Is Christ Ugly?

Scars

Last summer I heard a Priest tell this story during his homily of a time he visited a sick man in the hospital.  He went to the hospital multiple times and would sit and talk for an hour or so with the man to keep him company.  In the room with this sick man was another man, a burn victim, who was severely disfigured from head to foot.  Most of his face had been burned off.  The Priest recounted how he tried to avoid looking at this burned man, because of how severely and grossly burned he was.  One day, the sick man who the Priest was visiting asked the Priest if the burned man made him uncomfortable.

"You know," said the Priest, "I am ashamed to say it, but yes.  I do not like looking at that man and his wounds are very disgusting."

"Would you like to know what happened to him?" asked the sick man.  "Sure" replied the Priest.

"Him and his wife lived in a house nearby with their four children.  One night the house caught fire and the whole family quickly ran outside to escape the fire.  The father of the house gathered his family together in the front lawn, but noticed that their youngest daughter, only about two years old, was missing.  Frantically, the father ran back into the burning house.

No one knew that the youngest daughter was in the house next door.  When the fire started and everyone ran out the front door, the young girl went out the back door.  The next door neighbor, wanting to protect the child and not seeing the rest of the family, brought the girl inside as she called 911.

The father, not finding the daughter, stayed in the house looking for her.  And he stayed in there.  And he stayed in there. And he stayed in there longer.  Eventually the roof collapsed on top of him.

When the firefighters found him he was so badly burned they thought he was dead. The doctors said it was a miracle that he lived."

I Got a Picture of Jesus

The picture of Jesus above is also available as a poster, which hangs above my desk in my office.  My office is in a middle school, so lots of kids pass by and see the image.  I also use the image often with our high school youth group.  The reactions it causes vary from a concerned "Wow" to straight up disgust.  One day an adult came to meet me in my office and was causally talking until she noticed the image.

"So when are we going to get--OH! EW!"

There seems to have been a movement among Christians to remake Jesus as more human, accessible, and happy.  The crucifixion, you could hear them say, is too ugly and inaccessible.  It is too morbid and graphic and bloody and gross.  Are they right?

Glorious Wounds of Love

I dare anyone to try to tell that young girl that her father's burn wounds are hideous and disgusting.  After growing up and learning the significance of the scars, she will forever look upon her father and see not ugliness but the glory of a total and selfless love.  The wounds have been incarnated into pure corporal love and self gift.

Why did Jesus' resurrected body still have the five wounds?  Don't we receive a new, perfect body in the resurrection?  Aren't wounds gross and disgusting, not worthy of a perfect, glorified, and heaven-bound body?

"The scars that remained in Christ’s body belong neither to corruption nor defect, but to the greater increase of glory, inasmuch as they are the trophies of His power; and a special comeliness will appear in the places scarred by the wounds... the greater beauty of glory compensates for all this, so that the body is not less entire, but more perfected."  St. Thomas Aquinas (STh., III q.54 a.4)

Christ's crucifixion, and His wounds, might be disgusting on their own.  But when you understand Jesus as a Father who runs into the burning house of our sin, and stays there until it attempts to destroy Him, the cross begins to look quite different.  When I look at that poster of Jesus, I see this glorious love in those wounds.  I see a God who felt the weight of my sins crash down on Him as He stayed there to save me.

Jesus' wounds and crucifixion are beautiful.  In fact, they are the summit of all beauty; nothing could be more beautiful.

And maybe when we get to heaven God's martyrs will share in this transforming of wounds into glory and badges of love.

"Perhaps in that kingdom we shall see on the bodies of the Martyrs the traces of the wounds which they bore for Christ’s name: because it will not be a deformity, but a dignity in them; and a certain kind of beauty will shine in them, in the body, though not of the body." St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei XXII)

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Photo at top by Sam Beebe

CATHOLICISM Lenten Reflection by Fr. Robert Barron [Videos]

Pope Benedict receiving ashes on his head during Ash Wednesday last year. ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI, Associated Press

"Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning." Joel 2:12 "A clean heart create in me, God, renew your spirit within me." Psalm 51:12

Video Reflections to Prepare for Lent

Two teaser videos for you this Ash Wednesday morning from Fr. Robert Barron's Catholicism series.

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Who is Jesus Christ?  He is either who he says He is, or he is a lunatic, liar, and maybe even worse.

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The temptation of Jesus reminds us to strive to put God at the center of our lives during Lent.

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And 'cause I like you I'm gonna throw this in here too.  I'm feeling particularly Lent-y this morning.

GO TO MASS TODAY!

Listen, today is the last Mass our beloved Papa Benedict XVI will be saying as Pope.  If you don't already have enough reason to go to Mass and get your ashes to kick off this special Lenten season, go to Mass to join the Pope in the Eucharist offering prayers for him and this challenging time for the Church.  Do it!

