Tuesday of the week we call holy

Christ's presence is a mediated presence. As disciples of the One who died, rose from the dead, and now lives in glory, we we do not look for unassailable proof of His presence. We take the Presence as axiomatic and accept that it is most powerfully mediated through the church, particularly in the liturgy, the rites by means of which we celebrate the sacraments. Since the church is the sacrament of salvation, the presence of Christ is fundamentally in the gathered assembly of the baptized. He is always present and we are to be signs of His presence in and for the world. Understanding this is the only way to Christian maturity.

On the basis of this, the question Where is God? is not one that makes sense on Christian terms. The answer is, He is here, present in even the most distressing and horrible of circumstances. It is precisely here that the ancient martyrs instruct us. I think today of The Passion of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity

"But for the women the devil had made ready a most savage cow, prepared for this purpose against all custom; for even in this beast he would mock their sex. They were stripped therefore and made to put on nets; and so they were brought forth. The people shuddered, seeing one a tender girl, the other her breasts yet dropping from her late childbearing. So they were called back and clothed in loose robes. Perpetua was first thrown, and fell upon her loins. And when she had sat upright, her robe being rent at the side, she drew it over to cover her thigh, mindful rather of modesty than of pain. Next, looking for a pin, she likewise pinned up her dishevelled hair; for it was not meet that a martyr should suffer with hair dishevelled, lest she should seem to grieve in her glory. So she stood up; and when she saw Felicity smitten down, she went up and gave her her hand and raised her up. And both of them stood up together and the (hardness of the people being now subdued) were called back to the Gate of Life. There Perpetua being received by one named Rusticus, then a catechumen, who stood close at her side, and as now awakening from sleep (so much was she in the Spirit and in ecstasy) began first to look about her; and then (which amazed all there), When, forsooth, she asked, are we to be thrown to the cow? And when she heard that this had been done already, she would not believe till she perceived some marks of mauling on her body and on her dress. Thereupon she called her brother to her, and that catechumen, and spoke to them, saying: Stand fast in the faith, and love you all one another; and be not offended because of our passion" (par. 20).

The account continues:

"And when the people besought that they should be brought forward, that when the sword pierced through their bodies their eyes might be joined thereto as witnesses to the slaughter, they rose of themselves and moved, whither the people willed them, first kissing one another, that they might accomplish their martyrdom with the rites of peace. The rest not moving and in silence received the sword; Saturus much earlier gave up the ghost; for he had gone up earlier also, and now he waited for Perpetua likewise. But Perpetua, that she might have some taste of pain, was pierced between the bones and shrieked out; and when the swordsman's hand wandered still (for he was a novice), herself set it upon her own neck. Perchance so great a woman could not else have been slain (being feared of the unclean spirit) had she not herself so willed it" (par. 21- underlining emphasis mine)

Fred also takes up this idea in a post over on la nouvelle, a post that begins: "[Supernatural] Faith is anchored in what Jesus and the saints see..."

If this account of martyrdom does not give lie to insistence on the part of some that the sign of peace "is merely a ritual gesture," I do not know what does. First, in the eucharistic liturgy there are no "mere" gestures. Second, the exchange of the sign of peace is a vital part of the liturgy, as such it should be given adequate time between the invitation to "offer each other the sign of peace" and the singing of the Agnus Dei. One cannot appeal to the liturgy prior to Vatican II as the basis on which the sign of peace is set forth as a "mere gesture". Why? Because most people were busy with their devotions during Mass and the priest, in a hurry to rush through, probably just liturgically high-fived the altar server. In other words, the biggest retrieval of the reformed liturgy is that the assembly is not ancillary, but necessary for the Eucharist. In fact, Mass with a congregation is the normative Mass. This is why it is no longer a requirement for every priest to celebrate Mass everyday. Now, priests are certainly free to do so, but no longer required. The earliest Christians certainly knew and practiced this. Indeed, the priority of the assembly is an authentic ressourcement, a retrival of authentic Christian liturgical praxis. In the eucharistic liturgy "every prayer is said in the first person plural" (The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body, pg. 32). Hence, "the agent of the celebration is the church as church understood in the primary meaning of assemby" (pgs. 32-33). This does not arise, as some think, from a democratic ideology, but from a genuine theological reason. Indeed, "it is insufficient to think that the community celebrates only by uniting itself to what the priest does" (pg. 33). The entire assembly, the ekklesia, as God's priestly people is the agent of celebration, an ordered celebration at which the priest presides. Why this today? Because we are close to the Triduum, the Christian high holy days, in which we commemorate and celebrate in a particularly intensive and powerful way the paschal mystery. Your presence is needed, not extraneous.

