Anathema - Not!

We were enthused that in an age which has rediscovered matter and this earth of ours and has no place for any flight to a world beyond, but loves the earth, cleaves to it, seeks to taste all its preciousness, and wants to live by and for the earth, the Church again did not respond with an anathema. Instead, she intoned a hymn to the earth and its permanence. Once again, she spoke more magnanimously and more forcefully of the earth’s glory than we ourselves would dare have done.

Dogma and Preaching, 113

Reflection – OK, Catholics – what event in recent Church history is Ratzinger referring to here? Any guesses? No?

It is the 1950 proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven that is causing Ratzingerian raptures here in this 1985 book. And it occurs to me that, with all the talk about dialogue on this blog lately, this particular passage is very illuminating.

Parenthetically, I do have to apologize to those readers who have been commenting on various posts. It is a bit ironic that I have been unable to respond to comments on the subject of dialogue, and hence unable to enter into a dialogue. It has just been a really busy time for me, with multiple time-sensitive projects and other commitments, and all I have been able to do for the most part is make my daily posts, which I accomplish before 8:00 a.m. most days, and then move on to whatever work the day holds.

Anyhow. The dogma of the Assumption as an example of the Church dialoguing with modernity. This may seem a bit odd and angular and not quite what we normally think of as dialogue. Although, some have argued that Mary is our deepest response to the modern world  and its travails.

But we see here what Ratzinger has in mind. The world of modernity is taken up with the here and now, with the earthly, with what is immediate and concrete and tangible. Talk of heaven and eternity seems to lack appeal to many—at least this was definitely the case in the mid-20^th century. The optimism and worldly progress of the post-war years spilled over into the progressivism of the 60s and 70s. Perhaps this is changing; I certainly find lately that people are more willing to hear about heaven in our current less hopeful scene.

But there is no question that ‘modernity’ as a movement was taken up with the goodness of this world and this life, and the possibility of perfection and progress for this world and this life. And so the Church elevates to the level of dogma—declares it to be part of the ineradicable and binding deposit of faith—that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven.

Well, this is what you call creative dialogue, I guess! This is the Church weighing in on the goodness of the earth, the permanence of matter and the material order, the glory God has bestowed on concrete tangible reality. Mary is assumed bodily into heaven. God Himself has looked upon all that He has made and said, not only that it is very good, but that He has made an eternal home for it in the heavenly city.

No anathemas to the worldliness of our day, but instead showing how the ancient faith handed on in Sacred Tradition meets that worldliness and embraces all that is good about it. And I think this is indeed what the New Evangelization has to do along multiple lines.

Humanae Vitae, for example, was indeed the Church’s creative response to the sexual revolution. It has been ignored, derided, unread, distorted, lied about. But the document itself is a hymn to the goodness and dignity of human sexuality, to the intensely meaningful nature of the sexual act, and so to its divine ordering and structuring. Far from declaring an anathema of the sexual revolution, the Church honors what is good and true in this social movement… and calls it higher, to a deeper truth, a more secure goodness.

We have to be really creative and generous here, I suggest. The call is always to see what people are really saying, what they really want. There is a thirst for truth and goodness in every human heart. All the great sweeping movements of society and culture, all the ideologies and trends and belief systems have some core of truth and goodness in them. And Christians truly immersed in the Gospel can meet this core of truth and goodness and proclaim Christ there. Rather than condemning or mocking people—which is all too common in our Internet culture—we should understand why they think what they do, and propose a Gospel path to them to that same goodness and truth.

I will always remember the strong feminist—pro-choice, pro-gay—who came to MH and who I gave spiritual direction to. I gave her the book Daughter Zion to read, by young Fr. Joseph Ratzinger. It changed her life—an authentic Christian biblical feminist vision. She is now a very strong feminist Roman Catholic (and a thoroughly wonderful person)! That kind of thing, and Ratzinger has shown us the path of it his entire life.

 

We need courage, we need generosity, we need patience, and we need to know that the Gospel is true enough, strong enough, and big enough to meet every aspect of secular modernity with the faith, hope, and love of Christ.

