CATHOLICWEBPHILOSOPHER: "With the 'failures' and 'losers' of this world, I choose to cast my lot." (Reflections on the Beatitudes, on the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1st, Matthew 5:1-12)

Thursday, November 2, 2017

"With the 'failures' and 'losers' of this world, I choose to cast my lot." (Reflections on the Beatitudes, on the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1st, Matthew 5:1-12)

I was once asked a very interesting question by one very ‘perplexed’ student in a theology class at university a number of years ago. We were analyzing the structure of the Beatitudes where Jesus pronounced those who are poor, meek, humble, and persecuted to be blessed and proclaimed woe on the proud, vain, arrogant, and mighty, one of my students raised his hands and asked: “Father, do you think anyone who takes Jesus’ advice seriously can survive in the world?”

Consider the wording of the Beatitudes:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Blessed are they who mourn,
Blessed are the meek,
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Blessed are the merciful,
Blessed are the clean of heart,
Blessed are the peacemakers,
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you."

My student wasn’t asking a trick question; nor was he simply trying to be argumentative. It was a sincere question. Could anyone seriously follow the prescriptions of the Beatitudes? Can anyone survive this life if he did?

Even I, had to pause and consider my answer—as I somehow recalled something the Renaissance thinker Niccolo Machiavelli said as a word of advice to would-be rulers: “It isn’t necessary to be good and righteous, in fact it can actually work against you; what is necessary is to act as if you were (to give people the impression that you are), but to always be willing and ready to act otherwise if that becomes necessary”.

Still, before I managed to reply to my student's question, he followed up with a statement: “Good guys finish last, Father. Good guys finish last. The bad boy always gets the girl”. Everyone began to laugh.

Do we think that’s true? Do good guys really finish last? Before we answer, perhaps we need to consider that in society, most often than not, those who are cunning, devious, and clever, are the ones who do seem to succeed. Even the psalms, written thousands of years ago, make that observation: “Why, O Lord, do the evil prosper?”

Does the bad guy really win? That would make good guys losers, wouldn’t it? People like Socrates, unjustly condemned to drink poison, Sir Thomas More, beheaded for standing firm in his principles, Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated for his unyielding stand for peace, Sister Dorothy Stang, 73-year old American nun from Ohio, shot in the face in Peru, just a few years ago, for her defense of poor farmers, Archbishop Oscar Romero, who defended the rights of the poor in El Salvador, felled by bullets while celebrating Mass, a number of Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus; the list goes on and on, and it would certainly include the men and women commemorated in today’s Solemnity of All Saints.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes who had a rather dark and negative view of human nature is known to have said, homo homini lupus, “man is a wolf to other men”. And so we either aggressively assert ourselves and grab what we want, before others beat us to it.

In a dog-eat-dog world, where the rule is “survival of the fittest”, “big fish eat little fish”, and where the basic law of evolution is “natural selection” in which the strong survive and the weak die, it would indeed seem that “the good guy finishes last”.

But is there any other way? “Nature does not care for the individual”, one of my philosophy professors in Louvain used to say. “Nature cares only for the species, for its survival; and it does this by favoring the strong”.

The philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche would agree. This is part of the reason he called Christianity, with its commandment to love and care for “the least” in this world, a “disease”. If all were to obey the commandments of Christ, Nietzsche argued, humanity would eventually be wiped out. Nature demands the survival of the fittest. Natural selection dictates that the strong must overcome the weak; the weak must be weeded out so that the strong may increase in number.

If you have any doubts about this, just observe a litter of puppies or kittens, and notice how the runt fares. Already the smallest and weakest, and therefore the one needing nourishment most, it’s very smallness and weakness almost guarantees that it won’t get what it needs unless someone intervenes. But why protect the runt, when by doing so, one only guarantees that the undesirable genes will be passed on to the next generation? Nature, left on its own, will see to it that the weak are not allowed to go on; it is our humanity, our compassion, that somehow "thwarts" it.

