Homily Notes: September 27 - St. Vincent de Paul

   Today's memorial on the Roman Calendar invites us to consider the example of St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), patron of the poor, charitable organizations, prisoners, hospitals, and volunteers.  Catholics are probably most familiar with him and his name through the lay charitable and spiritual confraternities set up throughout the world, known as the St. Vincent de Paul Societies.  There was also a pretty good French movie on his life filmed in 1947 with the title Monseiur Vincent.  This movie is a Catholic classic--if you weren't impressed with Fr. Vincent's his priestly zeal and if you didn't feel sorry for the relative wealth of our day and age, and the need to do more to reach out to the poor, then you either have a heart of stone or weren't paying attention.  St. Vincent de Paul  founded the religious orders of the Congregation of the Missions (CM), better known as the "Vincentians", and (along with St. Louise de Marillac)  also founded the Daughters of Charity, both of which still function to this day

   But as I said, he is most remembered as the namesake of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which was not founded until much later-the 19th century-by a group of university students in Paris.  Blessed Frederic Ozanam (1813-1853) was a law student in the 1830's, which was a time and age and place which was still reeling from the anti-Catholicism of the French Revolution (1790-1799).   At the time of the Revolution, the Catholic Church was taken to be 'part of the problem' instead of 'part of the solution' for the injustices found throughout French society.  Bishops as well as many priests and even religious lived as aristocracy, while people starved in the streets.  When the time of Revolution came, revolutionaries rose up to vent their frustrations on the institutional Church, sacking and desecrating churches and cathedrals, causing bishops to lose their heads to la guillotine, and disbanding and vandalizing convents and monestaries.  Even more distressingly, the faith was maligned and lost in so many places.  (We all know the stories of what weak faith St. Jean Marie Vianney found when he arrived in Ars in 1818!)  I would posit that it is this attitude of skepticism about the Church flowing from the French Revolution that is still the operant attitude poisoning contemporary European Church to this day... indeed, the ongoing battle between ultramontane Traditionalism (for example, the SSPX) and secular (both civil and ecclesial) Progressivism find their modern roots here also,  but that's a discussion for another day...

   Back to Paris and Frederick... one evening, as the story goes, young Frederic was in a public debate with a critic of the Church when he was challenged to answer for the Church's flagging apostolic zeal on behalf of the poor and needy.  Unable to make a suitable rhetorical response, he was moved to personally respond, collecting a group of like-minded fellow students to take it upon themselves to go out into the tenements of Paris and provide heating fuel for those who were without... to personally be the face of the Church which was maligned and persecuted, unappreciated and perhaps even institutionally lethargic, but still called to do ministry on behalf of the poor.  They took patronage under the name of St. Vincent de Paul, who himself walked those same streets taking care of the poor.  By the time of Oznam's death in 1853, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had some 2000 members and was spreading as an international movement. Today, the society boasts some 700,000 members in 148 countries.  In the United States alone, some 150,000 members contribute $675M of goods and services to those who are in need, impacting nearly 14M people per year.

   The Society is not simply a mechanism to dole out cash to those in need.  It is a spiritual confraternity which allows the faithful to be formed in the apostolic mission of the Church, which is fundamentally a spritiual project!  One of the most satisfying projects of my priesthood has been to be part of the spiritual flowering that took place when we established a SVdP 'conference' at St. Mary & Joseph Church in Carlinville.  A conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is, strictly speaking, a lay organization of the faithful... the constitutions of the Society insist that the conferences are not, corporately, a subsidiary of the parish community.  Parishioners are involved but it, of course, but it is not a 'parish-owned' project.  The local conference has its own money and tax ID, its own organizational charter and elected leaders.  The pastor is encouraged to be involved as a spiritual advisor, but is not dragged into another instance of having to 'govern' the group (which is a welcomed treat).  Meetings happen on a bi-weekly basis, inviting members to report in on the apostolic activities (visits, programs, etc) they have been doing.  If there is a decision to be made to distribute resources, the group does it in a spirit of prayer and discernment of the greatest good for all involved.  The group solicits the community and provides from their own pockets the resources to assist those in need.  Sometimes--perhaps often--the need is not so much financial as it is spiritual!   At SSMJ, we had fifth-Sunday collections (collections in months when there were five Sundays in the month... which happens usually around 3 times a year) which received amazingly good support from our parishioners.  Finally, the members study and discuss the Church's call to give a preferential option to the needs of the poor. 