The Meaning of the Assumption

Happy Feast Day! This is truly one of our biggest celebrations in Madonna House, next to Christmas and Easter. A day of joy and gladness in the company of the Mother of God, radiant in God’s glory.

I thought today I would simply give you an excerpt from my book She is Our Response, on the Virgin Mary in the writings of Joseph Ratzinger, the book that was the genesis of this blog in the first place. It’s a bit long, but hopefully not too technical. Enjoy!

What Does Not Pass Away

Christianity promises that what has transpired on this earth will be eternal. Nothing of what is precious and valuable to us will be lost… this final and abiding world will be the fulfillment of this earth of ours.

Dogma and Preaching, 117

Reflection – There is a persistent belief about Christianity that turns at least some people away from it. Namely, there is an idea that to have heaven as the goal of life makes us indifferent towards or ineffective in addressing the problems of life on earth. There is a sense that Christian hope in eternal life leads to passivity in the face of injustice or suffering and a sort of retreat into a comfortable world of fairy tales and pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

That this persistent belief flies in the face of all known historical facts about Christians and their actual behavior over the course of 2000 years has done little to discredit it. After all, it seems logical: if all our energies are exerted towards some other world why spend time and resources improving this one?

That Christians have, by and large over 2000 years, fed the hungry, cared for the sick, clothed the naked, taught the ignorant, and so forth is passed over in silence. That Christian Europe developed the principles and methodologies of modern science in the very heart of what are now called the ‘Dark Ages’, invented the university, built up a system of law and the theory of universal human rights, and in general produced a flourishing of art, music, architecture and literature is largely forgotten. We are not taught history in our schools, generally, and the little history we are taught is grossly unreliable on this point.

In fact, if any charge could be credibly laid at the door of Christianity, particularly in its Western European and North American forms, it would be that of worldliness, a too practical and utilitarian approach to the question of how one is to live in the present age and engage in its needs and problems.

No, the charge that Christianity makes us indifferent to the problems of the world is unsustainable on the historical record alone. And this quote from Ratzinger explains why it fails on logical grounds, too.

Namely, heaven and earth are not hermetically sealed compartments from each other. Our life here on earth, our choices, the good we do, the services we render, and on a deeper level the love we carry within ourselves, the true embrace of the good and the beautiful here and now—all of this somehow becomes taken up into heaven, becomes part of the life of eternity.

Tomorrow is Ascension Thursday, although in many parts of the world the feast is shifted to Sunday. The whole movement of Christianity as we see it in this event of the Ascension is precisely this: that Jesus carries our humanity, his Incarnate being, his whole embrace of the human, the earthly, flesh and blood and all they hold, to the Father.

And as with the Head, so with the Body. Heaven has taken earth to itself, and so the earth matters tremendously. The world, its beauties and its woes matters tremendously. The earth and all within it is passing away, but heaven has bent down to earth in solicitude and compassion to bring into it that which does not pass away.

And what does not pass away is Love. And so Christianity, if it is lived properly, expresses itself in love for the world, in service, in compassion, in alleviation of suffering, in a pouring out of gifts and strength to make the world reflect the beauty, goodness, and truth of the One who made it and loved it and came down from heaven to share in its life.

And this is precisely what we see in those exemplary Christians who we call ‘saints’, and this is precisely what you and I are called to do today. So—let’s get cracking!

A New Force in the World

Mary is the great believer who humbly offered herself to God as an empty vessel for him to use in his mysterious plan. Without complaint she surrendered control of her life; she did not try to live according to human calculation but put herself completely at the disposal of God’s mysterious, incomprehensible design. All she wanted to be was the handmaid of the Lord, the instrument and servant of the Word.

Dogma and Preaching, 110

Reflection – I’ve been meditating on this blog the last few days on various aspects of ‘how can we make a difference in the world.’ I have been spurred in this direction by the protests on Wall Street, for which I do truly have deep sympathy, even though I (to be honest) disagree with much of their approach, tone, and message.

