiety probably stems from knowing God's will, but trying to justify going the other way.  Jesus didn't have that.  His yoke was easy and His burden light; He wants the same for us.  "What would the Lord want me to do?  ...  Alright, here we go."

Either Embryos Have Human Dignity, or It's All Just a Sham

We speak of human beings having innate dignity, and that innate dignity being the basis for human rights; but then we pretend that embryos do not share that dignity and are not entitled to the same rights as are those who have been born.

And that is absolutely nuts!  Seriously, think it through:

For someone to make the claim that human beings have dignity, while simultaneously claiming that embryos do not have dignity and innate rights, they have to hold that human beings only obtain dignity when they have reached a certain level of physical or cognitive development.

But if that is true then there is really no such thing as "innate dignity" - a dignity that we humans have simply as a result of existence (which science recognizes as beginning at conception).  Rather, human dignity is a human construct - an idea that we came up with, and which we are able to apply or deny to whomever we wish.

And if that is the case, then Martin Luther King, Jr.'s whole argument for civil rights was baseless, and the atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler completely justifiable.  If human dignity is not real - if it wasn't granted to us the nanosecond that we came into existence - then that is the reality. 

But we can't have it both ways, not logically.  Either human dignity is real, or it is an illusion.  If real, then we recognize the dignity and right to life of the unborn.  If not, then we admit that we have no innate dignity either; and we can be disposed of however the most powerful among us decides - and that isn't wrong; it's just the way the universe works.

THE OFFICE's Michael Scott & IVF (or, When Ignorance Seems Like Bliss)

Well, tonight is the finale of The Office.  And with that in mind, I thought I would share this vintage post:
____________________________

What Office fan doesn't love Michael? He has a heart of gold but is completely clueless as to the inappropriateness of his comments or how the world truly functions. My biggest laughs come when Michael makes a comment and the camera pans to Jim - eyes wide in disbelief. But we love Michael; we know he doesn't say or do anything with malicious intent (except to Tobey). We have to admit, however, that his behavior, no matter how well-intentioned, handicaps him in the "real world."  He is starving for real intimacy.

It struck me while laying in bed last night that, from God's perspective, our world must look like a bunch of Michaels running around. We have so many behaviors in our culture - behaviors engaged in with no realization they are at odds they with the "real world" of God and His Kingdom. Let me throw one out there for consideration: IVF, or in vitro fertilization. It's a fairly common procedure nowadays, engaged in by loving husbands and wives struggling against infertility and desperate to welcome a biological child of their own into the world. (Talk about hearts of gold.) Doctors remove eggs and sperm cells from the couple, and successfully combine them in the laboratory; fertilization takes place and new human lives begin!

But not every new embryo, new life, is implanted in its mother's womb. Several "extra" embroys are created in the process ... and frozen. In the United States alone we have hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos - human beings in suspended animation! (And if not frozen, simply destroyed.) Those are our children, as surely as the ones who are carried to term.  It is a staggering realization. IVF begins with good intentions but in the real world, that of God's Kingdom, saints and angels watch in disbelief.

What can we do? Love, love each other. We in our culture act from ignorance, not malice. And when we discover God's vision, discover the real world, we have to look for opportunities to respectfully open others' eyes. We Christians aren't in the condemnation business; we're supposed to help bring fullness of life - succesful relationships with God and others and within ourselves. That means overcoming ignorance, both our own and others (through reason, Scripture and the teachings of the Church), and the false "bliss" that comes with it.

"That's what she said."
Yes Michael, She (the Church) said it long before I did (1 Peter 3:15). I just thought it bore repeating.
_______________________________

You can find a more developed post I wrote on IVF here.

Between Ascenion & Pentecost - Were the Apostles Praying the Rosary?

It sounds like a ridiculous question for me to pose. It's common knowledge that the Rosary didn't take shape for at least another thousand years! Upon reflection however, I hope you will agree that the the "soul" of the Rosary was always present in the Apostles' prayer.

Jesus' instruction at the time of His ascension was, "not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father...before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." And the Apostles did just that: "All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren" (Acts 1:4-5, 14). That was how they spent the nine days between Jesus' ascension and the descent of the Spirit on Pentecost.

Of what did their prayer consist? Petition, combined with a great deal of meditation (the "soul" of the Rosary) - thinking and rethinking the things Jesus had said to them, the actions and miracles they witnessed, the meaning of His death, resurrection, and ascension. It consisted of reflecting upon Scripture; when Jesus appeared to them on the night of His resurrection, He had "opened their minds to understand the scriptures...the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms" and how they had been fulfilled in Him (Luke 24:44-45). And this meditation was being done in the presence of Mary. She was engaged in it with them. As John Paul II pointed out so beautifully:

Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the “rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11).