   Members are constantly encouraged to bridge the gap with the poor...  to make sure that members do not see themselves as 'over and above' the clients they serve, but as partners with them in defeating material, spiritual and material poverty.  Client dignity is of utmost concern... there is an ethic coming from the writings of St. Vincent de Paul himself, that understands that members are to be 'servants of the poor', for "they are your masters, and the more difficult they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them.  It is your love alone that the poor will forgive you for the bread you will give them."  We who have been blessed with plenty must humbly recognize that it is the rich who are in need of forgiveness for withholding the necessities of life from the poor.  It is we who are rich who must preserve the dignity of our less fortunate brothers and sisters who must swallow their pride to ask for what they need from us as charity.  Only by acting in charity (and not through some other motive of egoism or the desire for attention or as a response to our own feelings of guilt) do we find that most complete forgiveness.

   In today's Gospel we see Jesus asking, "who do the crowds say that I am... who do you say that I am".  We respond with Peter, "you are the Christ of God!"  (cf Luke 9: 18-22)  When we make this response, we cannot do so with empty rhetoric.  Our proclamation of faith grafts us to the Body of Christ, whose hands we share, whose sufferings we are called to endure as we take up the cross to follow him.  To proclaim Jesus the Christ demands a personal response borne out in sacrifice.  In James, do we not hear, "for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead?" (cf James 2: 26)  St. Vincent de Paul gives us an example that has inspired generations to consider the needs of the Body of Christ suffering from material and spiritual poverty.  His example inspired Blessed Frederic and his companions to take personal responsibility for the missionary works of the Church in their own age and to leave a path for many faithful to follow, even unto our own day.  How might the Church fulfill her mission more fully if her sons and daughters heard that call upon their heart today and responded with zeal, courage, and grace!

Followup to yesterday's Humane Vitae post...

   I have gotten some response to yesterday's post, and first of all... thanks.  I've been quiet recently, I know, but I've also been real busy with a number of projects.  I am still waiting for my assignment to come down, which is just a matter of time at this point, so when I have news I can share publicly, I will certainly do so.

   I am also sitting on top of a couple of "Comeback Trail" articles which I started and never finished.  Number 3 is practically done, so I'll work it over in the next day or so and turn it loose.  The next one shouldn't be too far behind.

 

   Anyway, one of the follow-ups I wanted to offer was something that I and no small number of my colleagues have used in a homilies and talks before... it is the four "predictions" of Pope Paul VI which he offers towards the end of Humane Vitae, the papal teaching document which was offered 45 years ago yesterday.  He was a prophet of his time, I think, as he had a good understanding of the consequences of the "contraceptive spirit" which he could see, even in the mid-1960's.  Without further ado, here they are:   (from Humane Vitae #17-18)

1. Contraception would promote conjugal infidelity.
2. Contraception would contribute to a "lowering of morality" by increased temptation and the perception of 'ease' (meaning a seeming lack of consequences) in breaking that law.
3. Contraception would lead to diminished reverence (what an awesome word!) for women, where they would be seen as "instruments of satisfaction of his own desires " rather than as a cherished partner to the man.
4. Widespread acceptance of contraception would lead to a massive imposition of contraception by unscrupulous governments.

The results some forty-five years later are somewhat self-explanatory, but wow, we are getting front-row seats to #4 here in the states in our own time.  Contraception and abortion are now considered health care by many of our duly-elected overlords (not to mention, the unelected bureaucracy).  Indeed, the next step for a big government that assumes this kind of power is that it exercise that power coercively.

 

 

New to Blu-Ray: Babette's Feast

   Some years ago, I was at a talk given by Fr. Robert Barron, where he referenced the Danish movie, Babette's feast, about a Frenchwoman who fled Revolutionary France, to find herself in a grim little fishing village in Denmark, where she served as a maid to two spinster sisters who were daughters to a respected and beloved preacher.  After many years, Babette pours herself into one last creative burst, where she introduces the people of the town to the elegance of a meal that could only have otherwise been found at a six-star Parisian restaurant.  It is a wonderful movie, and has been a source of encouragement to me through the years in my own priestly ministry, which has its moments of glory interspersed among occasional long stretches of, well, provincial grim-ness.  Providence, love, hope, artistry, grace, gratitude, acceptance, absolution... all of these are on display in the quasi-sacramental, quasi-Eucharistic experience of Babette's Feast. Check it out at Amazon--if you are willing to take the time to savor the images and story presented in this Feast, you won't regret it.  It was released to Blu-Ray by the Criterion Collection yesterday or the day before and was in my mailbox today.

