Sometimes there is a message for us in some words of the Gospel that even the evangelists don’t notice. There is an example here, hidden in words so uninteresting that we can’t even be sure who said them. Matthew and Mark say Jesus, while Luke says the scribe.

Jesus (or the scribe) appears to be quoting from the Old Testament, but one phrase does not exist in any text of the Commandments: that we should love the Lord our God with all our mind.

It is easy not to notice this phrase, and indeed Matthew, Mark and Luke don’t notice it. We know this because normally when Jesus departs from the Old Testament it is noticed, and remarked upon, and made the subject of a whole “But I say to you…” discourse.

Not here.

There are two aspects to this. One is what it says about the past, the other is what it says to us. The past is straightforward. The Jews have never been “people of the Book” in the sense of believing in the Bible and nothing but the Bible. They have, it is true, had a peculiar reverence for every sacred word, but they have lived not in unthinking obedience to those words alone but in a dialogue, you might even say in a relationship, with the sacred text. So the fact that “all your mind” appears here, without attracting notice or comment, must mean that it had become a part of the generally accepted interpretation of the words of Scripture. When, centuries after the Pentateuch, the Jews came across the new, Greek ways of thinking – as the Wisdom literature shows that they did – they immediately realised that this new thing called “mind” was included, no doubt about it, in the commandment to love.

What this says to us is more important than just a footnote in the history of ideas. It is the foundation and justification of all science. God does not command the impossible. If he is to be loved with the mind, that can only be because he is lovable with the mind, or, to detheologize the language, because Ultimate Being can be related to rationally. The Gospel phrase tells us that things make sense and that we have the equipment to make sense of them.

What does omnipotence mean? Does it mean that the Omnipotent can do anything at all? If that were true, all science would be at an end. If God willed that when I dropped a glass on the floor it would shatter, then even if God had willed the same whenever anyone in the past had ever dropped a glass, that would still not bind God. God would still be free to decide, if I dropped a glass on the floor now, that this particular glass, alone among all the glasses in history, should bounce and not break.

Which is to say: on this interpretation of divine omnipotence, science is impossible. We cannot predict the result of an experiment, because next time God may decide differently. We cannot even lay down laws of nature based on previous experience, because to call a law a “law” is to claim to be able to bind God, which is blasphemy.

This is not merely an academic quibble. When the 11th-century Muslim philosopher al-Ghazāli propounded this very idea, it captured the mainstream of Islamic thinking and led to the virtual suicide of science in Islam and the abandonment of rational thinking about the physical world, as being unnecessary, or sacrilegious, or both.

We are saved from this by this one little phrase in the Gospel, about loving God with all our mind. It is more than mere permission, it is a command to understand, to go out and do science, and it was followed whenever Christians had leisure to think. It led to the dazzling 13th-century renaissance and the birth of modern science, and we are still living through its consequences.

As for divine omnipotence, this is not the place to go into it in detail, but the answer to al-Ghazāli must surely be that God can indeed make the glass bounce, but God cannot make the glass bounce and still be God, since to break the laws and regularities of nature whimsically and without reason would be to abandon lovability-with-the-mind. This is exactly the argument that theologians use against pointless or frivolous miracles, but it applies to science as well, and to the possibility of doing science at all.

God himself, remember, despite his divinity, took to himself our human flesh, and for no other reason than the salvation of the human race became man. Why say, he took our human flesh and endured every other human limitation, when the full truth is he accepted the cross so as to free us in our sinful bondage from the curse? This is what Paul is crying out about when he says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for our sake”.

If, then, he, being God and enjoying that ineffable nature, out of unspeakable love accepted all that for us and for our salvation, what would we not be justified in demonstrating in the case of our brethren, members with us of the one body, so as to snatch them from the jaws of the devil and guide them to the way of truth? You see…greater reward [will be] given when through encouragement and constant instruction people lead the slothful and the recalcitrant along the right path, showing them the ugliness of evil and the beauty of a good life lived for God.

Accordingly, since we are familiar with all these matters, let us converse with our neighbours about saving their soul ahead of all the other concerns of their life, and awaken them to a care for that.

Saint John Chrysostom

  “Not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of a letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true.” —Matthew 5:18  

During Lent, we imitate Jesus in the desert when He overcame the temptations of the devil. Satan tempts us not only to rebel totally and defiantly against the Lord but also to “cut corners” and mildly modify God’s commands. Jesus, however, challenges us: “I assure you: until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of a letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true” (Mt 5:18). The Lord calls us to obey Him totally, carefully (see Dt 4:6), and exactly. Because the Lord is the great, all-holy God, His slightest wish is of great significance. This does not mean that we are to become scrupulous, casuistic, or pharisaical. However, true love is concerned with being like Jesus in doing and saying only what God His Father told Him (Jn 5:19; 8:28).

