Hope

Hope, as a verb, is often defined as to believe, desire, or trust, which is probably why people using this term sometimes dialogue at cross purposes. Whose desire are we talking about? In whom or what do you trust? What exactly do you believe?

Just like with faith, hope is a form of trust. I reckon most people would agree that it is only human to require proof to sustain this other form of trust. I'd like to offer some proof.

This week I’ve read the story of a man in Eastern Ontario who was a promising athlete in high school but was paralyzed from the neck down in a football accident and the heart-wrenching story of Nova Scotia woman with Treacher Collins syndrome – a rare genetic disorder that causes facial deformities.

In both instances I was struck by the journalists’ accounts of these individuals’ apparent serenity after the tumultuous years of soul search and emotional roller coaster caused by their physical circumstances.

This beautiful young woman and this dynamic father are alive and well in spirit.

They never gave up hope. The accounts of their life stories talk of ebbs and flows in their hope, but through pain, patience, and perseverance they have come to see better days.

In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict XVI sheds some very insightful light on the Transfiguration (pages 306-307) when he explains:

“…the great events of Jesus’ life are inwardly connected with the Jewish festival calendar. They are, as it were, liturgical events in which the liturgy, with its remembrance and expectation, becomes reality…Our analysis of the connections between the Transfiguration story and the Feast of Tabernacles illustrates once again the fact that all Jewish feasts contain three dimensions. They originate from celebrations of nature religion and thus tell of Creator and creation; they then become remembrances of God’s actions in history; finally, they go on from there to become feasts of hope, which strain forward to meet the Lord who is coming, the Lord in whom God’s saving action in history is fulfilled, thereby reconciling the whole of creation.”

Perhaps skeptics and cynics might read this analysis and dismiss it as the scribbling of an old man blinded by anachronistic thinking. (Anachronism meaning a thing or person that is incongruous, or out of step with, the present time) I write this because just the other day I saw a bumper sticker on a car with the symbols of the world’s three great monotheistic religions with the caption underneath it stating: “Free Your Mind”.

I suppose that if you are convinced that despite the scientifically and statistically near-impossible odds of complex life existing on this planet that we are here by some cosmic fluke, then it would make sense to “free your mind” to believe pretty much anything that suits you. Our omnipotent and loving God gives us the freedom to choose between His desires or our desires. He does not impose Himself on us. He invites us.

Isn’t it interesting that the first of the three temptations Jesus had to face when he began his ministry was to fast in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights at the end of which the devil challenged him to use his omnipotence to convert stones to loaves so he could feed himself. Jesus refused, but as we were reminded on the first Sunday in August, he did multiply the loaves for the masses that gathered to listen to his Word.

I’d like to repeat a quotation I shared in last week's blog on Faith:

“Jesus did not come to make life easy, but to make men great”

I am inspired by the patience and perseverance of the two physically afflicted people I read about this week. They may have come very close to losing hope many times, but they always clung to it.

For what it is worth, when the mother of my children went to her native Argentina for a short-term trip and, once there, informed me that she no longer loved me, desired a divorce and that she and our sons would remain in Argentina, I entered a period of darkness.

I read the Book of Job over, and over, and over again. I read the Psalms. I read the New Testament, the Old Testament, books by C.S. Lewis and others on their spiritual quests to feed my hope of better days. At first there were days where I could not even take things one day at a time, it was one hour at a time.

What got me through this were Faith, Family, and Friends. Thank God for those blessings.

I still have a long row to hoe, but four years after this tragedy, I am still able to fly down to Argentina six times a year to see my 4-1/2 year old and 7-1/2 year old.

In that time, I had almost everything that was dear to me stripped away except my hope that God would not forsake me. And in that time my faith grew stronger and stronger to the point where God’s desire for what I am to do with the gifts He has bestowed upon me have become revealed, and they surpass my wildest hopes.

Happy Dia del Nino (Argentinian Children’s Day)

Faith

Faith, this lifelong theme for believers in God is rooted in a word with origins in Latin whose synonym is trust.

