- middle-aged, with mortgage, wife, children, a commute and little-to-no real time for blogging, reading Plato, writing the great American short story, or meditating on the meaning of life.
I can't help but contemplate the overlap of the the conclusion with what Christian thinking says about the relationship between an individual and the community, that is between individual rights and the common good--between freedom and responsibility. In American society we tend to stress individual rights solely while never mentioning the responsibilities that come with freedom.
I also contemplate that while the research cited in the article talks of distinct families and groups competing with other distinct families and groups, the humanitarian and the Christian have always recognized the global family of man--that we all belong to the group/community that consists of all human kind.
I find this man and his story to be extraordinary. He is someone who embodies what it means to be human and who refused to surrender his humanity to hatred after the killing of his daughters and niece by the Israeli military. The ability to forgive someone who has committed evil against loved ones is the most difficult thing for a person to do.
Dr. Abuelaish was born and raised, in poverty, in a Palestinian refugee camp in Israel. He is a Moslem. For me, as a Christian, it has been too easy for me to think of forgiveness as a virtue that only Christians preached or valued (while admitting that most Christians fail to live up to the standard). The fact that this man is a Moslem, that in the face of what happened to his family, that he has refused to hate, shows that the capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation is common to all people. Dr. Abuelaish has an extraordinary humanity.
Slavery was as common in pre-Christian Ireland as it was in the rest of the ancient world. Ireland was entirely agricultural, and it was a standard practice for families to have slaves. The man known to history as St. Patrick is known for evangelizing Ireland, but he is not usually thought of as an abolitionist. However, Patrick ministered equally to free and slave, was militant about the human dignity of all, and worked to emancipate slaves whenever possible.
Patrick was born in the early 400’s, in Britain, the son of a Roman official. Patrick’s father had an estate with many slaves, many of whom were probably Irish. When Patrick was 16, the family estate was raided by Irish pirates. Patrick and a number of the family slaves were seized and transported back to Ireland in bondage, where Patrick was sold as a slave to a wealthy farmer. He pastored sheep and spent much time alone, sleeping in the fields and forests, and praying a great deal. After six years, he escaped on a boat back to Britain and reunited with his astonished parents.
However, Patrick was on a mission. When he was a slave, had a deep Christian conversion. He now sought ordination as a priest, and after many years of education, returned to Ireland. Preaching from farm to farm, Patrick knew that if he could convert the women, then the men in the family would follow. Moreover, as a former slave, he identified with and easily related with the slaves. Among his converts were the sons and daughters of Irish kings and the wealthy but also numerous slaves. Large numbers of women became Christians, including large numbers of women slaves. Under Patrick’s influence, many of these women, including many slave women, also took vows of perpetual virginity.
The life of a woman in Ireland was difficult, not too different than the life of a woman in Rome or Greece at the time. A woman always belonged to a man. They were daughters, wives, or slaves, and Irish law enforced male control over them. If a man had an attractive daughter, he could improve his status and wealth by requiring her to marry the right person. Kings and clans often settled disputes by providing girls as brides. When a woman chose to commit herself to virginity, it often meant a conflict with her family. While not casting doubt on the authenticity of their Christian faith, one reason why so many women chose to remain virgins was that it gave them enormous freedom in society. One pastoral problem that Patrick had to deal with was that female slaves, including Christian ones committed to virginity, were subject to rape and other forms of sexual abuse by their masters. But because they were slaves, pagan society did not consider it rape.
In his ministry, Patrick experienced enormous difficulties including threats, kidnapping, robbery, and other violence. In one abominable incident relating to slavery, Patrick had just baptized an entire clan over Easter. While walking home from the baptism, the clan was set upon by a slave raiding party from Britain, led by a king named Coroticus. They killed several of the clan and transported the rest back to Britain, still in their baptismal robes. Coroticus and his men would have kept the most beautiful women for their own use and sent the rest to the slave markets in Britain.
Patrick sent a message to Coroticus diplomatically asking that the captives be returned to him, but he was laughed at. In response, Patrick, using his full authority as a Bishop, wrote a long, rage filled letter known to history as the Letter to the Soldiers of Cororticus. Assaulting Coroticus with waves of scripture, Patrick denounced, shamed, and excommunicated him, while still urging that he repent by returning the captives. To bring maximum shame, Patrick sent the letter to all of the Christian leaders in Britain and distributed it throughout Ireland. It should be noted that most Britons were prepared to think of the Irish as subhuman and fit only for slavery. For that reason, in the beginning of his letter, Patrick stressed God’s love for the barbarians and pagans.
History does not record the response of Coroticus, but to the church leaders in Britain, it was considered outrageous that Patrick excommunicated someone who lived outside of his church jurisdiction, and they responded by accusing Patrick of corruption. They accused him of accepting church donations and using the money for himself. Patrick responded with the impassioned letter known today as the Confession of St. Patrick. Besides refuting the charges of corruption, Patrick detailed his former life as a slave, his escape., and his life as the evangelist of Ireland. The two letters are the only surviving letters that are known for certain to have been written by Patrick. They comprise almost all that we know of him.
Sargent Shriver was of the generation of Catholics educated pre-Vatican II, who were vigorous promoters of social justice. Pre-dating the Religious Right, he was a political liberal who was also pro-life. "Mr. Shriver was never elected to any national office. To political insiders, his calls for public service in the 1960s seemed quixotic at a time when America was caught up in a war in Vietnam, a cold war with the Soviet Union and civil rights struggles and urban riots at home. But when the fogs of war and chaos cleared years later, he was remembered by many as a last vestige of Kennedy-era idealism."
In 1955, in Chicago, he became president of the Catholic Interracial Council, which fought discrimination in housing and education. In 1961, under JFK, he became the founding head of the Peace Corps. Under LBJ, he headed the Office of Economic Opportunity, which created Head Start, the Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America, the Community Action Program and Legal Services for the Poor. Shriver was actively involved in the The Special Olympics, which was founded by his wife Eunice. In 1967, he founded the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services, now known as the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. Sargent Shriver was the epitome of public service.
The most valuable thing that I am learning from the teaching of Luigi Giussani and my involvement in the Communion and Liberation movement is that I am learning to become human.
A Deeper Understanding of What It Means to be Moral
"Morality is less a set of abstract principles or laws than a way of honoring a relationship." - Luigi Giussani."
"I am using the word ‘moral’ or ‘morality’ in its deepest, essential sense which is the position of a person in front of Being, that is, in front of life, in front of existence as origin, consistency, destiny—let’s say destiny, which encompasses everything. It is not coherence with some rules, because this is moralism; morality is the position in front of Being. To have this sympathy in front of Being doesn’t require any special characteristic or energy of our will, something that makes one become a saint because he has this energy, while I, being a poor wretch, don’t have it. Morality is not this; it is not my capacity to be coherent with certain rules, but rather the position I have in front of the sun, my wife, the mountains, the gaze of Christ. Can anyone among us raise his hand and say that he is lacking something to be able to surrender to this gaze? Whatever the level of difficulty of the circumstance he is in at the moment, does he need some particular energy? He needs simply to surrender."
- Julian Carron. p. 35. Living is the Memory of Me. August 2010. La Thuile, Italy. Assembly of Responsibles of Communion and Liberation. Trace (magazine).
In terms of understanding the above, one way in which I understand it is to say that to be fully moral is to be completely present with all of my humanity, before reality. To me, being completely present means without defenses--being completely honest in relation to myself, as well as being completely vulnerable. To me, reality means life, existence, facts, our experiences, and encounters. The above definition of morality is not based on rules but on respect for relationships. To feel guilt over an act or a relationship is to be present before the memory of the act or relationship, with our humanity. To become more moral in this sense, we must work to become more fully and completely human.
I should explain to readers who are either not Christians or fellow travelers of the Communion and Liberation movement that in reference to destiny, our ultimate destiny means union with Christ. Furthermore, the more we follow Christ and attempt to live the gospel, the more human we become. The fullness of humanity is to be found in Christ.
Brazil and Mexico have anti-poverty programs that are working on a large scale. Note the emphasis on "the girl effect" and building human capital (education). They found far greater success by giving the money to female heads of households than to male. And they also emphasize the building of human capital by requiring that children remain in school and also requiring that mothers get education in health and nutrition. It doesn't say much for us men, does it? And imagine if they did something equivalent in the U.S.! The common denominator with what Nomi Network is trying to do is the empowerment of women.
Of course the above article only scratches the surface. For cheap food, you can't beat Chinatown. And don't forget Brooklyn's Chinatown on Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn, which is even cheaper than Manhattan Chinatown.
