These hundred days

Obama in the White House
The hundred days that didn't shake the world

One thousand three hundred sixty-one days separate Barack Obama from the end of his mandate. No one can know nor imagine what will happen in this time. In fact, many analysts describe the "occupation" of the president as a reactive one. Planned political strategy leaves the post -- as the case of the Bush presidency after 11 September 2001 proves -- to choices dictated by events.

In another perspective, this 29 April marks a hundred days of the first African-American president in the White House, traditionally a much-awaited point for an initial assessment, however inevitably partial. But rivers of ink have already flowed over these weeks that, according to many commentators, they've signified a decisive turn from the past, a redefinition of the very image of the United States in the world.

It might be that this capacity to communicate is one of the great traits of the president, recalling that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Like the architect of the New Deal, Obama utilizes the modern media -- radio then, internet today -- to spread the message of hope which the nation needs. The great crisis of 1929 can't be compared to the current one. And still the imprint seems the same. So too the ability of shifting the attention of public opinion in a pragmatic and functional way.

In these months Obama has seen his popularity grow only by having opened the doors to changes: he proposed direct negotiations with Iran to resolve the question of Tehran's nuclear program and invited Russia to new discussions for the reduction of its strategic arsenals. Above all, he's proposed a different role for the United States on the American continent, beginning to imagine new relations with Cuba. But in other and more concrete international scenarios, continuity in respect to the past is anything but compromised. Like in Iraq, where the administration is applying the exit strategy begun by Bush, and in Afghanistan. Here -- Obama declared -- is found the new front of the fight against terrorism. New only to a point, as it was in Afghanistan where the first US military intervention after September 11 took place. And not everything as a wish for discontinuity can be seen by the retention of Robert Gates at the helm of the Pentagon.

Even when, opening to Cuba, he's broken a taboo, Obama isn't much moved from his predecessors in the request for tangible signs on the part of Havana.

Similar evaluations can be made for the economic stimulus undertaken by the president. It's been accused of excessive statism by some, if not placing the country on the path to socialism. A calmer analysis, however, notes that Obama moves with caution: very reluctant in the face of the nationalization of financial institutions, he opened the private sector to his plan to save credit institutions. Revealing, according to the International Herald Tribune, an unexpected similarity with Ronald Reagan, the president who placed a flag for the state's retreat from the private sector. And much more statism revealed itself in the final months of the Bush-Paulson team with the partial nationalization of the titans of property lending, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Even on ethical questions -- which, from the electoral campaign, have been the forceful concern of the Catholic episcopate -- Obama doesn't seem to have confirmed the radical changes he had aired. The new guidelines regarding embryonic stem-cell research don't, in fact, line up with the changes foreseen months ago. They don't permit the creation of new embryos for purposes of research or therapy, for cloning or reproductive ends, and federal funds may be used solely for experimentation with surplus embryos. These don't remove the motives for criticism in the face of unacceptable forms of bioengineering that contrast with the human identity of the embryo, but the new regulations are less permissive.

A certain surprise has otherwise come about in these days through a bill designed by the Democratic party: the Pregnant Women Support Act would move to limit the number of abortions in the United States through initiatives of aid for distressed women. It's not a negation of the doctrine until now expressed by Obama on matters of the interruption of pregnancy, but the legislative project could represent a rebalancing in support of motherhood.

Signals of innovations in the Obama administration are undeniable. Above all on matters of the care of environment and in particular the partnership that seems born with Beijing. But maybe it's early to talk of revolution or imbalance in judgment, whether positive or negative. These hundred days have not shaken the world. Better to await the next one thousand three hundred sixty-one.

Compliments of L'Osservatore Romano the Vatican Newspaper and Whispers of Loggia blogspot.

bread of life

Acts 8:1-8; Psalm 66 Let all the earth cry out to God with Joy; John 6:35-40;

Jesus in the gospel speaks of the bread of life and ponts toward himself.  In the connection of this bread of life he also points toward the "last day."

Pope Benedict speaks of the bread of life in this way:

"What we call bread contains the mystery of the Passion.  Before there can be bread, the grain of wheat must be placed into the earth, it must die, only then can new growth begin."

