No one recognizes the power of a symbol like the Catholic Church.

Catholic theology itself is

imbued with the law that the physical order is a reflection of the spiritual order. It is a theology
that is deeply tied to the Philosophy of the Human Person which understands man as a
composite of body and soul. The Church rejects the degradation of man to a mere animal just
as She rejects the elevation of man to the level of an angel, spirit, or mind. As poor theology
often stems from bad philosophy, it is important to recognize that the theology of the symbol
– the physical as a reflection of the spiritual – is the logical fruit of a realistic vision of the
human person as a composite of body and soul. Theology builds on reason, otherwise, God
would be contradicting that which He created.

The Power of a Symbol

The power of a symbol is most powerfully expressed in the Church’s Sacramental Theology.
“Sacrament” in the absolute most general sense possible, really has to do with any material
action or element that represents a spiritual truth. A “sacrament” broadly speaking, combines
two related elements: material and spiritual. In this general sense, even a handshake can be
considered as a “sacrament,” as the physical grasping of two hands represents the spiritual
truth of friendship. Venerable Fulton Sheen, along with this line of reasoning, also notes that

A spoken word is a kind of sacrament, because there is something material or audible

about it; there is also something spiritual about it, namely, its meaning” (Archbishop
Fulton Sheen, These are the Sacraments, page 5).
If one can’t see the value of symbolism in everyday life, then they certainly won’t understand
what the Church means by “sacrament” in the strict theological sense. In theology, a
sacrament is a “signum sacro sanctum efficax gratiae” – “a sacred sign producing grace.”
The difference between the symbolism of a theological sacrament and the symbolism of
everyday life is that the symbolic elements are efficacious in the Seven Sacraments. A stop
sign symbolizes the need to stop, but, as we have all seen, it certainly doesn’t make people
stop in and of itself! The Seven Sacraments, however, are efficacious in and of themselves,
and so if celebrated in accordance with the norms of the Church will bring about that which
they symbolize.

The Seven Sacraments

The Seven Sacraments are “efficacious signs” – they bring about that which they symbolize.
One of the reasons why I the love the Catholic Church so much is because She is eminently
realistic. Having a body, the human person naturally understands through the physical order.
For this reason, the Seven Sacraments use physical elements to bring about that which they
symbolize.

The essential material element used in Baptism, for example, is water. We commonly use
water to clean, and so this is the effect that water has on the soul in the Sacrament of Baptism.
Just as water is also necessary for physical living, the waters of Baptism are necessary for
life in the spiritual order. There is never anything meaningless in the liturgical and sacramental
rituals of the Church, take some time to understanding the physical elements used and
actions performed, and, in doing so, you’ll better understand the spiritual significance of the
sacraments themselves. One of the major problems in the modern world is the failure to have
a “sacramental outlook.”

The physical order is a reflection of the spiritual order, but the world has eliminated the
spiritual order altogether and so the physical order is a reflection of, at best, ourselves, and,
at worse, nothing. Modern man has become quite boring, he is like the person who never
understands any jokes because he cannot penetrate the meaning of the joke. It takes a
sacramental outlook to see the beauty that lies hidden in a mountaintop, an ocean, a great
work of art, or another person.

Through the natural world, God is teaching the human person how to recognize the essential
spiritual and metaphysical goodness, beauty, and truth that lies hidden in creation. God does
this as a pedagogical tool so that when one tries to understand the theology of the Seven
Sacraments, they won’t be surprised, because they already have seen how creation radiates
with spiritual truth.

The “Sacramental Outlook”

The modern world doesn’t radiate God, it radiates nothing, literally. If the modern world has
destroyed the spiritual order, then there is nothing to symbolize, and, if there is nothing to
symbolize, then what’s the point of making anything beautiful? Have you noticed the absence
of decorations in modern buildings? Have you noticed the lack of beauty in modern art? If
there is no spiritual order to symbolize, then there is no need for physical objects. The modern
world is sterile because it has forgotten how to have a “sacramental outlook.”

St. Augustine defined sin as “a word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law,” but, in
the context of the sacraments, I think sin can be understood as an action that separates the
physical act from its spiritual and heavenly significance. Again, from These are the
Sacraments, Archbishop Fulton Sheen writes,
One of the reasons why a stolen kiss is often resented is that it is not sacramental; it
has the carnal side without the spiritual side; that is, the willingness to exchange a
mark of esteem or affection.
Remember that it is the physical that reflects the spiritual, to use the physical world in the
wrong way would be to lie about that which the physical is supposed to symbolize by nature.
Like using a spoon to cut steak and a steak knife to scoop ice cream, when physical elements
aren’t used in accordance with their loftier purpose and significance, they fail to live up to their
nature.

Let us continue to foster a “sacramental outlook” that we might continue to value the power
of the symbol, and so learn the true meaning of a world imbued by God to reflect His
goodness, truth, and beauty.
 THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE
APRIL 2, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT

Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden

Over the last several weeks we have considered how each of the seven sacraments can serve as a
model for our spiritual life. Today in conclusion let us consider how our whole life can be
sacramental.
The sacraments are sacred signs. They show Christ’s presence in all the key moments of
life: birth, death, coming of age, community leadership, the most basic relationships of family, our
daily struggle to love better, and, in the Eucharist, our daily life in communion with the God we
worship.
The sacraments confer grace. They penetrate us with the life of Christ. But it would be too little to
think that grace comes only “after” we receive them. It is grace that draws us toward them, grace
that leads one to ask for Baptism, grace that leads the sinner to repent and go to Confession, grace
that makes us long for the Eucharist, divine, sanctifying, transforming grace that leads us to
consecrate our lives in marriage or the priesthood.
The sacraments, we could say, confer grace “in both directions.” They “go before us,” drawing us
on, pulling ourselves to them, just as the people of his time were drawn by the magnetism of grace
to Jesus. Grace does not leave us as we were before; grace makes us want to do something, to
come to Jesus. Grace makes us want to express our new life through the sacraments. All of our
life, the Holy Spirit is driving us to the sacraments.
In the sacraments we consummate that grace, we live it out in its fullest way. In Confession, we
become no longer just sort of penitent, but true, sacramental penitents; no longer just vaguely
thinking of Jesus, but uniting our sufferings to his in the Anointing of the Sick, etc. The sacraments
show what grace does in us. And when we come to those perfect moments in the life of grace,
when we act like graced people by truly participating in the sacraments, the sacramental life of
grace is fulfilled and renewed in us, and so the sacraments drive us forward, as well.
***
St. Patrick’s fabulous prayer, “the Breast Plate,” sums up the sacramental life admirably. Toward
the end, it says
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left
To live the life of the sacraments is always to be running to Christ, and to know that it is Christ
himself who has given you the grace to run to him. Christ before me, Christ behind me.
***
At the heart of the sacraments is the Eucharist. They all revolve around the Eucharist as around
the sun.
We receive Christ in communion. On the one hand, our life is profoundly united to him. He comes
to dwell in us, and draws us to dwell in him. Our whole life is consecrated by union with Jesus.
On the other hand, we receive this union as a gift – purchased at a price we did not pay. We know
that union with God is not something we can grasp at, but something he freely offers to us. We
express this everytime we come running to communion – every time, even in prayer and at a
distance, we long to come running to communion.
We offer Christ on the altar. He is the priest, offering perfect thanksgiving to the Father – and we
unite ourselves to his perfect prayer. He is the victim, the sign we offer of how precious the Father
is to us. He is the altar, upon which we offer ourselves. By joining our worship to his, we not only
accept him as the perfect worship, but say that we want to give our life as fully to the Father as he
did.
***
To live the sacramental life is to be all Eucharistic. It is to love this sign, this culmination and
fulfillment, this source and summit of our perfect prayer and perfect self-offering in love. And it
is to love that culmination of the life of grace in such a way that it penetrates all of our life. To be
all Eucharistic.
The other sacraments show our whole life ordered to the Eucharist. Our new birth is our entrance
to the Eucharistic Church, our coming of age is our commission to preach this perfect union. Even
our marriages are calls to show the true, interpersonal love that is Jesus, and to order all our lives
to helping others to love him better.
***
What parts of your life seem the least sacramental, the least Eucharistic? What would it mean to
let them be filled with sacramental, Eucharistic grace?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE EUCHARIST, GRACE

