Augustyn Pelanowski OSPPE
Ogród Oliwny, a właściwie tłocznia oliwek, nasuwa wiele skojarzeń z wizją miażdżenia owoców, aby mogły dać namaszczającą oliwę.
Gdy przed nami jawi się nieuchronność przyjęcia czegoś nie do zniesienia, czegoś przytłaczającego, uciekamy. Uczniowie ze smutku uciekli w sen. Smutkiem, przed którym uciekali Apostołowie, była nieznośna świadomość przegranej, odtrącenie przez ludzi, utrata Jezusa, wizja krzyża.
Podobnie czynimy, gdy dopada nas smutek, cierpienie, zmartwienie, lęk, udręka, nieznośna sytuacja, strata, niezadowolenie z siebie i życia, samotność, nuda istnienia, bezsens, wreszcie nieuchronność choroby czy nawet śmierci.
Jezus nie chce, żebyśmy przed tym wszystkim uciekali, tylko z mocą modlitwy przeczekali, przecierpieli, albo przetrwali. Jeśli uciekamy przed smutkiem, magazynujemy go i w końcu on wybuchnie rozpaczą. Chcemy otrzymywać jedynie pocieszenie i triumfalnie iść przez życie, ale to jest nierealna wizja losu ludzkiego. Po palmowych wiwatach, przychodzi smutek oliwny i nie jest dobrze przestać go doznawać. I tu jest podstawa konfliktu każdego chrześcijanina, jaki dramatycznie każdego dnia rozgrywa się w naszym sercu. Chcemy być z Jezusem, ale nie chcemy przyjąć tego, co jest ceną tej drogi. Chcemy mieć szczęście łaski uświęcającej i przyjemność grzechu, modlić się i używać życia, składać hołdy Bogu i nie doznawać żadnej przykrości. Nawet w naszych modlitwach nie prosimy o wytrwałość w przykrościach, tylko o to, by Bóg je zabrał jak najszybciej. W imię Jezusa chcemy zawsze i koniecznie odnosić jedynie sukcesy, w imię Jezusa żądamy, aby inni zawsze nas rozumieli i byli dla nas dobrzy, w imię Jezusa żądamy, aby życie było komfortowe i pełne wygód, w imię Jezusa czynimy wszystko, aby inni z nas byli we wszystkim zadowoleni. To nie jest jednak chrześcijaństwo, tylko co najwyżej utajona forma nerwicy. Krzyż Chrystusa szepcze do nas cicho, że nie zawsze musimy odnosić zwycięstwa, nie możemy oczekiwać, by każda droga była palmowa, bo są i oliwne.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Lustro dla potworow - Wielki Post 5C
Augustyn Pelanowski OSPPE
Jezus nie pochwalał ani uczynków syna marnotrawnego, ani czynów kobiety, która cudzołożyła. Po raz drugi podkreśla, że o wiele niebezpieczniejsze jest osądzanie grzesznika niż jego grzech. O wiele niebezpieczniejsze było zgorszenie brata syna marnotrawnego, bo pozostawiało go poza domem ojca. Równie niebezpieczne było oskarżanie cudzołożnej kobiety dla tych ludzi, którzy ją w tym potępieńczym orszaku przywiedli do Jezusa, zamierzając ukamienować.
Rzucanie kamieniami świetnie przekłada się na obraz przerzucania na kogoś własnych, ukrytych oskarżeń sumienia. Nazwalibyśmy to po łacinie proiectio. Większość mężczyzn dość łatwo posądza kobiety o to, co w nich jest ukrytym i wstydliwym problemem. Kiedy na ulicy wulgarnie określają kobietę albo w ich spojrzeniu można wyczytać słowo „dziwka”, to nie jest to niczym innym, jak tylko źle tłumionym pożądaniem. Jeśli człowiek nie chce przyznać się sam przed sobą do pewnych schorzeń sumienia, staje się to wszystko albo obsesją, albo zacznie wyciekać na powierzchnię świadomości w postaci rzutowania na inne osoby swoich stłumionych wynaturzeń, w postaci projekcji. Przypisuje się wtedy in- nym dokładnie to, czego w sobie samym nie chce się uznać. Inni stają się lustrami lub ekranami naszych wewnętrznych potworów.
Tak więc, najczęściej ci, którzy skrywają wstydliwie nawet przed samym sobą nieuporządkowanie seksualne, są najbardziej skłonni w każdej kobiecie dopatrywać się zwyczajów wprost spod latarni, czemu zwykle w zawoalowany sposób dają wyraz, maskując to ironicznym lub złośliwym uśmiechem. Pewien psychiatra powiedział mi, że mężczyźni, którzy w stosunku do kobiet nadużywają wulgarnych określeń odnoszących się do seksualności, są upokorzeni przez własną pożądliwość i zwykle poważne grzechy ukrywają w swym sumieniu. Ich sumienie jest krzywdzone, bo nie dopuszczają do siebie wyrzutów sumienia, co prowadzi do obwiniania zewnętrznych obiektów. Kiedy człowiek nie dopuszcza do siebie wyrzutów sumienia, ma już tylko jedną drogę, by dać upust wewnętrznemu napięciu: obwiniać innych. Nasza cywilizacja jest wyjątkowo wulgarna i chociaż ciągle różne grupy społeczne domagają się poszanowania kobiet, najczęściej skutek jest odwrotny, i właśnie one są ekranem zbiorowych projekcji. Coraz częściej słyszy się nawet z ust najmłodszych najstarsze przekleństwa.
Historia z kobietą, którą pochwycono na cudzołóstwie, każe nam się zastanowić, w jaki sposób owi mężczyźni przyłapali tę grzeszną kobietę? Dlaczego tak wiele trudu włożyli w przyłapanie jej in flagranti? Szczególnie nam, mężczyznom, powiedziałaby ta Ewangelia wprost w oczy: „To, o co głośno oskarżasz kobietę, zdradza to, czego skrycie od niej pragniesz!”.
Jezus nie pochwalał ani uczynków syna marnotrawnego, ani czynów kobiety, która cudzołożyła. Po raz drugi podkreśla, że o wiele niebezpieczniejsze jest osądzanie grzesznika niż jego grzech. O wiele niebezpieczniejsze było zgorszenie brata syna marnotrawnego, bo pozostawiało go poza domem ojca. Równie niebezpieczne było oskarżanie cudzołożnej kobiety dla tych ludzi, którzy ją w tym potępieńczym orszaku przywiedli do Jezusa, zamierzając ukamienować.
Rzucanie kamieniami świetnie przekłada się na obraz przerzucania na kogoś własnych, ukrytych oskarżeń sumienia. Nazwalibyśmy to po łacinie proiectio. Większość mężczyzn dość łatwo posądza kobiety o to, co w nich jest ukrytym i wstydliwym problemem. Kiedy na ulicy wulgarnie określają kobietę albo w ich spojrzeniu można wyczytać słowo „dziwka”, to nie jest to niczym innym, jak tylko źle tłumionym pożądaniem. Jeśli człowiek nie chce przyznać się sam przed sobą do pewnych schorzeń sumienia, staje się to wszystko albo obsesją, albo zacznie wyciekać na powierzchnię świadomości w postaci rzutowania na inne osoby swoich stłumionych wynaturzeń, w postaci projekcji. Przypisuje się wtedy in- nym dokładnie to, czego w sobie samym nie chce się uznać. Inni stają się lustrami lub ekranami naszych wewnętrznych potworów.
Tak więc, najczęściej ci, którzy skrywają wstydliwie nawet przed samym sobą nieuporządkowanie seksualne, są najbardziej skłonni w każdej kobiecie dopatrywać się zwyczajów wprost spod latarni, czemu zwykle w zawoalowany sposób dają wyraz, maskując to ironicznym lub złośliwym uśmiechem. Pewien psychiatra powiedział mi, że mężczyźni, którzy w stosunku do kobiet nadużywają wulgarnych określeń odnoszących się do seksualności, są upokorzeni przez własną pożądliwość i zwykle poważne grzechy ukrywają w swym sumieniu. Ich sumienie jest krzywdzone, bo nie dopuszczają do siebie wyrzutów sumienia, co prowadzi do obwiniania zewnętrznych obiektów. Kiedy człowiek nie dopuszcza do siebie wyrzutów sumienia, ma już tylko jedną drogę, by dać upust wewnętrznemu napięciu: obwiniać innych. Nasza cywilizacja jest wyjątkowo wulgarna i chociaż ciągle różne grupy społeczne domagają się poszanowania kobiet, najczęściej skutek jest odwrotny, i właśnie one są ekranem zbiorowych projekcji. Coraz częściej słyszy się nawet z ust najmłodszych najstarsze przekleństwa.
