Magdi Allam and Corneille's Polyeucte

The Easter baptism of Magdi Crisitiano Allam is such a striking event that I hardly know what to say except to add my own amazement to the chorus of reactions to this event. I would suggest, however, that we examine the unfolding of events through the dramatic perspective of Pierre Corneille's great play Polyeucte. Hans Urs von Balthasar first indicated this work to me and it came to mind when I began reflecting on Allam:

«Corneille's Polyeucte, which Péguy considered the most important work in French literature, describes in detail the encounter of Christianity and culture as envisaged by him and also by me.»

Test Everything, p 12

The first place where Corneille registers this encounter between Christianity and culture is not with paganism, but within the Church, a Church that takes comfort in its institutional prerogatives. A Church not unlike that described in the Book of Revelation 2:4 — Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first.

I'm posting here a dialogue between Polyeucte who is a new Christian and Nearchus the friend who introduced him to Christianity. Cleon, a friend of Polyeucte's father- in- law Felix, invites Polyeucte and everyone else to make sacrifices at a pagan altar. Polyeucte is ready to go, but Nearchus reminds him that as a Christian he can no longer participate in pagan rites. Polyeucte surprises Nearchus by telling his friend that he goes not to worship but to witness.

NEAR.
I fly their altars!

POLY.
I would overthrow!
Not mine to fly a worship I disown,
By me Jehovah, King of kings, be known!
Not mine to tremble as I kiss the rod!
I conquer by the Cross, I fight for God!
Thou wouldst abstain! For me another course
From Heaven the call, and Heaven will give the force!
What! Yield to evil! His Cross on my brow!
His freemen we! O fight, Nearchus, now!
For us our Lord was scourged, pierced, tortured, slain!
For us He bled! Say, has He died in vain?

NEAR.
Let timely moderation temper zeal!

POLY.
His—His alone am I! His woe my weal!

NEAR.
In love with death?

POLY.
For Him I love I die!
He died for me! So death is victory!

NEAR.
Thy flesh is weak!

POLY.
Yet He will make me bold!

NEAR.
And if thou waver?

POLY.
He will me uphold!

NEAR.
To tempt the Lord thy God were an offence.

POLY.
He is my shield—hence! cursed tempter, hence!

NEAR.
In time of need the faith must be confessed.

POLY.
The offering grudged is sacrifice unblessed.

NEAR.
Seek thou the death thine own self-will prepares!

POLY.
A crown I seek, which every martyr shares!

NEAR.
A life of duty well that crown can win.

POLY.
The purest life on earth is stained with sin.
Why yield to time and chance what death assures?
Death but the gate of life that aye endures.
If I be His—let me be His alone!
The faith that soars shall full fruition own;
Who trusts, yet fears and doubts, his faith is dead!

NEAR.
Not death the Christian's prayer, but daily bread.
Live to protect the flock, so sore oppressed.

POLY.
Example be their friend, most sure, most blessed!

NEAR.
Thou woo'st thy death!

POLY.
Is this poor life so dear?

NEAR.
Ah, I must own my heart is slave to fear.
The rack! The cross! I might my Lord disown!

POLY.
From Him our help, our strength, from Him alone!
Who fears denial does at heart deny;
Who doubts the power of faith makes faith a lie!

NEAR.
Who leans upon a reed shall find distress.

POLY.
His staff will guide, support my feebleness.
Thou wert my staff, to show the Truth, the Way,
Must I now urge thee to the realms of day?
Thou fearest death?

NEAR.
The Christ once feared to die!

POLY.
Yet drained the bitter cup of agony!
The way that thou hast shown—that way He trod;
His way be ours to lead man's soul to God—
For heathen shrine—to rear His altar fair,—
The deathless hope alone can kill despair!
Thou said'st: 'If Him thou wilt for pattern take,
Then leave wife, wealth, home, all for His dear sake!'
Alas, that love of thine, now weak and poor,
Glows yet within my breast—and shall endure;
Ah, must the dawn of this my perfect day
Find thy full light beclouded, dimmed, astray?

NEAR.
Baptismal waters yet bedew thy brow;
The grace that once was mine, that grace hast thou.
No worldly thought has checked the flow, no guilty act has stained;
Thy wings are strong, while mine are weak; thy love is fresh,
ungeigned,—
To these, thy heights, I cannot soar, held down by sense and sin,
How can I storm the citadel?—the traitor lurks within!
Forsake me not, my God! Thy spirit pour!
Oh, make me true to Him whom I adore!
With Thee I rise,—the flesh, the world, defy,
Thou, who hast died for me, for Thee I die!
Yes, I will go! With heaven-born zeal I burn,
I will be free,—all Satan's lures I spurn;
Death, torture, outrage, these will I embrace,
To nerve my heart and arm, Heaven grant me grace!