LIVING THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE: FRIENDSHIP

MARCH 26, 2014 1 COMMENT
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden
Our last meditation on the sacraments as a pattern for our spiritual life is on marriage.
We can think of marriage coming last precisely because marriage is the sacrament of ordinary life.
Not everyone is married, of course, but marriage represents the sacramentalization of the basic
way of life. Ordinarily – not always, but ordinarily – we live “between marriage and marriage.”
As Genesis says (and Jesus repeats), we leave our father and mother and cling to our wives: we go
forth from our parents’ marriage to our own.
To call marriage a sacrament is to remind even those who aren’t married that marriage is where
they come from. The celibate are not meant to despise their parents (Jesus condemns that – see
Matthew 15 on people using religious vows as a way not to honor their father and mother). To the
contrary, they are to reverence the marriage that gave them birth and brought them to life.
Many of us (myself included) were not raised in marriage. But there, too, we are meant to
appreciate the tremendous pain of single parenthood, to reverence our parents all the more
precisely because we know that marriage is the normal way, and that living without (whoever’s
“fault” it might be) is a place of pain. Marriage is the normal place we all begin.
***
To recognize we come from marriage, however, is to recognize something profound about the
human person: we are made for community. It is interesting, in political theory, that the great
theorists of the modern world all pretend that society begins with a bunch of adult individuals
deciding to form a “social contract.”
But that’s baloney – as Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas would remind us. To the contrary, we start
off, long before we are adult individuals, in relationships. Before we know there is an “I,” we know
there is mother. And marriage is the normal place for children to grow up – the only place we are
supposed to be doing things that make babies! – precisely because children are meant to grow up
in the context of relationship. We are meant to discover who and what we are in the context of
friendship, of a mother and father who love one another.
Before we are individuals, we are part of a community. We learn to be human by learning what
friendship looks like. And whatever our family looks like, we learn, too, that the most profound
pain is when that friendship is broken. We are made to be in relationship. We are social beings.
***
There is a popular idea, unfortunately invading even the thought of some modern Catholics, that
marriage is about two people looking inward at one another. To the contrary, the traditional view
is that marriage is about looking outward, toward family and society. Marriage creates a hearth,
around which is gathered the ever growing community which is the family, eventually including
even grand children and great grandchildren. It is the place where we prepare our children to go
out into the world, to live as members of a broader community. It is the place we welcome in
friends of the family. Marriage is a place not of exclusion, but of inclusion.
Jesus demands sexual fidelity not to make the couple turn in on themselves – “Members Only!” –
but, exactly the opposite, to keep their sexuality at the service of their children and their society,
to keep them looking outward, to keep them social. Marriage is about being social.
***

Holy Trinity, Rublev

Marriage is an image of Christ and his Church. What a wild idea! Marriage is a mystery of unity
and multiplicity. On the one hand, it shows how very close people can come together. Again, this
is not restricted to man and wife: they are only the beginning. The family is, or is meant to be, a
One, a communion of love. Christ comes as close to us as a family around a table. Indeed, the
principal image of his closeness is not as Bridegroom, but as child, cheek-to-cheek with his mother.
That is communion. That is family. That is what marriage is all about.
Yet the mystery of marriage is that we are also individuals. What a strange challenge is family life,
and especially that central relationship, where we try to work together with someone who is not
me! Marriage is a sign of God’s respect for our freedom, our individuality. It is a sign that
individuality and communion are not at war, but in harmony. Indeed, in the sacrament of marriage,
Christ is present to us not by overcoming our personal choices, but by being present within them.
***
What role does friendship play in your family? In your understanding of being truly human?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE FRIENDSHIP, MARRIAGE, SACRAMENTS

THE PRIESTHOOD AND OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE

MARCH 19, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT

Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden

We continue with our meditations on how each of the sacraments can serve as a metaphor of the
spiritual life.
This week we consider the Priesthood. The basic image for the priesthood is the laying-on of hands
and apostolic succession. When we see the priest, for example standing at the altar, we are meant
to see not just that man, but the bishop, as it were, “behind” him, conferring his power. And as we
imagine the bishop, we should imagine the bishop behind him, and the bishop behind him – a long
line of men laying hands on one another – all the way back to the twelve apostles in the upper
room, with Christ breathing his spirit onto them.
Apostolic succession is a vivid image of everything coming to us from Christ. When we imagine
that long line of bishops, we see that the Eucharist comes not just from human power, but from the
power of Christ, poured out on the Church. This is precisely why we confess to a priest: so that we
can see it is not human power that unbinds us, but the power of Christ.
***
Imagine a world where everyone was a priest, where I could confess my sins to anyone at all. The
problem is, first of all, at the level of symbol. It would look to me like the power of the sacraments
is a purely human power. But the priesthood is there precisely to remind us that it comes from
God. Thank God he has intervened, he has come with a power greater than our power. It is that
action of God that we celebrate when we look to the priest.
***
Now, “priesthood” is not actually the proper theological term for what we are talking about.
Technically, a priest is someone who offers sacrifice. And, on the one hand, we have to be careful
to understand what we mean when we say we “offer sacrifice,” and on the other hand, every
Christian is called to offer spiritual sacrifices and the sacrifice of the Mass. To distinguish our
“priests” by them offering sacrifice and us not is actually an error.
Which is why the Church has never actually called this sacrament “priesthood,” but “Holy Orders.”
(Though I won’t challenge you if you keep calling your priest a “priest”!) In fact, the proper word
for our priests is “presbyter,” which means “elder,” and the word bishop comes from “episcopus,”
“overseer.”
All of these are words that speak about hierarchy. (In fact, hierarchy is just the Greek word for
“holy-order.”) There are “orders” within Christianity, higher and lower. There are elders and non-
elders, and those in charge of overseeing.
***
Why is Christianity so hierarchical? Why does it have “holy orders”?
First, for the reason stated above: to show that the power comes from Christ, not from us. The
priest is “higher” in the sense that it is through him that Christ acts. If a priest understands that, it’s
actually a radically humbling kind of “higher.” The priest is not his own: he is there, not for his
own sake, and not by his own strength, but to confer Christ’s power to us. Anything else he does
is out of line, an abuse of power. That’s the only reason he has a place in the hierarchy: to teach
Christ’s teaching, to confer Christ’s power in the sacraments.
Second, leadership creates community. Again, imagine we were all priests, then imagine Mass:
we would all be doing our own thing. To come together requires a director, a leader, a focal point.
Another reason the priest uniquely has the power to make Christ present in the Eucharist is so that
we will gather around one table, and pray in communion with one another. The priest is a sign
both of Christ’s power and of the unity of the Church. Again, this is part of why we don’t want too
many priests!
***
We can practice devotion to the sacrament of Orders in two ways. One is by devotion to the
sacramental order. Both by going to the sacraments themselves, which actually have power, but
also by asking the priest’s blessing. In fact, he has no power except the sacraments. What we
practice, though, when we receive his blessing, is precisely devotion to the power of Christ which
acts through those hands.
Second, by practicing devotion to the unity of the Church. Love of parish, love of diocese, love of
the universal Church comes out in our love of priest, bishop, and pope. Affection, not for his
personal goodness, but for the office he holds, and the way it draws us together in communion.
***
How do you practice devotion to the priesthood? How do you live out your love for the Church?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE HOLY ORDERS, PRIESTHOOD, SACRAMENTS
 ANOINTING THE SICK: PREPARING FOR A GOOD DEATH
MARCH 12, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT

Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden

We come this week to the Anointing of the Sick, arguably the most beautiful sacrament of all. The
Church comes to those who are facing death (not necessarily about to die, but it is the danger of
death that defines this sacrament) and treats them with dignity.
There are two ways to think about the anointing. One is a kind of strengthening, something like a
massage to loosen up the muscles before an athletic event. We can also think of it in terms of
grooming: the Church comes to give you a shave, or put on makeup: to say, on your death bed,
that you have dignity and you are beautiful. New technology like the startifacts epilator makes it
much less unpleasent for the people performing these tasks. I suspect this is the original way of
thinking about anointing: “oil causes the face to shine” – and the bread of Viaticum “stengthens
man’s heart” (Psalm 104:15).
In any case, the Church sits with us in the face of death. Why?
***
First let us notice two ways to think about “morbid.” Especially in our current cultural situation, it
is considered morbid to acknowledge death at all. The old Catholic notion of preparing for death,
or praying for a happy death, seems too horrific to even contemplate. Better to pretend it never
happens – and to push to the side anyone who might remind us that death happens. Better not to
think about it.
But death does happen. My, does it happen. Two of our friends have recently lost babies. In fact,
most of my closest friends have had babies die. It is horrific. I have watched people I love as their
parents die, which is nearly as horrific. And of course, it will happen to all of us: some of us will
be spared seeing our children or spouses die, but only if they have to see us die first. All of us will
die.
Put it this way: it is not the Church that causes us to die. It is the Church, rather, that lends dignity
to death. It is not Jesus on the Cross who makes there be suffering in life. It is Jesus on the Cross
who lends dignity to our suffering and death. A proper religious treatment of suffering and death
does not create suffering, it just helps us to deal with what will be there whether we accept it or
not.
***
But why is suffering there? We can say it is natural, and there is something to that. To embrace
suffering, to deal with it, is to embrace reality, and embodiedness. To lend dignity to death, to
shave its grim face and comb its hair, is to look for dignity in reality, rather than hoping to find
dignity by playing make-believe.
***
But the Christian can go deeper than that. We believe that suffering and death are a punishment
for sin. At first glance, that sounds too horrific for words. God could have spared us, but punishes
us? What kind of God is that?
First, notice that there are two kinds of punishments. There is physical suffering and death, and
then there is hell, which is spiritual suffering. What kind of punishment is hell? In some sense,
“punishment” is the wrong word for it. Hell is the belief that we really can reject God, that we can
choose to be without love. It is horrible, but it is a possibility.
When we look into ourselves, we find, in fact, that it is pretty common. So often we – even we,
who make an effort at these things – choose to live without God, without love, without hope, to
immerse ourselves in lesser things. And it is miserable. Hell is a possibility, not because God
makes it, but because we do.
Why then does God give us the “other punishments,” suffering and death? Precisely to save us
from the only ultimate suffering. When we accept suffering in the name of love, when we sit with
a loved one who is suffering, when we stand by the Cross, the point is not that suffering is good,
the point is that love is good, that it’s worth suffering for. Suffering is there to help us learn.
Our death itself will be a key moment, the ultimate moment to embrace our true values, and let go
of what isn’t really important. Let us live as if love is worth it.
***
Media vita in morte sumus; quem quaerimus adjutorem, nisi te Domine, qui pro peccatis nostris
juste irasceris? Sancte Deus, sancte fortis, sancte et misericors Salvator, amarae morti ne tradas
nos.
In the middle of life, death is all around us. Who can be our help, except you, oh Lord, who rightly
hate our sin? Holy God, holy and strong, holy and merciful Savior: let our death not be bitter.
***
How have you learned from suffering?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE ANOINTING OF THE SICK, DEATH, SUFFERING

CONFESSION: THE REPENTANT LIFE

FEBRUARY 26, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT
Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden
This week we consider the sacrament of Confession as a model for the Christian life.
As we walk through the sacrament, we will find several models for the Christian life.
First comes our examination of conscience. The point of examining our conscience is not to figure
out how much God hates us, but to find ways in which we have failed to love God and our neighbor.
The distinction between mortal and venial sin matters – but let us not make it too important. Sin is
any failure to love.
This is about ambition. The point is not to wallow in our sin, the point is to get better. To say
frankly to ourselves, “that’s not how I should have treated that person,” so that we can not do it in
the future.
Even more, it is about God’s mercy. We can be fearless about our sin because we know that Jesus
is stronger. Confession is about asking to be set free: absolution literally means “unbinding.” If we
like our sin, God will let us keep it. If we bring our sin to Jesus – like all the sick people, who
begged for his touch – he will unbind us.
The Christian life is marked by a frank, fearless acknowledgement of sin.
***
Second, in the sacrament we must confess our sin. We make our acknowledgement of sin concrete.
Repentance is impossible – even on a purely psychological level – if we just walk around vaguely
looking at the sky and thinking we’re bad people. That achieves nothing.
But Confession is about speaking our particular sins. This particularity takes us to a whole different
idea of what “sin” even means. If we keep things general, sin seems to mean that God just sort of
vaguely doesn’t like us, in general. He doesn’t like us. But by particularizing sin, we realize that
it is particular acts that are a problem.
In a sense, by concretely naming our sin, we put it outside of ourselves. It is not I who am sin, it
is that: that action, that choice I made. I can separate myself from that choice. And the goal is to
conquer that sin, not to conquer me.
The Christian life gets concrete and particular about what sin means.
***
Third comes contrition. This is tied to a “firm purpose of amendment”: that is, a desire not to do it
again. But again, this shows how freeing Confession is. We are not saying, “this is just the way I
am, and it’s terrible.” We are saying, “it doesn’t have to be this way. My heart can love better than
that.”
But in fact, contrition goes deeper, more personal, than just a “firm purpose.” (What cold words!)
Contrition means sadness. There is supposed to be an emotional component to this. Because
emotion expresses love. I’m not just obeying rules. I love God, and I love these people, and it
makes me sad that I don’t do a better job of loving them.
Now, our contrition doesn’t have to be “perfect.” We are not as sad as we ought to be. But we
should be sad. In fact – no room to spell this out in all its grandeur here – this is the real goal of
Confession: to nurture a real sadness about our failure to love, so that we can love better. Did you
know that it is sacrilege for a priest to absolve you if you don’t express some kind of (imperect!)
sadness about your sin?
The Christian life sheds tears over sin. Not anger, tears.
***
Fourth, we do penance. We make reparation. What does that mean? Perhaps the key is to look to
our hearts, not to the world. Sin is a problem of the heart, not a matter of consequences.
So reparation is not about fixing everything that’s ever gone wrong. It is about fixing my heart. It
is about setting off in a new direction, taking a step away from sin and toward true love.
The Christian life is about change, repair, improvement. In this sense (and only in this sense!) the
Christian life is penitential.
***
Finally, we cast our sins on Jesus. That’s the purpose of the priest: he’s just some schmo; he is a
dispenser of grace only because he is sent forth as such by Jesus.
We accept our “penance” from the priest precisely to mark that the way forward is not on our own
– how fearsome that would be! – but in union with Jesus. We set off beside him. He helps us
shoulder the cross of repentance.
The Christian never thinks of sin apart from the merciful and saving love of Jesus, and always
seeks means to be closer to that merciful love.
***
How do you express repentance in your life?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE CONFESSION, PENANCE, SACRAMENTS