But the world is in trouble – there’s no question about that, eh! And all people of good will have to come to some conclusion about how we, how I, how you are to do and be something that will help people, even a little bit. All our little bits together can make a big difference.
I truly believe that Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict has a better grasp on what is wrong with the world and what we need to do to help repair it than anyone else alive today—at least anyone else I have encountered. And his vision is deeply spiritual and interior. And Mary stands at the heart of this deep spiritual and interior vision. To hand ourselves over to God; to put ourselves at the disposal of ‘God’s mysterious, incomprehensible design.’ To forsake our own brilliant (not!) ideas and ideologically driven programs (which never, ever work) and cultivate rather an interior attitude: listening, praying, surrendering, seeking God’s face and will, seeking to be his handmaid, his servant.
This is what changes the world. The world changed when Mary herself did this perfectly. The world changed when twelve little fishermen and nobodies from Galilee went out to the Roman Empire talking about this guy, Jesus, who was the Risen Lord. The world changed when Benedict started a little monastery in Nursia, when Francis took off his clothes in the village square of Assisi, when Teresa began her reformed order, when Vincent de Paul started to pour himself out in service of the poor, when Theresa of Calcutta picked up a dying man off the streets.
All of these, we may object, were ‘big’ people who made big impacts because they were so big and brilliant and powerful. But that’s our view of them from the perspective of the time and distance. Each of them was, in him or herself, just one little person trying to listen to God. Trying to love, trying to abandon themselves to Him and His will.
The irony, of course, is that the people who try to change the world by force of their own brilliance or personal charisma or some other ‘way of power’ end up being changed by the world, and the world goes on its not-so-merry way of exploitation and use. The people who entrust themselves to God, who consent to be the seed that falls to the ground and dies, are the ones who set in motion that new force in the world, the energy of love, the power of God, the dawning of the kingdom of heaven in the very heart of the kingdom of the world.
And this is what we must do, if we want to change the world.

A Short Cut to the Kingdom?

The blessed person is not the one who is a blood relative of the Lord but the one who has ears to hear: the one who is not locked into the narrow world of flesh and blood, the narrow world of the self-centered and earthly; the one who knows how to listen to God’s word. Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary tells us in advance that the Lord’s later correction of the woman in the crowd does not deny Mary the praise that is due her but simply points out the real basis for such praise.

Dogma and Preaching, 110

Reflection – We’re all looking for an ‘in’, aren’t we? What’s the secret (or The Secret, if that kind of self-help book is what appeals to you). What are the rules (or The Rules, if that kind of… well, you get the idea).

Whether we think of it in terms of God and eternal life, or some kind of more secular strain of salvation, there is a deep human urge to find the way in, the VIP entrance, the short cut.

That is what this whole business in the Gospel is about where Jesus seems to rebuff his mother and brothers. ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you.’ ‘Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.’ ‘Your mother and brothers are waiting for you.’ ‘These are my mother and brothers. Whoever hears the word of God and keeps it…’

Painful… if you happen to be the mother or ‘brother’ of the Lord. What is this Gospel passage about? Jesus, I maintain, is here closing off the idea that there is can be any path to intimacy with him except the path of faith. There is no short cut, no ‘in’, no secret, no rules, no VIP entrance into the kingdom.

No esoteric knowledge, no purely formalistic religious initiation, nothing of that sort can bring us to the kingdom of heaven.

The only entrance into the kingdom is the path that leads us out of our ego, our self-enclosed, self-defined little world into the broad and beautiful expanses of the Lord. And this path is faith—to accept the word of the Other and base our life on this word. And this was Mary’s path to the kingdom too. Not for her is the claiming of some privileged access to God based on physical relationship. She is blessed not because she bore Christ in her womb, but because she surrendered her entire being to him in faith and obedience.

If there is a ‘short cut’ or an ‘in’ to the kingdom it can only be this: to put ourselves at the feet of Mary and ask her to teach us how to do this, too, in all the big and little events of everyday life. And this is what we try to do, day by day, at Madonna House.

The End of the Road

The Assumption means… that God knows and loves the entire person which we are now. The immortal is that which is now growing and developing in our present life… what is imperishable is whatever we have become in our present bodily state; whatever has developed and grown in us, in our present life, among and by means of the things of this world.

