The CatholiCity Message
Volume XVIII, Number 7 – June 6, 2014
Dear CatholiCity Citizen,
I am very grateful to Jesus for this chance to connect with you. We will get to the usual unusual stuff: a group cyber-prayer, upcoming feast days, Catholic quotes—but I think this first section will really affect you. It all started with me screwing up...
Catholics Are Different
...because a few days ago, I was too hard on one of my sons while teaching him how to play baseball. If you are a parent, you've been there in one form or another. I immediately apologized and he graciously accepted it. He bounced back quickly but I did not. What happened shadowed me until I went to Mass the next day with another son; the cloud lifted as soon as I gazed upon the tabernacle. Twenty minutes later, I was inspired while praying for you after Communion to write about ways Catholics are different from everyone else in the world.
For serious Catholics, for example, whether we go to heaven or hell really matters. Being a father places me in relationships with all kinds of people and it is obvious that eternal salvation, even for many practicing "cultural" Catholics, is rarely on their minds. They are not concerned about the possibility of going to hell—or perhaps more oddly, going to heaven.
When they commit what we would consider gravely immoral acts (using contraception, cheating on their taxes, fornication, cohabitating before marriage, using pornography, skipping Sunday Mass, lying to gain advantage, treating others harshly for social gain), their first thought is not to repent and go to Confession. Nor is it their second thought. Or any thought. In recent months, otherwise decent grown men have confided this to me quite directly and without qualm. If they do attend Sunday Mass, they blithely receive Communion in what we can only hope is invincible ignorance of the sacrilege.
The Paradox of the Catholic Interior Life
Yet it is not the case that devout Catholics are so caught up in eternity that we discount life on earth. To the contrary, we believe every free-willed moral choice here has great importance, and just as crucial, could affect the eternal destinies of other people. "Everything matters," as one of the characters in my second novel said in a scene which seems to impact many readers deeply.
Our daily interior life—the internal moral intimacy of our consciousness—is imbued with drama and importance. Yet we are not chaotic interiorly—paradoxically, life "inside" for we devout Catholics is marked by abiding supernatural serenity. You surely know what I am talking about: the experience of receiving Jesus in the Eucharist with the certainty of being in a state of grace that only Confession provides is sublimely calming, dynamically liberating. As my mother always says, "Any day you go to Mass is a good day." I would add, "Walking out of the Confessional is like walking on water."
Prayer? We Don't Need No Stinking Prayer!
Tragically, our fallen away and morally lukewarm brothers and sisters experience neither this drama nor this peace. By comparison, their interior lives are dull-edged and consumed with worldly worries. Without an interior sense of moral responsibility, very little matters, which often leads to a kind of low-grade mental fog. It is not enjoyable to spend time within this kind of mind. Distractions surely become crucial: television, booze, and even otherwise noble time-killer hobbies amply fill this void for a great many in our material-rich society. Children, if there are any, grow up and leave. Prayer? Very rare, if ever. As a serious Catholic, can you even imagine going months or years (much less a day) without an interior conversation with Jesus or Mary or a saint?
I suppose the contrary is true: it is enjoyable to be inside your own mind for a devout Catholic. Because God is everywhere, He is there, too.
This Jesus Cannot Be Serious
The second half of a sentence in the Eucharist Prayer that always strikes me to the core, during which the priest, in persona Christi, addresses God the Father on our behalf: "In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety." Here the definition of anxiety is "baseless fear." Freedom from sin is the ultimate antidote for baseless fears. The worldly are, by definition, under the thumb of sin and therefore unduly fearful about the things of this world in ways we ought never be. We take Jesus at his word when he advised,
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life: what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:25-33)
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these! Indeed. You are arrayed in glory and it comes out from your Catholic-in.
Wafers and High-Def Televisions
Jesus is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, so his wisdom is perfect and he can and does back up his beautiful assurances...even when our loved ones die, when our children have cancer, if we lose our jobs, even if, our simple Catholic lives appear boring and without status. Ask yourself, my beloved Catholic friend: can anything be more boring than a wafer of bread? Round, small, silent, dully beige. It is the opposite of a gleaming high-def television. Big. Rectangular. Bright. Booming sound and color.
But what if that wafer hides Jesus, body, blood, soul and divinity, creator of the universe?
With Our Lord inside us, we become the wafer.
As Catholics, if we have God we have everything beyond everything beyond our wildest dreams. "God alone suffices," said Saint Teresa of Avila. Only Christians get what she meant.
We must take great care to keep these differences in mind while evangelizing. Our lost brothers and sisters are not afraid of going to hell; they do not believe that hell exists. If they concede it might exist, they will not consider it possible they might end up there. Interiorly, they only sense indirectly what we experience directly. We must find other ways to connect with them, which is why I write novels, booklets, and produce Catholic talks designed to inspire lukewarm Catholics.