The Apostles spent nine days engaged in this with her, making the Church's first novena. We can see the fruits that emerged - Peter's move to replace the office left vacant by Judas' defection emerged from his reflection upon the Psalms (Acts 1:20) and then the explosion of Scriptural insights he unleashed up the crowd at Pentecost! (Acts 2:16-41) Isn't it likely that the Holy Spirit had been bringing key points of that first sermon to Peter's consciousness throughout the nine days of prayer?

When we today pray the Rosary, when we recite the Hail Mary while meditating upon the events recounted in the gospels and Acts (the twenty Mysteries), we enter into the Apostles' experience. "With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love" (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 1). And by doing this regularly, daily, our souls grow and become progressively docile to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We receive not one, but several Pentecosts as our eyes open up onto new spiritual vistas and we find ourselves acting with a freedom and strength we imagined ourselves unable to attain. And rightly so - these things can only take root in souls that have been broken up and seeded, over time, through prayer. These souls are made ready for that moment when the Living Water rains down and causes the new life to burst forth out into the open.

We won't see Pentecost without it. Jesus knows how we are made, and He knows how to "remake" us in His image; that was why He sent the Apostles back to the upper room. They needed to spend that time in prayer, in meditation ... in the company of His Mother. My friends, almost two thousand years may have passed, but the prescription remains the same.

Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, and I can't think of a better way to recognize it than honoring our Lady's request to pray the Rosary.

Want to Be a Saint? Think Like a MOM!

This post has been floating around in my head for awhile, and today being Mother's Day, it was exactly the push I needed to get it written.

In a previous post I reflected upon why we refer to God as "Father," instead of "Mother."  All of God’s actions come from “the outside” so to speak, and in this way are Fatherly.  The Church on the other hand – and the individual souls that make it up - is the  part of creation that has received God into itself and allowed him to bring forth new supernatural life.  In this analogy, whether biologically male or female, each human soul resembles the feminine.  This explains why Scripture refers to the Church as Christ’s Bride (Eph.5:22-23), and the Mother of the faithful (Rev.12:17).

Mary of Nazareth is where we see this reality most concretely.  She is the great image of the Church (see Lumen Gentium, 63-65).  Each of us is called to become pregnant with the Lord Jesus and give birth to Him in our lives.  The words spoken to Mary are spoken to our souls as well:  "you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son ... He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High"  And how is this possible?  "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk. 2:35).

It occurs to me that if we want to become Saints, we have to think like a mom:
1.  Nothing is more important to a mom than the new life growing within her (Mk. 8:36).
2.  She would gratefully sacrifice her own life to save her child's (Mk. 8:35).
3.  Throughout pregnancy she follows her doctor's advice to the letter (James 1:21-25).   
4.  She doesn't let things that could harm the baby enter her body, even if she enjoyed them in the past - such as alcohol or caffeine (1 Cor. 9:24-27)
5.  Instead, she nurtures the new life within her by making sure to eat right (Jn. 6:56-57)

It's clearly not an exhaustive list; please feel free to make additions in the comments!  Happy Mother's Day.

Guest Post: St. Augustine on Jesus' Ascension (and Ours)

Peter Paul Rubens' St. Augustine

Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food.

Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.

Hard to Imagine the Afterlife?

With my last post being on Hell and mortal sin, I felt the need to revisit a post about Heaven:
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 "Hard to Imagine the Afterlife?"
I know. St. Paul had the same problem though, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:10). Right now our knowledge of God is conceptual, we use analogies from this created world to speak of the Totally Other: “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face…[we] shall understand fully, even as we have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). Don’t take this “darkness of faith” too hard though –we’ve all been through it before; and it turned out great.

None of us remember our first 40-or-so weeks, but they were lived in complete darkness. Our entire world was that wet, increasingly-cramped space inside our mom's womb. And we couldn’t even begin to imagine that there was this entire world, entire planet, awaiting us outside. We lived beneath our mother’s heart, exposed to its constant rhythm, and yet we had never seen her face! We had grown to recognize her voice, but we hadn’t developed to the point of understanding any of her words. And birth – talk about TRAUMA! All of that amniotic fluid we’ve been swimming in, gone in an instant; our heads compacted and squeezed through the birth canal; the light; the cold; that humiliating slap on the butt! But we finally entered the real world, finally got that chance to see mom face-to-face, to eat through our mouths instead of our belly buttons, and a million other experiences that we’re impossible to conceive of from the darkness of the womb.

Turns out that was just the warm-up; we’re still in utero, and the REAL world awaiting us "outside" remains inconceivable. We’re going to get the chance to enter it though; and just like before, we don’t have a clue when. This time around though, we get to participate in our own growth process. Each "yes" to God allows our spiritual "organs" to develop a bit more. If we haven't come to full term when the moment of birth arrives though, God has a top-notch NICU experience planned for us (the Church calls it purgatory; 1 Cor.3:10-15). Listen to the Apostle John:

"Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure." (1 John 3:1-3) 
The Prayer of St. Francis is right on the money, "It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."