The Test of Adversity

A very familiar passage from St. Augustine also found in the 2nd Reading of the Office of Readings for Wednesday of the 8th Week in Ordinary Time caught me off guard this morning:

“Is not human life on earth a time of testing? Who would choose troubles and hardships? You command us to endure them, but not to love them. No-one loves what he has to endure, even if he loves the endurance, for although he may rejoice in his power to endure, he would prefer to have nothing that demands endurance. In adverse circumstances I long for prosperity, and in times of prosperity I dread adversity. What middle ground is there, between these two, where human life might be free from trial? Woe betide worldly prosperity, and woe again, from fear of disaster and evanescent joy! But woe, woe, and woe again upon worldly adversity, from envy of better fortune, the hardship of adversity itself, and the fear that endurance may falter. Is not human life on earth a time of testing without respite?”  (The Confessions of St Augustine)


It is indeed enough for most of us to have to face the regular challenges of life, little adversities, let alone contend with genuine hardship or the treachery of others, isn't it? If in the presence of the great doctor, St. Augustine, a person would have replied to his words citing the old adage, "Yes, into every life a little rain must fall", the saintly Bishop of Hippo might have shot that person an exasperated glance as if to say, "You haven't understood at all, have you?" Would it not be fair to say that we don't reflect nearly or often enough upon "...human life on earth a time of testing without respite"? 


We're not that different from Job's close friends who couldn't get beyond the thought that this man must have done something to provoke God's displeasure, that he must in some way have deserved the misfortune which had come his way. Most of us are not far from being adherents to some version of the "prosperity gospel", expecting, if we are good and righteous, then really no more than a little rain to fall into our lives.


No small number of films today go out of their way to avoid what St. Augustine would describe as the Christian life quite essentially. The "dream-makers" of Hollywood and elsewhere try insistently, almost desperately to point out the drama which can exist even in virtual living, letting your "avatar" do the walking or flying if you will. The attraction to the possibilities offered us by a radioactive spider's bite or some other sort of morphing in order to allow the impossible victory captures more than the thoughts of little boys. Spiderman! We seem unwilling to face at all and with dread the hardship of adversity, let alone worry about whether we might falter under trial. Maybe that explains the high instance of alcoholism and drug abuse in society today? 


In principle, no one truly of good will would deny others their integral and inalienable human dignity, but a refusal to accept any share in life's adversity in this our broken world more often than not leads to acts or reactions which go beyond legitimate self-defense and amount to something akin to the famous preemptive strike of modern warfare. Add a dash of retaliatory action for good measure and we have war of one kind or another and in any case the kind of poisoned atmosphere which leaves little room for hope. I really cannot see how it is possible to establish justice in a world without people ready to give their very best to endure adversity.


“Is not human life on earth a time of testing?"

Part 2 is also great!

Vernacular, quo vadis?

The Voice of the Church at Prayer

Reflections on Liturgy and Language

Lang, Father Michael (2012-05-08). 

Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

One of the fun things about a "real book" is that you pick it up and flip through it before reading. I suppose you could do the same with any ebook, but I tend to just open and start reading. I like Father Lang's style and was happy to see that Ignatius Press had brought out another study by him, this time on the important/critical and for me intriguing topic of liturgy and language. The site advertising the book gave a description including the number of pages in the book. Moving ahead in my enthusiasm for the topic, you can imagine my surprise when 60% of my way into the work I had already reached the end and found myself with the remaining 40% of the book consisting of bibliography and footnotes. Oh well, I guess I can admire that about Father Lang as well, n'est ce pas?

After reading the book attentively, I am wondering if I am entitled to express my own opinion on two issues, maybe three, depending on how you approach matters: 1) Given the existence of something called "liturgical Latin", what can we say, post Liturgiam authenticam, about the possibility of something like a "vernacular sacred language"? 2) Where is or how is "liturgical Latin" today? 3)  Could a return to the silent recitation by the celebrant of the Canon of the Mass be considered critical to healing the breach in our liturgical tradition? Not a project of a blog post you say? I totally agree. I wish I had the time and talent to research the book in three chapters with substantial introduction and conclusion, less 40% bibliography and footnotes, which these questions deserve.

Here's my favorite quote from Father Lang's book:

"The liturgical texts that have been analyzed in this chapter display a distinctive prayer style that is both Roman and Christian. The Canon and the variable texts of the Mass draw on the style of pagan prayer, including its juridical elements, but their vocabulary and content are distinctively Christian, indeed, biblical. Their diction has Roman gravitas and avoids the exuberance of the Eastern Christian prayer style, which is also found in the Gallican tradition. Mohrmann sees in these early Roman prayers the fortuitous combination of a renewal of language, inspired by the newness of Christian revelation, and a stylistic traditionalism that was firmly imbedded in the Roman world. The formation of this sacred language was part of a comprehensive effort to evangelize classical culture." {Lang, (Kindle Locations 1131-1137). Ignatius Press.}

On second thought, my book project would include a 4th chapter as well entitled: "The Formation of a Sacred Language to Evangelize Contemporary Culture". If someone else would like to write the book, I promise not to claim intellectual property, but only to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor and preferably as an ebook.

