A Significant Moment in Contemporary Catholicism

In what amounts to a significant moment in contemporary Catholicism, on Sunday June 2, 2019 Pope Francis beatified seven Greek Catholic Bishops in Blaj, modern Romania at a Divine Liturgy presided over by the Greek Catholic Bishops of the country and assisted by priests and deacons in the presence of Roman Catholic prelates while thousands of the faithful attended the massive event sung by some of the most enriching Byzantine hymns. The Divine Liturgy - a panorama of beauty - with a commentary in French, was recorded here. a snapshot can be found here. It was a reminder that the Catholic Church has the fullness of the truth since Christ charged St. Peter with the responsibility, carried forward by the successors on the Roman See, to sustain his brethren in faith and tend the Christian fold. The same salvific dogma of the Petrine infallible primacy has been carefully preserved in the Catholic Church, proclaimed by the Ecumenical Councils. While the Catholic Church embraced the ecumenical dialogue with "the separated brothers" in the Christian faith since Pope Saint John XXIII convoked the Ecumenical Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), the Catholic Church has since continued to claim the same dogmas handed down through its long Tradition. In the Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen Gentium" proclaimed by the fathers of the latest Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) and promulgated in 1964 by Pope Saint Paul VI, the same pronouncements are found (Cf. #18 here).
Needless to say, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy according to the Byzantine Eastern Tradition demonstrates the unity of the Catholic Church in its diverse traditions. That Pope Francis beatified seven Romanian Greek Catholic Bishops, who suffered and accepted martyrdom under the atheist government in Romania, shows solidarity between Christians who believe that Jesus is the sole redeemer of humanity - As written, Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14, 6).
in his homily (La paix, oui… mais dans la justice et la vérité ...here in French) on the same day in Cairo, the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad echoed the same faith as he said that Christ's peace is not to be confused with peace according to worldly powers (or politically-correct leaders!) - Christ challenged his contemporaries to offer love, and justice and to follow Him who is the Truth. Christ witnesses to the Truth in his answer to Pilate before he accomplished the salvation of the world - which every seeker of the truth may find his share in the kingdom of God!

Proposal for Christians to Enrich Faith

I suggest that you and young adults look for Christian spiritual nourishment available freely on the Internet...

Examples:

1. Donate what you can (on-line) for persecuted Christians in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia...

2. Listen on the Internet (YouTube) to some great stories of saints and theological insights by Bishop Robert Barron and others. You can also check out many saints in the "Catholic Encyclopedia" and on http://catholicsaints.info

3. There is much online information in Biblical scholarship that you can find here:

- Fr. Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D. Biblical Studies here: http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/index.html

- St. Paul Center: https://stpaulcenter.com

4. Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. and his associates on many topics of concern to Christians today:

https://www.magiscenter.com/

5. Pope Benedict XVI (one of the most profound contemporary Christian scholars) here: http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/

6. St. Thomas Aquinas: http://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/

7. Ignatius Insight: http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/index.asp

8. Zenit: https://zenit.org/

9. Evangile Au Quotidien (Today's Gospel and Saints in many languages including English, French, and Arabic...) https://evangelizo.org/evangelizo.php

10. Television catholique (KTO) - France: http://www.ktotv.com/

11. P. Henri Boulad, S.J. (French): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvZ0TcjA7jCdRe5VS6dWjdQ

12. Today's Questions (English): http://todayquestions.blogspot.com/

13. Jean Vanier - L'Arche (English/French): https://www.larche.org/welcome

14. Vatican (The Apostolic See - in many languages): http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/it.html

15. Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

A New Threat - Be Vigilant and Read

Today we see how aggravated the situation in the Middle East has become. It is not really a war between Iran and Israel or Iran and the United States. It is a war of fundamental terrorism under a new shape guided by Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Revolutionary Guards, against the United States Administration under Donald Trump...To make things worse,  a few days ago the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov in Sochi but failed to agree on the Iranian crisis and other ones (CBS News here). Yesterday, President Trump warned the Iranian rulers in a tweet that "If Iran wants to fight that would be the official end of Iran" (here). Khameini's Iran is responsible for Hizbullah terrorist organization that threatens to wipe out Israel and, since 2006, has used Lebanon as a proxy base for launching attacks on Israel. Hizbullah was used by Iran in its support of Alawites (a Shiite branch) in Syria, and in the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels launch of rockets against its arch-rival Sunni Saudi Arabia from Yemen where both sides try to eliminate each other. Israel, on the other hand, has targeted Hizbullah in Syria with rockets and air power while also eliminating Hamas, a Sunni Islamic terrorist organization, in Gaza.
If this is a reminder of turbulence in world peace, I suggest that we revisit my post in July 2014 here:
https://todayquestions.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-much-needed-courage-of-joseph.html
The need is greater than negotiations; for two prominent scholars: Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis had predicted, for over 4 decades, the return of radical Islam.
It is time to pray for the conversion of hearts and minds and to donate what we can to persecuted Christians in the world especially in Africa and Asia - We do not forget Christians killed in Nigeria this year, and in China and those killed in Sri Lanka on Easter while worshiping; for only through Jesus Christ can humanity be saved from utter destruction!

