From Dan Conway’s The Good Steward, April 2003

opportunities for spiritual renewal. Just as the advent of spring prompts us to do spring cleaning or yard work following the long, hard winter, this time in the Church year invites us to “get back in shape” spiritually through prayer, self-denial, and almsgiving.

Prayer connects us with God. It helps us to tune out the distractions of daily life. Prayer reminds us that God is the source of all life (and the center of our individual lives). It puts us in touch with the truth about ourselves and about our world. Prayer helps us to focus on what’s most important in life. It allows us to open ourselves to God’s grace and to live a richer and more authentic life.

Self-denial is profoundly counter-cultural. It demands that we learn to say “no” to our impulses (good and bad) and that we resist the relentless voices of a market-driven consumer culture that demands our undivided attention 24/7 …

– Read the full article –

Vatican City, May 21, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News) -- “The conversion of the world to Christ is not something we produce, but something given to us,” the Holy Father told representatives of the Pontifical Mission Societies on Friday morning. Evangelization, he underscored, is reliant on the work of the Holy Spirit and needs missionaries “with their hands raised towards God.”

On Friday morning, the Holy Father met with members of the Superior Council of the Pontifical Mission Societies on the final day of their Ordinary Assembly in Rome, which has been in session since Monday.

The Pope remarked to them that the mission of evangelization is “immense,” especially today when “humanity suffers a certain lack of reflection and wisdom” and a God-excluding humanism has become so widespread.

“For this reason, it is urgently necessary to illuminate emerging problems with the unchanging light of the Gospel,” Benedict XVI said.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZ7sig0PMc

Referring to the preaching of the Word of God as an “inestimable service the Church can offer to all of humanity,” he described evangelization as “the call to liberty of the children of God” as well as a plea “for the construction of more just and united society to prepare us for eternal life.”

Pope Benedict noted that the person who participates in Christ’s mission “must inevitably face trials, contrasts and suffering because they clash with the powers of this world.” Following St. Paul’s example, “persecution is also proof of the authenticity of our apostolic mission,” he explained.

Facing the daunting task of such a mission is possible, he added, through the work of the Holy Spirit, which “unites and preserves the Church, giving her the force to expand, filling the disciples of Christ with an overflowing wealth of charisms.

“It is from the Holy Spirit that the Church’s announcement and apostolic ministry receive authority.”

And, for this reason, continued Pope Benedict, “evangelization needs Christians with their arms raised to God in prayer, Christians aware that conversion of the world to Christ is not something we produce, but something given to us.”

Present at the audience were consecrated and lay members of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples including its prefect Cardinal Ivan Dias. The cardinal gave an address outlining the results of the congregation’s meetings, underscoring that “we are further convinced that the effectiveness of our evangelizing activity depends solely on the potency of the Holy Spirit, and on the testimony of life that must accompany the announcement of the Kingdom of God.”

Additional $48 million in pledges expected in next 3 years

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee and its parishes have raised $46 million, nearly half of the $105?million goal set for the local church’s largest capital campaign ever, and another $48.3 million in pledges to be fulfilled over the next three years, the archdiocese is expected to announce Sunday.

In all, the church is projecting to raise $94.3 million, or 90% of its goal, a feat archdiocese officials described as extraordinary in the economic downturn and with the sex-abuse scandal and other issues facing the church.

“It’s staggering to think that could be raised at a time when the economy is so strapped,” said Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. It shows, he said, “a tremendous confidence in the church.”

The archdiocese will announce the final numbers for the official close of the three-year run of the campaign at a special Mass at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Parishes around the archdiocese have been invited to join in with their own Masses of thanksgiving.

Some congregations will continue to solicit pledges, and commitments in hand would be fulfilled over the next three years.

Former Archbishop Timothy Dolan, now archbishop of New York, launched the Faith in Our Future campaign in the summer of 2007 with an emphasis on bolstering the 127 Catholic schools in the 10-county archdiocese and enhancing faith formation for children and adults.

Some had questioned whether it was an effort to raise funds to finance potential judgments in looming sex-abuse lawsuits, which the church has said could bankrupt it. While the proceeds may ensure that Catholic education and faith formation would continue to be funded in the event of a bankruptcy, the church has said campaign proceeds are placed into a trust that cannot be tapped to fund litigation or settlements.

Working with parishes

The campaign was the archdiocese’s largest fund-raising initiative, and the first to split proceeds with parishes – they keep 60% of what they raise – and involve up to 15,000 parish volunteers, according to archdiocese development director Debra Lethlean.

It has led to a host of new initiatives around the archdiocese, including building expansions and renovations; updated technology; more tuition assistance for Catholic schools; and the addition of staff for expanded ministries, including parish nurses and youth ministers.

All but three of the archdiocese’s 210 parishes participated.

