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The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - March 27, 2009
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VATICAN DOSSIER
Preacher: Holy Spirit Speaks Through Conscience
Pope Receives President of Cyprus
NEWS BRIEFS
Bishops Dialogue With US Jewish Leaders
India's Bishops Make Appeal on Pope's Behalf
INTERVIEW
The Tyranny of Liberalism
WORDS MADE FLESH
Gazing Upon the Face of Jesus
SPIRITUALITY
Father Cantalamessa's 3rd Lenten Sermon
MESSAGE TO READERS
Reflection for 5th Sunday of Lent
CLASSIFIED ADS
Resonance of the Gift: Musical Reflections on Theology of the Body
Preacher: Holy Spirit Speaks Through Conscience
Father Cantalamessa Delivers 3rd Lenten HomilyVATICAN CITY, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Holy Spirit speaks to a person through his conscience, indicating what is right and wrong, and helps him to make the decisions that correspond to the will of God, says the Papal Household preacher.
Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa explained in his third Lenten meditation that on reading the Scriptures we can discover how the Holy Spirit guides believers in a twofold manner: on one hand, through their conscience and, on the other, through the magisterium of the Church.
The preacher delivered the sermon today to Benedict XVI and the Roman Curia in the Vatican's "Redemptoris Mater" Chapel. It was titled "All Who Are Guided by the Spirit of God Are Sons of God."
Father Cantalamessa stressed that the Holy Spirit is not only the one who guides us "to the fullness of truth," according to the words of John the Evangelist, but is also the "interior teacher," as St. Paul describes him. "He does not just say what should be done, rather he also gives the capacity to do what he commands."
The Capuchin explained that conscience is the ambit where the Holy Spirit exercises his function.
"Through this 'organ,' the guidance of the Holy Spirit goes beyond the Church, to all people," specified the preacher.
Reasons of the heart
"In this personal and intimate realm of the conscience, the Holy Spirit instructs us with 'good inspirations,' or 'interior lights,'" he continued, and stimulates us "to follow the good and avoid evil, attractions and inclinations of the heart that cannot be naturally explained, because they are often contrary to the direction that nature would want to take."
However, the Holy Spirit also guides believers through the magisterium of the Church, Father Cantalamessa said.
"It is just as deadly to try to forego either of the two guides of the Spirit," warned the preacher. "When the interior testimony is neglected, we easily fall into legalism and authoritarianism; when the exterior, apostolic testimony is neglected, we fall into subjectivism and fanaticism.
"When everything is reduced to just the personal, private listening to the Spirit, the path is opened to an unstoppable process of division and subdivision, because everyone believe they are right."
"We should recognize however that there is also the opposite risk," he noted, "that of making the external and public testimony of the Spirit absolute, ignoring the internal testimony that works through the conscience enlightened by grace."
"It is the ideal of a healthy harmony between listening to what the Spirit says to me, as an individual, and what he says to the Church as a whole and through the Church to individuals," said Father Cantalamessa.
Two goods
The preacher ended by explaining St. Ignatius of Loyola's doctrine on discernment, which seeks to help the believer to choose "between a good and another good."
Father Cantalamessa explained that sometimes "it is about seeing which one is what God wants, in a given situation. It was primarily to respond to this demand that St. Ignatius of Loyola developed his doctrine on discernment. He invites us to look at one thing above all: our own interior dispositions, the intentions (the 'spirits') that are behind a decision."
The preacher summarized the method of St. Ignatius: "When we are faced with two possible choices, it is useful to first consider one of them, as if we must follow it, and to stay in that state for a day or more; then we should evaluate how our heart reacts to that choice: Is there peace, harmony with the rest of our own decisions; is there something inside of you that encourages you in that direction, or on the contrary has it left a haze of restlessness… Then repeat the process with the second hypothesis. All this should be done in an atmosphere of prayer, abandonment to God's will, and openness to the Holy Spirit."
"The most favorable condition for making a good discernment is the habitual interior disposition to do God's will in every situation," Father Cantalamessa noted.
"Like talented actors," he added "we should tend our ear toward the voice of the prompter that is hidden, so we can faithfully recite our part in the scene of life. It is easier than we think, because our prompter speaks to us from the inside, he teaches us all things, he instructs us in everything. It is enough to just give an interior glance, a movement of our heart, a prayer."
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Full text: http://www.zenit.org/article-25499?l=english
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Pope Receives President of Cyprus
Discusses Nation's Future, Interreligious DialogueVATICAN CITY, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI discussed the future of Cyprus and the importance of interreligious dialogue upon receiving in audience the nation's president, Demetris Christofias.
The president was accompanied by his wife, Elsie, and the minister for foreign affairs, Markos Kyprianou. After greeting the Pontiff, the president met with the Pope's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
"The cordial discussions focused on certain questions concerning the situation in country, and its future," a communiqué of the Vatican press office reported. "For his part, President Christofias illustrated the condition of many churches and Christian buildings in the north of the island.
"The two sides expressed their mutual hope that the ongoing negotiations between the parties may reach a solution to the longstanding question of Cyprus."
