I have told you what men preeminent alike in philosophy and eloquence have thought of the majesty and government of the most high God. Moreover, I have cited the noblest masters of both these supreme arts expressly to facilitate my proof that all others have either agreed, or, if they have disagreed, have done so without any authority. And, in fact, I can find none who have differed from this judgment, except for the delirious ravings of the Epicureans and certain of their imitators. These last have associated God with carelessness and sloth, just as they have linked pleasure with virtue — so it appears that those who entertain this idea are likely to follow the vices of the Epicureans along with their opinion and doctrine.
I do not think that we need also use the divine word to prove so obvious a case, especially since the sacred writings furnish such abundant and open refutation of all the claims of ungodly men that, in meeting those of their vile charges which follow, we shall be able to refute more fully those already mentioned. They say that God neglects us entirely, since he neither restrains the wicked nor protects the good, and therefore in this world the condition of the better men is substantially the worse. They contrast the poverty of good men with the wealth of the wicked, their weakness with the strength of the wicked, their constant grief with the others’ perpetual joy, their misery and mean estate with the honors and prosperity of sinners.
I wish at the outset to ask those who mourn this state of affairs, or base their accusations on it, this one question: is their grief for the saints, that is, the true and faithful Christians, or for the false impostors? If for the false, it is a needless grief that mourns for the unhappiness of the wicked, since, to be sure, all evil men are made worse by success in their undertakings, and rejoice at the lucky turn of their folly. Yet they ought to be most wretched in order that they may cease to be wicked, that they may cease to apply the name of religion to their most evil gains and to bestow the title of sanctity on their sordid traffickings; in such a case, indeed, a comparison of the misfortunes of sinners with their misdeeds shows that they are less unfortunate than they deserve, for the utmost misfortunes they can suffer leave them still less wretched than they are wicked. It is foolish to grieve for their lack of wealth and happiness. Far less should we lament in the case of the saints, for however unhappy they may seem to men who do not understand their condition, it is impossible for them to be otherwise than happy. Moreover, it is superfluous to think them wretched because of sickness or poverty or any like misfortune, in the midst of which they count themselves happy; for no man is wretched because of other men’s judgment, but only in his own.
So those who are truly happy in their own estimation cannot be unhappy through the false conception of any man; for none, I think, are more fortunate than those who live and act according to their own determination and vows. Religious men are lowly — they wish to be so; poor — they delight in poverty; without ambition — they spurn it; unesteemed — they flee from honors; they mourn — but they seek out occasion for mourning; they are weak — nay, they rejoice in weakness. For the apostle said, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” Nor was this opinion held undeservedly by the man to whom God himself spoke thus: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” — Book I.
Corwin Smidt, a college professor from Michigan, writes in Religion and Nationalism – a Reflection from Hungary:
When language, nationality, religion, and state are basically the embodiment of different facets of the same underlying sociological entity, it is difficult to discern just where culture, religion, nationalism, and loyalty to the state begin and end. This linkage of national identity, language, and religion has important consequences. Probably two of the most basic, and firmly rooted, identities that can be forged in human beings are one’s religious and national identities.
Sometimes, these identities begin to overlap to such an extent that the two become linked together—” making it is difficult to separate them without some serious, and concerted, effort to do so. This is particularly the case when, embedded in one’s particular culture, one seeks to discern just where one’s fundamental loyalties lay —” whether to one’s nation or to one’s religious faith. This is difficult enough in the American context, but when culture and language get added to the mix, it becomes even more difficult.
As he walks through different ecclesiastical models he ponders the intersection between culture, nationalism, and religion. In the Christian context that intersection can be problematic, as he points out, but it can also be fruitful.
I would love to see the professor do a comparative between his experiences and insights from Hungary and Bishop Hodur’s writing on this very subject.
In short, I think Bishop Hodur took a far more anthropological view of nations and religion, with nations as a tool in God’s hands. Each nation and culture has specific gifts and insights which add to the totality of Christian experience. Religion cannot espouse the dissolution of national and cultural boundaries as its goal — a sort of straw man argument for those who define everything in terms of separation, but must focus itself on the transcendent nature of God. God speaks to every nation and draws no distinction between Jew or Greek, slave or free (Galatians 3:28) — using each to declare His name (Acts 17:26-28).