   The Blu-Ray is in Danish (and French) and has English subtitles.  The DVD I owned before (which I loaned out and never got back) did have an English dub track, but between the dub-track, what French I know, and the subtitles, I am not too convinced that any of the translations very good from a critical point of view.  Don't let the language sandbag you, though.  Like being at Mass in a foreign language, you'll know perfectly well what's going on by watching and engaging it in its own terms, rather than straining it through the filter of language.

 

A few years back (2009), I wrote a short review of the movie, which I include below...

 

   The way that the movie comes together is much more than the sum of its parts.  The elderly sisters, Phillipe and Martina, iconically named after the Protestant reformers Martin Luther and Phillip Melchthon, are two pious spinsters who have tried to do everything they can to remain faithful to the legacy of their preacher-father, and that of their deep faith.  In doing so, they have rejected the riches of the world, have chosen to consider romantic love as nothing more than of 'slight importance', and subsist on a thin, nasty 'ale bread' gruel.  Not unlike their namesakes, they represent everything that is, for lack of a better expression, 'puritan'-- I would say even, 'anti-sacramental'.

   Into their lives, seemingly randomly, a mysterious refugee from France (in the time of the Revolution-- a time particularly precarious for Catholics), arrives at the ladies' house and serves as a domestic worker for little more, it seems, than room and board.  She comes into 10,000F from the lottery, and in thanksgiving to the ladies who sheltered her for some 14 years after her arrival, she desires to serve them a real French feast.  The women, who do not know anything other than their modest village accede to her proposal, and almost instantly come to fear what they are about to encounter as they see the foreign produce and wine and the big, scary turtle which are brought in... not to mention their fear in having an encounter with the romantic 'ghosts' of their past.  The ladies and the townspeople, in fear of offending the austere sensibilities of the old, long-gone pastor in whose honor the meal is served, form a pious compact among themselves that, in their lack of concern for the splendors of the world, they will politely eat, but not 'taste' what they are eating.

   The preparation and serving of the feast becomes the focus of the last half of the movie, where the villagers and the women come to 'see' their worlds differently by way of this 'otherworldly' meal... loves left behind, old sins pardoned, fulfillment of the words of scripture and of the ladies' father.  The Eucharistic overtones of the banquet are unmistakable, bringing a new and different life to a poor and perhaps even undeserving people who did not and perhaps still do not know any better.  They cannot help but 'taste' the meal and be drawn into its power to resolve the past fears such a meal represents (such as the inevitable encounter with old loves, the worldly splendor of the meal itself, or perhaps an encounter with the 'turtle from hell').

   In serving the meal and exhausting her fortune, Babette herself finds fulfillment-or perhaps redemption-as a frustrated artist who has for one final time in her life fulfilled her ("priestly"?) calling, not simply to make people happy or to entertain them, but to come to the full self-realization of who she is as a world-class French chef.  It is a moment of 'transfiguration' if you will, not just for her, but for her guests within the confines of this particular time and place and situation when the meal is served.  The spinster sisters--even in their world which no doubt will return to austere puritanism and mean gruel the next day--are forever changed.  At the same time they are touched and even affirmed in their faith by this encounter.  Again, the sacrificial, Eucharistic, and sacramental overtones are unmistakable and an essential part of understanding this movie's message and depth.

   To appreciate this movie, one needs to put the first half hour in perspective and not get lost in it.  It is slow, but it is important development to understand the providence of Babette's arrival.  At moments the story seems slow, but there is plenty of room to take in what is going on and consider it on multiple levels... to savor it like the character of the general sipping the fine wine... rather than gulp it down like some of the townspeople who may never even appreciate what they are enjoying.       --Fr. Tom Donovan

July 25, 1968 - forty-five years later...

   July 20th is the 44th anniversary of Neil Armstrong stepping out of the lunar module and onto the surface of the moon. It took an amazing sequence of events and the work of many intelligent and brave persons to make this first step a reality that we can look back on today.  On July 25, 1968, Pope Paul VI signed the encyclical, Humane Vitae (On Human Life: the Regulation of Birth), making this weekend its 45th anniversary.