Historia z kobietą, którą pochwycono na cudzołóstwie, każe nam się zastanowić, w jaki sposób owi mężczyźni przyłapali tę grzeszną kobietę? Dlaczego tak wiele trudu włożyli w przyłapanie jej in flagranti? Szczególnie nam, mężczyznom, powiedziałaby ta Ewangelia wprost w oczy: „To, o co głośno oskarżasz kobietę, zdradza to, czego skrycie od niej pragniesz!”.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Smutek obserwatora - Wielki Post 4C
Augustyn Pelanowski OSPPE
Przypowieść urywa się w połowie rozmowy ojca ze zbuntowanym na miłosierdzie synem. Dlaczego? Dlatego, że ona na tym świecie nie ma zakończenia, lecz ciągle się powtarza. Możemy przejrzeć się w obydwu synach i odnaleźć się w jednym albo w obydwu.
Obydwaj byli na polu. Jeden z nich tak odszedł, że wrócił. Drugi tak oddalił się od domu, że nie wyglądało to na odejście. Jeden z nich żałował, że zgrzeszył. Drugi natomiast, choć nie wyraził tego wprost, żałował, że nie zgrzeszył. Był tak blisko Ojca i jednocześnie nie wszedł do wnętrza Jego domu! Przypowieść nie pochwala uczynków pierwszego syna, ale ostrzega też przed postawą drugiego: pozornej poprawności moralnej. Syn służył od lat ojcu, ale tylko służył, czyli wykonywał obowiązki, zakazy i nakazy, nie szukał miłości i czułości w jego ramionach. Ani zmysłowość, ani mistyka nie pociągnęły go i nie ciekawiły. Nie miał odwagi pogrążyć się w grzechu, choć naprawdę za nim tęsknił, co widać w jego pretensjonalnych wyrzutach: „Nigdy mi nie dałeś koziołka, abym ucieszył się ze swymi przyjaciółmi”. Tęskni za uciechami życia, ale ich sobie sam zakazał, choć niezrozumiale do ojca ma żal. Ojciec przecież mu mówi: „Dziecko, wszystko moje jest twoje!”. Co jest Ojca? Ojca jest uczta, czyli Eucharystia. Najdelikatniej jak mógł, dał synowi do zrozumienia, że w każdej chwili może sobie sprawić ucztę, ale tajemnicą pozostanie, dlaczego starszy syn ani w grzechu nie szukał radości, ani w domu ojca.
Tajemnicą są ludzie, którzy nie odważyli się szukać szczęścia w grzechu, ani w Bogu, ani na ulicy, ani na Eucharystii. Ludzie, którzy nie żyją, tylko obserwują życie innych, jak te panie z okien w blokowiskach, które całymi godzinami przyglądają się sąsiadom. Całe życie tkwią w jakimś żalu do życia, że im się nie udało odnaleźć szczęścia. Przyglądają się innym, ale nigdy sobie!
Stał więc smutny starszy syn, obserwując domostwo rozbrzmiewające muzyką i śpiewami. Polskie tłumaczenie tekstu nie oddało pewnego niuansu. Radość, którą chciał przeżyć syn, konsumując owego koziołka z przyjaciółmi, została nazwana tym samym słowem, które było radością z powrotu marnotrawcy, o której nieśmiało powiedział ojciec. Ta sama radość? Kiedy nie chcemy się cieszyć z czyjegoś szczęścia, nic już nie jest w stanie nas ucieszyć. Jeśli chodzi o mnie, to radzę wszystkim raczej ucztę w domu Ojca, bez potrzeby odwiedzania chlewnych agencji towarzyskich, ale odradzam też postawę obserwatora, który ze wszystkiego jest niezadowolony.
Przypowieść urywa się w połowie rozmowy ojca ze zbuntowanym na miłosierdzie synem. Dlaczego? Dlatego, że ona na tym świecie nie ma zakończenia, lecz ciągle się powtarza. Możemy przejrzeć się w obydwu synach i odnaleźć się w jednym albo w obydwu.
Obydwaj byli na polu. Jeden z nich tak odszedł, że wrócił. Drugi tak oddalił się od domu, że nie wyglądało to na odejście. Jeden z nich żałował, że zgrzeszył. Drugi natomiast, choć nie wyraził tego wprost, żałował, że nie zgrzeszył. Był tak blisko Ojca i jednocześnie nie wszedł do wnętrza Jego domu! Przypowieść nie pochwala uczynków pierwszego syna, ale ostrzega też przed postawą drugiego: pozornej poprawności moralnej. Syn służył od lat ojcu, ale tylko służył, czyli wykonywał obowiązki, zakazy i nakazy, nie szukał miłości i czułości w jego ramionach. Ani zmysłowość, ani mistyka nie pociągnęły go i nie ciekawiły. Nie miał odwagi pogrążyć się w grzechu, choć naprawdę za nim tęsknił, co widać w jego pretensjonalnych wyrzutach: „Nigdy mi nie dałeś koziołka, abym ucieszył się ze swymi przyjaciółmi”. Tęskni za uciechami życia, ale ich sobie sam zakazał, choć niezrozumiale do ojca ma żal. Ojciec przecież mu mówi: „Dziecko, wszystko moje jest twoje!”. Co jest Ojca? Ojca jest uczta, czyli Eucharystia. Najdelikatniej jak mógł, dał synowi do zrozumienia, że w każdej chwili może sobie sprawić ucztę, ale tajemnicą pozostanie, dlaczego starszy syn ani w grzechu nie szukał radości, ani w domu ojca.
Tajemnicą są ludzie, którzy nie odważyli się szukać szczęścia w grzechu, ani w Bogu, ani na ulicy, ani na Eucharystii. Ludzie, którzy nie żyją, tylko obserwują życie innych, jak te panie z okien w blokowiskach, które całymi godzinami przyglądają się sąsiadom. Całe życie tkwią w jakimś żalu do życia, że im się nie udało odnaleźć szczęścia. Przyglądają się innym, ale nigdy sobie!
Stał więc smutny starszy syn, obserwując domostwo rozbrzmiewające muzyką i śpiewami. Polskie tłumaczenie tekstu nie oddało pewnego niuansu. Radość, którą chciał przeżyć syn, konsumując owego koziołka z przyjaciółmi, została nazwana tym samym słowem, które było radością z powrotu marnotrawcy, o której nieśmiało powiedział ojciec. Ta sama radość? Kiedy nie chcemy się cieszyć z czyjegoś szczęścia, nic już nie jest w stanie nas ucieszyć. Jeśli chodzi o mnie, to radzę wszystkim raczej ucztę w domu Ojca, bez potrzeby odwiedzania chlewnych agencji towarzyskich, ale odradzam też postawę obserwatora, który ze wszystkiego jest niezadowolony.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Fr. Stan Fortuna's message on Holy Week
Dear Friends of Francisco,
Greetings peace and Blessings to you and your families and friends. I hope and pray all is well as we move quickly towards Holy Week. Lent is a favorable time as B16 says regarding Lent 2007, “to learn to stay close” to Jesus. Learning to stay close to Jesus will inevitably engage us in the battle of love, which will require the overcoming of betrayal. To experience betrayal, as Brother Webster informs us, means to experience being led astray, to experience the failure and departure of someone in time of need, to experience someone or something proving to be false.
Greetings peace and Blessings to you and your families and friends. I hope and pray all is well as we move quickly towards Holy Week. Lent is a favorable time as B16 says regarding Lent 2007, “to learn to stay close” to Jesus. Learning to stay close to Jesus will inevitably engage us in the battle of love, which will require the overcoming of betrayal. To experience betrayal, as Brother Webster informs us, means to experience being led astray, to experience the failure and departure of someone in time of need, to experience someone or something proving to be false.
The betrayal of Jesus by Judas is emblematic of humanity’s sin, meaning that it is a sign of the failure of love on the part of all of us at one time or another - in one way or another. These moments when we encounter failures of love, regardless of who it comes from or the shape or expression – or lack there of - it takes, or however hidden and unexpected or unsuspected they may be are connected to the battle of love. The great JPII details this great battle of love and qualifies this battle in the following way: “the hours of the great battle between the love which gives itself without reserve and the mysterium iniquitatis which is imprisoned in hostility (Letter to Priests 200).
The victory of Love, which makes us “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37) provides space within the confining and restricting encounters with betrayal. This space is a manifestation of the power and freedom of true love rendering us capable to love, to pass through the devastating experience of betrayal – the imprisoned hostility from others which finds a way to escape and attack - regardless of how painful, unexplainable or unsuspected. This is especially true when one has no indication that betrayal is about to strike. Nonetheless, the flames of love are a burning fire, and even the deep waters of betrayal “cannot quench love”. “For stern as death is love, relentless as the nether world is devotion, its flames are a blazing fire” (cf Song of Songs 8:6-7).
May the power of this Blazing Love carry us along and through the remaining time of Lent to Holy Week so that our communion with Love will be forged ever more inseparably with the Love that renders us capable for more love - with Jesus who “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). Lord willing, talk to ya’ll next week….peace and Blessings 4 ever in Jesus and Mary….
