Genesis 22:1-19. I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living —Ps 114(116):1-6, 8-9. Matthew 9:1-8.
I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.
The odds are definitely against young Isaac and the paralysed man in today’s readings. One is tied up as a victim to be burned in sacrifice; the other is tied to his bed by paralysis. One is set free on account of the total faith and obedience of his father; the other through Jesus rewarding the faith and love of his friends.
As we look at these two happenings, we can look around our world at the sick ones, at those deeply challenged by the lives they are asked to live, at our own life challenges. From these circumstances we look at the face of Jesus as he bends over the sick man, as he confronts those who are opposing his care.
Into my life today, come, Lord Jesus.
And after getting into a boat he crossed the water and came to his own town. And just then some people were carrying a paralysed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’ Then some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—‘Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.’ And he stood up and went to his home. When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.
Fergus Kerr OP wrote a highly significant book entitled Theology after Wittgenstein (first published in 1986),in which he identified two great pathologies of the western mind: the divide between the individual and the community, and the divide between body and mind; and he showed how Wittgenstein’s philosophy represents the healing of these divides.
In today’s gospel reading we see how close this is to the healing work of Jesus. In the story we see both of these divides being bridged by Jesus.
- “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic….” He did not enquire about the paralytic’s own faith. Peter Chrysologus whom I also quoted yesterday had this to say: “God does not inquire into the wants of those who are deliriously ill…. A doctor does not inquire into or examine the wishes of such a patient.” The point, I think, is that we are always a community of faith. For about four centuries now the western world has laboured under philosophies that are profoundly individualistic; all meaning is thought to repose in the individual rather than in the society or even the family. It was on this basis that the theory of Limbo (only recently disowned by the Church) was constructed. Even new-born babies, dying at birth or soon after, were thought to be on their own before God; the faith of their parents had no bearing on their destiny, and they could not be buried in consecrated ground. This, even though St Paul, writing about marriage between believers and unbelievers, had written: “The unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” (1 Corinthians 7:14). We need not imagine that we have entirely cast off the individualistic mindset.
- The other great divide in western philosophies has been that between body and soul (or, depending on the particular interest, body and mind, or body and spirit). St John Chrysostom (4th century) wrote, “[Christ] heals the paralysis in both soul and body. The healing of the soul is made evident through the healing of the body, even while the body still remains a creature crawling on the ground.” Central to the Christian faith is the affirmation that the Word became flesh. It is amazing that a portion of the world shaped in large measure by the Christian faith we should ever have been tempted to divide body and spirit. But that is what we inherited and passed on.
The two great divides were expressed together in a leaflet that was handed out at a parish mission in my childhood. On it were written the words: “Remember, man, thou hast but one soul to save.” No community, no life of the body; just one soul. (And there were no women in the world in those days!) It was a far cry from St Paul’s teaching that we are the body of Christ and members of one another: see Col 1:18; Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 12:13). Pius XII attempted to reinvigorate this teaching in 1943 in Mystici Corporis. ”The unbroken tradition of the Fathers from the earliest times,” he wrote, “teaches that the Divine Redeemer and the Church which is His Body form but one mystical person, that is to say, the whole Christ.” We still have much need for healing at these two sick places of the soul.
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Licet Multa
On Catholics in Belgium
Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII
August 3, 1881.
To Our Beloved Son Victor Augustus, Cardinal Deschamps, Primate of Belgium, and to All the Other Belgian Bishops.
Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction!
During these last years the cause of Catholicism has undergone, in Belgium, multiplied trials. We have, however, found comfort and consolation in the tokens of persistent love and fidelity which Belgian Catholics have furnished us so abundantly whenever they have had an occasion. And, above all, what has strengthened us, and still gives us strength, is your signal attachment to our person, and the zeal which you exert in order that the Christian people confided to your care may persevere in the sincerity and unity of the Catholic Faith, and may progress each day in its love for the Church of Christ and his Vicar. It is pleasant for us to give special praise to your solicitude in encouraging by all the means possible a good education for the young, and in insuring to the children of the primary schools a religious education established on broad foundations. Your zeal is applied with equal watchfulness to all that tends to the advantage of Christian education in the Colleges and Institutes, as well as to the Catholic University of Louvain.
2. On the other hand, we cannot remain indifferent, or at peace, in presence of events which would seem to imperil amongst Belgians the good understanding between Catholic citizens, and to divide them into opposing camps. It would be superfluous to recall here the causes and occasions of these differences, and the encouragement they have met with where it ought least to have been expected. All these details, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, you know better than any one; and you deplore them with us, knowing perfectly that at no other epoch could the necessity of assuring and maintaining union amongst Catholics be so great as at this moment, when the enemies of the name of Christianity rage on all sides against the Church in an unanimous attack.
