Thomas Collins on The Assumption of Mary

This is the 100th post in this blog. It is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary Mother of God. The post contains excerpts* from the homily of Most Rev. Archbishop Thomas Collins** in the Mass of the Solemnity of the Assumption which took place at St. Michael's Cathedral this past Saturday - It was also the ordination Mass of our friend Mounir El-Rassi to the priesthood.

[God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne.The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God....Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.”] (Revelation 11: 19a; 12: 1-6a; 10 ab) This reading from Apocalypse is a reference to the sign of the woman whose son was destined to rule the nations. She, like any other human, had to escape into the desert in order to deliver her son. She has to suffer like the Israelites suffered in the desert before the glory of her Son should shine. This is Mary the mother of Jesus Christ, crowned with twelve stars referring to the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of her Son and God. She is clothed with the sun and the moon is under her feet. That is how the Second Eve brought us salvation after the First Eve brought us the curse. The dragon, that is Satan, lured the First Eve into disobedience, and wanted to lead the Second Eve into disobedience too. But Mary, reminds us Luke, said “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Mary, like her Son, was assumed to heaven because she surrendered all her life to the will of God. It is because she was willing to give her life to God that he was born of her. This is our mission too: To surrender ourselves, as Mary did, to God. Today, when we are faced with challenges to our faith, let us follow Mary in her path for we want to hear the angel in our midst “Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.”

* The excerpts are my own paraphrasing of parts of the homily.

** Archbishop Thomas Collins is a well-known Biblical Scholar.

The Transfiguration of Christ

[Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.] (Mark 9: 2-10) The story of the Transfiguration sets before our eyes a number of challenges. What is the mountain that we have to climb in order to see Christ in his Divine dazzling white clothes? What is the significance of Moses and Elijah conversing with Jesus? Then Peter dared to tell Jesus of his own terrifying joy “Rabbi, it is good that we are here!” Note how the Gospel mixes joy with terror in man’s heart! And to add to the glory of the Divine transfigured Christ, a voice from a cloud announces “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” At the end, the Apostles are not to tell anyone until the Son rises from the dead. Here is a simple interpretation: 1. We have to climb the mountain of selfishness every day. This is what we must do to really see Christ in his glory. Although he pulls us, it is up to us too to get there! We are not fully his disciples until we are free from our selfishness – a freedom that can be realized only through self-sacrificing love. 2. Moses and Elijah represented the Law and Prophets which confirmed to the Jews that Christ was the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets. However, even those great figures had their own shortcomings. Elijah killed the priests of Baal, and Moses wanted to enter the promised land by force! But again God as always works through their own thinking and culture and slowly opens their and our hearts to the Son. In this glimpse of God, both Moses and Elijah are already freed from their sins. This is why they can stand and talk to the Divine face-to-face. 3. Peter was overjoyed with this moment of glory that he, James and John experienced. The experience of God is not only joy but also an experience of awe. They were surrounded by a cloud which signifies the Divine presence. And the voice coming from within is to confirm the truth of the Divinity of Christ testified to by the Father. “Listen to him” – The only one that all generations from now on must listen to is Christ – This connects it to Peter’s earlier question “Rabbi.” But why listen to him? Because he will teach love, and will show it to the point of death. He is the lamb or the scapegoat whose sacrifice will be unlimited and eternal – the sacrifice that will fully reveal God’s love and Satan’s lies. 4. Why did Christ ask the 3 Apostles to hide what they experienced until his Resurrection? Because no one can understand the Messiah until he has experienced His Resurrection. The Apostles were scared after Christ’s death, and only after they experienced his Resurrection, have they started to preach the gospel of salvation first in the Temple to the Jews then to the gentiles all over the world. 5. And today, when Christ is being killed again, in the persons of innocent victims, by the “Satanic” powers everywhere, how should Christians react? No. Not by retaliation for He did not retaliate. When he was on the cross he loved and forgave his enemies. Our God and Christ is not a vengeful God – He will not strike the unfaithful as some fundamentalists think. In our everyday life, we can think more of the people we meet, and give them a smile and encouragement; think of our families and friends, and give them a hug; think of our spouses and give them a kiss; think of the strangers and give them a little of what we have; think of people who do not share our faith and show them the real Christ. The glory of Christ is here because heaven came to us in Christ. But we hardly see it. “Maran Atha” says the Book of Revelation which means Come O Lord. Come O Lord in our hearts and make us real Christians for we want to see your glory as your 3 disciples experienced it in the Transfiguration.