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Benedict XVI on conversion
"The Most Effective Response to Evil"
Dear Brothers and Sisters,The passage of Luke's Gospel proclaimed on this Third Sunday of Lent refers to Jesus' comments on two current events of that time. The first was the uprising of some Galileans, which was suppressed by Pilate with the shedding of blood; the second was the collapse of a tower in Jerusalem, which caused the death of 18 victims. They were two tragic, yet very different, events. The first was caused by man, the other was accidental.
According to the mentality of the time, the people tended to think that the misfortune fell on the victims because of their grave fault. Jesus, on the contrary, says: "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? ... Or those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem?" (Luke 13:2,4). In both cases, he ends saying: "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will likewise perish" (13:3,5).
This is, therefore, the point to which Jesus wished to lead those who were listening to him: the need for conversion. He does not present it in moralistic, but rather in realistic terms, as the only appropriate response to events that put human certainties in crisis.
In the face of certain misfortunes, he advises, it is no good to blame the victims. What is truly wise, rather, consists in allowing oneself to be questioned by the precariousness of existence and to adopt an attitude of responsibility: to do penance and improve our lives.
This is wisdom, this is the most effective response to evil, at all levels, interpersonal, social and international. Christ invites us to respond to evil first of all through a serious examination of conscience and with the commitment to purify our lives. Otherwise, we will perish, he says, we will perish in the same way. In fact, people and societies that live without questioning themselves have ruin as their only final end. Conversion, on the contrary, despite the fact it does not preserve us from problems and adversities, enables us to address them in a different "way."
Above all it helps to prevent evil, and to neutralize some of its threats. And, in any case, it enables us to overcome evil with good, though not always at the level of events, which at times are independent of our will, certainly always at the spiritual level.
In short, conversion overcomes evil at its root, which is sin, though it cannot always avoid its consequences.
Let us pray to Mary, who accompanies and supports us in our Lenten journey, to help every Christians to rediscover the grandeur, I would even say the beauty, of conversion. May she help us understand that to do penance and correct our conduct is not simply moralism, but the most effective way to improve both ourselves as well as society. An apt maxim explains it very well: It is better to light a match than to curse the darkness.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Obrzuceni nawozem grzechow - Wielki Post 3C
Augustyn Pelanowski OSPPE
Drzewo inwestuje wszystkie siły w urodzenie owocu: wysysa z ziemi soki, dostarcza je przez pień do gałęzi, wypuszcza liście i poświęca piękno kwiatów, byleby tylko zaowocować. Drzewo bez owocu to po prostu drzewo bez możliwości odrodzenia się w nowym drzewie. Ten obraz drzewa figowego streszcza w sobie sens ludzkiego wysiłku, bowiem wszystko, co w życiu czynimy, jest po to, by się odrodzić w innym świecie, oddając siebie samych – jak owoc – Bogu.
Większość ludzi żyje jednak dla siebie samych i są oni jak drzewa, które nie rodzą owocu, żyją tylko tym światem, a nie światem, który ma przyjść. Ktoś taki nie widzi problemu. Wydaje mu się, że wszystko działa dobrze. Jest zdrowie, piękno, pieniądze, inteligencja, dostatek dóbr, miłość i powodzenie, używanie i nadużywanie ciała, ale nie ma troski o wieczność, o życie upodobnione do tego, który był „błogosławionym owocem żywota” Maryi.
Dla podkreślenia niebezpieczeństwa takiej sytuacji musi wystąpić coś, co jest sygnałem ostrzegawczym: NAWÓZ I SKOPANIE! Intensyfikacja cierpienia jest sygnałem, że najwyższy czas pomyśleć nie o tym świecie. Dopóki nie zauważymy, w jakie gnojowisko zabrnęliśmy z naszymi ideałami i planami, nie mamy wcale ochoty na nawrócenie, czyli na oddanie siebie Bogu. Gdy pojawia się dramat, gdy zawaleniu ulegają nasze projekty, gdy zostajemy obrzuceni nawozem naszych grzechów albo gdy czujemy się skopani przez kolejne doświadczenia losu, najwyższy czas pomyśleć w inny sposób o sensie życia. Wtedy zwykle trochę poważniej zaczynamy myśleć o Bogu. Przestaje On być „kulą u nogi”, a staje się jedynym, który bierze pod ramię i nas podtrzymuje. Kwitnie refleksja, nasze modlitwy pachną miłością i owocujemy gruntowną spowiedzią.
Bóg oczekuje od nas wiary w przyszłe życie po zmartwychwstaniu, bardziej niż my lękamy się rozpaczy z powodu porażki na tym świecie. Jeśli tej wiary w nas nie odnajdzie, w końcu zostaniemy wycięci. Bo po co żyć, skoro nie chce się żyć wiecznie?
Wspomnijmy Pompeje. To miasto było przesycone erotyzmem i oznaki nadużywania ciała są widoczne do dziś. Wyżycie było łatwe i tanie, najtańsze prostytutki brały po dwa asy, tyle, ile kosztował ewangeliczny wróbel. Przyjemnie i rozkosznie żyło się w Pompejach. Ale nie uratowało to miasta przed nagłą zagładą, a może ją nawet wywołało, tak jak w przypadku Sodomy? W jednym z zachowanych domów publicznych mozaika przedstawia ciała kochanków w lubieżnym uścisku, nieopodal, w szklanej gablocie, spalone w popiele wulkanicznym ciała ofiar, splecione w łudząco identyczny sposób. W jednej chwili całe miasto, jak bezowocne drzewo, żyjące dla własnej przyjemności, zostało wycięte. Rolę biblijnej siekiery odegrał ognisty Wezuwiusz, 24 sierpnia 79 roku. Jest jeszcze tyle miast, które mają ambicje stać się nowymi Pompejami! Dlaczego tak łatwo nam uwierzyć, że Bóg jest miłosierny, a tak trudno, że jest sprawiedliwy?
Drzewo inwestuje wszystkie siły w urodzenie owocu: wysysa z ziemi soki, dostarcza je przez pień do gałęzi, wypuszcza liście i poświęca piękno kwiatów, byleby tylko zaowocować. Drzewo bez owocu to po prostu drzewo bez możliwości odrodzenia się w nowym drzewie. Ten obraz drzewa figowego streszcza w sobie sens ludzkiego wysiłku, bowiem wszystko, co w życiu czynimy, jest po to, by się odrodzić w innym świecie, oddając siebie samych – jak owoc – Bogu.
Większość ludzi żyje jednak dla siebie samych i są oni jak drzewa, które nie rodzą owocu, żyją tylko tym światem, a nie światem, który ma przyjść. Ktoś taki nie widzi problemu. Wydaje mu się, że wszystko działa dobrze. Jest zdrowie, piękno, pieniądze, inteligencja, dostatek dóbr, miłość i powodzenie, używanie i nadużywanie ciała, ale nie ma troski o wieczność, o życie upodobnione do tego, który był „błogosławionym owocem żywota” Maryi.
Dla podkreślenia niebezpieczeństwa takiej sytuacji musi wystąpić coś, co jest sygnałem ostrzegawczym: NAWÓZ I SKOPANIE! Intensyfikacja cierpienia jest sygnałem, że najwyższy czas pomyśleć nie o tym świecie. Dopóki nie zauważymy, w jakie gnojowisko zabrnęliśmy z naszymi ideałami i planami, nie mamy wcale ochoty na nawrócenie, czyli na oddanie siebie Bogu. Gdy pojawia się dramat, gdy zawaleniu ulegają nasze projekty, gdy zostajemy obrzuceni nawozem naszych grzechów albo gdy czujemy się skopani przez kolejne doświadczenia losu, najwyższy czas pomyśleć w inny sposób o sensie życia. Wtedy zwykle trochę poważniej zaczynamy myśleć o Bogu. Przestaje On być „kulą u nogi”, a staje się jedynym, który bierze pod ramię i nas podtrzymuje. Kwitnie refleksja, nasze modlitwy pachną miłością i owocujemy gruntowną spowiedzią.
Bóg oczekuje od nas wiary w przyszłe życie po zmartwychwstaniu, bardziej niż my lękamy się rozpaczy z powodu porażki na tym świecie. Jeśli tej wiary w nas nie odnajdzie, w końcu zostaniemy wycięci. Bo po co żyć, skoro nie chce się żyć wiecznie?
Wspomnijmy Pompeje. To miasto było przesycone erotyzmem i oznaki nadużywania ciała są widoczne do dziś. Wyżycie było łatwe i tanie, najtańsze prostytutki brały po dwa asy, tyle, ile kosztował ewangeliczny wróbel. Przyjemnie i rozkosznie żyło się w Pompejach. Ale nie uratowało to miasta przed nagłą zagładą, a może ją nawet wywołało, tak jak w przypadku Sodomy? W jednym z zachowanych domów publicznych mozaika przedstawia ciała kochanków w lubieżnym uścisku, nieopodal, w szklanej gablocie, spalone w popiele wulkanicznym ciała ofiar, splecione w łudząco identyczny sposób. W jednej chwili całe miasto, jak bezowocne drzewo, żyjące dla własnej przyjemności, zostało wycięte. Rolę biblijnej siekiery odegrał ognisty Wezuwiusz, 24 sierpnia 79 roku. Jest jeszcze tyle miast, które mają ambicje stać się nowymi Pompejami! Dlaczego tak łatwo nam uwierzyć, że Bóg jest miłosierny, a tak trudno, że jest sprawiedliwy?