3. Full of solicitude for this union, we point out the dangers which threaten it arising from certain controversies concerning public law; a subject which, amongst you, engenders a strong difference of feeling. These controversies have for their object the necessity or opportuneness of conforming to the prescriptions of Catholic doctrine the existing forms of government, based on what is commonly called modern law. Most assuredly we, more than any one, ought heartily to desire that human society should be governed in a Christian manner, and that the divine influence of Christ should penetrate and completely impregnate all orders of the State. From the commencement of our Pontificate we manifested, without delay, that such was our settled opinion; and that by public documents, and especially by the Encyclical Letters we published against the errors of Socialism, and, quite recently, upon the Civil Power. Nevertheless, all Catholics, if they wish to exert themselves profitably for the common good, should have before their eyes and faithfully imitate the prudent conduct which the Church herself adopts in matters of this nature: she maintains and defends in all their integrity the sacred doctrines and principles of right with inviolable firmness, and applies herself with all her power to regulating the institutions and the customs of public order, as well as the acts of private life, upon these same principles. Nevertheless, she observes in this the just measure of time and place; and, as commonly happens in human affairs, she is often constrained to tolerate at times evils that it would be almost impossible to prevent, without exposing herself to calamities and troubles still more disastrous.
4. Moreover, in polemical discussions, care should be taken not to overstep those just limits that justice and charity alike mark out, and not rashly to throw blame or suspicion upon men otherwise devoted to the doctrines of the Church; and, above all, upon those who in the Church itself are raised to dignity and power. We deplore that this has been done in your case, Dear Son, who, in your quality of archbishop, administer the diocese of Malines; and who, for your signal services to the Church, and for your zeal in defending Catholic doctrine, have been judged worthy by our Predecessor of blessed memory, Pius IX., to take a place in the College of most Eminent Cardinals. It is manifest that the facility with which unfounded accusations are leveled vaguely against one’s neighbor, does injury to the good name of others, and weakens the bonds of charity; and that it outrages those “whom the Holy Ghost has placed to govern the Church of God.” For this reason do we desire with all our power, and hereby most seriously enjoin, that Catholics abstain from this conduct. Let it suffice to them to remember that it is to the Apostolic See and to the Roman Pontiff, to whom all have access, that has been confided the charge of defending everywhere Catholic truths, and of watching that no error whatsoever, capable of doing injury to the doctrine of faith and morals, or apparently in contradiction with it, be spread or propagated in the Church.
5. In what concerns yourselves, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, use all your vigilance so that all men of science, and those, most especially, to whom you have confided the charge of teaching youth, be of one accord, and unanimous in all those questions upon which the teaching of the Holy See allows no freedom of opinion. And as to points left to the discussion of the learned, may their intellects, owing to your inspiration and your advice, be so exercised upon them that the divergences of opinion destroy not union of heart and concord of will. On this subject the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIV., our immortal predecessor, has left in his Constitution “Sollicita ac provida,” certain rules for men of study, full of wisdom and authority. He has even proposed to them, as a model to imitate in this matter, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose moderation of language and maturity of style are maintained as well in the combat against adversaries, as in the exposition of doctrine and the proofs destined for its defense. We wish to renew to learned men the recommendations of our predecessor, and to point out to them this noble model, who will teach them not only the manner of carrying on controversy with opponents, but also the character of the doctrine to be held and developed in the cultivation of philosophy and theology. On many occasions, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, we have expressed to you our earnest desire of seeing the wisdom of St. Thomas reinstated in Catholic schools, and everywhere treated with the highest consideration. We have likewise exhorted you to establish in the University of Louvain the teaching of higher philosophy in the spirit of St. Thomas. In this matter, as in all others, we have found you entirely ready to condescend to our wishes and to fulfill our will. Pursue then, with zeal, the task which has been begun, and watch with care that in this same University the fruitful sources of Christian philosophy, which spring from the works of St. Thomas, be open to students in a rich abundance, and applied to the profit of all other branches of instruction. In the execution of this design, if you have need of our aid or our counsels, they shall never be wanting to you.
6. In the meantime, we pray God, the Source of Wisdom, the Author of Peace, and the Friend of Charity, to accord you His favorable help in the present conjuncture, and we ask him for all an abundance of Heavenly gifts. As an augury of these graces, and as a sign of our special benevolence, we accord, with a loving heart, our Apostolic benediction to you, Dear Son and Venerable Brethren, to all your Clergy, and to the people confided to your charge.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, the 3rd of August, 1881, the fourth year of Our Pontificate.
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A teaching for the citizens of the USA as well. BJS
In a recent speech to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, former President Bill Clinton stated the obvious: that we are a nation with a great deal of diversity. Heralding this fact as a “very positive thing,” Clinton joined with the growing chorus of cultural commentators who apparently think that there is something inherently wonderful about diversity.
