Denethor and Do-Overs

Remember the scene in The Return of the King where Denethor sends Faramir off to his death while eating his roasted chicken and cherry tomatoes? I feel like Denethor sometimes.

I warmed up some KFC for lunch today. And I achieved that heavy-browed, John-Noble stare and that ill-mannered chewing, and of course I couldn't avoid the greasy fingers. I was only missing the great fur cape, the cherry tomatoes, and a small tenor hobbit. (A couple of baritones were lying around, but what good are they?!)

And while it was all play today - Avery and Will laughing and telling me I wasn't using my manners - as I sat there play-acting, the clothes seemed a little too comfortable, too familiar.

And I think of how we are murdering our children with impatience and anger and harshness, how we muddy these pure springs with our busyness and inaccessibility.

What I wouldn't give some days for a do-over.

Mary Jane in the News

GW Pharmaceuticals is at it again - those crazy scientists. It's a wonder they get anything done.

The word on the street is that they've gained ten pounds since the inception of the study.

To Be 18 Again ...

Grapeseed oil? Ingenious.

Tele-abuse

Does anyone else get these crazy automated phone calls: "Please return this call at [toll-free number]." Excuse me? Like I'm going to call someone who gives me no more information than that. Pleeease. I may be desperate for post-preschool, semi-intellectual, human contact and all, but I'm not that desperate.

The Bible, the Whole Bible, and Nothing but the Bible

I am trying to post new quotes for my "Meditation" and "On Writing" sections of my sidebar each Sunday. I will also begin blogging about the meditation at the end of the week. For this past week's meditation, I'm writing down some thoughts today. In the future, I'll try to get it done on Saturday.

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My meditation this past week was from St Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea. He wrote:

“Of the dogmas and kerygmas preserved in the Church, some we possess from written teaching and others we receive from the tradition of the Apostles, handed on to us in mystery. In respect to piety both are of the same force. No one will contradict any of these, no one, at any rate, who is even moderately versed in manners ecclesiastical. Indeed, were we to try to reject the unwritten customs as having no great authority, we would unwittingly injure the Gospel in its vitals; or rather, we would reduce kerygma to a mere term.”

The quote describes a reason for my Catholicism. Most of my family and friends embrace the idea of sola scriptura, and I'm fine with that. I understand it. I simply cannot believe it anymore. I know that slides me into the category of apostasy for some, but while that grieves me, it is no longer my concern. I can only bring my brothers and sisters and my relationships with them to Christ in prayer.

So let me offer a brief overview of why I can no longer accept this sola.

First, and ultimately, it comes down to authority. If I say Scripture Alone, what does that mean? I can enter ten different sola scriptura churches and hear utterly different interpretations of what the scriptures are saying about divorce, abortion, homosexuality, and salvation itself. Which interpretation is valid? Are all of them valid? Any of them?

Every denominational construct forms a different interpretation of the scriptures. In some cases, every pastor. More specifically, every man or woman becomes his or her own pope/magisterium, deciding what the scriptures mean. Why is my interpretation or argument more weighty than someone who says they believe that abortion is permissible? Or homosexual activity? Or their beliefs about the atonement? Or the scriptures themselves?

Some people think those issues are cut and dry issues in evangelical Protestantism. But of course, they are not. They are not even so among the members of the Catholic Church - even though the Church herself defines its position on the issues quite clearly.

I have been involved in countless conversations about morality where it came down to a person's "interpretation." These conversations concern issues about which I grew up believing were the "clear teaching" of the scriptures. But I've found that the scriptures are simply not that clear about certain things. I've spoken with some who believe that the culture that produced the text about a certain morality is not relevant to our activity and our culture. And some of these protestations are points well-taken. (For instance, how many women cover their heads as they worship today?) The scriptures are not a handbook of propositions, or an exercise in systematic theology: You shall believe thusly about this, and suchly about that. It is a narrative - a narrative that certainly cradles propositions, but a narrative nonetheless.

So no more: I submit my private interpretation to the interpretation of the Church - what the Church has believed always, everywhere.

Some of my decision to embrace the Catholic Church, honestly, came out of my search for authority in an age when there simply is none.

(And let me say here what ought to be unnecessary: I love the scriptures and value them as having the authority of God. When I hear them read, or read them myself, it is as if Christ himself were speaking to me. And so He does.)

Second, it is important to discover what the scriptures themselves say about tradition and scripture. What does St Paul call the foundation and pillar of truth? It is not the scriptures, but the Church herself (1 Timothy 3.15).

St Paul also says that we must cling to what we have learned from the apostles - whether by letter or by word of mouth (2 Timothy 2.2; 2 Thessalonians 2.15).

Jesus also told his disciples "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me" (Luke 10.16).

