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The Holy Father’s Angelus message centers around today’s passage from the Gospel of Mark in which a man with an unclean spirit is cleansed by Jesus.

Benedict XVI made a remarkable comment on the nature of authority. We all have heard similar comments before, but it bears repeating, especially for us deacons.

Here it is in the original Italian:

 L’autorità divina non è una forza della natura. È il potere dell’amore di Dio che crea l’universo e, incarnandosi nel Figlio Unigenito, scendendo nella nostra umanità, risana il mondo corrotto dal peccato. Scrive Romano Guardini: «L’intera esistenza di Gesù è traduzione della potenza in umiltà… è la sovranità che qui si abbassa alla forma di servo» (Il Potere, Brescia 1999, 141.142).

Spesso per l’uomo l’autorità significa possesso, potere, dominio, successo. Per Dio, invece, l’autorità significa servizio, umiltà, amore; significa entrare nella logica di Gesù che si china a lavare i piedi dei discepoli (cfr Gv 13,5), che cerca il vero bene dell’uomo, che guarisce le ferite, che è capace di un amore così grande da dare la vita, perché è l’Amore. In una delle sue Lettere, santa Caterina da Siena scrive: «E’ necessario che noi vediamo e conosciamo, in verità, con la luce della fede, che Dio è l’Amore supremo ed eterno, e non può volere altro se non il nostro bene» (Ep. 13 in: Le Lettere, vol. 3, Bologna 1999, 206).

Here is my English translation (bold print mine):

Divine authority is not a force of nature. It is the power of the love of God that creates the universe, incarnating himself in his Only-begotten Son, lowering himself to our humanity, healing the world corrupted by sin. Romano Guardini writes: “The entire existence of Jesus is a translation of power into humility… it is the sovereignty that here is lowered to the form of a servant.” (The Power, Brescia 1999, 141.142)

Often for man authority means possession, power, dominion, success. For God, however, authority means service, humility, love; it means entering into the logic of Jesus who bowed down to wash the feet of his disciples (cf John 13:5) who searched for the true good of humanity, who healed the wounded, who is capable of a love so great to give his life, for he is Love. In one of her Letters, St. Catherine of Siena wrote: “It is necessary that we see and know, in truth, with the light of faith, that God is supreme and eternal Love, and he wants nothing else but our well-being.” (Ep. 13 in: The Letters, vol. 3, Bologna 1999, 206)

The themes of service, self-effacement, love and healing run through the nature of authority. While these are truly Christian, meant for all the baptized, and truly a reflection of human nature and human development over time, they are also revealed themes, truths we could only really grasp fully through the revelation of God in his Son Jesus Christ, for Jesus is the full revelation of God. Through him, we know God, for he is God incarnate. He is God made visible.

The whole of Jesus’ life was a life of service, love, and yes, divine authority, indeed “the translation of power into humility.”

Jesus’ authority is keenly expressed in today’s Gospel when he commands the unclean spirit to silence and  departure. His authority is seen in all its glory in his death and resurrection. His authority is poignantly displayed in his washing of the feet of his disciples and in his healing of those who came to him in faith.

We deacons must reflect deeply on these themes if our diaconal lives are to be meaningful, and if we are to live fully the calling we have received. It is our challenge. It is our most effective preaching. It is constitutive of the deacon’s character, so irrevocably imprinted in us.

Authority….. do you see your ministry as a ministry of healing, of washings, of witness (martyrdom) to the presence of a loving God among us, as a translation of power into humility?

God bless all of my brother deacons today!

Conscience is “.. the ‘place’ where man is illuminated by a light which does not come to him from his created and always fallible reason but from the very Wisdom of the Word in whom all things were created.” (Bl. John Paul II, 1988)

Conscience then is the illumination deep within us arising from a Wisdom, a Word, whom we know is Jesus Christ. It is a meeting of a man or woman with that Wisdom in which directs him or her to do this and avoid that. It is an encounter with which speaks to us as we face moral decisions and issues. In this way, we must obey our consciences for it is the promptings of God and his Spirit that guide us.