Check out the Mass readings for today here.

+JMJ

Cardinal Arinze Reacts to Pope Benedict's Abdication

[youtube=http://youtu.be/06UP2qHCxWg] Cardinal Arinze, winsome as usual, recounts the moment Pope Benedict announced his abdication and adds some reflections on the situation and faith in Christ and the Church.

Some of the best words from the Cardinal:

"God is always there! The Holy Spirit does not go on holidays! There will be another Pope."

"Our faith is not on the Pope, it is on Christ. Who is the foundation of the Church." "We all are servants, we come and go. Christ doesn't come and go... The Pope is a servant, indeed. One of his titles is servant of the servants of God."

"All popes will not have the same face, or the same style."

The Lost Art of Catholic Drinking

I couldn't not share this article with you all, whom I presume appreciate a good libation every now and then and also appreciate someone who writes about the joys of Catholic drinking.  Here is a taste of the article:

Just what constitutes excess is for each person to judge for himself. However, we now approach the main difference between Catholic drinking and Protestant drinking. Protestant drinking tends to occur at one extreme or another: either way too much or none at all, with each being a reaction to the other. Some people, rightly fed up with the smug self-righteousness of teetotalers, drink to excess. And teetotalers, rightly appalled at the habits of habitual drunkards, practice strict abstinence. It seems to occur to neither side that their reaction is just that: a reaction, and not a solution. If they considered it a bit, they might see a third way that involves neither drunkenness nor abstinence, yet is consistent with healthy, honest, humane Christian living.

Here we encounter Catholic drinking.

Catholic drinking is that third way, the way to engage in an ancient activity enjoyed by everyone from peasants to emperors to Jesus Himself. And again, it is not just about quantity. In fact, I think the chief element is conviviality. When friends get together for a drink, it may be to celebrate, or it may be to mourn. But it should always be to enjoy one another’s company.

Go here to read the full piece.

The Girl Who Made it Rain

In June a desperate urgency hung over a hot rural town in western Ohio.  In the 1920's rain was a sensitive friend to the farmers in this town who relied on the growth of their crops to support their families.  If there is too much rain, the corn and tomatoes could be washed out.  If not enough rain fell, then few crops would survive the heat and make it to harvesting season.  So far this season you could count on one hand how many times it had rained.

By the end of June it seemed the whole town took on the temperament of the fields: hot, grumpy, and thirsty for rain.  After hearing an ear full of complaining for the past six weeks, the old Priest of the town took action.  At the end of a particularly arid Sunday Mass Father announced a special Mass to be held the following Friday offering up the intentions of all farmers and to ask God to send rain.

"Jesus tells us not to worry.  The daisies never worry and yet they are clothed with more splendor than King Solomon." The kind old Priest smiled, "How much more will God take care of you, whom He loves much more than daisies."

Not a few in the pews thought even daisies would not hold up much longer in such a scorcher and wondered if the Priest could not have chosen a better example from the Bible.  Even so, they were all a little hopeful and at least determined to pray with all their hearts at next Friday's Mass.

That Friday, the kindly old Priest looked out on the small congregation of winnowing fans in stuffy dresses and brow-wipers in cotton shirts.  All the windows were ajar and even the doors to the Church were left open to gasp for air.  Every now and then the sighs of uncomfortable horses could be heard, tied up on the shady side of the Church near the doors.  Other than this there was no movement nor even the faintest breeze outside.

The worn Priest nervously patted his neck with a handkerchief and wiped his mouth as eyes persisted on him, waiting for the homily.  The dry heat was everywhere and on everything.  He smirked as he made a silent joke to himself about the effect this Mass might have on the next month's collection if rain did not come soon.

The Priest began to speak, starting the homily on faith he had given every year around this time for decades, when an object in the sea of warm bodies caught his breath.  It was small, short, and brightly colored; clutched firmly in the grasp of a small bright girl whose feet hardly touched the ground where she sat.  Such an object was unique in the Church and one of its kind on that day.  The Priest had not seen one in almost two months.

A familiar feeling of conviction, hope, and reckless abandon stirred anew in the Priest's soul.  And the stooped Priest of God stood tall and pointed to the girl and gave a homily that made everyone who heard it forget about the heat and see themselves and God for the first time in months.

No one who retold this story in the years to come could ever remember if rain came that year.  Either way wouldn't change the transformation that happened to the eyes of everyone present that day.

But if it did rain, it was because of the faith of the girl with the umbrella.

NEW: The CatholicStand.com

I am pleased to announce a new Catholic website - Catholic Stand - whose mission is to inform and equip Catholic citizens with the Truth of our Catholic faith as it relates to various areas of the culture we live in.  Its not your readers-digest-type website, and will hopefully dive pretty deeply into topics and provide plenty of research to back up the articles. If you are looking for a website to challenge you to stretch your Catholic brain, this is a great place to turn and I am honored to be a columnist among the ranks of many great columnists who write for this new site.

