The Last Saint Of The Year

As we count down the hours to the end of the year and the beginning of 2015, we commemorate the memory of Pope St Sylvester. He is not one of those popes who jumps suddenly to mind and yet his pontificate was important because it was he who guided the Church from a state of persecution to being a Church of the Roman Empire, Reigning from 314 to 335 he saw the implementation of the Edict of Milan and the Council of Nicea, the decrees of which he approved. So he is an interesting Saint to commemorate at a time of transition.

Little is known of his life, we know he was a Roman by birth. During his pontificate he had to deal with the Emperor Constantine, an ambitious and proud man who would gradually seek to gain more power and control over the Church. Sylvester, it seems, was wise in his dealings with the emperor. He was responsible for building the Basilica of St John Lateran, making it his cathedral, among other building works around the city. He was also the pope who had to deal with the most serious of the Christological heresies, Arianism. That battle would not be won for centuries, and it still continues to raise its head today. 

There are many legends concerning Sylvester, most are probably not even founded in fact. One of my favourite concerns his battle with a dragon. According to the story the dragon lived in a pit near Rome and was known to kill men with his breath. Constantine fearing the creature sought the help of the pope who went out to the pit and going down sealed the dragon's mouth closed with thread. The pope had been followed by two enchanters who wanted to see how Sylvester would deal with the creature. They were converted on the spot. We are then told that the pope raised from the dead those who had been killed by the dragon's breath.

The legend is delightful, certainly untrue in its literal sense, but true in its allegorical sense, for it can be seen as a celebration of the end of persecution and the blessing Christianity would bring to Rome, bringing life to souls quashed by paganism and the evil one.  This allegory can prove useful to us too in these times. We are called to faith, to trust God: evil has been overcome. That is a message of hope for us at the turning of the year. So let us celebrate this feast, and the night that comes, the "notte di San Silvestro" as it is known in some places. With this saintly Pontiff let us look forward, as he did, faithful to Christ, zealous to proclaim his Gospel and step forward in hope to the New Year.

The Pope On Euthanasia

The Holy Father has issued his message for World Day of the Sick, you can read it here. 

He has wonderful words of encouragement for those who serve the sick, usually a hidden and difficult ministry which often requires untold sacrifices. He also has a word to say about those who speak about the "quality of life".

World Day of the Sick is celebrated annually on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11th February.

The Ongoing Saga

Damien Thompson's most recent article in The Spectator has received some coverage in the last few hours. Both the guys over at Creative Minority Report and Fr Z devote posts to it. Thompson is writing on the German Bishops' attempts to force a change in Church teaching with regard to the Eucharist for the divorced and remarried.

There is enough being said there and Thompson's article is comprehensive. So just for the record, for those poor souls who might be confused.  

The Church's position emerges from divine law, uttered by Jesus Christ himself and laid out most explicitly in the Gospels. If Christians are not happy with that law they have to take it up with God and argue with him. 

If the Church were to change her law she would be committing an act of infidelity to Christ and would no longer be the Church, the bride of Christ. Scripture uses other quite explicit images for the people of God who break covenant with him, see the Prophet Hosea for an example.

Compassion is grounded in truth. There is no compassion in leading people into sin and perdition.

All the so-called progress in worldly terms will never negate a teaching of Christ: his teachings do not need updating, they are uttered by the Eternal God. We must change, not God nor his teachings.  God is God, he does not change his mind, what he uttered in and through his Word is eternal teaching.

All the money in the world cannot be used to justify defying the law of God. Those who try to use their wealth and power to force people to abandon the true faith and the commandments laid down by God are guilt of serious sin and, as Jesus himself said, it would have been better that they had never been born rather than lead any of the little ones astray. A millstone will be put around their neck and they will be thrown into the sea.

Bishops are entrusted with preaching the truth, if they fail in that they will be judged severely at their personal judgment and it will effect their personal salvation.  

And for those anxious about the Church:

We must trust in God: the gates of hell will not prevail. Have faith. 

If others are unfaithful, even bishops, you must be faithful.

Pray for the bishops of the Church, especially those in Germany.

Pray for the Pope, do not rebel, he is the Vicar of Christ and the Holy Spirit will ensure he will not betray the Gospel. If the Holy Father's children abandon him, he is left alone. This is the time to gather around the Pope and encourage him to stand firm against those who are trying to force him to do what is contrary to the Lord's teaching.

Enough said for now. Let us be vigilant in prayer, faithful in our observance, prudent in judgment, and above all, charitable. And may God forgive us all for the times we have failed in these.