   Humane Vitae is the famous “anti-pill” encyclical, which caused a storm of protest in its day, and remains one of the least-well-understood papal teaching documents to our own time. In light of this anniversary, again I turn our attention to the Church’s teachings on Human Life and the Dignity of Marriage for your consideration.

   In Humane Vitae (#8-13), the Church teaches that the conjugal relationship of husband and wife participates in the Creator’s design by perfecting [the creation] of each of the spouses and allowing spouses to participate in God’s ongoing acts of creation through in the rearing of new life. Married love between husband and wife is intended by God to be exclusive, open to life, and complete (or as I often call it, the "three F's": faithful, fruitful, final). Responsible parenthood is rooted in the virtues of prudence (using right means to accomplish the highest good) and generosity (liberality in sharing of one’s goods). These conditions are reflected in Natural Law and place an intrinsic connection between the marital act and procreation. Thus, any act to frustrate, modify, or simulate the intimate relationship between husband and wife improperly (sinfully) claims an absolute dominion over the human body and the act of creating life itself, offending the Creator’s plan.

   Contraception is little different than the first foolish act of pride in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve told God that they would determine their own morality, based on their own disordered desires. Regrettably, that first sin injured not only humanity’s relationship with God, but also man and woman’s relationship with each other. In the new world order after the fall, men and women began living in shame and, in an effort not to be exploited by the other, they fashioned clothes, guarding themselves from the lustful glances of each other. In a way, this shame also continues when couples resort to contraception. The totally selfless and mutual act of the marital relationship intended by the Creator is perverted into something less in contraception:  “I love you except for your fertility.” “I want you, but not your children.”  “We are one, until it suits me.” In these statements, one can see how the relationship between man and woman quickly degenerates into nothing more than a means to satisfy my wishes, my fantasies, my desires, my neediness, and my loneliness.

   This is completely contrary to God’s holy plan for marriage and marital relations.  These teachings are some of the most challenging that the Church has to offer, and in many ways the Church has not done well in understanding the challenges of married persons or in teaching the beauty of their vocation over the last 40 years. I think this is beginning to change, but society has changed, too— in many way for the worse, with respect to sexual license, lowered standards, marital infidelity, indifference to perversion, and focus on self. Our encounters with Church teaching are corrupted by these ‘contraceptive’ attitudes. What the Church must do in order to be truthful to God’s Word and relevant to today’s Catholics is to offer “a better way” to live— a way that leads to life and truth and faithfulness—a way that promotes strong marriages, families, and children. This can only be done one step at a time– one marriage, one family, one Church at a time.

Bulletin Article: 12 OT-C

   Every night when we turn on the TV or open a newspaper, a major part of news reporting nowadays is an update on the most recent polling data regarding the issues and opinions of the day. Do you approve or disapprove of how the president is handling the nation? Do you agree with our country’s involvement with the hostilities going on in the Middle East? If the election were held today, who would you vote for?

  This kind of reporting appeals to something very appealing and very deeply engrained in the American psyche—participation in the democratic processes in order to determine policy and to form consensus around “the truth”. Even more than that, I’d say that these polls lure us into an even deeper desire in the human heart—the desire to participate in something bigger than ourselves and to let one’s voice be heard. We might very well take for granted our right to vote and participate in the public debates of our day until we realize that such participation has never been possible before due to political and technological limitations. How odd Jesus’ question might have seemed to a Jewish person in the first century.

   “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

   “Who do you say that I am?

Why do you think he asked these questions? Was he confused about who he was or what his mission was about? Was he trying to decide what he would do or say next? I don’t think so. He was not using the “poll” to determine his popularity or discern the truth which he already knew so well. I think he was asking them to make a personal act of faith and to participate deeply in something which was so much bigger than they could even understand at that time. “You are the Christ… the Son of God.” This reply is full of meaning. This profession of faith is full of life-and-death consequences.

   Each time we attend Mass, we are asked to make this same profession of faith, and in doing so, participate in a reality that is bigger than we can fully realize. We are welcomed into the revelation of God in our midst. It is not an opportunity to determine truth, as is often the goal of a poll. Rather, we are invited to participate in God’s truth by responding to it and making our assent to it.

   Our expression of faith (or the lack thereof) does not make Jesus greater or smaller.  He is God. Truth is truth, regardless of what we say about it. But our positive assent does draw us into a personal participation with this ultimate truth of our existence: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. These words cannot be said without placing an obligation on the one who says them because there are consequences.

