Sunday, July 30, 2006

Hello all Hello All. 2:07:35 PM    comment []

Prelude to the Vision Freedom In Christ In a few words I would like to present my thesis of what we intend to present in these essays; said simply- exercising freedom as God[base ']s beloved children. We are presenting an idea of freedom consonant with the New Testament understanding of freedom. For example in 1 Cor. 7:22 St. Paul speaks of the freedom of the slave who is called by the Lord and the free person who is called as a slave of Christ: 1Cor. 7.22 (NAB) For the slave called in the Lord is a freed person in the Lord, just as the free person who has been called is a slave of Christ. He does not seek to diminish the responsibility the slave and the free person has towards the Lord, but he argues for the One cause of true freedom, a freedom that can only be given by living in Christ; both the slave and free person, who are living for another, either as a slave or as free, once called to obedience by Christ are changed into a relationship in the [base "]new creation:[per thou] 2Cor. 5.17 (NAB) So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. The whole foundation of the ascetical and mystical life, from the purgative to the unitive stages are rooted in this freedom in Christ; there can be no other freedom which can run parallel to freedom in Christ. The Incarnate Word sent from the Father has revealed true freedom, as a free gift of justifying love before the Father. He accomplished this, thru his sacrificial gift of himself on the Cross, for every person who will accept it in faith. The reality of Christ gift does not take away the free response of sinners, in order to cooperate with this grace. What this free response to Christ means for each Christian is only dictated by conscience and circumstance and the grace alive in one[base ']s heart. Obstacles and Helps to Freedom There are just as many if not more obstacles to true freedom as there are true helps to purify and intensify this free response to grace. Padre Pio chose to respond as a Capuchin Monk. We do not equate the helps to freedom on the same level as the hindrances, neither can we ascertain the individual values, which persons desiring to live faithfully in Christ, place on these means. All ascetic writers agree that the theological virtues are the most unitive of all the virtues, since their very object is God himself, while the proper use of the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice are as equally important in bringinig about that unique blend of virtues necessary for full freedom in Christ. This freedom takes on a unique rule in one[base ']s life both here and after having come to full maturity at death, in heaven for all eternity in Christ. But how does a person know they are living the Gospel message of freedom? Christ has revealed the answer to this when he said to his hearers [base "]and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.[per thou] [John 8.32 (NAB)] St. Paul speaking in the same way thru what had been revealed to him by?Christ said : Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, [Eph. 4.15 (NAB)] We can gather from this short introduction that Christ, who calls a person into freedom, to live and act in his name, makes grace readily available to that person to respond to the call to which he is given; that call is responded to in truth and charity and it is this kind of response that makes a person free and makes a person worship God in [base "]spirit and in truth.[per thou] [Jn. 4:24 NAB] Again, this response is ot what the person chooses for himself, but is a response to what has been chosen for himself [Rom. 8:33, 11:15, 16:13; Col. 3:12;1 Th. 1:4; 2 Tim. 2:10]: In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, [Eph. 1.11 (NAB)] This sense of being chosen or predestinated for takes in the widest meaning of chosen. St.?Paul even goes so far as to say that the good works we are called to do were chosen for each of us. Of course we would have to understand what works meant for him. First of all, as multi-faceted a personality as St. Pio of Pietrelcina is we have chosen to present one small, yet essential aspect of his developing personality. This aspect is the understanding of his essential freedom before God; a freedom which every person shares, but those who are called by the mercy of God into the spiritual life of grace as dearly beloved children, an aspect which is constantly before every Christian[base ']s journey into the eternal. There are two kinds of freedom, one that leads to holiness and sanctity, while the other leads away from God. When man begins his journey in life he in placed in the midst of a world in which he exercises his freedom. This freedom of choice, according to the Second Vatican Council, reflects man[base ']s dignity as a rational being, making him the controller of his own destiny. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines freedom in terms of acting or not acting: [CCC, 1731] [OE]Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that , and so to perform deliberate actions on one[base ']s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one[base ']s life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.[base '] Here the Catechism teaches us that freedom is rooted in reason and the will. The Catechism teaches us five things about freedom. First,freedom is the spiritual ability to act or not to act; secondly,it enables us to act responsibly towards deliberate actions ;thirdly, freedom allows for interior growth and maturity;fourthly, it strives to always direct actions in truth and goodness;fifthly, freedoms end is God and our beatitude. St. Pio of Pietrelcina strove all of his life to be set free fully in Christ; that is, according to the teaching of the Church as mentioned, it is in the Word Incarnate that man finds his vocation, his life is a constant decision towards attaining his adopted sonship in Christ. To become an imitator of Christ is man[base ']s salvation. This imitation of Christ , thru grace, places man in righteousness before God. In St. Pio we see a person who struggled his lifelong to accept extraordinary grace from Christ, both for himself and for others . He told his spiritual director at one point that God had chosen him as a [OE]token for the salvation of others;[OE] in other words, to show what great mercy God has for sinners. Yes, he realized his sinful inclination, more than anyone can realize other than God himself, yet he remained confident in the grace of God alone to save him. As the Catechism teaches: [CCC, 1732] [base "]As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.[per thou] The question Padre Pio had to ask that was important to him, as well as everyone who has faith, was not what makes me free when I am free, but more importantly: what do I believe that when I act on my faith that makes me free. But can anyone give you the answer to your freedom without exercising it to the best of your ability here and now under the inspiration of grace and self-knowledge? Isn[base ']t it much easier to accept a stock answer to my freedom by saying, [OE] I am such and such and I am free,[base '] rather than coming to truly understand why I am truly free most absolutely when I act in Christ, for Christ: [OE]if the Son set you free you will be free indeed,[base '] and [OE]the truth shall set you free.[base '] When I say I am free do I not mean to say that here and now before God and others and myself, I take my life in my hands, believing that what I do will lead me to Christ and that even if others misunderstand me, only I can know if I am truly making a free act in accord with grace. Isn[base ']t this the ultimate separation for oneself? Christ Jesus was absolutely free as Only Son of God, true God and true man, even impeccable as regards sin, yet he didn[base ']t choose to be free from death and Crucifixion because Love was a higher law. This means that there is a transcendent knowledge in Freedom before God, which acts thru faith in God, which is guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts; lastly, which is experienced as something undeserving on our part yet freely given by God.This, too is what Freedom in Christ, meant to St. Pio of Pietrelcina. First it meant being true to oneself, then it meant being faithful to Christ Jesus to whom he found his ultimate freedom thru grace. This always meant a struggle, a darkness, a journey in faith, a humble listening within himself to where the Holy Spirit was asking him to surrender. Many times, this was not thru words, but in a language beyond words: [OE]my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.[base '] 1:48:45 PM    comment []