Stacy Trasancos, Ph.D., Chief Editor for Catholic Stand, was a guest on Teresa Tomeo's Radio Show "Catholic Connection" on Ave Maria Radio to talk about her conversion story and Catholic Stand.  Give a listen if you're interested.

Catholic Citizens Unite!

March for Life 2013

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Opl0jnKbn5Y] Send some prayers our way today as our youth group joins over 200,000 others in a March on DC to stand up for LIFE.  Check out more about the March for Life here.

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

              - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Dear John Mayer, You Will Become a Saint

Dear John Mayer,

I don't know you.  I just listen to your music.

Sometime in high school, after hearing "Neon" for the first time and spending ten hours learning to play "Why Georgia", I officially added you to my life-long-listening list.  This list includes people who - like John Butler, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Ray Vahn, Ray Lamontagne, and John Lee Hooker - I will forever fall back on for soul food.  So yeah, thanks.

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about you, even though people seem to be in general agreement that, while you are a genius on the guitar, you are a womanizer and tragically self-centered.  This may be true, and I must admit that I see more than a few character flaws in you.  But again, I don't know you.  And I also think we as a culture too often presume we can fully figure a person out and box them into neat categories through tabloid gossip, sound bytes, and a few interviews.  I don't even fully understand myself, let alone someone figuring me out through a 3,000 word Rolling Stone cover story.

So I must be honest - this could be a total shot in the dark.  I'm going off of little actual knowledge of you and lots of presuppositions.  I'm presuming you are in fact pretty far from God and far from living a virtuous life.  This letter is more an attempt to play out an infectious idea, one of your ideas in fact, confessed on stage in 2008 during your Live in L.A. concert.  It is no small thing you may have stumbled upon and this idea, if played like a Stratocaster - with aggressive dedication and attitude - could be a conversion moment.  That is your life might radically change if you really believe what you said and tried to live it out.

Here are your words, the ones that make me think there could be a giant of holiness sleeping within you, under the flaws and vices. It's your monologue at the end of "Bold as Love".

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TRANSCRIPT

"Aight so check it out right. I've tried every approach to living, aight I've tried it all. I haven't tried every thing, but I've tried every approach. Sometimes you don't have to try every thing to get the approach the same, but. Ha.

I've tried it all I've bought a bunch of stuff and went "nuuuh I don't like that." I kinda came in and out of that a couple times. Thought I would shut my self off, I thought maybe that's cool maybe that's what you have to do to be a genius is you have to be mad. So, if you can get 'mad' before the word 'genius' then maybe you can make 'genius' appear, right? That doesn't work either.

And I'm, I'm in a good place I pace myself I'm in my thirty I've seen some cool stuff. Made a lot of stuff happen FOR MYSELF. I made a lot of stuff happen for myself, right? That's a really cool sentence when you're in your twenties. "I made it happen for myself."

But all that means is that I've just somehow or another found a way to synthesize love or synthesize soothing or... you can't get that and what I'm saying is that I've messed with all the approaches except for one. And its gonna sound really corny but that's just: love. That's just love.

I've done everything in my life that I wanna do except just give and feel love for my living. And I don't mean like a roman-candle firework Hollywood hot pink love I mean like I GOT YOUR BACK love. [Applause]

I don't need to hear I love you. You guys love me, I love you, we got that down. But some of the people who will tell you that they love you would be the same people that would be the last to just have your back. So I'm gonna experiment with this love thing: giving love, feeling love, I know it sounds really corny but its the last thing I got to check out, before I check out. Take me to the solo one more time. Thank you!"

You are right.  John, you say a lot of really stupid things.  But if you really believed what you are saying, you would become a Saint.  You live honestly and openly without reservations - better to be hot or cold than lukewarm.  You really have tried it all.  And not just tried, you fully succeeded in the popularly conceived ways attributed to happiness in this age.

You achieved world-class fame, as is apparent just by Twitter followers alone;  before you kicked the habit in 2010 you had over 3 million followers.  You've become something of a sex symbol and have been romantically involved with Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and probably Taylor Swift and Katy Perry as well.  You've won seven Grammys, your debut album "Room for Squares" sold more than 4 million copies before you turned 25, laid in bed on the cover of Rolling Stone, most of your albums have gone platinum, blah blah blah.  You check your email.  Heck, you owned a Ford GT at some point, putting you well into the top 1% of America.

This is everything your average American agnostic young adult male consumer would salivate over.  And you seem to have come to understand that *surprise* it is about as fulfilling as agreeing to donate a dollar to a non-profit no one knows about when you renew your driver's license.

Desk Lady: "Would you like to donate $1 to The Help Someone Out Cause?"