Whether you know anything about art or not, I recommend walking around Soho or Tribeca on a Sunday afternoon. Many individual artists and galleries display their work on the sidewalks. I have seen art on the sidewalk or in gallery windows that was amazing, and I don't use the word amazing lightly. And anyone interested in architecture will find an abundance of notable buildings to look at in Manhattan.
Just to relax, I recommend walking the river front promenade in the Battery Park City Area. Visit the children's playground. Look at the sculptures of the frogs and turtles and poetry inscriptions. Drop in on the Irish Hunger Memorial and the Holocaust Museum. Walk over to Ground Zero. Take a stroll to Park51. One thing that I have always wanted to do but never have, is to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
If you like to take photographs, there is no end of things to take pictures of. Definitely take in a ferry ride of some sort, preferably one that goes near the Statue of Liberty. It is rather dramatic when seen close up from a boat. But also, New York Harbor is beautiful when seen from a boat. It also yields one of the best views of the skyline. If the weather is good, a walk in Central Park can be stimulating too.
Visit locations in NY that have been used as scenes/locations in movies or cited in works of literature. Then of course, there is a laundry list of famous, old, or trendy saloons to wet your whistle afterwards.
Of the nations of the world, Cambodia ranks among the poorest of the poor, most certainly among the poorest in spirit (Mt 5.3). On December 26 on the Roman Catholic calender, we commemorate St. Stephen (Acts 6.1 - 7.60). St. Stephen fed and clothed the widows and orphans of the first Christian community while witnessing to the Truth. For this he was stoned to death, becoming the first martyr of the church. Below are two articles about contemporary Cambodia. As Christians and others in Cambodia feed, clothe, house, educate, heal, and free the captives, we also pray that the people who are responsible for their oppression will be redeemed.
An Excellent Account of Contemporary Cambodian history:
"In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, 'Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.'
"But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
"'He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.'
"But Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?'
"And the angel said to her in reply, 'The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
"''And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.'
"Mary said, 'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.' Then the angel departed from her." - Luke 1.26.38
Points to meditate on:
Mary was not yet married. Joseph was bethrothed to a girl who was pregnant with a child that was not his. Under Jewish law, Mary was liable to be stoned to death. Mary was most likely around 13 or 14 years old.
What message does this story have for society, about unwed, teenage mothers?
I am a volunteer with a non-profit organization called Nomi Network that combats human trafficking. We were formed in 2009 and are headquartered in N.Y. Our major initiative is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We provide job training and jobs for women who have been rescued from sex trafficking, as well as for women who are at risk. The jobs are in the manufacture of women’s fashion accessories, mostly hand bags. The women that we employ (23 at this time) receive a living wage that includes family health insurance, child care services, and transportation if they work late. Each woman that we employ supports a family of four or five, on average—we are lifting entire families out of poverty. We market the goods that they make in the U.S., in boutiques, fairs, and the Internet. All profits are re-invested in anti-trafficking efforts in Cambodia. The sale of the bags is critical to sustaining the enterprise.
I would like you to consider either making a donation to Nomi Network directly, or buying one or more of the products that we make, perhaps as a gift for someone. Our bags are marketed under the brand-name, Buy Her Bag Not Her Body. The bags can be purchased on the Internet at http://www.buyherbagnotherbody.com/
On that website, there is a button labeled, “Please Donate Now,” as well as one labeled, “Pick Up Your Bag,” which will bring you to the Buy Her Bag Not Her Body website.
Nomi Network is a 501(3)(c) organization, and our IRS EIN # is 80-0290896
Incidentally, next year, we will be starting an effort to provide scholarships for higher education for children who have been rescued from brothels. If you would like to donate for that effort now, please indicate so on your donation.
Also, please direct your wives, girlfriends, and other family members to this initiative. And if anyone is interested in volunteering for the organization, please contact us.
If you would like to find out more about Nomi Network or sex trafficking in Cambodia, I invite you to look at our main website and explore our blog.
I liked this paragraph, from last night’s School of Community reading--“Living is the Memory of me,” Julian Carron, Aug. 2010, section 5, p. 39.
Here we can understand, as we heard yesterday from Marta, what influence the power has on us (it is peculiar that Giussani uses the same term Friedrich Nietzsche used: bourgeois religiosity). What effect has power on us? What influence? It atrophies our relationship with Christ, making it ineffective socially and in our personal lives. What brings us to this predicament is not persecution, but rather conformism. Nobody prohibits it, but nobody dares to live fully his religious dimension as the form for his entire life. We stay in society like everybody else. We detect the influence of power in the fact that we stop desiring to the extent that our humanity is capable, we reduce our desire for the infinite. It is not that we are not religious, that we do not make some particular religious gestures. Nietzsche never thought for a moment that religion had disappeared; when he was talking about God’s death, he was objecting to religion’s ability to move the person and open the mind, of making the “I” be reborn. So, we see that we belong to the power due to this reduction of the “I” that power achieves. We are content with a reduced way of being together, and often we don’t even have an inkling that something is missing, so much has the power assimilated us, reducing us.
Request for a show of Solidarity with Christians in Iraq
From:Maria Teresa Landi Date: Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 2:20 AM Subject: Letters to the Christians in Baghdad
Dear friends,
As you all know, our Christian brothers and sisters in Baghdad have been suffering persecution for a long time, and today there was another attack, possibly from Al Qaeda, just 10 days after more than 50 Catholics were killed in a Church during Sunday Mass. They have been killed for their faith, martyrs of our time.
I kept thinking at their suffering, at their mysterious participation in the cross of Christ, and what this means for me and for the history of Iraq, the Middle East and the entire world. I thought to offer my work for them, to do it very seriously as my way to be present to them. And to pray for them, to ask the pastor of my Church to say a Mass for them, that they could be sustained in this difficult time and not feel alone in their struggle. That they could recognize Christ in these challenging circumstances.
Suddenly, I had an idea and this is why I am writing to you.
In addition to pray for them, why don’t we all write letters to them, many, many letters as soon as possible, also from our kids, to tell them that we are with them, that even if we are far, we are One in Christ, we pray for them, and we thank them for their presence in that precious land and in our lives? We can witness to them the miracles we see in our lives, the path we are following, our certainty in the presence of Christ in any circumstance, so they could be sustained in their faith.
It is a small gesture, like a drop in the ocean, but Christ can use it to make great things, because, as He said, when 2 or 3 are united in His name, He is in their midst.
Olivetta spoke with the Nuncio at the UN, who was very happy for our initiative and offered his diplomatic pouch (direct mail) to reach the Nunciature in Iraq. He proposed to have all letters and messages sent to him by Tuesday night in a package and he will send the package to the Nunciature in Iraq on Wednesday morning. His pouch leaves every Wednesday at noon. In addition, he will send a copy to the Syrian Patriarch in Newark, New Jersey (many Catholics who were killed last Sunday belong to the Syrian rite).
I hope you can participate in this gesture or suggest other ways to be close to our friends in Iraq. Please, be free to write as many letters as you want and share these indications with friends who would like to write to the Christian families in Iraq to support them in their faith.
Thanks a lot!
Tere
As to the practical details, Olivetta Danese, the CL national secretary, offered to collect all letters and messages, put them into a package and hand carry it to the UN Nuncio.
If you choose to write a letter, put it in an envelope addressed to:
His Beatitude
Emmanuel Delli
Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Baghdad
President of the Assembly of the Catholic Bishops in Iraq
Put this envelope within another envelope and address it to Olivetta Danese at:
10 Kraft Avenue
Bronxville, NY 10708
If you choose to send an email, please address it to His Beatitude Emmanuel Delli as above, and use the following email address:
"Like the rose under the gaze of eternity that withers day after day and in the evening is no longer as it was in the morning, what you seek most to grasp and hold tight in your hand has become undone, you haven't possessed it, you have destroyed it. In order not to destroy it, you need a rose you can hold by its stem, that you can look on in admiration, bathed in the morning dew and fed by the mysterious winds of the Mystery of Being." ~ Luigi Giussani
"Sex trafficking relies on customers who do not care if the person gyrating on stage or answering an online personal ad is coerced. Indeed, one crusader on the issue said the sex trade would not be able to operate without trafficking victims.
"'You can almost take that to the bank,' said Rep. Chris Smith, R-Mercer, sponsor of a landmark anti-trafficking law in 2000 and several subsequent updates. 'Based on the evidence, it is true, there are women who are commingled with women who might say they’re doing it on their own. And that’s everywhere. I hate it. It’s a commoditization, like a supply issue.'
"Myles said the 'staggering demand' from men for commercial sex far outweighs the number of women willingly working in the sex trade.
"''That demand drives a need for more trafficked women,' he said."
Theary C. Seng came to the U.S. as a refugee from the Khmer Rouge when she was 9. She went to Georgetown U., then U. of Mich. for law school. and is a member of the bar in N.Y. State.