On Bended Knee

Benedict XVI's Reform

The Liturgy between Innovation and Tradition
Bux, Nicola (2012-05-09).  

Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

I wish to thank Ignatius Press for the timely publication in English of this new book by Nicola Bux, well known for his stance in promotion of the ideas of the Holy Father concerning the repair of the liturgical breach. "Timely" is the right word not because there is anything particularly new in the book, which might throw the advantage in "battle" to either reform group whether it be to those favoring restoration of the Roman Rite and subsequent organic growth within the tradition going back to St. Gregory the Great or be it to the reform of the reform people. Bux honestly and rightly makes his case for rallying to the standard of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. He speaks clearly and convincingly of his understanding of the Pope's will that the usus antiquior find more general use everywhere (in every parish?) of the Catholic Church, thus enabling it to be that mirror to aid the reform of the reformed liturgy.

Bux touches masterfully upon the unquestionable merits of the Mass of the Ages when it comes to fulfilling that which is liturgy's role in the heart of the Church. He argues certain points better than I have seen in the dozen or more books on the topic, which I've had occasion to read and reflect upon over the last few years. Well done! And, yes, timely, Ignatius Press! Thank you!

I find myself particularly sensitive to and in agreement with his arguments, quoting the Pope, concerning kneeling as a posture for both liturgy and prayer (not to limit discussion to the reception of Holy Communion):

"If the Christian liturgy is not before all else the public and integral worship, the adoration, of God, the Apocalypse cannot be the typikon, the normative book. From where else would the various liturgical books have drawn their cogent force? What the liturgy affirms and asks to be observed is a divine law, not a human one: 'The Christian liturgy is a cosmic liturgy precisely because it bends the knee before the crucified and exalted Lord. Here is the center of authentic culture—the culture of truth. The humble gesture by which we fall at the feet of the Lord inserts us into the true path of the life of the cosmos.' We have chosen this gesture from among all others; it is the most important one, the one that sums up the spirit of the liturgy." (Bux, [Kindle Locations 1345-1350]. Ignatius Press.)


At various points in the book, Bux addresses the importance of recovering a common focus for worship, especially for the action of preparing the gifts and for the Eucharistic Prayer, facing Liturgical East, ad Orientem, toward Christ lifted up on the Cross. From my experience of this last year in Ukraine with the Byzantine Tradition this call becomes ever more urgent and central to what is required for a genuine healing of the rupture provoked by post-Conciliar experimentation in the area of liturgy. Priests and Bishops need to reconsider their attachment to the face-to-face innovation of the last 40 plus years.

"Looking upon the Cross: Until the Council, all Christians of the East and the West, including priests, prayed toward the apse, which, at least until the sixteenth century, faced east. In Western churches, as in those of the East, prominent in the apse were the cross, a painting of one of the Christian mysteries or the saint for whom the church was named, and the altar with the tabernacle. The priest and the faithful did not doubt that in praying they both needed to face the same direction. The priest turned to the faithful only for exhortations, readings, and the homily. All Christians celebrated in this way from the first centuries." (Bux, [Kindle Locations 1362-1367]. Ignatius Press.)


I leave it to the reader to discover the other treasures which this book provides, especially concerning the placement of the Tabernacle. Happy reading!

A Marvelous Resource!

In Silence with God, 

by Benedict Baur, OSB, Archabbot of Beuron, 

Translated from the fourth German edition by Elisabethe Corathier-Noonan, 

Scepter Publishers, 1997.

In 220 pages, I found in this little book, most readable, a vademecum for the spiritual life no matter what your personal calling. Because the chapters average about 10 pages apiece, it recommends itself also for spiritual reading.

Chapter 22, the last chapter, entitled "On the Heights", spoke to me particularly in terms of a description of the contemplative lifestyle as practiced by a saint. His account of the fruits of a life of love is particularly meritorious and inspired.

Happy reading, I hope! 

My Vacation Book

BAD RELIGION

Douthat, Ross (2012-04-17). 
Simon & Schuster, Inc. Kindle Edition. 