Apocalypse Now!

René Girard’s latest work on “War and Apocalypse” (First Things, August/September) stirred much-needed debate in the intellectual realm. The Stanford professor (whose theory of mimetic rivalry was a pioneer in contemporary anthropological and psychological research) has come back.

But before we discuss his latest article, we need to explore his thought. In his theory of mimetic rivalry, Girard shows how we are born with a tendency for selfishness. Mimetic rivalry, that is imitative rivalry, exists in human natural relationships. According to him, I desire what "the other" has, not only because it is good, but more importantly because he also desires it. Thus, in effect, by desiring what he has, I want to fulfill myself by “raping” and destroying him. I am my god, and will expand my family, my tribe, my nation, my religion, and my culture only because they are mine! When people fight because of rivalry, it becomes contagious, and society descends into chaos and disorder. The only Satanic remedy to restore order found in the early cultures was the scapegoat. In pagan cultures, men would collaborate and exclude or kill a person they accuse of not following them. The act of killing unites them again and order is restored. This is the ritual of sacrifice in archaic religions. Following the exclusion or killing act of the “innocent” person, the band starts feeling guilty as they see the victim not moving anymore. They then attempt to reintroduce him in their memory by making him divine, and celebrating his feast with dance and festivities. This remembrance accomplishes again what Satan wants: a lie. Order is re-established based on a lie (killing an innocent person), and a person is now divine based on another lie. This powerful chain was only broken by the death of Christ. This is the Satanic power that Christ reversed by his death, not because he was innocent but because being innocent he did not retaliate. On the cross he forgave his accusers.

In his research, Girard found that the story of killing an innocent person violently goes back to the earliest human people. Archaic religious texts and mythology are based on the same theme. The exception is the Bible. Contrary to the mythic stories of other religions, in the Genesis story of Cain killing his brother Abel, the author does not condemn the victim but the killer. The victim is also justified in many other Biblical events such as the story of Joseph who resisted the invitation of Egypt’s ruler's wife to intercourse and ended up being imprisoned for his innocence. Joseph was released and eventually became the prime minister of Egypt. As the people of God become more responsive to the Spirit of God, God reveals himself more fully in terms of relationships to His people (e.g. the victim husband Hosea to his people). The full self-revelation of God becomes actualized in Jesus Christ, His Only Son. Only in Christ, the truth is fully revealed and Satan’s lie is revealed. The only way out of the vicious circle of violence is to not retaliate which means becoming like Christ. It is because Christ gave himself, died a victim of violence voluntarily and did not retaliate that he in his human body lived again in glory (the Resurrection and Ascension in body and soul). It is true that since Christianity came into the world, a great development of morality has taken place moving entire cultures from the more violent to the less violent and accomplishing great deeds for the dignity of humanity. However, in Girard’s thought, the Spirit of Christ is working in cultures and time. The development of moral values has taken time. For example, although it was always pronounced by the Church, only in the 18th century has slavery started to be recognized and eliminated in Christian societies and the rest of the world.

