Listening
Listening
Plus: Pope Francis calls a divided eastern Church to healing
Good morning and happy Saturday. I hope everyone had a good celebration yesterday for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
Today is the optional Memorial of St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, the man who saw the Blessed Virgin Mary in Guadalupe, Mexico in 1531. Though formal devotion to Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadaloupe had been formalized in 1754, he wasn’t cannonized until 2002 by Pope Saint John Paul II.
St. Juan Deigo was the first Catholic saint that was indigenous to North America.
This week we are entering the Second Week of Advent. The readings for this Sunday are Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85:9-14; 2 Peter 3:8-14; and Mark 1:1-8.
In the Liturgy of the Hours we are using Psalter Week 2. In the Office of Readings, we are continuing to read about the coming of the Lord in the book of Isaiah and the second readings include Eusebius of Caesarea, St. John of the Cross, St. Augustine, and Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican Council.
Here is a calendar for this week:
Tuesday, December 12 - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe*
Wednesday, December 13 - Memorial of St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
Thursday, December 14 - Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
*Our Lady of Guadalupe is elevated from a Memorial to a Feast in dioceses in the Untied States since she is the patroness of the Americas.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
All flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Luke 3:4, 6
In the news:
The United States
Cardinal Wilton Gregory (Washington, DC) explains why he implemented Traditiones Custodes in the way he did - Catholic News Agency
For those who need some blue: Cardinal Joseph Bernadin’s “Consistent Ethic of Life” still divides Catholics 40 years later - America Magazine
For those who need some red: Is paid surrogacy coming to Michigan? A conversation with Michigan Right to Life Legislative Director Genevieve Marnon - Catholic World Report
The Vatican
Pope Francis prays for victims of bombing of Catholic Mass in the Philippines - Catholic News Agency
The World
This week, I watched the fourth GOP Presidential Primary Debate and as we enter more fully into the season of Advent, I wanted to offer some more thoughts on being purple.
As I’ve written previously, practicing Catholics do not fit well into either political party. That being said, as I have also written more recently, there are certain issues in our day that are “pre-eminent” priorities which ought to govern our priorities when we go to the ballot box.
On Wednesday’s debate stage, we saw all four candidates devolve into name-calling and ad hominem attacks rather than actually debating policies. Of course this is nothing new in our American primary system; I would seem naive if I claimed that this was some new fangled strategy to be the strong man - it isn’t.
Throughout this first week of Advent, just like the vast majority of this great liturgical season, we are reading about the Day of the Lord in the book of Isaiah. By all of the prophets accounts, the Day of Yahweh (as it is more traditionally called), is not going to be a pretty day.
In the beginning of his prophecy, Isaiah says:
Sons have I rased and reard,
but they have disowned me!
An ox knows its owner,
and an ass, its master’s manger;
But Israel does not know,
my people has not understood. (Isaiah 1:2-3)
And a little while later:
I will turn my hand against you,
and refine your dross in the furnace,
removing all your alloy. (Isaiah 1:25)
But as we know from Isaiah and the other prophets, God chastises and brings about things that we may see are dark and gloomy only to bring about a greater good. Isaiah continues:
On that day,
The branch of the Lord will be luster and glory,
and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor
for the survivors of Israel.
He who remains in Zion
and he that is left in Jerusalem
Will be caleld holy:
every one marked down for life in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:2-3)
With all the chaos, wars, and bad political discord going on in the world, I am tempted to quote a theologian I knew who once asked me “Sometimes I wonder why doesn’t God just end it all now?”
I, for one, am hopeful for that day, yet relieved it isn’t here. Advent is both a time for preperation for the celebration of the first incarnation of our Lord, but it is also a time of preperation for the Day of the Lord; that is Jesus’ second coming. I am releived it isn’t hear yet because I know my own heart and soul aren’t ready yet.
St. Ephrem writes in a commentary on the Diatessaron that our Lord has hidden from us the time of the second coming so that we might keep watch. He says, “If he had revealed the time of his coming, his coming would have lost its savor: it would no longer be an object of yearning for the nations and the age in which it will be revealed. He promised that he would come but did not say when he would come, and so all generations and ages await him eagerly.”
So why am I tying this week’s Office of Readings to Wednesday nights debate? If we mimic the political speech that was demonstrated in the debate we risk negating whatever other preperations we might be doing for Christmas and the Day of the Lord.
As I enter more deeply into my own relationship with Jesus, I have found that I am asking myself more and more what my true criticism are of people that I may disagree with.
If we are called to see Jesus in everyone we meet and we are truly attempting to do that, then we should find it harder and harder to think of someone as stupid or unintelligent for failing to see things our way.
At the risk of using a buzzword, our political listening ought to mirror the synodal listening that Pope Francis has proposed. Now, are we all going to get together and write white papers after our discussions? No, probably not. But listening and paying attention can do a great deal of healing in our country.
I am picking on the GOP candidates only because of the debate this week; I am well aware that same problem exists on the other side of the political section. Pro-abortion activists and pro-transgender advocates ought to be listening a little more to the concerns that pro-lifers and psycologists and physicians have.
So, as we enter the second week of Advent, I invite you join me in spending a little more time listening both to eachother and to the Holy Spirit as we try to humble ourselves and prepare ourselves for the day of the Lord.
Have a good weekend,
Matthew