THE EUCHARISTIC LIFE: COMMUNION

FEBRUARY 19, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT
 Last week we considered how our whole Christian
life can be summed up in relation to the Eucharist understood as sacrificial worship. But there is a
second element to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is sacrifice as Christ lies on the altar, but it is also
communion as we receive him in our mouths. Communion, too, is a good way to define the whole
of the Christian life.
First, let us understand what happens at Mass. Christ becomes present on the altar. But he becomes
present as bread, “the living bread come down from heaven” (John 6, vv. 33, 41, 50, 51, 58: Jesus
rather repeats himself on this point). He comes to nourish us, to be our daily bread.
The imagery of the bread is nice. On the one hand, yes, by eating we are united to him. But even
deeper, by eating, he becomes our strength. We live with his strength. John’s Gospel gives us a
whole series of images for this in Jesus’s teaching at the Last Supper. As Jesus institutes the
Eucharist, he teaches us that he will send his Spirit into our hearts (John 14); that he is the vine,
and we are the branches (John 15); that we will be one with him (John 17) – and more. In short, in
Communion, he becomes our strength, our soul, our life.
But when we are united to him, we are also united to everyone else who is united to him. The
“body” of the Eucharist creates the “body” of the Church. Thus he begins his Last Supper discourse
with the washing of the feet (John 13), and ends with the prayer “that they may be one” (John 17).
It is popular among orthodox Catholics to pooh-pooh the idea that the Eucharist is a community
meal. But it is! The problem is that people fail to appreciate the depths to which this communion
among believers goes. We’re not just hanging out. We are being nourished by the one Body and
Spirit of Jesus; we are united with one another by our union with him. That’s why the sign of the
Peace is really a profound moment in the liturgy – even if (I know, I know) it can be done
inappropriately.
***
All of this takes us to the depths of the commandment to love God and love our neighbor. In fact,
that commandment, the very heart of the Christian life, sums up Eucharistic communion. It is a
command to live Eucharistic communion. The Church’s discipline surrounding communion – the
necessity of being visibly a member of the Church, and of not being in mortal sin, that is, of being
in friendship with God – is precisely an affirmation that Eucharistic communion means nothing if
we don’t live that communion, with God, and with those who are in communion with God through
Jesus (i.e., the Church), in the rest of our life.
***
How can we practice devotion to this Communion? First, of course, by our love of the Eucharist:
by daily Mass, by spiritual communions (even a fervent prayer of “give us this day our daily
bread”), by making visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
But again, the point is that Eucharistic communion doesn’t make sense unless it expresses itself in
the rest of life. Two ideas.
First, we can practice devotion to communion by obeying the law. Strange idea! But the Church
is very insistent that the only reason for laws within the Church is to nurture communion. We have
liturgical rules, for example, as a vivid expression that we do not celebrate the liturgy alone, but
in union with the rest of the Church.
Law does two things: first, it means submitting my view to someone else’s. There are lots of non-
legal ways to do this, of course, but see how obeying law is a way of expressing that mine is not
the only opinion in the world that matters.
Second, it means submitting myself to the good of the community, doing what works for everyone,
instead of just what works for me.
Think about this, for example, the next time you get in the car . . . .
***
Second, communion is precisely the key to the Church’s “preferential option for the poor.” This is
what Mother Teresa meant by her strange claim that she saw the poor as “Christ in his most
distressing disguise”: she saw that union with Christ means union with every human being, for
whom he died.
But we express that union most powerfully when we live it out in union with those who have
nothing to give to us in return. “If you love those who benefit you . . . do not even the tax collectors
do that?”
***
How do you live communion?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE COMMUNION, EUCHARIST, SACRAMENTS

EUCHARIST: THE SACRIFICIAL LIFE

FEBRUARY 12, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT
 Each of the sacraments provides a way to think of
the whole Christian life. In the past two weeks, we have seen how Baptism helps us think of “the
life of rebirth” and Confirmation “the apostolic life.” The Eucharist, greatest of the sacraments,
actually gives us two central images, according to the two things we do with the Eucharist: sacrifice
and communion. (Technically, the Eucharist gives us an exterior act, sacrifice, because Christ
becomes present on the altar, and not only in our souls.) These two aspects of the Eucharist, like
all of the sacraments and all of the Christian life, are inextricably entwined. But we can talk about
them one by one: sacrifice this week, communion next week.
***
There is some confusion about what “sacrifice” means. In modern English, sacrifice means
something like pain for a higher good. If we work hard to go to college, we call that sacrifice.
But when the Church calls the Eucharist a sacrifice, that just isn’t the way we are using the word.
(It’s unfortunate that we have to do this – to give a Catholic definition of words that is different
from the “normal” definition. But we live in a culture that doesn’t understand worship, so there
are going to be problems of language.)
The Catholic definition of sacrifice differs from the normal English one in two ways. First,
sacrifice is not for just any good. By sacrifice we mean “only for God.” Sacrifice is what you only
do for God. In that sense, “sacrificing for college” is just a contradiction.
Second, pain isn’t the point. For God is the point. Sacrifice does not always involve pain. In the
Bible, some sacrifices are holocausts – up in smoke – but some are feasts, the very opposite of
pain. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, because it involves both death and resurrection, is actually
both: both pain and celebration. But what makes something a sacrifice, in the Bible, in Augustine,
in Thomas Aquinas, in the Catholic understanding, is that we do it for God.
The sacrificial life is a life ordered to God.
***
The heart of sacrifice is thanksgiving – which is why the most important name for the Eucharist is
not “communion,” but “Eucharist,” the Greek word for thanksgiving. At Mass we give thanks to
God: for his goodness that we read about in the Bible, for all of creation, for our lives (both the
nice things and the hard things), and above all for the grace he pours out on us in Jesus.
Jesus left us a “memorial” of his passion: he left us a way, a concrete practice, of giving thanks.
The heart of the Eucharist is simply to recall what he has done, and do the thing, the sacrifice, that
he gave us as the perfect way of calling to mind and giving thanks for his goodness to us.
***
Sacrifice is not about pain. It is about justice – “it is right and just.” It is about doing what is right,
what we ought to do. “Make justice your sacrifice,” says the Psalm (4:5), and the refrain runs
throughout the Bible, in a thousand ways. When we do what is right, purely because it is the right
thing to do, we make justice our sacrifice. We give thanks to God by embracing the life and the
duties he has given us. (We deny thanks to God by refusing the duties he has given us.)
This is where pain is relevant to sacrifice. Often our duties, the right thing, is not what we feel like
doing. A right sense of mortification focuses not on how we can hurt ourselves – which is hardly
part of an attitude of thanksgiving – but on doing the right thing even when it hurts. It is good, and
right, to rejoice at the suffering when we know that it is because we are doing what is right. The
pain – even the little pains, like getting up to help when we’ve just put our feet up – are a reminder,
not of the goodness of pain (pain is not good in itself!), but of the goodness of doing what is right
and just.
We could make our life thanksgiving, make our life Eucharistic, just by adopting that line from
the Mass, “It is right and just!”
***
Thanksgiving longs for expression. The tradition calls the most important part “interior sacrifice”:
truly being thankful. But we physical beings need to express that through “exterior sacrifices”: acts
of thanksgiving.
How do you give thanks in your day? How do you make your life a sacrifice of praise?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE EUCHARIST, SACRAMENTS, SACRIFICE

THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION: THE APOSTOLIC LIFE

FEBRUARY 5, 2014 3 COMMENTS
 Though the Church’s teaching on Confirmation is
remarkably scant, we can find in it an entire spirituality.
(Scroll down to the three canons here to see the entire magisterial teaching. A current school of
thought, led by Josef Ratzinger, would like to minimize this teaching even further, in the name of
ecumenical outreach. But I will present the medieval development of the doctrine, which I think
you will find a lovely complement to Vatican II.)
***
The central act of Confirmation has the Bishop (or his representative) mark the confirmand’s
forehead with scented oil, or chrism. Both the Bishop and the act of anointing suggest a
commissioning, a task. The Latin name “confirmation,” more specific than the older Greek name
“chrismation,” says that this oil (this chrism) is there to strengthen (“confirm”) us for the mission.
The Bishop traditionally anoints the confirmand with the sign of the cross. He now carries the
cross on his forehead, wherever he goes. The medieval crusaders wore a cross on their back – the
English called them “crouchbacks,” “crouch” being a variant of “cross” – to mark them as soldiers
for Christ. Confirmation is one of the sacraments that you can only receive once: once a
crouchback, always a crouchback; the cross marks your forehead forever, to your glory or to your
shame.
The medievals saw this as the sacrament of evangelization. You are sent to represent Christ and
his Church to the world. It is thus appropriate, though not necessary, that the confirmand be
approaching adulthood: now you go out into the world.
But the cross on your forehead symbolizes what kind of witness you are to make: principally a
silent witness. You are not anointed to be a big talker, but to show people what a Christian is. Like
the crouchback, you wear it on your back, not on your big mouth: they see what you do, not what
you say.
The oil used is scented, usually with balsam. The medieval tradition likes this even better. You are
not supposed to talk like a Christian – you are supposed to smell like one! There should be a certain
something, something that permeates who you are. Romano Guardini, I think, said, they should be
able to tell you are a Christian from the way you climb a tree. I think we’re supposed to laugh . .
.but the point is, Confirmation commissions you to be a witness by everything you do.
Some of the new closing blessings at Mass are, in my opinion, kind of hokey, maybe a bit
reductive, but it is worth pointing out somehow that the Mass ends with (and, in fact, in the West
is named by) the word “sent”: ite, missa est can be translated simply, “go, you are sent” (or more
literally: “this is the sending”).
***
Most important, though, Confirmation is a sacrament. It is not a mission we take on ourselves, and
not one we are sent out to do by our own power. As the oil seeps into our skin (see my post on this
tomorrow), so confirmation strengthens us. We are meant to rely on his power, the power of Christ.
We are marked with the sign of the Cross, both because we bear witness to Christ, and because it
is Christ who gives us the strength to do it. The strength he gives is the strength of the Cross. The
principal witnesses are the martyrs, who did not impose the faith, but suffered for it – and who
were willing to face the end of their strength in the knowledge that Jesus is stronger even than
death.
***
Confirmation is, in one sense, a filling out of our Baptism. We can practice devotion to
Confirmation by literally wearing a Baptismal garment: a cross, a metal, a scapular. But perhaps
we would express the true meaning of Confirmation better by wearing our garment hidden under
our clothes: a reminder that our witness is to be far more profound than a bumper sticker.
In another sense, since Confirmation strengthens us when we are tempted to hide the light of Christ,
it is like Confession. And so, like Confession, we can practice devotion to Confirmation through
little acts of penance: in this case, little reminders to ourselves that we need to be tough, willing to
suffer for the truth of the Gospel.
Always we can make the sign of the Cross, and pray “come, Holy Spirit,” to enlighten and
strengthen us for witness.
Then we can be as Jesus:
“Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty
ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness” (Ps. 45:3-4).
***
How do you keep alive your call to be an apostolic witness?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE CONFIRMATION, SACRAMENTS

THE BAPTISMAL LIFE

JANUARY 29, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT
 We would do much to rediscover the true Christian
spirituality if we thought of all of our life as a living out of our Baptism. Indeed, this is probably
the “anointing” – in Greek, the christening, or Christ-ian-ing – that John talks about:
“The anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any
man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him; that, when
he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John
2:27-28).
This is the same Apostle John, of course, who gives us this exchange between Jesus and
Nicodemus: “Amen, amen, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God . . . . Amen, amen, I say to you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5).
But how do we “abide in this anointing”? How do we actually live according to this most bizarre
claim that we are “born again” by Baptism ?
***
In fact, the Church gives us a wonderful frequent devotion to Baptism so common that we almost
overlook it: the sign of the Cross. A whole spirituality is carried in this simple little devotion.
The main place of the sign of the Cross is at the holy water stoup, as we enter the Church. Notice,
in fact, that the little prayer we say as we make the sign of the Cross is simply the Baptismal
formula: “Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” These words are meant to call to mind our baptism, which is why
they are attached to the holy water: nothing more nor less than a sacramental reminder of the waters
of Baptism.
(Thomas Aquinas, in fact, says that all the power attached to the sacramentals is in their devotional
power in reminding us of the real Seven Sacraments. The power of holy water is devotion to
Baptism.)
***
Baptism is our entrance into the Church. Yes, it “washes away sin” – though the point of the John
the Baptist stories is to remind us that first, Baptism was a sign of repentance, of beginning anew.
The difference between John’s Baptism and the Baptism of Jesus is that Christian Baptism gives
us the spiritual power to truly begin anew. That means leaving behind our former ways – and thus
“washing away sin” – but more powerfully, it means entering into Christ: the anointing, and
plunging into Christ.
Baptism only “washes away” by “pouring in” divine life.
It means, above all, entering into the sacramental life of Christ’s Church. Baptism gives us access
to the sacraments. It is the beginning of the sacramental life. That’s why we remind ourselves of
our Baptism when we enter the Church: it’s a delightfully literal symbol that Baptism is the way
we “enter” the Church of Jesus.
(It is also nice, in light of the Great Commission we quoted above, to make the sign of the Cross
as we leave Church: we are sent to “teach all nations” and draw them to Baptism, to life in the
Church. Our life outside of the Church is about preparing ourselves and others to enter the life of
the Church.)
***
The physical sign we use, along with water, is a cross, drawn on our own body. (We can remind
ourselves of this by making this cross actually look like a cross, not a sloppy hand wave.) The sign
of the Cross reminds us that we are united to Christ. In Baptism we have died and risen with him.
Our sufferings are united to his sufferings – and we are reminded that the divine love will include
real suffering. But union with his suffering also means resurrection, the power of God that draws
us through and beyond suffering. To mark Christ’s cross on our own body is no small thing!
But the prayer we say, along with recalling our Baptism, recalls the spiritual heights to which we
are called, the reason the Cross is worth it. We are called through the Cross into the very life and
love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Abide in that anointing. Live your Baptism.
***
What does the sign of the Cross mean to you?
NAMES FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE BAPTISM, SACRAMENTS

THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE: KEEPING OUR EYES ON GOD

JANUARY 22, 2014 LEAVE A COMMENT
 In recent weeks we considered several names for
the spiritual life as it relates to various persons of the Trinity, and then we considered St. Louis de
Montfort’s four different names for the spiritual life as it relates to Mary. Today we begin a series
that will consider how the sacraments can serve as names for the spiritual life. All of these things
name the same basic reality: our incorporation in Christ, our sharing in the life of God.
But they highlight it in different ways. This is important because in fact it is easy for us to lose
track of what the spiritual life is really about.
***
The two basic poles of the spiritual life are God as our destination and God as our means of
reaching that destination. “Charity,” or divine love, is the theological name for loving God as the
ultimate good toward which everything is aimed. Grace is the theological word for the
transformation of the person by contact with God: the work God does in us.
Our constant temptation is to sink into ourselves. We replace charity with love of self when we
focus on experience, as if the real point of the spiritual life was to have visions, or warm fuzzy
feelings – or no feelings: spiritual dryness can be idolized too. In fact, I fear that there’s a certain
kind of pseudo-mysticism about where people feel like if they space out, especially in the presence
of the Blessed Sacrament, that emptying of the mind is the presence of God. Liberal Catholics call
this “centering prayer,” and conservative Catholics know it must be bad. But I think a lot of
conservative, or quasi-orthodox Catholics, also think silence itself is prayer: a dangerous incursion
of Buddhism, a loss of the fire of charity.
But so too can be the fad of journaling. Now, Mother Teresa herself, a real model of divine charity,
seems to have liked both silence and journaling. But what are we journaling about? Are we gazing
at ourselves in the mirror? Or are we creating a God in our own image, describing the God we love
in our own terms, rather than his?
To love truly, we have to keep our eyes on God. Scripture can be a helpful way to do that, which
is why the tradition is so in love with the Psalms and various kinds of lectio divina. But in any
case, the point is, Catholicism urges us to look beyond ourselves. The true Christian spiritual life
maintains charity by thinking about the various names for the spiritual life we have been
considering.
***
The same is true of grace. The constant temptation is to think either that we do it all by our own
power (or by the human power of our community) or that we cannot do it – despair is just another
angle on trusting in our own powers. When we lose a clear sense that the spiritual life is the work
of the divine Trinity, or of the Lord, incarnate in Mary’s womb, true spirituality is replaced.
On the one hand, we focus on our own strength, and begin to exalt in what we do for ourselves
instead of what God does for us. But on the other hand, since our own strength can’t get us very
far, we begin to set our sights too low, as if the things we can do on our own are the only
possibilities of the spiritual life. The spiritual life without an intense emphasis on divine grace
becomes hardly any spiritual life at all.
***
In the next several weeks we will go through the seven sacraments, considering the richness of
naming the spiritual life by reference to Baptism, or Confirmation, or the Eucharist (either sacrifice
or communion), or Penance, or the Anointing of the Sick, or the Priesthood, or Marriage. In fact,
each of these sacraments provides an excellent description of the spiritual life as a whole.
But first, briefly, what is a sacrament? Sacraments are signs that give what they signify. Baptism
is a symbol of spiritual washing – and it does in fact spiritually wash us.
Sacraments provides an intense focus on grace. Just as touching the hem of Jesus’s robe made
clear that grace came from him, not from our own power, so too with the sacraments. The
sacramental life means trusting in his power.
And the sacraments make vivid that the spiritual life means coming out of ourselves in pursuit of
the Good God. They are profound signs of the spiritual reality of Christianity.
***
How do you find nourishment through the sacraments?

