The Last Audience

Today, Pope Benedict XVI gave his last audience has our leader, our father, and our Pope. I expected him to be less introspective, as he often pointed more to theology and teaching than to his own thoughts, but in the way we all hoped he took this time to reflect on his life and papacy. It was all brilliant, but one major point stuck out to me:

The “always” is also a “forever” - there is no returning to private life. My decision to forgo the exercise of active ministry, does not revoke this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on. I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new way near to the Crucified Lord. I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s bounds. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work of God.

Pope Benedict is very clear here: he is not leaving to sip beers on a sunny beach. He is not leaving to play with his cats. He is not leaving to flee the difficulties of his office.

He is leaving to run to the cross with everything he has. He is leaving to intercede for the Church, knowing that while his public leadership ends, his spiritual leadership continues, and he will continue to hold up the Church in prayer and sacrifice.

And so, Pope Benedict XVI, we thank you. You led us with humility and wisdom, and even today you lead us even more, showing us the importance of staying close to the Crucified Lord in good times and in bad, and teaching us, as you said in your conclusion today, to "let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that He does not abandon us, that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His love."

You can read his audience here: Final Audience English Text. If you haven't, I recommend you do. 

Is God resting?

In Lent (well I guess all the time) it can become easy for life to seem dreary and the work of God in our lives to seem more or less absent. Lent amplifies this because it is usually a dreary time of year as far as the weather (ignore this if you live somewhere that's always warm) and we are fasting/sacrificing which makes every day harder.

In this state of mind/being it is easy for us to fall into the oh-so-common thought that God sets things into motion and then just lets them happen. Even when we get caught by beauty in the world today we are tempted, usually subconsciously, to remark at how amazing it is to see the flowers begin to sprout as the weather becomes warm without noticing Him who makes them sprout.

During these days it often becomes difficult for us to get quite as excited that the sun rises and sets, that the moon is quite beautiful when we can see it clearly, or that the snow falling can look quite beautiful if we stop to look at it. Instead, if we were to think about it for a second, we would most likely simply conclude that the sun rises simply because that's what the sun does, and that the snow falls because of the weather patterns making it so.

Wherein Chesterton Disagrees 

G.K. Chesterton saw this attitude that said things are the same because they have to be and vehemently disagreed. Chesterton compared the sun rising and setting to the attitude of a small child; when you do something the child likes, you must do it again and again until you become tired. The adult, inevitably, is tired of the thing much before the child is, and so we as adults assume the same about God-He couldn't possibly make the sun rise every day, for that would be quite boring. 

But, Chesterton asserts, why can't we simply believe that God doesn't get bored? Why can't we believe that He is active in our lives consistently and totally without fail each every day. Listen to Chesterton: 

For grown up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them...The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. --G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p.51

For many of us, things seem to happen around us just because they do. People see something happen and chalk it up to chance or fate and move on. Maybe it is time, however, as Chesterton suggests, to see it as not necessary, but as God working to show us beauty, to move us forward, to bring us to Him.

Lent

And so this returns us to where we are now-Lent; this time of sacrifice, penance, and giving of ourselves when we often find ourselves a little slower to love and quicker to judge.

Maybe this Lent it would help to stop and to appreciate the world around us. Even in its gloom, its darkness, its brokenness, its despair-see how beautiful everything is. See how beautiful everyone is. Appreciate the things and people around you, and realize, with Chesterton, that we're not just here by chance, but rather that God has placed us here. Realize that He wants you to be alive, and now He has you in Lent not because He wants you to be bored with the same routine, but because He wants you to come alive and see His constant love for you. 

This Lent, stop for a second or two and see how He is profoundly active in your life every day. Appreciate His presence, and let His work in your life draw you deeper into relationship with Him this Lent. 

Starting Lent with Purpose

It was an average day in Gaming, Austria-well, other than being Ash Wednesday, that is. The students shuffled into 12:00pm Mass as usual, although an abnormal amount had found time to come this day. Mass began, and Fr. Seraphim was saying Mass, which was exciting.

The Gospel is read, and we sit. Fr. Seraphim, always a relatively serious man, begins in a more serious tone than normal: "Why are you here?" We look around ("is he talking to someone in particular?"). He reiterates: "Why are you here?" (now we realize it's to all of us, and we begin to squirm). He stares at us with a type of intensity most people reserve for arguments with people they don't particularly care for.

And then he begins. He labels exactly what was happening, why were all there--we wouldn't dare miss Mass on Ash Wednesday because everyone would know that we skipped for an early lunch by the glaring lack of a black smudge on our forehead. We wanted to make sure everyone that saw us knew that we did what we were "supposed" to, that we went to Mass, that we got our ashes. He then tells us he might not give ashes, because we had all missed the point. We weren't there to receive ashes as a sign that we were repentant sinners, acknowledging that we are dust, that we need to turn away from our sin, but that we cannot do that without the cross, which we must accept.