Most of the money raised to date has come from major donors, gifts of $50,000 solicited by bishops and campaign chairs Ed and Diane Zore. The archdiocese had set a $15?million goal for those gifts, but more than doubled that total with $32.8 million.

The largest individual gift was $5 million from the Reiman Foundation to expand Catholic ministry on college campuses, including the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Howard Craig of O’Meara Ferguson Whelan and Conway, the Virginia-based consulting firm that worked with the archdiocese on the campaign, said the large-gifts portion of the drive was one of the most successful it’s worked on.

“It was an overwhelming response by the business community and major contributors, especially Catholic businessmen,” Craig said.

Participation rates varied

About a quarter of the 186,661 registered parish families that were solicited contributed.

And within parishes, participation ranged from 7% to 60%, according to the archdiocese.

Reasons varied, from economic hardships to frustration with the continuing clergy sex-abuse scandal and other issues facing the church, Lethlean said.

“We try to discourage people from voting about these things with their pocketbooks,” she said.

Those who give to such campaigns, Lethlean said, tend to be regular Mass-goers who “feel more connected to their parish and the greater church, and who may or may not know more about the mission.”

It’s unclear what effect, if any, the campaign has had on other giving in the church.

The annual Catholic Stewardship Appeal, which funds the operations and ministries of the archdiocese, is down nearly $227,000 compared with last year at this time.

Although the number of parishioners giving to the stewardship appeal is down nearly 2,000 this year, the average gift is up by $2 over last year.

Lethlean blames the shortfall on the economy rather than the capital campaign.

“We’re hearing from some of our loyal donors that they’re not able to give as much this year due to the sustained economic downturn,” she said.

Purpose of the fund drive

The Faith in Our Future funds are divided into three long-term and three shorter-term initiatives:

Long-term endowments

$11 million for scholarships to Catholic elementary and high schools.

$5 million for religious education programs for children and adults in parishes.

$5 million for the archdiocese’s St. Francis de Sales Seminary and John Paul II Center, which provides training and formation of deacons and adult lay leaders.

Immediate-use initiatives

$6.85 million to ensure quality and competitiveness of the archdiocese’s Catholic schools.

$3.5 million to the John Paul II Center, to expand training and education for adults and families in the areas of marriage, family life and Catholic ministry.

$1.6 million for the global church, to fund Catholic education and faith-formation initiatives around the world.

INDEPENDENCE — The three “T’s” of stewardship — time, talent, treasure — are well known.

Borrowing from St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson, Bishop Robert W. Finn spoke of the three “P’s” — prayer, participation, payback — at the first diocesan Stewardship Day in seven years, May 7 at St. Mark Parish in Independence.

Keynoting to an audience of some 150 pastors, business managers and lay ecclesial ministers and parish council members who came from all corners of the diocese, Bishop Finn set the tone for the day and the following break-out sessions that stewardship isn’t about increasing parish funds. It’s about conversion to a way of life in which giving back in thanksgiving for gifts received comes naturally.

The first step is prayer, he said.

“If we are going to let God guide things, including our decisions about material goods, we need to listen to him better and more frequently,” Bishop Finn said. “The challenge is this: to give God a big chunk of your most valuable and high quality time in prayer.”

The bishop also reminded his audience that the quality and spirit of participation in the life of the church is as important as the quantity, and extends beyond the church walls.

“Do we participate in and contribute to the life of our communities, our neighborhoods, our workplace?” he said. “Do we bring our faith to bear in all arenas of our life, particularly our secular life?

“If we do not choose to participate fully as baptized persons of living and active faith, then who is going to transform the culture of death into the civilization of life and love? Who if not us?” Bishop Finn said.

“What would our parishes look like if we all gave a tithe of our time in serious prayer? How would our communities become better homes for our parishes if we were actively influencing them through authentic — full, active and conscious — participation?” he said.

Payback, he said, involves giving back to God, and to those people who formed us throughout our lives.

“Many of us are who we are because of someone who was faithful, perhaps a parent, a teacher or mentor,” he said.

“Many of us received a Catholic education,” Bishop Finn said. “If so, it is likely that our parents made some sacrifices, some generous choices that cost them.

“Now it is payback time,” he said. “What have we received? What have we inherited in the parishes where we worship? What will our generation create for those who come after us?”

Bishop Finn noted that even though he saw his parents every Sunday take their collection envelope to Mass, he himself did not begin tithing regularly until his second assignment as a priest, when a pastor spoke of the spiritual aspects of stewardship.

“I started donating to the parish, and throughout my priesthood, I continued to tithe,” he said.

“I still keep tithing through various efforts I have been associated with along the way, and I have been better off for it,” the bishop said. “I don’t budget it. I just take it off the top and sort out what’s left.”

