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Month: September 2008

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Christian Witness, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

You can enjoy Poland, but…

An very nice article from a R.C. Seminarian who spent some time in Poland this past summer. Check out Summer Part I: Tertio Millenio Seminar in Krakow in Poland from his blog, The Law of the Gift.

An amazing history:

Poland certainly has an amazing history. It has played a great role on the world’s stage, a role that goes beyond the two or three sentences commonly taught in U. S. schools. It is unfortunate that students in the U.S. are so unfamiliar with Poland’s history, and that they have a rather narrow understanding of European history. Europe doesn’t stop at the norder of England, France, and Spain. That said, in reading the seminarian’s post I recalled something Dr. Ryszard Sokołowski told me before my first trip to Poland in 1991, “Do not overly romanticize Poland.”

Getting to the truth:

It is a half funny, half true statement. Can you imagine your typical American tourist going to Poland, expecting to be greeted by girls in Cracovian costumes, dancing the Polka, and feasting on pierogi every night; gallant men riding into battle every day with sabers at their sides…

Of course the seminarian is both an idealist and a questioner of the future. It is the advantage and disadvantage of youth. He sees churches filled, he sees a history of faith, he sees the great martyr nation, w jedności siła, and a hero in John Paul II. He also sees uncertainty ahead. I offer him the same caution Dr. Sokołowski gave me. Don’t over idealize it.

Polish history is filled with sins equal to the heroism, fragmentation equal to strength in unity, abandonment of religion equal to conversion. As a member of the clergy you have to look to and understand the culture — long term, but only as the backdrop for the struggles people face every day.

Seeing the Sheep:

Individual struggles have not changed very much. The opportunities for sin may be a bit different today, but at the core it is the same temptation. If we spend too much time looking at the big picture, the movements on the world stage, we miss the souls we are supposed to care for. How can we help people see the way today? Pointing to history is part of the equation, but the greater measure is found in pointing to the future, to our hope in Jesus Christ.

Applying the Gospel:

I appreciate the fact that he states:

[Krakow] provides an interesting context to study the social doctrine of the Church

This is true because the city offers a micro level lesson in the application of the Church’s teachings. We can learn from the witness of people who have lived through the application of the Church’s teaching, both in their heroism and their sin. We can learn from culture because God endows each nation with unique gifts and skills that benefit man’s journey back to Him. At the same time we must avoid the trap of assuming that Church teaching, including social teaching, is solely based on the experiences of a people. Rather, the Church’s teachings are a unified whole formed from the Gospel. The Gospel message applies universally; past, present and future, in Poland, this nation, and in every nation. Bishop Hodur understood that. The Church is here to lift men up to their true potential: intellectually, morally, and spiritually. The Church is key to the fulfillment of God’s plan for mankind. So we have to continually ask: Lord help me to lift your people up to You. Help me to see their gifts and their challenges.

Fathers, PNCC

September 16 – St. Cyprian from a Letter to his brother Cornelius.

Dearest brother bright and shining is the faith which the blessed Apostle praised in your community. He foresaw in the spirit the praise your courage deserves and the strength that could not be broken; he was heralding the future when he testified to your achievements; his praise of the fathers was a challenge to the sons. Your unity, your strength have become shining examples of these virtues to the rest of the brethren. Divine providence has now prepared us. God’s merciful design has warned us that the day of our own struggle, our own contest, is at hand. By that shared love which binds us close together, we are doing all we can to exhort our congregation, to give ourselves unceasingly to fastings, vigils and prayers in common. These are the heavenly weapons which give us the strength to stand firm and endure; they are the spiritual defenses, the God-given armaments that protect us.

Let us then remember one another, united in mind and heart. Let us pray without ceasing, you for us, we for you; by the love we share we shall thus relieve the strain of these great trials.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

This, that, or the other thing (on political religion)

An interesting post from Catholic Eye: Becoming A Catholic Nation.

The problem with the argument is that it involves a sine qua non that places religion as key to governing.

The author cites a First Things article on the decline of ProtestantismAn interesting enumeration of the foundational elements in the American experience is found in Eric Kaufmann’s American Exceptionalism Reconsidered: Anglo-Saxon Ethnogenesis in the ‘Universal’ Nation, 1776-1850, European Institute, The London School of Economics and Political Science in which he concludes:

This paper has tried to illustrate that the United States was not an exception to the rule that nations are formed by core ethnic groups which later attempt to shape the nation in their own image. The American case betrays many of the same features that characterize other ethnic groups. These include: a sense of election (Puritan), a myth of exclusive genealogical descent (Anglo-Saxon), a set of cultural boundary markers (‘WASP’), a process of dominant-conformity (anglo-conformity), an association with a specific territory (United States/Frontier), a lifestyle representation (Yeoman) and a communal Golden Age (Jefferson’s Republic) to which the group seeks to return. Together, these elements formed the myth-symbol complex of the “American” ethnie. This ethnic structure, once crystallized, decisively shaped the reactions of the American nation for a over a century.