Many of us have grown wary in a world that, in many ways, is misleading and so adult trust is much more difficult for anyone to earn than the trust of an innocent child.

Yet, we profess belief in God who frames our relationship with Him, through his Son, as how children ought to relate to their father: by following his good example.

And here is where the obstacle lies: in order to trust, it is only human to require proof.

Humans rely on their five senses – smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste – to convince ourselves of what is real, a bit like we did six centuries ago when relying on our sight we decided the western horizon of the Atlantic was the outer edge of the flat world from which the ocean cascaded into oblivion. (I am a fan of Owen Barfield' s "Saving the Appearances" - great read.)

But as Fr. Joe summed it up so simply and eloquently at Canadian Press photographer Tom Hanson’s funeral in March, the whole point of human life in this world is to tune our five human senses to develop our spiritual sense.

So, how exactly does one go about developing this sixth sense, the spiritual sense?

I’ve puzzled about this quite a bit and I’ve come up with a starting point that, so far, seems to me to be sound.

I start from the premise that things happen for a reason, that there are no flukes or accidents.

I am not advocating “Intelligent Design” as is espoused so enthusiastically by some evangelical Protestants in the United States (but remains a matter of debate among Catholics).

I personally believe we were created by an omnipotent and loving God who grants us and respects our freedom to choose to either trust in His concept of a good life or our own concept of a good life.

Trusting in God means setting aside our priorities to make place for His.

That is truly a leap of Faith!

But an omnipotent and loving God would not allow us to suffer in vain.

The problem of pain is the subject of another blog, but let me share an insightful quotation I read not so long ago to put human suffering in perspective:

“Jesus did not come to make life easy, but to make men great”

Sounds a lot like Mark 8:34, which says:

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’.”

Doing exactly that is what I call an act of Faith.

Four Cardinal virtues

Prudence, Justice, Restraint, and Courage.
These are known as the Cardinal virtues.
"Cardinal" is derived from Latin "cardo" which means 'hinge' because moral life hinges on our exercise of prudence, justice, restraint, and courage.
When I first joined Blessed Sacrament I was struck at how Fr. Joe would end each Mass by wishing us a good week and urging us to love and respect one another.
Implicit in that petition would be the call to respect ourselves also, I presume, and doing so would to my mind mean doing our best to live our lives with these four Cardinal virtues in mind, and in practice.
The remaining three virtues of the seven we are taught are Faith, Hope, and Love or Charity.
I had been wondering how I would bridge the blogs on the four Cardinal virtues to the blogs on the three Theological virtues I just cited.
The past few weeks have been hectic ones for me, so I've been quite tired at the end of most days so this evening I decided to take a long walk in no particular direction.
This walk lead me to the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park.
During its construction I remembered thinking how some of the sculptures were not to my aesthetic tastes and how unlikely I would be to set foot in that park to relax and reflect so I was surprised to find myself meandering to this patch of green space in a semi-residential, semi-industrial zone.
I thought of how my step-mother was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago now and how her indomnitable spirit -- and patience waiting nearly eight months for radiation treatment -- has seen her to the successful treatment of her cancer.
So, I figure, why not give the park a chance? I just won't look at the sculptures I don't like.
I'm glad I did give the park a chance and when my step-mother and father come to visit this fall I will suggest we walk through it.
There are stations throughout the with pithy comments and advice from cancer survivors.
If I were to try to sum up the messages in a handful of words, they would be these: rest on your faith, never lose hope, make every moment count (love and charity would be the means to doing that if you ask me).
This was a walk well worth taking.

Courage

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

Courage is the ability to do something in spite of fearing the commission of that action. But it is also the ability to show strength in the face of pain or grief.

I am flattered that Blessed Sacrament parish entrusts me with this blog, and I do the best I can to deliver a succinct and, hopefully, thought-provoking reflection on my spiritual quest for God in the hope that it’s of use to whoever reads this blog (constructive feedback is welcome).