   If we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then we owe him our enlightened obedience, our conversion from sin and darkness into his way of life, and our own participation in the cross he will carry for us. Some will become martyrs alongside the Lord because of this profession of faith. Some will be called from family and work to become prophets and preachers of this Word in foreign lands. Some will live in Central Illinois in the 21st century and live out the consequences of this profession of faith by living lives of faith and family and community.

   Every time we say “Amen”, we affirm the prayers and professions of faith taking place around us. “The Body of Christ… AMEN.” Do we realize the power of our simple response, “Amen”? In the Jewish world, “Amen” had the sense of, “I bet my life on it.” Our Lord’s question is much more than an inconsequential response to an opinion poll—it is an invitation to see how deep our faith really goes.

Bulletin Article: 11 OT-C

   A theme which frequently comes up in Christian spirituality and scriptures is that of debt, namely the debt we owe to God in justice for the grievous nature of our sins and offenses against One who is all good and all holy. Understood in a contemporary idiom, we are totally bankrupt, and have no other place to turn for relief.

   When dealing with finances, recovery from debt requires a complete change of life and lifestyle. Rather than spending on desires such as vacations and new cars, one concentrates on providing needs such as food and shelter. Rather than being wasteful, idle and proud, one must become resourceful, productive, and humble.

   In today’s Gospel, Jesus encounters a woman in his debt. She recognizes him as her creditor for the error of her former ways, but most importantly she calls out to him as "Lord".  Wishing to repent and make good on her debt, she offers him all she has: her tears, her faith, and the last precious item she owned in this world, a flask of perfumed oil. What is Jesus’ response? He recognizes that she is richer than any of the dignitaries he is dining with. Your faith has saved you, (your faith has made you whole!) go in peace. (Luke 7:50) This is a message of hope and encouragement for sinners everywhere. Our debts have been paid in Christ who accepts our faith and repentance as the most precious ‘currency’ around. We need only turn our lives toward him and figure out what is truly valuable in our lives.

Sacred Heart interlude: Twelfth Station - Jesus dies on the Cross (Balthasar)

[As an echo of Good Friday during Ordinary Time, the Church celebrates a Solemnity in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday after Corpus Christi Sunday.  Here the mystery of God's love revealed in the Cross of Christ is drawn out of the penance and sadness of Lent, and placed before us in our every day lives which is constantly illuminated by the completion of the historical and liturgical observances of the  Resurrection, Ascension, and Descent of the Holy Spirit... taking us into our own age so in need of an awareness of the depths of God's love.  So on this day, in union with the spirit of the series I did during Lent, I offer one more tableau of the Twelfth Station, that given by Hans Urs von Balthasar and used for the pope's stations at the Colosseum in 1988, shortly before Balthasar died.  I looked all over the internet for this text to include it in the Lent series I did, but I couldn't find it in English... it must be out of print.  In recent weeks, I finally got hold of the text, which I share below for your prayer and meditation.]

 

Twelfth Station:  Jesus dies on the cross.

V/.  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R/.  Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

"And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?' which means, "My God, my God, why hadst thou forsaken me?'  ... And one ran, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink... And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last.  ...And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God'."  (Mark 15: 33-39 RSV)

   Jesus is suspended between heaven and earth, repudiated by men and forsaken by his Father, thus restoring the unity between them.  Extending his arms he reaches out to both the sinner who goes back to him and to the one who turns away from him and yet could not hinder Christ to reach out to him.  The vertical beam of the cross bridges the gap between God and man, while the horizontal one embraces the ends of the earth.  The Fathers of the Church therefore could aptly say that the Cross had the dimensions of the whole creation; it has the dimensions of the whole history of the human race because in those three long hours of Christ's agony, the sins of all -- from the first person to the very last -- have been gathered and remitted.  From now on the way to heaven is open to all: this is the teaching of the Church.

   The last words of the dying Jesus express his entire testament to the Church: that the Father will surely, indeed he must, forgive us, wretched and ignorant as we are; that Easter will be the great absolution, setting the seal on our final reconciliation with God; and that the sinless Mother is placed at the center of the Church which, despite the sinfulness of its members, preserves it core intact.