And after a few minutes of expanding on this, he walked away. And he did give us ashes; not because we wanted them, but rather because we needed them. We needed the sign of humility that is the ashes, the sign that we are sinners, and should be seen as so.

With that, our Lent began with a bang. We were no longer giving things up because it was easy or just something you do. We were sacrificing. We were fasting. We were rending our hearts, not our garments, and turning to the God who desired our salvation, but needed us to repent of our sins because He loved us too much to force His love on us.

Every year since, my Lent begins with that reflection. What is my purpose here? Am I fasting to fulfill an obligation, or to let go of myself and fall more madly in love with the One who created me, gives me life, and loved me to the point of death? I hope it's the latter, and I pray that I may never forget why I do these things.

A Day Later: What the World is Saying about BXVI

As was certain to happen, main stream media and more or less all news outlets throughout the world are reflecting on Pope Benedict's resignation in one of a couple ways: there is a scandal coming that we don't know about, the Vatican is hiding something about his health from us, or this is somehow analogous to a political move by someone within the Church somewhere. Without fail, an article not on EWTN or another faithful Catholic news source will either question the reasoning (something along the lines of "he was too traditional to every do something radical") or assume they know something that is coming about the history of Pope Benedict. Then, without skipping a beat, they jump to the conversation about how the election of the new Pope will be very important for where the Church moves in the future, with talk of some more "liberal" candidates who might change some Church teaching (of course, they say, nothing big like women priests, but at least they're going to allow condoms in Africa).

First, we need to get something straight-Pope Benedict was not forced out of his Papacy by some new information or some scandal. The man is a humble 85 year old who realized that in the modern age medicine will keep men alive longer, but not necessarily allow them the necessary strength to be the head of Christ's Church on earth. His announcement yesterday was humble acceptance of God's will, not something he was coerced into.

Next, when it comes to electing a new Pope, this isn't some political issue where the cardinals will battle based on issues. Any suggestions of this sort should stop. The cardinals don't listen to debates between candidates and try and choose who is the most competent. No one declares candidacy, and no cardinal would listen if they did. The only Person the college of cardinals listens to is the person of Jesus, alive and well in our midst, speaking to the cardinals in the Holy Spirit. This is a decision of prayer, not a decision of politics.

Through 2,000 years the Church has endured through scandal, schism, crisis, and everything else the world has thrown its way. Jesus Christ left a Church to lead His flock on earth, and that Church isn't going to suddenly change due to the whims of people in modern times. Pope Benedict XVI was a wonderful pope, as was John Paul II before him, and yet in the grand scheme of things they are servants-this is Jesus' Church, and with Him as a leader it will not fail.

This video below is Cardinal Arinze, currently the Prefect Emeritus for the Congregation of Divine Worship, talking about the reaction of the cardinals, and then reflecting on the Papacy (a role he very well could fill in the coming weeks). He puts it the best-this is the Church of Christ, Christ who is the same yesterday today and tomorrow, and the Pope is simply the "servant of servants," the one called upon to serve Christ's Church here on Earth.

So we don't need to create political sects in the college of cardinals in our analysis, because they don't exist-we just need to pray and trust the Holy Spirit; He hasn't let us down yet, and I don't assume He will now.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, 

and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, 

and you shall renew the face of the Earth. 

Because all I can think about is Papa Benny

Doubtless you have heard at this point, our Pope has announced that at 8:00pm Rome time on February 28th he will officially resign as head of the Roman Catholic Church. If you want to read his beautiful statement, it is here: Official statement .

I won't try to explain this move or do anything like that, because there are plenty of others who have done that and done it quite well (here is a great one, if you're interested), but I'm simply going to write some of my thoughts because, well, this is the internet, and that's what it's for.

Someone had a comment this morning that I found very interesting-they said that normally we wait until the Pope's death to let the Holy Spirit guide our choice in leadership, but now Pope Benedict is pushing that action forward, asking the Holy Spirit to act right now to continue to bring forth newness in the Church.

The Holy Spirit has continued to guide the Church for 2,000 years, and He will never leave Her. With this action, Pope Benedict XVI is showing the people of the Church and the world that he doesn't just trust the Spirit when it becomes absolutely necessary, but that he is willing to listen to the Spirit in every moment, even when the Spirit asks him to do something that hasn't been done in hundreds of years. This is an act of courage, and act of love, and most of all an act of faith.

As he resigns and the Church's leaders choose a new Supreme Pontiff, we should take this time to reflect on this act of faith, and ask the Lord where in our lives He is asking to act with courage in total trust. Then, just as our Holy Father has shown us, we should act-always with prudence and thought-even if that action is a radical change in our lives.

Where in your life is the Holy Spirit leading you, and what are you doing that stifles His promptings? 

God bless the Pope and let us all join together in prayer for him as well as for the person whom the Spirit will choose to lead the Church forward from here. Thank you Pope Benedict for your leadership, wisdom and love.