It used to be that people spoke of a genre called "beach books" (since the appearance of ebooks, I guess they have been rechristened as "beach reads"). When they were still books, they were something you picked up because they were big, paperback and not too demanding to read on your vacation: something to fill the time while you're resting, planing or deplaning, and from content, as I say, not too taxing (no small print editions). It's a genre I can't say as I know or have ever sought out for myself. I think the appellation "vacation book" is more neutral, while certainly not excluding either substance or entertainment. Good novels, classics if you will, are vacation books, but "Bad Religion", by reason of its title has to be one too, at least to my way of thinking, ebook or not. 

Even so, Bad Religion would never have been my choice of a vacation book, if it hadn't been for an appearance of Ross Douthat on EWTN's The World Over with Raymond Arroyo. The two of them sold me on reading the book during their 20 minute segment and Kindle made it too easy to buy. I don't regret reading the book and hope to give it a good review, as it deserves a positive word. The liberal establishment seems to have been quite piqued by the book, and that alone gives it a certain redeeming social value. It is not a history book. Despite some great insights, it cannot escape the genre of journalism. I learned a few new English words, which is what you'd expect from a master wordsmith like Douthat, and that is good.


The redeeming quality or value of the book is that with it Douthat manages to put a finger into some of the Catholic Church's gaping wounds and hopefully thereby will provoke some thought and an examination of conscience among his readers. We're not used to media people (New York Times columnist!) hitting the respect life issue with such clarity and determination. I wish I could help him with a rewrite on his stance concerning theological evolutionism, however. I'll only mention two more hits for which I am grateful: 1) he convincingly hits the Catholic annulment machine right between the eyes, exposing it for what it is, an accommodation and a denial of the unity and indissolubility of marriage; 2) he exposes past (hopefully no more) tolerance for homosexuality in the priesthood for the poison it is and as a clear sign of capitulation in the struggle against personal sin in the lives of priests.

The book, however, is a journalistic piece and neither a theological work nor "black-belt" historical analysis. The underlying premise, despite a profound bow in the direction of beauty and culture in religion, is the stuff of which Napoleon and the Empress Maria Theresia's son Joseph were made. "Pave the muddy tracks with the incunabula wrested from monasteries and put those monks to work!" Sunday sermons in the day were expected to offer pointers on animal husbandry, bee-keeping and growing healthy fruit trees, while keeping your little village whitewashed and clean. This seems to me to be the logic of Douthat's analysis. "Bad Religion" (prosperity gospel and all manner of accommodationism as it has come across in the U.S.) is certainly and rightly classed as heresy by Douthat, but I fear that "Good Religion" for him has all the limitations of somebody's reworked Enlightenment model, as worthy of discard as anything the Arians or Gnostics ever cooked up. I find this harsh judgment on my part to be accurate, among other reasons, given his reductionist view of what the scope of a monastic renewal today, a la St. Benedict, would be. While Latin Mass communities, as he refers to them, may not be a whole solution to the Church's ills, they certainly cannot be dismissed for there small numbers as the author seems to do. The book held my interest throughout, but he just plain lost me on his conclusions.

 I'm grateful for my "vacation read" but it was indeed just that.

Can Books be Life-Changing?

A Catholic Assessment of Evolution Theory

Weighing the Scientific Evidence in Light of Thomistic Principles and Church Teachings on Origins

by John M. Wynne of Restoring Truth Ministries, LLC

Without exaggeration, I will be forever indebted to Hugh Owen, Director of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation (952 Kelly Rd., Mt. Jackson, VA) for sending me a copy of this book and asking me to review it.

Reading is something we cannot really do enough of, as long as the authors are truly approved ones and John M. Wynne has my approval and without reservation. I thank his book for a new vision of our world, of time, and for a load of new personal challenges which I still don't exactly know how I am going to face. I've begun discussing the book here already  (see web links there on the topic ) and hope from time to time to come back to the issues confronted by his book. For now, let me say that what it boils down to for me is new self knowledge concerning the extent to which my own worldview has been tainted by common parlance, despite my own personal rejection of Godless science. I can see that I need to get friendlier with Pope Leo XIII and Proventissimus Deus and long term I hope to read St. Augustine's great work On the Literal Meaning of Genesis. Honest science, serious science with an eye to the Truth which comes from God, as explained by John Wynne and other good Catholics, has swept much more of the false science off the table.

In his 514 page book, a pared down version of a much more sophisticated work, Repairing the Breach, this one written for ordinary folk like me who shied away from calculus and physics in high school, Wynne's debunking of evolution theory, old earth hypotheses, and even carbon-14 dating raises lots of questions, but not nearly so many as it answers for me. I doubt if I'll ever again pick up another National Geographic in a doctor's office waiting room.

Wynne is not anti-science; rather, he would have us well-informed about legitimate scientific findings. Following the instruction of Pope Leo XIII, he would have us not depart from the straightforward and obvious meaning of Scripture unless reason and necessity requires.

The world deserves better than Charles Darwin...