Bread has within it the capacity to receive the mystery of Christ' passion, death and resurrection.  For bread to be bread it must suffer death and rise anew in order to offer nourishment and life.

This bread captures the fullness of the passion.  It unites both the death and the resurrection and thus contains the full spectrum of life: birth, death, birth again.

Every eucharist thus brings forth the fullness of life.   Every reception points us toward the last day that will give way to the first day of forever.  This is the bread of life in totality.

We can never truly understand the gift of life and receive the gift of life unless we understand its totality and its finality.  As we hold the bread of life in our hands we peer into the last day no longer with fear and trembling but with gratitude and great expectation for the moment when we shall see "be like him, for we shall see him face to face.'

the face of an angel

Acts 6:8-15; Psalm 119 Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord; John 6:22-29

"This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the laws.  For we heard him claim that this Jesus of Nazorean will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

What was the custom that Moses handed down?

It is interesting to note that the Sanhedrin is being involved in this heated debate with and about Stephen.  It is the Sanhedrin that is the "custom" that the people are referring.  In Numbers 11:16 God ask Moses to "assemble 70 of the elders of Israel" and to these God distributed some of his spirit so that they could assist Moses with dealing with the people.

This tradition was passed down.  When one of the 70 died another was added.  Eventually they became known as the Sanhedrin, the council that was to help interpret the Torah, the law, for the people.

So, when the accusation is made that Stephen is speaking about Jesus destroying the "custom" handed down from Moses, it is an accusation of seeking to destroy the Sanhedrin itself.  It certainly got the Sanhedrin's attention pretty quickly.  They were being threatened.  I am sure they did not want to lose their position of power any time soon. 

It was a pretty clever plan to get Stephen to be quiet. 

Yet, Stephen as we will see tomorrow, chooses to speak the truth regardless of who in power was involved.  He refused to bow to the powerful around him.

"All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel."

His face was like an angel as he listen to their accusations.  He didn't defend himself.  He did not get overly excited.  He did not act out in anger.  He held his mind's gaze on God.  

This is what is meant by the "face of an angel."  What do the angel's do in heaven?  Their face always beholds the Father.  They contemplate goodness itself.  Stephen, while he was being accused, did not lose focus or get distracted.  He kept his interior gaze on the Father and thus was strengthen and calm during the whole ordeal. 

This is how we too should embrace life as it unfolds.  We should keep our interior gaze on God. This is how we pray always without ceasing.  From here shall come our strength, calm, peace, and courage to stand and speak when needed.

3rd sunday Easter: resurrection of the body

Today in the gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room.  They are spooked.  They thought they had seen a ghost. 

But Jesus quickly crushes that false notion by asking for food and eating in front of them.

This certainly was no casper the ghost. 

Jesus appears to them in his resurrected body. 

What does this mean?  Like the disciples,  questions rise in our hearts; as we fix our gaze on Jesus and his resurrected presence we begin to peer into the future of humanity. 

All love wants eternity; God's love not only wants eternity but effects it.  This love brings man whole and entire into eternity, body and soul.  Man is indivisible from the beginning into eternity.

We will be raised as whole persons, not some segmented separated soul minus a body.  We will be whole persons, body and soul.

What a great mystery! What a great article of faith we profess every Sunday: we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

What we do in the body will have effects in how we spend eternity! 

We can never compartmentalize our spirit and bodily action; they are a unity, a unity that remains indivisible even in eternity. 

This is why our faith must have affects in our bodily behavior.  

Sin affects our whole person and redemption comes to the aid of our whole person. This is why St. John tells us in the 2nd reading, "my children I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin." 

Why? Because sin is an attack against the very work of redemption.  Sin corrupts the whole person and such corrosive behavior in the body will destroy the truth of our destiny: to be fully redeemed and welcomed into eternal life in heaven. 

Our whole person, body and soul, belong to Christ and shall receive the grace of redemption. 