Henri Boulad: All is Grace

Since I found it in my library a couple of days ago, I have been reading the fascinating book "All is Grace" by the Jesuit scholar Fr. Henri Boulad. We bought the book in 2003 when Fr. Boulad came to Toronto for the first time. "All is Grace" is subtitled "Man and the Mystery of Time." The book is a collection of lectures given by him mostly in Alexandria, Egypt. In it, Fr. Boulad speaks of human life and compares it to nature - plants and trees and much more of God's creation then introduces true love as the much needed recovery of life in today's civilization of fast-accumulated, yet superstitious, knowledge through technology really needs renewal...
Here is a little excerpt from page 71 where he speaks how he learned and where did his knowledge lead him to:
[That's culture: a tree that grows, not a truck one fills; this new knowledge can be a sparkling spring. Here are two quotations from the contemporary Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar:
Patience is the prime virtue of any one who wants to learn; Only what has disappeared in the ear can be born in the heart.
And I would add: Only what has been born in the heart can be repeated by the tongue........
One day is not enough. It takes days and days until, little by little, the tree reveals its soul to us. It is the same with human beings. It takes time to get to know us, to discover us, because human beings do not reveal themselves all at once; they take time to uncover their souls. And that presupposes a look, a long look; waiting, long waiting; patience, long patience; until the other reveals himself or herself in a truth and a mystery which is very different from what we had originally imagined.
It is the same with God. It takes time to get to know God and discover God. And that presupposes that one takes time to pray. God does not reveal himself to anyone who is in a hurry. To penetrate his mystery, you have to take time, all your time.] In his book, Fr. Boulad recalls that he saw the corrections La Fontaine made to his classic fables - "A simple little fable which seemed to have sprung straight from La Fontaine's pen was, in fact, the result of scrupulous correction and patient labour."
Fr. Boulad quotes from philosophers works such as Sartre's view of God "God is a 'voyeur' who tries to see through the keyhole what is going on in my room, what is going on in my heart" which turned Sartre to an atheist...Boulad also quotes from ' Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" depicting the gaze of Jesus upon Judas and Judas reaction of double-murder (betraying Jesus to death on the cross, and his murder of himself in despair), the French Jean Lacroix' book "The Feeling of Guilt" where the philosopher distinguishes between two different attitudes: remorse and repentance! In the psychology of Sigmund Freud remorse is Boulad sees remorse a self-punishment all-too evident in Christian tradition for atonement of guilt and sees man's hope and faith in repentance. God has always loved his creation and would never be punishing. Boulad also quotes the poets Rudyard Kipling and Victor Hugo that expressed joy in not doubting God's forgiveness and love. He refers to the Biblical witness culminating in the transforming power of Jesus Christ, his love, and his healing, always patient and understanding. The problem of today's schools and colleges is, I agree, a hidden atheism since God is pictured as the tyrant judge of humanity, so he must be forgotten...This is not the image of the true Triune God, ever loving who himself is love (1 John 4:8). I heard Fr. Boulad speak about God "the communion of love" at Holy Family Coptic Catholic parish in his visit to Toronto in 2003 and wrote about it here: https://todayquestions.blogspot.com/2008/06/trinity-divine-communion-of-love.html

Mystical Theology on the Cosmos

 From "Mass of the Cosmos" by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. 

“Since once again, Lord — though this time not in the forests of the Aisne but in the steppes of Asia — I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself; I, your priest, will make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer you all the labors and sufferings of the world.

Over there, on the horizon, the sun has just touched with light the outermost fringe of the eastern sky. Once again, beneath this moving sheet of fire, the living surface of the earth wakes and trembles, and once again begins its fearful travail. I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labour. Into my chalice I shall pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits.

My paten and my chalice are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit. Grant me the remembrance and the mystic presence of all those whom the light is now awakening to the new day.

One by one, Lord, I see and I love all those whom you have given me to sustain and charm my life. One by one also I number all those who make up that other beloved family which has gradually surrounded me, its unity fashioned out of the most disparate elements, with affinities of the heart, of scientific research and of thought. And again one by one — more vaguely it is true, yet all-inclusively — I call before me the whole vast anonymous army of living humanity; those who surround me and support me though I do not know them; those who come, and those who go; above all, those who in office, laboratory and factory, through their vision of truth or despite their error, truly believe in the progress of earthly reality and who today will take up again their impassioned pursuit of the light.

This restless multitude, confused or orderly, the immensity of which terrifies us; this ocean of humanity whose slow, monotonous wave-flows trouble the hearts even of those whose faith is most firm: it is to this deep that I thus desire all the fibres of my being should respond. All the things in the world to which this day will bring increase; all those that will diminish; all those too that will die: all of them, Lord, I try to gather into my arms, so as to hold them out to you in offering. This is the material of my sacrifice; the only material you desire.

Once upon a time men took into your temple the first fruits of their harvests, the flower of their flocks. But the offering you really want, the offering you mysteriously need every day to appease your hunger, to slake your thirst is nothing less than the growth of the world borne ever onwards in the stream of universal becoming.

Receive, O Lord, this all-embracing host which your whole creation, moved by your magnetism, offers you at this dawn of a new day.

This bread, our toil, is of itself, I know, but an immense fragmentation; this wine, our pain, is no more, I know, than a draught that dissolves. Yet in the very depths of this formless mass you have implanted — and this I am sure of, for I sense it — a desire, irresistible, hallowing, which makes us cry out, believer and unbeliever alike:

‘Lord, make us one.’”

— Teilhard de Chardin

From "The Glory of the Lord" by Hans Urs von Balthasar

Beauty is the word that shall be our first. Beauty is the last thing which the thinking intellect dares to approach, since only it dances as an uncontained splendor around the double constellation of the true and the good and their inseparable relation to one another. Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness. No longer loved or fostered by religion, beauty is lifted from its face as a mask, and its absence exposes features on that face which threaten to become incomprehensible to man. We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past — whether he admits it or not — can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.”

— Hans Urs von Balthasar, THE GLORY OF THE LORD: A THEOLOGICAL AESTHETICS, VOL. 1 – SEEING THE FORM