A Paradox of Truth

Life and the world are full of contradictions.
One may also call them paradoxes.
We find them all around us, and not in the way that song that isn't really about ironies says. Things that seem to be rightside up are often upside down, and the other way around. It can be confusing!
For example - I love to be alone. I hate that I love to be alone because I know I shouldn't love being alone because it doesn't take much alone time before I hate being alone and only want people again. Yet, the more you end up around people the more you miss being alone... it's a vicious cycle, really.
Another great one would be suffering in general... love-hate relationship, of course. No one really loves hardship, right? Yet, we love the fruits. We appreciate the formation, the growth, the lessons learned that come from hard times. Then, we begin to love the experience of the hardship because we understand what comes after it. We don't love the pain, but we love what it can bring to us. So there is often some balance of appreciation and loathing that work together in our minds and hearts when we endure trials.
Among the million and one things I need to write about, and the other million and two that are based solely on reflections drawn from things I have read (for that is when my mind most often explodes), in particular a recent excerpt from Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II caught my attention.
John Paul is reflecting on the nature of sin and concupiscence in humanity. The context of anything out of this extremely rich text is necessary for a full understanding, but I will dare to expound on a sentence and hope for the best. He says, "Concupiscence is to be explained as a lack, as a lack, however, that plunges its roots into the original depth of the human spirit."
I had to read that line over and over for a while to get the imagery down. The privation of anything is only a deep as what has been deprived. The depth of human goodness, of the original innocence man was created in before the fall of sin, sets the boundaries and limits for how far concupiscence, directly as the lack-of this innocence, reaches.
This should elicit a few responses from us. Immediately, it should be impressive. We are rather aware of the negative effects of sin in our world... clearly concupiscence has paraded its power all over our society and ourselves. Adversely, this should mean we were doing pretty well prior to the invasion of sin in our world. If it's black and white, and the black is dark and pervasive, it can only imply that the white is bright and stunning. This is encouraging! Despite the many failures we experience in the game of "being good in life" we should be both motivated and confident because according to this paradox, we were made for something much greater than what we have known.
Consider the fullness of the freedom mankind knew before the effects of sin! John Paul discusses how concupiscence deals with man's desire. It is the yearnings in our heart that are corrupted. We do not want the good, we want what we decide is good. We are not able to see clearly to know the true good from what appears good, and so we often are mistaken in our wants. Also, our desires, being thus blinded, become habitually more self-serving as we are given the dissatisfying gratification of what we had thought was best for us. Rather than building up a freedom for our hearts, we build instead a cave, that leads further and further down into disappointment. When we are looking for fulfillment outside of ourselves but allowing only selfish desires to guide that search, we aren't bound to get very far.
So rather, John Paul points to the glorious freedom we possessed when we were created and living without any lack. The purity of our hearts and our desires allowed us to simply be in the good. We were good. There was no need for yearnings for things which would not satisfy. We discovered ourselves in free-gift to the other. We found our capabilities, our glories, our joys through service and gift. These ways-of-being were the culminations of freedom, for since we possessed ourselves so fully through such pure intentions, we were able to so fully give ourselves over, and through the gift rediscover the affirmation of our individual self in its fullness. Again, this is all much easier to understand if you sit through the many pages of the Pope's entire text.
As it is, the point is simple. This paradox, just as the Incarnation or the Cross and Resurrection, contains such depth precisely because of the power of the original good. The understood "lack" of good ought to set our imaginations free to create the idea of just how full of good we must have been. This imagining should simultaneously set our personal goals and hopes for living in authentic freedom. Clearly we will never be able to be completely free from sin - yet, we certainly could make great progress towards that beauty that first dwelt in the soul and body of man.
If nothing else, the symmetry and consistency of such truth - that the lack is only as deep as what was once present - whispers of recreation and hope that is absolutely overflowing with confidence and energy. Even that is a contradiction! Whispers of things that enthrall and eventually lead you to explode with the amazement at the promise God makes to us. That we could be so healed, so filled, so named, so remade, so broken and then so complete... it is worth the reflection.