Yet, Machiavelli writes in The Prince:

“Human persons are contemptible, simple-minded and so dominated by their present needs, that one who deceives will always find one who will allow himself to be deceived... Since men are a contemptible lot and would not keep their promises to you, you too need not keep yours to them”.

A number of years ago, a lady whom I knew since my seminary days was given an award by a Catholic Foundation for her work with the poor and needy. She shared the award and the substantial sum that came with it, with another person. Now she herself was poor. In fact, we would every once in a while help her out with her finances. When she received the check, we encouraged her to save some for herself, for her future health needs, and just to make sure she’ll have something for a rainy day. Instead, she went to archbishop, told him she was giving him the money and that she wanted it to go to charity. All of it!

We would probably call that noble. The world would call it stupid, crazy, irresponsible, impractical, and ridiculous. When we asked why she gave all the money away and didn’t even think of keeping some so that she’d have something to use if she got sick, her answer nearly brought me to tears: “That’s why I have you guys, right. You’ve been very good to me. I take care of other people. I’m sure there will be people who will take care of me. My life has always been in God’s hands”. Even I struggle to have that kind of faith.

[When she passed away about two years ago, having suffered tremendously from cancer, I came to celebrate one of the Masses in her memory. In the homily, I spoke of how I and many other priests - whom she knew as seminary students years before - were inspired by her simplicity, faith, and generosity to likewise seek to give ourselves completely to the vocation of serving God's People. At the end of the Mass, as I greeted the people leaving, one lady came up and thanked me for my "kind words". She introduced herself as one of the relatives of the deceased, and then she said: "You know she would've had a little more money to spend on herself when she got sick, if she didn't give away all that award money years ago. She was such a devout woman, but that just wasn't very smart". I was stunned; though somehow I understood the sentiment.]

Do good guys really finish last? Are they really losers? In the gospel account of Jesus’ Transfiguration, Jesus is shown in his glory together with Moses (who symbolized the fulfillment of the Law) and Elijah (who symbolized the fulfillment of the Prophets). His clothes become dazzling white and the voice of God the Father is heard saying: “This is my beloved Son. My Chosen One. Listen to him”. The apostles are dazzled and amazed.

Before this particular passage though, comes Jesus’ words to his disciples, telling them the cost of following him. “If anyone wishes to be my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me… What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” These were very hard and difficult words for the disciples to accept. They all wanted a powerful Savior and Messiah, not a suffering one who would be killed. They wanted glory and power.

In the very same chapter 9 of Luke’s gospel, Peter proclaims Jesus to be the “Messiah, the Son of God”. The gospel of Matthew says that when Jesus tells Peter that he is going to suffer, Peter rebukes him. “God forbid that you suffer”, Peter tells Jesus. To which Jesus responds: “Get thee behind me Satan. Your thoughts are not God’s thoughts, but the thoughts of man”.

Even for the disciples, it was hard to understand and accept the way of Jesus. The way of the world, the way of power, wealth, and glory, was more attractive. Why suffer when you can be powerful and strong? Why do it the hard way when there’s an easier way? Why be the good guy who loses? Why can’t we be the bad guy who wins?

In this view, Jesus would be the world’s greatest loser. But so would the countless men and women whose feast is celebrated today—the numberless, often faceless and anonymous band of persons who sought with all their might, and against this world’s judgment, to live lives rooted deeply in Christ; they would all be losers in the face of the world.

And who would be the winners? Stalin, Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot of Cambodia, the Duvaliers of Haiti, the dictator Marcos, the bigshots at Enron who robbed people of their hard earned money, Bernard Madoff who stole from thousands of people in the largest pyramid scam in history, the greedy people at the big banks, at Wall Street?

If these are the kinds of people the world judges to be winners, then I’d rather have my name on the list of “losers”. I’d rather cast my lot with those the world would judge its “losers” and “failures”.

Not only because, as the Beatitudes in the gospel proclaim, a great reversal is due in which those who are judged successful in this world are to be the failures in the next, but because these men and women stood for something that lasts, something that transcends the fleeting character of the good and pleasant things of this world, something that “rust cannot corrode, moths cannot eat, and thieves cannot steal”, something that lasts unto eternity.