Thursday, March 08, 2007
A Lenten Reflection on Sin and Mercy - by Christopher West
I thought it would be fitting during this Lenten season to reflect on a really bad three-letter word that rarely gets mentioned anymore: sin. We needn’t fear this word so long as we never talk about it, think about it, or otherwise acknowledge it outside the context of its five-letter antidote: mercy. | ||
The Meeting of Eros and Agape in Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical - by Christopher West
In his much-awaited first Encyclical entitled God is Love (promulgated Christmas day, but officially released January 25th), it seems Pope Benedict wants to proclaim to the world that the Church – despite all the supposed anti-sex sentiment – has a vision of erotic love far more glorious than anything Sigmund Freud, Hugh Hefner, Dr. Ruth, or Howard Stern could dream or imagine.
His words are tender, firm, clear, compassionate, and poetic. The text reads like the letter of a loving father to his children, presenting an invitation to men and women everywhere to open their hearts to the love that truly satisfies. So many of us have searched in vain for love in this pornified world. We’ve eaten out of a dumpster in attempts to satisfy our hunger. Without wagging a finger at anyone, Pope Benedict’s encyclical presents the banquet of love we’re made for.
He divides the letter into two main parts. The first part, in which he explores the relationship between erotic and divine love – eros and agape in Greek – is more “speculative,” he says (in the sense that he is offering a prayerful meditation, not that he’s giving us half-baked theories). Based on these meditations, the second part of the letter offers a “more concrete” treatment of how the Church is called to exercise the commandment of love of neighbor and work for a just social order.
As Benedict insists, these two main parts are “profoundly interconnected.” There’s no place here for a false division between Church teaching on sexual ethics and social justice. If we want to work for social justice, we must first do justice to the fundamental social unit – the relationship of man and woman and the family that springs from their love.
Does the Catholic Church do justice to the love of man and woman? Benedict observes that Christianity is often criticized for being opposed to the body and sex. While he admits such tendencies have always existed, the Pope demonstrates that negativity toward the body and sex is, in all truth, foreign to authentic Christian belief and practice.
Christianity does not “blow the whistle” on erotic love. It seeks to rescue it from degradation, to “heal it and restore its true grandeur,” says Benedict. The “contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure ‘sex’, has become a commodity, a mere ‘thing’ to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man’s great ‘yes’ to the body.”
In order to restore erotic love’s true grandeur, we must experience the purification of eros by agape. As this happens – that is, as we allow erotic love to be informed and transformed by divine love – eros is able “to provide not just fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of our existence, of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns,” Benedict states.
What joy! Sexual love in God’s plan is so glorious that it is meant to provide a small foretaste of the eternal joys that await us in heaven. But beware the counterfeits.
“An intoxicated and undisciplined eros,” as the Holy Father observes, “is not an ascent in ‘ecstasy’ towards the Divine, but a fall, a degradation of man.”
Love is indeed “ecstasy,” the Pope tells us. But not in a hedonistic sense. If ecstasy means “to go out of oneself,” then love is ecstasy as “an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God.”
Pope Benedict’s encyclical makes a person proud to be Catholic. Does any other religion on the planet have such an ennobling view of the human person and of sexual love? If we have any right to boast, we boast only in Christ, in his love for us and in what he has revealed to us about the meaning of being human.
Benedict XVI didn’t come up with this. He’s just passing along in love what the Church has received from her Bridegroom. As Benedict himself states, “eros... seeks God and agape... passes on the gift received.”
Thanks, your Holiness, for passing on the gift.
The Children of Men: A New Movie Looks at the Consequences of Sterile Sex - by Christopher West
Movies, like all forms of art, reveal something of the human soul. They can be a kind of confession. Our sins, our fears, our inner contradictions, our worst nightmares – all the kinds of things that people don’t talk about in “polite” conversation – often find an outlet, consciously or unconsciously, on the big screen.
A new movie called The Children of Men seems to offer just such a “confession.” It taps into the inevitable psychological disturbance that stems from our culture’s widespread disregard for new life and the seemingly omnipresent preference for sterilized sex. Having sex: nothing better – having babies: nothing worse. Doesn’t this pretty much sum up the way the world thinks? The schizophrenia inherent in such a blatant bucking of reality is bound to cause major brain spasms. And these major brains spasms can turn into a major motion picture like this one.
“In twenty years, women are infertile. No children. No future. No hope. But all that can change in a heartbeat.” That’s the caption that appears above a small human life pictured in-utero on the promotional poster for The Children of Men. The poster alone is an amazingly powerful pro-life message from the mainstream entertainment industry.
In a recent interview, Clive Owen, who plays the movie’s reluctant hero Theo, observed: “The film is looking at the way we’re heading and saying, ‘We should be careful.’” We should be careful to examine what children give the world and why so many people prefer to avoid them. We should be careful to examine what we value. We should be careful to consider what is at stake when we prefer sterilized sex to the God-given, family oriented, baby-making kind. Could it be the future of civilization?
In one of the more chilling scenes of the film, Theo and another woman find themselves in a long-abandoned elementary school. The building is in shambles. The playground is overgrown. Only slowly does it dawn on the viewer – the school is falling apart because there are no children in school, and there are no children in school because there are no children! In the midst of this bleakness, the woman laments to Theo, “It’s very odd what happens in the world without children’s voices.”
Odd – and horrific. The entire world has gone berserk. Governments have collapsed. Anarchy reigns. Terrorists rule. Humanity’s only hope is revealed when a young African woman named Kee is discovered to be pregnant. Having never seen a pregnant woman before, she had no reference for what was happening within her. But, as she says, she “just knew” there was new life inside.
When Michael Caine’s character meets Kee he proclaims, “Your baby is the miracle the whole world has been waiting for.” The messianic tones are unmistakable. (By the way, Children of Men was released in the big city markets on Christmas day. Coincidence?) In the midst of a dark and despairing picture, the birth of Kee’s child seemed to fill the theater with hope. One could almost sense a collective sigh of relief.
Still, one leaves the movie with a lot of unanswered questions. As director Alfonso Cuaron said, “I didn’t want to give any answers. I wanted to force the audience to explore what they think is really happening [in our world] right now, bringing out not only the social responsibility but the individual’s responsibility.... I wanted to explore the fading sense of hope in humanity today,” Cuaron said. “The child serves as a message of hope and infertility shows the little respect we have for human life right now.” Cuaron then concluded, “I believe that children are the only hope for humanity, their sense of innocence, their sense of faith....”
This message comes through beautifully when Kee’s crying newborn stops the fighting in the streets. Hardened soldiers, many of whom would never have seen or heard a crying baby, fall to their knees in adoration and amazement. One of them blesses himself with the sign of the cross. History has changed “in a heartbeat.” And Hollywood has given us something critically important to think about.
Apocalypto: Violence and Hope - by Christopher West
Mel Gibson’s graphically violent movie Apocalypto is generating a lot of criticism in the media. USA Today asks, “How can Gibson disgust us? Let us count the ways: There’s a face chewed off by a panther, a spear impaling a man’s skull, a chest ripped open by a blunt arrowhead and a head spurting blood as if a spigot has been turned on.”
Having seen the movie for myself, I can tell you that’s not the half of it. What could Mel possibly be trying to say? Is he merely a blood-crazed maniac as the media would have us believe? Before I share my thoughts, I need to put my immediate reaction to the film in context.
For the last month or so, with my wife caring for our newborn son, I’ve been managing both our busy home and my busy office. I’ve been dividing lots of 18 hour days between helping our older kids with their school work, laundry, grocery shopping, preparing meals, getting ready for a course I’ll soon be teaching, and trying to meet my publisher’s deadline for a new book I’m writing.
I try sincerely to practice what I preach about embracing the sacrifices that come with living a Catholic marriage. But I’m a fallen man. I entertain the same questions that everyone else does – especially at 4 a.m. when little Isaac can’t seem to understand how desperate I am for sleep. That’s when I wonder, Are all these sacrifices really worth it? And I’ll pray, Dear God, can this pleeeeeease be the last time we go through this new baby craziness?
It was in this state of mind that I went with some friends to see what one reviewer dubbed “Mesoamerican Rambo.” To be honest, I was hoping a night out with the guys would offer a little “escape” from the pressures of life with a newborn. I came out of that theater not only renewed in confidence that every sacrifice I make for my wife and children is well worth it. I came out of that theater wanting to have another baby right away. Bring it on!