This Lent, let us ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to the truth (Jn 16:13) in areas where we let our culture condition our ideas and morals. Where have we compared ourselves with others rather than to God’s standards? Where are we keeping up with the times rather than crucifying our “flesh with its passions and desires”? (Gal 5:24) Where are we gradually being manipulated into tolerating filth at which we would have been appalled a few years ago?

Obey as Jesus obeyed — as strictly as He walked the way of the cross.

Forgiveness is a choice to love

Christ tells us to forgive everyone, but sometimes that does not seem so easy. Forgiving a debt is one thing, but what about those who really hurt us? Perhaps the difficulty springs from confusion as to what forgiveness really is.

Forgiveness does not mean forgetting, which is probably impossible anyway. It also does not mean that we ignore our anger and hurt. Doing so is just not healthy.

Forgiveness is a choice: the simple choice to love rather than to harm the person in return. By choosing love over vengeance, we free ourselves from remaining beholden to our pain. We free others to experience a love that leads to gratitude and reconciliation, and we free everyone to be united with Christ’s own loving heart.

Forgiveness does not mean pretending nothing happened or acting like there are no consequences. It just means choosing love. This Lent, let us choose love. For we have received the same love and merciful forgiveness from our God.

To whom in our lives can we give the gift of our forgiveness? Where are we in need of forgiveness: from others, from ourselves, from God?

Annunciation of the Lord & Pro-Life Day

What if she had said No?

The question may strike you as irreverent. How dare I suggest that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven, Tower of David, and all the other titles, could have left us in the lurch like that?

But what if she had?

Could she have said No? You might say that of course she couldn’t, she was far too holy — but you would be guilty of demeaning and dangerous sentimentality. It is demeaning because it turns Our Lady from a free human being into a sanctified automaton. The whole glory of the Annunciation is that Mary, the second Eve, could have said No to God but she said Yes instead. That is what we celebrate, that is what we praise her for; and rightly so.

This sentimental view is dangerous too. If we believe that the most important decision in the history of the world was in fact inevitable, that it couldn’t have been otherwise, then that means it was effortless. Now we have a marvellous excuse for laziness. Next time we’re faced with a tough moral decision, we needn’t worry about doing what is right. Just drift, and God will make sure that whatever choice we make is the right one. If God really wants us to do something he’ll sweep us off our feet the way he did Mary, and if he chooses not to, it’s hardly our fault, is it?

So Mary could have said No to Gabriel. What if she had? He couldn’t just go and ask someone else, like some sort of charity collector. With all the genealogies and prophecies in the Bible, there was only one candidate. It’s an alarming thought. Ultimately, of course, God would have done something: the history of salvation is the history of him never abandoning his people however pig-headed they were. But God has chosen to work through human history. If the first attempt at redemption took four thousand years to prepare, from the Fall to the Annunciation, how many tens of thousands of years would the next attempt have taken?

Even if the world sometimes makes us feel like cogs in a machine, each of us is unique and each of us is here for a purpose: just because it isn’t as spectacular a purpose as Mary’s, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. When we fail to seek our vocation, or put off fulfilling some part of it, we try to justify ourselves by saying that someone else will do it better, that God will provide, that it doesn’t really matter. But we are lying. However small a part I have to play, the story of the Annunciation tells me it is my part and no-one else can do it.

Faced with the enormity of her choice, how was Mary able to decide? If she said No, unredeemed generations would toil on under the burden of sin. If she said Yes, she herself would suffer, and so would her Son; but both would be glorified. Millions of people not yet born would have Heaven open to them; but millions of others would suffer oppression and death in her son’s name. The stakes were almost infinite.

You might say that Mary didn’t worry about all this, just obeyed God; but I don’t believe it. What God wanted was not Mary’s unthinking obedience but her full and informed consent as the representative of the entire human race. The two greatest miracles of the Annunciation are these: that God gave Mary the wisdom to know the consequences of her decision, and that he gave her the grace not to be overwhelmed by that knowledge.

When we come to an important decision in our lives, we can easily find our minds clouded by the possible consequences, or, even more, by partial knowledge of them. How can we ever move, when there is so much good and evil whichever way we go? The Annunciation gives us the answer. God’s grace will give us the strength to move, even if the fate of the whole world is hanging in the balance. After all, God does not demand that our decisions should be the correct ones (assuming that there even is such a thing), only that they should be rightly made.