"The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.  And God raised the Lord and will raise us up by his power.  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?...You are not your own; ...so glorify God in your body." (1 corinthians 6:13-15, 19-20) 

"But as God's word is sure, what is sown is raised; the earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, shall become glory to glory, and life to the living God, and a true incorruptible image of the Spirit made perfect.  Here the saints sleep, here they shall rise.  A great sight will a Christian country then be, if earth remains what it is; when holy places pour out the worshippers who have for generations kept vigil therein, waiting through the long night for the bright coming of Christ!" Venerable John Cardinal Newmann

Divine Providence

Acts 5:27-33; Psalm 34 The Lord hears the cry of the Poor; John 3:31-36

"When the court officers brought the Apostles in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, the high priest questioned them. "We gave you strict orders did we not, to stop teaching in that name.  Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the Apostles  said in reply, "We must obey God rather than men."(Acts 5:27ff)

In a Synod of Bishops in 1985, November 28, an appeal was made to Pope John Paul II for the Catechism.  Cardinal Tomasek made a speech and at the end of the speech he said these words:

"We must work for the kingdom of God-that is a great thing.  We must pray for the Kingdom of God-that is more important still.  We must suffer for the Kingdom with the crucified Christ-that is everything." 

This is what the Catechism states in regards to Divine Providence and our actions:

"God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan" (ccc 306)

St. Thomas teaches that "God grants his creatures not only to exist but also to act, each in its own way.  It is precisely here that we see the incomparable majesty of the creative activity of God."

Peter and the Apostles were fulfilling God's plan.  They were allowing Divine Providence to unfold through them by their deeds and actions.  They were getting the message out.  They were willing to work for the kingdom, pray for the Kingdom, suffer with the Crucified Christ for the Kingdom.  Thus, Divine providence was at work in them. 

May it be at work in us.  May we seek to obey God rather than men and refuse to be quiet and make the message known.  

Above is a picture of the chains of St. Peter that he wore after being arrested for preaching the message Jesus.  They can be found in San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.  It is a lasting reminder of Divine Providence at work through man.  God's plan refuses to surrender.

 

Not Perish

Acts 5:17-26; Psalm 34 The Lord hears the cry of the Poor; John 3:16-21

Pope Benedict in his Easter Message to the World invites us to ponder anew the resurrection as our hope, 

"Easter does not signal a moment in history, but the beginning of a new condition.  Jesus risen is not simply a memory that lives in the heart of the disciples but He himself lives in us."

What is that new condition?

"God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

That new condition that rises from the empty tomb is the gift of everlasting life.  We shall not perish. 

Jesus does preserve us, he doesn't increase our shelf life.  When John speaks of not perishing,  he is speaking of a new reality, a new gift, a new way of living that is no longer bound or limited between the womb and the tomb.

By our belief, we become the glory of God as sharers in Christ's victory over death. 

The resurrection stands as the defining distinction between having just a memory alive in our hearts and having a true reunion of persons. 

As Christians, memory gives way to reunion and thus 'we shall not perish' points us to the truth that those who believe shall be reunited in the Person of Christ who is risen and who brings about the communion of saints.

Doctor Anselm

Acts 4:32-37; Psalm 93 The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty; John 3:7-15

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Anselm, a doctor of the church.  Born in the 11th century Anselm lived a quiet but forceful life in Christ as a Monk, a Bishop, a Scholar, a Mystic, and a Disciple. 

He was a man of great tender affection for love, for truth, and for his God. 

For Anselm it was always Faith seeking Understanding.  He taught us and continues to teach us that we must begin and end in faith, understanding comes as we live and believe. 

If we seek first to understand prior to faith we will miss out on the beauty and power of faith and how it is meant to guide our reason and intellect, not the other way around. 

For most of our present society, we got it backwards.  Thus, this is why their are so many unbelievers, so many professed atheist; they expect reason and intellect to do what it was not meant to do.

Reason and intellect without faith is like a compass with out arrows; a GPS system with out a map or satellite hook up; it is like a car with out a steering wheel. 

Faith must direct us or we shall simply be lost in the dark.

Excerpt from St. Anselm

"Lord, teach me to seek you 

and reveal yourself to me when I seek you.  

For I cannot seek you unless you first teach me, 

nor find you unless you first reveal yourself to me.  

Let me seek you in longing and long for you in seeking. 

 Let me find you in love and love you in finding.

O God, let me know you and love you so that I may find my joy in you; and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some progress  every day, until at last that knowledge , love, and joy come to me in all their plenitude."

Doctor Anselm pray for the world that we might put Faith and reason in its proprer order and thus come to love as we ourselves are loved.