Fertility, I think, is the interpretive key of the film. That’s what this small tribal village valued most. The sexual boast among the men was not how many women they’d bedded, but how many children they’d fathered. Of the numerous reviews I read, not a single one grasped this basic point. The common sentiment is bafflement and the common accusation, even from movie critics within the Church, is that if Gibson is trying to offer a message of hope in the midst of cultural decline, “that’s not at all clear.”
Maybe I was smokin’ something, but it was crystal clear to me. Mel, himself, says the movie is about “the spark of life that exists even in a culture of death.” That’s precisely what I took away from it. This movie – not despite its graphic violence, but in and through it – offers us a gripping visual allegory for understanding what spouses are up against if they are going to take God’s plan for marriage seriously.
I’m not gung-ho about seeing hearts ripped from people’s chests, heads cut off, or people eaten by jaguars. However, if Gibson, as an artist, was trying to depict what the spiritual battle might actually look like, one could argue that he may not have gone far enough. The devil is no red cartoon character with a pitchfork. He’s a hideous demon who prowls around like a ravenous lion (or, shall we say jaguar?) looking for people to devour (see 1 Pt 5:8). He wants our heads, our hearts, and – perhaps most of all – our fertility. He’s after our children (see Rev 12).
From the beginning, the devil’s enmity has been aimed directly at matri-mony, which means, “the call to motherhood” (see Gen 3:15). This was the raging battle that Jaguar Paw, the main character of Apocalypto, found himself at the center of. With unflagging determination, he overcame insurmountable challenges in order to save his wife, his son, and their – by the end of the film – newborn baby from certain doom.
That baby was the life asserting itself in the face of so much death. That baby was the light shining in the darkness and, thanks to Jaguar Paw’s valor, the darkness did not overcome it (see Jn 1:5). That’s what I want to fight for in life. And that’s why I came out of the theater recharged to embrace the challenge of being a husband and father. Thanks, Mel. I needed that.
Having seen the movie for myself, I can tell you that’s not the half of it. What could Mel possibly be trying to say? Is he merely a blood-crazed maniac as the media would have us believe? Before I share my thoughts, I need to put my immediate reaction to the film in context.
For the last month or so, with my wife caring for our newborn son, I’ve been managing both our busy home and my busy office. I’ve been dividing lots of 18 hour days between helping our older kids with their school work, laundry, grocery shopping, preparing meals, getting ready for a course I’ll soon be teaching, and trying to meet my publisher’s deadline for a new book I’m writing.
I try sincerely to practice what I preach about embracing the sacrifices that come with living a Catholic marriage. But I’m a fallen man. I entertain the same questions that everyone else does – especially at 4 a.m. when little Isaac can’t seem to understand how desperate I am for sleep. That’s when I wonder, Are all these sacrifices really worth it? And I’ll pray, Dear God, can this pleeeeeease be the last time we go through this new baby craziness?
It was in this state of mind that I went with some friends to see what one reviewer dubbed “Mesoamerican Rambo.” To be honest, I was hoping a night out with the guys would offer a little “escape” from the pressures of life with a newborn. I came out of that theater not only renewed in confidence that every sacrifice I make for my wife and children is well worth it. I came out of that theater wanting to have another baby right away. Bring it on!
Fertility, I think, is the interpretive key of the film. That’s what this small tribal village valued most. The sexual boast among the men was not how many women they’d bedded, but how many children they’d fathered. Of the numerous reviews I read, not a single one grasped this basic point. The common sentiment is bafflement and the common accusation, even from movie critics within the Church, is that if Gibson is trying to offer a message of hope in the midst of cultural decline, “that’s not at all clear.”
Maybe I was smokin’ something, but it was crystal clear to me. Mel, himself, says the movie is about “the spark of life that exists even in a culture of death.” That’s precisely what I took away from it. This movie – not despite its graphic violence, but in and through it – offers us a gripping visual allegory for understanding what spouses are up against if they are going to take God’s plan for marriage seriously.
I’m not gung-ho about seeing hearts ripped from people’s chests, heads cut off, or people eaten by jaguars. However, if Gibson, as an artist, was trying to depict what the spiritual battle might actually look like, one could argue that he may not have gone far enough. The devil is no red cartoon character with a pitchfork. He’s a hideous demon who prowls around like a ravenous lion (or, shall we say jaguar?) looking for people to devour (see 1 Pt 5:8). He wants our heads, our hearts, and – perhaps most of all – our fertility. He’s after our children (see Rev 12).
From the beginning, the devil’s enmity has been aimed directly at matri-mony, which means, “the call to motherhood” (see Gen 3:15). This was the raging battle that Jaguar Paw, the main character of Apocalypto, found himself at the center of. With unflagging determination, he overcame insurmountable challenges in order to save his wife, his son, and their – by the end of the film – newborn baby from certain doom.
That baby was the life asserting itself in the face of so much death. That baby was the light shining in the darkness and, thanks to Jaguar Paw’s valor, the darkness did not overcome it (see Jn 1:5). That’s what I want to fight for in life. And that’s why I came out of the theater recharged to embrace the challenge of being a husband and father. Thanks, Mel. I needed that.
JP 2 call for the youth of Cuba to be virtuous
Dear young people, whether you are believers or not, accept the call to be virtuous. This means being strong within, having a big heart, being rich in the highest sentiments, bold in the truth, courageous in freedom, constant in responsibility, generous in love, invincible in hope. Happiness is achieved through sacrifice. Do not look outside for what is to be found inside. Do not expect from others what you yourselves can and are called to be or to do. Do not leave for tomorrow the building of a new society in which the noblest dreams are not frustrated and in which you can be the principal agents of your own history.
Pope John Paul II
To youth of Cuba Jan 1998
Pope John Paul II
To youth of Cuba Jan 1998
Fr. Stan Fortuna on the mark that love leaves on us all
Greetings peace and blessings to you and your families and friends as we make our way through the second week of lent. Here on the northern East Coast the days are steadily getting longer – the light is increasing with rapid yet slow and steady brilliance making its mark on the character of “day” more and more each day. To me this is a marvelous reminder of Love, and how this Love enters into communion with us and makes its mark on our common human life. My girl Evelyn Underhil in speaking about the mark Love imprints on our communion provides us with a glimpse into the how and why. Referring to this marvelous mark made by Love, she says its made “with all the energy of His creative love, to transform it, to exhibit to us its richness, its unguessed significance; speaking our language, and showing us His secrete beauty on our own scale.
The manifestation of Beauty itself through the beauty of this increasing light is a window providing us the opportunity to see the essence of the Source of such wondrous Beauty, which is self-giving Love. How awesome to behold and participate in this wondrous communion of love. In speaking of this self-giving Love Evelyn makes some amazing remarks about this amazing Love: “it is wholly present when it loves, so loved this world as to desire to reveal within it the deepest secrete of His thought; appearing within and through His small fugitive, imperfect creatures, in closest union with humanity…The extremes of the transcendent and the homely are suddenly brought together in the disconcerting revelation of reality…All this is the chosen vehicle for the unmeasured inpouring of the Divine Life and Love.
All of this is an expression of ”the love of God made known to us in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39), which makes us “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). In a written letter to the youth of Cuba the great JPII said, “This love alone can lighten up the night of human loneliness.” So as the days become longer and the light gets brighter I pray for a transformation of the darkness of human loneliness by a paralleled increase of our love in conjunction with the increasing light each day as we tend towards that Day that will not be measured by the sun but rather by the Light of Love that never ends.
Peace and Blessings to you and all your families and friends and Lord willing, I’ll talk to ya’ll next week 4 ever in Jesus and Mary...
The manifestation of Beauty itself through the beauty of this increasing light is a window providing us the opportunity to see the essence of the Source of such wondrous Beauty, which is self-giving Love. How awesome to behold and participate in this wondrous communion of love. In speaking of this self-giving Love Evelyn makes some amazing remarks about this amazing Love: “it is wholly present when it loves, so loved this world as to desire to reveal within it the deepest secrete of His thought; appearing within and through His small fugitive, imperfect creatures, in closest union with humanity…The extremes of the transcendent and the homely are suddenly brought together in the disconcerting revelation of reality…All this is the chosen vehicle for the unmeasured inpouring of the Divine Life and Love.
All of this is an expression of ”the love of God made known to us in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39), which makes us “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). In a written letter to the youth of Cuba the great JPII said, “This love alone can lighten up the night of human loneliness.” So as the days become longer and the light gets brighter I pray for a transformation of the darkness of human loneliness by a paralleled increase of our love in conjunction with the increasing light each day as we tend towards that Day that will not be measured by the sun but rather by the Light of Love that never ends.
Peace and Blessings to you and all your families and friends and Lord willing, I’ll talk to ya’ll next week 4 ever in Jesus and Mary...
Monday, March 05, 2007
Benedict XVI on the Transfiguration
"To Pray Is Not to Evade Reality"
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
On this Second Sunday of Lent, the Evangelist Luke underlines that Jesus went up the mountain "to pray" (9:28) together with the apostles Peter, James and John and, "as he was praying" (9:29) the luminous mystery of his transfiguration took place.