Hello Hello 12:46:04 PM    comment []

Going beyond the Essence! "If transcendence has meaning, it can only signify the fact that the event of the esse, the essence, passes over to what is other than being.' [Levinas, OBBE, Ch. 1.1] Here Levinas in his opening pargraphs of Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence(OBBE) he captures the heart of his whole work he is about to set forth-the separation between being and beyond being. Much like Aquinas argued and showed that, in following Aristotle, God cannot be put into a genus, since he is beyond every genus, so Levinas will show that the relation with the other before me is also a contact, a trace of the Other who is beyond the Other before me. In short, it is the face of God who traces himself in the face of the Other. Some Excerpts From Aquinas on Essence and Beyond Essence For example here is a passage from the first book of the Summa Contra GEntiles where Aquinas shows the difference between the operations of the intellect of man and the intellectual operations of God: Summa Contra Gentiles Bk 1 Ch 58 p 125 Again. A composing and dividing intellect judges of various things by various compositions: because the composition of the intellect does not go beyond the limits of composition: wherefore the intellect does not judge that a triangle is a figure by the same composition whereby it judges that man is an animal. Hence, if God considers things by composing and dividing, it follows that His act of understanding is not one only but manifold. And thus again His essence will not be one only, since His intellectual operation is His essence, as we proved above. (Summa Contra Gentiles, trans. by English Dominicans (London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1934), pg. 125. Here Aquinas does two things. First he shows what is the operations of hte human intellect and how it comes to understand; secondly, he shows thru argumentation, the essence of the understanding of God. This chapter in the Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG) is titled: 'THAT GOD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND BY COMPOSITION AND DIVISION.' God does not understand himself by composition and division. But the same who approaches the other approaches God who leaves his trace in the other; therefore, neigher can the same understnad the Other traces himself in the face of the neighbor grasp him thru composition and division. But God who traces himself in the neighbor's face is beyond essence; that is, beyond a genus. But every genus can be understood as grapsed in its essence. Therefore, God cannot be grasped in his essence , who comes to me as a trace in the meeting of the Other; thast is, by compostion and division, who is beyond every essence. This does not mean, as I think that Levinas meant , tha tthe trace does not indicate the one who traces; that is as 'the invisible things of God are clearly seen thru the things tha the has made.' (Rom.) Neither doe sit mean that the neighbor whom the Same encounters understands who traces himself as towards the Same, for the trace is beyond a composition and division; that is, a way of understanding. THe Other is always seen in hindsight. And of course, this is the whole schema which Levinas will show thru his analysis. Even though the same can grasp the essence of the other, the neighbor, it is the grasp that eludes his grasp. In other words, as Levinas, shows, the other is transcendent, yet a contemporary. I do not graps the other from a without; that is, by a sign ourside of myself, as a sensible, but a command form within. This, too,is what Levinas will show. This command is not a command that arises from a knowledge thru composition and division by the intellect, but a knowledge of the heart, where the other also finds his place 'under the same sun' as myself. He Who Finds Truth, Finds God. Behold how I enlarged in my memory seeking Thee, O Lord; and out of it have I not found Thee. Nor have I found aught concerning Thee. For from the time I learned Thee have I never forgotten Thee. For where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the Truth itself, which is from the time I learned it have I not forgotten. ' {Augustine, Confessions, Bk 10., Ch.xxiv) As Levinas says, being's other must be transcendent in order for it to have meaning and what more meaning can the being of the Other can have if it is God whom we face. But not the God of Moses whom eHe could not look upon even his back without a veil over his face, but the God who glimmers in the face to face with the neighbor. But the inability ot grasp the Other thru this composition and division, where the other becomes merely a sign or a signified thru the reason of the Same is the power one experieces over the other, yet at the same time it reveals the weakness of the Same over the Other. Immaculata Publishing 11:09:35 PM. Monday, March 28, 2005 Rejoice in the Risen Lord Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Here at Immaculate Conception Parish in Union, Mo. we have in the Church a small statue of the Saint of Lisieux which stands above the confessional overlooking the body of the Church itself. Opposite the statue of St. Therese is the statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague, which is above the confessional on the other side of the Church. Below is a group of photos of the St. of Lisieux. They are to remind us of the holiness of the life of St. Therese and it is for this purpose that they are presented here. The Catholic Church teaches that the relics and images of the Saints can unite us to those to whom they remind us of. In the same way. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the sacred image is a means to unite us to the saacred person it depicts as the robe of the King reminds us of the King (Reposted originally posted March 28, 2005) 11:46:05 AM    comment []