In 2004 she chose to return to Cambodia permanently to work justice for the survivors of the Khmer Rouge. She has posted things on sex trafficking. She appears regularly in Ki-Media and the Phnom Penh Post. She is also a committed Christian.
Click on the title of the blog entry to view a video from CNN.
"Ponheary Ly has survived genocide, the murder of several family members -- including her father -- and life in poverty. Today, she's working to build a brighter future for the children of Cambodia -- by helping them go to school." ...
"Primary schools are free to attend in Cambodia, but not all children go. With most of the population living in rural areas, children often lack transportation to get to school -- and many families keep children home to help on the farm and earn money, said Ly.
"Those able to go often must pay a small fee -- around $20 a year -- to buy uniforms and supplies, and many families can't afford it.
"Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in the world, where about 40 percent of the population of 14.7 million live off less than $1.25 a day, according to World Bank.
"'They don't have enough to eat,' said Ly. 'How can they have the money to buy uniforms and supplies?'"
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
Getting involved as a volunteer with Nomi Network has caused me to educate myself about international development. If you have not done so, I recommend reading the books, Three Cups of Tea, and its sequel, Stones into Schools, both by Greg Mortenson, as well as Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I also recommend a book called, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, by Rodney Stark. The latter has sections about the importance of human capital, especially the correlation between the literacy rates of a country and its level of economic development. Throughout the book, Stark makes historical observations about why certain countries and cultures became economically advanced and why others didn’t.
What I learned from the above books is that to improve a country in the long term, especially economically, it is necessary to improve the human capital, and the foundation of human capital is education. With regard to capitalism, for better or for worse, and despite its side effects, capitalism is the best system that we have for the economic betterment of people. The fundamental problem in the underdeveloped countries of the world has been that education has not been universally available. Furthermore, the problem has been compounded by the fact that education has tended to be reserved for the boys.
The single best thing that can be done to improve an impoverished country like Cambodia that has had a history of female disenfranchisement is to go to the rural countryside, build schools, and educate the girls. In theory, education is available to everyone in Cambodia. But the reality is this. Half the schools in Cambodia do not have bathrooms for girls, and that causes a high dropout rate among girls. When a family member is seriously ill or dying, it is a daughter that is required to stay home from school to care for them. When parents become destitute, it is the daughter who is required to go out to work to help support the family.
The average wage in rural Cambodia is between one and two dollars a day. Cambodia requires that children wear uniforms in school. How is a parent that is making only $1.60 a day and who is not able to provide satisfactory food and health care to their children able to afford school uniforms? Transportation is another problem. In the rural areas, schools can be miles away from where the children live. Rightfully, parents will not let their youngest children walk such distances to school. And for older children, how can parents possibly afford a bicycle at $50.00?
So many of the non-profit charitable organizations that are doing international development have their offices in the capitals of the countries they are trying to help. They need to get out into the countryside, and work to improve life in the rural villages. That is where the majority of the people live, including the poorest.
When you educate boys in a rural village, they tend to leave and never return. When you educate girls, they tend to stay, which becomes a great resource for the village. It makes all the difference. When they marry, girls become the mothers of the next generation of boys and girls. If a girl can be educated even to just the fifth grade level, it has a significant, cascading social impact on the village, in health, sanitation, nutrition, and child-rearing. International development experts call this, "the "girl effect."
A literate girl also means that when she is an adult, she can get a better paying job. In addition, when girls receive a higher education, it leads them to postpone childbirth until after their education is complete. This causes them to have fewer children overall, a morally acceptable form of population control.
One of the major reasons that China has become an economic power is that decades ago, the government made a decision to educate girls. In doing so, they doubled the available population of literate workers and citizens. And similarly, decades ago in impoverished India, in the state of Kerala, the Kerala government made a conscious decision to educate the girls, and today, because of that decision, compared to India as a whole, Kerala is at a relatively advanced state of educational and economic development.
In Cambodia, and other countries that are underdeveloped, one of the ongoing social phenomena is the emigration of people from the countryside into the cities. This occurs because of the poverty in the countryside, and it has resulted in serious social problems in the cities. Among these are increased organized crime, street crimes, homelessness, human trafficking, prostitution, and the break-up of families.
Nomi Network is working with young adult women in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. We are providing job training and jobs for women who were rescued from brothels as well as for women who were at risk of being forced into the sex industry. The women are mostly illiterate but have education available to them if they want it. Due to various social and economic circumstances, these women cannot or do not want to return to their villages of origin. We pay the women a wage that is well above the average in Phnom Penh and provide them with other benefits as well. But the, "girl effect" still applies. Each woman that works for us is supporting, on average, a family of four or five people.
Education mitigates human trafficking in several ways. In a country like Cambodia, if a child is in school, it reduces the risk of them becoming a victim of sex or labor human trafficking. And with females of working age, they only enter sex work when they are destitute and have no other options . Literacy makes other options available.
I don’t mean to overlook the boys. I am a boy myself. But it is the women who raise the boys. In countries like Asia and Africa, gender equality is seriously lacking--boys are greatly advantaged already. In underdeveloped countries, an investment in girls education may have the greatest long term return on investment, in building a better society.
(1965)I have not read the book, but the characters in the film, Doctor Zhivago, represent the range of humanity.
The Czar and the ruling class only care about remaining in power. The Bolsheviks only care about seizing power. The young Pasha—Pavel Pavlovich Antipov--is a revolutionary, a militant idealist, and a moralist. Originally, he hated the Bolsheviks. He said that they do not know right from wrong. But later, he joins them.
Lara Antipova seems to be an ordinary Russian girl, someone who simply wants to love and be loved but has little control over her destiny. Victor Kamarovsky is a wealthy, well connected, but corrupt attorney. To me, he is a mixed bag. He represents the ordinary person, the Russian caught in the middle. Though greedy for himself, he is sympathetic to the revolutionaries. He is a fallen man, and guilty of the rape of Lara, but ultimately, he tries to redeem himself.
And then there is Doctor Yuri Zhivago himself, medical doctor and a poet. He is the ideal man, someone in full possession of his own humanity.
Yevgraf Zhivago, a general and Yuri’s half brother, seems to represent the reality of the new Soviet system. He is cold, tough, and impersonal. He is all business yet still somewhat human.
For better or for worse, the character with whom I identify is Pasha Antipov. Later in the film, he morphs into the fanatic Bolshevik extremist known as Strelnikov, who has denied practically his entire humanity, even his love for Lara, for the sake of the revolution. But near the end, Pasha/Strelnikov fails to continue to be able to suppress his love for Lara. It breaks him, and he deserts his position to meet her. He is caught on the way, but before they can put him before the firing squad, he commits suicide.
I contemplate my sin and wonder, why?
Why do I do what I know is wrong?
Why do I do that which deters me from my destiny?
There is the one who knew me before I was conceived,
The one whose thought became my existence.
Happy are those who do not follow the council of the wicked.
Yet wickedness comes from my own heart.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
At a School of Community (Community and Liberation) meeting in Paramus few weeks ago, Fr. Stephen mentioned in passing that the model for Christian community was the book of Acts. I appreciated the reminder, went back and thumbed through Acts. To me, the following verses are preeminent.
Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need.
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Acts 4:32-37
The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.
Thus Joseph, also named by the apostles Barnabas (which is translated "son of encouragement"), a Levite, a Cypriot by birth, sold a piece of property that he owned, then brought the money and put it at the feet of the apostles.
This presentation is about the issue of contemporary slavery. It contains a richness of content and values.
Kevin Bales is among the top researchers on slavery. Note how his Quaker values permeate his work. The actress and activist Ashley Judd talks freely of how her Christian values drive her activism. Note her criticism of Hollywood's portrayal of the exploitation of women, as well as her anger over pornography and the effect on young males. Of Timothy McCarthy, director of the Human Rights and Social Movements Program at Harvard, I do not think that it is an accident that he is a Catholic.
But most especially for my fellow members of the Communion and Liberation Movement, I want to relate, from Ashley Judd, an encounter that she had with a slave in India. It is the last two minutes of the video.
"I just want to share a story about a guy whose soul, the last time I saw him, was not yet crushed. And his name is Mohammed. And he migrated to a slum outside of Mumbai looking for work because the push factors from the rural countryside in which he had been born were very strong.
"And he was sewing, and lived in a very small room not much larger than the size of this desk actually, with two other men. And they had a little space where they did their cooking and they had their bucket where they fetched their non-potable water. And he was one of the most gentle people I have ever met in my life. And I was very touched by him because I didn't quite understand how he could maintain such a sense of loveliness actually, while living and working in these abysmal conditions of slavery.
"There was a little piece of jagged mirror that he had tacked onto the wall. And in this one moment when he passed it, and I was passing behind him, our eyes met in the mirror. I stopped and asked him, "Mohammed, what do you see when you look at yourself in the mirror."