For the three apostles, to go up on the mountain meant to be involved in Jesus' prayer, who often withdrew to pray, especially at dawn or after sundown, and sometimes during the whole night. However, on that occasion alone, on the mountain, he wished to manifest to his friends the interior light that invaded him when he prayed: His face -- we read in the Gospel -- his countenance was altered and his raiment became dazzling, reflecting the splendor of the divine person of the Incarnate Word (cf. Luke 9:29).
There is another detail in St. Luke's narrative which is worth underlining: It indicates the object of Jesus' conversation with Moses and Elijah, who appeared next to him when transfigured. The Evangelist narrates that they "spoke of his departure (in Greek, 'exodos'), which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem" (9:31).
Therefore, Jesus listens to the Law and the prophets that speak to him of his death and resurrection. In his intimate dialogue with his Father, he does not leave history, he does not flee from the mission for which he came into the world, though he knows that to attain glory he will have to go through the cross. What is more, Christ enters this mission more profoundly, adhering with all his being to the will of the Father, and he shows us that true prayer consists precisely in uniting our will to the Father's.
Therefore, for a Christian to pray is not to evade reality and the responsibilities it entails, but to assume them to the end, trusting in the faithful and inexhaustible love of the Lord. For this reason, the proof of the Transfiguration is, paradoxically, the agony in Gethsemane (cf. Luke 22:39-46). Given the imminence of the passion, Jesus experiences mortal anguish and entrusts himself to the divine will; at that moment his prayer is a pledge of salvation for us all. Christ, in fact, would implore the heavenly Father to "save him from death" and, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, "he was heard for his godly fear" (5:7). The Resurrection is proof that he was heard.
Dear Brothers and Sisters: Prayer is not something accessory, it is not "optional," but rather a question of life or death. Only one who prays, that is, who entrusts himself to God with filial love, can enter into eternal life, which is God himself. During this season of Lent, let us pray to Mary, mother of the Incarnate Word and teacher of the spiritual life, to teach us to pray as her Son did so that our life is transformed by the light of his presence.
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
On this Second Sunday of Lent, the Evangelist Luke underlines that Jesus went up the mountain "to pray" (9:28) together with the apostles Peter, James and John and, "as he was praying" (9:29) the luminous mystery of his transfiguration took place.
For the three apostles, to go up on the mountain meant to be involved in Jesus' prayer, who often withdrew to pray, especially at dawn or after sundown, and sometimes during the whole night. However, on that occasion alone, on the mountain, he wished to manifest to his friends the interior light that invaded him when he prayed: His face -- we read in the Gospel -- his countenance was altered and his raiment became dazzling, reflecting the splendor of the divine person of the Incarnate Word (cf. Luke 9:29).
There is another detail in St. Luke's narrative which is worth underlining: It indicates the object of Jesus' conversation with Moses and Elijah, who appeared next to him when transfigured. The Evangelist narrates that they "spoke of his departure (in Greek, 'exodos'), which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem" (9:31).
Therefore, Jesus listens to the Law and the prophets that speak to him of his death and resurrection. In his intimate dialogue with his Father, he does not leave history, he does not flee from the mission for which he came into the world, though he knows that to attain glory he will have to go through the cross. What is more, Christ enters this mission more profoundly, adhering with all his being to the will of the Father, and he shows us that true prayer consists precisely in uniting our will to the Father's.
Therefore, for a Christian to pray is not to evade reality and the responsibilities it entails, but to assume them to the end, trusting in the faithful and inexhaustible love of the Lord. For this reason, the proof of the Transfiguration is, paradoxically, the agony in Gethsemane (cf. Luke 22:39-46). Given the imminence of the passion, Jesus experiences mortal anguish and entrusts himself to the divine will; at that moment his prayer is a pledge of salvation for us all. Christ, in fact, would implore the heavenly Father to "save him from death" and, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, "he was heard for his godly fear" (5:7). The Resurrection is proof that he was heard.
Dear Brothers and Sisters: Prayer is not something accessory, it is not "optional," but rather a question of life or death. Only one who prays, that is, who entrusts himself to God with filial love, can enter into eternal life, which is God himself. During this season of Lent, let us pray to Mary, mother of the Incarnate Word and teacher of the spiritual life, to teach us to pray as her Son did so that our life is transformed by the light of his presence.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Posluchaj! - Wielki Post 2 C
Augustyn Pelanowski OSPPE
Głos z obłoku wskazał na Jezusa jako na kogoś, kogo trzeba słuchać. Nie chodzi o to, by po prostu kogoś wysłuchać jak wokalistę, ale o posłuszeństwo wierze. Paweł mówi na samym początku Listu do Rzymian, że od Chrystusa otrzymał nie tylko łaskę, ale i urząd apostolski, aby ku chwale Jego imienia pozyskiwać wszystkich pogan dla posłuszeństwa wierze! Dość niejasne określenie dla współczesnego człowieka, ale ono tłumaczy sens powołania chrześcijańskiego.
Człowiek religijny może być bowiem nieposłuszny Bogu, nawet sobie nie uświadamiając, że Bóg nade wszystko oczekuje posłuszeństwa. To właśnie posłuszeństwo wierze przeistacza się w autentyczny kult. Mamy więc do czynienia z wersją „piracką” chrześcijaństwa oraz z oryginalną! Słowa z Taboru wyjaśniają się w posłuszeństwie woli Boga wyrażonej w objawieniu Chrystusa. Zakłada to jak najbardziej zażyłą relację z Jezusem, po prostu przyjaźń, w której masz czas dla wysłuchania Przyjaciela, aby rozeznawać, co jest wolą Boga i to wypełniać. Czyją wolę chcesz pełnić w swoim życiu? Czy twoje modlitwy są mówieniem Bogu, co On ma dla ciebie uczynić, czy też słuchaniem Go, by wypełnić to, co On ci mówi? Wiara i posłuszeństwo są ściśle ze sobą powiązane, i to do tego stopnia, że nie ma prawa nikt o sobie mówić, że jest wierzącym, kto nie poświęca codziennie czasu na pytanie Jezusa przez Jego objawione słowa: „Co chcesz, abym uczynił?”.
Wiara to nie pewność, że Bóg istnieje: złe duchy też wiedzą, że Bóg jest, ale nie są Mu posłuszne! Przypomnijmy sobie opętanego w Kafarnaum: on wiedział, kim jest Jezus, ale opierał się Mu! Nieposłuszeństwo i niewiara są ze sobą ściśle złączone. Media nieustannie prowokują człowieka do postawy tolerancji wobec perwersji i odrzucenia praw Boga, do buntu przeciw Kościołowi, do nieufności do pasterzy. Ale czy wyobrażamy sobie jakiekolwiek państwo bez posłuszeństwa? Czy jest możliwe funkcjonowanie jakiejkolwiek firmy bez posłuszeństwa? Czy choćby przedszkole może istnieć bez posłuszeństwa? Gdybyśmy wszyscy słuchali Boga, życie byłoby szczęśliwsze. Nieposłuszeństwo nie musi się wyrażać przez ewidentne dążenie do zła, o wiele częściej przez dążenie do dobra, którego Bóg nie zamierzał na tym etapie, albo do dobra poza Bogiem, do dobra, o którym Bóg nie mówi, że jest dobrem. Takie straszne zjawiska jak klonowanie czy eutanazja są przedstawiane jako dobro.
Pierwsza przestroga przeciw szatanowi św. Jana od Krzyża dotyczy posłuszeństwa, czyli zaufania Bogu. Gdy Mojżesz uczynił wszystko według tego, co mu Bóg nakazywał, na świecie pojawiła się pierwsza prawdziwa świątynia (Wj 23,40). Owocem nieszczęścia grzechu pierworodnego nie jest to, że człowiek chciał źle, ale to, że człowiek postanowił działać niezależnie od Boga, bez posłuszeństwa, a nawet w buncie. Człowiek wzgardził wolą Boga. Świat jest zbuntowany przeciw Bogu, przeciw rodzicom, systemom, nauczycielom, kapłanom, przełożonym… Katastrofa grzechu pierworodnego przypomina trafienie w punkt krytyczny struktury kryształu – jedno dotknięcie, które rozsypało całą hierarchię szczęścia.
Głos z obłoku wskazał na Jezusa jako na kogoś, kogo trzeba słuchać. Nie chodzi o to, by po prostu kogoś wysłuchać jak wokalistę, ale o posłuszeństwo wierze. Paweł mówi na samym początku Listu do Rzymian, że od Chrystusa otrzymał nie tylko łaskę, ale i urząd apostolski, aby ku chwale Jego imienia pozyskiwać wszystkich pogan dla posłuszeństwa wierze! Dość niejasne określenie dla współczesnego człowieka, ale ono tłumaczy sens powołania chrześcijańskiego.