That guy: "Why yes, I felt a fuzzy impulse to be a little ambiguously altruistic just now.  Charge it!"

What you are saying, at the end of this electric guitar punch to the face that would make Hendrix proud, is right.  You are right, all the approaches to living you've tried can't fulfill you because all the approaches you've tried hinge on non-renewable resources.  Everything is finite.  And I think if you are honest with yourself, you can feel within you a deep sense of longing for the infinite.

"When you're dreaming with a broken heart, the waking up is the hardest part."  But the first few steps up the mountain are the steepest of the journey.  After the initial break with the false plan for happiness that consumerism and pop culture paints you as a kid, the rest is just finding true North and walking.  The map of life we've been given, turns out, was leading us to the wrong treasure.  It leads to self-gratification, a titillating treasure that slips through your fingers like sand.  You are on the right track by realizing that self-gratification as an approach to life is - just like masturbation - empty and fruitless.

John, "from the greatness and beauty of things comes a corresponding perception of their creator." (Wisdom 13:5)  You are attracted to love because you are created to love.  The things you are attracted to: fame, money, success, approval, love, women, watches, purses (well, forget I mentioned the purses) have within them a quality that is larger than life.  They are owners of goodness, not goodness itself.  They in fact participate in love, but are not love.

"Love is a verb" is false.  Loving is a verb.  Love is a proper noun; a person with a face and a name: Jesus of Nazareth.  God became a man like you.  He lived in the first century and died in the first century for you and has been relentlessly pursuing your soul, fighting for an eternity spent loving you and screaming at the top of his lungs through the beauty, truth, and goodness you see around you just for you to believe Him for one second.  And maybe, just maybe, there is a chance you would love Him back.

The odd part about trying to be the greatest lover is that in your search for love, John, love might find you.  And if you really did honestly attempt to give and give and give of yourself in love, Love Himself might find you.  And He would teach you the type of " I got your back" love that doesn't listen when you scream "I hate you, we are through."  The type that doesn't even waver when stabbed in the back, let alone through the hands and feet and to a cross.  The type of love that reaches out past those who would love you back and gives and gives and gives like a mad man who fell in love with the whole world running around loving with a fire in his eyes and an urgent burning in his heart.

If that Love found you, you would suddenly become very similar to some of the greatest lovers in the world.  You would become like the Saints; you would become like Jesus.  And the part of your soul that burns with a desire to give limitlessly would for once feel hope in the cause.  And you would start to understand this:

Try Jesus' approach to living and loving.  It just might be the last thing you check out, before you check out.

From a guy trying to live as bold as the God named Love, Edmund

Confessions of Cultural Heretics

I am overjoyed to introduce a wonderful and saintly married couple and their blog "Confessions of Cultural Heretics".

My wife and I first met the Burkes at a Franciscan University alumni meetup in Toledo.  We moved to a town not knowing anyone and were desperate to find Catholic community.  Brian (it's Dr. Brian now right?) and Joanna gave us more than just community and fellowship, but also lots of good advice.  Their blog is just what we experienced sitting in their living room: the experiences of a family striving to be holy.

Check out Dr. Brian and Joanna on their blog that is one part homemade practical advice for living the good Catholic family life and one part shining light of human dignity from the medical field.

Bob Rice: "How the Catechism Made Me Catholic"

Here is a witness from Bob Rice about how his life was changed by reading and praying through the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"I remember looking down and seeing blood on my hands. My head was still spinning from the line of cocaine that I snorted in the bathroom. The prostitute I just had sex with was face down on the bed, murdered. Did I do it? I couldn’t remember. I heard sirens outside and footsteps running up the stairs to my apartment. That was the moment that I realized I needed a Savior. I needed Jesus.

Okay, none of that is true."

"Truth be told, I have a very boring conversion story: I always loved Jesus. And then I loved Him more.

I was the good kid. Never drank. Never did drugs. Knew to save sex for marriage. In fact, I lived in fear of letting others down: my parents, my teachers, or even God. I was a straight A student and prayed every night.

So it might not be a surprise when I tell you that one of the most exciting moments in my conversion is when I did something that many consider boring:

I read the Catechism."

-->Read the rest of the article here, and then go read the Catechism.<--

Two practical takeaways from his post:

+     If the Catechism seems overwhelming, try committing to reading one "In Brief" summary at the end of each section in the Catechism every day.

+     If you need an easy place to start, the fourth pillar of the Catechism on prayer is a good place.

_________________________________________________________________

Bob was my professor for many many classes while I attended Franciscan University, and I have to thank him for forming me as a Catholic, catechist, and youth minister, (and actually as a father too) through his deep love for Jesus, his witness as a father, and his love for the Catholic Church.  Maybe one day I will write a post about all the ways he has so tremendously impacted me, but it would be too sappy.

Thanks Bob.