And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation,
that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us,
for `In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.’
Personally I understand it this way: Our gifts are particular. Our faith is transcendent. In Him we are all one body.
From Dr. Hostel: Krakow Tourist Information Guide.
Krakow is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland, Situated on the Vistula river in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Krakow from 1846 to 1918, and the capital of Krakow Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
Krakow has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish scientific, cultural and artistic life. As the former national capital with a history encompassing more than a thousand years, the city remains the spiritual heart of Poland. It is a major attraction for local and international tourists, attracting seven million visitors annually…
An excellent overview and travelogue for anyone planning a trip to Kraków or for anyone interested in Polish history and culture. All of their guides are well put together and avoid chauvinistic effusiveness. They give a clear introduction to various destinations.
In addition to Krakow site also covers Zakopane, Gdansk, Łódz, Poznań, Toruń, Warsawa, and Wrocław.
Check it out.
From DuluthCommunityNews: Left out in the cold: The story of Polish Catholics in Duluth.
An interesting article that provides a historic overview of the emergence of the PNCC in Duluth. The piece was produced by the Duluth Community News, a project run by journalism students at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Their project tells the stories of Duluth neighborhoods, exploring different communities and issues throughout the city of Duluth.
From Fox News (I know…): U.S. Army Says Blogging Site ‘Twitter’ Could Become Terrorist Tool. The emphasis is mine.
The U.S. Army is flagging the popular blogging service Twitter as a potential terrorist tool, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported Sunday.
A recently released report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion contains a chapter entitled “Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter,” which expresses concern over the increasing use of Twitter by political and religious groups, the AFP reported.
“Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,” according to the report.
“Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives,” the Army report said.
The blogging service and social networking site has previously sent out messages known as “tweets” faster than news organizations during such major news events as the July Los Angeles earthquake and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.
“Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the U.S. as an operation tool,” the Army report said.
Let’s analyze this. Twitter is a communication tool. Like any tool, it can be used by anyone. It’s sort of like water. Think about that. What if the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion had said something like this:
A recently released report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion contains a chapter entitled “Potential for Terrorist Use of Water,” which expresses concern over the increasing use of water by political and religious groups.
“Water has also become a tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others,” according to the report.
“Water is already used by some members “to further extremist ideologies and perspectives,” the Army report said.
Water has previously been used in blessings and baptisms – which are a form of indoctrination. It has also been used for drinking and washing during such major news events as the July Los Angeles earthquake and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.
“Terrorists could theoretically use water as an operation tool,” the Army report said.
I think that a report (which we as taxpayers funded) highlighting things that are self evident can only have one purpose – to scare people. Do you see that dark skinned man with the fez Twittering there in the corner – I wonder what he’s up to…
What’s really disturbing is that the report makes a direct connection between religious groups and terrorism. Further, it bunches together all sorts of groups that might challenge conventional, government approved ideologies. It is an attempt to instill fear in anyone who might challenge the status-quo, who might be labeled as having extremist ideologies and perspectives (a hugely undefined category – the government can make it out to be whatever it chooses).
By definition we, as Christians, hold extremist views. The Gospel is not about the status-quo. It challenges us personally and as a society, and in its totality it demands justice. We cannot close our eyes to the sins of the world and act apart from the world. We must meet every sin, personal and societal, with a demand for repentance and reform.
I wonder — if someone is in a religious community that is vegetarian and supports human rights — will they be the first to be interred?
Maybe, just to be funny, we should all vote for one of those nondescript parties at the bottom of the ballot. Would that officially label us as extremists? In New York our choices include the Socialist Workers Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
All the divine precepts are, therefore, referred back to love, of which the apostle says, “Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned.” Thus every commandment harks back to love. For whatever one does either in fear of punishment or from some carnal impulse, so that it does not measure up to the standard of love which the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts — whatever it is, it is not yet done as it should be, although it may seem to be. Love, in this context, of course includes both the love of God and the love of our neighbor and, indeed, “on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” — and, we may add, the gospel and the apostles, for from nowhere else comes the voice, “The end of the commandment is love,” and, “God is love.“
From The Guardian: US forces kill eight in helicopter raid on Syria
American helicopters flying from Iraq landed inside Syria yesterday and dropped special forces who killed eight people, the Damascus government said last night, as Washington admitted it had targeted “foreign fighters.”