He said, 'I see a beautiful child of God.'
And I said, 'That's what I see too.'
When I asked him how he stayed alive in those circumstances, he said that it was because he knew that he was sending beauty out into the world, because the quality of his work was so high."
As an advocate in the fight against gender-based violence, I am writing to applaud Nomi Network's innovative approach to combating sexual trafficking in Cambodia. I have visited more brothels than I care to remember in 12 countries, and have learned that this kind of violence against women is not the exception to the problem, but the norm. Nomi Network's marketplace solution of providing job opportunities and hands-on job training empowers survivors and at-risk populations with financial independence. This mission is accomplished through the nurture and care of the dedicated individuals that make Nomi Network possible.
One of the key individuals of Nomi Network is my dear friend and fellow activist, Ruchira Gupta. Ruchira was awarded the Clinton Global Citizen Award in 2009 for her visionary leadership and work with Apne Aap in the red-light district of India. Ruchira's outrage against the exploitation and suffering of the sex slaves that are sold in Bombay drove her to give her life so that those who were enslaved can start new lives. She is a pioneer in this movement and an inspiration to all of us abolitionists world wide. When I was traveling to India, I set aside time to meet Ruchira, whom I had been told was, in all of India, with its many wonderful grassroots practioners and enlightened souls, "the" person I had to get to know. Boy, what a meeting that was, and what a beautiful friendship has come from it! In addition to supporting her work in India, I've had the honor of Ruchira coming to Harvard to speak to one of my classes, and students literally followed her to her car, wanting to learn more, do more and duplicate her model!
Wherever I go, people ask me how they can fight the modern slave trade in a meaningful way. I am grateful for Ruchira, Apne Aap, and Nomi Network, and I urge you to take part in their efforts. Reach out and contribute your time, energy and talent to make a difference in a life.
I thank you for joining us in honoring Ruchira Gupta at the first annual Spring Gala and appreciate your contribution towards Nomi Network's vision of a world free from gender based violence and the end of sexual slavery.
Sincerely,
Ashley Judd Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS, PSI Board of Directors
“He claimed that language has a certain logical structure, and this structure mirrors the structure of the world. Wittgenstein distinguished what a statement says from what it shows. Propositions say that the world is a certain way, but they show us in their organization, what the world’s structure is. Logic is about the structure of propositions. It does not say anything, but it shows us what the structure of language and the world is. Wittgenstein concluded that most philosophical problems spring from the misguided attempts to say what can only be shown. He argued that philosophers encounter problems when they attempt to say the world has a certain structure, rather than making that structure apparent through logic.
“He believed philosophical problems arise from confusion about language. He argued difficulties arise only when we use words in nonstandard ways, or we ignore the variety of ways in which they can be used. He wrote, ‘Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.’ Thus, Wittgenstein advocated a therapeutic conception of philosophy, in which the point is to clarify the meaning of language.”
Back in the Neolithic Age, when I was an undergraduate in college, I took a class in linguistic philosophy. I learned one thing only: that all statements can be classified as either factual or moral statements.
A factual statement is one that asserts that something is the case. A moral statement is one that asserts that an action or thought is more preferable than another. If I say that Barack Obama believed in the health care reform bill, that is a factual statement. The statement is about what Barack Obama factually believes. If I say that the health care reform bill was a good thing, then that is a moral statement. A moral statement is a factual statement of the attitude of the speaker about an issue.
Moral statements only indicate the mode of the statement; they do not necessarily imply that the subject is what is conventionally considered morality or ethics, although they often are. Factual statements make claims about the nature of reality. Moral statements express an attitude towards reality. Factual statements are about what is and moral statements are about what should be.
For a statement to have the form of a factual statement does not necessarily mean that the purported fact is true but only that the speaker is asserting that it is. Likewise when a speaker makes a moral statement, it does not necessarily mean that what the speaker says is morally correct, only that the speaker is asserting that it is.
I discuss politics with many people, and I find it very, very frustrating that so many people are incapable of differentiating between factual and moral statements.
I happen to find the Tea Party to be an interesting movement in American politics. I've been observing them for the purpose of being able to arrive at an informed judgment about them. I have been getting my information from the print media, not T.V., or God forbid, radio. I have been making factual statements about the nature of the Tea Party and what I think they believe and advocate. People have been criticizing and attacking me for what I have been saying, as if I was advocating the Tea Party’s positions, which I am not.
I am trying to be objective and use reason, and people are reacting to me with wildly subjective attitudes, emotions, generalizations, and things not based on fact. When I say something, they twist my words into something I never meant and read things in that aren’t there. It is as though by making a factual observation, I stand accused of believing the thing that I observe. It's like being a citizen in North Korea or something.
People are watching reports of the lunatic fringe on cable T.V. I’ll say something sober and reasonable about the Tea Party, and then I will get hit with an angry stream of left-wing bigotry based on what that person saw on cable T.V. One person accused me of supporting the existence of white supremacy organizations. I was particularly offended by that one because that person knows me.
My life's philosophy is simple.
I just put one root in front of the other.
I limber up and exercise whenever the wind blows.
I get my bark washed every time it rains.
I change my leaves every year between fall and spring.
I donate sap to the Green Cross every winter.
I've always been kind to woodpeckers.
And press on flesh, it's been a good life.
“Studies from the World Bank indicate that just one year of primary school can result in an income bump of 10 percent to 20 percent for women later in life. According to Yale economist Paul T. Shultz, an extra year of secondary school may raise that same girl’s lifetime wages by an additional 15 to 20 percent. And the effects don’t end there. A number of studies indicate that in communities where a majority of the girls are educated through the fifth grade, infant mortality drops significantly after a single generation. At the same time—and somewhat paradoxically—basic education for girls correlates perfectly with lower, more sustainable population growth. In communities where girls have received more education, they marry later and have fewer children than their illiterate counterparts.
“These premises, which I also encountered in the work of Novel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, are now accepted by many development experts around the world. (The definitive short book on the general subject is What Works in Girls’ Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World, by Barbara Herz and Gene B. Sperling.) Simply put, young women are the single biggest potential agents of change in the developing world—a phenomenon that is sometimes referred to as the Girl Effect and that echoes an African proverb I often heard during my childhood years in Tanzania: ‘If you teach a boy, you educate an individual; but if you teach a girl, you educate a community.’ No other factor even comes close to matching the cascade of positive changes triggered by teaching a single girl how to read and write. In military parlance, girls’ education is a ‘force multiplier’--and in impoverished Muslim societies, the ripple effect of female literacy can be profound.
“Take the issue that many in the West would consider to be the most pressing of all. ‘Jihad’ is an Arabic word referring to a ‘struggle’ that is undertaken as a means of perfecting oneself, improving society, or defeating the perceived enemies of Islam. In Muslim societies, a person who has been manipulated into believing in extremist violence or terrorism often seeks the permission of his mother before he may join a militant jihad—and educated women, as a rule, tend to withhold their blessing for such things. Following 9/11, for example, the Taliban’s forces suffered from significantly increased desertions; as a countermeasure, they began targeting their recruitment efforts on regions where female literacy was especially low.
“Education, of course, offers no guarantee that a mother will refuse to endorse violent jihad, but it certainly helps to stack the odds against the men—and, yes, they are invariably men—who promote the lie that killing innocent people is in keeping with the teachings of the Koran. Although I am not an authority on the Koran, religious scholars have repeated emphasized to me during the last sixteen years that murder and suicide are two of the most unforgivable sins in Islam.
“It is important to be clear about the fact that the aim of the Central Asia Institute is not indoctrination. We have no agenda other than assisting rural women with their two most frequent requests: ‘We don’t want out babies to die, and we want our children to go to school.’ And in the process of addressing those wishes, it is certainly not our aim to teach the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan to think or act like Americans. We simply want them to have the chance to attend schools that offer a balanced, non-extremist education. In this respect, we’re also extremely sensitive to the difference between literacy and ideology. It is our belief that the first helps to thwart intolerance, challenge dogma, and reinforce out common humanity. The second does the opposite.
“At the moment, female literacy in rural Afghanistan continues to languish in the single digits. In rural Pakistan, the figures are a little higher, but not by much. The demand for schools, teachers, books, desks, notebooks, uniforms, chalkboards, paper, and pencils in these two Islamic nations is immense, and the benefits of American investment in this “intellectual infrastructure” are absolutely clear. Nothing that has happened since my unsuccessful attempt to climb K2—including 9/11-has changed my conviction that promoting female literacy represents the best way forward for Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
- From the book, Stones into Schools, by Greg Mortenson. 2009. pp12-14. Viking, N.Y.
