Open Letter to Michael Gungor About Heaven Crashing Into Earth

Michael,

I'm going to jump right into the Catholic excitement about your post today. On behalf of all Catholics (and any Christians for that matter) everywhere: Thank you. Thank you for an honest reaction to a moment of worship, and thank you for blurring the lines of denomination and hostile opposition by being unafraid to acknowledge authentic worship of Our God when it happens.

I'm glad you experienced Adoration in all its intoxicating mystery and heavy earthiness. I think you and I have a lot more in common than most Christians acknowledge.  In fact, I once heard Peter Kreeft say that for the church to become one then Catholics have to become better protestants. Better protestants than even protestants. Then and only then will protestants become Catholics - in order to become better protestants.

"The whole reason for being a Catholic is to be the best possible evangelical Protestant. What I mean by that strange statement is that the essence of evangelical protestantism is to be one with Christ, to meet Christ, and that's the best reason to be Catholic. That's the reason for the Mass, for the Eucharist, namely the "protestant" thing of meeting Christ, that's the whole thing of the "Catholic" thing of the Church and the Sacraments and the Saints and the whole thing. Christ is not great because of the Eucharist, the Eucharist is great because of Christ." (You can listen to the whole talk here.)

Catholics believe Adoration is a meeting with Christ. We participate in creation adoring the creator, and take the first step in all worship to the true and living God: acknowledging that HE IS. And in the Eucharist, HE IS.

"Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it." - St. Augustine

The first moment of any act of love is the moment when the "I" notices the "thou". Adoration takes that moment of enamored eye-meeting and draws it out over minutes, hours, days or years. It is the purest act of the First Commandment. The Mass, then, is a consummation of this encounter where both lovers are united in communion.  Basically, the Eucharist is a pure "Come to Jesus" moment that Evangelical Protestants can really dig.

We should talk more about this whole mystery, metaphor, earthy yet divine encounter with God through worship. Some protestants call it an encounter with Christ, Catholics call it the Sacraments. And if more Catholics believed at least what protestants believed, we would have a revival in our church. And if more protestants could grasp the mystery that you saw in Adoration and that weighs in on some of your music, I think protestants would benefit. It is God making beautiful things out of dust.

Like you said, healing has to start somewhere. The Sacraments, especially the Eucharist as a meeting with Christ, could be a gateway to healing and communion between protestants and Catholics. I think protestants have a lot to teach some of us Christmas/Easter/I-only-pray-at-lunch Catholics about the importance of an encounter with the Person of Christ. And I think us Catholics have a lot to teach protestants about the beauty of the mystery of encounter robbed in the trappings of earth and flesh and smoke and lights and smells and colors and bread.

Thanks Michael, for making me a better protestant.

Your Brother in Christ, Edmund

P.S. If you want to grab a sacramental beer with a young Catholic in Denver who GETS this stuff about Christ and mystery and worship, I've got a friend that would LOVE to buy you a pint.

Gungor Goes to Adoration

Michael Gungor wrote on his blog today about "one of the most beautiful worship experiences I have had in a long time."

It was Catholic adoration in a field full of candles and liturgy.

"We played at a Catholic youth festival in Louisiana, and afterwards we stayed for “adoration.”

Wasn’t quite sure what that was, but we ended up kneeling in silence in a field for like 20 minutes with thousands of young Catholics, all holding candles. It was amazing. A procession of priests came walking through the candlelit masses holding a big golden cross and then they put this other golden thingy in the altar (forgive me for my ignorance of any of the proper terms, and for my use of the word “thingy”), and we all just sat there and adored Christ together in silent reverence for a long time. Honestly, it made me want to be Catholic again.

...

I didn’t really understand everything that was happening last night, but that was part of the beauty of it. That heavy and intoxicating aroma of the incense. The bending flickering flames of the candles in the wind. The bold colors of robes and crosses and crucibles. The use of different languages. It was Heaven crashing into earth."

Read his full post here.

Atheist Defends the Catholic Church Against 'Progressive' Catholic

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SsqzCDaS5uI] Refuting people who are 'fed up' with the Church's 'refusal' to get with the times is getting boring.  If you are still spouting this kind of nonsense, you've got to start hanging out with some smarter Catholics.  Even an atheist like Penn can defend the Church's understanding of orthodoxy and infallibility.

Piers: "I've become increasingly, like many young Catholics [From my experience as a youth minister, I find this statement a sloppy generalization], really disgruntled by the failure of successive popes and the Vatican to move at all with the times when society is changing...

Penn: "My understanding is that if you have someone who is a conduit of God and is speaking God's word, even if you can't understand exactly what God's plan is, even if you do see suffering that you see is unacceptable... that still doesn't mean you get to vote on what God actually believes."

My favorite is when Penn (an atheists) compares Piers (a semi-Catholic) to Martin Luther:

Piers: "I don't remember reading Jesus saying you can't use condoms to prevent disease, I don't remember Jesus saying priests, catholic priests cant get married, I don't remember him saying divorced Catholics can't get married in the Church, or that women can't become priests."

Penn: "But now you're talking Martin Luther, that was Martin Luther, saying that an individual can interpret the Bible themselves...and it seems like you either agree or you don't." 

Intolerably Tolerant - Between the Pint and the Cross Ep. 3

[audio http://catholicyouthminister.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/4-intolerance.mp3]

New podcast fresh off the editing presses coming from the ATL.  We talk about how to be charitably intolerant and why the world needs more of it.  Careful, this one is a rabbit hole.

Pope Benedict's Final General Audience

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Church for the last time as Pope in the  final General Audience of his pontificate today in St Peter's Square.

Here is an excerpt from his remarks:

At this point I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many people throughout the whole world, who, in recent weeks have sent me moving tokens of concern, friendship and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone: now I experience this [truth] again in a way so great as to touch my very heart. The Pope belongs to everyone, and so many people feel very close to him. It’s true that I receive letters from the world's greatest figures - from the Heads of State, religious leaders, representatives of the world of culture and so on. I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their heart and let me feel their affection, which is born of our being together in Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure one does not know. They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with the sense of very affectionate family ties. Here, one can touch what the Church is – not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who unites us all. To experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with one’s hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy, in a time in which many speak of its decline.

Read the full text of Pope Benedict's message here.

We love you Papa B!

[Video] Pope Benedict Abdication Partay

[youtube=http://youtu.be/kxFoQHWyIw0] Ryan, Sr. Theresa, and I celebrated (a little early) the Solemnity of the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and also celebrated Pope Benedict, his life, his ministry, and his gift to the Church.  We talked about our reaction to the news of his abdication, his impact on our lives, and thoughts on the Pope and the Papacy in general.

These live hangouts are a blast, thanks for joining us and interacting if you made it.

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)

[youtube=http://youtu.be/CBWFzVfJ5-0]

Photo at top by Sam Beebe

Be My Guest

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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.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/MOstFC5QZyc]

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

[youtube=http://youtu.be/AHzG3ocLaj4]

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

[youtube=http://youtu.be/KjV_KkJ5km4]

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."