Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Pope in New York

...I finally have time to reflect...


So as you guys know I headed to New York a couple months back to greet the Pope on his first trip to the US. I went because I wanted to see him for myself and because I have quite a few friends who mean a lot to me back there that I wanted to share the experience with. He amazes me. John Paul showed me how to love the Church and Benedict continues to show me why I should. For instance, this man came here to tell us one thing and one thing only, that Christ is our Hope. Not politics, not a bigger salary, not technology or lower taxes, or good grades at the University, but Christ. Who says something like that, and with such certainty? After seeing him it was clear to me that I wanted whatever it is that he has, I want that sense of certainty, that kind of faith, that kind of concrete relationship with Christ. He tells us that Christ is the only answer to our humanity, and when I saw him in New York you could see that he knew that to be true in his own life in the way he lives, he was so happy, so loving! For him Christ is real, someone that accompanies him as a friend in the here and now. That is why I follow him and why every chance I get I read what he writes or speaks about. We are truly blessed to have him as our shepherd. While I was there I got the chance to hear him speak at the youth rally in Yonkers. What impressed me most was how spry he was at 81. Also, everyone (the media specifically) before he came was calling him things like the enforcer, and saying he was too German and too stern, but the Benedict I saw was incredibly happy and loving, he looked at us like a father should. In the end we were all very excited to see him, and he was clearly excited to see us, it was very much of a mutual thing.
The church I saw and that he saw that day is alive, and being there verified what I have seen to be true for the last five years, that even though the church may be smaller now, it is stronger and more aware of herself and of the task at hand: to proclaim Christ as our only Hope to a world that has reduced Him to a figment of our imagination. For my friends that were there with me to greet the Pope, and for me, Christ is the only response to our humanity and our desire for truth. Seeing the Pope helped to reassure us of this fact.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Catholic for a reason


Sometimes I wonder if people really think its that simple. Like its that easy just to pass off 2,000 years of history as if it were nothing, as if it could really just crumble into nothing. One time some reporter asked the Pope if he was worried about the Church since the number of priests in Europe and North America/Australia was dwindling so rapidly and he just laughed, replying that the Church "started with 12". And its true. What's beautiful is what people outside of the Church, and many inside...the sleepwalkers, can't see. How right now the Church is being purged of all its dead weight. All those priests and religious who don't love the Church, the lay persons who joined their ranks, who assert themselves above the Church without even the slightest hint of humility...as if they were the Church as if they could do it better...all under their banners of social justice and dialogue...and yet we see through them and their hard hearts...we love the Church and we recognize that it is Christ that finds us, that moves us, and that renews His Church without the slightest nod to the best intentions of man. This is what the Catholic family has forgotten, to pray and to listen. Instead many have asserted themselves time and time again claiming that they knew best, listening to the world and bending to the rules of the world...listening they called it...dialogue they called it...and look at the fruits of their labor...so many of their orders are dying ...these priests and nuns who threw of their habits in some vain attempt for some supposedly egalitarian ideal! Sickness. What blasphemy...what shame...what chaos. And the fruits of their labor, the beautiful irony...thousands of young 20 somethings that want nothing more than to follow the Pope and make the mass beautiful again...to be Catholic again...to proclaim that the Priest, that the religious, is in fact NOT a lay person...we DON'T want that...that was never intended...screw the 60s and its reactionary ignorance...they are not equal and were never meant to be...shame on you! Shame on you for making a farce of the Church and of what She shows us in Her rituals and hierarchy...Christ! All that mindless academic dialogue and tolerance...and you forgot the Mass...what makes you! What shows us Christ! And in your arrogance you were blinded by your own hubris, your intelligence, your ability to argue subjectivity...anyone can argue subjectivity...and yet we know it is not what we were made for! We were made for Truth! And what's worse, you poisoned the Church and Her flock! Shame on you...lost shepards...with lost sheep. The game is up...look at the movements in the Church and how God renews His Church through the Holy Spirit...the new line of Jesuits...faithful to St. Ignatius's teachings! What beautiful, beautiful irony! The Church is regaining her balance and She is thriving! What optimism! And yet we still struggle...so many are still asleep...Catholic only by culture...unaware that they are a new creation not bound by sin nor the world...pilgrims on Earth...we must face reality and we must live! FREEDOM! This is Christ. This proposal to live as Christ has asked us. We must regain our reason and employ it! We must embrace the risk of our faith. We must know why we are what we are, we must constantly verify so as to never repeat the sins of our past...of the great rejection of our humanity that occurred in the 60s and only grew worse..destroying our mass, the priesthood, the reverence, the papacy, OUR CERTAINTY! We must regain the mass in all its beauty and never again yield to the worldly...for we are not of the world! And in great faith we must bow to the Pope's authority because it IS reasonable! Because without it we are destined to be overcome once again by relativism and I REFUSE, I REJECT THIS CHAOS...WE must REFUSE to relinquish ourselves in front of the pursuit of the truth...it lies where faith and reason intersect...and we must always stay there...it is a constant work, but it is the only work, the only work that makes life worth living...that makes it real. You have lost, and Christ has won...there was never even a battle. We must pray for all the souls lost due to the misguidance of so many well intentioned shepards drunk with arrogance...that they too may come home before the great equalizer of death has its last word, before the darkness descends and as the new dawn ascends. ¡Viva Cristo Rey! Pax+