There is one more truth that the Annunciation teaches us, and it is so appalling that I can think of nothing uplifting to say about it that will take the sting away: perhaps it is best forgotten, because it tells us more about God than we are able to understand. The Almighty Father creates heaven and earth, the sun and all the stars; but when he really wants something done, he comes, the Omnipotent and Omniscient, to one of his poor, weak creatures — and he asks.

And, day by day, he keeps on asking us.

From Dr. Scott Hahn’

COVENANTS OF SALVATION HISTORY

By His covenants, God is taking the “creatures” He made and raising them to the status of divine off-spring, divine children. By His covenants, the Creator is fathering a family. The human race is being transformed from something physical and natural into something spiritual and supernatural. Humans are being changed from merely a species sharing common traits and characteristics into a divine brotherhood and sisterhood, a family of God…

1. The Covenant with Adam (Genesis 1:26-2:3)

The word “covenant” isn’t used, but as we’ll see in detail in our next lesson, the story of Adam and Eve is told in “covenantal” language. Adam is the covenant mediator in his role as husband. God promises blessings – that their union will be fruitful and their offspring will fill the earth and rule over it. God establishes a sign by which the covenant will be remembered and celebrated – the Sabbath, the seventh day of rest. And God imposes one condition that they must keep to fulfil their obligation under the covenant – that they not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And God attaches a curse for disobedience – that they will surely die. By this covenant, God’s family assumes the form of the marriage bond between husband and wife.

2. The Covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:8-17)

The word “covenant” is used in the case of Noah, as God promises never again to destroy the world by flood. The covenant is made with all humanity, through the mediator, Noah, in his role as the father of his family. The covenant includes blessings to Noah and his family (that they will be fruitful and fill the earth) and conditions that must be obeyed (not to drink the blood of any animals, not to shed human blood). The sign of the covenant is the rainbow in the sky. By this covenant, God’s people assumes the form of a domestic household, an extended family.

3. The Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:1-14; 22:16-18)

God swears to give Abraham a great land and to bless his descendants, who will become a great nation. God makes the covenant with the mediator Abraham in his representative role as chieftain. God promises the blessings of land and great nationhood for his descendants, and through them to bless all the nations of the earth. The sign of the covenant is the mark of circumcision. Circumcision is also the condition that Abraham and his descendants must obey in order to keep the covenant. By this covenant, God’s family is takes a “tribal” form.

4. The Covenant with Moses (Exodus 19:5-6; 3:4-10; 6:7)

By this covenant, made with the mediator Moses in his representative role as the judge and liberator of Israel, God swears to be Israel’s God and Israel swears to worship no other but the Lord God alone. The blessings promised are that they will be God’s precious and chosen people. The conditions of the covenant are that they must keep God’s Law and commandments.. The covenant sign is the Passover, which each year commemorates Israel’s birth as a nation. By this covenant, God’s family assumes the form of a “holy nation, a kingdom of priests.”

5. The Covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:8-19)

God promises to establish the mediator David’s “house” or kingdom forever, through David’s heir, who will also build a temple to God’s name. To David in his role as king, God promises to make David’s son His son, to punish him if he does wrong but never take away his royal throne. “Your house and you kingdom shall endure forever” and through the blessings of this kingdom God promises to give wisdom to all the nations. The sign of the covenant will be the throne and Temple to be built by David’s son, Solomon. By this covenant, God’s family grows to take the form of a royal empire, a national kingdom.

6. The New Covenant of Jesus (Matthew 26:28; 16:17-19)

The sixth covenant is made by the mediator Jesus, who by His Cross and Resurrection assumes the role of royal high priest and fulfils all the promises God made in the previous covenants. The prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah, had taught Israel to hope for a Messiah who would bring “a new covenant,” through which God’s law would be written on men’s and women’s hearts (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-12). The conditions of the covenant are that men and women believe in Jesus, be baptised, eat and drink His flesh and blood in the Eucharist, and live by all that He taught. The Eucharist is the sign of the New Covenant. By this covenant, God establishes His family in its final form as a universal (katholicos or ‘catholic’ in Greek) worldwide kingdom, which Jesus calls His Church.

7. The Seventh and Final Covenant (Revelation 20)

This covenant is made with the Elect at the end of time, when God rolls up the universe and re-moves every veil from every eye. This is eternal life. This is for keeps. This is when God shall be in all and for all. This is the covenant that we ask for whenever we say, “Thy Kingdom come.”