Please keep Bishop Wester in your prayers, pray specifically for his operation tomorrow to go well. Further, this Holy Week pray for all who suffer the scourge of various kinds of cancer.

I am very pleased that this is the 1,100th post on Καθολικός διάκονος.

Hierarchy update

Keeping up the pace for a busy year in episcopal appointments, it was announced this morning that the Holy Father has named His Excellency, Bishop Paul Bradley, currently an auxiliary to Bishop Zubick in Pittsburgh, as the new bishop of the Diocese of Kalamazoo. Michigan. Bishop Bradley will take over the reigns from Bishop Albert Murray, whose resignation the Holy Father accepted. Bishop Murray turned 75 in July 2007.

With this appointment there remain five vacant sees in the U.S.: Cheyenne, Wyoming; Duluth, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Owensboro, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri.

However, the number of Latin rite bishops currently serving beyond the mandatory retirement age of 75 (i.e., bishops whose resignations the Holy Father has not accepted) is now eleven.

Archbishops Hughes of New Orleans; Curtiss of Omaha, NE; Brunett of Seattle, WA.

Bishops: D'Arcy of Ft. Wayne/South Bend, IN; Moynihan of Syracuse, NY; Tafoya of Pueblo, CO; Cullen of Allentown, PA: Higi of Lafayette in Indiana, Carmody of Corpus Christi, TX. Peña of Brownsville, TX, Skylstad of Spokane.

Let's keep in mind that Monday of Holy Week, which we can call Holy Monday, is only a contradiction if we allow it to be.

While we are on matters ecclesial, a priest of our diocese, Fr. Bill Flegge, passed away on Saturday after a fairly lengthy battle with cancer. Fr. Flegge is a great priest. He was the pastor of St. James parish, which is right across the street from where I grew up. Of course, I did not grow up Catholic. I did live at home for the better part of the year prior to getting married in 1992-93. So, he was my pastor during that time. He was a wonderful pastor, a great confessor, a priest who gave me support when I needed it. The support I needed is that my living at home was the first time I had spent a lot of time with my parents after having been baptized in 1990. In addition to just being a happy, gentle man, he, too, was a convert from the LDS church, a story that he shared with me in confession one time. It is interesting that the current pastor of St. James, Fr. Erik Reichstag, is also a convert from the LDS church. At the Cathedral, my brother deacon, Lynn Johnson is, too.

He was very practical and down-to-earth. St. James is located on north Harrison Blvd in Ogden. Harrison, along with Washington and Monroe, is a major street running the length of the city. However, Harrison bottle-necks into a one lane street a few miles south of the church. Needless to say, there was a lot of aggressive driving, trying to get ahead of the other car, just before the bottle-neck. I remember a homily he gave about putting others first. Well, he didn't have to look far for an example with which we could all identify! R.I.P.

Prepare ye the way for the Lord, prepare ye the way for the kingdom

At dusk Holy Week begins.

"On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, (even) the king of Israel.' Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as is written: 'Fear no more, O daughter Zion; see, your king comes, seated upon an ass's colt.' His disciples did not understand this at first, but when Jesus had been glorified they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done this for him" (John 12:12-16).