. He posits that Catholicism has assumed (is assuming) the role Protestantism once played in setting the moral tone and focus for the nation. He also cites Michael Gerson’s book Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America’s Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don’t), connecting Catholicism’s emergence to its relationship with the Republican party.

If the sine qua non between religion and politics is true, then religion, faith, is little more than a subjective part of the human experience. The type of religion required for a nation’s existence is really irrelevant – as long as you have one. While classicists point to the role of religion as foundational to civilization I do not think you can carry that argument to the extent some believers do, equating religion as central to sustaining a nation’s political reality. We do not have the right to co-opt faith in that way. Government and the political order is a self-serving and self-preserving endeavor. It will use whatever tools are available, from religion to the military in order to maintain itself. While government can promote and restrict through its beneficence, that power does not equate with truth. While you may get “faith based” programs if religion serves those in power, you can just as easily get concentration camps if religion opposes the will of the political class.

Our Lord and Savior told us that we cannot serve two masters (Luke 16:13). Religion, tied to government, looses its center, its mission, and the truth found in its voice. The Bishop of Rome’s talk on the role of religion in the social order makes sense only when seen in light of faith speaking the Gospel regardless of political circumstance. In a society that is truly free religion should have equal footing with all voices; the protection of just laws. That said, we know that in times of injustice and persecution the Gospel cannot be silenced, but rather produces martyrs and confessors.

[French President Nicolas] Sarkozy openly argued that while secularism is important, it should not be a hostile force that forbids all talk of God, faith, and transcendence. Sarkozy called for a —positive laïcit闝 that allows religion to help forge an ethical society.’

It is —legitimate for democracy and respectful of secularism to have a dialogue with religions,— Sarkozy said at the palace with the pope. —That is why I have called for a positive secularism,— adding that —It would be madness to ignore [religion.]—

Pope Benedict reinforced Sarkozy’s words, and rephrased them rather more bluntly: —it is fundamental to become more aware of the irreplaceable role of religion for the formation of consciences and the contribution which it can bring,— the pope said.From Sarkozy, Pope Challenge French Secularism at PoliGazette

The voice of faith is beyond government, the political order, and the nation. Its life is apart from the world, in it, not of it (John 17:14-18), speaking and gathering according to its witness.

This nation, any nation, cannot have this religion, that religion, or the other religion. It cannot change affiliation and philosophical perspective like people change underwear, suiting the political winds of the times, and still expect to be thought of as proclaiming truth. The fact that exercises in doing so occur proves that government treats religion like a subjective good. If we are an objective good, the true sine qua non in the lives of men, then we must be outside and unaffiliated. speaking the Gospel in good times and bad, in freedom and persecution, under the Republic or the tyrant.

To the author’s argument, this country is neither Protestant or Catholic. Our Republic is simply a political reality. Our job is to speak the truth. Our task is to form our citizens in faith, to enlighten their intellect by His word and His way. God’s gift is that intellect, the intellect enlightened by truth, that sees beyond the lies and hypocrisy of the world. Unless we transform the lives of men we fall short of building the true Kingdom on a hill. That kingdom is not a nation of geography, political parties, and men, but is the Kingdom of God.

Fathers, PNCC

September 15 – St. Andrew of Crete – from his Discourses

We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure. Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be canceled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation —“ very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

The cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his his triumph. We recognize it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake. As to the cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once. And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: —Father, glorify your name.— Then a voice came from heaven: —I have glorified it and will glorify it again.— Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the cross. And if you would understand that the cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said: When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the cross is Christ’s glory and triumph. — The cross is Christ’s glory and triumph.

Homilies,

Solemnity of Brotherly Love

First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm: Ps 85:9-14
Epistle: 1 John 4:17-21
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, —And who is my neighbor?—

And there lies a problem we all face. We having nagging doubts about love, especially in our interaction with others. At first it might seem like the lawyer was being haughty, but I think he really wanted to know. He wanted Jesus to verify whether he was right or wrong. Like the young lawyer we want to know the things that we must do. How do we love properly? Is our love living up to God’s love?

Brothers and sisters,

The young lawyer, might have been like many of today’s young lawyers, working all kinds of cases, and usually the worst kinds of cases. He may have seen too much. He probably saw too much strife, too many problems, the depths of human conflict, and people’s inability to even remotely approach righteousness. While he was probably thought of as being a very good young man, fulfilling the precepts of the Law as understood and taught in his day, his experiences likely increased his nagging doubts – the same sorts of doubts that we have.

Then comes Jesus. Talk about upsetting the apple cart. Jesus was speaking in ways that defied the teachers of the time. He told people that it takes more than the Law to find one’s way to God and to His heavenly kingdom. So the lawyer wants to find out if his nagging doubts, the questions stirring in his conscience, the question Jesus has pushed out into the open, can be answered. He wants to get the reassurance he longs for. Am I loving as God would have me love?

My friends,

Our young lawyer likely studied scripture, and knowing what he knew, he had to wonder why, with such a loving God, he saw far more of those Jesus described at the beginning of the parable of the Good Samaritan:

—A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Why didn’t he see the people described in today’s passage from Jeremiah:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Where were the people with God’s love written into their hearts? Where were the people who love as God would have them love? Why was he only seeing the characters Jesus described. He was seeing the worst of the worst; the brigands, the uncaring rubberneckers, those that were unwilling to stop and love, stop and care.

