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The beginning of the New Millenium
is a time for us to renew our commitment to the
mission entrusted to us by Christ, a mission rooted in the depths of
contemplation. Such a mission is not authentic if it is not preceded by
the contemplation of the face of Jesus Christ
JP the Great--Feb 23,2001
DISCLAIMER
If anything stated in this blog conflicts
with Catholic Church Teaching or intention, I pray that I will be quickly
made aware of my shameful ignorance and I immediately
and entirely place my mind and will in submission to my local Bishop, in union
the Shepherd of Christ's Flock- namely POPE BENEDICT XVI
Manuel Dauvin
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| Unwanted | April 22, 2010 | | Money is for and unwanted Man
the Pill is for an unwanted Woman
Abortion is for an unwanted Child |
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| Parenting | April 20, 2010 | | When they are in the womb--give,give,give
When they are born--give,give, and give when they cry.
When they can talk--give, give , and give when they say please and thankyou
When they can sin--give, forgive, teach them to share.
When they are youths-- forgive, forgive, teach them how to receive.
When they leave--smile, affirm, believe and offer whatever you failed to give.
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| Sexual morality | April 20, 2010 | | A gift that cannot be opened cannot be received. A gift that cannot be received is wasted. A wasted gift is lost to the giver. |
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| Bright Spirit | April 20, 2010 | | Bright Spirit whom a God supremely wise
Hath given to be the guardian of this land,
Come arm'd with all thy power from the skies,
And bear its children harmless in thy hand
Safe from evil that defiles the soul,
Safe from disunions withering control.
Ant.Oh Holy angels, our guardians, defend us in combat, that we perish not in the dreadful judgement.
V.In the sight of thy angels I will sing to thee my God.
R.I will adore at Thy Holy Temple and confess to Thy Name.
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| The Solution to all Problems | April 20, 2010 | | Solutions never work
Only people can
"My father is always working, so must I" |
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| Sacred Art is chlorophyll | March 4, 2010 |
Sacred Art is chlorophyll
Art is colorful, Sacred Art is chlorophyll.
Sacred art is to the Cosmos what honey is to a flower.
The Laying hen does Theology, the Broody hen does Sacred Art.
Open eye--Beauty...closing eye--Essence
open hands--Industry...closing hands--Wealth
open heart--ecstasy...closing eyes--eternity
If All Truth were a string of pearls Sacred Art would be the clasp that holds it round our neck.
When Theology lays her problems to rest Sacred art dreams the solution.
Sacred Art is to Sacred science what a dream is to the days worry.
If Christ the Sun, and truth the light, theology the lens and Sacred art the prism.
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| The Eucharist and the Flesh | March 1, 2010 | The Eucharist and the Flesh of Christ.
As a Catholic the reality of the Eucharist is the center of my Faith and my spiritual life. In receiving I am receiving the food that sustains my eternal life-the sharing in the Divine Life of the Trinity. For some reason tonight as I lay in bed I was bothered by the miracle of Lanciano. Many know of this famous eucharistic miracle where the host changed in the hands of the doubting priest into a piece of real flesh and the wine turned into blood. I pray that the readers understand that it is only my total and complete devotion to the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist that supports anything that I might say about Eucharistic miracles like Lanciano.
Lanciano is an authentic miracle that has been verified by independent doctors as well. And although it certainly helps some believe in the Real Presence my contention is that it doesn't lead to a much deeper understanding of the Reality. There are many miracles of the Eucharist that do such as those listed at http://www.discover-catholic-miracles.com. The host turning into a baby for a period of time, a ciborium full of hosts that have remained entirely intact for nearly 200 years, a host parting the waters of a flood against the walls of the church so that it could be removed to higher ground. All these show not only that the host is other than normal bread but the power behind it keeps a very real personal aspect. In various ways Christ has shown mercy to doubters and perpetrators of sacrilege by showing his presence in an outward way.
Lanciano is such a miracle but there is a time when one has to look the event and ask whether the fact that these miracles happened under such perverse sacrilege may take away from the fullness of the true Miracle which was the one that occurred at the Last supper and during every mass.
