Depart, depart from me, Lord,
I’m a sinful man.
My heart, my heart is broken,
and my face in sand.

Nothing but smoke and haze, I’ve spent my rage.
I’m  coughing  up pain and I’m too old for my age.

Depart, depart from me, Lord,
I’m a broken man.
My heart, my heart is failing,
I’m a dying man.

I tell you I’ve been wandering for a long, long time.
I’m beaten and broken and I know my crimes.
Father, I’ve wronged you, I don’t deserve,
Please take me home, as a slave, I’ll serve.

My heart, my heart is heavy,
I’m a sinful man.
My heart, my heart is sorrow,
and my face in sand.

In my misspent youth, I thought I was a winner.
Oh Lord my God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

– Robert H. LeBlanc, Divine Mercy Sunday

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
– 2 Cor 6:2

There’s no doubt that Ash Wednesday signals a season of penance and reconciliation. First of all, the contrition, the sorrow for our sins must be genuine. This is not an exterior show for our neighbors, but something that comes from the depths of our hearts. Most strikingly is the fact that this sorrow and penance is not merely a fear of pain and suffering, but rather, it is more, this repentance is borne of love,

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

It is a love that turns us towards the Lord. We copy Jesus in 40 days of fasting and prayer, so that we, the bride, will be ready for the wedding feast, when the Blood of the Lamb will cleanse His bride and they will become one.

I know of two published manuals for total consecration to Mary according to St. Louis Marie de Montfort.  The most widely used and published is by the Montfort Missionaries or Company of Mary (SMM).  The second is published by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (MICM). The structure for the consecrations are the same for the most part. However, the readings for each day are different. The readings in the manual published by SMM are focused and in general shorter than the manual published by MICM. The Slaves have chosen to plow through the complete chapters of Scripture and Imitation of Christ that were assigned in the True Devotion to Mary, while the Montfortians have used selections from the chapters. Another difference is whether the readings are done before or after the prayers.

Since the manual by the SMM seems to be thematic, I will be following the readings assigned in it, but I will not accept the translations found in that book. The deficiency of translation shows up in the first day, from chapter 5 of the Gospel according to St. Matthew covering the Sermon on the Mount. Instead using the word “blessed” the translation uses “happy.” That leads to the incomprehensible phrase, “Happy those who mourn.”

Day one covers the Beatitudes, which is a great place for any Christian to start. If we’re to renounce the spirit of the world, it’s a great idea to get us focused on our final end, which hopefully will be to meet God face to face.

1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” – We’re to be detached from all these things in the world. We choose God before all else, and not the other way around. Therefore, we should be watchful of our priorities to ensure that some thing does not lead us away from God.
2. “Blessed are they who mourn” – It’s not the evils and sufferings that come upon us that gives us access to joy, but rather how we respond. We’re to unite our sufferings to that of Christ on the Cross. These days, we should be mournful for all those lives cut short in the womb and for all the mothers who feel the pain of abortion. This is the great crime of our age.
3. “Blessed are the meek” – This seems to be the most troublesome. For what is meant by “meek”? We’re to be humble, but not a false humility which fails to recognize our worth. But of course, the great danger is not a false humility, but whether we’re really humble in the first place. Who is the center of your universe?
4. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” – Do we earnestly desire to do good, and avoid evil? As Jesus tells us, let us be perfect as the Father is perfect. Do we want to see justice be done for all?
5. “Blessed are the merciful” – Do we forgive, or do we demand that the smallest injustice done against us be paid in full measure? It seems that this beatitude might contradict the previous one. For us, mercy and justice seem to be on two different ends of a pole. But in God, they are one. Justice will be done, and God is merciful.
6. “Blessed are the clean of heart” – The first thought comes to sexual purity, since our culture is awash in impurity. But there are wider applications besides lust, such as greed and gluttony. Keep in mind that the heart is the core of our being. We cannot be pure unless our heart is pure.
7. “Blessed are the peacemakers” – Not only are we talking about national peacemakers, but also those who keep peace in families and in the community. Do you seek out enemies or friends?
8. “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness” – Are we willing to suffer to see justice done? Easier said than done.