"There is no blood around see no sign of pain.."

"And I can't watch any more; no more denial...I'm bathing in it." Red Rain is this week's traditio. Peter's lovely daughter, Melanie, sings back-up on this. I have always liked Gabriel's music. Like a lot of contemporary music, it makes a direct appeal to our religious sense, to our desire, it doesn't get beyond it, but then what does? Nothing can make whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Red rain, indeed.

Speaking of the religious sense, check out the IC's Friday's QOTD.

Our annual Chrism Mass for the Diocese of Salt Lake City was just beautiful last night. A memorable part of this grand celebration was, after we deacons renewed our vows, Bishop Wester said some words about our wives, about their sacrifices. It's funny that I can't remember what he said, but I being very moved by his sincere words.

In memoriam- Pope John Paul II

It seems impossible that he has been gone from us for four years.

O Blessed Trinity
We thank You for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II
and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to shine through him. Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you. Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints.
Amen.

Once again, I add my voice to the chorus: Santo subito! Papa Wojtyla- ora pro nobis!

I am in a very musical mode right now. So, ....

With a deep diaconal bow to my friend Paul, who blogs at Communio, from H2o news, a beautiful reflection on JPII. Also, do not miss Salt+Light tv's video montage (it's gotta be a montage, right?) posted by Rocco over at Whispers. As well as Sharon's remembrance.

A bit more reflection

Let's be mindful that a culture of life is what undergirds a politics of life. On that score, more and more people do not favor abortion on demand. While most in the U.S. would not support the Catholic position on abortion, most do favor putting rather stricter limits on abortion. Nonetheless, it is clear that the election of Barack Obama has set the pro-life cause back a good distance. I am not advocating abandoning the political arena. I am asserting that we should keep it in its proper place and not allow politics to poison our communio. This is what I was arguing the other night.

I should also state the reason for my ambivalence about the president giving the ND commencement address. It arises from the fact that the invitation has been issued and accepted. The basis for my agreement with Abp Quinn's position, which, if I read him correctly, is the basis for his own view, prescinds from the these facts (i.e., invitation extended and accepted). As with the Iraq war, the question as to whether it was a good idea to invite him in the first place is an entirely different matter. I suppose the question I would ask Notre Dame president, Fr. Jenkins, is, Did you involve Bp. D'Arcy in the discussion about whether to invite the president? If not, did you relay the decision to extend the invitation to the bishop before extending it in order to get his feedback/approval?

I also like that Ken Woodward points out Pres. Obama will have the opportunity to listen to one of the most eloquent defenders of life in the English-speaking world, Amb. Mary Ann Glendon. The effect of her words is something for which we can all invoke the intercession of St. Gianna Molla. As The Christophers remind us: "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

I cannot but draw attention to Sharon's post on Cahiers, Culture and Identity in the Current Crisis.

April begins, the snow continues, notes on ecumenism, and the ND controversy goes on

Okay, if April showers bring May flowers and Mayflowers bring pilgrims, what does April snow bring? It is April 1st and still snowing here along the Wasatch Front, that is enough April Fool's for me. This past week and a half has looked more like the end of November/beginning of December. It is cold and snowy. All of this after an almost 80 degree day on Saturday, 21 March! Actually, I don't mind at all.