POLY.
On eagle wings of faith and hope ascend!
I hail my master—recognise my friend;
The old faith wanes,—we light her funeral pyre,
Her ashes fall before our holy fire;
Come, trample under foot the gods that men have wrought;
The rotten, helpless staff is broke, is gone—is naught.
Their darkness felt they own, but let them see the light!
Their gods of stone, of clay, but vampires of the night!
Their dust shall turn to dust,—shall moulder with the sod,
Ours for His name to fight:—the issue is with God.

NEAR.
The cause is just, is true—O coward heart, be still!
I lived to doubt His word—I die to do His Will!

A remarkable thing it is when long-time Christians like myself can be catechized by one just arrived in the Church like Magdi Cristiano Allam.

[postscripts: St. Polyeuctus of Melitene, in Armenia;
Wikipedia lists his feast as Feb. 13th on the Catholic calendar.
I also see that Militene is the modern city of Malatya in Turkey]

Magdi Allam at Rimini

You've heard the story of Magdi Allam's baptism last night by Pope Benedict XVI. A friend sent me a link to John Allen's column about this controversial journalist's conversion which shows an interesting CL link, as an example of friendship via cultural work.

One of the best-known Muslims in Italy, a journalist who in some ways is the heir to Oriana Fallaci as the country’s most prominent critic of Islamic radicalism, is to be baptized this evening by Pope Benedict XVI and received into the Catholic church.

Magdi Allam, a columnist and vice-director of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily newspaper, is among seven new Catholics from five countries to be personally baptized by the pope during the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica....

Though Allam has typically described himself as a “secular Muslim,” he is no stranger to the Catholic church. Over the years, he has been close to the Communion and Liberation movement in Italy, becoming one of the star attractions at the annual “Meeting” sponsored by the movement at the Italian seaside resort of Rimini. That event typically draws in excess of 700,000 people, including the cream of Italy’s political class.

During those sessions, Allam has typically voiced deep appreciation for Catholic social doctrine and, more generally, for the strong defense of a link between reason and faith offered by both John Paul II and now Benedict XVI.

Allam enthusiastically embraced Benedict’s call to resist a “dictatorship of relativism,” connecting it to the struggle against Islamic extremism.

“We must put together a coalition of values among those who believe that all life is sacred, to fight a kind of ideological nihilism that sees life’s value as merely relative,” he said recently. “Only in this way can we remove the roots that nourish the terrorists’ wars.”

From Easter to Mission

Happy Easter! (We're having a white Easter here in Duluth.)

Fr. Carron's recent interview with Alfa y Omega, "An Original Presence", opens up a path to mission, I believe.

First, he speaks of the recent encounter with the Senza Terra movement (what's that called again? :) ), which we have all followed with interest.

The Mystery put us in front of this new event, but I am not afraid, because He who started this good work among us will complete it. Our duty is to say yes to this new and mysterious form in which God presents Himself in our life.

There is much in this interview, but I am particularly struck by this section about our public presence as Christians, which is what we do here and everywhere. When he says, "reacting to others' provocations is not enough, we are pushed to rediscover the originality of Christianity", I see how much I react to the reactions.

In the present situation where, as we have seen, reacting to others’ provocations is not enough, we are pushed to rediscover the originality of Christianity. A non-reactive, original presence is required. “A presence is original when it comes from the consciousness of its own identity and from the attachment to it. In this, it finds its consistency” (Father Giussani). As Christians, we have not been chosen to prove our dialectic or strategic skills, but just to testify to the news that faith has introduced into the world and that “conquered” us, changing our look toward people and reality. In this context, I believe that the challenge we are faced with is the usual one, since the beginning of the Movement: the educational challenge; educating adults in the faith, according to a method that makes the attachment to Christ reasonable. As Father Giussani said at the 1987 Synod, “What is missing is not the verbal or cultural repetition of the announcement. Today’s man is waiting, probably without knowing it, to experience a meeting with people in whom the fact of Christ is such a present reality that their lives have changed. It is a human impact that can upset today’s man”— that is, the meeting with something that matches our heart’s needs, that shakes reason of its torpor and that can be the answer no moralism could ever dream up.

In this our medium is limited, but it is evident that another way than the typical is needed to display the reasonableness of attachment to Christ. The Holy Father gives us an example in his dialogue with Muslim leaders and scholars. Also, the Vatican is initiating alliances with secular and other politicians for causes of human dignity. By affirming human dignity in all its aspects (e.g. moratoriums on the death penalty as well as abortion), the Church is offering a more persuasive view of the person which can move the heart.

Another interesting perspective on dialogue as presence can be found in the Godspy recap of the recent political discussion sponsored by Crossroads.