In his prior book, Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson cited the following, from development experts, which are confirmed by his own experiences and observations. When boys from rural villages are educated, they tend to leave and never return. When girls are educated, they tend to return, which is an enormous resource for the village. If you can educate the girls to the fifth grade, it has a significant cascading social impact on sanitation, nutrition, the education of others, and the ability for them to get a job that pays a living wage. And mothers that are literate do not let their sons join terrorist organizations.
Move your cursor over the blog title, and click, to see the Amazon.com, advertisement for the book, Advent of the Heart , by Alfred Delp.
Fr. JC Maximilian, a priest who is involved with Communion and Liberation is basing his own Advent homilies on the above book. Fr's blog entry with his first Advent homily is here:
This is the best thing that I ever read about Jack Kerouac. The URL points to, "Drive, He Wrote," by Louis Menand, published in the October 1, 2007 print issue of, "The New Yorker." Louis Menand gives us many reasonable and realistic perspectives on many different aspects of Jack Kerouac, of "On The Road," itself, and associated social phenomena, but here I shall focus on Menand's observations as they relate to Kerouac's search for meaning in life, his Catholicism, and his response to what Luigi Giussani refers to as, the religious sense.
"In 1948, Kerouac, is supposed to have remarked, in a conversation with the writer John Clennon Holmes, 'You know this is a really beat generation.' ... In 1952 he published an article in Times Magazine, called, 'This is the Beat Generation,' in which he credited Kerouac with the term. "Holmes wasn't referring to a movement. He was referring to the Cold War generation, which he said had been disillusioned by the war, the bomb, and the 'cold peace,' but was obsessed with the question of how life should be lived. Holmes thought that Beats were optimists, risk-takers, seekers--young people with a desperate craving for belief."
"The book is not about hipsters looking for kicks, or about subversives and nonconformists, rebels without a cause who point the way for the radicals of the nineteen-sixties. And the book is not an anti-intellectual celebration of spontaneity or an artifact of literary primitivism. It's a sad and somewhat self-consciously lyrical story about loneliness, insecurity, and failure."
Kerouac did write the first draft of, "On the Road," in three weeks, on a continuous scroll. And he was fueled by coffee not Benzedrine. "...the scroll was a way of forcing himself to stick to this vision...The scroll was therefore a restriction: it was a way of defining form, not a way of avoiding form. In religious terms (and Kerouac was always, deep down, a Catholic and a sufferer), it was a collar, a self-mortification. He did, after he finished the scroll, go back and make changes. But first he had to submit to his discipline." He spent six years revising the scroll. A religious term for this work would be ascesis. Jack was a literary holy man, which is exactly how he is popularly treated.
Of the characters, "They are not hipsters, either, cats too cool for life in suits. There is nothing cool about Dean or Carlo Marx (the Ginsburg character, Karl converted into a Marx Brother.)"
"It's a mistake to read this as an anticipation of the counterculture."
"The Beats were not rebels; they were misfits."
"There is no good cultural model, in the period in which the story is set, for the kind of men the characters are--as there was no model for Kerouac and Ginsburg themselves. This was the reason that Kerouac became so embittered by the caricature of the Beats: They played off stock conceptions of masculine types--the hip anarchist, the leotard-chasing, jazz-fiend tea head, the swaggering barfly, the hotrodder, the cruising delinquent. Kerouac was none of these things." ... "He was the opposite, a poet and a failed mystic. He was what in the nineteen-fifties was referred to as a 'sensitivo.' This was the demon that he wrestled with. And this is the point at which the thematic preoccupations of, 'On the Road' meet the style of 'On the Road'-- the lyrical gushing, excessive prose."
"The Beats were men who wrote about their feelings."
So what do you think of all that? I think it explains the popularity of Kerouac and his book.This was the period between World War II and the social movements of the 60’s, a period of extreme social conformity.After all, the Great Depression had ended with the war.The war was now over, and everybody was making up for lost time in their loves and getting back to normal life. Every able-bodied young male had served in the military. The military had formed their world view. They had been conditioned to obey orders. They studied hard, worked hard, and never deviated from a cookie-cutter, middle-class lifestyle.Men were stoic. Men didn’t express their feelings.They numbed them with alcohol.
But Kerouac was lonely, had desires, and was vulnerable. He was also intelligent, had a deep heart, and was a seeker of the Divine. He was no tourist in life--he took his experiences seriously. Unfortunately, Kerouac lacked a fatherly role model in his formative years, and he could not conform to any of the stock male personas that society offered men.That made him a misfit.
But Kerouac was good looking, athletic, a big drinker himself, and a few other things.He represented someone who was masculine enough that ordinary, straight-jacketed, middle-class men could allow themselves to relate to or admire.And Kerouac’s freedom caused them to imagine that maybe, just maybe, they could be free too.
- an interview about his Cardinal Francis George's book, The Difference God Makes.
This is the most sensible thing that I've ever about the contemporary Roman Catholic Church in America, since I can't remember when At School of Community last night, our leader happened to mention that Crossroads New York will be hosting Cardinal George at the Metropolitan club, to make a presentation about his new book.
Fr. Giussani's entire career with the movement was an attempt to rescue Catholicism from an empty formalism. Note that this is in the form of a Platonic Dialogue. I'd like to thank Fred Kaffenberger for showing me this article from Traces Magazine, of the same title as the blog entry.
Notes from a conversation Fr Luigi Giussani had with a group of university students. Chiesa Valmalenco, Italy, August 31, 1978
This assembly’s theme: the situation of the Movement , the life of the Movement
Fr Giussani The theme is a very generic one, so that we can deal with any point at all, but wherever we start from, there is a “certain” point we have to reach. Intervention In these recent months, I have realized something important. All of a sudden, I realized that I didn’t yet know what the Movement is, but it didn’t put me off, it was very attractive. I saw opening up before me room for new knowledge of myself and of a depth of life, a taste that I had not known before. In other words, to say that I didn’t–or don’t yet–know the Movement means that I discover that a deeper life that I don’t yet know is possible for me. I am made aware of this because I see it alive in others.
The most important aspect of what I am living is the inclination to learn from others, and it becomes clearer to me that Christianity is the opportunity that I am given to be human. I’ve understood that this is the core of Christianity. The core of Christianity and the core of the Movement coincide, and Christianity and the Movement are my opportunity for being human. Fr Giussani He has pointed out two connections, and we need to keep them in mind. We must not leave this lane, or we will be wasting time. Everyone should still be free to intervene as a reaction to the experience he has had up to now, especially this year. I don’t want to block this spontaneity, but I want to anticipate that the point we have to reach is included and channeled between the two “banks,” the two connections noted. He noted the connection between the Movement and Christianity and the connection between Christianity and humanity, real humanity. If we move outside these two points of reference, or these “synonyms,” we will begin to wander off track and speak of facts or reactions that are a waste of time.
We could even change the topic. Couldn’t we change the topic? What do you think, why don’t we change the topic?! Because it’s clear to everyone that the Movement is a very debatable mode that each of us follows because he experiences or hopes for an enrichment; it is a contingent mode that can lead us in a more mature and pleasant way into the Christian fact. Otherwise, what would the Movement be? The value of the Movement is its educative function regarding the Christian fact. This is what interests us.
So I propose that we set aside the topic I gave this morning and ask ourselves point-blank what Christianity is for us. Couldn’t we do this? In other words, let’s make it a doctrinal session, a sort of catechism lesson.
What is Christianity for us? If one of us were to be even slightly involved in the Movement, but not in search of an answer to this question, an intelligent and existentially provoking answer, a practical answer to this question, if one of us were involved without trying to find an answer to this question, he would really be an idiot, wouldn’t he?
Let’s try to ask ourselves if we ever asked ourselves this question, not simply throwing out a few ideas, but trying to be systematic, not in the scholastic sense of systematic, but in the vital sense of the word, because life is an organism, a system.
If you feel I am forcing you into something too demanding, we can go back to the first topic. But I suggest we change the topic because I don’t really see it as a change. In any case, it will help us to eliminate some useless steps in the argument, because what interests us is not the Movement itself, but an answer to life. And, for us, Christianity is this answer to life.…
Come on then, let’s get to the point. What is Christianity for us? Intervention I have been reminded to think of this place as the place of the Lord’s presence, and therefore of my truth, and not as the place where people get together because they all think in the same way about a given point. I’ve understood that here, with these faces, with these people, my salvation is at stake. Fr Giussani And so? How does your intervention immediately connect with the question we have posed? It seems I am a bit slow to catch on. Intervention The immediate connection is that here… Fr Giussani But what is Christianity? Intervention It’s the truth of my life. Fr Giussani You used another word, too, the word “salvation.” Now, guys, we need to come to grips with these words! You haven’t understood a word unless you perceive the “thickness,”–as you call it–the existential depth. A word is an indication, a sign, the sign of a reality. A word is the sign of a reality, a sign, like an arrow… So you haven’t understood a word unless you perceive the reality that the word indicates.