Up to now, I have imposed silence on myself with regard to President Obama giving the commencement address at Notre Dame next month. As with Rahner and Balthasar, I am split and ambivalent. While I never like the ecclesial free-for-all that ensues when such matters arise, despite the fact that sometimes I am a participant, though often one who regrets it, there are reasoned voices. Last fall I was working on a paper about papal infallibility which I entitled An Ancient View of a Relatively New Development of Doctrine: St. Vincent of Lérins on Papal Infallibility. Of the many books I referenced on the issue, two in particular assisted me in arriving at what I think was at least a provisionally accurate assessment of the First Vatican Council's dogmatic definition of papal infallibility. One of the books was Hermann Pottmeyer's Towards A Papacy In Communion and the other book was Archbishop John Quinn's The Reform of the Papacy: The Costly Call to Christian Unity. Both books are part of the Ut Unum Sint series. This series and these books were inspired by Pope John Paul II's call in his encyclical on Christan unity, Ut Unum Sint: On Commitment to Ecumenism (i.e., That they may all be one, a quote of our Lord from John 17:21), for a reassessment of the role of the Bishop of Rome in order to move Christians closer to the unity willed by Christ. To that end, JPII wrote: "As Bishop of Rome I am fully aware, as I have reaffirmed in the present Encyclical Letter, that Christ ardently desires the full and visible communion of all those Communities in which, by virtue of God's faithfulness, his Spirit dwells. I am convinced that I have a particular responsibility in this regard, above all in acknowledging the ecumenical aspirations of the majority of the Christian Communities and in heeding the request made of me to find a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation" (par. 95 underlining emphasis mine).

Therefore, I am very pleased that Archbishop Quinn, who is the archbishop emeritus of San Francisco, has taken the time to comment on the Obama-Notre Dame controversy with his article, which appears on the America magazine website, entitled A Critical Moment: Barack Obama, Notre Dame, and the future of the U.S. church.

For both of you who might be curious, here is my conclusion regarding papal infallibility:

"While Vatican I’s definition of papal infallibility is a legitimate development of the church’ self-awareness, the way it has been maximally interpreted is the single biggest obstacle to Christian unity. Since Vatican I, efforts have been made to downplay this maximalist interpretation. Despite this, much remains to be done in clarifying the universal ministry of the Bishop of Rome, as well as the relationship of the universal church to local churches. In his encyclical On Commitment to Ecumenism (Ut Unum Sint), Pope John Paul II recognized that whenever the pope exercises his universal ministry it 'must always be done in communion' (par. 95). In reaffirming 'that the office of the Bishop of Rome corresponds to the will of Christ,' he recognizes that this affirmation 'does not separate this office from the mission entrusted to the whole body of Bishops, who are also 'vicars and ambassadors of Christ'' (par. 95). Further, he acknowledges that '[t]he Bishop of Rome is a member of the "College", and the Bishops are his brothers in the ministry' (par. 95). In his homily for the Mass of Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI set an ecumenical tone for his papacy: 'This is the task of all Peter's Successors: to be the guide in the profession of faith in Christ, Son of the living God. The Chair of Rome is above all the Seat of this belief. From high up on this Chair the Bishop of Rome is constantly bound to repeat: Jesus is Lord…'"

Dove-tailing from this, I am happy to pass along the words of Archbishop Quinn: "But it does not improve the likelihood of making progress on this and other issues of common concern if we adopt the clenched fist approach. The president has given ample evidence that he is a man of good will, of keen intelligence, desirous of listening and capable of weighing seriously other views. The Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, citing Augustine, points out that 'Certain situations cannot be resolved with asperity or hardness' and goes on to say '(B)ecause his daily pastoral concerns give the Bishop greater scope for personal decision-making, his scope for error is also greater, however good his intentions: this thought should encourage him to remain open to dialog with others, always ready to learn, to seek and accept the advice of others.'" Our job? To pray for our bishops, to give advice when asked, and to attend to the common good, heeding Quinn's exhortation to keep in mind that "[t]here is always the twin issue of the objective itself and the means of achieving it. One may be good, the other not." Meaning that if both are not good, then we are not acting in a moral, that is, a human way. So, as Christians it is not only what we say, but how we say it and what message that sends, which often has more resonance than the content of any given communication.

I would also like to draw some attention to Kenneth Woodward's Washington Post piece Why Notre Dame Should Welcome Obama.

While I am all about including everything this morning, and for something completely different, do not miss Deacon Greg's debut on NET's City of Churches series.