"Withering" Heights

I recently went to see a dramatic adaption of Wuthering Heights at the Gate Theatre in Dublin with some friends. It wasn't a great performance, surprisingly for the Gate. However it did get us talking about the Brontes and their works. My friends are not fans of the Brontes and the play didn't do much to endear the scribbling ladies to them either. A couple of weeks later I joined these friends for a meal and I brought a movie adaption of Wuthering Heights for us to watch and compare. No joy there either, it wasn't the play that put them off, it was the story. And to be honest, it is a rough story.

I think most of you will probably have read Wuthering Heights, it was all the rage when I was growing up, many teenage girls loved the novel and lamented over the lost love between Heathcliff and Cathy. I didn't really fall under its charm, and when I went to University to study literature our lecturer in Nineteenth Century Fiction was no fan either and directed us away from the Brontes to George Eliot and her masterpiece Middlemarch which is, in my opinion, a far superior literary work, though I do think Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is also an extraordinary piece of writing. That said I do think Emily Bronte is on to something as she explores the characters of Heathcliff and Cathy and plots their obsessive and destructive love affair. I think Emily's reflection provides us with some useful insights into human obsession, sin and passion.

To start with Heathcliff and Cathy are not, in my opinion, heroes in the normal sense of the word, more like anti-heroes, they are not to be regarded for their virtues but rather their moral failures, or more correctly how their moral failures lead not only to their own destruction, but also to the destruction of all those around them.  Their unbridled passion, lust, obsession, call it what you will, mingled with hatred, vengeance and jealously, tears their lives apart and the lives of those around them, with the exception of three people: Nellie the maid, who endures; and their children Cathy junior and Hareton who finally escape but do so with deep wounds. Far from swooning at them, I think Heathcliff and Cathy are unlikable figures, repulsive even, not by nature but by the choices they make. So obsessed with themselves and each other, they are distorted, perhaps even grotesque. Given the distorted view many have of love today, I suppose it is no surprise that Heathcliff and Cathy are regarded as romantic figures: there is nothing better, some would say, than the love that is doomed and chosen even though it destroys.

This pair provide us with a warning, a even starker one than that provided by Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo; the storm which surrounds Bronte's couple seems even wilder and hellish than that in the second circle of hell. Unbridled passion is dangerous, it can destroy the soul, and not just one, but many. It is like a tornado, it careers through the landscape of humanity wrecking whatever it passes. Passion without reason and virtue is dangerous. 

There can be a virtuous passion, a passion that leads not to destruction but to creativity, beauty, holiness. We see this in the Saints we have just celebrated, notable among them St John the Apostle. Indeed we find passion enshrined in the Scriptures in the Song of Songs and in the writings of the Saints, chief among them for me, St Teresa of Avila, St Therese of the Child Jesus, St John of the Cross and St Catherine of Siena. There can be no denial that passion is a human experience, an extraordinary emotion, but it must be graced, redeemed, oriented in the right direction so as to be fruitful. 

The passion of Heathcliff and Cathy was not fruitful, like the physical landscape that surrounds them, it is barren, it produces ghosts and unrest. Cathy's ghost at the window and Bronte's noting at the end of the book, that Heathcliff's ghost also walks is no suggestion, in my view, that love lives forever, rather that their souls may well be cursed to wander aimlessly, restless, eternally unsatisfied, lost. I sometimes wonder if Emily Bronte has, in the end, put her untamed couple in hell? 

Is Emily telling us to be careful, or is she only lamenting the lost love of Heathcliff and Cathy unaware of a deeper movement underneath it all? Perhaps. But that warning is one of the things I take from this novel. My friends are unconvinced, one remarked that if this was Bronte's intention she did not have to do so in such a negative and destructive way, in a way that might inspire unwitting fans to take the same road. Well, that means has been employed in art for some time. Milton in Paradise Lost did the same with his character of Satan, as did Burgess in A Clockwork Orange with his bunch of miscreants. Shakespeare does the same in his tragedies, notably Macbeth, though in that case it was an exploration of how a noble figure is destroyed by his failings and the corruption is all too clear so to provide a warning rather an example to be imitated. Modern literature loves the anti-hero, Emily Bronte is just an early exponent of that trend.

Anyway, these are just a few thoughts. If you have any ideas yourself you can share them in the comments box. No fighting now!

Thomas

This is one of my favourite feasts of the Christmas season - I love them all, but this one, St Thomas a Becket, just seems to have a special resonance for me for some reason. 

