Saturday, April 26, 2008

I BELIEVE part three: Secular Humanism and Popular Culture

Do you remember when, as a child, it first struck you that television ads are largely full of lies? Or certainly that the claims made are founded on little more than thin air? Were you as repulsed by this revelation as I was?

As children, we seek knowledge, we looks for facts. We want to know if something is true or not, and we look to our parents for answers. We set sail on the endless stream of information called media. We are engaged by television and confronted with advertising. We are told “its just a commercial.”

Over the years we have become desensitized to The Big Lie to the point where we celebrate good lies, watching re-runs of the “top ten all-time” Super Bowl Ads. The Mean Joe Green coca-cola ad is ranked number one. I remember watching it the first year it ran. The ending disappointed me. It posed a nice sentiment for football fans, but it left me feeling empty.

I believe the empty feeling I got from television ads resulted from my Christian grounding. I was raised in the Christian faith, and as an altar boy in the Episcopal Church for seven years; I absorbed the Liturgy of the Word and came to love our Lord deeply. Somehow I got it in my heart that true satisfaction in life would only be achieved through Him.

Along with most of my generation, my grounding in faith eroded as I ventured away from home, to college, and into adulthood. I watched our world change quickly in a few short decades. “One Nation Under God” transmogrified into a culture of self, celebrity, and self-celebrity. We allowed our discipline and strength of character to resist temptation to fade into the mist. We were successfully seduced by money, pleasure, power, fame, and the gentrification of infantilism, as the lines between advertising, self-promotion, and reality melted away.

Our culture of convenience and instant gratification has twisted our thinking. We are inclined to think of discipline as manipulation, an easy conclusion to reach because it justifies our distaste for moral authority and our lack of spiritual effort. Fallen away Christians cry “Oh, the guilt it gave me” while they drive their children around town on an endless tour of non-stop entertainment. No one has time for peace, reflection, or worship. We are too busy for discipline.

While we were scurrying around, the prevailing culture endorsed the primacy of the individual, authorized minimal contribution to the whole, and blessed the assertion that pleasure is the ultimate good. The individual has won the right to put out minimal effort for maximum pleasure. Freedom has become the right to do whatever you want. The power of the beautiful yet horrible adolescent temper tantrum has overcome patience and wisdom. It happened oh so fast.

The questions “What’s in it for me?” and “What is the least I can do to get to heaven?” snuck onto the spiritual agenda. Religious affiliation choices are filtered through the field of secular perception, resulting in a world where families shop for “user friendly” churches.

To be honest, I wasn’t overly concerned about all this until I discovered that my life had re-invented itself while I was busy being overwhelmed. My long, strange trip ran out of time.

I rediscovered my Christian grounding buried under a heap of confusion. As a consequence, I am getting headaches from The Big Lie again, and the emptiness of a story that doesn’t show me salvation, or at least redemption, leaves me dissatisfied. My conscience no longer allows me to accept “whatever” as a viable reaction to ugly social trends and the perpetuation of false promises.

Popular culture has evolved to where it is in blatant, direct conflict with Christian philosophy, and Secular Humanism has infected spirituality and the practice of religion on a global basis. The ugly truth is that popular western culture has become a carrier of this virus. Though we are still spiritually vital, the media portrays Christians as knee jerks who threaten the triumph of science and social progress. A large public segment views the Church through secular eyes, unwittingly desiring to cut it off from heaven.

Fortunately, I have learned to let worldly pain wash through me without clotting in my veins, and I want the same for my brothers and sisters. I feel compelled to join the battlefield of right and wrong because I want to get it right and finish strong.

I believe we are created by God, for God. We need to give thanks for the Grace we have been given and for the profound Love of the Holy Trinity--thereby regaining our essential purpose. Secular Humanism has been resisted before. Popular Culture can be changed.

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you
were called."

1 Timothy 6:12

Friday, April 25, 2008

Our Lady's April 2008 message from Medjugorje

Message of April 25, 2008

"Dear children! Also today, I call all of you to grow in God's love as a flower which feels the warm rays of spring. In this way, also you, little children, grow in God's love and carry it to all those who are far from God. Seek God's will and do good to those whom God has put on your way, and be light and joy. Thank you for having responded to my call."

God Bless!Steve and Ana Shawl
The Medjugorje Web

http://www.medjugorje.org

Friday, April 11, 2008

More on Truth

When the Truth sets us free: we are liberated from the encumbrances of wrong decision making and cya, free from resentment, bias, negative presuppositions, anxiety, weariness, distrust, vainglory, avarice, deceit, the wretchedness of our past sins, excuses, curses, and knowing (someone or yourself) all too well.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I BELIEVE part two: Where Faith and Reason Meet

Introducing the encyclical letter he addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, “Fides Et Ratio,” on the relationship between faith and reason, Pope John Paul II had this to say:

“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human
spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed
in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to
know himself—so that by knowing and loving God, men and
women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves
(cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).”