Bishop Finn said parishes have to set budgets and financial goals, but the goal of a total stewardship program is different.

“The goal of stewardship is not ultimately money. It is something spiritual,” he said.

“It has to do with building holiness and a particular set of virtues within holiness. It has to do with becoming more thankful, less material and therefore more spiritual.

“It involves growing in trust with God, in relying on providence to a greater degree than we might otherwise,” he said.

“As such, it has to do with what the Gospel calls spiritual poverty, what Jesus referred to when he proclaimed, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’” the bishop said.

“Stewardship might help us to say, ‘God, I don’t have the material means to conquer every trial or challenge. My life is in your hands. I may have to do without, but I know you will get me through, perhaps more simply,’” he said.

“Stewardship has a goal,” Bishop Finn said. “It is to grow more holy, more detached, more peaceful even if we don’t acquire all the things we might be able to acquire.”

Bishop Finn told the parish leaders, “Now is the time for us.”

“I am aware, with admiration, of some amazing things many of you have done and are doing in your parishes in this area of spirituality and stewardship,” he said.

“Please don’t stop. But what can we do as a diocese beyond what we are doing in some blessed individual efforts?” he said.

“I believe that it is God’s plan for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph that we are great stewards, and that we can be exemplary in living this way as a diocese,” he said.

“I challenge you to join me in a new moment of stewardship in our diocese,” Bishop Finn said. “Can we pray, participate and pay back? Can we give God the best of our time, talent and treasure?”

Financial reform and individual responsibility

With the Financial Reform bill passing the senate it seems appropriate to frame the debate with a diagnosis of causal relationships for the financial crisis that go beyond the merely technical. Major banks and financial services companies on Wall Street must understand their relationship to the broader community. Their decisions strategically and tactically, or quarterly and even transaction by transaction must be rationalized from a perspective of a broader goal of what is in the best interest of their employees and society as a whole, not just their individual shareholders.

The important and appropriate move in corporate America to emphasize the duty of management and the corporate board to the shareholder has lead to several unintended consequences. This movement in the corporate sphere extended beyond an emphasis of a duty to the shareholder to an exclusive mantra fails to include the appropriate duties of the corporation to their workers and to society as a whole. The lexicon of corporate America almost completely eliminated the discussion of duty to anyone other than the shareholder. This is a gross generalization, but in large corporations this clearly seems to have been the case, particularly on Wall Street where there was no discussion of responsibility to the society in which the Wall Street firms operated and employees were merely viewed as consumable items.

Corporate boards and management have an immediate and direct duty towards their shareholder. Their duty to society is participatory and in general is not determinative of society’s welfare by their corporation’s individual actions or collectively by their industry. Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate refers to mans darkened reason that clouded the ability of the individual to see their responsibility to their coworkers and to the broader society or the common good of the polis. Their reason was darkened by their own selfishness and greed. The reasonable man would understand that they have a clear obligation to the society in which they live as well as to their coworker when they are given positions of responsibility. The canard of the sole duty to the shareholder serves as a helpful excuse as to why they can look to their own self interest and greed yet still fulfill a duty to a higher purpose than themselves. Other estimable duties are discussed such as to the environment, to which every major corporation at the very least pays lip service. Yet in the hierarchy of goods the polis in which they exist and operate must be at the top of those goods to which they owe a duty.

The duty to shareholder may be coincidental to a duty to the polis and to the employee, but they are in fact distinct. It can clearly be argued that duty to the shareholder in the long run should include a duty to employee and polis. The fact that this is the case cannot eliminate their distinct natures. They are contrary and may in fact at times become contradictory. It is only in understanding these duties as distinct can we understand that they must at time constrain each other.

It is incumbent upon us to strengthen the intellectual rigor with which these topics are discussed in the discourse of the marketplace. The well formed individual actor must acknowledge that economic downturns create human misery and as such their economic choices must contextualize the duty to the shareholder with other duties that at times may be competing and must be constraining of that duty. The chief among those duties is to employees and coworkers as well as a broader duty to the society in which they operate. When competing interests are in play an informed conscience can begin to look at the principle of double effect and weigh that the goods achieved and the unintended evils do not outweigh the good sought (needless to say the evil cannot be the intended consequence in a morally licit economic decision).

The fact that many companies have turned their employees into shareholders is not a fulfillment of their duty to their employees; rather it is a partial fulfillment of their obligation to their employees. The additional a priori duty is to the polis with in which they operate. Any reasonable man can and should see this obligation. The sole pursuit of power, money, and control breeds an unhealthy individualism that yields a fruit of loneliness, isolation, and entitlement. Mans reason becomes darkened.

Once again the duty to a faceless metonymy, the shareholder, has been used to baptize these pursuits outside of a context in which they are measured and healthy. To the degree that the moral compass of the market place fails we are reminded by Mr. Smith that government regulation will replace the failing compass resulting in the loss of freedom of the individual and the frictional imposition of regulation making the market less efficient.