I remember visiting Canterbury Cathedral on this day a number of years ago and spending some time in prayer at the spot where St Thomas was martyred. The cathedral is no longer Catholic, it is divested of its ornaments and the offerings of grateful pilgrims and it is more a museum than a shrine now. A lonely candle marks the spot where the tomb of St Thomas stood, the goal of men and women who walked from all over Europe for centuries. St Thomas's body is missing: some accounts say the monks managed to hide it before Henry VIII's iconoclasts arrived, some suggest the body was burned as were the sacred remains of many Saints in England during the religious revolution.

Some fragments of his relics remain, on the day of my visit I carried a relic of the martyred Archbishop in my hand, a precious gift which I cherish. Other relics are preserved in churches around the world, including the Catholic parish church in Canterbury, now the shrine of the Saint.

St Thomas was an extraordinary man. He was for most of his life a man of the world, an ambitious man who courted royal favour. His efforts succeeded in both temporal and ecclesiastical terms: he was appointed Lord Chancellor of England - the highest office in the kingdom, and then Archbishop of Canterbury, the then Catholic primate of England. He was a friend and companion of King Henry II who conferred offices and favours on Thomas for friendship sake, though Thomas proved to be an able administrator.

When Henry had him appointed Archbishop he did so in order to have more control over the Church in England. As we know it has often been the desire of secular rulers and governments to control the Church, even today. However this move would backfire on the King, he had forgotten about God and Thomas's faith - though that faith had been hidden away and long neglected.  His ordination as priest and bishop and the realisation of what was being put into his care led to a conversion experience for Thomas and he was forever changed. Now he was no longer the pawn of an ambitious and controlling King, he began to defend the rights and freedom of the Church. He turned to prayer, grew in virtue and practiced mortifications, wearing a hair-shirt under his clothes. We all know what happened: conflict with Henry, exile and eventual martyrdom at the foot of the altar in Canterbury Cathedral on this day in 1170. 

Thomas is a figure of hope for us, one who reassures us that God's grace is at work in us and in all, even in our enemies, calling us all to conversion, fidelity of life and witness to the Gospel. At the end of the day God is in charge, and even if his ministers fail to live up to the Lord's will and commands, God will not fail, he will deliver his people. Wasn't that the message of the Prophets? Wasn't that the teaching of Christ? Our Lord offered his life on the cross so we could be free to live according to the Gospel: his  blood was not shed in vain. At times the blood of his faithful ones will be mingled with his, and that commingling yields great fruitfulness and we are confirmed in our faith, strengthened and encouraged to bear witness ourselves, regardless of the cost.

May St Thomas a Becket, servant of God and his Church, watch over us in these times. Like him may we all be converted to the Lord and bear faithful witness to the Word.

A candle marks the spot of St Thomas's tomb in Canterbury Cathedral

Let Us Never Forget

Though today is the feast of the Holy Family (and let us pray for all families, that they may imitate the Holy Family of Nazareth and find in the intercession of Jesus, Mary and Joseph every grace and help they need) if today were not Sunday it would be the feast of the Holy Innocents. 

These little boys, about a dozen all under two years of age, were killed by King Herod as he sought to kill the Christ.  Apart from the horror of their death and their veneration in the Church as martyrs, they have also become patrons for the pro-life movement representing in many ways those other innocents who are killed in their infancy: the victims of abortion.

These little boys and girls, denied their right to life, now number millions, are also denied a voice and even denied their very humanity so their killers can cover over their crimes. But their murder is a crime, and though the world and its governments and its powerful women and men choose to ignore, to forget, let us never forget. Let us commemorate these little ones sacrificed in the name of so-called "choice". May their blood shed in the clinics, hospitals and abortion facilities of the world, intercede with God for justice and an end to this holocaust.

May the Holy Innocents stand at the gates of heaven and welcome the victims of the culture of death, and may God give them what has been denied them here: life, respect, love and a recognition of their existence and their humanity.

In memory of these little ones, we might listen to the Coventry Carol, usually sung at Christmas it is in reality a hymn about the massacre of the Innocents, a lament in the form of a lullaby.

John

The feast of the Beloved Disciple. 

Of all the apostles, John understood Jesus the best, hence he became the Beloved. At the Last Supper he leaned on the breast of the Lord, such was the intimacy between Jesus and John, and while we may be jealous of such a closeness, as was Peter, we must remember that all of us are called to such intimacy with the Lord. 

It is Jesus' intention that we all become beloved disciples, and John himself encourages us in this. As we read his Gospel and his Epistles we see John unveiling what he found in the Heart of Christ and inviting us in beyond the veil to go into the sanctuary, into the Heart of Jesus himself. 