"Ideas were also exchanged on the international situation regarding, among other things, the continent of Africa," the noted added.
"Finally," the note continued, "emphasis was given to the importance of good relations between Catholics and Orthodox and between Catholics and Muslims, who are all called to work together for the good of society and for peaceful coexistence among peoples."
The Embassy of Cyprus to the Holy See reported earlier this week that the visit takes place during the negotiations being carried out since early 2008, to find a solution to the division of the country. It noted that the Community of Sant'Egidio has played an important role in this process.
The president and his entourage had dinner on Friday with Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio Community, before returning to Cyprus.
A British colony until 1960, Cyprus was divided after its independence between the ethnic Greek and Turkish populations. After a series of clashes between the two communities, in 1974 an attempt to annex the island to Greece prompted Turkey to invade the North of the country. This region later became the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is not recognized by the international community.
The country, comprised of approximately 78% Greek Orthodox and 18% Muslims, joined the European Union in 2004.
In recent months, negotiations for a reunification of the island have intensified, and the Catholic Church has had a moderating role. The Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostom II, announced last December his wish to come to Rome to ask Benedict XVI his help in solving the country's problem.
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Bishops Dialogue With US Jewish Leaders
Archbishop of Paris Leads DelegationPARIS, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A dozen cardinals and bishops from around the world visited New York this week to meet with some of the highest authorities of orthodox Judaism there.
A communiqué published Thursday by the Archdiocese of Paris, reported that the delegation, led by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris and president of the episcopal conference of France, was composed of prelates from Europe, Asia and Africa.
The meetings ended Wednesday and took place "within John Paul II's and Benedict XVI's action to build an effective fraternity with our elder brothers in the faith," the note said.
The prelates were received Monday at New York's Jewish Heritage Museum by Rabbi Israel Remedar, former president of the World Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Bernard Lander, founder-president of Touro College.
They visited an exhibit on the million and a half Ukrainian Jews who were killed between 1941 and 1944. They also met privately with some of the highest authorities of Yeshiva University, whose teaching is focused on the theme "Bringing Wisdom to Life."
The note explained that the meetings, initiated in 2003 by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris, who died in 2007, are "a form of religious and pastoral dialogue," dictated by the common necessity "religious brotherhood at the service of society."
"The extremely cordial climate, the mutual trust built over many years, the growing depth and frankness of the exchanges, confirm the absolutely unique character of these meetings, more than 40 years after the 'Nostra Aetate' declaration of Vatican Council II," explained the communiqué of the Diocese of Paris.
The prelates also stopped in Washington, D.C., to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum and meet with the bishops of the U.S. episcopal conference. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the conference's president, personally greeted the prelates.
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India's Bishops Make Appeal on Pope's Behalf
Call Recent Attacks "Irresponsible and Offensive"NEW DELHI, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- India's bishops have called recent media attacks on Benedict XVI as "irresponsible," and appealed for more "respect" for the Pope.
In statement published Tuesday, the nation's episcopal conference called the Holy Father "one of the greatest intellectuals of modern times," and highlighted his lucidity on moral and social issues, reported the news agency Eglises d'Asie.
The attacks came earlier this month after the Holy Father said during a press conference on the plane en route to Cameroon that condoms are not the solution for AIDS.
Signed by Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandes of Gandhinagar, secretary-general of the conference, the note affirmed that Benedict XVI is "loved and respected by the entire world," and that the bishops judged the attacks to be "gravely irresponsible and offensive."
"He invites the whole world to go forward, with the Spirit of God, to build a society based on moral values and respect for life," the episcopal body continued. "This is the moral role of the Pope, to direct and guide consciences, the conscience of humanity in general and of Catholics in particular."
The Holy Father "is perfectly informed on the present tendencies that show the moral degradation of humanity," affirmed the statement.
The bishops' text ends by appealing to Catholics and non-Catholics to "beware of making ill-considered statements" against Benedict XVI, who "has always worked for peace, reconciliation, fraternity, unity and attention to the poorest and most abandoned."
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James Kalb on the Ideology's Totalitarian Impulses
By Annamarie Adkins
NEW YORK, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Liberals -- on both the Right and Left -- may posit that they favor freedom, reason and the well-being of ordinary people. But some critics believe that liberalism itself erodes the very institutions -- family, religion, local associations -- necessary to restrain its excesses.
One such liberal skeptic is attorney and writer James Kalb, who recently wrote a book entitled, "The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command" (ISI).
Kalb explained to ZENIT why he believes liberalism inevitably evolves into a form of soft totalitarianism, or a “dictatorship of relativism,” and why the Church is well positioned to be its preeminent foe.
Q: What is liberalism?
Kalb: We're so much in the middle of it that it's difficult to see it as a whole. You can look at it, though, as an expression of modern skepticism.
Skeptical doubts have led to a demand for knowledge based on impersonal observation and devoted to practical goals. Applied to the physical world, that demand has given us modern natural science.