This presumes, of course, that our consciences are well-formed. It is our duty to form our conscience, that is it is our duty to listen to God’s Word as revealed to us, not only in the particularity of our lives but in the communal experience – as interpreted by the Magisterium – of the People of God, the Church, the Body of Christ .

Indifference to the Truth leads to confusion and a profound adhesion to personal opinion or the opinion of the majority. The “journey toward a mature moral conscience cannot even begin if the spirit is not free from a mortal illness, very widespread today: indifference to the truth…” (Bl. John Paul II 1983)

Our national conscience needs reformation. It will only be done by consistently revealing to our fellow citizens the truth of human life, human sexuality, human relationships, and the common good, to which all people and nations are subject. In other words, we in the pro-life movement must consistently witness to the truth by our lives, how we vote, how we speak in the public arena, and our commitment to civic activity and in doing so form the national conscience.

Witnessing at times demands heroism. At times, it requires sacrifice. It never includes violence which is always false. It is non-violent in response to who God has revealed himself to be and how he has directed us to act in the immediacy of the moment.

I believe that if the national conscience is presented, relentlessly, the truth of Roe v. Wade and the injustice of abortion, it will eventually be reformed.

Let us pray that day will come soon.

Faith is not the resignation of reason in view of the limits of our knowledge; it is not a retreat into the irrational in view of the dangers of a merely instrumental reason. Faith is not the expression of weariness and flight but is courage to exist and an awakening to the greatness and breadth of what is real.

Faith is an act of affirmation; it is based on the power of a new Yes, which becomes possible for man when he is touched by God. It seems to me important, precisely amid the rising resentment against technical rationality, to emphasize clearly the essential reasonableness of faith. In a criticism of the modern period, which has long been going on, one must not reproach its confidence in reason as such, but only the narrowing of the concept of reason, which has opened the door to irrational ideologies. The mysterium, as faith sees it, is not the irrational but rather the uttermost depths of the divine reason, which our weak eyes are no longer able to penetrate. It is the creative reason, the power of the divine knowledge that imparts meaning. It is only from this beginning that one can correctly understand the mystery of Christ, in which reason can then be seen to be the same as love.

The first word of faith, therefore, tells us: everything that exists is thought that has poured forth. The Creator Spirit is the origin and the supporting foundation of all things. Everything that is, is reasonable in terms of its origin, for it comes from creative reason. . . The mysterium is not opposed to reason but saves and defends the reasonableness of existence and of man.
– Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), A Turning Point for Europe

Everything that exists is thought poured forth…..

Wow! Of course, this goes straight to the heart of the mystery of the Trinity, and Jesus being the Word made flesh, sent forth from the Father, and through whom all is created.

Again, in a very elegant manner, the Holy Father describes fundamentals of our faith and its reasonability.

No man has ever seen God or known him, but God has revealed himself to us through faith, by which alone it is possible to see him. God, the Lord and maker of all things, who created the world and set it in order, not only loved man but was also patient with him. So he has always been, and is, and will be: kind, good, free from anger, truthful; indeed, he and he alone is good.

He devised a plan, a great and wonderful plan, and shared it only with his Son. As long as he preserved this secrecy and kept his own wise counsel he seemed to be neglecting us, to have no concern for us. But when through his beloved Son he revealed and made public what he had prepared from the very beginning, he gave us all at once gifts such as we could never have dreamt of, even sight and knowledge of himself.

When God had made all his plans in consultation with his Son, he waited until a later time, allowing us to follow our own whim, to be swept along by unruly passions, to be led astray by pleasure and desire. Not that he was pleased by our sins: he only tolerated them. Not that he approved of that time of sin: he was planning this era of holiness. When we had been shown to be undeserving of life, his goodness was to make us worthy of it. When we had made it clear that we could not enter God’s kingdom by our own power, we were to be enabled to do so by the power of God.