The motive for bringing Olasky and Hertzberg together was not to conduct an argument between left and right. As one of the event organizers, Carlo Lancellotti explained to me, “Reality is an event, not an idea.” The point was to have an encounter where the role of faith and reason in public life could be explored in friendship. “There is a cultural vacuum” in our society, Lancellotti added. “Politics alone cannot sustain the life of a people. By raising the question of human desire, we can make a contribution.”

In this same context, Fr. Giussani said something to those first GS kids who went to Brazil which clarifies this serene openness we are called to:

Just as you have to be faithful to our community and to the values and the directives given for your spiritual life and for educating your persons, so for the activity and behaviour with others and the environment the rule is a deep adaptation: Do not have any pretensions and don't pass a negative judgement on anything.

Immediately I see, that's different! This helps me understand how to communicate, whether online or with family, friends, community. It's something other than my instinctive and well-practiced mode. But then, everything about Christ is new. Fr. Carron, on receiving the mandate to guide the Movement for these next years with a more acute awareness of disproportion, quoted Soloviev: "What is dearest to us in Christianity is Christ Himself."

Christ Is Risen!

Way of the Cross in Atlanta

From Atlanta Way o...

One week after an EF2 tornado hit downtown Atlanta, we had our Way of the Cross, starting at CNN Center and ending at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The statue in this photo, "Phoenix Rising From the Ashes," symbolizes Atlanta's rise from the destruction of the Civil War.

Favelados Movement of São Paulo, Communion and Liberation

Cathedral of São Paulo, Brazil

Almost a week ago, here on Cahiers Péguy, Fred asked some questions with regard to the news that Cleusa and Marcos Zerbini (leaders of a movement to provide homes and educational assistance to favelados* in São Paulo, Movimento em Defesa do Favelado da Região Episcopal Belém, or Favelados Movement of São Paulo) had handed over their movement to Fr. Julian Carron and Communion and Liberation:

Why is this a breakthrough? How does the witness of this event change us? Is it a breakthrough for us, and why?

A movement in a distant country, made up of 120,000 people, who all decide, along with their leaders, to consign themselves to another movement, one I happen to belong to -- why is this a breakthrough? I have written a little here and here about how and why this news has changed me, personally. But these reflections don't really answer the question of how this event changes us and why it's a breakthrough for us. I always tremble when asked to speak more generally and globally -- it isn't my mother tongue -- but I am going to give it a try, because these questions represent an invitation, and I do my best always to accept invitations.

It is a breakthrough, first of all for Communion and Liberation because Brazil is the first place that received missionaries sent by Father Giussani. Here is an excerpt of a letter he sent to the first four who went there:

1. Be deeply rooted in love for the Kingdom of God, which happens not because of what you do, but through the offering of sacrifice. It is only the Cross that saves he world.
2. May this make you calm and joyful in whatever task you are assigned. ...So, even if your work doesn't go as you had dreamed, accept it happily; feel the kingdom of God, Brazil and the destiny of GS much more in never being discouraged, in adapting yourselves to everything, than in any other ability.
3. Just as you have to be faithful to our community and to the values and the directives given for your spiritual life and for educating your persons, so for the activity and behaviour with others and the environment the rule is a deep adaptation: Do not have any pretensions and don't pass a negative judgement on anything.

Be in love with the Lord who has chosen you to begin something that could be very fruitful for his Kingdom: and don't worry about anything except being there, obedient and willing.
Gratiam agimus propter magnam gloriam tuam (We give you thanks for your great glory).
And you, too, are a hem of that glory, not what you manage to do, but you yourselves, your offering.
- from Fr Giussani's letters to the first four students of Gioventù Studentesca (Young Student) who left for Brazil. It was 1962.

The year was 1962. Now it is 2008, and Father Carron, as the representative of this same movement, founded by Father Giussani, can say to the crowd assembled in the Cathedral of São Paulo and addressing Cleusa and Marcos Zerbini in particular:

E Carron, di fronte ad almeno 8.000 persone, dentro la Cattedrale di San Paolo, di fronte a questa disarmante consegna, ha a sua volta aperto il cuore. “Provo la stessa commozione e allegria di quando Giussani mi ha chiamato con se alla guida di CL.
And Carron, in front of at least 8,000 people inside the Cathedral of São Paulo, in the face of this disarming delivery, in turn, opened his heart. "I feel the same emotion and joy as when Giussani called me to guide CL."

Ma non abbiamo paura, siamo certi che chi ha iniziato in noi questa opera la porterà a compimento”.
"But I have no fear, we are sure that he who began this work in us will bring it to fruition." (full text here)

The same emotion he had when Fr. Giussani asked him to lead CL! And he referred to the same scripture passage to express his confidence in the positive value of a great and beautiful offering of self. He did not express the triumphant opinion that here, in front of him, was the "fruit" of the seeds first planted in 1962. And why not? Is it not a triumph of Fr. Giussani's charism? Is it not a fruit that we can taste?