The Church is our living teacher. And her teaching has not added to or changed or taken away from what was given by our Lord or the apostles. We come to understand those dogmas and doctrines more clearly, but they cannot change.

The apostolic tradition has been handed down and entrusted to the Church. Therefore, we believe and follow this tradition as we would the written tradition. For instance, St Ignatius, a disciple of St John the Evangelist, around A.D. 110 speaks about the sacramental, real presence of Christ in the Eucharist - that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ. How can we deny what the Church has held fast to since her inception, since Christ formed her? It is, therefore, necessary that Christians believe in and follow the holy tradition of the Church - whether by letter or by word of mouth. The leaders of the Church, with Christ, form the foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2.20; 3.5). And, guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church has not apostasized (Matthew 16.18; John 14.25-26, 16.13). For her to do so would be to make Christ a liar.

Third, it was the Church who gave us the scriptures. Led by the Holy Spirit, she decided which books would be a part of the canon within the Councils of Rome and Hippo at the end of the fourth century. That canon remained the same for the next 1100 years until Martin Luther removed several books from the Old Testament canon (what most Protestants call the Apocrypha), at his discretion and by his authority alone. It must be noted that the LXX, the Septuagint, which was used by Greek-speaking Jews in Jesus' day, contained the very books that Luther threw out.

That is simply the history of the canon of Scripture. If we deny the Church's authority to do so, as Luther did, then we must, each of us, decide for ourselves the canon by our own authority.

O, lengthy harangue, wilst thou never end?

I end here, re-quoting St Basil the Great who said, "Indeed, were we to try to reject the unwritten customs as having no great authority, we would unwittingly injure the Gospel in its vitals; or rather, we would reduce kerygma to a mere term."

As always, conversation is welcome.

The Cult of Jesus and Me

When I became Catholic, the Trinity surprised me. It is not that I didn't believe or affirm the Trinity in my life as a Protestant - I most certainly did. I would have died for it. But the Trinity was often eclipsed by the person of Jesus.

As a Catholic, however, the Trinity is a towering reality - He forms our prayers and calls us to community. Our faith is grounded in God as Trinity (the creeds are organized to reflect this reality). Now, I love reading and listening to the wealth of what is written and spoken about in Orthodoxy. (Though my personal experience is that Catholics like Orthodoxy a whole lot more than the Orthodox like Catholicism.) And most of the time, I agree with the Orthodox position - not counter to my Catholicism, but in support of it.

(All that is good and beautiful and holy in Protestantism and Orthodoxy, belongs to Catholicism. I only make that statement to describe what I have discovered, not to offend or condemn. It is also why Catholics refer to the Catholic Christian faith as the fullness of faith. It is not a lowest-common-denominator kind of faith, as in What do I have to believe? Rather, it is all about the fullness of sharing in the life of the Trinity. It is truly catholic. Likewise, it is truly orthodox and truly evangelical.)

To get back to my story, I was listening to an Orthodox podcast, Our Life in Christ,this morning about the dogmas of the Church, specifically, the dogma of the Trinity.

The hosts of the show, Bill Gould and Steve Robinson, asked a question that got my brain cranking. The question ran something along the lines of, If we took the doctrine of the Trinity out of our churches, would it change anything? Does the Trinity have any bearing on how we live our lives and how we worship?

We are created in the image of God. And that image, the image of the Trinity, is not of absolute autonomy, but of absolute community/fellowship. "It is," after all, "not good for man to be alone."

During the podcast, the hosts shared a quote that I would like to share with you. The quote is from an article by Clark Carlton about his journey from the Southern Baptist denomination to the Eastern Orthodox church. Carlton has struggled through this idea of community and autonomy and says the following:

I discovered, however, that sin is not the mere breaking of a rule, but is nothing less than the denial of love and, therefore, of life itself. When I discovered the Trinity, I also discovered the true nature of man, for man was created in the image of this God of Triune love. Man was created precisely as a personal being, one who is truly human only when he loves and is loved. Sin "missing the mark" is not a moral shortcoming or a failure to live up to some external code of behavior, but rather the failure to realize life as love and communion. As Christos Yannaras puts it, "The fall arises out of man's free decision to reject personal communion with God and restrict himself to the autonomy and self-sufficiency of his own nature." In other words, sin is the free choice of individual autonomy. Irony of ironies: that which I had been touting all of these years as the basis of true religion the absolute autonomy of the individual turned out to be the Original Sin!

The other day, as I was going through my oldest daughter's Faith Formation (CCD for you Catholic Yanks) homework, I ran across a fill-in-the-blank worksheet. Under each blank was a number that corresponded to a letter in a Key on the page. On this worksheet were two telling questions. One was "Jesus is our _ _ _ _ _ _" with SAVIOR being the word that filled the six blanks. Another was "Jesus loves _ _." The depth of the worksheet struck me when Sophie and I found the corresponding letters that went with the two blanks of the second question. The word that completed that phrase was US and not ME.