Other Ways We Are Not of This World
I'm rambling. I've generalized. I suppose there are as many degrees of difference in the interior experience of God's grace on the scale between the soul-sick and the saved as there are people. This section turned out to be much longer than planned, so I will not go into detail about the many other ways we are different than just about every person in the society in which we live. But I will list some:
Devout Catholics view poverty and suffering as opportunities to be closer to God.
We welcome and raise children in radically different ways.
We physically consume Jesus.
We pray and view prayer differently.
We regularly depend upon help from beings who do not exist on earth: saints.
For us, the earth is teeming with billions of...active, powerful, unseen angels.
We consider celibate religious life a rewarding, exciting supernatural gift rather than a stupid, ignorant waste.
We, on the shoulders of two thousand years of countless geniuses dedicating their lives to truth, actually trust in human reason.
Citizen Reader: Talk to Me
So here's my offer for all the CatholiCity Citizens still reading this: if you write to me with a positive reaction on the meditation above, I will consider making it into a series. Just click on Reply.
Brother and Sisters: Testify
I warmly invite you to share your stories about our new line of booklets on our website with prospective readers.
Chapter Thirteen
Two weekends ago I heard directly about two people who returned to the faith after reading my first novel, Pierced by a Sword, in particular, how Chapter Thirteen made the difference. I take no credit—only God's grace can change a life and I barely remember writing that particular chapter, just that I felt before I wrote it that the task was not possible. So I begged the Holy Spirit for help and started typing and when I came out of the trance a few hours later, there it was. Nathan's warning.
Do You Share a Laudatory Desire for Bodily Collision?
If you have sons or grandsons who love football but you're concerned about debilitating injuries or concussions, consider rugby. Allow me to indulge my fatherly pride. Both my seventh grader and my high school sophomore won state championships playing rugby last weekend. Their older brothers were stellar players, so our family has had many years of experience.
No sport is injury free, but because of its inherent rules and practices, rugby surprisingly has a significantly lower concussion risk than football and even soccer. Lots of bruises, though. In terms of encouraging virtue, there are benefits in terms of camaraderie, toughness, and honor seemingly unique to this sport. Do not misunderstand; rugby can be brutal—yet beautiful too. Going back to Scotland, no doubt, generations of Macfarlanes have the predilection for banging into other dudes; there are ten times more opportunities to do this in rugby than football, especially during practice. Sadly, football is now so dangerous that most high schools no longer allow much or any full contact during practice. A million years ago when I was playing, that daily violence was the best part.
Upcoming Days of Note and Feast Days
- Sunday, June 8, Pentecost
- Friday, June 13, Saint Anthony of Padua, the WD-40 of Saints!
- Saturday, June 14, Flag Day (and my parent's wedding anniversary)
- Sunday, June 15, Father's Day (or as I like to call it, Saint Joseph's Unofficial Third Feast Day)
- Saturday, June 21, First Day of Summer and Peak Day of Sun!
- Sunday, June 22, Corpus Christi, aka The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Thomas Aquinas wrote Pange Lingua (below) for the Mass celebrating this feast.
- Friday, June 27, Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Saturday, June 28, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. His heart beat first beneath hers.
- Sunday, June 29, Saints Peter and Paul
- Monday, June 30, The First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church. (Ask them for something!)
Quotations
Give me more darkness said the blind man,
Give me more folly said the fool,
Give me stone silence said the deaf man,
I didn't believe Sunday School.
Sunday School, Phil Keaggy
What our senses fail to fathom, let us grasp with faith's consent.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Pange Lingua
Faith of our fathers' holy faith! We will be true to thee til death!
Faith of Our Fathers, Frederick Faber
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.
Amazing Grace, Thomas Newton
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me.
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free...
Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe
O sacred head, surrounded
by crown of piercing thorn,
O bleeding head, so wounded,
reviled and put to scorn.
Our sins have marred the glory
of thy most holy face,
yet angel hosts adore thee
and tremble as they gaze.
O Sacred Head Surround, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
(with Paul Gerhardt and Henry Williams Baker)
And it's something quite peculiar,
Something shimmering and white,
Leads you here, despite your destination,
Under the Milky Way tonight.
Under the Milky Way, The Church
Like everyone else, I was a pagan until my parents had me baptized.
Ed Mulholland
Ending, Not With a Bang, But a Prayer
Another beautiful prayer, not well known, but worth memorizing, from our Powerful Prayers booklet. Let us, tens of thousands together, by the grace of God, for each other, begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
Dear Lord, I do not know what will happen to me today—I only know that nothing will happen that was not foreseen by you and directed to my greater good from all eternity. I adore Your holy and unfathomable plans and submit to them with all my heart for love of you, the Pope, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.
Thank you for reading and for being such a faithful part of our work and our lives. We're praying for you every day at Mass...
With Immaculate Mary,
Bud Macfarlane
