A journal dedicated to the life and mission of St. Gaspar del Bufalo, and to a life lived in response to the call and the cry of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our on-going mission is to share good news of hope and communion.
The Missionaries of the Precious Blood will be holding an International Symposium on Parish Ministry and Precious Blood Spirituality this coming Week in Dayton, Ohio. I will be one of the Keynote speakers. I will be driving to Dayton tomorrow and will be there all week. Afterward I will head to Columbus, OH for the Mid-East Regional for Retrouvaille. So Blogging will be slow for a while and I am not sure what Internet access I will have. Prayers for these two ventures will be appreciated. If you want me to send you a copy of my talk, send me an email.
Funny thing is, there is little that he says that I can disagree with. He says it best in his last paragraph:
One way of understanding this discussion is as an attempt to figure out what words may be used to fill in the blank in this sentence: "God_________our suffering." Everyone agrees that "allows" is true and "enjoys" is false. As for the disputed ways – "causes," "wills," and so forth – even those of us who argue for them must keep in mind that we’re speaking in an analagous, and ultimately mysterious, sense.
I think we are getting there.
The spirituality I profess is a spirituality of hope and communion. In the midst of struggle and pain, we realize God is beside us, has indeed yoked us to himself making our burden easier. “My yoke is easy and my burden light”
How God draws us through death to life is one thing. What his original intent is, is quite another.
Yes his healing touch may be experienced as pain to us. But that is due to our condition, not to what he sent.
If I am in pain because of the loss of a prized possession, it is because I had grown attached to the possession, fallen in love with a created thing rather than the creator. God's challenge to grow may be a painful thing, and it has been often, yet it is due to my condition. Not to God's desire or intent.
On many levels, those who have spoken on this topic are in fundamental agreement. I am just asking them to be careful in determining what it is exactly that God sends. Many are still hanging on to the hunch that God desires the pain.
Precious Blood Spirituality has everything to do with the place of the cross, pain, suffering, and even how we die. I am convinced that God is closest here, in the struggle.
Emily Stimpson, after consultation with her readers, posts these books as her Catholic All-time Top Ten: Fr. Jim Tucker has joined the discussion too.
10. Story of a Soul, by St. Therese of Lisieux
8. Map of Life, by Frank Sheed
9. Splendor of the Church, by Henri DeLubac
7. Interior Castle, by Theresa of Avila
6. This Tremendous Lover, by M. Eugene Boylan
5. Spirit of Catholicism, by Karl Adam
4. Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis
3. Confessions, by St. Augustine
2. Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton
1. Theology and Sanity, by Frank Sheed
All of us probably have our own favorite books that we might add to the list. My list would include New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton and the Homilies on the Song of Songs by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Leave a comment. What Book on the Catholic Experience would make the top of your list?
Too many times, the arguments expressed by Fr Keyes and Amy are used by people to avoid confronting the growth they are being called to through suffering. Too often people simply say, "Oh, this suffering isn't God's will for my life. Therefore, I don't have to consider it, I just have to endure it and hope it goes away." What ends up happening to these people is that they become stuck in ignorance which perpetuates the conditions that precipitated their suffering in the first place. Amy's and Fr. Keyes arguments can too easily lead to a lazy approach to suffering with no insight and no growth. I have worked with people who have been caught in THAT cycle for years.
In many ways I agree with Gregory. I think maybe he is about 80%, maybe 90%, right. He has found nuances in my writing that are not there, and possibly I have done the same. Obviously he does not image God as the blood thirsty deity longing to have us experience our punishment. Who would consciously hold that image? However, he still hangs on to that thread of belief that it is God who deliberately sends the suffering. This is where we part ways.
The pain and suffering comes from our condition (remember original sin) not from God's desire or intent.
In many ways we Catholics have become infected with the Protestant, Fundamentalist Substitionary Atonment Theory, where God demanded that Jesus suffer for our sake. One of the correspondents who responded to one of Amy's posts posited this very theory in his mention of the Triduum.
God does not cause, ask for, demand our suffering.
Does he show us how to meet it? Yes.