Let me explain. First of all, the perfect form of the Eucharist that contains all the meaning intended by Christ is under the form of bread and wine. Christ does not ?become flesh? during consecration but rather He remains the same as He is in His glory while replacing the substance of the bread and wine leaving the accidents unaltered. If the accidents of the bread and wine were to disappear would we see a piece of flesh or would we see the glorified Saviour from Nazareth? The flesh we see at Lanciano and other such miracles is uncomfortably close to the flesh which Jesus Himself said was of no avail in John 6. I am not saying that Christ is not present nor adorable in the host and the blood at Lanciano but that the fleshly form it has assumed veils the true significance of the reality- it is a poor analogy. If I were to make a comparison between Lanciano and Thomas' doubt after the resurrection perhaps it would become clearer. St. Thomas in grief would not believe His Lord had Risen until he placed his hands in the wounds. Well fortunately he was exaggerating because he was more than convinced without doing such a thing. Well Lanciano proceeds from this doubt as well, the parish priest being a doubting Thomas, and what we end up with is an instant ?frozen in time? of a hand,or eye, probing and scrutinizing the wound of Christ. When we receive the Eucharist we are not receiving what is presented at Lanciano, a slice of human heart of a specific material quantity but the Fullness of his Person. If the Lanciano host were ever divided up the quantity of Flesh would be reduced in each of the pieces but this is not what happens to the Presence of Christ in the particles of the consecrated Host. Also and probably most significant is that human flesh is not our food. We would be wrong to consider human flesh a legitimate physical sustenance except in the direst survival circumstance where no killing was involved. Christ did not come under the appearance of Bread to make his human flesh more palatable to us. He came under the form of bread because this was our food and He wanted to become our food. Food enters us and becomes one with our bodies. It is the perfect symbol for the unity that Christ wishes to have with us. It perpetuates the images and traditions and significance that Bread and Wine are. They are crushed in the process of being made as was the Saviour. They are sustaining, they are common, inviting, necessary, basic.
There are subtleties in Theology which render Lanciano very troublesome to ecumenism. Remember that ultimately the Eucharist is meant to unite Christians. Well sometimes it is easier to persuade through a steady upward climb to understanding then through tangential leaps including scenic detours. Lanciano and similar blood and flesh miracles are such scenic detours, in my opinion.
Let me clarify what I mean. Flesh...the flesh of Christ...was it Divine in itself or in connection with Him. Since it was connected to Him at all times it could be worshiped in this connection but when one begins to ponder disconnection the theology begins to be forced and unnatural. Even the depiction of the Sacred Heart must be understood in its connection with the Loving will and emotions of the Person of Christ. Relics pose another similar theological issue. The veneration of the relic is understood as honor given to a person who took up their cross and gave us an example of Christian love.. The portion of the body that constitutes a relic was a part of this person and thus bears as intimate a connection with this person as my own body to me. The Faith in the Grace of Christ that worked in this or that Saint allows all that has a connection to them to be instrumental in miracles just as the saint themselves were when alive, but only in so far as Faith calls upon the Power of Christ. Relics are a deep, though paradoxical, respect for the human body in its ultimate significance. But we must be very wary of distortion when anything, which in God's Created order was made to be a union, is examined in its dis-unified state. I don't think it is helpful to believe that every hair that fell from Christ's head, or skin that was shed, or toe nail trimmed was somehow an unfortunate loss to our collection of mementos, even if to have a piece of His Hair would have been a truly venerable relic. Out of respect for Christ, when He is trying to convince us that He became one of us, we should accept Him as exactly that, one in nature with us. Though Christ could be and was worshiped in His Body on earth He had no intention of becoming an idol even as He repeatedly emphasized His divinity. "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve."
Even if Lanciano would prove to a non-catholic that there is something unique about the Eucharist it would be a pedagogically weak foundation for Eucharistic Theology. The approach from belief without seeing is not a test that is given to us so that God is assured of our love. He is not some guy who leaves to see if absence makes the heart fonder. Rather we are asked to believe without seeing because the Mysteries into which we have been invited by Christ can only be comprehended in the human mind through analogy. In other words, to man's finite mind, God's true nature can only be described in physical terms by what He is not because we cannot grasp what He is. Christ since He had both a full understanding of The Divine Nature and a human tongue could provide images and parables that give man a positive revelation of God's new relationship with man. We will still never grasp the Being and Nature of God but in Christ God expanded His nature to include human nature into its definition so that we can grasp our own Nature in Christ by looking at creation in the light of the Saviour. The real understanding comes when we realize that the analogies within creation that Christ provided are the closest physical parallels to the unseen reality. If we dwell on them and grasp their every aspect the theological intuition that results with the help of the Spirit will unite us to Divine Truth in its mysterious fullness. The mind releases the heart so the heart can fly where the mind cannot therefore it is important only to keep the mind squarely aimed in the right direction, the heart will then invite it to ever deeper understanding.
