This is one of my favorite Christmas choral pieces, here performed by the choir of King's College Cambridge. It is by my favorite 20th-21st century choral composers, Eric Whitacre. These are the lyrics and their translation:
Latin Lyrics:
Lux,
calida gravisque pura velut aurum
et canunt angeli molliter
modo natum.
English Lyrics:
Light,
warm and heavy as pure gold
and the angels sing softly
to the new-born baby.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!
Today I came across an interesting blog post concerning women and modesty. This has been an important issue in recent times, when the line between masculinity and femininity has become increasingly... translucent.
I think the writer of this article makes a great point: "... clothes make a statement about who we are and what we believe." With society growing hostile to gender differentiation, we need to be aware of what we believe about modesty and how to execute the appropriate prudence required.
So, does that mean I think that women should be wearing skirts down to the floor and look as frumpy as possible so as to dissuade men from looking at them in a fashion that would suggest that impure thoughts are lerking in their minds? Um... no. The femininity of a women is not predicated by her clothing. It is her acceptance of herself as woman, regardless of external or even internal pressures to the contrary.
Guys don't get off the hook here, either. Men have just as much of an obligation to seek out prudent modesty as women. Overt sexualization of one's appearance, with any gender, is a thing to be avoided, because of our obligations to our brothers and sisters in Christ, yes, but more importantly, out of respect for who we are and Who made us.
Overt sexualization of a person, be it with pornography or even simple envy, is the objectification of that person, lowering them from the dignity they deserve as being made in the image and likeness of God. This is destructive to the person who sexualizes because it not only objectifies another, but inevitably objectifies one's self -- I'm not as beautiful or handsome as this other person; I will not be a perfect person until I have this or that physical aspect or condition. Ultimately, I need to BE someone I am not in order to be perfect.
Our society is built on an innate desire for perfection. How we go about searching for that perfection is what differentiates sinners from saints.
In November, the Catholic Diocese of Orange purchased the iconic, and bankrupt, Crystal Cathedral for $57 million.
I have to admit that hearing this news brought a mixed bag of feelings for me. I am first saddened for the congregation of the Crystal Cathedral, who had placed their trust in the administration of their place of worship, and we're rudely awakened by misuse of funds and a general corruption from their spiritual leaders.
Secondly, I am disappointed in the choice of buying the church by the Catholic diocese. I am not a big fan of the architecture, and there will need to be some extensive renovations and maintanence of the building in order to utilize it for liturgical functions and maintain upkeep. It's a huge green house, people! The a/c bills alone are bound to be astronomical!!
But ultimately, I have to say, I'm sorta happy. Finally, after loss upon loss of our own sacred spaces to other religions, museums, bombings, and urban renewal projects, the Catholic Church has turned the tables. I think Bishop Tod Brown said it best in a news report when asked about whether he knew of anything like this happening before:
"No, I don't know, but I do know that during the Reformation, a lot of huge Catholic Cathedrals became Protestant Cathedrals."
Say what you will about the building; I think this entire affair goes great distances in showing the longevity and integrity of the Catholic Faith.
Foundational Theology’s basis stems from the theological minds of Christianity who have relied on the testimony of those who have gone before them, in the Christian Faith as well as in the Jewish creed and in Greek philosophy.It realizes the deep-seated desire of humanity for completion, for perfection, and for love.Through this realization it offers a way, “the Way” of its founder and its God.Jesus, the “man-God,”[1] reveals the truth of this human desire by giving Himself, both as an historical figure and as a community of believers.Humanity’s quest for ultimate perfection can be satisfied by this community, which is built upon the principles of God becoming Man, His kenosis of Self, and His trust in Man’s ability to choose correctly.