While this statement sums it up beautifully, I will attempt to elaborate below, borrowing heavily from the Supreme Pontiff’s encyclical, which relied in good part on St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

God loves us and wants to make himself known to us, and He instilled in us a desire to know him. We are free and intelligent, capable of knowing God, good and evil, truth, and fundamental moral norms. In time and history, basic principals, such as causality, finality, and non-contradiction emerged to help in giving us a deeper understanding of faith and the meaning of life. Thus faith and reason became interdependent.

In the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4) God sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all people, so that he might dwell among them and tell them the innermost realities about God (cf. Jn 1:1-18). To see Jesus is to see his Father (Jn 14:9). Christ perfected Revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of becoming present, manifesting himself with words, deeds, signs, and wonders, his death and glorious Resurrection, and his sending of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, he restored the divine life Adam and Eve refused, and offers the truth about the goal of history.

By his divinity and absolute transcendence, God himself is the credibility of what he reveals. Mankind accepts his divine testimony in freedom, by faith, reasoning upon its profound meaning. Freedom is not a result of reasoning made against God, for God is the very reality that allows our self-realization—

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn 8:32).

The proclamation of the Good News employed reason upon the coming of the Holy Spirit. “The law and the prophets” did not resonate with the pagans, so philosophy was used to create a link between universal reason and pagan religion. Rising to higher levels, reason provided a basis for the concepts of self-realization, transcendence, and the absolute.

Nature, a main concern of pagan religion, became a contributor to divine Revelation. Faith therefore, sought nature and trusted it. Grace builds on nature and raises it to fulfillment, as faith builds on reason and perfects it.

Wisdom, a gift of the Holy Spirit, presupposes faith and enables judgment according to divine truth. Faith accepts divine truth as it is.

As history progressed, philosophy began to separate from reason, and in some ways, reason itself was abandoned. Modern philosophy has moved well away from Christian Revelation, to a point where philosophy is largely opposed to it, giving way to atheistic humanism and other dialectical structures. Faith has been accused of standing in the way of the development of full rationality. Philosophy has turned away from the contemplation of truth and the meaning of life toward a new form that can be directed by utilitarian ends—pleasure and power.

Scientists, by all rights allies of faith and reason, have taken a path similar to that of philosophy, succumbing to the temptations of assumed quasi-divine power over nature and humanity.

Once divine Revelation was shoved aside, reason swerved off the path to its goal. Faith, without its companion reason, has given way to feeling and experience, losing its status as the saving grace and driving force of human volition. Modern philosophy has become inept in facilitating the communication of the truth of the Gospel.

Atheism, agnosticism, and relativism lead the march toward universal skepticism. Truth has been devalued, and plurality rules the day. Undifferentiated plurality paints an assumption that truth is revealed equally in different philosophies and religions, even when they clearly contradict one another. Truth is reduced to opinion, and humankind waffles, adrift in a sea of “whatever.”

As the bearers of faith, reason, truth, and divine Revelation, it is incumbent upon Christians to protect God’s truth and continue the mission of the church fathers. Pope John Paul II “unstintingly recalled the pressing need for a new evangelization.”

There are many new icebreakers forging ahead through the icebound waters of “whatever.” We need to pull out our thermals and sign on to one of them. Or develop the ways and means to raise a navy, shore up the old ships, pull them out of the dry docks, and set sail. We already have the faith and reason required for victory. Jesus Christ saw to that.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Pre-U.S. Visit Message from Pope Benedict XVI

Vatican City, April 8.-Pope Benedict XVI is just days away from arriving in the U.S. for his first visit. In anticipation of his arrival he released a video message today saying he is coming to share the message of hope in Christ with all those living in the U.S.

As the Pope began his message, he offered his "heartfelt greeting and an invitation to prayer. "As you know", he continues, "I shall only be able to visit two cities: Washington and New York. The intention behind my visit, though, is to reach out spiritually to all Catholics in the United States".

After thanking the people working to organize his trip and those who are praying for its success, Benedict XVI also mentioned his conviction that prayer is the most powerful way to prepare for his visit. "Dear friends, I say this because I am convinced that without the power of prayer, without that intimate union with the Lord, our human endeavors would achieve very little. Indeed this is what our faith teaches us. It is God who saves us, he saves the world, and all of history. He is the Shepherd of his people. I am coming, sent by Jesus Christ, to bring you his word of life."

"Christ our hope", the theme for the Pope's visit was also central to the Pope's address. "Together with your bishops, I have chosen as the theme of my journey three simple but essential words: 'Christ our hope'. ... Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture and social condition. ... Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father. I know how deeply rooted this Gospel message is in your country. I am coming to share it with you, in a series of celebrations and gatherings."