If I am mistaken and the flesh at Lanciano is a true image of what would appear if the accidents of Bread disappeared then this would entail certain consequences which are very interesting though a little foreign. When Christ said His flesh is food indeed. His hearers likely would have had images of chunks of human flesh because they were hoping he would fill their bellies again like the day before at the multiplication of the loaves. So Christ introduced the concept while their stomachs were growling...no wonder many left, probably a little nauseated. But in this image Christ would be implying that flesh as separated from the person somehow still would transmit the personal life of the person. It reminds me of the brutal practice of the early Iroquois and indeed many other primitive ritual cannibals, where they believed that eating the heart of the courageous victim would transmit the courage to the eater. I don't want to go to far in this line of thinking because in the end Christ always ends up saying that it is the Spirit that gives life. That said, I recognize that the fact that Christ introduced an image that His hearers could not but understand a certain way, and then let them leave with the image uncorrected, underlies that the physicality of the mystery must not be underestimated. I hope that I have not done so in my perilous critique of the wonder of Lanciano.
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| The Happy Death | February 25, 2010 | | This is the Last of the scenes that must be described on this Paschal candle holder.
The meditation is simple. True human happiness is destined to be achieved in the next life. To die in the loving arms of Jesus and Mary is the unity that promises true human fulfillment. St. Joseph was given this special grace in its fullest reality and so the Church has always called upon him for the grace to die with a soul that is close to Jesus and Mary.
While this is straightforward the incredible reflections that arise out of pondering human death in the light of Christ are profound. For me the usher into a new way of viewing human death was Fr.Emile Mersch in his Theology of the Mystical Body. He describes how death is the ultimate moral human act.
"The soul, in all truth, is affected by death. The soul was made to give to the body the delicate life that is exposed to death on all sides, a life that continues to exist in a continual progression toward cessation of existence and hence death, a life that terminates in detrition and death; in a word, to give to the body a life of death. The soul was made, moreover, to take its definitive form through this inner catastrophe. The body alone dies, assuredly; but the soul, as the actual form of the body, dies at the same stroke. It is mortal, if we may say so, with the body's mortality, just as the body is immortal with the soul's immortality.
We may even say that this death—not the illness that precedes death, but death itself—is more momentous for the soul than for the | body. The body sinks into unconsciousness; the soul, on the contrary, awakens, but in a sort of lacerated condition, by ceasing to be what it was, in the suppression of the man it constituted. It is torn from itself to be restored to itself, amid an interior collapse and J agony, a passing in the tragic''sense of the term.
But above all, death is an act. The change that occurs in the soul itself, in its very consciousness and liberty, has to be an act of the soul, a conscious and free act. It consists in spontaneously willing, as spirit, what an unescapable necessity forces on man as body and part of the universe, in willing this event as such, with its unescapable 1 necessity. This shows, we may remark by way of parenthesis, how starkly in opposition with the human act of dying is the attitude of soul which suicide supposes. Acceptance is what makes bodily death a human event. By it the will sums up and assimilates the totality of its being, and, at this supreme moment when human character is effaced in the body, stamps that character ineradicably on the soul.
REQUISITES FOR COMPLETE REDEMPTION 265
Therefore death is an act; but, as we must note in order to forestall an inevitable objection, it is a very special act. It is a unique act, and has no more than an analogy with the acts of which we have daily experience, because the latter make up our earthly life, and the act which is death closes that life; also because our daily acts are done in union with the body, whereas death puts an end to that union. The body has its part in the act of death, but only to be left behind, and the contribution it has to make is only that of being no longer fit for the union. Whether the body is used, whether it is unequal to psychological functions, or whether it is torn apart or crushed, matters little; or rather this matters a great deal: it will the more easily be laid aside. It is no longer required to cooperate through phantasms or feelings in the ordinary actions of the intellect or will; the series of such acts has come to an end. The body acts, not to add one more such act to the series, but to close off the series by unifying it in its definitive stage.
The series was a progress toward a goal, by a simple motus. We cannot say of it: quod movetur, movebitur, motus desinit per primum sui non esse. The soul, being spiritual, possesses its own totality and hence its term; its duration must embrace the instant at which this term appears, and its dynamism must have the power to produce, and above all to receive, this appearance.
The act in question is not the new stage, but is the arrival at this stage regarded as connected with the progress toward it. It is an act of the present life and of union with the body, but so far as that life and union cease. It is an act of the complete man, body and soul, not an act of the soul alone, but an act in which the activity of the body ceases and the activity of the soul disengages itself. It is, as our definition indicates, the passage from here to there, but regarded from the standpoint of here.