Having Faith In Yourself –
Self-Respect And Human Dignity
Dignity and self-respect are two things that every person should have, but unfortunately not everyone does. If you know you lack these qualities, but would like to gain them, it’s never too late to learn to believe in yourself and to behave in a dignified manner. When you learn to love yourself and treat others with respect, you’ll feel an amazing sense of inner satisfaction. People will also begin to flock to you, as they will see you as a role model for how they would like to behave.
Know Your Own Worth
Some people feel the need to flaunt their wealth, education or good looks in order to receive the validation they need to feel like they’re important. These people need to put others down in order to feel better about themselves. A person who has dignity and self-respect does not behave like this. A dignified individual, who respects herself, knows her own worth without needing to put others down to feel important.
Be Humble With Your Actions
A person who has dignity does not need to start rumors, manipulate others and cause drama to be noticed. A dignified person stands out from the crowd because of the positive contributions he makes to the lives of others. He feels fulfilled because he knows he’s done nice things for others, and he doesn’t need to broadcast his good needs to other people for validation.
Generate Positive Energy
Be aware of how much you complain about your life to others. If every conversation that you have involves criticizing yourself and others, this is a sign that you have low self-respect. Instead, make conversations revolve around positivity such as giving genuine compliments to others, talking about steps you’ve made to improve parts of your life that you weren’t satisfied with and showing appreciation when you receive gifts and praise from others. Only a person with dignity and self-respect can truly display these behaviors.
Don’t Let Negativity Get You Down
A person who respects herself doesn’t allow negative events in her life to bring her down. Instead, it’s important to take difficult moments and turn them into productivity. Determine what went wrong and use that as motivation to turn it into something positive. Mistakes and rejections are learning opportunities that can be used to improve yourself in the future. A dignified person takes these events in stride, knowing that things will get better, because she believes in herself.

Persuaded by Christ

Abraham feels sorry for the rich man in the flames, and sympathetically calls him “Son”. In my opinion, however, he pities him not so much for his punishment as for the evil still at work in him. For he has not yet reached an awareness of his sins, nor does he understand yet that it is just that he [is punished]. The rich man does not say, “Have mercy on me, for I have kindled this fire and stored up these torments for myself…”.

In his foolishness the rich man neither understands, nor stops sinning, nor condemns himself. Still attempting to justify himself, as though nobody had testified to him beforehand about this place of torment, he says, “I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house…”. What is Abraham’s answer to this? If they hear not Moses and the prophets, he says, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead, as though he were actually telling him, “Before you died you took no notice of the words of Moses or the prophets, so even if you had seen someone who had risen from the dead you would not have been convinced by him to give up your dissolute and cruel way of life…”.

There is no longer any excuse for us and, since a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns (Lk 12:15), anyone who has anything extra should share it with those who are without, and by so doing he will be adopted into the inheritance of Abraham, the father of those on the way to salvation. As for the needy, they should emulate the patient endurance of Lazarus, gaining their souls with their patience (cf. Lk 21:19), and winning a place for themselves in Abraham’s bosom, where all sorrow and lament be ended (Is 35:10; 51:11 cf. Rv 21:4), and where godly delight, enjoyment and bliss dwell without end. For this reason, Christ revealed to us, through this parable, what it was like there, so that after we have improved through repentance he might grant us those eternal pleasures, and deliver us from the torments in store for sinners.

Saint Gregory Palamas

Aids to Humility

To foster in ourselves a spirit of humility, we must not only look back but also look forward. When we appear before our Lord to be judged, what reason we shall have for shame and for dismay! How can I who am so full of sin venture to face Him who sees through every disguise, and recognizes the true nature of every action? How can I meet Him who has witnessed deeds of evil hidden from the eyes of men, and wicked and uncharitable thoughts indulged in secret? When I think of that day, I must be humble.

Nothing will then be such a cause of shame to me as my pride. Nothing will so turn away the face of my Judge from me in anger. If God abhors the proud, how can I look forward to that day without trembling? Saint Teresa said that when she had the privilege of seeing our Blessed Lord in a vision, the prevailing thought in her mind was what a terrible thing it would be if He were to be angry with her. He will be angry with me, then, unless I learn more humility. O my God, make me humble at any cost!

What will be the punishment of pride? Will it be the fire of Hell that was prepared for the devil and his angels simply and solely because of their pride? None will endure such misery as the proud; not the gluttonous, or the impure, or the covetous, except so far as their other vices fostered pride in them. O my God, if nothing else will make me humble, grant that the thought of the lowest Hell, reserved for the proud, may conquer in me that hateful vice of pride.

– text from Humility, Thirty Short Meditations by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