It is clear that the moral compass failed in many corporations in America and increased financial regulation is on the way. This does not relieve us of our duties to bolster the moral underpinning of corporate America with a more informed, precise, and articulate discussion of corporate responsibilities based on sound Catholic moral teaching. The discussion of financial reform ought to begin with the enlightening of mans reason with two concepts;

1) The corporations duty, and hence the managements and boards duty, is to a broader constituency than the shareholder to the exclusion of all else, and
2) the regulation that eventually is enacted must ensure that the individual is the primary actor in the change needed both in themselves, the marketplace and the polis. Otherwise the dignity of each person begins to be eroded by a regulation by the outside that robs us of our rights and obligations and vests it in an organization that begins to become more valued or valuable than the individual.

We must insert into the discussion the contextual ideals of the communal and the individual rights and responsibility. Both must exist and both must constrain the other with a clear understanding that the communal obligations must exist and be reaffirmed, while doing so in a fashion that protects the individual rights of the corporation and the individual to compete in a marketplace not dominated by the giant corporations who alone have the ability to bear the burden of excessive government regulation.

It is easy to see the “solution” may be enacted that benefits those that brought about this crisis to the detriment of the small corporations that seek to compete in the financial marketplace. Financial reform ought not to dampen innovation and entrepreneurial activity. Professor Mark Roe of Harvard law school wrote an insightful critique of the hyper regulated single marketplace concept for financial derivatives. Regulation exists to protect the individual from being crushed between the marketplace and corporations, but the regulation must also protect small and medium enterprises, those enterprises with 10 – 250 employees. The Brookings Institute tells us that these types of entities are 90 % of corporations in the US, 50% of GDP, and 66% of employment. The financial regulation must extol the appropriate relationships and duties of each individual as an actor themselves and as they act within and on behalf of corporations. Let us return to the lexicon of corporate America the duty of the corporation to their employee and to the polis. Then we can intelligently delineate markets and who regulates each of them so that the barriers to entry are no so great that it stifles growth, innovation, and the individual’s ability act within the marketplace. This must include government-sponsored entities or GSE’s, which created so much of this crisis. Let us join into this discussion as Catholics with our rich social teaching and let us pray for our elected representatives.

In his 1952 Razing the Bastions (Schleifung der Bastionen) Hans Urs von Balthasar challenged the Church to replace any posturing of fear with a more world-friendly embrace. (1) In what proved to be a much disputed work, von Balthasar argued that the Church must leave the security of Catholic isolation and move into a more confident involvement with anti-Catholic worldviews and biases. Sensing the call to be more actively engaged with Protestants as well as non-believers in institutions of learning, in the marketplace, in laboratories and in all ranges of (legitimate) research, as well as in every aspect of society and culture, the Church left the “Catholic ghetto”, making the middle of the 20th century a unique opportunity to “take every thought captive in obedience to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). This of course meant risking a sense of surety for the entry into—but hopeful conversion of—those places of modernity where the Church was then still leery to tread.

The call foreshadowed by von Balthasar was vindicated by future Popes and (in part) realized with the Second Vatican Council’s aggiornamento (updating). Paul VI’s first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (1964), for example, presented God the Father’s love for sinful man as the fundamental dialogue (a term which appears 81 times in the English edition) in which God makes himself accessible and therefore vulnerable in the sending of his Son. Willing to enter into the “messiness” of human life, God thus invites all to a dialogue of mutual understanding and charity. God longs to bring all things into himself through his Church and, stripping himself of all glory, draws near to wherever the imperfect find themselves. Toward the end of this encyclical, Pope Paul VI called on all Catholics to continue this mission by being as catechetically learned and articulate as possible, by assuming the good will of those with whom they aim to evangelize, and by being sensitive to the needs and histories of others. Above all, charity must mark this exchange and here the Holy Father warned:

But if the Church’s authority is known by its charity and generosity, as Pope Paul VI maintained, perhaps it is once again time to examine how we in the Church relate with one another, especially with those with whom we disagree or hold in contempt. It is once again time to look at how we interact with our adversaries because the landscape has surely shifted. For almost two generations after Paul VI’s fatherly admonition, can one not hear how the “bared words” and sometimes “offensive bitterness” are aimed not so much at those outside of the Church as at sisters and brothers within? Or as John Paul went to great lengths to point out, there remains a divisiveness within the Church that has only intensified since the Second Vatican Council and there must thus: “…be a sincere effort of permanent and renewed dialogue within the Catholic Church herself. She is aware that, by her nature, she is the sacrament of the universal communion of charity; but she is equally aware of the tensions within her, tensions which risk becoming factors of division.” (3)