This act has to be free, as its very essence shows; it is the passage of a free being to the definitive stage which its liberty has prepared. Otherwise the culmination of human life would be at variance with its structure. The value of life is proportionate to its morality; how could the moment that is supremely important for it be other than free and moral? The only thing that really counts in life is what is human, that which is somehow conscious and deliberate; could the moment toward which the whole of life advances, the moment that puts the finishing touch to man, fail to be human?" (The Theology of the Mystical Body, Mersch, pgs.264-65)
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| The Flight into Egypt | February 25, 2010 | | This scene works on a descriptive level more than a symbolic one. It is situated somewhere on the journey from Israel to Egypt. By the reckoning of the wise men and the age that Herod chose for the murder of the male children of Bethlehem Jesus could have been two years old. Here he is pictured as a toddler pointing ahead as if excited to see something and Joseph is telling Him something. Mary is tired and resting her arm around Joseph's neck; she is asleep. This scene is intended to elicit an emotional connection with this family and their stress and strength. It is conjecture based on the humanity of the Holy Family. And brings out St. Joseph's role of support.
The flight itself represents more that merely an escape from a threat. The Gospel makes the connection when it quotes the Scripture, ?Out of Egypt I have called my son.?which makes a parallel between Christ and the Deliverance of the Isrealites from Bondage. A few lines down when Joseph's apprehensions about Herod are noted and the angel directs him via dream to Nazareth we have another quote.?He shall be called a Nazarene?[(Barnes, Albert (1972b reprint), Barnes’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments: Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker). Lenski, R.C.H. (1943), The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg). ] This latter quote is not interpreted as a direct quote from any one of the prophets but as a fulfillment of the consensus among the prophets that the Christ would be despised. Nazareth was not mentioned in the Old Testament nor in any non-biblical source until 300 years after Christ.(source from http://www.livingwordbible.org/Sermons/Matthew2.19-23.pdf). We may conclude with assurance that the meaning of this event is tied up with the reality of a Saviour who has come to deliver His people from their bondage but who is rejected. Quote from John cinches it. John 1:10 He was in the world: and the world was made by him: and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own: and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.
St. Joseph once again did not hesitate at the prompting of a dream and went with his new family to Egypt. If this was a painting I would have made Joseph's a cloak of many colors. His role for the Holy Family ends up being similar to that of his forefather Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel. In these two men we have dreamers who lead their families out of danger. One Joseph is given the charge of all the lands of Egypt while the other is the Patron of the Universal Church. Both are most chaste.
This relief finds its significance in its place among the six scenes in which Joseph is not only present but indispensably prominent. The Church in every age and epoch lives our the mysteries of the life death and resurrection of Christ. Since He is the center and unity of all creation his life even reflected all the events that preceded Him and pointed to Him in Salvation History. The Church's sense for the Sacredness of time and through man its link to eternity has continually lived in the course of the liturgical year. The week with its own life death and Sunday resurrection to even the hours of the day in a perpetual timeless rhythm.
After Moses Egypt brought reminders of slavery and deliverance. And God aften recalled to the Jews that He delivered them out Bondage. There is a line in the Gospel of John that brings out how easily this bondage was forgotten and the true meaning of Christ's return to the land of Bondage.
It is in the eighth chapter:
32 And you shall know the truth: and the truth shall make you free. 33 They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham: and we have never been slaves to any man. How do you say: You shall be free? 34 Jesus answered them: Amen, amen, I say unto you that whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin.
St Paul says in 2 Cor. 21 Him, who knew no sin, he has made sin for us: that we might be made the justice of God in him.
The flight into Egypt as well as the Temptation in the desert of Christ's later years tackle the notion of sin at its roots. Joseph was alerted to the threat that Herod felt in the Christ-child and the reality of the grip that Sin and the Evil-One had on the world was.
(more to be said later) |
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| The Presentation in the Temple | February 25, 2010 | |
The Presentation in the Temple is found in Luke's Gospel. When the time of purification was complete Mary and Joseph took the child to the Temple and presented Him to God as was prescribed in the law of Moses.
We have an interesting scenario much like the Baptism of the Lord. Jesus answered John's objection to baptizing Him by saying that it is to fulfill all righteousness. John's objection was a natural response...his baptism was one of repentance which presumes guilt and here we have a guiltless One asking for the sacrament. The Presentation is similar. Mary is pure, immaculately conceived, and she brings forth God in a process that certainly could not defile her in anyway yet we have her going through the time of purification after which she brings forth her son and presents him to the Father. Having inherited the eyes of the Fathers when looking at the scriptures we cannot say that the action was merely to keep up appearances as Jewish believers. God instituted the precepts of the law in the full knowledge that He would send His Son, in fact they are a immediate preparation for the Incarnation so every element of the Law reaches its fullest meaning when applied to the Saviour. So the Presentation and Purification was not a Jewish exercise but something that culminates in Mary and Jesus. Let us examine them in this light.