The Sermon on the Mount continues with the admonition that we remain true to the Gospel, and that we not hide the Gospel. For Christians, religion is not merely a private affair but communal. Do we love others, including non-Christians? And Jesus proclaims that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Thus the Ten Commandments are not erased by the Beatitudes, but rather, it’s that the Ten Commandments are fully expressed by the Beatitudes. One tells us what we shouldn’t do, while the other tells us what we should do. It’s not enough to avoid evil, but rather we must also do good.

Point yourself in the right direction. Orient yourself toward God.

1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him.

2 And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying:

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

5 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.

10 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake:

12 Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

Makarios is the Greek word translated into “blessed”. It means fortunate or blessed, so it is not an inaccurate translation. Some bibles will translate makarios into “happy”. In a certain way, this also is a workable translation since good fortune or good happenstance is the base of the meaning giving us our modern understanding of happiness. The modern meaning is fleeting, more related to our emotional state. But in the ancient understanding, happiness is something more than an emotional state, but rather the achievement of fulfillment.

However, in the modern sense of the meaning of happy, the Sermon on the Mount doesn’t make sense. How can it be that “Happy are they that mourn”? The solution is to refer back to the more ancient understanding of happiness, where happiness is obtained by living a virtuous life.

Peter Kreeft does an excellent job of explaining the difference between the modern and ancient conceptions of happiness and its relevance  to the Sermon on the Mount. I highly recommend that all listen to the Kreeft’s audio. It is about an hour long, and well worth the time (I’ve recorded the audio to CD and played it repeatedly on long drives). Furthermore, I’m depending on the fact that you’ve a working understanding of Kreeft’s lecture for the rest of this post.

This seems to be the question of the modern age: brought up in this conversation between Agent Smith and Cypher (links to Youtube page). Would you rather live in a false world with apparent happiness, or would you rather live in the real world with all its warts, including moments of suffering?

It seems that many choose the artificial happiness, whether it is drugs, pornography or some other temporary pleasure. They would prefer the simulation. Let’s up the stakes. What if the simulation were enhanced to Matrix-like quality (or holodeck quality if you’re a Star Trek fan)? What if you were promised instant stardom, wealth beyond your imagination, and millions of adoring fans? What if you could have sex without consequences (or relatively very small consequences)? I venture that most would grab after the artificial world, and experience for some time, the modern conception of happiness, and then after a while, they would be miserable or perhaps more accurately, they would experience the emptiness of this artificial life.

I want to be clear that I would rather experience the real world. And although I often fail miserably at it, I would rather the chance to live a virtuous life, with the ups and downs of real love, than any artificial experience. It is here that the mystery of the Sermon of the Mount begins to attain clarity. Would you suffer one moment to be with the one you love? The question begins to answer itself.

Later that year, in November, a cemetery was dedicated on that battlefield. A short speech by President Lincoln summarized the meaning and purpose of the war, and pointed to the principles by which the American nation had been founded. Memorably, his speech begins, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” With the words, “fourscore and seven years ago”, President Lincoln was pointing to the year of 1776, and with words, “all men are created equal”, he was pointing to the American founding document, the Declaration of Independence.

And if Lincoln’s words were memorable, so too were these words, announcing before God and the whole world, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In Lincoln’s time, it was clear that the nation had fallen short of its promise of equality. It was clear that the nation’s laws were not protecting the unalienable rights of all. In that time, some men were slaves and thus denied their right to liberty.

Liberty? Why would liberty be deemed important? If we look at the words of the Declaration of Independence, we might gain some insight. It is not mere happenstance that Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers listed these three rights in a particular order: “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Without life, we cannot use our right to liberty, and without liberty, our pursuit of happiness is seriously curtailed.