As Christians, we are pilgrims on a journey, always beginning again. There is only one fruit that tastes sweet to us: the fruit of the tree we will venerate tomorrow, on Good Friday. Christ, the Bread of Life. We are continually seeking him, so that we can taste and see him again. This is because we are creatures who live in time; it is the mystery of our existence in time. But also, it seems clear that this step, taken by the Favelados Movement of São Paulo, is not the final step of a journey; it is rather a next step and even a new beginning. I am reminded of something T.S. Eliot wrote, in Four Quartets:

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot

Arrivals and departures are always occasions of insight and discovery.

We must also consider the fact that the charism of Father Giussani that animates Communion and Liberation has a strong missionary character: Go out to all the nations... Even if we remain in the same town our whole lives, we are called to live the way Enzo and Rosetta live the charism in Brazil. Addressing Fr. Carron, Marcos Zerbini thanked these two ciellini and credited his friendship with them as the source of his decision, now brought to maturity, to turn his movement over to CL. If we do not go out to another nation, let's go into the homes and living rooms of our neighbors, to offer ourselves and to invite them to meet the One who has sent us and whom we serve.

Finally, and most importantly, this event took place, "accidentally," in the Cathedral of São Paulo, in front of the bishop of that city, Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, who expressed surprise at the large number of young people who participated in the meeting, and he opened his heart, the Cathedral, and the Church herself to the members of the Favelados Movement who had assembled in the rainy Plaza da Fe. That he was able to recognize that something astonishing was taking place that day, something so attractive that he wanted to usher it in, is perhaps the greatest sign and provocation for us. The two ways the Church is made present, methodologically, are, "Unity expressed visibly ... [and] the link to authority, that is, to the bishop" (The Journey to Truth is an Experience, Luigi Giussani, pp. 88 & 89). And wherever the Church is present, Christ is there. Let's always seek his face!

* A "favela" is an illegal occupation of a terrain in large cities, where dwellers often have to live without any basic infrastructure, such as water, sewage, electricity, garbage collection, mail, etc. In Rio de Janeiro, these favelas are home to about half its population and are normally located in the hills, as this land is difficult to access and tend to be neglected by contractors. The residents are known as Favelados.

A favela home in São Paulo

Is Monogamy Human?

Jeanna Bryner of LiveScience tackles this question as published over at yahoo! today. What's curious to me and important about the article is that first the human as a whole - as we would say "in all of its factors" - is never considered, and secondly that it seems incredible to consider human monogamy without ever mentioning the word "love". The question is only posed under two aspects: monogamy and biological organisms, and monogamy as social politics.

Creative minorities & presidential politics

Angelo Matera of Godspy: "What the Presidential Election Reveals About America's Soul"

A great example of a creative minority at work was an event last Wednesday at Columbia Law School in New York, organized by Communion & Liberation — known as “CL”—a panel discussion with the provocative title: Forward Together: What the Presidential Campaign Is Revealing about the State of the American Soul.

The discussion, part of CL’s Crossroads Cultural Center, brought together two journalists from opposite sides of the political spectrum—Marvin Olasky, editor of World Magazine, from the right, and Hendrik Hertzberg, executive editor of The New Yorker, from the left.

The moderator was CL’s national director, Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, widely considered the most authoritative and provocative Catholic commentator operating within secular media today. (For example, when PBS did a documentary on “Faith and 9/11,” they gave Albacete the closing remarks). Albacete’s unique achievement is that he’s equally respected both inside and outside the Church. He’s managed this by combining a mordant wit with mystical wisdom — and perfect comic timing. When Hertzberg opened his remarks by explaining that while he didn’t believe in God, he believed in Albacete, the monsignor immediately intoned, in his baritone: “Good enough.” It brought the house down.

betrayal through familiarity

- Background on Caravaggio's Taking of Christ in the Garden -

Easter Poster 2008

See it at the Communion and Liberation page.

Man is worth so much to God that he himself became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way, in flesh and blood, as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus' Passion [...] and so the star of hope rises.

Benedict XVI

God was moved by our nothingness, by our betrayal, by our crude, forgetful and treacherous poverty, by our pettiness. For what reason? "I have loved you with an eternal love, therefore I have made you part of me, having pity on your nothingness." The beat of the heart is pity on your nothingness but the reason why is that you might participate in being.

Luigi Giussani

landless find a home: so what?

Here's a bit from the article on the event that happened Cleuza and Marcos Zerbini, Landless Workers Movement of São Paulo, Communion and Liberation, and the Cardinal Odilo Scherer Archbishop of Sao Paulo in Brazil:

This an account of a moving event which marks a breakthrough for CL, and in more than South America.

Why is this a breakthrough? How does the witness of this event change us? Is it a breakthrough for us, and why?