I became a candidate for religious life almost two decades ago and then the divisions and tensions within the novitiate were thick. Holding fast to my defenses, I would dismiss someone just after one conversation. “Well, he’s one of them.” “He’s a dissenter.” At one level it was so understandable, so natural, yet so unChristian, so unloving. I see now that in a time of battle I allowed myself the uncharitable sally, the harsh judgment, the one-sided perspective, and then simply chalked it up to the tensions of the day or to the gravity of what was at stake. But how do we witness to the beautiful integrity of Catholic orthodoxy without putting up walls between ourselves and those who disagree with us? How do we live the truth in love? I see now how I used the Faith, not as a means of building unity, but as a sword of division and as a way of making myself feel good about my own position, my own worked-out systems, my own orthodoxy. Because I was not wholly motivated by love, fear was still present (cf. 1 Jn 4:18)—fear of looking dim, fear of not knowing more than those who criticized the hierarchy, fear that maybe the way I had learned or had come to explain the tradition was not as unassailable as it could be. How often the truth became a club, a place for my self-complacency and separation built on the implicit creed, “Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extortionists, the unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Lk 18:13).

Yet twenty years later now, I realize that the teachings and practices central to our lives and worship as Catholics are never (and never were) going to change. The “revolution” of the 60s and 70s has obviously come to pass and only now after 40 years of sway, the barque of Peter has been clearly steered back on course. The self-appointed revolutionaries have grown old and with the passing of each day those battles lose immediacy and intensity, as what the Church teaches and where she is heading is clearer than ever. Today we encounter not so much an entrenched group of anti-Catholic ideologues, but rather a vacuum crying out for evangelization: for a bold and clear love of Jesus and the witness of his ability to convert all of human living.

Most of the young people I know here at Saint Louis University, for example, take their daily reception of the sacraments very seriously, they clamor for Eucharistic Adoration, common recitation of the Rosary and they organize their own Stations of the Cross on Fridays. They adored John Paul II and they are simply enamored with Pope Benedict; they pray for their priests and cannot wait until the next World Youth Day. During the week they also volunteer with the inner-city poor and illiterate. Over Spring Break they go and work with Habitat for Humanity in Appalachia, with Sioux children on the Reservations in South Dakota, or with the poor in Latin America. What these college-aged students (born the same year I entered religious life) have taught me is that my concerns are not theirs, my “siege mentality” does not resonate with their own ecclesiology. They don’t appreciate my jibes against a post-Vatican II liturgy gone awry nor do they understand one of my favorite jokes involving the Dutch bishops and a hot poker! They are not reacting against anything internally within the Church but only outwardly against the alienating harshness of secular modernism. In fact, they want to be led more intensely into the depths of doctrine, the splendor of sacred scripture, the beauty of Augustine’s Confessions and the symmetry of Thomas’ Summa. They see a Catholicism that only attracts, heals, and transforms.

This is surely why in comparison to just a couple of generations ago, many novitiates and seminaries are now having to renovate or build anew. See the diocesan seminaries of Detroit and Denver, or the Josephinum in Columbus, visit the burgeoning houses of Dominican sisters in Ann Arbor or Nashville, Franciscan sisters in the Bronx or in Alton, or the Apostles of the Sacred Heart in Hamden, Connecticut, to observe how the Holy Spirit is still calling young men and women up the mountain of prayer and sacrifice. Moreover, these “children of John Paul II” (as I call them) constitute one of the healthier generations in quite a long time. In a recent study Benedictine Sister Jane Becker has likewise witnessed how:

Unlike Catholics a generation ago, this generation is more psychologically sound and in comparison with the similar sample group of 30 years ago, there is less polarization between “liberal” and “conservative”. So, what does this mean for how we teach and preach and live in what is becoming our “post dissent” Church? In the rest of this essay, I would like to offer four brief reflections that helped me to “raze the bastions” of my own short-sightedness and frigid lapses of charity when discussing the Faith today.

Proper Profession is A Divine Gift to be Distributed

First is the intimate awareness that orthodoxy and rightful assent to the teachings of the Church is a gift from Christ. One’s theological positions are not simply the result of intellectual rigor and hours of study (as essential as these are). With Peter, we confess Jesus Christ as “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” because it has been revealed to us freely by our loving God: “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Mt 16:17). Commenting on this passage, Pope Leo the Great preached that Peter’s blessedness—and by extension, the blessedness of every Christian—comes from the fact that the Father himself instructs him in the proper way to confess Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Savior, because Peter was unwilling to “let human opinion deceive, but to let heavenly inspiration instruct”, an enlightenment, moreover, intended to give Peter a participation in the very nature of God (cf. 2 Pet 1:4). (5) Doctrinal orthodoxy leads to deification, a free and unmerited participation in the divine Trinity’s own life. The gift of orthodoxy must thus be translated into the loving appropriation of Christ’s life or else it lies dormant and maybe even inimical in our souls.