Applied to life in society, it has led to a technological understanding of human affairs. If we limit ourselves to impersonal observations, we don't observe the good; we observe preferences and how to satisfy them. The result is a belief that the point of life is satisfying preferences.
On that view, the basic social issue is whose preferences get satisfied.
Liberalism answers that question by saying that all preferences are equal, so they all have an equal claim to satisfaction. Maximum equal satisfaction therefore becomes the rational ordering principle for life in society -- give everyone what he wants, as much and as equally as possible. In other words, give everybody maximum equal freedom.
Q: How can an ideology of freedom become tyrannical?
Kalb: Equal freedom is an open-ended standard that makes unlimited demands when taken seriously.
For example, it views non-liberal standards as oppressive, because they limit equal freedom. Liberal government wants to protect us from oppression, so it tries to eradicate those standards from more and more areas of life.
The attempt puts liberal government at odds with natural human tendencies. If the way someone acts seems odd to me, and I look at him strangely, that helps construct the social world he's forced to live in. He will find that oppressive. Liberal government can't accept that, so it eventually feels compelled to supervise all my attitudes about how people live and how I express them.
The end result is a comprehensive system of control over all human relations run by an expert elite responsible only to itself. That, of course, is tyranny.
Q: You argue that liberalism, especially its "advanced" form, corrupts and suppresses the traditional aspects of life that defined and kept Western society together for centuries such as religion, marriage, family and local community. How does it do that?
Kalb: Equal freedom isn't the highest standard in those areas of life. They have to do with love and loyalty toward something outside ourselves that defines who we are. That love and loyalty involve particular connections to particular people and their ways of life.
Such things cannot be the same for everyone. They create divisions and inequalities. They tell people they can't have things they want.
So equal freedom tells us traditional institutions have to be done away with as material factors in people's lives. They have to be debunked and their effects suppressed.
At bottom, liberalism says people have to be neutered to fit into a managed system of equal freedom. They have to be encouraged to devote themselves to satisfactions that don't interfere with the satisfactions of others.
In the end, the only permissible goals are career, consumption and various private pursuits and indulgences.
That doesn't leave much room for religion or for family or communal values. The only permissible public value is liberalism itself.
Q: How does mass media advance the cause of liberalism?
Kalb: The relationship is almost mechanical. It's one of the great strengths of liberalism.
Television and the Internet give us a world chopped up into interchangeable fragments.
To make that world comprehensible to journalists and viewers it has to be put in order in a simple way that can be understood quickly without regard to particularities.
That's impossible if complex distinctions and local habits are allowed to matter.
For that reason the mass media naturally favor a top-down managerial approach to social life with a bias toward sameness and equality -- in other words, something very much like contemporary liberalism.
To put it differently, the mass media prefer things to be discussed publicly and decided centrally based on a simple principle like equality. If that's done they can understand what's going on and what it all means.
Also, they themselves will serve an important function because they provide the forum for discussion and the information for decision. That situation naturally seems appropriate to them.
Q: What about the distinction between Anglo-American liberalism and continental liberalism, and their different models of secularism? Is it inaccurate to lump everything together under the heading of "liberalism"?
Kalb: The fundamental principle is the same, so the distinction can't be relied on.
In the English-speaking world the social order was traditionally less illiberal than on the continent.
King and state were less absolute, the Church had less independent authority, standing armies were out of favor, the aristocracy was less a separate caste, and the general outlook was more commercial and utilitarian.
Classical liberalism could be moderate and still get what it wanted.
Liberalism is progressive, though, so its demands keep growing. It eventually rejects all traditional ways as illiberal and becomes more and more radical.
For that reason state imposition of liberal norms has become at least as aggressive in Britain and Canada as on the continent.
The United States is still somewhat of an exception, but even among us aggressive forms of liberalism are gaining ground. They captured the academy, the elite bar and the media years ago, and they're steadily gaining ground among the people.
The international dizziness about President Obama and the violent reaction to the narrow victory of Proposition 8 concerning same-sex marriage in California show the direction things are going.
Q: Does rejecting "liberalism" mean rejecting freedom of conscience, political equality, free markets and other supposed benefits of "liberalism"?
Kalb: No. A society can still have those things to the extent they make sense. They just need to be subordinated, at least in principle, to a larger order defined by considerations like the good life.
The Church has noted, for example, that free markets are an excellent thing in many ways. They just aren't the highest thing. The same principle applies to other liberal ideals.
Q: Both Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII condemned liberalism, but it seems the Church has embraced it since the Second Vatican Council in its defense of democracy and human rights. The tone of Church social teaching has also focused more on influencing liberal institutions, and less on shaping individuals, families, and local communities. How does one account for this shift in the Church's attitude?
Kalb: The Church apparently decided modernity was here to stay. Liberal modernity looked better than fascist modernity or Bolshevik modernity.
It claimed to be a modest and tolerant approach to government that let culture and civil society develop in their own way. So the Church decided to accept and work within it.
Also, the development of the mass media and consumer society, and the growth of state education and industrial social organization generally, meant Catholics were more and more drawn into liberal ways of thinking. Hostility to liberalism became difficult to maintain within the Church.