When our wickedness had reached its culmination, it became clear that retribution was at hand in the shape of suffering and death. The time came then for God to make known his kindness and power (how immeasurable is God’s generosity and love!). He did not show hatred for us or reject us or take vengeance; instead, he was patient with us, bore with us, and in compassion took our sins upon himself; he gave his own Son as the price of our redemption, the holy one to redeem the wicked, the sinless one to redeem sinners, the just one to redeem the unjust, the incorruptible one to redeem the corruptible, the immortal one to redeem mortals. For what else could have covered our sins but his sinlessness? Where else could we, wicked and sinful as we were, have found the means of holiness except in the Son of God alone?

How wonderful a transformation, how mysterious a design, how inconceivable a blessing! The wickedness of the many is covered up in the holy One, and the holiness of One sanctifies many sinners!

Unity refers then to the common humanity of us all and a common dignity. Although men and women are united in a common humanity, they are irreducibly different. They are two different ways of ‘being a body’ that is proper to human nature. For John Paul II, the sexual encounter between a man and a woman allows them both to unite in a fruitful manner.

This “unity-in-difference” (two sexes within a shared humanity) allows for a personal encounter in a fruitful union of the whole person – physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological.

You can read more on this by logging on to: www.marriageuniqueforareason.org

But is sexual and gender differences what we make of them? Are they caused by social experiences or is there a contribution from nature? The lived experiences of so many people certainly suggest at least that sexual differences have something to do with one’s body and that society has less influence on one’s authentic sexual identity than is often assumed. While the interconnection between biology and developmental experiences are difficult to understand, there is something more at the root of one’s sexual identity than the dictate of society.

Sexual differences between men and women form the basis for the complementarity that is fundamental to a marital relationship. This foundation is a necessary condition for the uniqueness of the marital bond. The differences lie not only in personality and psychology, but are enfleshed in a physical complementarity without which a relationship is incapable of entering into a marriage.

For an excellent video on this topic, log on to: http://www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/sexual-difference-video

Leo gave himself completely to the task of the Chair of Peter. He clarified the primacy of the see of Rome and the bishop of Rome as Peter’s successor. He settled doctrinal disputes between the western and eastern Churches. He formulated the doctrine of the Incarnation as the Jesus having two natures, human and divine, yet being only one divine person. The Council of Chalcedon reiterated the same. Leo battled the heresies of the time, especially Pelagianism and Manichaeism. Pelagianism was, to overly simplify, the thought that one could merit salvation without the help of grace, i.e., that one could through one’s own efforts make choices leading to salvation. Manichaeism was equally complex, but essentially purported  a form of dualism in which there is a cosmic battle between two opposing forces – good and evil – in the world, each having in some sense an equality. Leo met Attila the Hun at the gates of Rome and convinced him to turn back. Next to St. Pope Gregory the Great, Leo was one of the most influential popes of the early centuries of the Church.

As I was reflecting on this today, it seems in so many ways we, the Church, are in the same predicament today. We are trying to heal old divisions among the faithful. We are battling modern day heresies that are leading many away from the truth. As an example, here locally, there is a growing influence of Buddhism. More and more people are gravitating toward its philosophy and away from the truth of Christ. There is locally a burgeoning acceptance of Wiccan, which is the worship of created things and satan. There is, of course, the pervasiveness of relativism, a philosophy that truth and reality are created by humankind, largely on an individual basis. The human person creates truth and reality based on their perceptions, experiences and choices. I have always thought that those who get caught up in this philosophy are breaking the first Commandment, for God alone is creator of all that exists, and we are called to recognize his authority.

Let us always recognize that we do not have to go here or there searching for the truth. As the Gospel for today tells us, the Kingdom of God is in our midst. Let us pray for those who are caught up in the modern day errors and led astray from the Church. Let us ask St. Leo the Great for his intercession so that the Church may be strengthened and the people of God may always remain steadfast in the Gospel.

So, do you have enough oil for your life?