Now that is real wealth; that is true success; that is genuine treasure

In the gospels, the Father confirms Jesus in his mission—one that in the eyes of the world will be nothing but a failure—“You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased”. But it wasn’t only a confirmation of his task, it was also an affirmation, a way of strengthening his Son for the difficult task that lay ahead. It was Father’s way of telling Jesus (and all those who seek to follow him): “Be strong. You have chosen to follow my way and not the way of the world. And because of that I will remain with you, forever”.

We can choose the way of the world. We can take our chances and say, “Oh, I can have both. I’ll follow Jesus, but there’s nothing wrong with being worldly from time to time, right?” As long as we realize that our choices have consequences, we are free to do and choose what we want. But we must always bear in mind that for Jesus, there is no “middle ground”. We either choose him, or we choose the world. We either cast our lot with the men and women whose heroism and resolve, we commemorate today; or we ally ourselves with those the Machiavelli's, Hobbes', and Nietzsche's of this world proclaim champions. Shall it be Christ, or Machiavelli? We just can't have both.

If we choose Christ's way, the world will probably judge us losers—just as it has most likely judged the band of holy men and women we commemorate today. And that can be very hard.

If we choose the way of Jesus, our only reward will be this: when we finally come face to face with the God who shall judge us, we shall hear him speak to us in the words he spoke to Jesus, his Son: “You are my beloved child. You are my chosen one. In you, I am well pleased”. On that day, it’s the world (and its Machiavelli's, Hobbes' and Nietzsche's ) that will be judged the loser, not us.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
Blessed are they who mourn,
Blessed are the meek,
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Blessed are the merciful,
Blessed are the clean of heart,
Blessed are the peacemakers,
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven.”

Thoughts in Solitude (Thomas Merton)

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
And the fact that I think
that I am following your will
Does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire
in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me
By the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
And in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
And you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

The Priest: A Prayer on a Sunday Night (Abbe Michel Quoist)

Tonight, Lord, I am alone.
Little by little the sounds
died down in the church.
The people went away,
And I came home,
Alone.

I passed people who were
returning from a walk.
I went by the cinema
that was disgorging its crowd.
I skirted café terraces where tired strollers
were trying to prolong t
he pleasure of a Sunday holiday.
I bumped into youngsters
playing on the footpath,
Youngsters, Lord,
Other people’s youngsters
who will never be my own.

Here I am, Lord,
Alone.
The silence troubles me,
The solitude oppresses me.

Lord, I’m 35 years old,
A body made like others,
ready for work,
A heart meant for love,
But I’ve given you all.
It’s true of course, that you needed it.
I’ve given you all, but it is hard, Lord.
It’s hard to give one’s body;
it would like to give itself to others.
It’s hard to love everyone and to claim no one.
It’s hard to shake a hand
and not want to keep it.
It’s hard to inspire affection,
only to give it to you.
It’s hard to be nothing to oneself
in order to be everything to others.
It’s hard to be like others, among others,
and be an other to them.
It’s hard always to give
without trying to receive.
It’s hard to seek out others
and to be oneself unsought.
It’s hard to be told secrets,
and never be able to share them.
It’s hard to carry others
and never, even for a moment, be carried.
It’s hard to sustain the feeble
and never be able to lean on one
who is strong.

It’s hard to be alone,
Alone before everyone,
Alone before the world,
Alone before suffering,
death,
sin.

Son, you are not alone,
I am with you.
I am you.
For I needed another human vehicle
to continue my Incarnation
and my Redemption.
Out of all eternity, I chose you.
I need you.

I need your hands to continue to bless,
I need your lips to continue to speak,
I need your body to continue to suffer,
I need your heart to continue to love,
I need you to continue to save,
Stay with me.

Here I am Lord,
Here is my body,
my heart,
my soul,
Grant that I may be
big enough to reach the world,
Strong enough to carry it.
Pure enough to embrace it
without wanting to keep it.

Grant that I may be a meeting-place,
but a temporary one,
A road that does not end in itself,
because everything to be gathered there,
everything human, must be led to you.