   Jesus' forsaken death on the cross opened for us the way to the Father.  The thirst of Christ's body, drained of every drop of blood, makes of it a spring from whence flow waters of eternal life.  Both the water of baptism and the blood of the Eucharist quench our thirst.  In the dying cry of Jesus, God reveals to us his infinite love which transcends the power of words.

   Bending his head, Jesus gives up the Spirit, the same Spirit whom he will breathe on the Church on the day of his Resurrection, and in this way all is truly accomplished.

 

Holy Mary, Virgin of the cross:

by the tree of life, you are humanity itself:

obedient and faithful, receptive to the word,

resolute and dutiful, open to the Spirit.

 

Reveal to us the mystery of the "Hour" of your Son:

of his glory in disgrace,

of his majesty in service,

of our life in his death.

 

But it is also you "Hour", O Virgin Mary:

the hour of birth -- in faith, in pain, in the Spirit;

for that new birth, Jesus, dying on the cross,

said: "Woman, behold your son."

Benedict XVI on the Eucharist (Corpus Christi Homily 2011)

There is nothing magic in Christianity.  There are no short cuts, but everything passes through the humble, patient logic of the grain of wheat which dies to give life, the logic of the faith which moves mountains with the meek strength of God.  For this reason God wishes to renew humanity, its history and the universe by means of this chain of transformations of which the Eucharist is the sacrament.  By means of the consecrated bread and wine, in which his Body and Blood are truly present, Christ transforms us, assimilating us to himself; he involves us in his work of redemption, making us capable by means of the grace of the Holy Spirit of living according to the same logic which is his, that of gift, like grains of wheat united to Him and in Him.  Thus, sown and maturing in the furrows of history are the unity and peace which are the end to which we are directed, according to the plan of God.  Without any illusions, without ideological utopias, we pass along the roads of the world, bearing within ourselves the Body of the Lord, as did the Virgin Mary in the mystery of the Visitation.  With the humility of recognizing ourselves as simple grains of wheat, we preserve the firm certitude that the love of God, incarnate in Christ, is more powerful than evil, than violence and than death.  We know that God has prepared for all people a new heavens and a new earth, in which peace and justice will reign - and in faith we glimpse the new world, which is our real fatherland.  This evening too, we are set off on a journey with us there is Jesus in the Eucharist, the Risen One who has said: "I am with you always, even to the end of the world" (Mt 28: 20).

May 28, 2005 - Eight years...



May God sustain in all priests a grateful awareness of the gift they have received; may he also awaken in many young men a ready and generous response to his call to give themselves completely to the cause of the Gospel. The men and women of our time, who have such need of meaning and hope, will greatly benefit from their witness. And the Christian community will rejoice, knowing that it can look forward with confidence to the challenges of the approaching Third Millennium.  -Blessed John Paul II ("Gift and Mystery" 1996)

 

Quicumque vult...

In the old office before the Second Vatican Council, priests and religious would recite the Creed attributed St. Athanasius (d. 373), known as the "Quicumque vult..." (the Latin words beginning the statement of faith mean, "Whoever wishes...")  This creed, as others of the first five hundred years of Christianity, were written to proclaim the authentic faith and dismiss the sub-Christian heresies that arose in various places and times.  The Athanasian creed professes the Trinitarian theology with particular precision beyond the familiar Niceno-Constantapolitan Creed that is recited at Sunday Mass all over the world.  One of the properties of this creed that will sound odd to the contemporary audience is the condemnation against those who refuse to believe. The stakes are high--Trinitarian theology is not simply an academic, esoteric exercise in splitting hairs or counting angels dancing on a pin.  It demands our assent, that we can worship God "in Spirit and in Truth".

   The key to greater belief and understanding is not more study and external consideration of the great mystery of God, but to enter more directly into the reality of God's love through "worship of the one God in Trinity".  In worship, the fire of God's love is revealed--that love shared eternally among Father, Son, and Spirit; Three Persons, One God.  We do this each time we sign ourselves with the cross, "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit".  We do this each time we pray, to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.  Each time we recite the Gloria and the Credo.  We do this every time we offer the Son to the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Eucharistic prayers.

   The vitrtue of worship feeds and informs a faithful orthodoxy (right belief), which then leads to a strong and healthy Christian life, or as the Latins say, "Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi"... "the law of prayer is the law of belief is the law of life".