So our young lawyer might have left Jesus still wondering. We still wonder. How do we love properly? Is our love living up to God’s love?

Brothers and sisters,

The answer Jesus gives us is that our love must be like God’s love — unconditional.

St. John speaks of that when he says:

We love because he first loved us. Those who say, —I love God,— and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Our neighbors, all we know or may come to know, even the brigands and rubberneckers are not constrained by geography, culture, race, religion, or looks. They exist. They live and by that very life they are our neighbor, people worthy of our Christian love. There is nothing that makes another person a former neighbor. We mustn’t allow anything to separate us from our neighbor, to stop us from loving them.

The aspect of being Neighbor is unconditional, and there is the key to salvation, to justification. Being neighbor and seeing neighbor in others is built right into us. It is part of God’s way — much different from the world’s way. We are called to choose love according to God’s way. God’s love, His salvation, His work, His shedding of blood is unconditional. God’s love is limitless and we as His children are to receive and give unconditional love.

That is the kind of lawyers, doctors, co-workers, family members, community members, citizens, priests, deacons, and bishops we are to be — the unconditional kind. Like the Good Samaritan we are stop, to act, to look past the cost of time and treasure, to look past fear and apartness, and to be limitless and unconditional in our loving. St. John tells us that perfect love, God’s love, casts out all fear.

Our trust must be focused on this alone; to live out God’s love through the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His way of love is unconditional. The seed of that love is within us and we are to nurture that seed, right here in the safe confines of the Holy Church, and throughout the world.

In abiding in God’s love, in bearing God’s love, our ability to be limitless, to be unconditional, will increase. We will no longer be apart. We will be joined, one-to-another, in a bond of love. When the love of God joins us we will truly be members of the kingdom. May Your kingdom come Lord Jesus! Amen.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Polish Days in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

From The Vindicator: Polish Day features 2 famed polka bands

NEW CASTLE, Pa. —” The 18th Lawrence County Polish Day will be Sept. 21 at Cascade Park Pavilion, featuring polka bands Lenny Gomulka and Chicago Push and Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones.

Gomulka has earned 12 Grammy nominations, while Blazonczyk has a Grammy and 17 nominations.

The doors and kitchen open at noon with Polish food prepared by Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church. Admission is $12 (children 16 and under free). The dancing starts at 1:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Rose Marie at (724) 658-5916, Gary (724) 752-9988 or Christine at (724) 658-7990.

Fathers, PNCC

September 14 – St. Clement from a Letter to the Corinthians

Let us therefore, with all haste, put an end to this [state of things]; and let us fall down before the Lord, and beseech Him with tears, that He would mercifully be reconciled to us, and restore us to our former seemly and holy practice of brotherly love. For [such conduct] is the gate of righteousness, which is set open for the attainment of life, as it is written, “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go in by them, and will praise the Lord: this is the gate of the Lord: the righteous shall enter in by it.” Although, therefore, many gates have been set open, yet this gate of righteousness is that gate in Christ by which blessed are all they that have entered in and have directed their way in holiness and righteousness, doing all things without disorder. Let a man be faithful: let him be powerful in the utterance of knowledge; let him be wise in judging of words; let him be pure in all his deeds; yet the more he seems to be superior to others [in these respects], the more humble-minded ought he to be, and to seek the common good of all, and not merely his own advantage. — Chapter 48. Let Us Return to the Practice of Brotherly Love.

Fathers, PNCC

September 13 – St. Clement from a Letter to the Corinthians

Let him who has love in Christ keep the commandments of Christ. Who can describe the [blessed] bond of the love of God? What man is able to tell the excellence of its beauty, as it ought to be told? The height to which love exalts is unspeakable. Love unites us to God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things, is long-suffering in all things. There is nothing base, nothing arrogant in love. Love admits of no schisms: love gives rise to no seditions: love does all things in harmony. By love have all the elect of God been made perfect; without love nothing is well-pleasing to God. In love has the Lord taken us to Himself. On account of the love He bore us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God; His flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls. — Chapter 49. The Praise of Love.

Fathers, PNCC

September 12 – St. Hilary of Poitiers from Homilies on the Psalms

The Holy Spirit made choice of this magnificent and noble introduction to the Psalter, in order to stir up weak man to a pure zeal for piety by the hope of happiness, to teach him the mystery of the Incarnate God, to promise him participation in heavenly glory, to declare the penalty of the Judgment, to proclaim the two-fold resurrection, to show forth the counsel of God as seen in His award. It is indeed after a faultless and mature design that He has laid the foundation of this great prophecy; His will being that the hope connected with the happy man might allure weak humanity to zeal for the Faith; that the analogy of the happiness of the tree might be the pledge of a happy hope, that the declaration of His wrath against the ungodly might set the bounds of fear to the excesses of ungodliness, that difference in rank in the assemblies of the saints might mark difference in merit, that the standard appointed for judging the ways of the righteous might show forth the majesty of God. — On Psalm 1.

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