Dogma and Preaching, 117

Reflection – Normally I would probably save this particular passage about the Assumption of Mary into heaven for August 15. However, I am going to be engaged in something else right about then that will preclude my being able to blog about much of anything, so here we are. Anyhow, the feast of the Assumption is just around the corner, so it’s never too soon to start thinking and praying about it!

This is a small part of a much longer and larger reflection on the mystery of the Assumption. For the record, in case anyone reading this is unclear on what we believe, the Assumption refers to Mary being taken body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly pilgrimage, as a sign of her perfect cooperation with the work of redemption, and hence her privileged entry into the fullness of resurrection life, body and soul.

When Catholics and Orthodox Christians ascribe these wondrous mysteries to Mary, it’s important to remember that we do so because of our understanding of two things: her unique, unparalleled relationship to Jesus; and her relationship to the Church as a sort of paradigm of what it truly is.

Because of this latter reason, the things we say about Mary really do reflect on our the mystery of our own Christian identity. Otherwise, in a sense, who cares? So Mary is assumed into heaven - whether you believe that or not, what difference does it make?

Mary, simply, is what a saved human being looks like. We look at Mary so as to understand more fully the mystery of what Jesus has done for us. In everyone else’s lives, the mystery of redemption is shadowed somewhat by our own sins, refusals, compromises. Only in Mary do we see what God really is intending to do with us human beings.

And so in the mystery of the Assumption we see ‘the end of the road’. We see that our life is not headed for defeat, futility, misery, tragedy. The end for our lives desired by God is that we share the glory of Christ forever in heaven.

That Mary is assumed body and soul means, as this passage reflects, that our whole self, our real self, our historical, physiological, cultural, social self is going to be raised up into this eternal realm. It will be purified, of course, cleansed of everything that is not love, not truth, not goodness, not beauty. But it will be us, nonetheless. The real person who is walking around now on earth, God desires to walk around forever in the mysterious realm of light we call Heaven.

Mary’s Assumption into Heaven shows us that the heavenly life is already beginning to work in us now, and that our sure and real hope is that all we carry in our hearts right now--all our loves, our enthusiasms, our cares, our concerns, our true concrete personal being -- is going to be met, embraced, and raised up into the mystery of love, forever.

Eternal Life I

Anyone whom God loves never ceases to be. In him, in his thinking and loving, it is not just a shadow of us that continues in being; rather, in him and his creative love we ourselves, with all that we are and all that is most ourselves, are preserved immortally and forever in being. It is his love that makes us immortal.

Dogma and Preaching, p. 116

Reflection – “Those who have died live on in our memories, in our hearts.” This has become the standard line in many quarters, to deal with the problem of death and loss. It is so prevalent that it is almost becoming the normal cultural trope for life after death. The idea of actually continuing to exist in one’s personal being after physical death, a basic insight about the nature of human life for millennia, is becoming less and less familiar to many.

It is a deeply inadequate way of resolving the problem of death and grief. My mother died last November. The youngest person in our family who carries significant memories of her that he will carry for the rest of his life is 12 years old (if you’re reading this, hi, Mike!). So, if mom is alive primarily or solely in ‘the hearts and memories’ of those who loved her, that gives her at most another 80 to 90 years of life. What then? When the last person who knew you dies, is that it for you? What good is that?

But we live in God’s memory, and in His memory we are truly alive. We only live now, in our bodily temporal life, because God is thinking of us and loving us right now. His creative intention towards us sustains us in being in a continuous fashion. We truly live in the mind of God, but this mind of God bestows upon us substantial life, real existence.

And this is what carries us over the threshold of death. Not the good wishes and fond memories of our loved ones, precious as these are. Not some kind of mastery of our own over the processes of life, which is the current dream of the trans-humanists. But the love of our Father in heaven and his desire that we spend eternity with Him, his irrevocable choice to hold us in Being, even if we are so unwise as to refuse to spend eternity with Him—this is the hope that sustains us across the mysterious one-way passage from this life to what comes after it. We know very little about that ‘after’, but we know that the Father’s love awaits us there, as it accompanies us here.