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT THE SITUATION OF MEN IN THE

MODERN WORLD

4. To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs
of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language
intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men
ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to
the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live, its
explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics. Some of the main
features of the modern world can be sketched as follows.

Today, the human race is involved in a new stage of history. Profound and rapid changes
are spreading by degrees around the whole world. Triggered by the intelligence and
creative energies of man, these changes recoil upon him, upon his decisions and desires,
both individual and collective, and upon his manner of thinking and acting with respect
to things and to people. Hence we can already speak of a true cultural and social
transformation, one which has repercussions on man's religious life as well.

As happens in any crisis of growth, this transformation has brought serious difficulties
in its wake. Thus while man extends his power in every direction, he does not always
succeed in subjecting it to his own welfare. Striving to probe more profoundly into the
deeper recesses of his own mind, he frequently appears more unsure of himself.
Gradually and more precisely he lays bare the laws of society, only to be paralyzed by
uncertainty about the direction to give it.

Never has the human race enjoyed such an abundance of wealth, resources and
economic power, and yet a huge proportion of the worlds citizens are still tormented by
hunger and poverty, while countless numbers suffer from total illiteracy. Never before
has man had so keen an understanding of freedom, yet at the same time new forms of
social and psychological slavery make their appearance. Although the world of today
has a very vivid awareness of its unity and of how one man depends on another in
needful solidarity, it is most grievously torn into opposing camps by conflicting forces.
For political, social, economic, racial and ideological disputes still continue bitterly,
and with them the peril of a war which would reduce everything to ashes. True, there is
a growing exchange of ideas, but the very words by which key concepts are expressed
take on quite different meanings in diverse ideological systems. Finally, man
painstakingly searches for a better world, without a corresponding spiritual
advancement.

Influenced by such a variety of complexities, many of our contemporaries are kept from
accurately identifying permanent values and adjusting them properly to fresh
discoveries. As a result, buffeted between hope and anxiety and pressing one another
with questions about the present course of events, they are burdened down with
uneasiness. This same course of events leads men to look for answers; indeed, it forces
them to do so.

5. Today's spiritual agitation and the changing conditions of life are part of a broader
and deeper revolution. As a result of the latter, intellectual formation is ever
increasingly based on the mathematical and natural sciences and on those dealing with
man himself, while in the practical order the technology which stems from these
sciences takes on mounting importance.

This scientific spirit has a new kind of impact on the cultural sphere and on modes of
thought. Technology is now transforming the face of the earth, and is already trying to
master outer space. To a certain extent, the human intellect is also broadening its
dominion over time: over the past by means of historical knowledge; over the future,
by the art of projecting and by planning.

Advances in biology, psychology, and the social sciences not only bring men hope of
improved self-knowledge; in conjunction with technical methods, they are helping men
exert direct influence on the life of social groups.

At the same time, the human race is giving steadily-increasing thought to forecasting
and regulating its own population growth. History itself speeds along on so rapid a
course that an individual person can scarcely keep abreast of it. The destiny of the
human community has become all of a piece, where once the various groups of men
had a kind of private history of their own.

Thus, the human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality to a more
dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has arisen a new series of problems,
a series as numerous as can be, calling for efforts of analysis and synthesis.

6. By this very circumstance, the traditional local communities such as families, clans,
tribes, villages, various groups and associations stemming from social contacts,
experience more thorough changes every day.

The industrial type of society is gradually being spread, leading some nations to
economic affluence, and radically transforming ideas and social conditions established
for centuries.

Likewise, the cult and pursuit of city living has grown, either because of a multiplication
of cities and their inhabitants, or by a transplantation of city life to rural settings.

New and more efficient media of social communication are contributing to the
knowledge of events; by setting off chain reactions they are giving the swiftest and
widest possible circulation to styles of thought and feeling.

It is also noteworthy how many men are being induced to migrate on various counts,
and are thereby changing their manner of life. Thus a man's ties with his fellows are
constantly being multiplied, and at the same time "socialization" brings further ties,
without however always promoting appropriate personal development and truly
personal relationships.

This kind of evolution can be seen more clearly in those nations which already enjoy
the conveniences of economic and technological progress, though it is also astir among
peoples still striving for such progress and eager to secure for themselves the advantages
of an industrialized and urbanized society. These peoples, especially those among them
who are attached to older traditions, are simultaneously undergoing a movement toward
more mature and personal exercise of liberty.

7. A change in attitudes and in human structures frequently calls accepted values into
question, especially among young people, who have grown impatient on more than one
occasion, and indeed become rebels in their distress. Aware of their own influence in
the life of society, they want a part in it sooner. This frequently causes parents and
educators to experience greater difficulties day by day in discharging their tasks. The
institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as handed down from previous
generations do not always seem to be well adapted to the contemporary state of affairs;
hence arises an upheaval in the manner and even the norms of behavior.

Finally, these new conditions have their impact on religion. On the one hand a more
critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical view of the world and from the
superstitions which still circulate purifies it and exacts day by day a more personal and
explicit adherence to faith. As a result many persons are achieving a more vivid sense
of God. On the other hand, growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in
practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of
them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such
things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new
humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the teachings of
philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of
the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people
are shaken.

8. This development coming so rapidly and often in a disorderly fashion, combined with
keener awareness itself of the inequalities in the world beget or intensify contradictions
and imbalances.

Within the individual person there develops rather frequently an imbalance between an
intellect which is modern in practical matters and a theoretical system of thought which
can neither master the sum total of its ideas, nor arrange them adequately into a
synthesis. Likewise an imbalance arises between a concern for practicality and
efficiency, and the demands of moral conscience; also very often between the
conditions of collective existence and the requisites of personal thought, and even of
contemplation. At length there develops an imbalance between specialized human
activity and a comprehensive view of reality.

As for the family, discord results from population, economic and social pressures, or
from difficulties which arise between succeeding generations, or from new social
relationships between men and women.

Differences crop up too between races and between various kinds of social orders;
between wealthy nations and those which are less influential or are needy; finally,
between international institutions born of the popular desire for peace, and the ambition
to propagate one's own ideology, as well as collective greeds existing in nations or other
groups.

What results is mutual distrust, enmities, conflicts and hardships. Of such is man at once
the cause and the victim.

9. Meanwhile the conviction grows not only that humanity can and should increasingly
consolidate its control over creation, but even more, that it devolves on humanity to
establish a political, social and economic order which will growingly serve man and
help individuals as well as groups to affirm and develop the dignity proper to them.

As a result many persons are quite aggressively demanding those benefits of which with
vivid awareness they judge themselves to be deprived either through injustice or
unequal distribution. Nations on the road to progress, like those recently made
independent, desire to participate in the goods of modern civilization, not only in the
political field but also economically, and to play their part freely on the world scene.
Still they continually fall behind while very often their economic and other dependence
on wealthier nations advances more rapidly.

People hounded by hunger call upon those better off. Where they have not yet won it,
women claim for themselves an equity with men before the law and in fact. Laborers
and farmers seek not only to provide for the necessities of life, but to develop the gifts
of their personality by their labors and indeed to take part in regulating economic,
social, political and cultural life. Now, for the first time in human history all people are
convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and actually can be extended to
everyone.