But I find it takes courage for me to do this. As I have often stated, I am not a Biblical scholar or a theologian, so I try not to delve into issues more deeply than I feel competent to comment on. I try to do my homework so this way I am not starting from a false premise and misleading those who read this blog. This is a form of teaching and the Bible says that those who teach will be held to a higher standard – and that strikes the fear of God in me in case I have ever made a mistake. I can only pray the Holy Spirit is inspiring me when I write because, as we all know, human beings make mistakes all the time.

I also experience this fear and call to courage when speaking with people who are not firmly rooted in any faith or with Jews or Muslims, because like most Catholics I am far from being an authority on Christian dogma. All I can do is answer as honestly and completely as I feel competent to do.

I found Fr. Joe’s anecdote about the wedding preparation in Bathurst, New Brunswick, last week really interesting. I go to the earliest Mass in the morning so maybe he didn’t tell this story at the other Masses so I’ll try to sum it up as accurately as possible.

A group of people were sitting around Fr. Joe and chatting about all sorts of things. One person seated next to him started asking some questions about Christianity. Then, a while later, that person placed himself at the other end of the group and publicly challenged the relevance of Christianity in our day and Church dogma. Fr. Joe said his first response was to ask that person what he understood “dogma” to be and that person had no definition.

I found this story focused my mind on how to write this week’s blog.

First, it must not have been very pleasant to be speaking individually with someone about something very dear to him, faith, only to then be publicly challenged as believing in some farcical ritual from the past. That could, in a number of people, provoke anger (so kudos to Fr. Joe for his restraint). An angry response is not the example Jesus Christ teaches us when the Sadducees put him to the test, when Pontius Pilate gives him up to the mob’s will, and other examples in Scripture. As believers and followers of Christ, we are called on to be ambassadors to not only other Christians but non-believers.

The history of our own country, let alone those of hundreds of others around the world, is replete with instances of forced conversions to the dominant religion from pre-history to modern times. So even though Roman Catholics are the largest group of any holders of faith in Canada, my interpretation of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ had “followers”. No one was forced to believe in him. He simply led by example and answered questions. So, that’s what I try to do.

For anyone who is curious, about 42 percent of Canadians are Roman Catholic, according to the 2001 Census, compared with 23 percent being Protestant, people with no faith 16 percent and 12 percent believe in some unspecified faith, 4 percent being other Christians, 2 percent Muslim.

After my God, my health, my spouse, and our families, I hold my friends dear to me and a true source of wealth (love, kinship, laughter, support). Some of the people I count as friends are Jewish, Muslim, sceptics and non-believers. I respect their views as I expect them to respect my faith. But I make no apologies for what I believe and I am always happy to engage in an exchange of ideas. And I think that, ultimately, this may be the virtue of courage God expects of us in the daily exercise of our faith.

For example, I have one friend who goes to Mass every once in a while. His girlfriend will only marry him if he professes a belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. So he talked to me about it. I told him that some people think of Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, a towering historical figure of a human being that touches the lives of billions over the past two millennia. I disagree with that view. I don’t think the Christian faith is founded on a human being who claimed to be the “Son of Man” and who did not deny assertions like Peter’s that identified him as the son of the living God. So if Jesus Christ were a great moral teacher and not the Son of God, then he would have been knowingly committing blasphemy. His message was so radical, and the earthly consequences paid for this radical message was so brutally, violently extreme – and for the sake of inspiring people to simply follow his example – I just cannot accept that Jesus Christ was a mere mortal like you and me. My friend has since moved cities with his girlfriend and, to my knowledge; he and she are not married in the Church. He never revisited this question with me, but we remain on very good terms and I suspect he knows I would be open to further dialogue should he wish to explore this question again.

I am rock solid absolutely sure about the reply I gave to this friend.