Holy Father has sent a telegram to Fr. Oreste Basso, co-president of the Focolari Movement for the death at the age of 88 of the movement's founder...

"With deep emotion I learned the news of the pious death of Ms Chiara Lubich, which came at the end of a long and fruitful life marked by her tireless love for the abandoned Jesus. At this moment of painful separation I remain affectionately and spiritually close to her relatives and to the entire Work of Mary - the Focolari Movement which began with her - and to those who appreciated her constant commitment for communion in the Church, for ecumenical dialogue and for fraternity among all peoples. I thank the Lord for the witness of her life, spent in listening to the needs of modern man in complete faithfulness to the Church and to the Pope. And, as I commend her soul to divine goodness that she may be welcomed in the bosom of the Father, I hope that those who knew and met her, admiring the wonders that God achieved through her missionary ardour, may follow her footsteps and keep her charism alive. With such sentiments, I invoke the maternal intercession of Mary and willingly impart my apostolic blessing to everyone".

Way of the Cross on EWTN

The Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge will be aired on Life on the Rock (EWTN), at the end of segment 1. Life on the Rock airs here in the US Live on Thursdays at 8PM Eastern time, Fridays at 1AM and 1Pm Eastern time, and Sundays at 11PM Eastern time.

Wow! «wonder and entreaty, and gratitude for witnesses of this kind, who bring us to know Christ, the Fact that fills history»

Traces No. 3, march 2008
Editorial

A Fact that Embraces Everything

---

First of all, there is the fact: fifty thousand people in the square and in the Cathedral of Sao Paolo, Brazil, where Cardinal Otto Scherer had the doors opened to let those outside shelter from the rain. Fifty thousand faces, hearts, stories. A movement: the “Landless,” along with their leaders, Cleuza and Marcos Zerbini. That day, Sunday, February 24th, in the Cathedral, they consigned themselves and their history to someone else: “Years ago, when Fr. Carrón met Fr. Giussani, he handed his movement over into Fr. Giussani’s hands. Today, we of the Landless Movement of Sao Paolo want to hand it over into your hands, because on meeting Communion and Liberation we have met all we needed to meet.”

These were the same words that Cleuza had spoken in La Thuile, stunned by that phrase “even the hairs on your head are numbered” with which the CL Responsibles’ Assembly opened. “Marcos, everything is here. Now we can even go back to Brazil.” After the meeting in the Cathedral, many of those fifty thousand people said the same thing personally to Fr. Carrón, moved and happy, “small and unworthy” but “without fear, because He who has begun this good work among you will bring it to fulfillment.”

A fact of great immensity, then, which leaves one breathless, as happens when an Other is fulfilling history; but in that fact there is also the certainty of that witness, the absolute depth of judgment, of that “everything” said not as a figure of speech, as often happens, but with complete seriousness, with full awareness. “We have met everything we needed.” Everything. Because Christ truly embraces everything, and faith becomes truly the criterion with which to face and get to know everything: life, desires, expectations, commitments, politics, and “the tears of twenty years of struggle for building houses and the whole of our movement,” as Cleuza said; everything. There is no need for anything else, and nothing remains outside this encounter, to the point that you entrust to His hands yourself and the enormous, tremendous enterprise you are building with twenty years of history and fifty thousand friends.

There are no conclusions to be drawn mechanically, in the face of this fact; no rule to apply—only wonder and entreaty, and gratitude for witnesses of this kind, who bring us to know Christ, the Fact that fills history.

See also this article: "The friendship that can deal with everything"

Sunday 24 February. In Sao Paulo cathedral, before 50,000 people and Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Cleuza and Marcos Zerbini consigned the Landless Workers movement “into the hands of Fr. Carrón, because in meeting Communion and Liberation we have met with all we ever needed.” This an account of a moving event which marks a breakthrough for CL, and in more than South America

Thunderbolt and lightning- very very frightening me! Galileo

Galileo. At La Sapienza, some professors (including one who wrote a secular hagiography of Galileo) objected to the University's invitation of Pope Benedict XVI. The main rationale given was that about 15 years before, the man- who- would- be- pope had quoted a statement on Galileo that fell short of adulation. Now, a statue of Galileo will be coming to the Vatican (hat tip: Catholic Sensibility).

By the way, Issue 2, 2008 Traces has a series of articles on the La Sapienza issues.

Bodies are in Kansas City and I'm Ambivalent

Archbishop Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas and Bishop Finn of Kansas City- St. Joseph (Missouri) have issued a joint statement against the latest exhibition of plasticized bodies.

Todd in Kansas City has noted a parallel between this exhibit and certain elements of the veneration of relics in the Catholic Church. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't mention the 1996 reformation in the use of relics - which have been aimed specifically at respect for the body (but then again, he might not have heard). Indeed, the Church has struggled (and not always perfectly) to maintain a proper balance between veneration and abuse.