Still, beneath all these demands lies a deeper and more widespread longing: persons
and societies thirst for a full and free life worthy of man; one in which they can subject
to their own welfare all that the modern world can offer them so abundantly. In addition,
nations try harder every day to bring about a kind of universal community.
Since all these things are so, the modern world shows itself at once powerful and weak,
capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before it lies the path to freedom or to
slavery, to progress or retreat, to brotherhood or hatred. Moreover, man is becoming
aware that it is his responsibility to guide aright the forces which he has unleashed and
which can enslave him or minister to him. That is why he is putting questions to himself.

10. The truth is that the imbalances under which the modern world labors are linked
with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the heart of man. For in man himself
many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on the one hand, as a creature he
experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways; on the other he feels himself to be
boundless in his desires and summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions
he is constantly forced to choose among them and renounce some. Indeed, as a weak
and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to do what he would.(1)
Hence he suffers from internal divisions, and from these flow so many and such great
discords in society. No doubt many whose lives are infected with a practical materialism
are blinded against any sharp insight into this kind of dramatic situation; or else,
weighed down by unhappiness they are prevented from giving the matter any thought.
Thinking they have found serenity in an interpretation of reality everywhere proposed
these days, many look forward to a genuine and total emancipation of humanity
wrought solely by human effort; they are convinced that the future rule of man over the
earth will satisfy every desire of his heart. Nor are there lacking men who despair of
any meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who think that human existence is
devoid of any inherent significance and strive to confer a total meaning on it by their
own ingenuity alone.

Nevertheless, in the face of the modern development of the world, the number
constantly swells of the people who raise the most basic questions or recognize them
with a new sharpness: what is man? What is this sense of sorrow, of evil, of death,
which continues to exist despite so much progress? What purpose have these victories
purchased at so high a cost? What can man offer to society, what can he expect from it?
What follows this earthly life?

The Church firmly believes that Christ, who died and was raised up for all,(2) can
through His Spirit offer man the light and the strength to measure up to his supreme
destiny. Nor has any other name under the heaven been given to man by which it is
fitting for him to be saved.(3) She likewise holds that in her most benign Lord and
Master can be found the key, the focal point and the goal of man, as well as of all human
history. The Church also maintains that beneath all changes there are many realities
which do not change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, Who is the
same yesterday and today, yes and forever.(4) Hence under the light of Christ, the image
of the unseen God, the firstborn of every creature,(5) the council wishes to speak to all
men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding the solution
to the outstanding problems of our time.

CHAPTER IV
THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD

40. Everything we have said about the dignity of the human person, and about the
human community and the profound meaning of human activity, lays the foundation
for the relationship between the Church and the world, and provides the basis for
dialogue between them.(1) In this chapter, presupposing everything which has already
been said by this council concerning the mystery of the Church, we must now consider
this same Church inasmuch as she exists in the world, living and acting with it.

Coming forth from the eternal Father's love,(2) founded in time by Christ the Redeemer
and made one in the Holy Spirit,(3) the Church has a saving and an eschatological
purpose which can be fully attained only in the future world. But she is already present
in this world, and is composed of men, that is, of members of the earthly city who have
a call to form the family of God's children during the present history of the human race,
and to keep increasing it until the Lord returns. United on behalf of heavenly values and
enriched by them, this family has been "constituted and structured as a society in this
world"(4) by Christ, and is equipped "by appropriate means for visible and social
union."(5) Thus the Church, at once "a visible association and a spiritual
community,"(6) goes forward together with humanity and experiences the same earthly
lot which the world does. She serves as a leaven and as a kind of soul for human
society(7) as it is to be renewed in Christ and transformed into God's family.

That the earthly and the heavenly city penetrate each other is a fact accessible to faith
alone; it remains a mystery of human history, which sin will keep in great disarray until
the splendor of God's sons, is fully revealed. Pursuing the saving purpose which is
proper to her, the Church does not only communicate divine life to men but in some
way casts the reflected light of that life over the entire earth, most of all by its healing
and elevating impact on the dignity of the person, by the way in which it strengthens
the seams of human society and imbues the everyday activity of men with a deeper
meaning and importance. Thus through her individual matters and her whole
community, the Church believes she can contribute greatly toward making the family
of man and its history more human.

In addition, the Catholic Church gladly holds in high esteem the things which other
Christian Churches and ecclesial communities have done or are doing cooperatively by
way of achieving the same goal. At the same time, she is convinced that she can be
abundantly and variously helped by the world in the matter of preparing the ground for
the Gospel. This help she gains from the talents and industry of individuals and from
human society as a whole. The council now sets forth certain general principles for the
proper fostering of this mutual exchange and assistance in concerns which are in some
way common to the world and the Church.

41. Modern man is on the road to a more thorough development of his own personality,
and to a growing discovery and vindication of his own rights. Since it has been entrusted
to the Church to reveal the mystery of God, Who is the ultimate goal of man, she opens
up to man at the same time the meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth
about himself. The Church truly knows that only God, Whom she serves, meets the
deepest longings of the human heart, which is never fully satisfied by what this world
has to offer.

She also knows that man is constantly worked upon by God's spirit, and hence can never
be altogether indifferent to the problems of religion. The experience of past ages proves
this, as do numerous indications in our own times. For man will always yearn to know,
at least in an obscure way, what is the meaning of his life, of his activity, of his death.
The very presence of the Church recalls these problems to his mind. But only God, Who
created man to His own image and ransomed him from sin, provides the most adequate
answer to the questions, and this He does through what He has revealed in Christ His
Son, Who became man. Whoever follows after Christ, the perfect man, becomes
himself more of a man. For by His incarnation the Father's Word assumed, and
sanctified through His cross and resurrection, the whole of man, body and soul, and
through that totality the whole of nature created by God for man's use.

Thanks to this belief, the Church can anchor the dignity of human nature against all
tides of opinion, for example those which undervalue the human body or idolize it. By
no human law can the personal dignity and liberty of man be so aptly safeguarded as by
the Gospel of Christ which has been entrusted to the Church. For this Gospel announces
and proclaims the freedom of the sons of God, and repudiates all the bondage which
ultimately results from sin.(8) (cf. Rom. 8:14-17); it has a sacred reverence for the
dignity of conscience and its freedom of choice, constantly advises that all human
talents be employed in God's service and men's, and, finally, commends all to the
charity of all (cf. Matt. 22:39).(9)

This agrees with the basic law of the Christian dispensation. For though the same God
is Savior and Creator, Lord of human history as well as of salvation history, in the divine
arrangement itself, the rightful autonomy of the creature, and particularly of man is not
withdrawn, but is rather re-established in its own dignity and strengthened in it.
The Church, therefore, by virtue of the Gospel committed to her, proclaims the rights
of man; she acknowledges and greatly esteems the dynamic movements of today by
which these rights are everywhere fostered. Yet these movements must be penetrated
by the spirit of the Gospel and protected against any kind of false autonomy. For we are
tempted to think that our personal rights are fully ensured only when we are exempt
from every requirement of divine law. But this way lies not the maintenance of the
dignity of the human person, but its annihilation.

42. The union of the human family is greatly fortified and fulfilled by the unity, founded
on Christ,(10) of the family of God's sons.

Christ, to be sure, gave His Church no proper mission in the political, economic or
social order. The purpose which He set before her is a religious one.(11) But out of this
religious mission itself come a function, a light and an energy which can serve to
structure and consolidate the human community according to the divine law. As a
matter of fact, when circumstances of time and place produce the need, she can and
indeed should initiate activities on behalf of all men, especially those designed for the
needy, such as the works of mercy and similar undertakings.

The Church recognizes that worthy elements are found in today's social movements,
especially an evolution toward unity, a process of wholesome socialization and of
association in civic and economic realms. The promotion of unity belongs to the
innermost nature of the Church, for she is, "thanks to her relationship with Christ, a
sacramental sign and an instrument of intimate union with God, and of the unity of the
whole human race."(12) Thus she shows the world that an authentic union, social and
external, results from a union of minds and hearts, namely from that faith and charity
by which her own unity is unbreakably rooted in the Holy Spirit. For the force which
the Church can inject into the modern society of man consists in that faith and charity
put into vital practice, not in any external dominion exercised by merely human means.