It must be seen, initially, that man desires perfection.Throughout history, one can see a human push toward self-actualization and completion.From Jewish religiosity, to Aristotle’s metaphysics, and even in the grotesque human sacrifices of the Aztecs, there is evidence of ancient historical truth-seeking.It is this seeking which compels humanity to provide for itself a means of answering the question of human existence. In his work, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, Luigi Giussani, founder of the lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, states that this yearning is the “religious sense”[2] of humanity which is “an urgent need for total fulfillment, for maximum completeness.”[3]This need leads to an honest search for answers to the mystery and the dynamism of the human spirit.But this search can only go so far with the help of reason, whose “summit is the perception of the existence of the mystery” that is God.[4]Like the aid given to Dante by Virgil in his Divine Comedy, reason is unable in itself to glimpse the perfect:
But Virgil had deprived us of his light,
Virgil the sweetest father, Virgil, he
In whom I trusted that I might be healed,
Nor all the world our mother Eve once lost
Could keep my cheeks that had been cleansed with dew
As Giussani states: “what man can attain by his own efforts regarding the divine, the meaning of his destiny, will never lose its image as an insecure, sometimes anxiety-ridden swamp that surrounds him.”[6]
It is only through faith that Man is capable of sincere freedom for excellence, which is ultimately seen in the acceptance of the Christian claim of credibility.Reason is only capable of realizing the necessity of “Another;”[7] it is impotent in bringing about any further enlightenment or sustenance.[8]
In order to see Christianity as credible, one must ascertain in what context Christianity has been approached by others.Giussani goes on to state that religion “depends on people’s temperament, their environment, and their particular historical moment.”[9]With this in mind, one can see that various time periods and cultures will inevitably approach the question of Christian credibility in different ways.What does not change, however, is the desire for fulfillment.
As paralleled in His own ministry and self-revelation, Christ is seen to gradually “remove the scales” from the eyes of His followers in order that they might come to an awareness of the credibility of His claim as the Son of God.He forces those around Him to ask “Who is he?” -- showing the necessity for an interpretation based on reliability.[10]Christ slowly advances his claim to be divine; first through signs and wonders, and eventually through explicit statements of identity, but always with an inherent trust in humanity’s ability to realize and then freely accept the truthfulness of His claim.[11]It is on this freedom that our natures rely in order to realize the “intimate and original position of our conscience before the totality of beings and of Being.”[12]
Christ’s trust in us precipitates a demand of trust in Him, to follow His way of life, and ultimately to give one’s self utterly to Him.This trust is witnessed in Christ’s own kenosis and condescension as God become Man.[13] His self-emptying, as answer to humanity’s demand for the perfect, is itself a demand for the kenosis of the individual who chooses to accept the Christian claim.It is in this that Man comes to realize that “the very life of our nature is love, the affirmation of Another as the self’s meaning.”[14]
This personal kenosis requires a personal conversion.In his book Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System, Avery Cardinal Dulles describes conversion as “a radical shift in a person’s apprehensions and values, accompanied by a similar radical change in oneself, in one’s relations with other persons, and in one’s relations to God.”[15]This idea of conversion is a dramatic alteration of an individual’s perspective on reality; it changes one’s ability to comprehend aspects of faith and reason in order to allow for the rational choice of accepting a religious claim of credibility.Conversion can be seen, then, as a “radical transformation, involving the transvaluation of all values.”[16]
The rational choice of acceptance cannot be made by naturally evident criteria, however.This can only be done through revelatory and faith-based testimony.[17]Testimony plays a key role in the transmission of any religious tradition, but particularly Christianity, being deeply rooted in the historical fact of the Incarnation.The witness of individuals closely linked to this historical reality serves as a basis for accepting the testimony presented.It is only in a type of delayed judgment that one is able to be “genuinely open to the testimony of another.”[18]These individuals must show themselves to have been personally transformed by the message they present, bearing public witness to the transformative nature of their faith.[19]
Coming full circle, conversion requires its own kenosis of self.One’s old individualistic identity must be poured out in order that a new identity, that of a person of communion, may take its place.This must be done completely, sincerely, and freely. As Dulles so eloquently phrases it:“We do not so much grasp the faith as allow ourselves to be grasped by it, so that we are at its disposal rather than its being at ours.”[20]
In the end, the Christian faith must be accepted or rejected on its own terms and within the context to which it belongs.The coherence of Christianity comes from its ability to relate to the individual of any time, place, or culture, and depends on the willingness of the individual to follow in the footsteps of Christ in trust.Demonstrable proof will not afford an explanation for the credibility of the Christian claim, nor will blind obedience.Informed trust in the testimony of Christ and his followers is necessary to accomplish the conversion required to answer the questions raised by the human experience.
[1] Luigi Giussani, At the Origin of the Christian Claim (Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 1998), 100.
So... Apparently there was an election of a pope in 1990 of a guy from Oklahoma... I'm sorry about that, world. But, on the bright side, Jeopardy has Pope Michael's imprimatur.