My first response to this comparison is that it is mainly a structural parallel. Yes, the practices are similar on the surface, but the meaning, the heart of what is done is totally different.

And then I was talking with some other Confirmation teachers after class last night. One of her students brought a question asked the same day by her public school teacher: why do the Catholic bishops discourage this display? The other question raised was: can I go? The bishops guide us and we listen to them, but we also have the responsibility of making a prudential judgment. We agreed that if a student goes, they do so keeping in mind the bishop's guidance; they are responsible for maintaining a reverent attitude; and they must judge what they see.

In this conversation, I brought up Todd's parallels. Todd mentions in particular a process just applied to the body of St. Padre Pio (Thanks Todd, you really made me think!). But Saints' relics are treated with deep respect and the identity of the individual is heightened. For example, a bone chip of St. Anthony of Padua may not look like much, but people kiss the glass of its reliquary (as I have), in order to honor a particular man who lived for Christ.

No, what occurred to me in this conversation was the Capuchin Ossuary in Italy. And here's the Sedlec ossuary of the Czech Republic. Anonymous bones arranged in decorative patterns, some even imitating the poses of life. Now that sounds familiar.

So what's the difference between these medieval ossuaries and the plasticized body exhibits? The entire culture is what's different. The ossuaries expressed a culture in which everything was a sign of the truth made flesh. Plasticized bodies express a culture in which nothing is a sign, everything is a stimulas, an entertainment. What's the difference? The difference is in the heart of the beholder to some degree. One could walk through plasticized bodies marveling at the wonder of the human body (as Sharon did at an exhibit near her) or one could see it all as a freak show, a novelty. Of course, that's what goes on in the medieval ossuaries today, I would think (a commentator over at Todd's Catholic Sensibility saw this happen in European cathedral. There is a difference, however. In the medieval ossuaries, the Christians who built them couldn't help but testify to the truth that they recognized: what you are we once were; what we are you will become. If I go to see the plasticized bodies, I'll have to bring that lesson in with me.

Fr. Giussani and Lourdes

Lourdes is not the place of the perfect; it is a place of the sick, of those in need of grace, of those who ask that through their weak and infirm humanity, a ray of Christ’s divinity might pass, for themselves, for the men of the world, for their brothers. I would like to recall just one expression of Fr. Giussani’s then: “For the pilgrimage of life towards destiny, the human personality needs only something very elementary: a great simplicity of heart, a poverty of soul and spirit. Our Lady is the ‘type’ of this man traveling towards his destiny, of this new protagonist of time.”

From "Fr. Giussani and Lourdes: That Candle Is a Sign of our Faith", by Fr. Massimo Camisasca

Tradition and Food

When my husband and I attended the Meeting in Rimini almost three years ago, we were intrigued to meet the founder of Club di Papillon. My husband is particularly interested in wine and cooking, so we enjoyed the on-site dining and the bottled vinegar and olive oil selection.

The story goes that in some depressed parts of Italy, people in the movement went back to producing some of the traditional foods of the area that had been supplanted with modern products, with some success. This emphasis on tradition as a source to mine in solving problems is something which is rarely heard. Applications of this method which was very important to Fr. Giussani are also used in third world countries, where AVSI helps people recover some traditions that allowed sustenance in their particular milieu. In many cases, the loss of tradition via instant modernization has caused a great deal of misery. An obvious example is the use of infant formula to replace breastfeeding.

So, I found a fascinating book about food and ... tradition. I'm interested in food; who isn't? Michael Pollan, a journalist, has written a provocative history of processed food which will (is in my case) send you to your local farmer's market and have you removing the boxes of vacuous substitutes from your pantry. Forget Atkins, low-fat, low-carb, sugar-free, diet-this and eliminate-that. His recipe: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

The book is an anti-ideology manifesto which returns to cultural traditions to look for the answers to our problems with eating. We have some serious disorders related to food in our post-industrial society. We're overweight and feel guilty for eating. There's something wrong here. For example, is the French paradox (eat with olive oil, drink red wine and be merry) actually an anomaly, or have we erred in our nutrition calculations?

Pollan: "I contend that most of what we're consuming today is no longer, strictly speaking, food at all, and how we're consuming it--in the car, in front of the TV, and, increasingly, alone--is not really eating, at least not in the sense that civilization has understood the term."

Pollan maintains that nutritionism has taken for its object food stripped down to a list of nutrients. By mixing and matching these nutrients, producing quasi-food products and then creating "guidelines" for consumption, we are actually becoming fatter and sicker than ever before. The low-fat craze led to carb-binging and people got larger rather than healthier.