Lord, tonight, while all is still
and I feel sharply the sting of solitude,
While people devour my soul
and I feel incapable of satisfying their hunger,
While the world presses on my shoulders
with all its weight
of misery and sin,
I repeat to you my “yes”
—not in a burst of laughter, but slowly,
clearly, humbly.

Alone, Lord,
before you,
In the peace of the evening.

Lord, help me to keep my promises

Loving Father,
you have placed in my heart
a deep and unquenchable
yearning and thirst
to know you intimately,
and to follow in the footsteps
of Jesus your Son.

Send me the light of your grace,
the fire of your Spirit,
that he may pry open my heart,
and in it set a fire
that will forever burn
for love of you,
for love of your people,
for love of your Church.

Grant me openness of mind and spirit
that I may always listen attentively
and welcome generously
your subtle and gentle promptings
as I reflect, meditate,
and grow in love daily
for the most precious gift
you have given me:
the call to a life that is full,
a life that is whole,
a life that is complete,
a life that is holy.

And if it be your will
that I live this life
in the priesthood of Jesus your Son,
grant too that I may, with your grace,
remain faithful to it,
to its joys and sufferings,
to its challenges and triumphs,
to its gifts and demands,
to the end of my life.

Help me to keep the promises I’ve made
just as you have promised
to remain with me always
to strengthen and guide me,
to heal and protect me,
to comfort and admonish me,
till I see you face to face.

This I ask in your Son’s name,
He who is my Lord,
my Savior,
my model, pattern and guide,
now and forever.

Amen.

De Profundis

Out of the depths I cry to you,
do not abandon me, O Christ,
in my deepest and darkest hour of need.

Give me again the courage and joy
of knowing your aid.
Strengthen my weary soul,
and steel my feeble frame.
Restore me to your friendship and use me,
unworthy instrument that I am.

I abandon myself to your great mercy.
Ever more conscious of my unworthiness,
I beg you, O Lord of life,
Christ, in your great compassion,
show mercy to one who calls upon you
with his whole heart, mind, body, and soul.

Take me unto yourself, O Christ.
Hide me once more
in the shadow of your wings,
take my hand, guide and lead me.
Be my father, my brother, my friend,
my light, my life, my all.

Be the air that I breathe,
be the ground beneath my feet,
be the one whose name I utter
when I first awake,
be the one who stands by me
at night as I sleep,
be the hours that govern my day,
be the thoughts that fill my mind,
be the emotions that move my heart,
be the passions that set me on fire,
be at every step my feet take,
be every action my hands make,
be every word I speak,
be every sound I hear,
be every sight I see,
O Christ be always with me.

Come into my life and save me,
heal me of my wounds
and redeem my unworthiness.
Be my worth, my joy,
my triumph, my all.

Christ, be my life. Let me be reborn
into your life and your love.
Guide my life, and claim me as your own.
Take me into your heart,
and let my life be lived for you alone.

Out of the depths, I cry to you,
O Christ, Lord of life,
claim me as your own,
and never let go.

Amen.

Preaching

A priest is a messenger of the Gospel, the bearer of God’s Word, a proclaimer of the ‘magnalia Dei’, the great and wonderful things that God has done, to himself, to those whose lives he has touched and who have touched his life, and finally to the world at large in which a priest acts as a kind of ‘mystagogue’, a ‘diviner’ or ‘discoverer’ of God’s deeds. In that way, a priest’s very life is entwined with his preaching, and his preaching is intimately bound with the life of those to whom he ministers. Life and preaching form a seamless garment, woven together by the Spirit of God which connects and animates both. Put simply, a priest must proclaim the Good News, and his life is the single greatest medium of such proclamation. But it is also the greatest source, second to none, from which he must ‘mine’ God’s hidden deeds.

We ourselves are therefore our very first listeners. A good homily is one that a priest delivers to himself before anyone else. The preacher must preach to himself first. If he is stirred by what he says, if he is moved to his core, not just emotionally, but in a way that makes him act upon the intensity of his feeling by creating some change in his world—however small and insignificant it might be—then he will know that he is preaching well. He will know that his homily is ‘good’. He must be convinced of what he says. He must believe it with all his heart, live it with his whole life, and share his conviction. Then he will set the hearts of his hearers ablaze—because the Spirit has set his heart on fire first.