Ecclesial fidelity is Christ’s gift to the humble, something in which he asks me to participate but never something I myself possess. As such, it must not be turned into something I think I have worked out on my own, for myself, some problem that I myself have deciphered. God’s faithful children profess the creed rightly and strive to live lives of saintly heroism because they have first been called, eternally aware that their lives need not have gone this way. Such gratitude should enable the faithful to look lovingly upon dissenters, to forgive them for the hurt and division caused by these past decades of half-truths and conflicting agendas. In fact, “the left” were never the Church’s enemy—for her enemy is not flesh and blood (cf. Eph 6:12)—they are not the enemies but the victims, the sufferers of false promises. Accordingly, it is now time to recast our eyes, no longer on the old battlefields of division and disagreement but boldly on the Spirit’s call to forgiveness, freedom and holiness.

Christian Truth and Love Are Inseparable

Charity is the supreme and ultimately sole characteristic of a Christian. To rest content in “the truth” without seeking passionately for ways to communicate it in love and compassion is, simply not an option for Jesus’ disciples. To think with the Church is an indispensable part of personal holiness but such creedal and doctrinal correctness must be consistently translated into an undying love of neighbor. In fact, Jesus reserves his harshest words for those who think they have the truth but are unwilling to love those dismissive of God’s law.

In the Gospels Jesus Christ is never severe with those fragile, broken sinners who come to him to be healed, but he is rather most unyielding when he engages those who sanctimoniously act as if they do not need him (remember that hypo-crite was originally a theatrical term referring to one who wore a mask and thus spoke (crite) out from underneath (hypo) a face that was not his own). He never tells the Pharisees to quit keeping the law—quite the opposite (cf. Mt 23:1-3)—but Jesus instead spends his life to show such people how to expand their hearts to make room for love, mercy, and for the imperfect.

As Peter van Breemen has noted, “That the pharisee fulfills the law is to his credit. But he believes that by keeping the law he saves and justifies himself, and this is his mistake.” (6) As faithful Christians we must always follow Christ’s appointed and rightful teachers on earth, but doing so should enlarge our hearts to love those who do not yet see the truth, propelling us outward to preach Christ crucified and the glory of his ability to transform. In his interaction with the Pharisees, it is clear that Jesus never came simply to impart correct teaching. Christianity is more than orthodox belief (more, not less!) but a radically new way of entering into relationship with God and with neighbor. Only here is to think correctly to love ardently.

The Grace to Live With Ambiguity

Third, for the Christian, living with ambiguity is a sign of spiritual maturity. The most well known sociologist to address the new springtime of the John Paul II religious and seminarians described above is The Catholic University of America’s Dr. Dean Hoge, who reaches a rather challenging conclusion when he notes that,

Flexibility is itself of course not a virtue nor is it an end in and of itself. It is however a quality of the mystical life.

Unlike my own tendency in the past to police every differing thought and movement, I came to notice how the more spiritually advanced, the holier ones in the communities where I lived, did not get inordinately worried about every opinion uttered against the Church. “You will hear of wars and reports of wars; but see that you are not alarmed…” (Mt 24:6a). Or, to use an illustration closer to home (out my window, in fact), here in Saint Louis the Arch was built to “give” during winds and storms, the architects knowing that any solid rigidity would lead not to added strength but to its breaking in the winds that would inevitably assail it. I have long seen this as an apt metaphor for much of the spiritual life. Without (in the words of G.K. Chesterton) ever becoming so open minded that we become flat-headed, we must pray for the grace to live with the ambiguity characteristic of the saints most confident in the power of Christ to redeem and transform.

Such a spirituality is found in Christ’s parable of the wheat and the tares, imploring us never to grow desolate over the inevitability of imperfection which surrounds us, thereby perhaps “uprooting the good wheat as well” (cf., Mt 13:29). No stranger to dissent and factions, John Henry Cardinal Newman admits while the one true Church “cannot countenance any such misstatement of the truth, much less any degradation or depravation of it”, it is also true that,

This is the springtime of the new evangelization, the “favourable opportunity” of not only rebuilding what has been torn down but, more importantly, bolstering and extending the reign of God to every area of human living and into every human person. But to do this we may have to be content with imperfection and with the shortcomings and questions of others.

Christus Victor!

Finally, the only way to bring the Gospel to the world rightly is to be ever mindful that the battle has already been won! I mean this both in the ultimate sense on Calvary but also in the more immediate sense in that the revolution sought in the 60s and 70s is simply not coming to pass. Not that it ever could have, as the Lord safeguards his Body from falling into certain pernicious gates, but these victories are more obvious now than they have been for half a century or even longer. So, as part of our prayer let us meditate on the confidence we should have in Christ’s power in and through us, as well as the consequent gratitude we should have for his including us in his victorious mission.