The Mediterranean diet is supposed to be one of the most healthy in the world. It is based on a 1950s study of people from Crete. But Pollan points out that food cannot be taken out of the cultural context of those people:

Yes, they ate lots of olive oil and more fish than meat. But they also did more physical labor. As followers of the Greek Orthodox church, they fasted frequently. They ate lots of wild greens--weeds. And perhaps most significantly, they ate far fewer total calories than we do.

Pollan argues that our Western diseases of diabetes, cancer, dental decay and heart ailments have come about with the mass commodification of our food. A group of Aborigines who were living on the Western diet with the attendant health ailments returned to a hunting and gathering lifestyle; they virtually eliminated their diabetes, hypertension and heart disease in a matter of months.

The author goes on to discuss whole vs. refined foods, the reduction in variety of foods (we eat mostly corn and soy) and the balance between omega-3 and omega-6 in our oils. He discusses the sacrifice in quality in crop strains that offer higher yields. And finally, there is the issue of how we eat our food, in huge quantities, alone and grazing without defined meals. He does not address exercise, which is an undeniably large factor in our general health and in comparing traditional diets with our own. Still, returning to cooking and eating traditions, finding closer food sources and rejecting food substitutes could go a long way to improving our necessary relationship with food.

By the way, this a belated response to my sister's recent blog question: "These are some silly-sounding foods I've seen (but not tasted) in recent days... Organic American Cheese. Non-fat Half-and-half.... And so, my question is... why???"

Politics: Worship and Sacrifice- making a judgment

Evil is first and foremost a perversion of our freedom. Freedom is not primarily from, but for. We are free for a reason and that reason is not to be self-determining, that is, autonomous. Self-autonomy is hell. We are free for love. We are free in order to love. Our culture and its individualism, which is something that the both the Left and the Right appeal to in different ways in these United States, is something we, as disciples of Jesus, must transcend. Our current political environment places Christians in something of a double-bind, between rejecting the free-market and economic individualism of the Right, which has given us the healthcare debacle and the ever-expanding gap between rich and poor, and the moral individualism of the Left, which has given us the unlimited abortion license and eroded the family by seeking to radically redefine marriage. The list could on in both columns, but I hope my point is made clear by these examples. This is what places us, as Jesus' disciples, at the crossroads of prudential judgments as voters, this is where politics as the art of the possible slaps us in the face, buffeting our kingdom sensibilties.

Again, perhaps the main reason he is striking such a chord is that Sen. Obama at least speaks the language of hope, which is the language of overcoming polarization, the language of coming together, of overcoming rank individualism. There would be something wrong with us if we did not find such appeals not only intriguing, but attractive. We must tread cautiously, however, because messianic politics is dangerous, disillusioning, and frequently deceptive, as is all idolatry. It remains a matter of judgment, given the vast amount of information we have about his specfic proposals, whether he, to borrow a crass cliché, walks the walk, or whether, despite the rhetoric, as Sen. Clinton emphatically asserts, it is politics as usual, or all smoke and no fire. It seems to me that both Sens. Clinton and McCain are more comfortable with the language of the possible, which is perhaps the most realistic and comprehensible political idiom.

The devil, Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas points out when writing about Jesus' temptations in the desert, comprehends something that "is seldom acknowledged particularly in our day," namely "that politics is about worship and sacrifice" (Mattthew 54). "The devil," he asserts, "is but another name for our impatience. We want bread, we want to force God's hand to rescue us, we want peace - and we want this now. But Jesus is our bread, he is our salvation, and he is our peace. That he is so requires that we learn to wait with him in a world of hunger, idolatry, and war to witness to the kingdom that is God's patience. The father will have the kingdom present one small act at a time. That is what it means for us to be an apocalyptic people, that is, a people who believe that Jesus's refusal to accept the devil's terms for the world's salvation has made it possible for a people to exist that offers an alternative time to a world that believes we have no time to be just" (Mattthew 55).

Homily on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter

Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Kansas City in Kansas
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter
Memorial Mass for Monsignor Luigi Giussani
Benedictine College
February 22, 2008

I
What Does Atchison Have in Common with New York?
It is a privilege to celebrate with you this afternoon this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter as we also prayerfully remember on the third anniversary of his death Monsignor Luigi Giussani. What do New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Rochester, Minnesota and Atchison, Kansas have in common? Each of these great metro areas is blest to have Memores Domini community – the lay branch of Communion and Liberation – the movement which Father Giussani was the Holy Spirit’s instrument in giving birth.

II
Communion with Peter and His Successors
Today, in the liturgical calendar we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. We remember the great apostle upon which Jesus chose to build his Church. The fact that the great Basilica of St. Peter in Rome is built upon the tomb of Peter provides a striking metaphor on how the Lord has built his Church on the Rock of Peter and his successors.