CONCEPTION, DEATH, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

The late John Paul II coined two phrases that have become current in contemporary Christian activism: “the culture of life” and “the culture of death”. These are ideas associated with tendencies within contemporary society that either promote life or lead to its depreciation. In his work, The Gospel of Life, John Paul described what he saw as the biggest threat to humanity today: a monumental debasement of life through drugs, war and arms, abortion, euthanasia, destruction of the environment and the unjust distribution of wealth. These, he said are often caused and supported by economic, social and political structures that do not promote life, but actually conspire against it. Decrying this as a “culture of death”, he called on everyone to promote its antithesis, a “culture of life”.

This evaluation of the current human condition is a radically holistic one. It sees life in its totality, not from a diminished perspective that fragments and compartmentalizes it. Hence, the promotion of a “culture of life” involves upholding the dignity of life in all its stages, from conception to death and every single stage in between. It means that while life begins at conception, it doesn’t end there. While it ends with natural death, its defense cannot begin only when one is near that point. And while improving the “quality of life” is important in safeguarding human dignity, it is an impoverishment of our very humanity when life’s initial and terminal stages are reduced to contingencies that have no significance beyond subjective whim.

It is really unfortunate then that John Paul’s comprehensive view has been broken up lately and the two phrases he coined are sometimes bandied about like slogans in defense of a more truncated understanding of life. This explains to a great extent, why Christian activism is currently split between those who believe they are promoting life but choose to focus their efforts on beginning and end-of-life issues and those who see these as of secondary importance to the more pressing middle-of-life issues of peace and social justice.

It also explains that odd statement describing John Paul II as “theologically conservative”, but “liberal” on social justice issues. By this was meant that while the pope championed social justice, he was also against abortion and the entire gamut of issues usually identified with it, a position called “paradoxical” by some, if not downright “contradictory”—as if the rejection of social injustice and the acceptance of abortion at the same time wouldn’t be.

In reality, the church’s teaching on life is neither contradictory nor paradoxical, but represents an ever-widening thrust towards coherence and consistency. The dignity of the human person, understood in its totality, demands a consistent ethic of life. This requires the creation and promotion of social structures and policies that support the total development of persons, from conception to death, and every phase in between. To be consistent, an ethic that promotes life speaks and acts against any practice that reduces life to a mere object. This would include abortion, euthanasia, war and the death penalty, sexism and an entire range of dehumanizing issues. But it also speaks and acts on behalf of affordable education and health-care, just wages, humane working conditions, social and economic security, sustainable development, peace and the promotion of community, as well as care for the environment.

The promotion of a “culture of life” demands the support of a consistent ethic, not a fragmentary version that devalues life. Such an ethic is founded on the God-given value of each person in every stage and area of life. It is the only adequate and realistic point of orientation for the creation of programs and policies that recognize and uphold the inherent dignity of the human person.

The church’s teaching on the value and sanctity of life is a “seamless garment” that cannot simply be cut up to fit specific and usually self-serving agendas. Any view that does so is ultimately self-defeating. Consider for instance the inconsistency prevalent in certain parts of the first world, between so-called liberals who champion social justice but consider the right to abortion sacrosanct, and so-called conservatives who go hoarse screaming against physician-assisted suicide but have no qualms buying shoes made in third-world sweatshops, some of which exist in first world countries themselves.

Neither are these developed-world inconsistencies. Developing countries are rife with them. After all, a society where the majority of children already born malnourished, will not even finish grade school and stand very little chance of leading full lives is not a society that respects life. A society where many who are poor suffer actual hunger and could not even afford medicines they need to sustain themselves, is not a society that values life. A society where the wealthy believe their responsibility to others is fulfilled once they’ve thrown their scraps to the poor, is not a society that promotes life. And no amount of pro-life rhetoric will change that.