In founding a Church, the Son has united a collective and called-out—ecclesia—humanity to his own divine personhood. Such mediation is thus at the heart of our Christian discipleship; saying “yes” to the Church of Christ is Christ’s “yes” to his Father. As such, one cannot truly love God and despise his Church; one lies if he can say he has some sort of devotion to Christ but no regard for his Body on earth, the Church. The “whole Christ” is the Head and the Body, and Christ has decided to make himself wholly accessible only through this ecclesia. His body is where he longs to extend and continue his transformative power: his healing, his teaching, his acts of love and divine intimacy.

When von Balthasar called the Church to raze her bastions and confidentially enter the world with message and vision renewed, he wrote: “Let us therefore not cling tightly to structures of thought, but let us plunge into the primal demands of the Gospel, which are also the primal graces, visible and capable of being grasped in the example of Christ, who gave himself for all in order to save all.” (9) In the imitation of Christ we too must let go of all that keeps us from “plunging” into the demands of love: to know the truth, to preach the truth, and to embrace the truth and in him all others.

This article is featured in our newsletter, Tertium Quid – Vol. 1, Issue 3

(1) Han Urs von Balthasar, Razing the Bastions, trans., Brian McNeil (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993). – (return)

(2) Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam (Aug 6, 1964) §81. – (return)

(3) John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliation and Penance (Dec 2, 1984) §25. – (return)

(4) “In A Word from the Seminary World: Today’s Candidates and Their Issues”, Sr. Jane Becker, O.S.B. as in Reclaiming Our Priestly Character, ed., Fr. David Toups (Omaha: Institute for Priestly Formation, 2008) 109. – (return)

(5) Leo the Great, sermon 4.2; my translation. – (return)

(6) Peter G. van Breemen, S.J., As Bread That Is Broken (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1974) 31. – (return)

(7) Dean Hoge, as in Reclaiming Our Priestly Character, ed., Fr. David Toups, op. cit., 110. – (return)

(8) John Henry Newman, Letters and Diaries, vol. 20, 470-71. – (return)

(9) Han Urs von Balthasar, Razing the Bastions, op. cit., 69-70. – (return)

This article is featured in our newsletter, Tertium Quid – Vol. 1, Issue 3

“A Good Steward Receives God’s Gifts Gratefully” is the second of our five-part Spanish-language podcast series introducing the concept of Christian Stewardship to the Latino community. The podcast again features a conversational interview with O’Meara Ferguson Executive Consultant Koren Ruiz, and begins by discussing an exercise called “Inventory of Gratitude” – creating a list of the many ways in which God has blessed each of us in various areas of our lives. Recognizing how God has been generous in our lives will help us to develop an attitude of gratitude, which is a critical step in becoming a better steward of God’s gifts.

The discussion later emphasizes that we are only trustees, and not owners in this world. What we are given comes with a divine expectation that we will use whatever we have for God’s good purposes. Our time, talent and treasure are gifts from God, entrusted to us for a relatively brief time. Because of this, one of our first tasks in becoming a better steward of our gifts is developing an “attitude of gratitude” – acknowledging everything we have received from God, and then discerning how we can best manage and share those gifts according to God’s will.

PSALM 8: O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth!Art Ledesma, Vice President, Mission Advancement Services, will be working in conjunction with Koren Ruiz on the remaining podcasts in the series.

Upcoming Podcasts:

• A Steward Cultivates God’s Gifts Responsibly
• A Christian Steward Shares God’s Gifts Lovingly
• A Christian Steward Returns God’s Gifts with Increase

“Un buen Corresponsable Recibe los Dones de Dios con Actitud de Agradecimiento” es el título del segundo podcast en español (de una serie de cinco) para introducir el concepto de Corresponsabilidad Cristiana a la comunidad Latina. Este espacio informativo presenta de nueva cuenta una entrevista interactiva con el Asesor Financiero de O’Meara Ferguson Koren Ruiz, el cual comienza invitando a los audio escuchas a realizar un ejercicio llamado “Inventario de Gratitud” – crear una lista de las muchas maneras en que Dios nos ha bendecido en diferentes áreas de nuestras vidas. Reconocer como Dios ha sido generoso con nosotros nos ayudará a desarrollar una actitud de agradecimiento. De esa manera logaremos tomar un paso fundamental para llegar a ser mejores corresponsables de los dones de Dios.