This is why the question, “What is Christianity?” is the most urgent question for us who are committed to it. But it’s the most urgent question for the whole world if–even only as a hypothesis–Christianity is understood as history’s proposal for a more authentic human journey and as a means of security regarding destiny.
So, we have to break open the formal packaging of the words “salvation” and “truth,” because everything man uses tends towards formalism. All revolutions and all reforms, of any kind, degrade into formalism, into standardization, and become schematic. There is an inertia in human impetus which leads the wealth of that impetus toward death, right from the start! It’s called original sin.
Original sin seems to be the term in our language most easily emptied of meaning (in fact, much post-conciliar theology has emptied it completely of meaning), because it doesn’t seem to connect with anything, it seems not to correspond with anything in our experience, with any fact of life. So the whole of modern thought considers it abstract and seeks to identify it, at most, with a gap between what man is and what he should be. So the term “original sin” would indicate the lower stage of an evolution; original sin would be evolution that has not developed as it should. Is it clear?
But it’s not true! Original sin is an idea essential to Christian anthropology, and it means this: any effort, any initiative on man’s part–whether intellectual or practical, doctrinal or affective–slips existentially, tends to slide toward death, toward formalism, toward complete sclerosis. Perhaps some of you will remember the example I used to use at school, the one about the tightrope. If I try to walk along a tightrope that is lying on the ground, I can manage it very well, but if I take the same tightrope and raise it up 300 feet, I can’t do it any more. I have the theoretical, structural ability to do it, but if the existential conditions change, I can’t do it. If you raise it up 300 feet, you need an expert to walk it.
This is an illustration. Christian doctrine has this to say about original sin: structurally, man should be able to do certain things, but existentially he is in a condition–his existential condition–in which he is incapable of pursuing the ideals that are born in his heart, and the ideal impetus decays and slides toward death, right from the start!
If you apply this Christian idea to your own life, it’s striking how well it describes human existence. If you haven’t yet discovered this corruption of your noblest ideals as original impetus (affection for a woman, attention for others, compassion for others, passion for the truth, and the fascination that draws man toward reality, whose immediate form is curiosity, the overwhelming fascination of curiosity), if you haven’t yet discovered in yourself the immediate corruption that these noble feelings undergo (it’s as if they can’t manage to keep afloat, as if they were unable to keep up the standard suggested by the impetus), then you are not yet a man; you are still a child.
Do you remember how many times, during the spiritual exercises, we looked at human experience and asked ourselves: What are the most striking, the most human experiences? The answer was love between man and woman, between parents and children, and passion for politics (in the broader, platonic sense of the term)–the passion of an effective service to society, that it be more expressively human, of more help to man’s journey, to every man’s journey. Then we asked: Are there more impetuous and uncontrollable sources of selfishness and exploitation than these three? Humanly speaking, we would be led to despair, and the more one tries to create a system for correcting this bitter destiny of the noblest things he feels being born inside him, the more he generates a sense of disappointment that in the end makes things worse. Man’s presumption of saving himself is at the origin of all the despotism, all the terrorism, all the intolerance in society and in family life, in social life and in friendships.
A Christian, who has received the announcement of salvation, has been freed from despair; what he retains is this enlightened sadness filled with hope. Intervention In Lagerkvist’s Barabbas, when Peter meets him under the portico, he doesn’t recognize him and Barabbas begins to question him. Peter replies, “He is risen from the dead; we are waiting for Him.” Barabbas doesn’t believe him and Peter says, “Some say He is the Son of God. He just might be.”… Barabbas is even more scandalized. Then Peter says, “Some say He is the Son of God. He just might be, but what is important for me is that He come back as He was before.”
I was struck by this. Peter wanted the experience he had had with that man to go on. This is what interested him. For me, the Christian fact is a bit like this. What we are following is an experience of total humanity. And, as you told us once, the sequela is “a critical comparison with the proposal offered.” Fr Giussani What you have said is true as far as it goes, but only as far as it goes. You have to have reasons, as St Peter said: “Be ready to give reasons for the hope that is in you.” We have to be able to give reasons.
The question, “What is Christianity?” is not just a formal question; it is the question, because one of the gravest dangers is exactly this absence of reasons. It’s not a danger in the sense that it threatens our adherence, because our adherence is to a reality–however little we live it–so rich that, humanly speaking, we realize that we would be worse off leaving it. But it is a danger for our capacity of being a presence, because what challenges society, in time, cannot be anything but a reason, an experience that carries its reasons on its front page.
But the last thing you said leads to what I am saying. The sequela is the critical comparison between the cluster of original needs we have in us and the proposal we are offered. But the critical comparison between the cluster of original needs that are in us and the proposal we are offered implies a work that is not at all easy.
It is not at all easy because, firstly, discovering the original needs that are in us is not something immediate or instinctive. It should be immediate, but it isn’t. Why? Because our brain is completely penetrated by the mindset of society. The dominant culture is our mentality, so our original structure is buried under a sediment of the effects of history and society. We have to break through this sedimentation, we have to crack it open! This takes more than an atom bomb–because poverty of spirit has far more explosive power than an atom bomb! Secondly, we have to pay honest attention to the proposal offered to us. This is difficult, too, because in the febrile anguish or anxiety of the desire to find an answer to his just feelings, a person creates his own images and formulae, or adheres to what pleases him most immediately (as St Paul has said).
So work is needed. In this sense, it emerges that sequela is the name of the work we have to do. Sequela is the comprehensive term, the all-embracing term for the work, or the term that indicates the whole of the work we have to do.
It is only in the sequela that you discover the new taste of life. Otherwise, you remain complacent; you can be satisfied only by your own opinions. But being bogged down in your own opinions is something bourgeois, which gives a bourgeois satisfaction. A bourgeois satisfaction is short of breath, like asthma; the bourgeois taste of life is like asthma. Intervention I wanted to say that for me Christianity is the way I have learned to have a passion for everything, even the most everyday things, and to grasp the meaning of everything without being a slave of anything (of the ideas I have, of the opinions I form, or of the partiality that I live). As I listened to what you were saying, I understood that the sequela is the way to do this. Fr Giussani What you said brings out a consequence. It is a corollary of what Christianity is. It can also be a diagnostic criterion, a heuristic criterion. Intervention I realized now, when I heard your question, that in fact it is anything but formal, and the answer to it puts me in difficulty.
I would make this comparison: If you ask me what life is, I would immediately have the same difficulty, and I would answer that life is what I am, what is going ahead.
What is Christianity for me? I cannot imagine myself outside the Christian fact. Christianity is the fact that Someone has truly taken hold of me, made Himself present in my life, for whom my life was able to begin to be life, can be life.
Now, this Presence in my existence, thanks to which I no longer live in terms of solitude, and therefore ultimately in terms of death, has a great connotation: this Presence constitutes itself as a judgment in my life. I don’t know if I am able to render the aforementioned word, truth, according to its existential value, but the greatest desire of my humanity is to rediscover, to recognize what the truth is, what direction my existence has taken, that for which it is worth living, moving myself.
Now, this Person, who has become present in my life, is what judges my existence. He is the source… Fr Giussani Listen, your intervention still points to a possible consequence of what Christianity is. Christianity is something that has provoked this in you and, in provoking this phenomenon in you, has become a judgment on your life. But this is a consequence. We are trying to find out what Christianity “is.” InterventionThinking over these last months, I would like to say what the Christian experience is. I would say that it is a way of preventing life…. Fr Giussani No, sorry. Perhaps the question is ambiguous. We are asking ourselves what Christianity is! So, we have to find an answer that would be valid for me even if I were an atheist. Do you get it? Even though I wouldn’t accept it, the answer has to be valid for me. Do you see?
What is Christianity? What is it? Intervention Recognizing His presence in life, in things, in the facts that happen; recognizing the presence of an Other. Fr Giussani So, Christianity is an eminently subjective phenomenon. Subjective, meaning, you are the one who recognizes a presence. Like that time when Fr Franzoni went to Busto Arsizio to talk about divorce, and a little old lady contested what he said. First he talked about the question, “What is a Christian?” and he said that a Christian is someone who wants justice for the poor, then, “What is a Marxist?” and he said that a Marxist is someone who wants justice for the poor. Then he concluded that today a Marxist is a Christian. An old lady put up her hand and said, “So what is the difference?” And Franzoni, rather taken aback, answered, “Well, a Christian sees Christ in the poor; a Marxist doesn’t.” At that point a friend of ours put his hand up and said, “So a Christian is someone who has visions!”