Girard says that Christians are not fully Christian until they have renounced violence in all its forms, not only in their culture but also in their individual hearts. Now we can talk about Apocalypse. Since 9/11, Girard says, an abhorrent phenomenon has appeared. Fundamentalist Muslims use new technology to force America and the free world into embracing Islam. Islam is spreading everywhere in Europe, a dying continent. The religion that initially grew by the sword in the 7th century is growing again through violence. Since primitive culture and religion grew by violence, there is a renewed concern that humanity will succumb to violence again. What makes it worse is the experience of the 20th and 21st centuries – two World Wars, followed by a Cold War, followed by more struggles and wars that took place recently in Islamic countries. In my view 9/11 is not the beginning of Islamic fundamentalism. Since the mid 1970s, there has been a violent revival of Islamic fundamentalism (in fact, the Wahabi movement in Arabia started fundamentalist Islam in the 19th century and eventually they were given the entire Arabian desert by the British upon the end of World War I). This includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, Palestine/Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. But we cannot blame Muslims alone for the disasters of the world. In spite of a development in moral values because of the Christian influence all over the Western world, we are still self-destructive because, as humans, we have the power to think selfishly and act violently. In spite of the Spirit of Christ, Christians were killing each other in Northern Ireland until a few years ago. Who invaded Iraq in 2003 but Christians? Who was following his own self-interest but a Christian President of America? That is why we are not yet Christians in the full sense. By invading the "other" we are still not fully Christians - the act of true self-giving is missing not only at the cultural level but also at the individual level. There are probably more people of good will in other religions than those self-proclaimed evangelizers in North America. Satan is still going around like a lion seeking who he can swallow as recorded in the New Testament. Satan is called the accuser, divider and destroyer and he lives victorious in our civilizations, bringing us closer every day to destroy each other. This is the epitome of self-annihilation - Hell.

Another phenomenon is intriguing today. Contrary to the martyrs who died for their faith, Muslim fundamentalists die to bring death to "the other" (Christians and Jews). How would hell look like if we add to the equation the great emerging economies and military powers? China and Russia are among the leading military and economic powers today. They are trying hard to get ahead of themselves. They may be a threat to the superior West. Girard thinks that the world military powers have been studying the military theory of Carl von Clausewitz (19th century) for decades!

Should we be concerned? Will America and Europe succumb to the new might? We cannot predict the end yet, for Christ himself warned us that no one knows the hour except God. Apocalypse was meant for hope and support to Christians when John wrote it at the end of the first century, but is it also meant for the last days? As Christians we cannot fail to hope, for the Saviour is with us till the end of the world. John Henry Newman in the 19th century wrote about development of doctrine and faith. There is a development in our understanding of everything Christian, not only because the Second Vatican Council affirmed it in the 20th century, but precisely because it is guided by the God of Love.

Saints

Who are saints? Saints are people like us, who live or lived a life full of love for God and others. In brief, they cared for the "Other." This "Other" is Christ who lives in the needy, the sick, and the oppressed. Saints are the ones who do the Father's will in their lives and forget their own will. Saints rejoice in others who repent by the power of the Holy Spirit. Saints are known by their humility. As greed was the origin of sin, humility is the crown of holiness. But above all, saints are open to God's grace in their everyday life. They labour in the Lord's vineyard without regard to their entitlement. We find many saints in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. The Church commemorates them and many more. Above all the Blessed Virgin Mary was and is the humble and silent servant of God. For this, the Lord wished to be born of her and she foretold that "all generations shall call me blessed." She was silent so that Christ speaks. The Gospels hardly speak of her, yet we know from Tradition that she is the most pure of all creatures. The 3rd Ecumenical Council proclaimed Mary "Theotokos" (i.e. bearer of God) in 431 A.D. John the Baptist is alslo highly commemorated since he prepared the way for Christ by his austere life and obedience to God. From the Old Testament, we see many people who listened to God and followed him. One of them is Samuel who said to God "Speak O Lord for your servant is listening." Another silent servant of God is St. Joseph, Mary's fiance, who was a simple carpenter. In spite of his doubts about Mary's virginity, he was humble enough to accept what the angel told him in a dream. There are many saints in the history of God's people. Think of Stephen the first martyr who was stoned to death by his fellow Jews and yet he asked God to forgive them as did his Master. From the early Church, in addition to the apostles and disciples of Christ, we recall St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Basil, St. Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory, St. Augustine, St. John of Damascus, St. Benedict, St. Barbara, St. George, St. Damiane, St. Anthony, St. Polycarp, St. Cyril, St. Methodius and many more. From the more recent history we recall St. Francis, St. Rita, St. Charbel, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thomas More, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Jean Vianne Cure d'Ars, St. Therese of the Child Jesus, St Edith Stein, St. Faustina, and St. Rafka. Some of the recent Beatified are Blessed Marie Bawardi of Jesus Crucified (a Melkite nun who lived in Egypt & Palestine in the 19th century) and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The cause for the beatification of Pope John Paul II is almost complete. The Church has proclaimed some 4,000-5,000 saints to-date but heaven has a lot more saints. Many unknown saints have never been noticed. In order to avoid abuse, since the 15th century the Catholic Church established rules for declaring saints. There are three important steps that must be examined and completed for a person (candidate) to be beatified and canonized. These are: 1) Heroic life of virtue must be established based on testimonials by people who knew the candidate. 2) The candidate's faith must be in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church based on documents written by him/her and/or certification by authorities. 3) At least 2 miracles (that cannot be explained by scientific investigation) are attributed to the candidate's intercession. These are established through a medical committee. Following the cause for beatification, the Congregation for sainthood must approve the above findings before they go to the Pope for approval and proclamation. Saints point us to Christ. They pray for our salvation. And they rejoice when one sinner repents. The essence of sainthood is nothing else than love - true love.