The problem, though, is that liberal modernity is extremely critical and therefore intolerant. In order to cooperate with it you have to do things its way.
The recent, virulent attacks on Pope Benedict for many different reasons by the liberal elite illustrate that phenomenon perfectly.
For that reason, if there's going to be joint social action today, it inevitably focuses on extending liberal institutions rather than promoting local and traditional institutions like the family, which are intrinsically non-liberal. Many people in the Church have come to accept that.
Q: You argue that religion can be the unifying force that offers resistance to advanced liberalism, and that the Catholic Church is the spiritual organization most suited to that task. Why do you think so?
Kalb: To resist advanced liberalism you have to propose a definite social outlook based on goods beyond equal freedom and satisfaction.
A conception of transcendent goods won't stand up without a definite conception of the transcendent, which requires religion. And a religious view won't stand up in public life unless there's a definite way to resolve disputes about what it is.
You need the Pope.
Catholics have the Pope, and they also have other advantages like an emphasis on reason and natural law. As a Catholic, I'd add that they have the advantage of truth.
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Biblical Reflection for 5th Sunday of Lent B
By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
TORONTO, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year B) invites us to fix our gaze upon Jesus, the model priest of suffering, compassion and human solidarity.
First, let us consider John’s Gospel story from Chapter 12 -- a fitting climax to Jesus' public ministry. It is the last official act before the events of his passion next Sunday. There are Gentiles, non-Jews, who seek Jesus out for the first time. They do not come simply to catch a glimpse of him, to have some general audience with him, but rather to "see" him. In John's Gospel, "seeing" Jesus is believing in him. How simple yet how stunning a request: "Sir, we would like to see Jesus" [John 12:21]!
Throughout the entire Scriptures, men and women have longed to see God, to gaze upon God's countenance, beauty and glory. How many times in the psalms do we ask to see the face of God? "Shine your face on your servant" (Psalm 119:135). Not only do we beg to see God's face, but we are told to look for it. "Seek my face," says the Lord (Psalm 27:8).
But we cannot seem to find the face we are told to look for. Then the laments begin: "Do not hide your face from me" (Psalm 102:2). "Why do you hide your face from me?" (Psalm 88:14). "How long will you hide your face from me?" (Psalm 13:2). We beg, we seek, but we cannot find God's face. Then we are distraught. Moses, speaking as friend-to-friend, asked to see God's face. But God said to him, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see my face and live" (Exodus 33:20).
When we ask in the Psalms to see God's face, we are really asking to see God as God truly is, to gaze into the depths of God. In the last chapter of the last book of the Scriptures, it is written: "They will see his face" (Revelation 22:4). We see God's face revealed to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. How often do we long to “see” the face of Jesus? Where are we seeking his face today? What do we do when we finally “see” the face of Jesus?
Garden of suffering
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews is filled with the thoughts and theology of Paul and John, but he also contemplates Jesus' agony in the garden in relation to temple sacrifices and the priesthood according to the Hebrew Scriptures. The Old Testament never dreamed of requiring the high priest to make himself like his brothers and sisters, but was preoccupied on the contrary with separating him from them. An attitude of compassion toward sinners appeared to be incompatible with the priesthood of the Old Covenant. Furthermore, no text ever required that the high priest should be free from all sin.
Hebrews 5:7-9 presents us with a different type of priesthood -- one of extraordinary compassion and solidarity. In his days on earth, Jesus shared our flesh and blood, crying out with prayers and silent tears. Jesus has been tested in all respects like us -- he knows all of our difficulties; he is a tried man; he knows our condition from the inside and from the outside -- only by this did he acquire a profound capacity for compassion. That is the only kind of priesthood that makes a difference, and that matters, then and now.
What does this image of Jesus teach us today? Far from creating an abyss between Jesus Christ and ourselves, our own daily trials and weaknesses have become the privileged place of our encounter with him, and not only with him, but with God himself. The consequence is that from now on, not one of us can be bowed down under a painful situation without finding that Christ is, by that very fact, at our side. Jesus was "heard because of his 'reverence' or his 'pious submission.'" And we are given the consolation that we, too, will be heard because of our own persistence in prayer, our reverence before God and our pious submission to his will for us.
John Paul II's agony
We read in today’s Gospel passage that the Greeks address themselves first to Philip, who is from the village of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee: "Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus" (John 12:22). To see Jesus, one must be led to him by an apostle. The testimony of those who lived with him, at his side, shows him to us and we cannot do without this testimony.
We need the apostolic writings, especially the Gospels, handed down to us by tradition, of which our parents, priests, deacons, teachers, catechists, preachers and other believers are witnesses and bearers of the Good News. How important and necessary it is to recognize those key people in our lives who are living witnesses and links to the tradition and the Good News about Jesus Christ! One such person for millions of people throughout the world was Karol Wojtyla, the man we know as Pope John Paul II.