 

   And so, ladies and gentlemen, the Athanasian Creed: 

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic ('universal') Faith.  Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreated, the Son Uncreated, and the Holy Ghost Uncreated. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Uncomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is before or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world. Perfect God and Perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul and human Flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but One Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

Addendum:  Aha!  The Internet provides!  Here's an explanation of the carefulness we need to have when talking about the Trinity and how the Athanasian Creed is the solution.  Look at this, complements the Lutherans, and with a biretta tip to Sean Dailey:

Notre Dame: Obama (2009) vs. Dolan (2013)

I ran across an article that contained Cardinal Dolan's address to the graduates of Notre Dame University.  Out of some 'vast right-wing conspiracy' operating in the depths of my soul, I thought some random comparisons might be interesting... just for kicks and giggles.  This isn't a scientific survey... I simply leafed through the speeches and picked out some key words to search with my browser's "find" function.  Maybe I counted perfectly (including plurals and singulars of the same word, etc,) maybe I didn't... but I'm fairly close and fairly representative, I think, in my counts.  I'll be happy to make any corrections or include observations that readers might point out.

Oh, FWIW, my parish has already been the subject of a "random" IRS audit... which we passed...  it cost us a bunch of time that would be better-spent doing anything else, a bunch of money in professional fees that would be better-spent on anything else, and unnecessary wear-and-tear on an already-overburdened pastor, but we got through it OK.  (It's a good thing I like to run a 'clean ship'.)  I wouldn't mind seeing some people in the government fired for this, however high it goes, if this can be proven to be an arbitrary attack on us as a church and as Catholics who are not afraid to be Catholic.

 

 

 

 

 

	President Obama, 2009	Timothy Cardinal Dolan, 2013
	Printed in NYT	speech not printed in NYT… See New Advent instead
Total Words	3539	1581
Total Time	30:30	12:30
“I”	52	19
“my” "me"	14 9	5 8
“we”	44	9
“us”	21	7
“them”	4	2
“they”	18	1
“you”/”your”	67	39
“Jesus”	0	5
“God”	7	13
“Mary”	0	12
“Notre Dame”	12	17
“Graduate”	2 (once referring to himself)	1
Interruptions for Applause	24	?
“Alum”	0	3
“abortion”	7	0
“pro-life”	2	0
“Christian”	3	1
“Muslim”/”Islam”	1	0
“Jew”	1	3
“bible”	0	0
“opportunity”	0	0
“job”	2 (once referring to himself and his ‘job’)	0
“contribute”	0	0
“Catholic”	4	4
“poor”	1	1
“Gospel”	1	2
“moral”	3	0
“value”	3	0
“gay”/”homosexual”	1	0
“love”	5	2
“cooperation”	4	0
“2009” or “2013”	5	5
“religion”	2	0
“diversity”	4	0
“(dis)/agree”	4	0

  I don't know if this survey proves anything.  My greatest interest, as you might see, was in the use of pronouns.  I suppose that a speech twice as long as the other will result in twice as much usage of these kinds of words, but what I am detecting is one orator's significantly greater use of "us" vs. "them" kind of language... assigning attributes and attitudes to what "they" do or say or believe.  I was surprised to see that, proportionally, the self-references ("I", "me", "my") between the two orators were pretty close.

   The other thing to consider is the use of 'moral' language... what "should" and "should not" be part of the graduate's life or worldview in the president's speech--content which was mostly lacking in the Cardinal's.  I would be from the school that moralizing is pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to preaching.  Yes, morals need to be taught from the pulpit, but I think there is at least as great a need, if not greater, to inculcate the "Catholic way of thinking"... sound interpretation of scripture, seeing the eschatological horizons, bringing the Good News "home", teaching Catholic culture and liturgy and history and hagiography.  Moralizing tends to be a lot of "you" talk, which tends to turn people's ears off... people have a tendency to say to themselves when they feel themselves in the cross hairs: "this doesn't apply to me" or "the priest doesn't know what he is talking about" or "quit treating talking down to us, you hypocrite"... or worse yet, "yeah, go after those (other people) sinners!"  One cannot ignore morality as a necessary component of preaching, but to simply be fed a steady, indiscriminate diet of moralizing tends to strangle the homiletic imagination and divide crowds.

   Neither speaker had much to say about what the graduates would be doing on Monday morning, i.e., getting a job and contributing to society.  I hope that's OK with all the Notre Dame parents out there and the student loan industry.  Who knows?  Maybe there were some religious vocations lurking about in the crowd?