Does he make it redemptive? Yes.
Does he use it for our healing and growth? Yes.
Has he been here before? Yes.
Does he know and understand what we are feeling? Yes.
Was it God's intent or desire that we suffer sin, pain, sorrow, loss, death? NO, NO. Absolutely Not!!!!
Now Gregory thinks my way of thinking could possibly thwart someone's growth, that by failing to assign the fault to God, they also fail to look inward. I suppose that could happen, yet it could also be posited that one who assigns the pain to an outward source, God, may also fail to look inward. He says my thinking leads to laziness. In my opinion his way could lead to laziness too. A person is in pain, God must have sent it, so I have to endure it, no further exploration needed.
This discussion has made it clear to me again how important Precious Blood Spirituality is. Our spirituality gives a clear picture, from the scriptures, about God's presence and care in the midst of our pain and suffering. Gregory gets it right here: God suffers with us. But It seems he would also say that God sends this struggle that we might grow.
We might be arguing over words here. God uses this struggle to help us grow. He did not send it.
I think that he is somewhat on the right track, but veers off a wee bit into what Thomas Merton used to call the “Moral Theology of the Devil” where he (the devil) wants us to think that God somehow delights in our suffering.
As to whether or not God sends us suffering, I am with Amy Welborn on this one. The answer is "no." Her take on this that the crosses come from the world of sin is a good one.
The best thing that I have read on this topic is from Thomas Merton's book "New Seeds of Contemplation" in a chapter called "Moral Theology of the Devil"
We do not believe in a blood thirsty God who hungered for our suffering, to see us pay. It was not God who crucified Jesus, it was us.
But Jesus is the one who travels with us, and before us, accompanying us and leading us. No suffering we endure, no cross we carry is foreign to God because he came to carry it before us. And we take up ours and follow. Gregory is on the same wavelength, yet the pain that comes in the healing process is simply the pain of being human, it is not somehow sent by God, but it is used by God.
The Blood on the mercy seat in the temple of old was a place to communicate with God, to come to the boundary between life and death, spilt blood, and to receive God's mercy. At the crucifixion, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The "presence" was no longer in a temple of stone. Paul equates the blood of Jesus with the blood on this mercy seat. The Body of Jesus becomes the Mercy seat. The Cross is the Holy of Holies. This is not a profession of his divinity, but a clear sign, measure and expression that God dwells most intimately with this beaten, broken, condemned criminal. The theology of Paul is that the "presence" is ripped out of that temple of stone, through the torn veil, and placed in the human heart where it is most broken and hurt. The parable of the prodigal son rerveals that God is not in at the party, but out in the darkness cajoling the sinful to please come to the feast.
Where is God? He is there where we hurt the most, are in denial the most, are the most lost or defeated.
Tuesday's Gospel is not a pleasant Gospel to hear, but let's pray that it is a challenging Gospel to hear. The Challenge is this: We have seen his mighty healing presence too; How have we responded?
Today's Gospel proclaims "and one's enemies will be those of his household." Maybe this is why Jesus said in another place to love your enemies.
We all look at things with different lens. Probably one of the most difficult things as a priest is when you preach on a topic on moral grounds, and the argument comes back at you from a parishioner with a political perspective. I have lost parishioners when preaching on abortion, the death penalty, and on care for immigrants. But our preaching is not supposed to make people happy; it is supposed to challenge them with the gospel. So, sometimes disputes come with the territory.
We can use conflict to damage each other or we can use conflict to learn something about the other. Jesus is instructing us to use these differences for our benefit.
I suppose that Gaspar, once in prison, could have become angry, resentful, and bitter. He chose another way. The faith orders all our relationships, even the offering of a cup of cold water is part of it, and his way take priority over all others.
There is an interesting article by Timothy Drake of the National Catholic Register recently in which he states, “If you haven’t yet heard of blogging, you soon will. The latest Internet trend in personal journalism, it is currently undergoing an explosion among Catholics, connecting lay Catholics, priests and seminarians across the country.”
Thanks to the following Catholic Bloggers who have recently noted or promoted The New Gasparian on their Blogs.