Four years ago this week, the world witnessed the agony and passion of this Successor of Peter in a most public way. As we commemorate the fourth anniversary of the John Paul II's death on April 2, I cannot help but recall those moving days and see how much he revealed to us the face of God and the image of Jesus crucified.
One of the most powerful lessons he taught us in the twilight of his Pontificate was that everyone must suffer, even the Vicar of Christ. Rather than hide his infirmities, as most public figures do, he let the whole world see what he went through. In the final act of his life, the athlete was immobilized, the distinctive, booming voice silenced, and the hand that produced voluminous encyclicals no longer able to write. Yet nothing made John Paul II waver, even the debilitating sickness hidden under the glazed Parkinsonian mask, and ultimately his inability to speak and move. Many believe that the most powerful message he preached was when the words and actions failed.
One of the unforgettable, silent, teaching moments of those final days took place on Good Friday night 2005, while the Pope, seated in his private chapel in the Vatican, viewed the television coverage of the Via Crucis from Rome’s Colosseum. At the station commemorating the death of the Lord, a television camera in the papal chapel showed the Pope embracing a cross in his hands with his cheek resting against the wood. His accepting of suffering and death needed no words. The image spoke for itself.
Several hours before his death, Pope John Paul's last audible words were: "Let me go to the house of the Father." In the intimate setting of prayer, as Mass was celebrated at the foot of his bed and the throngs of faithful sang below in St. Peter's Square, he died at 9:37 p.m. on April 2. Through his public passion, suffering and death, this holy priest, Successor of the Apostles, and Servant of God, showed us the face of Jesus in a remarkable way.
[The readings for this Sunday are Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrew 5:7-9; John 12:20-33. For use with RCIA, Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45]
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Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada, is a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He can be reached at: rosica@saltandlighttv.org.
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On the Net:
For those using Year A Readings for the Catechumenate (RCIA) "If Only You Had Been There": www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ5BtFPSttY
Salt and Light Catholic Television Network Web site: www.saltandlighttv.org
Thank You JPII (on YouTube): www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8SflZ0uR4&feature=channel
Thank You JPII (on Salt and Light): www.saltandlighttv.org/prog_slprog_thanku_jp2.html
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Father Cantalamessa's 3rd Lenten Sermon
"There Is a Very Close Relationship Between Conscience and the Holy Spirit"VATICAN CITY, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the third Lenten sermon for 2009 by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, which he gave today at the Vatican in the presence of Benedict XVI and the Curia.
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"All Who Are Guided by the Spirit of God Are Sons of God" (Romans 8:14)
1. A new age of the of the Holy Spirit?
"Thus, condemnation will never come to those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death...anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you".
These are four verses about the Holy Spirit from the eighth chapter of the Letter to the Romans. Christ's name is repeated a full six times in the text. The same frequency is repeated throughout the rest of the chapter, if we consider both the times he is referred to by his name and by the word Son. This fact is fundamentally important. It tells us that for Paul the Holy Spirit's work does not substitute Christ's work, rather it continues it, it fulfills it, and it actualizes it.
The fact that the recently elected president of the United States referenced Joachim of Fiore three times during his electoral campaign has renewed interest in medieval monk's teachings. Few of the people who talk about him, especially on the internet, know or care to know just what exactly this author said. Every idea of church or world renewal is offhandedly attributed to him, even the idea of a new Pentecost for the Church, which was invoked by John XXIII.
One thing is certain: whether or not it should be attributed to Joachim of Fiore, the idea of a third era of the Spirit that would follow on the era of the Old Testament Father and the New Testament Christ is false and heretical because it affects the very heart of the Trinitarian dogma. St. Gregory Nazianzen's statement is entirely different. He makes a distinction between three phases in the revelation of the Trinity: in the Old Testament the Father fully revealed himself and the Son is promised and announced; in the New Testament the Son fully revealed himself and the Holy Spirit is promised and announced; in the time of the Church, the Holy Spirit is finally fully known and we rejoice in his presence.[1]
Even I have been put on a list of Joachim of Fiore's followers just because I cited this text of St. Gregory in one of my books. But St. Gregory refers to the order of the manifestation of the Spirit, not its being or acting, and in this sense his position expresses a incontestable truth, that has been peacefully accepted by all tradition.
The so-called Joachimite thesis is ruled out by Paul and the whole New Testament. For them, the Holy Spirit is nothing other than the Spirit of Christ: objectively because it is the fruit of his Paschal mystery, subjectively because he is the one who pours it out over the Church, as Peter will say to the crowd on the very day of Pentecost: "Now raised to the heights by God's right hand, he has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit." (Acts 2:33) Therefore time of the Spirit is coextensive to the time of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that proceeds primarily from the Father, which descends and "rests" in fullness on Jesus, and in him becoming a reality and takes to living among men, as St. Irenaeus says. And in Easter and Pentecost he is poured out over humanity by Jesus. The proof of all this is precisely the cry of "Abba" that the Spirit repeats in the believer (Galatians 4:6) or teaches the believer to repeat (Romans 8:15). How can the Spirit cry out Abba to the Father? He is not begotten by the Father, he is not his Son… He can do it, notes Augustine, because he is the Spirit of the Son and he continues the cry of Jesus.