Most of us in our sixth or seventh decade of life begin to worry whether we have enough money in the bank or in the 401k to sustain us after retirement as we await the unforeseen hour of our death. We wonder whether we are being wise enough in our financial planning to meet the need of the wait, so we don’t end up on the public dole, or out in the cold in late life. If only we knew the day and the hour, we think, then I would know how much reserve to build up.

But as the Lord is so clear in telling us, we don’t know when. We really don’t know how much money we will need.

What about our spiritual lives? Do we have enough oil? Do we anticipate and prepare? In this realm of human existence, we have to take ourselves out of our usual awareness of time as a sequence of events… days leading to years and years leading to decades…. and place ourselves into God’s time. God’s time is now, an eternal now, kairos as the ancient Greeks would say. With this kind of time, we need to ask the question, “Am I prepared, now, to hear what God is saying and how he is coming into life at this moment? Do I have enough oil to see clearly by the light of faith God’s beckoning, God’s invitation to enter into his joy?”

Am I prepared to be filled with joy in his presence, now, at this moment, a moment that is in God’s time, kairos time, for he will surprise us when we probably least expect him. God’s coming is always accompanied by joy.

God is never stingy in his giving of his grace and his gifts to all who are open to them and seek his presence, his coming into life.

Thanks be to God.

God has poured his life and love into our lives at our baptism. His fidelity to us is unquestionable. We all will probably say that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and truly he is. I would suggest, though, that we give some time reflecting on whether we will, today, actually live in a manner indicative of his Lordship.

At it’s foundation, making Jesus the Lord of our lives is an act of will made possible by God’s grace. We have to decide, consciously, to put the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Jacob, the God of the patriarchs, the God of Mary and Joseph, the God who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the Lord in all that we do. We must cling faithfully to that decisive act of will through thick and thin.

But we are called to something even more profound. We are called to develop a relationship of passionate love for God as Father, Son and Spirit. A loving relationship that captures us for all eternity. A longing for God.

So, how do we know if God is truly our Lord?

Ask yourself honestly when you pray the Our Father whether you might be praying something like this: ”Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. My kingdom come. My will be done and please bless it!” If this is our prayer, perhaps we haven’t given Jesus his proper place in our lives. 

Ask yourself this question: If someone were to come to you and offer you a place of complete happiness (and be able to deliver on the promise) but told you that Jesus would not be present in that place, would you want to go? If you answer “Yes” then perhaps Jesus is not Lord in your life.

Let us pray for each other as we grow in our relationship with God, let us sustain each other in the difficulties of Christian life, and rejoice with one another in the wonders of God’s love in the life of his Son, Jesus Christ.

The presenter of the conference stated that this way of thinking about doing therapy is really about changing systems and is a political stand aimed at deconstructing culture.

Rather radical statements, it seems. The presenter would not disagree with that characterization.

He said, “Essence is a verb, not a noun.” This is more than a catchy comment. It is points to his philosophy and his socio-cultural aims.

Essence is a philosophical term reaching centuries back in western civilization. It means that there are somethings constant and constituitive to that which exists. It is descriptive of someone or something in terms of setting limits as to who one is or what something may be, vis a vis the rest of the world without, in another sense, completing the identity of that person or some other reality. For instance, it would say that there is something persistent throughout time and culture that all human beings share that defines them and distinguishes them from animals or plants or inanimate objects.

The presenter today is saying that there is no such essential nature; rather, he would assert that who we are is created by us in our telling and recounting of our life’s story. That is a philosophical assumption he asserts as underpinning the narrative therapy approach. He uses it to deconstruct what he view as oppressive cultural structures, including the Catholic Church, psychoanalysis, and history as told by men.

I find myself thinking that there is a real disconnect between what sounds like a wonderful way to do therapy with people with serious problems in life, a therapy that could free them from futile ways of thinking and ineffective ways of approaching self-understanding…. a disconnect between that and this whole notion of their is no real essence or definition common to us all.

I don’t think psychotherapy is a political activity.

I do think a correct understanding and appreciation of our human “essence” gives us a sense of continuity, stability and community with all our brothers and sisters throughout the world and history.

Essence is a noun, not a verb, say I.