If only we realised that, if only we knew what God was offering, what Jesus is saying to us! May St John the Beloved help us to listen, to respond and to open our hearts to Christ.

Stephen

The honour of the first feast after Christmas Day is given to the Church's first martyr, the Deacon Stephen. St Luke is at pains to record the sermon and witness of St Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles fully aware, no doubt, that here the Church sees the fulfillment of the Lord's prophecy regarding martyrdom and offering for our veneration the man who became for all the disciples the example of how to die for Christ.

Stephen's homily is a remarkable profession of faith, a catechesis aimed at helping the Jews to understand that Jesus, whom they have crucified, is their Messiah. On his feast day I think it is worth reading and reflecting on:

The Sermon of St Stephen

(Acts 7: 2-53)

'My brothers, my fathers, listen to what I have to say. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham, while he was in Mesopotamia before settling in Haran, and said to him, "Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for this country which I shall show you."  

So he left Chaldaea and settled in Haran; and after his father died God made him leave that place and come to this land where you are living today. God did not give him any property in this land or even a foothold, yet he promised to give it to him and after him to his descendants, childless though he was.

The actual words God used when he spoke to him are that his descendants would be exiles in a land not their own, where they would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. "But I will bring judgement on the nation that enslaves them," God said, "and after this they will leave, and worship me in this place."

Then he made the covenant of circumcision with him: and so when his son Isaac was born Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day; similarly Isaac circumcised Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

The patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him, and rescued him from all his miseries by making him so wise that he won the favour of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who made him governor of Egypt and put him in charge of his household. Then a famine set in that caused much suffering throughout Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find nothing to eat. When Jacob heard that there were supplies in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on a first visit; and on the second Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Pharaoh came to know his origin. Joseph then sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, a total of seventy-five people.

Jacob went down into Egypt and after he and our ancestors had died there, their bodies were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought for money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

As the time drew near for God to fulfil the promise he had solemnly made to Abraham, our nation in Egypt became very powerful and numerous, there came to power in Egypt a new king who had never heard of Joseph. He took precautions and wore down our race, forcing our ancestors to expose their babies rather than letting them live. It was at this time that Moses was born, a fine child before God. He was looked after for three months in his father's house, and after he had been exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up like a son. So Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a man with power both in his speech and in his actions.

At the age of forty he decided to visit his kinsmen, the Israelites. When he saw one of them being ill-treated he went to his defence and rescued the man by killing the Egyptian. He thought his brothers would realise that through him God would liberate them, but they did not. The next day, when he came across some of them fighting, he tried to reconcile them, and said, "Friends, you are brothers; why are you hurting each other?" But the man who was attacking his kinsman pushed him aside, saying, "And who appointed you to be prince over us and judge? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" Moses fled when he heard this and he went to dwell in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

When forty years were fulfilled, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in a flame blazing from a bush that was on fire. Moses was amazed by what he saw. As he went nearer to look at it, the voice of the Lord was heard, "I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Moses trembled and was afraid to look. The Lord said to him, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard them crying for help, and I have come down to rescue them. So come here; I am sending you into Egypt."

It was the same Moses that they had disowned when they said, "Who appointed you to be our leader and judge?" whom God sent to be both leader and redeemer through the angel who had appeared to him in the bush. It was this man who led them out, after performing miracles and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the desert for forty years. It was this Moses who told the sons of Israel, "From among your own brothers God will raise up a prophet like me." When they held the assembly in the desert it was he who was with our ancestors and the angel who had spoken to him on Mount Sinai; it was he who was entrusted with words of life to hand on to us. This is the man that our ancestors refused to listen to; they pushed him aside, went back to Egypt in their thoughts, and said to Aaron, "Make us a god to go at our head; for that Moses, the man who brought us here from Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." It was then that they made the statue of a calf and offered sacrifice to the idol. They were perfectly happy with something they had made for themselves. God turned away from them and abandoned them to the worship of the army of heaven, as scripture says in the book of the prophets: Did you bring me sacrifices and oblations those forty years in the desert, House of Israel? No, you carried the tent of Moloch on your shoulders and the star of the god Rephan, the idols you made for yourselves to adore, and so now I am about to drive you into captivity beyond Babylon.

'While they were in the desert our ancestors possessed the Tent of Testimony that had been constructed according to the instructions God gave Moses, telling him to work to the design he had been shown. It was handed down from one ancestor of ours to another until Joshua brought it into the country that had belonged to the nations which were driven out by God before us. Here it stayed until the time of David. He won God's favour and asked permission to find a dwelling for the House of Jacob, though it was Solomon who actually built a house for God. Even so the Most High does not live in a house that human hands have built: for as the prophet says: With heaven my throne and earth my footstool, what house could you build me, says the Lord, what place for me to rest, when all these things were made by me?

