Each year around this time the Church gives us for the 2nd reading one of St. Paul's statements about the roles of husbands and wives. These are the verses that talk about "wives be subject." Although some try to make a big fuss about this, I think Mark Shea, who is a Catholic apologist and writes for www.catholicexchange.com, does a great job addressing this issue.
"Wives be subject"
There's one of those hot button verses. Everybody thinks they know what it means. And one of the markers of whether you are a pre- or post-conciliar Catholic is what you think it means.
Pre-conciliar types tend to believe that (obviously) Paul meant that the husband was to run the family and the wife's job was to submit. Pausing from their labors to convince the world of geocentrism, they write exceedingly long tomes aiming to show that all post-conciliar teaching on man and woman is not just wrong and heretical, but it's heretical and wrong too! Anything less than women in head coverings is a betrayal of the Faith, etc. John Paul is in error, etc. You know the drill.
Post-conciliar types tend to say things like reader Morning's Minion:
St. Paul was a victim of his time and of his heritage. So, when he directed wives to be subject to their husbands he failed to explicitly direct husbands to be equally subject to their wives. He came very close, but still not quite. Pope John Paul II filled in the blanks in Mulieris Dignitatem.
Then, there are those of us who refuse to submit to the paradigm of Two Churches, pre- and post-conciliar. We tend to take it seriously when we confess faith in ****one**** holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. We also take it seriously when we are taught that the Church is indefectible and the ordinary Magisterium infallible. So our first thought, when the Church teaches something that does not immediate sit will with us, is not to explain (as pre-conciliar types tend to do) that John Paul is a heretic, nor to explain (as post-conciliar types tend to do) that our fathers were fools.What the pre-conciliar type tends to do is claim that the task of the modern exegete is to corrupt, not interpret, the apostolic tradition. What the post-conciliar type tends to do is claim that the task of the modern exegete is to correct, not interpret, the apostolic tradition.In fact, JPII neither corrupts nor corrects St. Paul. Because he does not introduce the notion of mutual submission: St. Paul does. "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" is the keystone of the entire discussion of marriage. That is why it is so stupid to extirpate the verses addressed to women and address only men. It is to treat men alone as moral agents.
When Paul writes these words, he is writing to a world in which it was assumed women were *not* moral agents. He calls upon them to be disciples and not drones. He also calls men to die for their wives. He calls, in short, for mutual submission in love.He is not a blinded slave of his culture, but a radical thinker who is way ahead, both of his time and ours.At the same time, as JPII makes clear in his Letter to Families, the whole conception of marriage is governed by the Church's understanding of God as a Trinity of Love.
That is why, after his discussion of marriage Paul makes it clear that "This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church". That's why it's a sacrament: it brings us into the life of mutual surrender in love that is the Trinity through the Lord who surrendered his life to us (he was, after all, "handed over to sinful men") and who teaches us to surrender our lives to him.
Bottom line: both pre- and post-conciliar takes are wrong. The task of the Magisterium remains what it always was: to interpret, not correct or corrupt, the apostolic tradition.
c/o markshea.blogspot.com
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Death of a Living Saint
Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, o.p., founder of the Community of Saint John, died peacefully on Saturday morning August 26, 2006, at the priory of Saint Jodard (France). He was being taken care of there since his stroke on July 20. He was going to be 94 years old on September 8.Until the funeral day, the brothers and sisters keep vigil around him in the brother's chapel in Saint Jodard. The vigil is opened to all who wish to participate.The funeral mass will be celebrated on Saturday September 2 at 10:30 am at the Cathedral of Lyons. It will be presided by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyons.In the afternoon, Father Marie-Dominique will be buried in the cimetery of Rimont, in the intimacy of the Family of Saint John (brothers, sisters and oblates).In thanksgiving for all they have received through him, the members of the Family of Saint John entrust him to the prayer of all.
It is with great sadness that I found out that the founder of the Community of St John passed away over the weekend. For those of you new to the Frassati Society, the Community of St. John began in France and has sites also in Texas and Illinois. The Frassati Society has been blessed to sends some of its members to a Holy Week retreat with the Community each year in Illinois. All who have gone find the time spent there to be spiritually and physically refreshing. Also, the opportunity to focus on uniting ourselves with the Lord during Holy Week is life changing. If you would like to see more about the Community go to: www.stjean.com.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears attend to the voice of my supplication.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who could survive?
But there is forgiveness in you, and we revere you for it.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watch-men for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all iniquities.
---Psalm 130
Eternal rest grant unto Fr. Philippe, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Madonna' Roman Outrage
ROME, AUG. 17, 2006 (Zenit.org).-
By Elizabeth Lev
Blame it on the August heat, but I've been in high dudgeon all week.
On Aug. 6, 2006, Rome was sacked. This time it wasn't by Visigoths running rampant though the streets, or by mercenary soldiers murdering and plundering. But the same blasphemous spirit that drove the Landsknechte to stable their horses in the Sistine Chapel permeated the city once more. This time, however, many Romans joined right in.
The occasion was pop singer Madonna Louise Ciccone's only Italian concert. Like many barbarians of old . . .
For the rest of the excellent article, click here.
Madonna should be ashamed to call her self "Madonna". We should pray for her conversion.
By Elizabeth Lev
Blame it on the August heat, but I've been in high dudgeon all week.
On Aug. 6, 2006, Rome was sacked. This time it wasn't by Visigoths running rampant though the streets, or by mercenary soldiers murdering and plundering. But the same blasphemous spirit that drove the Landsknechte to stable their horses in the Sistine Chapel permeated the city once more. This time, however, many Romans joined right in.
The occasion was pop singer Madonna Louise Ciccone's only Italian concert. Like many barbarians of old . . .