Now slavery is not an American invention. It has been around for all of mankind’s history. Several thousand years ago, as told by the Bible, the Israelites were under the yoke of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Moses led the Israelites in an exodus across the Red Sea away from their Egyptian slave masters. And it is during that Exodus, that God handed down to Moses the Ten Commandments. God set out to free Israel not only from material slavery but also slavery to sin. God was offering salvation.

In these times, it is hard for us to see that rules are anything but a hindrance to liberty. Things like the Ten Commandments are seen a barriers to our pursuit happiness. I recall having a discussion with someone who had been “living in sin” with a woman. That is, he was living with another woman in a family way, without marrying her. At that time, he insisted that he was happy about the arrangement. And then two years later, after a breakup, he was admitting that he had been miserable for some ten years. There is a particular blindness to these sort of things these days, and I doubt that I would make much headway by focusing on sexual sins.

Thankfully, in this day and age, we view alcoholism as a disorder. Now, I’m not one who views alcohol as the devil’s brew. There is some good in the drinking of alcohol, and if Jesus was known to drink wine, then I’m not about to name drinking as a sin in the eyes of God. Indeed, I believe that our culture is a little bit too strict in controlling these beverages. That means I would agree with an alcoholic friend that it is good to have a drink now and then. But sadly, my alcoholic friend and I would soon part ways. Many people are capable of recognizing that the alcoholic has become a slave to the alcohol, and they also recognize that it is so hard to get the alcoholic to acknowledge his slavery to alcohol (i.e. his alcoholism).

Sin is very much like the disorder of alcoholism. We often become blind to its harmful effects, and we often excuse other behavior in its name. As alcohol becomes a god, and nothing dare get in the way between an alcoholic and his sweet nectar, sins are things which displace God. Sin, like alcoholism, is acting out of order, placing the small things before the more important things. And although we might get the alcoholic/sinner to admit his misery, the alcohol/sin still seems to be his apparent route to happiness. However, the only true route to happiness is to recognize our disorders and our sins, and to repent.

Thus the Ten Commandments are not intended to be barriers to happiness, but rather they are proscriptions against harmful actions or good actions in inappropriate circumstances. But it must be admitted that the Ten Commandments are not enough. The Ten Commandments, by themselves, do not lead anyone to happiness, they only caution us away from the paths to misery and back up our consciences when we do wrong. Even in playgrounds which fence us off from evils, it is not enough for us to merely stay away from the fences to be happy. There must be some purpose in the playground, some pursuit that makes us forget about the fences while we’re playing happily inside them.

It is in recognition of this that Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matt 11:28-30)

It is a bit of a paradox that in order to be free of slavery, we must be slaves of Jesus (by taking His yoke).  We so easily forget what freedom is for! It’s hard to see because we live in a culture of no-fault divorce, but the greatest freedom is the ability to bind ourselves to another person, not in a merely contractual way, but in a way that is as deep as blood, those family ties (so also forgotten in this culture) that says what is mine is yours, even unto death!

It is not the unwilling slavery of pharaoh, but the willing slavery of  Jesus. It is not a heavy burden that is forced upon us, but the light burden we willingly accept (cf. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light”).  And so it is no accident that the Ten Commandments are summarized in the Two Greatest Commandments:

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:37-40)

Salvation is more than freedom from slavery, it is more than mere liberty, because it gives us direction in the pursuit of happiness. And this is where happiness is found, when love is received and love is given.

The Gospel according to John reports that Jesus taught the following (John 12:24):

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

At the Last Supper, Jesus takes the bread and says, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19). Later, Jesus is taken to trial and crucified. Jesus is that grain that falls to the ground and dies.

In the Gospel according to John, Jesus mentions that it is necessary for Him to leave the disciples in order that the Advocate or Holy Spirit comes. God the Father gives up His Son to the world. Out of obedience, the Son offers Himself up for the world, and he dies. By the Resurrection, Christ defeats death and sin. Christ then ascends to Heaven to be re-united with the Father. The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father and the Holy Spirit is the result of an overflowing love between the Father and the Son.