You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Upright One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers. In spite of being given the Law through angels, you have not kept it.'

A Blessed Christmas To You All!

I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas. Let us remember each other in our prayers. 

The Burning Babe

by St Robert Southwell

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;
Who, scorchèd with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!
My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,
For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
      So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”
      With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
      And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

Pope Attacks Curia

The Pope's criticisms of the Curia have made headlines all over the world, as one would expect I suppose. As you know the Holy Father delivered his stinging critique during the annual meeting at which the Pontiff traditionally imparts his Christmas greetings to the priests, religious and laity that serve the Holy See. 

I am not going to comment on what the Holy Father said, at this stage there are enough people jumping on it making hay. I will only say that if an employer in any area of business, industry or service spoke to his employees in a similar manner he or she would have not only lost goodwill and trust, but would probably have a major strike to deal with, and perhaps even rightly so.

It needs to be said that most of those who work in the Curia are hardworking, devoted men and women who serve the Pope and the Church with an enormous amount of goodwill and generosity. Are there bad eggs, careerists there?  Yes, of course, as in every organisation and group, just as there are among priests, religious, bishops and even the college of Cardinals, and there have been bad eggs and heartless careerists among the Popes too if you look over the Church's history. And lest the secularists be preening themselves there are bad eggs in secular organisations too and, yes, surprisingly, there are bad eggs among those who have made a career of criticizing and attacking the Church. We can thank original sin and human sinfulness for all this.

It seems the Curia has become the scapegoat for all that is wrong in the Church, and to be honest that attitude is not just wrong and uncharitable, it is lazy, it is a refusal to see that there are bigger problems in the Church than the Pope's civil service. Yes, there were scandals and the sources of those scandals need to be sorted, but to do so requires a larger reform of the Curia than some have been suggesting. 

And what should this reform consist of? Sacking bad eggs? If you can find them, yes. Outlawing careerism? Well that will be a harder nut to crack simply because the Holy See in a way depends on careerism to keep the Curia going. How so, you might ask? Well not because of entrepreneurial ambition where good results get you promotions. No, because the pay is so bad in the Curia the carrot to keep the priests happy and dedicated, or at least working, has often been the possibility of becoming a monsignor and perhaps even a bishop.

Life in Curia is not easy, that is why most priests dread the thought of being sent there. Priests who spend their working lives in parishes and other ministries, with the freedom to serve the people of God, form friendships and be part of people's lives shutter at the thought of going into a system which is run like a junior seminary, where loneliness is the most common disease and being overworked is ignored; and then having to navigate their way through intrigue, disillusionment and cynicism. Some priests in the Curia try to nurture a pastoral ministry in the city or suburbs to keep them sane as well as sharpen pastoral skills which can be blunted in Papal service. 

The lifeline for many good curialists is prayer. But, sadly, some turn to other distractions, chief among them alcohol, the scourge of many a burnt-out worker. Often these priests do not have their family or loving parishioners around them to see the warning signs and come to their help.  And as I have seen on a couple of occasions, when Curial priests fall to this they are retired out and left to their own devices, and that can be disastrous. Indeed I know of some bishops who try and resist requests by the Holy See to second their priests to the Curia, not only because they do not want to lose manpower in the diocese, but out of concern for their priests.

The Curia is not perfect, and I will not defend all that is wrong in it: it is typical of all human organisations. The fact that the Church has not fallen because of human failings and sin is proof that God is in charge. However, we do have to recognise that there are good people who work hard with little in the way of remuneration for the Holy See and the Church. Popes do actually rely on the goodwill of their Curial officers who give vastly more than they receive from any Pope or the Church. Reform must take place, but it must also include charity and justice: working conditions do have to be improved within the service; as any employer will tell you - treat your workers right and they will work hard, be loyal and you will diminish intrigue, ill will and frustration. 

Some might say to me: "Well, they are doing it for God and they should be happy to do so, to give all" - I do not disagree, but we must also remember that Jesus made a point of reminding us that the labourer deserves his just wage, and the Church has taken that so seriously that she has included among the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance acts of injustice towards workers and their pay. The Church should be a leader in world industrial relations and labour rights - did Pope Leo XIII write his encyclicals in vain? As with charity, justice must also begin at home. Get that right and the Church will have gone a long way to beginning a reform of the Curia.