For the rest of the excellent article, click here.
Madonna should be ashamed to call her self "Madonna". We should pray for her conversion.
Monday, August 14, 2006
St. Maximilian Kolbe
St. Maximilian Kolbe's feast day is today, and I can honestly say that he is one of my favorite saints. I remember reading about him early on during my coming back to the church. He is such an awesome witness for all of us. "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends."
In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe: priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian's feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary's Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation.As men, we could all learn a simple lesson from Maximilian Kolbe in a fundamental area of virtue: namely, chastity. Men today don't connect chastity with manliness because they are indoctrinated by a sexualized society against the sacrifice it requires. But chastity is the proof of a man's virtue, not its destruction. Whether it is pre-marital chastity to respect women, periodic abstinence in marriage to respect wives, or permanent celibate chastity for God's kingdom, a man must learn it or live in a state of perpetual adolescence. Indeed, even as a child Kolbe was asked by Our Lady to choose between a white crown of purity and a red crown of martyrdom, and he showed his penchant for magnanimous sacrifice by choosing both! Men will be chaste not just when women demand it of them but when they see it as a heroic way to prove their manhood, and Kolbe's example stands out for any of us who have eyes to see.
Servant of All
Upon this foundation of chastity St. Maximilian built a veritable kingdom for Christ. This kingdom was not the raw expression of ego that so many men flaunt, but a kingdom of love to which he devoted his life and all his vital energies. He was not yet a priest when he formed an organization for the conversion of all Freemasons in the world — no minor project there. He then established the largest monastery of religious men in the world and gave them all the task of bringing souls to Christ.After that he learned Japanese and went to Japan because he saw that the mainly un-Christianized Japanese had souls to save, too, and someone had to do it. He identified himself as that someone. Nor was he known to have ever accepted a benefit or privilege beyond what his men received, even when he was technically entitled to it as their superior. He ate with them, prayed with them, slept on the floor like them and then went to several Nazi prison camps with them. He was first, but made himself the last and the servant of all. This was a man's man.
“I’m Just a Priest”
If the real identifying mark of a man is his ability to forego his own desires for the good of others, then the sacrifice of one's life for another surely qualifies as the highest measure of manhood. This saint did not even know the man who lamented about the destitution of his wife and children if he died in that concentration camp, but Kolbe stepped out of line right then and there and took his place as if it never occurred to him that he had just agreed to the most horrible death imaginable, death by starvation, or to having his veins shot through with carbolic acid to finish off the devilish deed. His act of selflessness was so spontaneous that it seemed like just another sacrifice in his day, but in reality it was the ultimate sacrifice. "I'm just a priest," he told the Kommandant of the camp. "I'll go instead of him."Will today's men learn from this man about manhood? Woe to us if we do not! In a world where feminist dogmas and intimidations shame men from living the heroism to which all of us are called, Kolbe beckons men to stand up, throw off this present totalitarianism and step out of line for those who need men most.
c/o Fr. Tom Euteneuer is president of Human Life International @ www.catholicexchange.com
In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe: priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian's feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary's Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation.As men, we could all learn a simple lesson from Maximilian Kolbe in a fundamental area of virtue: namely, chastity. Men today don't connect chastity with manliness because they are indoctrinated by a sexualized society against the sacrifice it requires. But chastity is the proof of a man's virtue, not its destruction. Whether it is pre-marital chastity to respect women, periodic abstinence in marriage to respect wives, or permanent celibate chastity for God's kingdom, a man must learn it or live in a state of perpetual adolescence. Indeed, even as a child Kolbe was asked by Our Lady to choose between a white crown of purity and a red crown of martyrdom, and he showed his penchant for magnanimous sacrifice by choosing both! Men will be chaste not just when women demand it of them but when they see it as a heroic way to prove their manhood, and Kolbe's example stands out for any of us who have eyes to see.
Servant of All
Upon this foundation of chastity St. Maximilian built a veritable kingdom for Christ. This kingdom was not the raw expression of ego that so many men flaunt, but a kingdom of love to which he devoted his life and all his vital energies. He was not yet a priest when he formed an organization for the conversion of all Freemasons in the world — no minor project there. He then established the largest monastery of religious men in the world and gave them all the task of bringing souls to Christ.After that he learned Japanese and went to Japan because he saw that the mainly un-Christianized Japanese had souls to save, too, and someone had to do it. He identified himself as that someone. Nor was he known to have ever accepted a benefit or privilege beyond what his men received, even when he was technically entitled to it as their superior. He ate with them, prayed with them, slept on the floor like them and then went to several Nazi prison camps with them. He was first, but made himself the last and the servant of all. This was a man's man.
“I’m Just a Priest”
If the real identifying mark of a man is his ability to forego his own desires for the good of others, then the sacrifice of one's life for another surely qualifies as the highest measure of manhood. This saint did not even know the man who lamented about the destitution of his wife and children if he died in that concentration camp, but Kolbe stepped out of line right then and there and took his place as if it never occurred to him that he had just agreed to the most horrible death imaginable, death by starvation, or to having his veins shot through with carbolic acid to finish off the devilish deed. His act of selflessness was so spontaneous that it seemed like just another sacrifice in his day, but in reality it was the ultimate sacrifice. "I'm just a priest," he told the Kommandant of the camp. "I'll go instead of him."Will today's men learn from this man about manhood? Woe to us if we do not! In a world where feminist dogmas and intimidations shame men from living the heroism to which all of us are called, Kolbe beckons men to stand up, throw off this present totalitarianism and step out of line for those who need men most.
c/o Fr. Tom Euteneuer is president of Human Life International @ www.catholicexchange.com
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