The Double Standard About Pedophile

Read an interesting article that finally inspired me to post after months of being AWOL...

Father Polanski Would Go to Jail

The long and short of it - priests (and the Church as a whole, in fact) have a dark cloud placed over them and face tremendous malignment and vilification because a small number of them (roughly 4%) are guilty of pedophilia while famous director Roman Polanski, an admitted sexual abuser, gets an Academy Award.

As Fr. Reese rightly points out in his article, any person or organization who's members are guilty of such a crime should be placed under a microscope. Attempts should be made to get to the bottom of it, so to speak. And those guilty should be justly punished.

The point is that while this process is taking place in the Church, it is not in Hollywood for people like Polanski. There is a double standard.

Now, the thing that really struck me is not so much this double standard. It's a huge problem and one I am afraid will continue. But this article serves as a reminder of just how broken we are as people, across the board.

Sexual brokenness rears its ugly head in many ways. Pedophilia is just one of them. Any time our bodies are being used for anything other than to love as God loves (by giving ourselves over to another, not taking something from them) we deviate from the intent with which God created them. And when we deviate from God's plan, things get dicey.

What is worst of all is that ANYONE guilty of sexual abuse, would be given a free pass. People have viciously attacked the Church in light of the scandal, yet others guilty of the same crime are allowed to move on unscathed. Forget the double standard, it just reeks of evil.

Christopher West on Nightline

Video Here: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7534337

Hey, so I know I'm like 2 weeks late on this bit, but there hasn't been anything "on-time" about this blog in the past year anyway :)

As many may know by now, Christopher West was featured on ABC's news show Nightline. I actually thought it was a success for the simple fact that hundreds (I imagine) of people who've never heard of the Theology of the Body before now have been introduced... sort of.

The feature was not without it's eyeball-rolling moments - ABC labeling West a sex therapist, over-exagerrating West's analogy with Pope John Paul II and Hugh Hefner (founder of Playboy), to name a couple. Yet, seeds were planted. I've gotta believe that some people investigated TOB a little further because of this 8 minute presentation.

At any rate, it has made for a lot of dialogue on the net, especially in the Catholic blogosphere. For the record, here's the TOB Institue's reaction to the feature... http://www.tobinstitute.org/announcement.asp?AnnouncementsID=22

Love & Monkeys

A neat little snippet of a talk by Dr. Janet Smith

Only by His Divine Mercy

So, I'm becoming increasingly convinced, in what I see happening in the world around me and in my recent prayer experiences, that the Divine Mercy is the single most important devotion to come from the 20th Century.

I do not say this to slight other devotions. Indeed I love Our Lady and find much comfort and hope in her appearances in Fatima. Lord knows we need her prayers and her guidance.

What I see is a world just absolutely lost. Like, in the middle of the jungle, without a compass or water, beaten within inches of death, lost. We are pushing God further away every day, and finding ourselves deeper in that jungle.

I wish I could express my thoughts more clearly. All I know is that WHAT BUT HIS MERCY CAN SAVE US? I mean really, THANK GOD FOR HIS MERCY! How lucky are we that HE IS SO FORGIVING!? We've spit in His face and pushed Him away. We've given away the freedom he blessed us with. We've fallen for the same lies of the evil one over and over again. We're KILLING EACH OTHER and we've practically buried ourselves alive. And yet - His Mercy is more powerful than all of that. All the sin in the world COWERS at His Divine Mercy!

No matter how bad things get, and I can only imagine how much worse they will get, we have such a good reason to hope - because God is Merciful. If only the world would whisper at once... "Jesus, I trust in you".

Magnificat

My soul glorifies the Lord, *

my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour.

He looks on his servant in her lowliness; *

henceforth all ages will call me blessed.

The Almighty works marvels for me. *

Holy his name!

His mercy is from age to age, *

on those who fear him.

He puts forth his arm in strength *

and scatters the proud-hearted.

He casts the mighty from their thrones *

and raises the lowly.