Syria warned that it held the US “wholly responsible for this act of aggression and all its repercussions”.
It described the dead as Syrian civilians, five of them members of the same family. Syrian state television reported that the attack was against a farm near Abu Kamal, five miles from the Iraqi border. Doctors in nearby al-Sukkariya said another seven people were taken to hospital with bullet wounds.
The incident threatened to unleash a new wave of anti-American feeling in Syria and across the Middle East at a time when President Bashar al-Assad, already being courted by Europe, is looking forward to improved relations with Washington after the November 4 presidential election. News of the attack led bulletins across the Arab world last night – suggesting it will have wide resonance.
Syria summoned the US charge d’affaires in Damascus to explain the incident. It also called on the Iraqi government to prevent its airspace being used in this way in future.
Eyewitness accounts said eight US soldiers landed in two helicopters and that the dead were building workers. A senior Syrian source quoted by the official Sana news agency, said four helicopters violated Syrian airspace and described the target as a “civilian building under construction”.
In Washington an unnamed military official told the Associated Press the raid had targeted elements of a “foreign fighter logistics network”, and that, due to Syrian inaction, the US was “taking matters into our own hands”. It was the first known American attack on Syrian soil…
Reminiscent of President Nixon opening another front in Cambodia, which interestingly started with such raids. I wonder if a Christmas Day B-52 raid over Damascus is in the offing. That’s the problem with megalomaniacs. If they’re hunkered down on two fronts, they open a third.
Syria will draw closer to Iran, Hezbollah will be unleashed, Israel will get drawn into another conflict where civilians deaths will far outnumber combatant casualties, and all this on top of an already tense political-economic situation. The problem for folks like President Bush is that this will not unleash the Second Coming, it will only destroy more of God’s children.
God have mercy on us.
Invite Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest into Your High School’s ELA Classrooms!
Register your school to participate in Poetry Out Loud!
Poetry Out Loud is a national program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. Beginning at the classroom level, winners will advance to the school-wide competition, then to the state capital competition, and ultimately to the National Finals in Washington, DC. More than 100,000 students are expected to take part in Poetry Out Loud this year!
Upon registration, teachers will receive dynamic teaching tools that will invoke students’ excitement about literature and poetry recitation, including sample lesson plans, audio CDs of poets reciting their own famous works, publicity materials for school competitions, and a DVD of winning student performances from the 2007 Poetry Out Loud National Finals.
If you would like to bring Poetry Out Loud to you school, download a registration form.
Registrations must be received by October 31st!
For more information about registration, contact Sharon Scarlata.
First reading: Exodus 22:20-26
Psalm: Ps 18:2-4,47,51
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him…
Over the past five weeks our Gospel readings have been taken from St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 21 and 22. Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph in Chapter 21 and had cleared the moneychangers from the Temple. Just before this grand entrance Jesus had reminded His disciples, for the third time:
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,
and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Now the battle was on. Jesus was seated in the Temple precincts. The people were listening to Him. The Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, lawyers, and Herodians – none of whom really liked each other, put their focus on discrediting Jesus in front of His listeners, having Him arrested, and killing Him if at all possible.
They devised word traps aimed at proving that Jesus was a bad Jew and/or an enemy of Rome.
The disciples stood by and watched as every word trap turned into a trap for the hunters. Jesus used every occasion to enlighten His disciples and all who listened. St. John Chysostom in commenting about these chapters from Matthew states that Jesus not only turned their words against them, but used their words to show who He was.
For all the scheming and plotting the hunters never stopped to ask themselves whether their target, Jesus, might be the Messiah. They never stopped to consider, even for a moment, that Jesus might be Emmanuel, God among them. Jesus’ replies show clearly that He is God in their midst.
Brothers and sisters,
When the lawyer asked:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
He didn’t realize that he was asking the Teacher. He was asking God, who gave the law.