"I shall also bring the message of Christian hope to the great Assembly of the United Nations", the Pope continued, "to the representatives of all the peoples of the world. Indeed, the world has greater need of hope than ever: hope for peace, for justice, and for freedom, but this hope can never be fulfilled without obedience to the law of God, which Christ brought to fulfillment in the commandment to love one another. Do to others as you would have them do to you, and avoid doing what you would not want them to do. This 'golden rule' is given in the Bible, but it is valid for all people, including non-believers. It is the law written on the human heart; on this we can all agree, so that when we come to address other matters we can do so in a positive and constructive manner for the entire human community".

Pope Benedict also took care to address Spanish-speaking U.S. Catholics in their own language, invoking the Blessed Mother's protection and the blessing of God upon them.
Benedict XVI concludes his message by saying, "Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends in the United States, I am very much looking forward to being with you. I want you to know that, even if my itinerary is short, with just a few engagements, my heart is close to all of you, especially to the sick, the weak, and the lonely. I thank you once again for your prayerful support of my mission. I reach out to every one of you with affection, and I invoke upon you the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary."To watch the video message go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me8whJa4p9g

Pope Benedict XVI U.S. Visit Agenda April 2008

WASHINGTON (November 12, 2007)– Pope Benedict XVI will come to the United States with visits to Washington and New York City on a six-day trip which includes an address at the United Nations.The visit is slated for April 15-20. Among venues during the visit will be the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where Pope Benedict will meet with the Bishops of the United States.“This is a blessed moment for our nation,” said Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “Pope Benedict is not just the leader of Catholics, he is also a man of inspiration for all those who work for peace.”

Cardinal Edward Egan of New York voiced the delight of the people of New York.“When our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, told me last July that he would be visiting New York this coming April, I was delighted with the news and shared it with the People of God of the Archdiocese of New York and the entire community of greater New York. The response of all was both rejoicing and thanksgiving to the Lord for the great grace of the presence of the successor of St. Peter in our midst. I have assured the Holy Father of a warm and prayerful welcome. We all look forward to his visit with pleasure and anticipation.”

Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington spoke of “faith-filled joy and enormous enthusiasm” in the Archdiocese of Washington.“Personally, and in the name of all of the clergy, religious and faithful of the archdiocese, I express our warmest welcome while renewing our sentiments of love and loyalty to our Holy Father. We all look forward to his visit as a time of renewal of our faith and pastoral ministry and an opportunity to confirm our solidarity with the Church universal made visible among us by the successor to Peter, Pope Benedict XVI,” Archbishop Wuerl said.“It is an enormous privilege for the Church of Washington to host our Holy Father. We pledge to do all that we can to make his presence among us a moment of true spiritual renewal and a vibrant manifestation of God’s kingdom at work among us.”

Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the national Shrine, noted the Shrine’s importance in the nation.“The Shrine was established by the Bishops of the United States as our nation’s tribute to Mary Immaculate and so it is appropriate that the Bishops of our country meet with the successor of Peter in the house they established to honor the Mother of God,” he said.

Apostolic Journey to the United States and the see of the United Nations

April 15 - Arrival in Washington
April 16 - Visit with President Bush at the White House
April 17 - Public Mass at National Stadium
CUA meeting with Catholic University presidents and diocesan heads of education
Interreligious event at John Paul II Cultural Center
April 18 - Address to the United Nations
Ecumenical event at a parish in New York
April 19 - Mass with priests, deacons and members of religious orders at St. Patrick's Cathedral
Youth event at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers
April 20 - Ground Zero
Public Mass at Yankee Stadium

Thursday, April 3, 2008

I BELIEVE introduction

In the beginning, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit were one God, and always will be.

I believe that we were born of love by God through the Word and the Holy Spirit. Because He loves us, God instilled in us the desire to know Him. He forever seeks to draw us to Him, yet He gave us the free will to love Him or deny Him because Love cannot be coerced. Giving us free choice permitted the possibility of evil. Thus, the knowledge of love and evil are written in the hearts of all mankind.

I believe God exists beyond nature, in eternity, but we seek God within the parameters of nature and time and thereby fail to know Him. We are separated from Him and often choose evil to fill our emptiness. To save us, God sent the Word incarnate to conquer evil and deliver us.

I believe the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ, has saved us from evil by nailing it to the cross of his sacrificial death. Christ was raised from the dead and given dominion over all the heavens and the earth. He has reconciled us and restored us to God. He is our purpose. We are invited to join him in love, and He has instructed us to encourage all mankind to seek him.

I believe that Jesus Christ joined himself to our fallen humanity. In saving us, He reestablished divine life for us. He set us free to join Him in divinity in the new covenant with God. By His grace our human reason is transformed into the supernatural faith necessary to believe in Him and follow Him.

I believe we partake of the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist; we are thereby united in eternity to God the Father, the Apostles, the Saints, our Holy Mother, the clergy, and all our brothers and sisters in Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist physically and spiritually sustains us, and we should therefore partake as often as possible.

Amen

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