He fills the starving with good things, *

sends the rich away empty.

He protects Israel, his servant, *

remembering his mercy,

the mercy promised to our fathers, *

to Abraham and his sons for ever.

I was searching TOB videos and came across a friend achieving You Tube fame. This is Father Mike Schmitz of Duluth Minnesota, an absolute rock star priest.

Big Event THIS WEEKEND!

For those loyal Rise readers who still check up on us to see if we we've crawled from underneath a rock yet, there is an exciting event happening this weekend...

Long Island Teen Freedom presents The New Revolution, a medical symposium.

It takes place THIS SATURDAY, October 4th from 9 AM to 1 PM at the Huntington Hilton. It is a FREE event and includes, aside from a continental breakfast, keynote speakers Dr. Philip Mango of the St. Michael Institute who will be speaking on "The Psychology of Masculinity and Femininity" and Ms. Rashida Jolley, chastity educator, and former Miss District of Columbia and Miss America Pageant Contestant. There will also be a panel of other educators and speakers to discuss the very important medical issues at the heart of our over-sexualized society.

It makes me very proud to be a part of Long Island Teen Freedom. The fact that something like this is taking place on Long Island is very big! Be there if you can!

History of the Church's Teaching on Abortion

http://www.zenit.org/article-23554?l=english

This is a wonderful article on the history of the Church's teaching on the issue of abortion, so I wanted to share!

They asked for it!

After reading this great article on the 40th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae by George Weigel on Catholic Exchange, I would just like to share a little tidbit with you...

Recognizing scholars such as Janet Smith, Richard Doerflinger, Christopher West, Colleen Carroll Campbell, and Mary Eberstadt, among others, Weigel points out that the bulk of leadership in regards to the Church's teaching on moral chastity has come from lay people in recent years. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of ordained leaders putting forth an effort to properly educate the faithful in the area of Catholic sexuality, however it is no secret, as Weigel states, that many have "done a poor job of explaining it".

I just had to chuckle at this (and kick myself for never connecting the dots). The Second Vatican Council discussed a universal call to holiness, meaning all, not just priests and religious, were called to live holy, devout lives aiming to please God and serve Him. It also meant that they could and should contribute even more to the life of the Church. So many saw this as an opportunity to get out from under the control of the old-fashioned, archaic teachings of the ordained men in the Church heirarchy. With the laity being granted "more power" some of the more "out of touch" statutes of the Church could be overturned.

When the Humanae Vitae bombshell was dropped, I can only imagine the gut check felt by these "forward thinkers". Right in the face of the Spirit of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI maintains with a vengeance the Church's stance that the regulation of human birth by technological means is wrong! Oh the pain!

Fast-forward forty years. Who within the Church is defending this "out of touch" encyclical called Humanae Vitae? The same lay people that the Holy Spirit called through the Second Vatican Council to step up and serve Him. As if we didn't already know... GOD KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING! It was time for the lay faithful to do their part in upholding the truth. Not some new modern version of the truth, but the timeless TRUTH as set forth by Christ Himself.

Ah yes, Pope Paul VI was a prophet, for the world he described is the one we live in. Yet, it has never been clearer to me that the Holy Spirit guided the Church every step of the way during Vatican 2 in preparation of this new age of the fall that has become us. Sometimes it is just so hard to see the Spirit at work... and then other times it just hits you like a ton of bricks.

Humane Vitae - 40 Years Later

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Humane Vitae and I couldn't be more proud to be Catholic. In the rebellious world of the late 1960's, amidst the pressure to "progress" and move beyond the "outdated" restrictions of the past, Pope Paul VI, to the surprise and disapproval of many, issued his encyclical On the Transmission of Human Life (HV), affirming the Church's stance against birth control. So much more than that, it is a chilling and prophetic vision of a future where life is insignificant, where the human person is just some bones and flesh, another means to an end. Enter the modern day - divorce rates through the roof, abortion a mere procedure, almost 10 times the number of STD's, pornography addiction, and women still missing out on the respect God made them for. What does all this have to do with regulating birth? As soon as you take the procreative part of sex out of the act you get disaster. Paul VI knew that somehow. Despite the pressure to conform as most other Christian churches did. Birth control is not a way to avoid pregnancy. There already is a way to do that - abstinence. Birth control is a way to have sex without worries, without attachment. It is a license to have the promiscuous, casual sex that our grandparents missed out on. And that is what sex has become - a recreational act. Pope Paul VI wasn't trying to take away our rights. He was trying to save the sexual act, God's greatest gift to man, from the chains of a culture of death.