Another friend, who needs incontrovertible evidence before he can accept that Jesus Christ is the Son of God simply asks me to prove Jesus was resurrected. He is a good friend and we have had this debate, off and on, over the course of close to two decades now. I have, at times, thought of asking him whether he would believe if I could give him irrefutable proof … but I suspect his answer would be “No”. Besides, he and I both know that no one on earth can provide irrefutable proof. That’s why it’s called faith. We place our trust in God. Not everyone can be a doubting Thomas with the opportunity to stick his fingers in the wounds. So my debate, sometimes at his initiating and sometimes at mine, continues with this other friend. But since this friend is an honest person who uses clear and straight logic (unlike, I suspect, Fr. Joe’s interlocutor last week in New Brunswick) I am not afraid to answer “I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you” or “God only knows” to his questions. I actually welcome these chats with him because it pushes me to delve deeper in my human understanding of the Divine.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

NOTE: I have a friend whose wife runs a charity called “Canadian Friends of Pearl Children” that offers aid orphaned and disadvantaged Ugandan children known as the Pearl Children Care Centre in Jinja, Uganda. He said he would be grateful if I were to mention her charity, and contact details, should anyone be interested in donating. Her contact details are:
Dvora Rotenberg
www.pearchildren.ca
(613) 282 1060
drotenberg@pearlchildren.ca

Restraint

“A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered” Proverbs 17:27

Restraint, or temperance, is the third virtue we are called upon to practice. But what is restraint or temperance, really? Is restraint, as one dictionary definition puts it, a curb on our liberty? In a manner of speaking, yes. Perhaps another way of framing restraint – by comparing it with this virtue’s twin “temperance” which is practice self-control, abstention and moderation – would be to focus on a secondary dictionary definition of restraint which delineates this concept as being “a means of restraint to prevent the infliction of harm to self or others”.

In this age of instant communications, it is harder than ever to exercise restraint after taking offence at someone’s words and deeds but failing to practice temperance in the heat of the moment invariably leads to a rapid escalation of whatever conflict has emerged.

It isn’t easy to practice restraint when someone has said or done something hurtful (anger being the outward expression of hurt) but, in hindsight and in my experience, it is much easier to hold my tongue than to repair the damage done by my words or actions at times of high emotion no matter how many times I say I am sorry.

And I think it goes beyond that. I really believe that this life is a (very long) exam where the same lesson is put to us again and again until we learn our Father’s disciplines and then, I strongly suspect, we’re run through them again but at a higher level of complexity or difficulty to improve our spirituality.

Again, I am not a Biblical scholar or student of theology (although, if I had time and money I would consider studying a Masters in Divinity), I cite the following verse from Scripture to support my argument, in the hope I am not quoting it out of its proper context.

“I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.” 1 Chronicles 29:17

Justice

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” Matthew 5:38-41

Justice is another of the cardinal virtues we are called upon to follow in our spiritual maturation. I have a few friends who are lawyers, some of whom are practicing Catholics and others who are agnostics (simply put: who knows if there really is a God – the people who lobbied successfully for the “probably is no God” ad campaign on our city buses.).

But I thought I would rely on my 20 years training as a journalist instead and the first rule in quality reporting is to get as close as possible to the primary source for the exact wording from the authority on the matter in question. So, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is that primary source in my estimation.

I have often puzzled about the “turn the other cheek” view of justice and came upon a Catholic publication’s explanation which I found very insightful:

“When the court translators working in the hire of King James chose to translate antistenai as "Resist not evil," they were doing something more than rendering Greek into English. They were translating nonviolent resistance into docility. The Greek word means more than simply to "stand against" or "resist." It means to resist violently, to revolt or rebel, to engage in an insurrection. Jesus did not tell his oppressed hearers not to resist evil. His entire ministry is at odds with such a preposterous idea. He is, rather, warning against responding to evil in kind by letting the oppressor set the terms of our opposition.”