Człowiek religijny może być bowiem nieposłuszny Bogu, nawet sobie nie uświadamiając, że Bóg nade wszystko oczekuje posłuszeństwa. To właśnie posłuszeństwo wierze przeistacza się w autentyczny kult. Mamy więc do czynienia z wersją „piracką” chrześcijaństwa oraz z oryginalną! Słowa z Taboru wyjaśniają się w posłuszeństwie woli Boga wyrażonej w objawieniu Chrystusa. Zakłada to jak najbardziej zażyłą relację z Jezusem, po prostu przyjaźń, w której masz czas dla wysłuchania Przyjaciela, aby rozeznawać, co jest wolą Boga i to wypełniać. Czyją wolę chcesz pełnić w swoim życiu? Czy twoje modlitwy są mówieniem Bogu, co On ma dla ciebie uczynić, czy też słuchaniem Go, by wypełnić to, co On ci mówi? Wiara i posłuszeństwo są ściśle ze sobą powiązane, i to do tego stopnia, że nie ma prawa nikt o sobie mówić, że jest wierzącym, kto nie poświęca codziennie czasu na pytanie Jezusa przez Jego objawione słowa: „Co chcesz, abym uczynił?”.
Wiara to nie pewność, że Bóg istnieje: złe duchy też wiedzą, że Bóg jest, ale nie są Mu posłuszne! Przypomnijmy sobie opętanego w Kafarnaum: on wiedział, kim jest Jezus, ale opierał się Mu! Nieposłuszeństwo i niewiara są ze sobą ściśle złączone. Media nieustannie prowokują człowieka do postawy tolerancji wobec perwersji i odrzucenia praw Boga, do buntu przeciw Kościołowi, do nieufności do pasterzy. Ale czy wyobrażamy sobie jakiekolwiek państwo bez posłuszeństwa? Czy jest możliwe funkcjonowanie jakiejkolwiek firmy bez posłuszeństwa? Czy choćby przedszkole może istnieć bez posłuszeństwa? Gdybyśmy wszyscy słuchali Boga, życie byłoby szczęśliwsze. Nieposłuszeństwo nie musi się wyrażać przez ewidentne dążenie do zła, o wiele częściej przez dążenie do dobra, którego Bóg nie zamierzał na tym etapie, albo do dobra poza Bogiem, do dobra, o którym Bóg nie mówi, że jest dobrem. Takie straszne zjawiska jak klonowanie czy eutanazja są przedstawiane jako dobro.
Pierwsza przestroga przeciw szatanowi św. Jana od Krzyża dotyczy posłuszeństwa, czyli zaufania Bogu. Gdy Mojżesz uczynił wszystko według tego, co mu Bóg nakazywał, na świecie pojawiła się pierwsza prawdziwa świątynia (Wj 23,40). Owocem nieszczęścia grzechu pierworodnego nie jest to, że człowiek chciał źle, ale to, że człowiek postanowił działać niezależnie od Boga, bez posłuszeństwa, a nawet w buncie. Człowiek wzgardził wolą Boga. Świat jest zbuntowany przeciw Bogu, przeciw rodzicom, systemom, nauczycielom, kapłanom, przełożonym… Katastrofa grzechu pierworodnego przypomina trafienie w punkt krytyczny struktury kryształu – jedno dotknięcie, które rozsypało całą hierarchię szczęścia.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
JP II on relationship with Christ
We who have received the grace of believing in Christ, the revealer of the Father and the Saviour of the world, have a duty to show to what depths the relationship with Christ can lead.
The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit's touch, resting filially within the Father's heart. This is the lived experience of Christ's promise: "He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him" (Jn 14:21). It is a journey totally sustained by grace, which nonetheless demands an intense spiritual commitment and is no stranger to painful purifications (the "dark night"). But it leads, in various possible ways, to the ineffable joy experienced by the mystics as "nuptial union". How can we forget here, among the many shining examples, the teachings of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila?
Pope John Paul II
NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE #33
The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit's touch, resting filially within the Father's heart. This is the lived experience of Christ's promise: "He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him" (Jn 14:21). It is a journey totally sustained by grace, which nonetheless demands an intense spiritual commitment and is no stranger to painful purifications (the "dark night"). But it leads, in various possible ways, to the ineffable joy experienced by the mystics as "nuptial union". How can we forget here, among the many shining examples, the teachings of Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila?
Pope John Paul II
NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE #33
Fr. Stan Fortuna on Lent continues...
Dear Friends of Francisco,
Greetings peace and Blessings to you and your families and friends from Toronto. I hope and pray ya’ll are deeply engaged in this favorable time for learnin how to get and stay close to Jesus. As I mentioned from B16 in last weeks message, Lent is a favorable time to learn to stay close to him who on the cross consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of his life. St Augustine, a great “perseverer” in the ever expanding blessings and all consuming demands of the way of love confesses with great passion the awesomeness of learning and striving to cling and “stay close”. He prays in book 10 chapter 28 of his confessions, “When I shall cleave to you with all my being, no more will there be pain and toil for me. My life will be life indeed, filled wholly with you.”
This cleaving – the learning to stay close – that Augustine experienced and is talkin about arises out of and is sustained by the communion of love overflowing from the abyss of the Father’s Love for humanity. It’s like what Jesus makes available for us in John 14:21 when he challenges us to peruse love proposing the prospect of communion with the promise of a passionate manifestation of his presence: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” As the great JP pointed out (and I believe experienced himself), It is a journey totally sustained by grace, which nonetheless demands an intense spiritual commitment and is no stranger to painful purifications (the "dark night"). But it leads, in various possible ways, to the ineffable joy experienced by the mystics as "nuptial union".
I pray that JP pray for us to learn how to get and stay close to love with an ever greater passionate pursuit of love each day; that we will be energized by greater encounters of receiving and giving love that will sustain us in intensifying our spiritual commitment to learning to get and stay close so that the perfect Love that casts out fear will shelter us overcome fear of the painful purification necessary for the fulfillment of perfect love in our lives a little more each day. Peace and Blessings to you and all your families and friends and Lord willing talk to ya’ll next week…4 ever in Jesus and Mary…
Greetings peace and Blessings to you and your families and friends from Toronto. I hope and pray ya’ll are deeply engaged in this favorable time for learnin how to get and stay close to Jesus. As I mentioned from B16 in last weeks message, Lent is a favorable time to learn to stay close to him who on the cross consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of his life. St Augustine, a great “perseverer” in the ever expanding blessings and all consuming demands of the way of love confesses with great passion the awesomeness of learning and striving to cling and “stay close”. He prays in book 10 chapter 28 of his confessions, “When I shall cleave to you with all my being, no more will there be pain and toil for me. My life will be life indeed, filled wholly with you.”
This cleaving – the learning to stay close – that Augustine experienced and is talkin about arises out of and is sustained by the communion of love overflowing from the abyss of the Father’s Love for humanity. It’s like what Jesus makes available for us in John 14:21 when he challenges us to peruse love proposing the prospect of communion with the promise of a passionate manifestation of his presence: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” As the great JP pointed out (and I believe experienced himself), It is a journey totally sustained by grace, which nonetheless demands an intense spiritual commitment and is no stranger to painful purifications (the "dark night"). But it leads, in various possible ways, to the ineffable joy experienced by the mystics as "nuptial union".
I pray that JP pray for us to learn how to get and stay close to love with an ever greater passionate pursuit of love each day; that we will be energized by greater encounters of receiving and giving love that will sustain us in intensifying our spiritual commitment to learning to get and stay close so that the perfect Love that casts out fear will shelter us overcome fear of the painful purification necessary for the fulfillment of perfect love in our lives a little more each day. Peace and Blessings to you and all your families and friends and Lord willing talk to ya’ll next week…4 ever in Jesus and Mary…
Address of Benedict XVI to the participants of the International Congress on Natural Law
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Esteemed Professors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with particular pleasure that I welcome you at the beginning of the Congress' work in which you will be engaged in the following days on a theme of considerable importance for the present historical moment, namely, the natural moral law.
I thank Bishop Rino Fisichella, Rector Magnificent of the Pontifical Lateran University, for the sentiments expressed in the address with which he has introduced this meeting.
There is no doubt that we are living in a moment of extraordinary development in the human capacity to decipher the rules and structures of matter, and in the consequent dominion of man over nature.
We all see the great advantages of this progress and we see more and more clearly the threat of destruction of nature by what we do.
There is another less visible danger, but no less disturbing: the method that permits us to know ever more deeply the rational structures of matter makes us ever less capable of perceiving the source of this rationality, creative Reason. The capacity to see the laws of material being makes us incapable of seeing the ethical message contained in being, a message that tradition calls lex naturalis, natural moral law.
This word for many today is almost incomprehensible due to a concept of nature that is no longer metaphysical, but only empirical. The fact that nature, being itself, is no longer a transparent moral message creates a sense of disorientation that renders the choices of daily life precarious and uncertain.
Naturally, the disorientation strikes the younger generations in a particular way, who must in this context find the fundamental choices for their life.
