Letters 02.18.18

Readers respond to Register articles.

(photo: Register Files)

Informative Reporting

This is just a quick note to thank you, EWTN and the National Catholic Register, for informative Catholic reporting and for a forum to discuss issues as they relate to our Catholic Church.

So much is going on in today’s world, with so much of it dedicated to left-leaning and secularistic views of the world.

It is a breath of fresh air to have a resource that gives not just one side, but each side. 

Your reporting is upstanding, informative and courageous. It is a Godsend to have your organization and people like Raymond Arroyo and Ed Pentin, and many other bloggers [and writers], reporting and offering insights that we might not otherwise have access to.

Your support of and dedication to the Roman Catholic faith is so appreciated.

         Victor Avolio

         Auburn, Washington

 

Spousal Connection

Relevant to “American Saints’ True Thanksgiving: Sts. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Katharine Drexel and John Neumann’s Eucharistic Devotion” (Culture of Life, Nov. 12 issue):

When one loves a girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse, that one may say they have given their beloved their heart. Since we are unable to actually physically give our hearts to our beloved, it is poetic, yet still, in some sense, true.

The spouse of Adam (Eve) and the Spouse of Christ (the Church) came from the bridegroom’s respective sides. Eve was formed from the rib of Adam, and the Church was formed from the blood and water that flowed from the side of Jesus on the cross.

Yet the blood and water that flowed from Christ’s side had its source in Christ’s heart. So the origin of the spouse of Christ may actually be his heart, not just the blood and water.

In the Sept. 27, 2009, catechesis by Pope Benedict XVI, entitled, “St. Peter Damian: Monk and Reformer,” the Holy Father quotes St. Peter Damian, “The Church of Christ is united by the bond of charity to such a point that, since it is one in many members, mystically it is entirely present in each single member.

“That is why the entire universal Church is rightly called the one spouse of Christ — in the singular — and each soul, chosen by virtue of the sacramental mystery, must be considered as fully the Church.”

So we, as baptized Catholics in a state of grace, as members of the Church, can be considered the spouse of Christ, both corporately and individually.

All the scientifically studied Eucharistic miracles I have read about indicate the Eucharistic species is human flesh, and, in fact, human heart tissue.

So instead of Jesus giving only a rib to form his spouse, as Adam, Jesus literally and physically gives his spouse his very heart.

So every time we receive the Eucharist, we receive that very Heart of Christ that forms us, individually (and corporately) into his spouse.

In the Eucharist, Jesus gives his beloved (us) his heart, and with it his entire self.

If he could have given us more, he would have; but even the all-powerful God can’t give more than he already has.

So as we quietly meditate, consider what Jesus gave to us.

And since through the gift of his Eucharistic heart he forms us into his spouse, let us lovingly reciprocate and give our hearts to our beloved, Jesus. 

         Joe Marincel

         Flower Mound, Texas

 

Thin-Soup Course

The complex challenges facing the promising Synod on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment are well described in “Synod Preparations Show Stark Snapshot of Young Adults and Church” (Nation, Dec. 10).

Three points especially caught my attention: Young adults “desire to be ‘intentionally invited into leadership roles’”; the remark by Jonathan Lewis (Archdiocese of Washington) that small-group experiences could (in part) be a path toward “regular spiritual direction and accountability as they [young people] discern their path to holiness”; and the fact that the synod’s surveys reached mostly only the young who are already involved in the Church.

Leadership roles in the hierarchical communion of the Church divinely gifted up front with the apostolic succession?

I am reminded of a university professor who remarked that of her two-dozen students in creative writing, all of them wanted to be CEOs.

“CEOs of what in particular?” she asked, and none had a clue. In our depth-free world, is fulfillment reduced to span of control?

Decades ago, when I was of millennial age, I competed successfully for two different parish councils and then educated myself and others as the lead person for more than a decade as the unpaid leader of a parish confirmation program.

Today, pro-life committees also probably could round up a few extra chairs on short notice and would welcome a few new good ideas from creative young adults.

Any longer-term engagement with the entire “none” generation demands confident witness within a cultural milieu that has gone flat and worse.

Half a century ago, Henri de Lubac, in his Drama of Atheist Humanism, already detected that the postmodern world is not only atheistic, but anti-theistic. Will part of the synod, finally, set a higher bar for well-grounded core courses — other than politicized social justice and overspecialized niche enthusiasms — for our nominally Catholic universities and colleges?

I agree with Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell of Los Angeles that young people will respond if the Church will accompany and engage them on what is ultimately their path to holiness.

Profoundly engaging, already, is the sacramental and divinely self-donating Real Presence (Catechism, 1374). At all ages, what is our assembled response personally and in communion with one another, young adults included?

A book mark saved from the 1980s still applies:

“Adults, discovering their spiritual emptiness, look to the Church not for a breezy bon mot, but for the hard truths of mystical life, fasting and prayer.

“Lapsed Catholics, tiptoeing back into the Church Sunday morning, look not for a communal meal and a handshake, but for a holy Sacrifice and the promise of redemption.

“Our faith is like a strong drink, or a plate of hearty food. We can make it easier to accept, by watering it down and taking out the spices. But who wants a watery drink, or a tasteless dish? (‘If the salt has lost its savor …’). Our society is begging for red meat. If we offer a thin soup, instead, we shall be rightly rejected.”

         Peter D. Beaulieu

         Shoreline, Washington