If you are in the NY-Long Island area there is a really exciting event tonight in tribute to Humane Vitae happening at St. Kilian Parish in Farmingdale. More info... here.

And if you didn't catch the other two links, you can read Humane Vitae... here.

Pope Paul VI, pray for us.

Back from Sydney

Well I'm back on Long Island and back to reality after World Youth Day '08 in Sydney, Australia. Here are some highlights and moments that moved me:

- The closing Mass with Pope Benedict. I hear there were over 500,000 people there. It certainly felt that way
- Being close (enough so to take this picture) to Pope Benedict not once but twice.
- Attending the Matt Maher & Hillsong United concert in which they held Eucharistic Adoration for the 50,000 or so people that were there. Yes all those people and you could hear a pin drop.
- Meeting many cool Aussies and being present to hear Cardinal Pell of Sydney welcome the USA pilgrims as Australia's "most important friends" at the opening Mass.
- Witnessing the conversion that took place, especially in people going to confession for the first time in years.
- Playing the "pony game" with about 200 people from all over the world as we awaited the Pope's arrival.
- Learning how to play rugby.
- St. Mary's Cathedral and praying front of the body of Pier Georgio Frassati.
- Seeing the American flag and the Iraqi flag flying together on the same pole.
- Receiving a cape and Poland flag from some new Polish friends.
- Listening to over 20 Australians who were kind enough to say "the dingo ate my baby" on video.
- Making many new friends.
- Bishop William Murphy's (Diocese of Rockville Centre) catechesis.

There were certainly many more highlights. I am just so blessed to have been there to witness the Spirit. Now I hope that I can witness to the Spirit.

CCC 2365

Hello!
My name is Alissa and I am joining the Blog Team of "Rise of the TOB". I am thrilled to contribute some small amount to the great "New Evangelization" which our late Pope John Paul II called for, and worked for in a speacial way through the Theology of the Body.
I wanted to share one of my favorite Catechism references which I think has a beautiful take on the truth of the Sacrament of Marriage:

"Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's given word. God is faithful. The Sacrament of Matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world.
St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands should say to their wives: I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. . . . I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you."
- CCC 2365
I think St. John's words establish a very clear understanding of the beauty possible in human relationships when we take to heart the golden rule of loving God with our whole selves and our neighbor as ourselves. Our challenge in this day and age is to learn to live lives of such humble love that we would choose to speak as St. John suggests even when it is most difficult and when our wills pull us in other ways. When we make the choice to love, we continue to follow the path of Christ and often we begin to discover the joy of being in this world when our work and toil is to overcome evil with good, and bring peace where there is none.
God bless.

Off to World Youth Day

Well, tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Australia by way of Hawaii. Not too shabby, huh?

This will be my first World Youth Day experience and to say I am excited is a massive understatement. What a joy it will be to see over 200,000 young Catholics take over Sydney for a week - all culminating in Mass with our Holy Father. Certainly I was blessed to see Pope Benedict when he came to NY. I am doubly blessed to travel across the globe to see him again just a few months later.

I guess this isn't exactly Theology of the Body related, but JPII instituted WYD and penned TOB, so there... it fits! But seriously, this is a generation mixed of young people either starving for the message of the Gospel of Life or carrying the torches and waving the TOB banner. I would imagine the TOB presence will only be greater in Sydney as the teaching continues to grow. It will be interesting to see.