Look, please, I am not arguing for the sake of arguing. All your answers are quite correct, but I’d like us to understand the question better. According to what our friend just said, Christianity is a subjective fact, the perception of a real presence among us. Do you see? Intervention I would answer this: Christianity is the objective, living fact of the Church, which has become reasonable, meaningful and full of promise of life for me in the historical encounters that are the Movement. It is the proposal of the Church, just as it has reached us, in its gestures, in its life, in its truth, which has become evident to my humanity in these encounters, because if I had not encountered people, that objective reality would not have been there for me, it would not have had any meaning for me, and would not have been full of hope for me. Intervention I find it almost impossible to say what Christianity is, if not as someone involved in it. I am unable to distinguish the awareness of what Christianity is from the sequela. This leads me to say that my intelligence is able to lean toward something that doesn’t give evidence of its measure, but is like the first criterion from which to set off. The essence of Christianity is recognizing that God is an historical fact; in other words, that the meaning, the wholeness that I desire, that each one of us desires, is an historical fact. Intervention But this is faith. Fr Giussani Certainly, this is faith. I agree with him. But we have to answer the question, “What is Christianity?” I agree totally. Only in the sequela can we understand what Christianity is. But the point is that the question we put is a test on how we follow the Movement. Do you understand me? This was the connection.
Clearly the difficulty we have in answering this question indicates that longa enim tibi restat via: you’ve still got a long way to go on your journey in the Movement, because if the Movement is the instrument for adhering, for entering into Christianity… We have already said that the Movement is the instrument for entering into Christianity, because what interests us is that–not the Movement as such.
So, if the Movement is this instrument for entering into Christianity, then the question, “What is Christianity?”–which seems ridiculous and leaves us a little perplexed at the start, because it seems to be something obvious (and it’s not something obvious, as we are discovering)–is essential. It means that the life of the Movement has to be lived with an even greater intelligence and faithfulness. So, let’s get on with it! Intervention I’d like to start off from the question asked before. When does someone begin to ask what Christianity is for him? I asked myself this when I met a person who, at a certain point of my life, challenged me in this way and proposed a hypothesis for my life. He told me that Christ could be a total answer to life. This hit me, even though the Church and what it was saying didn’t seem to be exactly what answers to life. As I spent time with him and with others who were living this experience with him, I tried to see if this hypothesis worked. Belonging to this companionship, trying to understand how Christ was in the experience of people who live in the name of Christ, trying to verify the hypothesis that Christ is the answer to the whole of life, I began to understand what Christianity is, because this is Christianity. In other words, if I speak of this kind of thing to a companion or a person we meet at university, if I say, “Listen, I have experienced something because, at a certain point in my life, someone told me, ‘Maybe Christ is the answer you are looking for, the hypothesis that can make you happy in life.’” Fr Giussani This indicates the way in which someone comes to Christianity!
Sorry, but we can’t pass from one answer to the next without criticism, without a critical awareness. I left the earlier intervention on the Church suspended, and I did it purposely. We’ll take it up again later. What he has just said is a documentation of what was said before, quite rightly, that you understand in the sequela, through an encounter.
If you had been serious about the Community School this year, Traces of Christian Experience (you should keep reading it until you know it by heart), which is a documentation on this, you would understand this point more. Intervention I think Christianity is given by people who recognize that… Fr Giussani … So Christianity is the believers. This is still subjective. In any case, the objectivity would be purely sociological and statistical. It would be no more than sociology and statistics, if Christianity were the believers. Intervention I think that Christianity is the fact of Jesus Christ who came on this earth, and I see this in you; I see it and recognize it for the fact that my life is changing, not only inter nos, humanly, but is changing even in the choices we make. Fr Giussani Okay, these are the consequences. You say, “Christianity is the person of Jesus Christ come down to earth, whom I see in you, and this changes me.” Is that it? Let’s leave this answer suspended, too. Intervention The first reflection that comes to mind before such a dramatic question as this is that it is certainly not to be taken for granted. Fr Giussani It’s dramatic to pose the question. It’s a dramatic question! Because, it would be simple as a question, like asking yourself what this is or what that is. Questions are simple in themselves; it’s asking the questions that is dramatic. Asking this question is dramatic, not the question in itself. Do you see? Because it’s easily taken for granted.
Listen you guys, the problem of the Movement is that almost 100% (apart from 0.1%) of what the Movement is, is taken for granted. So, in all the relationships and connections, in all the objects proper to the activities the Movement provokes or that are done in the Movement, the true object of the Movement escapes; it is taken for granted. So, all the activities are perceived, received and carried out “out of phase”–and the lesser evil that this produces is that it takes ten years instead of one day to get a certain result. Intervention The first reply that comes to me is that Christianity is a fact that stands before me. In other words, after two thousand years, that Man who died and rose again, who has the power to assimilate me to Himself in Baptism, and therefore saves me and frees me, is a fact other than me, but a fact that concerns me totally. And I would like to say that I feel how dramatic it is to answer this question because I don’t take at all for granted what I have been hearing you say for over a year: that if this fact is not a human presence then it is something abstract and theoretical. Fr Giussani A consequent development, a consequence of the answer. Intervention As I see it, Christianity is a new way of living the things of this world. Fr Giussani An ethic. Intervention No, this new way… Fr Giussani A new way of living, meaning a new behavior. Intervention As a result, yes. Fr Giussani Just as I said! Intervention For me, Christianity is a journey toward the reality of things… Fr Giussani A journey toward the reality of things… Intervention …toward reality and toward the truth of things, and this is the value of my life. Fr Giussani A method; it’s a method for approaching reality. Intervention And to get to know it. Fr Giussani It’s a method for approaching, getting to know reality and using it. Intervention And for living. Fr Giussani A wisdom, like there is Buddhist wisdom, like there is… Intervention No, not only a wisdom. Something that is adequate to what I am. Fr Giussani A wisdom adequate to your measure. Intervention There is an aspect for which the definitions given up to now seem to me to be inadequate, because we still need to see what I am. Christianity, it seems to me, is a presence, and a presence means the presence of something other than just me and my desire and my humanity that is fulfilled. It is the presence of the condition for which my humanity comes into being. My humanity is humanity not abstractly, but in this relationship with this presence. Fr Giussani The condition, in any case, a condition for being human. Intervention Or, rather, the condition that enables me to recognize, to recover my humanity. For example, the encounter I had with the Movement was not only the answer to my desire for humanity, it was a challenge to my capacity to grasp my desire; something that forced me to break out of a restriction. Fr Giussani In any case, the category of the answer is the category of an experience, but of an experience that is adequate, unlike other experiences. InterventionThere is an aspect for which the word experience seems to be insufficient to explain the reality of the fact, because it is a mystery; it is an experience that is rooted in something that is not only an experience. Intervention I think that Christianity is the event of God who became a man, and this man said He was God and chose… Fr Giussani That’s enough. It’s enough, we’ve got there! Only this is Christianity! Christianity is this; it’s a fact! A fact. If I were to punch him in the face and break his glasses, that I have broken his glasses is a fact. In the same way, a man said He was God. God became man, and this is why this man said, “I am God.”
The essential category of an answer to the question, “What is Christianity?” is that of a fact; a fact like the existence of Moscow, or the fact that he is a priest; he has been ordained priest–it’s a fact.
It’s a fact. Look, it’s not a question of taste, of intellectual clarity, or putting things in place. It is a condition, it’s the fundamental condition for every Christian thought and every Christian action. The category of “fact” becomes the fundamental category for the Christian journey. So what is Christianity? It is a man who said He was God; in other words, a man who said, “I am the salvation of you life. I am the meaning of your life.”
The word “experience” and all the rest are consequences of this, do you see? What is Christianity? It is this.
Since I’ve got the answer that I think is exact, I’ll stop here and I don’t want to go back, unless there is some objection, some outstanding question. Intervention This is the elementary faith of our fathers; my father and my mother taught me this first of all, whereas we see, we look and develop… Fr Giussani Yes. In other words, this is the danger for us, it’s a really pathetic attitude we have. We are not able to build on this (like all our answers, do you see?), taking for granted, as if we were already aware of what we are building on. Instead, what happens is that we build while leaving behind the cornerstone we need to build on. This is why our thoughts are a little crooked, and this is why our approach to things is always rather ambiguous.
I left the answer about the Church suspended, because the category of “Church” belongs to the fact. But, now, let’s go back to it, and try to come up with an answer.
The word “Church” points to a fact. What category is the Church? In what category must we include the Church? It is a fact! It is an historical fact of a gathering of people who say, “We are Christ”–that is to say, the body of Christ. So the Church must be added as a Nota Bene to the answer, “Christianity is the fact, the event, so much an event… an event happens in a certain place, in a certain moment of time.” Do you follow? It is made of time and space. The answer to the question, “What is Christianity?” is a piece of time and space, this piece of time and space and this being, born of a girl in that place in Palestine, conceived in that faraway town of Palestine, born in that other faraway village that was Bethlehem. Christianity is this event! Only that this time and space are prolonged. My name and surname are those of a being born in a particular place and time, only it goes on, and from 1922 it has gone on up to 1978. Do you follow?