2. The Spirit as a guide in the Scriptures
After this introduction, I come to the verse from the Eighth Chapter of the Letter to the Romans that I would like to discuss today. "All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).
The theme of the Holy Spirit as a guide is not new in Scripture. In Isaiah the journey of the people in the desert is attributed to the guidance of the Spirit. "Yahweh's Spirit led them to rest." (Isaiah 63:14) Jesus himself was "led (ductus) by the Spirit into the desert" (Matthew 4:1). The Acts of the Apostles show us a Church that is, step by step, "led by the Spirit." Even St. Luke's design of having the Gospel followed by the Acts of the Apostles intends to show how the same Spirit that guided Jesus in his earthly life, now guides the Church, as the Spirit "of Christ". Does Peter approach Cornelius and the pagans? It is the Sprit that orders him (Cfr. Acts 10: 19, 11:12). Do the apostles make important decisions in Jerusalem? It is the Spirit that prompted them (15:28).
The guidance of the Spirit is exercised not only in the big decisions, but also in the small things. Paul and Timothy want to preach the Gospel in the Province of Asia, but "the Holy Spirit forbids them to do so"; they try to go toward Bithynia, but "the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them" (Acts 16:6). We then understand why he guides in such a pressing manner: the Holy Spirit pushed the nascent Church to leave Asia and come into the world on a new continent, Europe (Cfr. Acts 16:9).
For John, the guidance of the Paraclete is provided within the realm of knowledge. He is the one who "will guide" the disciples to the full truth (John 16:3); his anointing "teaches everything", to the point that he who possesses him has no need for any other teacher (Cfr. 1 John 2:27). Paul introduces and important new concept. For him the Holy Spirit is not just "the interior teacher"; he is a principle of new life ("those who are guided by him become children of God"!); he does not just say what should be done, rather he also gives the capacity to do what he commands.
In this manner, the guidance of the Spirit is essentially different from that of the Law which allows one to see the good that is to be accomplished, but leaves the person struggling against the evil they do not want (Cfr. Romans 7:15). Earlier in the Letter to the Galatians the Apostle said: "But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law" (Galatians 5:18)
Paul's vision of the Spirit's guidance, which is deeper and more ontological (with regards to the very being of the believer) does not exclude the more common vision of the Spirit as an interior teacher, as a guide for the knowledge of truth and of God's will. On this occasion, this is precisely what I would like to talk about.
This is a topic that has been significantly developed within the tradition of the Church. The Church Fathers said that if Christ is the "the way" (odos) that leads to the Father (John 14:6), then the Holy Spirit is "the guide along the way" (odegos).[2] St. Ambrose writes "This is the Spirit, our head and our guide (ductor et princeps), who directs our mind, affirms our affection, attracts us where he wants and turns our steps toward heaven".[3] The hymn Veni creator collects this tradition in the following verse: "Ductore sic te praevio vitemus omne noxium": with you as our guide we will avoid all evil. The Second Vatican Council weighs in on this topic when it describes itself as "God's people who believe they are led by the Spirit of the Lord".[4]
3. The Spirit guides through the conscience
Where is the Paraclete's guidance at work? The first realm, or organ, is the conscience. There is a very close relationship between conscience and the Holy Spirit. What is the famous "voice of conscience" if not a sort of "long distance repeater" through which the Holy Spirit speaks to each person? "My conscience testifies for me in the Holy Spirit", exclaims St. Paul, speaking about his love for his fellow Hebrews (cfr. Romans 9:1).
Through this "organ", the guidance of the Holy Spirit goes beyond the Church, to all people. Even the pagans "can demonstrate the effect of the Law engraved on their hearts, to which their own conscience bears witness" (Romans 2:15). Precisely because the Holy Spirit speaks to every rational being through their conscience, St. Maximums the Confessor said, "we see many people, even among the barbarians and nomads, who turn to a honorable and good life, and scorn the wild laws that had prevailed among them from the beginning".[5]
The conscience is also a sort of interior law, not a written law, different and inferior to the law that exists in the believer through grace, but not in disagreement with it, since it also comes from the same Spirit. Those who only posses this "inferior" law, but obey it, are closer to the Spirit than those who possess the superior law that comes from baptism, but do not live in accordance with it.