Mas adelante la discusión enfatiza que solamente se nos ha confiado este mundo y que no somos los dueños de él. Todo aquello que se nos da, viene con la esperanza divina de que usaremos todo lo que tenemos para hacer la voluntad de Dios. Nuestro tiempo, talento y tesoro son dones que Dios nos ha confiado por solo un corto tiempo. Por lo tanto, uno de nuestras primeras tareas para llegar a ser un mejor corresponsable de nuestros dones es desarrollar una “Actitud de Agradecimiento” – estar verdaderamente conscientes de todo lo que hemos recibido de Dios, para así discernir como podemos administrar y compartir esos dones de acuerdo a la voluntad de Dios en nuestras vidas.

Salmo 8: Oh Señor, soberano nuestro, ¡qué imponente es tu nombre en toda la tierra!

Próximos Podcasts:

• Un Corresponsable Cultiva Responsablemente Los Dones Que Recibe De Dios
• Un Corresponsable Comparte Los Dones De Dios Con Amor.
• Un Corresponsable Cristiano Regresa Los Dones De Dios En Mayor Proporcion

If the Church were depending on human beings to exist and stay unified how long do think she would have lasted? Probably about twenty minutes, max!

There are no governments or nations that have lasted 2000 years. Very little else in this world can claim such antiquity and even if it does can it claim to have remained essentially unchanged in its dogma or teaching?

The Catholic Church is one, even after 2000 years. An unbroken line of Popes back to Peter and an unbroken line of succession for all the Bishops back to the Apostles through the laying on of hands. Not bad. Our history is not without some pretty questionable moments, in terms of the human elements of the Church. That the gates of hell would never prevail against the Church certainly suggests they would try again and again. But here we are, a miracle. Still standing after all these years! Christ is true to his promise to remain with us all days unto the consummation of the world.

We, the human elements of the Church may not live teachings of Christ perfectly, but the Church has never failed to teach what Christ taught even (as now) when the world hated us for it. At times we are tepid and struggle to find our voice, but Christ still speaks and ministers even in our weakness. St. Paul once wrote regarding himself and his fellow clergy: But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us (2 Cor 4:7). When I think of the human weakness of the Church whether in the clergy or in the laity, I am absolutely struck by the truth that the continued existence of the Church all these centuries is a true miracle, right before our very eyes. Yes! A miracle.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0DA4HAzbMM

From Dan Conway’s The Good Steward, May 2010

“Here lies the fundamental challenge that we face: to show the Church’s capacity to promote and form disciples and missionaries who respond to the calling received and to communicate everywhere, in an outpouring of gratitude and joy, the gift of the encounter with Jesus Christ. We have no other treasure but that. We have no other happiness, no other priority, but to be instruments of the Spirit of God, as Church, so that Jesus Christ may be known, followed, loved, adored, announced, and communicated to all, despite difficulties and resistances. This is the best service – his service! – that the Church has to offer people and nations.”

— (Concluding document, Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Conferences, Aparecida, Brazil, 2007, #14)

Bishop Jaime Soto quotes this powerful passage from the 2007 Aparecida Conference as he begins his vision statement for the Diocese of Sacramento. “We have always been a missionary people called to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God.” He continues, “Our diocese’s mission statement affirms this — challenging us to be disciples who spread the Gospel by our prayer, our personal witness, our sacramental life, and all the ministries provided by our parishes, schools and other diocesan services.”

What a powerful vision — to be disciples and missionaries who respond to the encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ with gratitude and joy! …

– Read the full article –

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A life dedicated to prayer, penitence, and conversion will overcome the threats, dangers and horrors that mark human history, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Our Lady of Fatima invites everyone to trust in God, experience his grace and “fall in love with him — the source of love and peace,” he said during his general audience May 19.

Speaking to about 13,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, the pope detailed some of the highlights of his May 11-14 trip to Portugal. He said the voyage was “unforgettable” and represented “a touching experience for me, rich with many spiritual gifts.”

The trip allowed to pope to pay homage to Our Lady of Fatima when he visited the Marian shrine marking the site where three shepherd children witnessed a series of apparitions beginning May 13, 1917.

“The demanding yet comforting message Our Lady left at Fatima is full of hope,” the pope said.

He said Mary calls everyone to a life of “prayer, penance and conversion, which surpass the threats, dangers, and horrors of history.” She invites humanity to have hope “in God’s merciful love and trust in his saving plan, which triumphs over the threats and calamities of history,” he said.

The pope recalled that during an encounter with Portuguese parish groups and Catholic organizations, he called on the faithful to serve Christ and promote the common good.

In fact, he said, at Fatima many young people experience the importance of serving the needy because the shrine is “a school of faith, of hope, and also a school of charity and service to one’s brothers and sisters.”

The pope said he encouraged all lay faithful to evangelize the places where they live and work and plant the seeds of hope.

Christians have the duty to give witness to the Gospel so that “every situation of difficulty, suffering or fear may be transformed through the Holy Spirit into an occasion for growth and of life,” he said.