Instead of lasting from 1922 until 1978, this event has gone on for 2,000 years up to now, and is destined to last to the end of history. How and when I don’t know. It could grow bigger or it could be reduced to twelve people (as Solov’ev imagined at the end of history, with the last Pope, Peter II). This isn’t important; this is the mystery of God. But that event is an event that goes on, like a bang that begins and grows, like a clap of thunder that grows louder, and instead of getting smaller and disappearing, as thunderclaps do, it began and keeps growing. It goes on. This going on is called Church, whereas the period 1922-1978 is called a human life, my human life. It is called Church, the life of Christ. After all, St Paul used the expression, “realizing the maturity of Christ.” The Church realizes the maturity of Christ, so it is precisely the life of Christ Himself.
So it is an event, the event of a man who said, “I am God and I will go on in history in the visible reality of the people who will adhere to me and be united among themselves,” the Church. It is a fact! You can believe in it or not, but it is a fact!
From humanism onwards, Christianity has tended to be reduced to wisdom (the best way to live, the most excellent human philosophy), up to today, or to a morality (the best way to love our fellow men, the prophecy of humanity). It has been reduced like this, and reason will always try to do this, because otherwise Christianity will dominate wisdom. If, instead, reason can reduce Christianity, then it can prevail; reason will judge Christianity. Instead, Christianity is a fact. You can be angry because it’s there, because it has happened; you can blaspheme, you can skin yourself alive hysterically because you don’t want it to be, but factum infectum fieri nequit: you cannot make a fact not a fact.
It is a fact that holds an element of challenge for the future, because tomorrow is not yet here, and this fact, which has reached us over two thousand years, and in which we, too, are implicated, says, “Look, after 34,000 years, I’ll still be here, and after another 3,400,000 years I’ll still be here.”
But it is a fact! Christianity is a fact! That is why our faith, our being Christians, is first and foremost a fact that you cannot get rid of, try as you might, because it is Baptism that took hold of you; it’s a gesture that took hold of you and drew you into the fact, and you cannot get out of it.
I keep on insisting on this point because nothing like this can give our life the power of certainty, the energy of what is certain. It simplifies everything! It doesn’t depend on your mood, on what you have felt or haven’t felt, on your opinion, on what is clear or unclear for you. Christianity is a fact that has this as its content: the appearance of a fact, the form of a fact is a Man who has spread through history by assimilating to Himself the people He takes hold of, and the content of this is that this is the presence of man’s salvation to man, of the meaning of history, the presence of the meaning of history, of man with all his various connections, because history is made of me with all my connections, with everything connected with me. History is this; without me there would be no history.
Now we can understand the two most important riders to this answer, the two fundamental corollaries. The first is that if you don’t come across a Christian or a Christian reality that tells you this, if you don’t meet up with a prophetic moment (prophetic means a person or a reality that tells you this; prophecy is proclamation), if you don’t come across a person or a reality that tells you this, then it’s as if for you it didn’t exist. This is the phenomenon of encounter. The phenomenon of encounter is, for our being Christians, like Pentecost was for the relationship with Christ that the Apostles had, because if Pentecost had not happened, they would have remained a bunch of fools, with this great but useless tragic memory inside them. So the encounter is the spirit of that man, or of this fact, that communicates itself to you; the encounter is the spirit of that fact that communicates itself to you. And the spirit of that fact communicates itself through something quite ordinary, tongues of fire, a fire, a thunderclap, like the fleeting ordinariness of any man whatever, of any group whatever.
I once went to Brescia to speak about “Communion and Liberation and Our Lady” at the National Marian Convention. As I arrived, Fr Maggioni (who is one of the few who talk seriously) was saying, in a discussion with another priest (he had given the Biblical lecture), that the crime of the Church today, the great shortcoming of the Church today, is that there is an ecclesiastic structure without the event. The encounter is that fact which becomes an event for life. Because, he said, without the event, that fact is as if non-existent (as I just said).
Think of the breathtaking importance that the ordinariness of an encounter takes up! Think of how we need to adore the presence of things so ephemeral as the names and the faces we have encountered, or as our groups, our community! Think of the eternal value these “stupid” things have.
The encounter is the first corollary. If it is a fact, then this fact is noticed, innotescit; you become aware of it through an encounter. This is Pentecost–in other words, the fact becomes an event for you, in your life. The historical event becomes event for you through an encounter.
Second corollary: Since the Christian fact is a man or a reality, a human presence (a human presence!) that claims to be the meaning of your life and the meaning of history–of your life, with all its relationships (remember that my life and the cosmos are the same thing, because the cosmos and history are my life with all its relationships, so they are my real life); since the content of this fact is the presence of a man, a human reality that says, “I am the meaning of history, of the cosmos, and therefore your meaning; I am the meaning of your existence and the existence of all things,” this fact is destiny made present; it is destiny that has become a presence, the presence of destiny, of my destiny and of your destiny, everyone’s destiny, and I recognize it through an encounter… Listen, what is the most important thing in your life? Your destiny. What is the most important thing in my life? My destiny. If my destiny and your destiny are the same thing, then we are living the same thing. This is communion, unity among men. What is impossible, here becomes so real that it becomes the moral law. The only moral law is unity, or charity. Thus, in communion, that fact becomes the new face of humanity, of society and of history.
Now, what I have described is the Movement. The Movement is only these things, and nothing else.
I don’t know if in Rome, in Pescara, in Bologna, and so on, we have lived the Movement with the awareness of these things. All I want to say is that the growing awareness of these things is the attraction, the only attraction of the invitation we’ve received. And it’s our only strength, in the face of anyone and anything, even were we to remain alone.
“This is the victory that conquers the world: our faith.” So, what conquers the world is the meaning of the world.
So the question we have substituted for the one we had this morning was only a switch in terminology, because the answer to “What is Christianity?” is the answer to “What is the Movement?” Actually, the question was, “How is the Movement going?” but, now, I believe we have the criteria for deciding how we are to go on.
I don’t know if you heard that piece of Jeremiah the other day, the reading for the martyrdom of St John the Baptist, when the Lord told Jeremiah, “I will make your face like a wall of bronze before them. They will attack you, but they will not prevail.” The wall of bronze is the “hard face” against any kind of assault, against the assault of what is different–in other words, against the assault of what is not the meaning–because what is different from this is what is not; it is falsehood. “The world is set in falsehood.” Because the world is not the pretty stars, the pretty face of a woman, the children who are growing… The question is the meaning with which a man lives his relationship with his wife, with the stars, and with his children. Because man is the animal who approaches everything (even himself) through the interpretation of a meaning.
So what is not this is falsehood! What gives us a “wall of bronze” against what is different is faith–that is, the acknowledgment of this Presence that has become event in our conscious life (and here is where our maturity began) through an encounter, and lives in my life only in as much as it is joined with yours, in other words in communion. This is true in my life, in as much as it is joined with yours, and not because I get together with you once a day to say morning prayer or see you 44 times a day because I hold 44 meetings, as it would still be the case if I were to be alone in America for 6 months! Your relationship with money, with time, with work, with your girl, with strangers… is with you; it is felt, conceived, approached and lived in the awareness of my belonging.
It has to do with everything I do. Why do people go to work? To earn their living or, in exceptional cases, out of interest in science or technology. Why do people marry? People marry because… they marry. And why do they have children? Because... because... they just do. And why do people eat? In order to live. Okay. All these answers have to be broken apart and replaced, or rather something else has to be born inside. The phenomenon is called transfiguration, in the Christian sense.
We do all this to build up the witness to Christ in the world, in other words, to build up unity, communion. Or, as the psalm said this morning, “Lord, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory abides.” All we want is to build this.
It is through what we do that we build, because nothing is marginalized or censured. This is why we live the concept of transfiguration, because we are overwhelmed by “something else,” so that “whoever has a wife lives as if he did not, whoever has possessions, as if he had nothing, and whoever uses things lives as if he didn’t use them” because what is seen at first glance is not the true face of things. It is like another world.
To conclude, at least for the time being, what you experience is really like a new humanity.
So, the concept of experience and all the rest you have said is correct, because all the interventions had something correct. It is the experience of a new humanity, something just beginning, if you like, but justice, what all mankind hopes for, is this humanity that is beginning to dawn in us; justice is the final outcome.
This is not just one more thing alongside the problem of social justice. It invests the problem of social justice, too, and transforms, or transfigures its terms. It doesn’t marginalize or censure anything.
So then, how have our communities lived the Movement this year?