The relief has all the necessary elements that illustrate the Gospel story. We have the turtledoves, the altar, Simeon and Anna and of course the Parents of Jesus. In the center sits Jesus in a noble, controlled pose resting an arm on the head of St. Joseph for support. Mary is holding up her son with one hand and holding her cloak with the other. Not immediately visible we have the Hand of the Heavenly Father holding presenting Jesus from behind.
Not being a scholar I cannot delve as deeply as I would like into the historical religious context of the event but reflecting on what is immediately apparent will reveal profound meaning.
Mary is presenting herself for purification and the symbol of this is a sacrifice of turtledoves that vicariously take the place of the child that opened the womb. The child is offered to God with all the spiritual sentiment of a sacrifice without the actual necessity of spilling his blood. It reminds me very directly of the Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham and if we were to probe deeper I wouldn't be surprised to find allusions to this relation in Jewish Tradition. The significance of the Presentation of the baby being related to the purification of the Mother prefigures Mary's role in sacrifice of Calvary and it is with Simeon's allusion to sword piercing her soul too that this idea is grounded in Scripture. Mary holds open her cloak as if to present herself in anticipation of the sword. There is a consciousness of being made vulnerable through her participation in the Incarnation and Simeon provides another opportunity for another fiat from Mary.
We will return to Mary but let's turn quickly to St. Joseph. The circumcision of Christ was the most significant event in his jewish life before the Bar mitzvah, yet we have only one small sentence. The resting of Christ's hand upon St. Joseph brings the circumcision of the prior month into this event which still continues to resonate the meaning of the circumcision. What I wished to convey here though it does not have to be construed this way, is the connection of the Redeemer with the People of the Old Covenant. Joseph is the earthly throne of the Redeemer, a scepter of authority, through his lineage and its connection with the Messiah. Through Joseph is Christ recognized as a son of David and is Joseph who names the child Jesus thus conferring the hope of his people upon ?He saves?.
For seven days after Birth a woman was considered legally unclean because the curse of Original sin was brought to bear specifically upon the woman's process of bringing forth children. The pain that associated the giving of birth was a poignant reminder of the first fall. Although Mary herself through the proto-redemption was not herself under the sway of the curse of Eve she nevertheless would be required to fulfill her role in the Redemption by assuming the position of the new Eve and by entering into the curse she becomes like Eve in all things but sin to parallel St. Paul's reference to the Redeemer.
The Jewish custom of what we call the presentation in the Temple is more often referred to as the redemption of the first-born. It applied to clean animals as well as people. The difference being that in the case of parents who offered their son they had the opportunity to buy him back from the priests. Blood however had to be spilled in commemoration of the blood used to mark out the houses of the hebrews when the Angel of Death passed over Egypt killing all the first-born. It is in the context of the death of the first-born which forced the Egyptians to let God's People go that the first-born of Israel have to be bought with blood from God. If a parent failed to present their child in the temple then interestingly enough the child himself was obliged to redeem himself when he got older and the price was five shekels. As an artist the number five is significant in reference to the stones of David and more importantly the wounds of Christ. To appreciated the possibilities of this seeming legalism the priest could give the five shekels back to the father of the child.
Give me leave to explain something about Scripture interpretation as my artists mind sees it. The Church while holding that the literal meaning is the first to be sought it is only one of several ways of interpreting a passage. When we are dealing with the substance of truth on should focus on the plot and characters of the story and the obvious meaning that they are conveying with their words. When an obvious meaning conflicts in anyway with the obvious meaning of another passage we are to admit that there is a level of understanding in which even the most troublesome problems harmonize. Scripture is the innerrant word of God that has never met an unerring reader except of course that of the Church in union with the Pope. Now the tapestry of Scripture has much more than content, it has color and mood. When we look at an incident in Scripture there is much more to be seen and appreciated than simply the content. One could marvel at how the composition is unified one could appreciate how the colours complement one another. One could simply admire the physical construction and poetry. The point is that while the Truth is usually simple and apparent its beauty may be the effect of a complex and unified elements which in themselves are not essential to the truth but very complementary to it.
Why do I bring this to your attention? Well the five shekels which a grown Son can give to ransom Himself ...
(incomplete, to be continued) |
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