God gives in abundance. The miracle of the loaves is mentioned throughout the Gospels. Not only are a few loaves able to feed thousands, there are several baskets of leftovers. As Jesus claims in John 6, He is the Bread of Life. The grain of wheat dies, becomes fruitful, and feeds the multitudes.

In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis describes how he wished to distinguish between Gift-love and Need-love. It should be be obvious, the God does not need, and so Gift-love  is the sort of love that God has for His creation. On Pentecost, God gives the Holy Spirit which is the manifestation of the love between God the Father and God the Son. Above, it is mentioned that the Jewish feast celebrated the gift of the Torah, or the gift of the Law. In the Christian Pentecost, the gift given is the Law of Love.

Probably because I had Philippians 2:7-8 running through my mind, I was very receptive to the liturgy as it points out that Jesus came as a servant. This point is highlighted when Peter — not understanding the mission Jesus had undertaken — at first refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet. This was uncomfortable for Peter, because Jesus was undertaking an action, which to Peter’s way of thinking, was done by lowly servants. The Jews were waiting for messiah who would be king. And the king doesn’t wash feet. Except that Jesus did.

This also represents sort of flawed thinking that most of the people in the world engage in when they think about the pope in Rome. They see him as a prince of the world, or maybe as a CEO of a corporation (but I repeat myself). To be sure, there were some popes in the past who did wield the power of the State, but the imprisonment within Vatican city (during the nineteenth century) was a benefit to the Catholic Church. No longer holding the trappings of power, the popes could focus on service. To see the pope as a king or a prince is to miss how it all actually works. I’m not saying that there are no ambitious people within the priesthood, but rather that the good priests are the ones who follow Jesus on this point — the life of the priest is a life of service.

It is true that Pope John Paul the Great was a sinner and it is true that Pope Benedict XVI is a sinner. Both had or have flaws. However, to believe that Pope Benedict is some sort of despot is to believe a distortion. There is no requirement that any Catholic follow the pope, unless they believe that the pope is the custodian (n.b.: not the master) of the capital ‘T’ Truth of God’s revelation. Any Christian can protest against the Church’s teaching. It’s been done before. Those folks are called Protestant.

Pride is at the root of the saying, “I will not serve,” a saying which is traditionally attributed to Satan. Service is the strength of ministerial priesthood of those ordained and the common priesthood of those baptized. The great danger in any age is not that Christians will grasp at power (the common failing of all men), but that they will not serve.

In the movie Talladega Nights, there is a scene where Ricky Bobby says grace with his family…

Ricky Bobby: “Dear tiny infant Jesus… ”
Carley Bobby: “Hey, um… you know sweetie, Jesus did grow up. You don’t always have to call him baby. It’s a bit odd and off-puttin’ to pray to a baby.”
Ricky Bobby: “Well look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I’m sayin’ grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grown up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus, or whatever you want.”

Ricky Bobby has point.

… was the Word,

On March 25th, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation. It celebrates the meeting of the angel Gabriel sent to Mary, “Hail, full of grace (favored one), the Lord is with you!” Gabriel passes on the message that the world hoped to hear,

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

And this Jesus would be the Son of God,

and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

And this is the mystery of the Incarnation: that God who so loved the world, gave us his only Son. But the Son, the eternal Word, did not walk upon the world as God. Indeed no,

though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

And he began his life according to His human nature, right at the beginning. Before 1973, there was no confusion as to the beginning of an individual’s human life. Fortunately, one can look at books as old as the nineteenth century and find references that an individual human life began at the moment a sperm fertilized an ovum, that is, conception. Was there a scientific advance which introduced confusion over the beginning of life? No, it was rather a political development.

Jesus began His life, like other human beings, at the beginning. It is a mystery how God brought himself into His own creation, but we do know according to science that He began as a single cell zygote, and He drifted, to be implanted into His mother’s womb. He became as a slave, completely and totally dependent on His human mother according to His human nature.

And when His mother Mary visits Elizabeth, the baby John the Baptist within Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy at the presence of his Lord and the voice of the Lord’s mother Mary.