I wear the Pallium that was given to me on the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul the same year of Monsignor Giussani’s death, by the current Successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI. The lambs, who gave the wool for this Pallium, had been blest by the late Pope John Paul II on the Feast of St. Agnes and the finished product was laid on the tomb of Peter, blest and bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Monsignor Giussani was a dear personal friend to both of these Popes. Yet, in addition to his personal relationship with Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger, he was a friend of the Successors of St. Peter because he was a friend to their Lord and his Lord. This Pallium, in part,symbolizes my communion and the communion of my ministry as the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City and the Province of Kansas with the ministry of the Successor of Peter on behalf of the universal church.

It is also a reminder of the truths: 1) I do not carry this responsibility alone but Jesus bears this yoke with me – making it light and 2) I am not charged to teach my own philosophy or theology, thank God, but to teach Jesus and the fullness of the Faith entrusted to Peter and the Apostles and their Successors. This Feast is a reminder of the great blessing that Jesus gave to His Church by entrusting the keys to Peter and His successors, giving the Church a magisterium – a teaching authority in the person of Peter in communion with the other Apostles and their successors who under the guidance of the Holy Spirit were charged to guard the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus and make its application to the unique circumstances and challenges presented by each age.

We thus pray in a very special way for Pope Benedict XVI today that the Lord may continue to bless and make fruitful his ministry as Shepherd of the universal Church. How could we not be reminded of our Holy Father when we listened to the first reading today from the First Epistle of St. Peter exhorting priests to be humble and faithful shepherds of the flock of Jesus?

III
You are the Christ the Son of the Living God

The Gospel today presents us with Peter’s great profession of faith at Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus asks the Apostles the pointed and personal question: “Who do you say that I am?”, it is Peter who answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter’s great strength was not his superior intelligence, not his personal strength of character, not his leadership skills. Peter’s strength was his relationship with Jesus. Whatever his personal weaknesses and flaws, which the Gospel documents were many, Peter knew who Jesus was, and Peter knew of the love of Jesus for him!

From Peter’s realization of his own unworthiness to be in the company of Jesus after the great catch when Jesus first invited Peter to put out into the deep to Peter’s desire to have his feet and hands and head washed when Jesus instructs Peter: “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”, the Father had given Peter special insight into the true identity of Jesus. It was the power of the depth of Peter’s love for Jesus that, despite his sinking in the water, his attempts to dissuade Jesus from the cross, and even his cowardly denial of Jesus in the Courtyard of the High Priest, made Peter indeed a rock upon which Jesus could build his church.

IV
Begging for Jesus

Monsignor Giussani understood the primacy of the relationship with Jesus for every Christian. It was because he sought this in his own life and formed this constant yearning for Jesus in the formation of those who became part of Communion and Liberation that the Holy Spirit was able to make his ministry so remarkably fruitful.

Monsignor Giussani understood prayer to be first and foremost this seeking of communion with Jesus, this begging for Jesus to enter his heart. He wrote: “…Christ reveals Himself to me, He reveals His presence to me and comes into my life the more I ask for Him, because He does not come in where He is not awaited. The essence of prayer is begging for Christ: `Come, Lord Jesus,’ it is the last word in the Bible and first word of the early Christians. … Prayer is the only phenomenon in which man engages his whole stature. Whoever follows the life of the Movement can testify that I personally do not talk about anything else, in comparison, more than this. Because man is aspiration, he is a search; he is neither aspiration nor search if he is not an entreaty.”

Page Three

V
From the One Who is Truth Comes Freedom

Monsignor Giussani understood that it is in this seeking of Jesus, seeking the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that true liberation and freedom is to be found. Monsignor Giussani believed not just in his mind but in his heart the instruction of Jesus: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it.”

The future Pope Benedict XVI described this abandonment of himself in the pursuit of Jesus in a homily he gave at Monsignor Giussani’s funeral Mass:

This love affair with Christ, this love story which is the whole of his life was however far from every superficial enthusiasm, from every vague romanticism. Really seeing Christ, he knew to encounter Christ means to follow Christ. This encounter is a road, a journey, a journey that passes also – as we heard in the psalm – through the ‘valley of darkness.’ In the Gospel, we heard of the last darkness of Christ’s suffering, of the apparent absence of God, when the world’s sun was eclipsed. He knew that to follow is to pass through a valley of darkness,’ to take the way of the cross, and to live all the same in true joy.

“Why is it so? The Lord himself translated this mystery on the cross, which is really the mystery of love, with a formula in which the whole reality of our life is explained. The Lord says, ‘Whoever seeks his life, will lose it and whoever lose his life, will find it.

VI
Seek Communion with Jesus above all Else

On this Feast of Peter, let us pray for the gift to recognize Jesus for who He is: “…the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” As we come forward to receive the Eucharist, let us beg that the Holy Spirit might open us to receive the one who desires to reside in the tabernacle of our hearts. May we seek communion with Jesus above all else! May we seek to lose our own ambitions and desires and thus find life, freedom and joy in He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!