At any rate, I haven't been posting often any way, but it will certainly be 2 weeks before I put anything on the blog. Laura will also be away. We have a new contributor who will be introducing herself shortly. I'm very excited about having Alissa on the Rise team and i believe you will enjoy her insights.

Well, that's all for now. The heart of the summer officially starts today for me. After Sydney, it's a tad over a month before my wedding day. What a year God has planned for me. Amen.

A reading from the Book of Tobit

On their wedding night Tobiah arose from bed and said to his wife,
"Sister, get up. Let us pray and beg our Lord
to have mercy on us and to grant us deliverance."
Sarah got up, and they started to pray
and beg that deliverance might be theirs.
They began with these words:

"Blessed are you, O God of our fathers;
praised be your name forever and ever.
Let the heavens and all your creation
praise you forever.
You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve
to be his help and support;
and from these two the human race descended.
You said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone;
let us make him a partner like himself.'
Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine
not because of lust,
but for a noble purpose.
Call down your mercy on me and on her,
and allow us to live together to a happy old age."

They said together, "Amen, amen."

Tobit 8:4-8

Yup, I'm officially leaning towards this as the OT reading at my wedding.

1 in 4 teen girls have an STD?

I must turn your attention to Matthew Archibold's (Creative Minority Report) coverage of a National Journal article that seeks to clear up some things about the recent CDC (Centers for Disease Control) finding reported in newspapers all over the country that 1 in 4 teenage girls have an STD.

This study which to me, a resident of Long Island, screamed out for abstinence education (which has not been federally funded on Long Island for 30 years) in our schools. Apparently, some on the other side of the fence took this to mean that abstinence education is not working. To which I reply - um, where is abstinence ed. being taught... because I certainly didn't receive it when I was in high school 8 years ago. Even so, I'll never understand the logic behind "have sex, so that you don't get a sexually transmitted disease". But then again, there are still teachers telling students that condoms are 99% effective when they've been proven to be 85% at most (for HIV) and 50% effective against others (Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Genital Herpes, HPV [perhaps]) . Credit to The Medical Institute for Sexual Health.

Living with the End in Mind

One part (of the many parts) of Pope John Paul II's message in the Theology of the Body, is to remind us as Jesus does in his conversation with the Saducees about the resurrection (Mark 12:19-27), that we are destined for a world beyond this one. And so, our lives here must be lived with our "next life" in God's Kingdom in mind. This isn't to say that we should walk around with a checklist of dos and don'ts that will "qualify" us for Heaven. What I am trying to say is that we need to take seriously our call to love as God loves - with everything He has, including His life. In genuinely pursuing our ability to love as He loves we are making ourselves ready for Heaven in the process, in which that ability will be most fully realized.

That being said, loving as God does means putting others first - sacrificing ourselves and taking up our own crosses. We can only get close to God when we put ourselves on Calvary with him. That means exposed, beaten, mocked, and eventually killed, as well as mentally, emotionally, and spiritually tortured. Sounds downright frightening. And yet we know how it turns out. We know the result of it... the gates of heaven are opened.

So why is it so dang hard to accept our crosses?

While I'm Not Blogging...

Consider checking out a great blog I should have mentioned a long time ago:

Reflections of a Paralytic

This is an exceptional blog by Chelsea Zimmerman who has a most inspiring story. I'm excited to add it to the blog roll. And since there is nothing new to read here... go check it out!

And then come back to Rise of the TOB... soon!

Pope Benedict XVI on "freedom"

Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ. That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others (cf. Spe Salvi, 28).

Pope Benedict XVI - Papal Youth Rally, St Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, NY (April, 19, 2008)

I still can't believe I was there to see it. What a day. What a message. What a pope!

God is good. When we realize that and place our trust in him, we will truly never be more free.

No Blog Can Describe

There are simply no words for what is happening as Pope Benedict is in the midst of his visit to the United States.

I would be doing a great disservice by saying anything other than "go see for yourself".

You may do so on the USCCB site.

The Holy Father couldn't have picked a better time to come. America needs the model of his dedication to the Truth and his awesome faith in God's love more than ever.