Those who perform the consecration according to St. Louis de Montfort know that the Feast of the Annunciation (and Incarnation) is the moment of great joy! For is then that the Lord enters His creation. We prepare by praying to “Jesus living in Mary.” As did Jesus, we place our trust in Mary and depend on Mary. Following Jesus, we become a slave of Mary. “Behold your mother.”

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us

Literally, “made his dwelling” translates as “pitched his tent/tabernacle.” The first place in which Jesus pitched His tent was in Mary’s womb; Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant, a living tabernacle. Yet we also can follow Mary as God bearers (if only for a short time).

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.

This is a hard teaching. “Do you also want to leave?”

Where would we go?

God, who can become incarnate, Who came into His creation, can come under the appearance of bread and wine. To accept the one makes it easier to accept the other. Can the Incarnate God-Man come into the world, transforming the bread and wine into Himself by the action of His Holy Spirit (the same Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary)?

There is a better model. We can say yes to His teachings. “Let it be done unto me according to thy Word.”

FIAT! A prayer to zygote Jesus.

1 If I must glory (it is not expedient indeed), but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), 4 That he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter. 5 For such an one I will glory; but for myself I will glory nothing, but in my infirmities.

6 For though I should have a mind to glory, I shall not be foolish; for I will say the truth. But I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or any thing he heareth from me. 7 And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. 8 For which thing thrice I besought the Lord, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful.

All glory belongs to God. That’s hard, because we all want praise. In fact, some of us are desperately needy for praise. Still, if at some level we can recognize that we have nothing but for God, perhaps there is a beginning of humilty.

*** *** ***

This was the first reading at Mass today.

Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
The angel brought me
back to the entrance of the temple,
and I saw water flowing out
from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,
for the façade of the temple was toward the east;
the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple,
south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate,
and around to the outer gate facing the east,
where I saw water trickling from the southern side.
He said to me,
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

The priest at the homily today suggested that the altar was a pre-figuring of Christ on the Cross, and that the water flowing from the temple (Christ’s body) was the water and blood coming from Christ’s side.

*** *** ***

My new car got in its first accident today. I was clipped by someone who was trying to squeeze into a left hand turn lane. I thought I felt and heard his car graze mine. After ten seconds of initial shock, I pulled out of my lane and into the left hand turn lane behind him. “I can’t let this pass,” I thought (perhaps in imitation of Jesus in today’s Gospel, turning over the money tables at the temple, Jn2:13-22). After he made his left hand turn, I followed, beeping my horn and flashing my lights. Eventually he pulled over.

“You hit me,” I said as he got out of his car. I was secretly thankful he was not a huge goon. We inspected my car, but we couldn’t find anything. We then went to his car and couldn’t find anything. I felt small. I felt like a jerk. I apologized. It was after we shook hands, that I realized that I was really pumped up from adrenaline.

As I drove to the Birthright office, I thought it over. I was so sure he had clipped me. I was wondering if I was imagining things. When I finally got to the parking lot of the building where the Birthright office is, I finally had some decent light to see stuff. I noticed that he had shaved off a sliver of metal from my rear wheel well. Boy, I felt so relieved; I wasn’t imagining things.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself.

I wonder what I’ll find in the full light of tomorrow.

Living in a country which has a huge emphasis on rights tends to foster a sense of entitlement. How many times to we pray and expect God to grant our wishes or eliminate our suffering? Don’t get me wrong, we should pray for our needs and the needs of others, but it’s the sense of entitlement that I’m arguing against. It’s that attitude that suggests the God owes something to us.

But that’s exactly backwards. We are so poor, that God sent his only Son as a ransom against our slavery. We couldn’t pay that debt. We could never pay that debt. We owe something to God.
From today’s Gospel reading (Lk 14:25-33)

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”

During the Homily, the priest explained that Jesus was using hyperbole. He doesn’t actually desire that we hate our mother and father. Jesus is saying that we must renounce all claims, all worldly things that would stand between us and Christ.

It’s not as if the world owes us anything anyways.