Moreover, since in virtue of her mission and nature she is bound to no particular form
of human culture, nor to any political, economic or social system, the Church by her
very universality can be a very close bond between diverse human communities and
nations, provided these trust her and truly acknowledge her right to true freedom in
fulfilling her mission. For this reason, the Church admonishes her own sons, but also
humanity as a whole, to overcome all strife between nations and race in this family
spirit of God's children, an in the same way, to give internal strength to human
associations which are just.

With great respect, therefore, this council regards all the true, good and just elements
inherent in the very wide variety of institutions which the human race has established
for itself and constantly continues to establish. The council affirms, moreover, that the
Church is willing to assist and promote all these institutions to the extent that such a
service depends on her and can be associated with her mission. She has no fiercer desire
than that in pursuit of the welfare of all she may be able to develop herself freely under
any kind of government which grants recognition to the basic rights of person and
family, to the demands of the common good and to the free exercise of her own mission.

43. This council exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their
earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit. They are mistaken
who, knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come,(13)
think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting
that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure up to these duties,
each according to his proper vocation.(14) Nor, on the contrary, are they any less wide
of the mark who think that religion consists in acts of worship alone and in the discharge
of certain moral obligations, and who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly
affairs in such a way as to imply that these are altogether divorced from the religious
life. This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to
be counted among the more serious errors of our age. Long since, the Prophets of the
Old Testament fought vehemently against this scandal(15) and even more so did Jesus
Christ Himself in the New Testament threaten it with grave punishments.(16)
Therefore, let there be no false opposition between professional and social activities on
the one part, and religious life on the other. The Christian who neglects his temporal
duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal
salvation. Christians should rather rejoice that, following the example of Christ Who
worked as an artisan, they are free to give proper exercise to all their earthly activities
and to their humane, domestic, professional, social and technical enterprises by
gathering them into one vital synthesis with religious values, under whose supreme
direction all things are harmonized unto God's glory.

Secular duties and activities belong properly although not exclusively to laymen.
Therefore acting as citizens in the world, whether individually or socially, they will
keep the laws proper to each discipline, and labor to equip themselves with a genuine
expertise in their various fields. They will gladly work with men seeking the same goals.
Acknowledging the demands of faith and endowed with its force, they will
unhesitatingly devise new enterprises, where they are appropriate, and put them into
action. Laymen should also know that it is generally the function of their well-formed
Christian conscience to see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city;
from priests they may look for spiritual light and nourishment. Let the layman not
imagine that his pastors are always such experts, that to every problem which arises,
however complicated, they can readily give him a concrete solution, or even that such
is their mission. Rather, enlightened by Christian wisdom and giving close attention to
the teaching authority of the Church,(17) let the layman take on his own distinctive role.
Often enough the Christian view of things will itself suggest some specific solution in
certain circumstances. Yet it happens rather frequently, and legitimately so, that with
equal sincerity some of the faithful will disagree with others on a given matter. Even
against the intentions of their proponents, however, solutions proposed on one side or
another may be easily confused by many people with the Gospel message. Hence it is
necessary for people to remember that no one is allowed in the aforementioned
situations to appropriate the Church's authority for his opinion. They should always try
to enlighten one another through honest discussion, preserving mutual charity and
caring above all for the common good.

Since they have an active role to play in the whole life of the Church, laymen are not
only bound to penetrate the world with a Christian spirit, but are also called to be
witnesses to Christ in all things in the midst of human society.

Bishops, to whom is assigned the task of ruling the Church of God, should, together
with their priests, so preach the news of Christ that all the earthly activities of the
faithful will be bathed in the light of the Gospel. All pastors should remember too that
by their daily conduct and concern(18) they are revealing the face of the Church to the
world, and men will judge the power and truth of the Christian message thereby. By
their lives and speech, in union with Religious and their faithful, may they demonstrate
that even now the Church by her presence alone and by all the gifts which she contains,
is an unspent fountain of those virtues which the modern world needs the most.

By unremitting study they should fit themselves to do their part in establishing dialogue
with the world and with men of all shades of opinion. Above all let them take to heart
the words which this council has spoken: "Since humanity today increasingly moves
toward civil, economic and social unity, it is more than ever necessary that priests, with
joint concern and energy, and under the guidance of the bishops and the supreme
pontiff, erase every cause of division, so that the whole human race may be led to the
unity of God's family."(19)

Although by the power of the Holy Spirit the Church will remain the faithful spouse of
her Lord and will never cease to be the sign of salvation on earth, still she is very well
aware that among her members,(20) both clerical and lay, some have been unfaithful to
the Spirit of God during the course of many centuries; in the present age, too, it does
not escape the Church how great a distance lies between the message she offers and the
human failings of those to whom the Gospel is entrusted. Whatever be the judgement
of history on these defects, we ought to be conscious of them, and struggle against them
energetically, lest they inflict harm on spread of the Gospel. The Church also realizes
that in working out her relationship with the world she always has great need of the
ripening which comes with the experience of the centuries. Led by the Holy Spirit,
Mother Church unceasingly exhorts her sons "to purify and renew themselves so that
the sign of Christ can shine more brightly on the face of the Church."(21)

44. Just as it is in the world's interest to acknowledge the Church as an historical reality,
and to recognize her good influence, so the Church herself knows how richly she has
profited by the history and development of humanity.

The experience of past ages, the progress of the sciences, and the treasures hidden in
the various forms of human culture, by all of which the nature of man himself is more
clearly revealed and new roads to truth are opened, these profit the Church, too. For,
from the beginning of her history she has learned to express the message of Christ with
the help of the ideas and terminology of various philosophers, and and has tried to
clarify it with their wisdom, too. Her purpose has been to adapt the Gospel to the grasp
of all as well as to the needs of the learned, insofar as such was appropriate. Indeed this
accommodated preaching of the revealed word ought to remain the law of all
evangelization. For thus the ability to express Christ's message in its own way is
developed in each nation, and at the same time there is fostered a living exchange
between the Church and the diverse cultures of people.(22) To promote such exchange,
especially in our days, the Church requires the special help of those who live in the
world, are versed in different institutions and specialties, and grasp their innermost
significance in the eyes of both believers and unbelievers. With the help of the Holy
Spirit, it is the task of the entire People of God, especially pastors and theologians, to
hear, distinguish and interpret the many voices of our age, and to judge them in the light
of the divine word, so that revealed truth can always be more deeply penetrated, better
understood and set forth to greater advantage.

Since the Church has a visible and social structure as a sign of her unity in Christ, she
can and ought to be enriched by the development of human social life, not that there is
any lack in the constitution given her by Christ, but that she can understand it more
penetratingly, express it better, and adjust it more successfully to our times. Moreover,
she gratefully understands that in her community life no less than in her individual sons,
she receives a variety of helps from men of every rank and condition, for whoever
promotes the human community at the family level, culturally, in its economic, social
and political dimensions, both nationally and internationally, such a one, according to
God's design, is contributing greatly to the Church as well, to the extent that she depends
on things outside herself. Indeed, the Church admits that she has greatly profited and
still profits from the antagonism of those who oppose or who persecute her.(23)

45. While helping the world and receiving many benefits from it, the Church has a
single intention: that God's kingdom may come, and that the salvation of the whole
human race may come to pass. For every benefit which the People of God during its
earthly pilgrimage can offer to the human family stems from the fact that the Church is
"the universal sacrament of salvation",(24) simultaneously manifesting and exercising
the mystery of God's love.

For God's Word, by whom all things were made, was Himself made flesh so that as
perfect man He might save all men and sum up all things in Himself. The Lord is the
goal of human history, the focal point of the longings of history and of civilization, the
center of the human race, the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings.(25)
He it is Whom the Father raised from the dead, lifted on high and stationed at His right
hand, making Him judge of the living and the dead. Enlivened and united in His Spirit,
we journey toward the consummation of human history, one which fully accords with
the counsel of God's love: "To reestablish all things in Christ, both those in the heavens
and those on the earth" (Eph. 11:10).

The Lord Himself speaks: "Behold I come quickly! And my reward is with me, to render
to each one according to his works. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,
the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:12-13).