Now, does Jesus love me? Is he my savior? Absolutely. But in the context of the larger community. The idea of community is an essential ecclesial truth that evangelical Protestantism has largely ignored (and even condemned) in its grasping for autonomy. When I say, "Jesus loves us," it broadens my world. It creates an opening for me to love my neighbor. The same is true for the Lord's Prayer. It is "Our Father ... Give us this day our daily bread / And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. / Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We do harm to our understanding of the prayer and the strength of the prayer when we individualize it.

In Protestantism, there is an increasing awareness of community. I hope it continues to grow in that direction as Protestants understand themselves as part of the communion of saints and in communion with God. It is an understanding that grows directly out of our personhood, created in the likeness of a triune God.

Quoting Chesterton

"Man can hardly be defined, after the fashion of Carlyle, as an animal who makes tools; ants and beavers and many other animals make tools, in the sense that they make an apparatus. Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on conclusion in the formation of some tremendous scheme of philosophy and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of which the expression is capable, becoming more and more human. When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined scepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded."

- G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Non Compos Mentis

The treasures of the heart are odd, funny-looking things. For instance, my stay-at-home children broke out into several fights and fits concerning my son's two Superman toothbrushes today.

I certainly have no bones to pick with the Man of Steel. Unlike many nerdy comic-book aficionados who think he's too perfect to identify with, I appreciate Kal-El's unwavering goodness and strength. But they're toothbrushes. We're not talking about their blankeys, their favorite toys, or - let's say - the Crown Jewels.

Toothbrushes.

I know it sounds as if I'm bashing the kids again - and of course I am - but I imagined the soundtrack of my life sounding more like Top Gun's than Barney's. At times, it's enough to make me a bit batty.

In all fairness, I can be quirkily particular myself:

• I love my metal Staedtler pencil sharpeners and erasers. I am usually carrying one of each in my right pocket.

• Books are people too.

• Writing instruments are sweet. Think of the staggering promise of a wooden No. 2 pencil.

• My pencil box is my pencil box - get your kindergarten, pie-grabbing hands off of it. (Yes, I have a pencil box. Though I haven't been able to find it in a fortnight. Back off, man, I'm a writer.)

• When I have cash, it belongs - ordered from larger to smaller bills - face-up in my wallet.

• I'm a sucker for cool high-tech gadgets. And all high-tech gadgets are cool.

• I'm a sucker for what others tell me is cool. (It's like calling James Dean a chicken, only different.)

• Just let me hold the remote. It pacifies me.

• Give me Jif or give me death.

(For the unabridged list, see my wife.)

La Tyrannie de Jour

Moleskine (mol-a-SKEEN-a)

"It's a notebook for Pete's sake!" he said, laying down a Hamilton and some change.

Today, Two Prayers

Yesterday, many Christians remembered with contrition the decision reached in the case of Roe v. Wade. Our country has perpetrated a great evil in the last 34 years. And we, like Daniel, are in some sense complicit in the sin of our country. We pray for the mercy of God.

It is imperative that we continue to work for a right respect for life - from conception to natural death. It is imperative that we continue to pray about this issue and the lives being wounded and destroyed by it. It is imperative that we love and pray for those who commit or encourage this evil. Many act in ignorance. But regardless of their understanding of what they do, we must love and pray for them.

Our consciences can be poor guides if they are not formed rightly. For those of us who are Catholic, that means conforming our lives to the teaching of the Church on these moral issues. We do not have the authority to make contrary decisions, any more than, after receiving the Decalogue, the Israelites had the choice whether to commit adultery or covet their neighbors' possessions or murder. That is not to say we are not free to choose otherwise. But it remains sin and breaks our relationship with Christ and His body, the Church.

And, remember, for all of us who sin - the Church longs for us to turn to Christ in repentance. We are all in need of the mercy of God. And, thanks be to God, God cleanses us from all our sin and provides for us pardon and peace.

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Build us together in Christ,
Make us your dwelling place.

This week is a time set aside by the Catholic Church to specifically pray for Christian unity.

Unity is an issue that weighs heavily on my heart. Not that I am discouraged by the prospect of Christian unity, but rather that it is painful to live in the division between brothers and sisters. (And I offer up that pain as an oblation to God.) We are one body. Indeed, we are Christ's body. We are Christ.

Is Christ divided?

+ God, through your coming to us in Jesus and through using fallible people, you have shown yourself to be a vulnerable God; we thank you that you still trust us to offer service and work for the building of your kingdom. Keep us alert to your will and purpose and open our eyes that we may see the true needs of people around us. Enable us in humility to learn from one another, that we may be united in our mutual accountability and devoted in service for your kingdom; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, 2005