In reply Jesus boils down the 613 Mitzvos into two commandments: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Further, He tells them that all law, all scripture, all of the prophets, in other words, God’s entire communication with humanity, hinges on these two commandments.
Love God, love each other. It as simple as that.
Some of the greatest philosophers and theologians have tried to capture and document the complexity of God. Who is He? Why does He interact with us? Why does He need us? How does He define Himself? What is the meaning of His self-revelation, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection? In contemplating God one could ask a million questions and find a million answers. I believe that those who come closest are those that define God as a simple being. God is One. He is all-in-all. He is simply love. Not wishy-washy romance or pining after a beloved, but pure, directed love.
Jesus directs and communicates the Father’s love. When Jesus tells us that we should come onto Him, take up His yoke; when He tells us that His yoke is easy, His burden light, He is telling us that perfection is found in our struggle to be like God; to be people of simple love.
My friends,
We are heavily burdened. If we were to enumerate the different costs associated with our lives they would amount to little except burden. The things occurring in the world this very days amount to unfathomable burdens. The credit crunch, failed banks and businesses, retirement savings accounts at half their value, terrorism, wars, our daily labors, getting up, going to work, struggling through the challenges that lie before us. Life would be a disaster if not for those moments that touch us, the moments that communicate simple love.
When we gather here in church to praise God, to communicate our love for Him, He communicates His love for us. When we see a new life, arising out of an act of love, we are filled with hope and promise. Celebrations that connect us to God and to our families, at Christmas and Easter, a wedding, and anniversary, a birthday, even a funeral are moments where burdens melt away and we are left staring at simple love.
These moments of love are moments in which we get to peer through a keyhole. We see the light and the promise on the other side of the door. The light on other side of the door is the love that we really long for, the love we need. That light is the perfection of love in God. Through the gift of faith we see that light and are left with a choice.
The choice God asks us to make, in all its simplicity, is this: Will we love God and love each other. When we decide to walk in God’s way, when we decide to live as children of God, children of the light, children of love, we become caught up in God’s life. We learn that love of God and love of each other is more than duty, but real joy – a gladsome burden. In making choices that reflect love of God and love for each other we grow to be more like Him. Each day we get better and better at living a life of love, at showing forth the light of God’s love.
During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told us:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.—
Our light is the light of our Father in Heaven. It is the light of our brother, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the light of simple and direct love.
As we walk through the day, as we encounter those enumerable burdens, we meet them as changed people. When we encounter darkness we are to challenge it with the light of love. Unlike the challenge the lawyer in today’s Gospel presented, a challenge without love, we are to meet our challenges with love. It is as simple as that. The unruly child, the angry boss, the demanding customer, the rude driver, the terrorist, the disease we never expected, the person in our family who refuses to return our love, the untimely death. There is no room in any of these for fear, only love.
All of God’s revelation hinges on love. It is simple. Love God, love each other. Amen.
“But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together; and one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Again does the evangelist express the cause, for which they ought to have held their peace, and marks their boldness by this also. How and in what way? Because when those others were put to silence , these again assail Him. For when they ought even for this to hold their peace, they strive to urge further their former endeavors,and put forward the lawyer, not desiring to learn, but making a trial of Him, and ask, “What is the first commandment?”
For since the first commandment was this, “You shall love the Lord your God,” thinking that He would afford them some handle, as though He would amend it, for the sake of showing that Himself too was God, they propose the question. What then says Christ? Indicating from what they were led to this; from having no charity, from pining with envy, from being seized by jealousy, He says, “You shall love the Lord your God. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But wherefore “like this?” Because this makes the way for that, and by it is again established; “For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light;” and again, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” And what in consequence of this? “They are corrupt, and become abominable in their ways.” And again, “The love of money is the root of all evils; which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith;” and, “He that loves me, will keep my commandment.”
But His commandments, and the sum of them, are, “You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as yourself.” If therefore to love God is to love one’s neighbor, “For if you love me,” He says, “O Peter, feed my sheep,” but to love one’s neighbor works a keeping of the commandments, with reason does He say, “On these hang all the law and the prophets.“