Why do Catholics and Orthodox Christians have icons and statues in their churches?

There are two important events in the life of Christians that illustrate why we have icons and statues in our churches. The first is the event of the Incarnation itself. When the Word became man, he took on our flesh – Picturing him is not forbidden. On the contrary, it is venerating to the One who, being fully Divine, shared our humanity. This tradition is as early as the painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Luke according to ancient tradition. St. Veronica is said to have wiped Christ’s face on his way to the cross by her handkerchief. His face was immediately imprinted on it. In Christianity, the Jewish tradition was married to Greek thought. And with this, the magnificent arts of Rome and Greece were developed into Christian art (music, painting, sculpture, architecture...etc.) The second event was the advent of Islam into the Byzantine empire by the 7th century which caused a heresy in the East. The heresy “destruction of icons” lasted almost a century until in 787 A.D. the seventh Ecumenical Council proclaimed the truth about the Christian faith. At the Council, icons were restored to churches and peace to the empire. Why the Eastern Church no longer has statues of Christ and saints can be explained as an effect of the aftermath of Islam. It is interesting that Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer in Europe's 16th century, never intended to eliminate statues from churches. As St. John Damascene, the Arab theologian explained in the 8th century, people who could not read the Bible and the liturgy could still worship by looking at icons. In the early and Medieval Church and up to the printing industry in the 16th century, the Bible was copied by hand in monasteries. Ordinary people infrequently read it outside the church. Thanks, however, to the Greek culture, schools of theology and philosophy flourished and thanks to Christian thinkers in both East and West they became centres of learning. By the 12th century the university of Paris was already shining with many great minds. There is a third event which we tend to neglect - it is peculiar to the West as Islam was already in most of the Medieterranean countries. This was Renaissance. Renaissance developed humanism from the classic literature and influenced the Christian West in many ways. We see that in St. Francis' emphasis on the nativity and humanity of Christ. The West developed a culture open to life. Polyphony in sacred music was born in the 11th century. Gothic cathedrals are also a characteristic of Christian churches. The great painters such as Michael Angelo and Raphael brought more beauty into the Christian tradition. Think of this panorama and think how Christ has been pictured in abundant ways and colours, and you will see a sea of imagination. He has brown eyes in the East, blue eyes in the North, yellow hair in the West, and black one in Africa. Christ has the most beautiful face - and he points us to the Father! Why not paint him who dared to be visible to us? Why not paint his mother who participated in his mission and carried him in his life and death and is now with him? Why not paint saints who were heroically transformed to his "image"? The Church carries Christ in all the earth and till the end of times.