Among the believers this interior guide of the conscience is strengthened and elevated by the anointing that "teaches all things, is truthful and does not lie" (1 John 2:27), and it is therefore an infallible guide if they listen to it. In commenting on this very text St. Augustine formulated the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as the "interior teacher". He asks, what does it mean by "you do not need someone to teach you"? Could it mean that a christian individual already knows everything on his own and has no need to read, learn and listen to anyone else? If this was the case, why would the Apostle have written his letter? The truth is that we need to listen to other teachers and preachers, but those who the Holy Spirit speaks intimately to will understand and be helped by what the other teachers say. This explains why many people can listen to the same sermon and teaching, but not all understand it in the same way.[6]
What a consoling reassurance we get from all of this! The word that once rang out in the gospel: "The master is here and is calling you!" (John 11:28), is true for every christian. The same teacher of that time, Christ, that speaks now through his Spirit, is inside of us and calls us. St. Cyril of Jerusalem was right to define the Holy Spirit as "the great instructor, that is teacher, of the Church".[7]
In this personal and intimate realm of the conscience, the Holy Spirit instructs us with "good inspirations", or "interior lights" that all have experienced in some way in life. We are urged to follow the good and avoid evil, attractions and inclinations of the heart that cannot be naturally explained, because they are often contrary to the direction that nature would want to take.
Basing themselves precisely on this ethical component of the person, some eminent scientists and biologists today have come to see beyond the theory that considers human beings to be chance result of the selection of the species. If the law that governs evolution is just the fight for the survival of the fittest, how can we explain certain acts of pure altruism and even self sacrifice for the sake of truth and justice?[8]
4. The Spirit guides through the magisterium of the Church
Up to now we have dealt with the conscience, the first area in which guidance of the Holy Spirit is exercised. There is a second area, which is the Church. The internal witness of the Holy Spirit should be combined with the external, visible and objective witness, which is the apostolic magisterium. In the book of Revelation, at the end of each of the seven letters, we hear the admonishment: "Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches" (Revelation 2:7).
The Spirit also speaks to the churches and the communities, not just to individuals. In the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter brings the two testimonies of the Holy Spirit together, the interior and exterior, the personal and the public. He has just finished speaking to the crowd about Christ put to death and resurrected, and they feel "cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37). He spoke the same words in front of the heads of the Sanhedrin, and they became irate (cfr. Acts 4:8). The same words, the same preacher, but an entirely different effect. How could this be? The explanation is found in these words that the Apostle said at that time: "We are witnesses to this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts 5:32)
The two testimonies need to come together so that the faith can flower: the apostle's who proclaims the word and the Holy Spirit's that allows it to be accepted. The same idea is expressed in the gospel of John, when, speaking about the Paraclete, Jesus says: "he will be my witness. And you too will be witnesses" (John 15:26).
It is just as deadly to try to forego either of the two guides of the Spirit. When the interior testimony is neglected, we easily fall into legalism and authoritarianism; when the exterior, apostolic testimony is neglected, we fall into subjectivism and fanaticism. In ancient times the Gnostics refused the apostolic, official testimony. St. Irenaeus wrote these famous words in apposition to them:
"For this gift of God has been entrusted to the Church, as breath was to the first created man… of which all those are not partakers who do not join themselves to the Church… Alienated thus from the truth, they do deservedly wallow in all error, tossed to and fro by it, thinking differently in regard to the same things at different times, and never attaining to a well-grounded knowledge".[9]
When everything is reduced to just the personal, private listening to the Spirit, the path is opened to a unstoppable process of division and subdivision, because everyone believe they are right. And the very division and multiplication of denominations and sects, often contrasting each other in their essential points, demonstrates that the same Spirit of truth in speaking cannot be in all, because otherwise he would be contradicting himself.
It is well known that this is the danger to which the protestant world is most exposed, having built the "interior testimony" of the Holy Spirit as the only criteria of truth, against every exterior, ecclesial testimony, other than that of the written Word.[10] Some extreme fringes will even go as far as to separate the interior guidance of the Spirit even from word of the Scriptures. We then have the various movements of "enthusiasts" or "enlightened" who have punctuated the history of the Church, whether catholic, orthodox or protestant. The most frequent result of this tendency, which concentrates all attention on the internal testimony of the Spirit, is that the Spirit slowly looses the capital letter and comes to coincide with the simple human spirit. That is what happened with rationalism.
We should recogonize however that there is also the opposite risk: that of making the external and public testimony of the Spirit absolute, ignoring the internal testimony that works through the conscience enlightened by grace. In other words, it is the risk of reducing the guidance of the Paraclete to only the official magisterium of the Church, thus impoverishing the variegated action of the Holy Spirit.
In this case, the human element, organizational and institutional, can easily prevail. The passivity of the body is fostered and the doors are opened to the marginalization of the laity and the excessive clericalization of the Church.
Even in this case, as always, we should rediscover the whole, the synthesis, that is truly "catholic". It is the ideal of a healthy harmony between listening to what the Spirit says to me, as an individual, and what he says to the Church as a whole and through the Church to individuals.
5. Discernment in personal life
We now come to the guidance of the Spirit in the spiritual path of each believer. This goes by the name of discernment of spirits. The first and fundamental discernment of spirits is that which allows us to distinguish between "the Spirit of God" and the "spirit of the world". (Cfr. 1 Corinthians 2:12) St. Paul provides an objective discernment criteria, the same that Jesus had given: that of the fruits. The "works of the flesh" reveal that a certain desire comes from the old sinful man; the "fruits of the Spirit" reveal that it comes from the Spirit (cfr. Galatians 5:19-22). "The desires of self-indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence" (Galatians 5:17).