When I read this, I felt vindicated for my instructions to my sons. When they have asked me how to deal with bullies in school, I tell them to stand their ground, but never to attack. I tell them that they have a duty, an obligation, to defend themselves but that they should not be the aggressors.

Basically, there seems to be three ways of responding to evil. We can choose to meet force with equal force; be completely passive and submissive; or be militantly non-violent. This is what Jesus Christ appears to be advocating, if the publication and I are correct in our interpretations (again, I am by no stretch of the imagination a Biblical scholar, student of theology or any kind of religious authority – just a blogger for Blessed Sacrament).

There are verses in both Old and New Testament Scripture that frame God’s expectations of us for being just. They are the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ Beatitudes as articulated during the Sermon on the Mount.

There is another figure that often comes to mind when I think of someone who advocates militant non-violent resistance: India’s Mahatma Gandhi.

Ghandi, a Hindu, professed to admire Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. He reportedly explained to a missionary why he had discarded conversion to Christianity in these words: “Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

As a young lawyer in South Africa Ghandi had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and historians tell us he was seriously exploring becoming a Christian. But when he decided to attend a church service a white South African barred his entry on the grounds of his race.

I find this story tragic because, as we know from John 14:6 (“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”), Gandhi’s decision in reaction to a racist and poor ambassador of the Christian faith has serious consequences.

Other references I consulted in preparing this blog include Exodus chapter 23:1-12 Laws of Justice and Mercy (I will let you read them at your discretion) but what strikes me about these verses is Mercy is put on an equal footing as Justice.

I pray that Jesus Christ, the Father, and Holy Spirit have mercy on Gandhi’s soul.

Prudence

Prudence is the often the first virtue taught in Catechism. Some call prudence the “mother of all virtues”.

I imagine that prudence occupies such a pivotal place in the practice of the Christian faith because the dictionary defines the noun as: “acting with or showing care and thought for the future”. In other words, the act of being prudent is one where we examine the foundation of our intentions before speaking or acting.

A logic exercise students of philosophy often engage in while analyzing arguments is to hone in on the premise, or founding assumptions, of that argument to determine whether the course of action being advocated is well founded.

For a litmus test of whether our planned course of action is set on a solid foundation, www.catholiceducation.org points its readers to the following citation from St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” Philippians 4:8

On Tuesday, the eve of the summit of leaders from the Group of Eight most industrialized rich nations of the world northeast of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI published a 144-page encyclical, the highest form of papal writing, entitled Caritas in Veritate – Latin for “charity in truth.”
In it, he addressed everything from globalization and mandatory birth control to development aid and the environment. He also called for a new business order governed by ethics and the common good, warning that the blind pursuit of profit has “wreaked havoc” on the world economy.
Click on this link for an unofficial synopsis of the encyclical: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0953.htm

My reading of history from the time since humans have kept written records (I am a particular fan of Ancient Greek and Roman history) has led me to believe that market economics appears to be this world’s natural order for doing business.

Market economics at one end of the spectrum can be something as simple as a network of bartering agreements – you grow wheat and in exchange for your excess grains I will build you a granary – to “unbridled capitalism”. Capitalism is defined as an economic system in which a country’s trade and industry are geared toward extracting maximum profitability at every stage of the production process.

Our country’s economy and those of the other G8 countries – the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Russia – is probably closer to former end of the spectrum of market economies than the latter and, as far as the Pope is concerned, that is where we got ourselves into this mess that’s become the first global economic contraction since the Second World War.

The Pope wrote that while the globalized economy has redistributed wealth, which has “lifted billions of people out of misery”, he also warned that reckless growth in recent years has caused environmental degradation, a loss of trust in world markets, and mass migration.

The Pope calls for the reform of the United Nations and international financial institutions to give poor countries a greater voice on the global stage, adding his voice to those of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China for an overhaul of UN institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group – two bodies revered in the developed world but loathed in developing countries for often forcing poorly thought-out policies on their populations.

Let’s pray the leaders of the G8 are prudent in their deliberations this week and that we be prudent in our actions and words.