It is precisely in the light of this contestation that all the urgency of the necessity to reflect upon the theme of natural law and to rediscover its truth common to all men appears. The said law, to which the Apostle Paul refers (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is written on the heart of man and is consequently, even today, accessible.
This law has as its first and general principle, "to do good and to avoid evil." This is a truth which by its very evidence immediately imposes itself on everyone. From it flows the other more particular principles that regulate ethical justice on the rights and duties of everyone.
So does the principle of respect for human life from its conception to its natural end, because this good of life is not man's property but the free gift of God. Besides this is the duty to seek the truth as the necessary presupposition of every authentic personal maturation.
Another fundamental application of the subject is freedom. Yet taking into account the fact that human freedom is always a freedom shared with others, it is clear that the harmony of freedom can be found only in what is common to all: the truth of the human being, the fundamental message of being itself, exactly the lex naturalis.
And how can we not mention, on one hand, the demand of justice that manifests itself in giving unicuique suum and, on the other, the expectation of solidarity that nourishes in everyone, especially if they are poor, the hope of the help of the more fortunate?
In these values are expressed unbreakable and contingent norms that do not depend on the will of the legislator and not even on the consensus that the State can and must give. They are, in fact, norms that precede any human law: as such, they are not subject to modification by anyone. The natural law, together with fundamental rights, is the source from which ethical imperatives also flow, which it is only right to honor.
In today's ethics and philosophy of Law, petitions of juridical positivism are widespread. As a result, legislation often becomes only a compromise between different interests: seeking to transform private interests or wishes into law that conflict with the duties deriving from social responsibility.
In this situation it is opportune to recall that every juridical methodology, be it on the local or international level, ultimately draws its legitimacy from its rooting in the natural law, in the ethical message inscribed in the actual human being.
Natural law is, definitively, the only valid bulwark against the arbitrary power or the deception of ideological manipulation. The knowledge of this law inscribed on the heart of man increases with the progress of the moral conscience.
The first duty for all, and particularly for those with public responsibility, must therefore be to promote the maturation of the moral conscience. This is the fundamental progress without which all other progress proves non-authentic.
The law inscribed in our nature is the true guarantee offered to everyone in order to be able to live in freedom and to be respected in their own dignity.
What has been said up to this point has very concrete applications if one refers to the family, that is, to "the intimate partnership of life and the love which constitutes the married state... established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws" (Gaudium et Spes, n. 48).
Concerning this, the Second Vatican Council has opportunely recalled that the institution of marriage has been "confirmed by the divine law", and therefore "this sacred bond ... for the good of the partner, of the children and of society no longer depends on human decision alone" (ibid.).
Therefore, no law made by man can override the norm written by the Creator without society becoming dramatically wounded in what constitutes its basic foundation. To forget this would mean to weaken the family, penalizing the children and rendering the future of society precarious.
Lastly, I feel the duty to affirm yet again that not all that is scientifically possible is also ethically licit. Technology, when it reduces the human being to an object of experimentation, results in abandoning the weak subject to the arbitration of the stronger. To blindly entrust oneself to technology as the only guarantee of progress, without offering at the same time an ethical code that penetrates its roots in that same reality under study and development, would be equal to doing violence to human nature with devastating consequences for all.
The contribution of scientists is of primary importance. Together with the progress of our capacity to dominate nature, scientists must also contribute to help understand the depth of our responsibility for man and for nature entrusted to him.
On this basis it is possible to develop a fruitful dialogue between believers and non-believers; between theologians, philosophers, jurists and scientists, which can offer to legislation as well precious material for personal and social life.
Therefore, I hope these days of study will bring not only a greater sensitivity of the learned with regard to the natural moral law, but will also serve to create conditions so that this theme may reach an ever fuller awareness of the inalienable value that the lex naturalis possesses for a real and coherent progress of private life and the social order.
With this wish, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer for you and for your academic commitment to research and reflection, while I impart to all with affection the Apostolic Blessing.
Esteemed Professors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with particular pleasure that I welcome you at the beginning of the Congress' work in which you will be engaged in the following days on a theme of considerable importance for the present historical moment, namely, the natural moral law.
I thank Bishop Rino Fisichella, Rector Magnificent of the Pontifical Lateran University, for the sentiments expressed in the address with which he has introduced this meeting.
There is no doubt that we are living in a moment of extraordinary development in the human capacity to decipher the rules and structures of matter, and in the consequent dominion of man over nature.
We all see the great advantages of this progress and we see more and more clearly the threat of destruction of nature by what we do.
There is another less visible danger, but no less disturbing: the method that permits us to know ever more deeply the rational structures of matter makes us ever less capable of perceiving the source of this rationality, creative Reason. The capacity to see the laws of material being makes us incapable of seeing the ethical message contained in being, a message that tradition calls lex naturalis, natural moral law.
This word for many today is almost incomprehensible due to a concept of nature that is no longer metaphysical, but only empirical. The fact that nature, being itself, is no longer a transparent moral message creates a sense of disorientation that renders the choices of daily life precarious and uncertain.
Naturally, the disorientation strikes the younger generations in a particular way, who must in this context find the fundamental choices for their life.
It is precisely in the light of this contestation that all the urgency of the necessity to reflect upon the theme of natural law and to rediscover its truth common to all men appears. The said law, to which the Apostle Paul refers (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is written on the heart of man and is consequently, even today, accessible.
This law has as its first and general principle, "to do good and to avoid evil." This is a truth which by its very evidence immediately imposes itself on everyone. From it flows the other more particular principles that regulate ethical justice on the rights and duties of everyone.
So does the principle of respect for human life from its conception to its natural end, because this good of life is not man's property but the free gift of God. Besides this is the duty to seek the truth as the necessary presupposition of every authentic personal maturation.
Another fundamental application of the subject is freedom. Yet taking into account the fact that human freedom is always a freedom shared with others, it is clear that the harmony of freedom can be found only in what is common to all: the truth of the human being, the fundamental message of being itself, exactly the lex naturalis.
And how can we not mention, on one hand, the demand of justice that manifests itself in giving unicuique suum and, on the other, the expectation of solidarity that nourishes in everyone, especially if they are poor, the hope of the help of the more fortunate?
In these values are expressed unbreakable and contingent norms that do not depend on the will of the legislator and not even on the consensus that the State can and must give. They are, in fact, norms that precede any human law: as such, they are not subject to modification by anyone. The natural law, together with fundamental rights, is the source from which ethical imperatives also flow, which it is only right to honor.
In today's ethics and philosophy of Law, petitions of juridical positivism are widespread. As a result, legislation often becomes only a compromise between different interests: seeking to transform private interests or wishes into law that conflict with the duties deriving from social responsibility.
In this situation it is opportune to recall that every juridical methodology, be it on the local or international level, ultimately draws its legitimacy from its rooting in the natural law, in the ethical message inscribed in the actual human being.
Natural law is, definitively, the only valid bulwark against the arbitrary power or the deception of ideological manipulation. The knowledge of this law inscribed on the heart of man increases with the progress of the moral conscience.
The first duty for all, and particularly for those with public responsibility, must therefore be to promote the maturation of the moral conscience. This is the fundamental progress without which all other progress proves non-authentic.
The law inscribed in our nature is the true guarantee offered to everyone in order to be able to live in freedom and to be respected in their own dignity.
What has been said up to this point has very concrete applications if one refers to the family, that is, to "the intimate partnership of life and the love which constitutes the married state... established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws" (Gaudium et Spes, n. 48).
Concerning this, the Second Vatican Council has opportunely recalled that the institution of marriage has been "confirmed by the divine law", and therefore "this sacred bond ... for the good of the partner, of the children and of society no longer depends on human decision alone" (ibid.).
Therefore, no law made by man can override the norm written by the Creator without society becoming dramatically wounded in what constitutes its basic foundation. To forget this would mean to weaken the family, penalizing the children and rendering the future of society precarious.
Lastly, I feel the duty to affirm yet again that not all that is scientifically possible is also ethically licit. Technology, when it reduces the human being to an object of experimentation, results in abandoning the weak subject to the arbitration of the stronger. To blindly entrust oneself to technology as the only guarantee of progress, without offering at the same time an ethical code that penetrates its roots in that same reality under study and development, would be equal to doing violence to human nature with devastating consequences for all.
The contribution of scientists is of primary importance. Together with the progress of our capacity to dominate nature, scientists must also contribute to help understand the depth of our responsibility for man and for nature entrusted to him.
On this basis it is possible to develop a fruitful dialogue between believers and non-believers; between theologians, philosophers, jurists and scientists, which can offer to legislation as well precious material for personal and social life.
Therefore, I hope these days of study will bring not only a greater sensitivity of the learned with regard to the natural moral law, but will also serve to create conditions so that this theme may reach an ever fuller awareness of the inalienable value that the lex naturalis possesses for a real and coherent progress of private life and the social order.
With this wish, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer for you and for your academic commitment to research and reflection, while I impart to all with affection the Apostolic Blessing.
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