Sometimes this objective criterion is not enough because the choice is not between good and evil, but between a good and another good and it is about seeing which one is what God wants, in a given situation. It was primarily to respond to this demand that St. Ignatius of Loyola developed his doctrine on discernment. He invites us to look at one thing above all: our own interior dispositions, the intentions (the "spirits") that are behind a decision.
St. Ignatius suggested practical means to apply these criteria.[11] One is this: when we are faced with two possible choices, it is useful to first consider one of them, as if we must follow it, and to stay in that state for a day or more; then we should evaluate how our heart reacts to that choice: is there peace, harmony with the rest of our own decisions; is there something inside of you that encourages you in that direction, or on the contrary has it left a haze of restlessness… Then repeat the process with the second hypothesis. All this should be done in an atmosphere of prayer, abandonment to God's will, and openness to the Holy Spirit.
The most favorable condition for making a good discernment is the habitual interior disposition to do God's will in every situation. Jesus said "My judgment is just, because I do not see my will, but the will of he who sent me" (John 5:30).
The danger, among some modern people who intend to practice discernment, is to emphasize the psychological aspects to such an extent that we forget the primary agent of all discernment which is the Holy Spirit. There is a deep theological reason for this. The Holy Spirit is himself the substantial will of God and when he enters a soul "he manifests himself as the very will of God for those in whom he is found".[12]
The concrete fruit of this meditation could be a renewed decision to trust ourselves in everything and for everything to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as a sort of "spiritual direction". It is written that "whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the Israelites would resume their march. If the cloud did not rise, they would not resume their march" (Exodus 40:36-37). Even we should not undertake anything if it is not the Holy Spirit, that according to tradition is prefigured by the cloud, who moves us and without having consulted him first in every action.
We have the most luminous example in the very life of Jesus. He never undertook anything without the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit he walked in the desert; with the power of the Holy Spirit he returned and began his preaching; "In the Holy Spirit" he chose his apostles (cfr. Acts 1:2); in the Spirit he prayed and offered himself to the Father (cfr. Hebrews 9:14).
St. Thomas speaks about this interior guidance of the Spirit as a sort of "instinct the just have": "Just as in corporal life the body is not moved if not by the spirit that gives it life, so also in the spiritual world all of our movements should come from the Holy Spirit".[13] This is how the "law of the Spirit" works; this is what the Apostle calls "letting oneself be guided by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:18).
We should abandon ourselves to the Holy Spirit as the chords of the harp abandon themselves to the fingers of the musician that moves them. Like talented actors, we should tend our ear toward the voice of the prompter that is hidden, so we can faithfully recite our part in the scene of life. It is easier than we think, because our prompter speaks to us from the inside, he teaches us all things, he instructs us in everything. It is enough to just give an interior glance, a movement of our heart, a prayer. We read this eulogy about a holy bishop of the second century, Melito of Sardes, that I wish could be said of each of us after our death: "In his life he did everything the Holy Spirit moved him to do".[14]
[Translation by Thomas Daly]
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[1] Cfr. St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orations, XXXI, 26 (PG 36, 161 s.).
[2] St. Gregory Nazienzen, On Faith (PG 45, 1241C): cfr. Ps.-Atanasio, Dialogue against the Macedonians, 1, 12 (PG 28, 1308C).
[3] St. Ambrose, In Defence of David, 15, 73 (CSEL 32,2, p. 348). St. Maximus the Confessor, Various chapters, I, 72 (PG 90, 1208D).
[4] Gaudium et spes, 11.
[5] St. Maximus the Confessor, Various chapters, I, 72 (PG 90, 1208D).
[6] Cfr. St. Augustine, On the first Letter of John, 3,13; 4,1 (PL 35, 2004 s.).
[7] S. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesi, XVI, 19.
[8] Cf. F. Collins, The Language of God
[9] St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III, 24, 1-2.
[10] Crf. J.-L. Witte, Esprit-Saint et Eglises séparées, in Dict.Spir. 4, 1318-1325.
[11] Cf. S. Ignazio di Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, IV Week (ed. BAC, Madrid 1963, pp. 262 ss).
[12] Cfr. Guglielmo di St. Thierry, Lo specchio della fede, 61 (SCh 301, p. 128).
[13] St. Thomas, On the Letter to the Galatians, ch.V, lesson.5, n.318; lesson. 7, n. 340.
[14] Eusebio di Cesarea, Ecclesiastical History, V, 24, 5.
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Reflection for 5th Sunday of Lent
NEW YORK, MARCH 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Due to a technical error, Father Thomas Rosica's reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Lent did not appear Wednesday. The column appears in today's dispatch. ZENIT regrets the error.
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Father Rosica's column: www.zenit.org/article-25493?l=english
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Resonance of the Gift: Musical Reflections on Theology of the Body
Piano compositions by Canadian composer Peter Gerard Baklinski celebrating John Paul II's "Theology of the Body."
Experience music inspired by the grandeur and beauty of human love within the Divine plan.
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