Human Rights and the Challenge of Evangelization

Earlier this year, I met Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, SJ at a conference at Notre Dame sponsored by the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. I knew from reliable sources that Fr. Samir is widely considered to be the Vatican's most trusted expert on Islam, and so it was a rare honor to be able to chat with him during dinner at the conference. He was as charming as he was immensely well-informed.

Yesterday, I noticed an article in the Asian Times by Fr. Samir which I think is a must read. It is here.

Also a must read, in my opinion, is an article by Roy W. Brown about the demise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is now well under way at the United Nations. It is an extremely important article. It is here.

World-historical shifts are usually impossible to notice except in hindsight, but today they are happening at a breathtaking pace. These two article are evidence of what is happening.

Loving the Church

My monthly visits to St. Michael's parish in Wheaton, Illinois include a breakfast meetings the morning after the talk with a number of friends, most from the robust Evangelical community that has grown up around Wheaton College. This morning's discussion, which included an Episcopal friend from the philosophy department at Wheaton, was -- as usual -- stimulating and personally inspiring. In the course of the conversation, I made a stammering effort to express the affection that lies at the core of my ecclesiology. Driving to the airport after the morning meeting I realized that what I wanted to say had been said better than I could hope to say it by Henri de Lubac. So from lovely O'Hare airport I am sending along the de Lubac quote. It expresses my sentiments exactly.

Henri de Lubac:

“For myself,” said Origen, “I desire to be truly ecclesiastic.” He thought – and rightly – that there was no other way of being a Christian in the full sense. And anyone who is possessed by a similar desire will not find it enough to be loyal and obedient, to perform exactly everything demanded by his profession of the Catholic faith. Such a man will have fallen in love with the beauty of the House of God; the Church will have stolen his heart. She is his spiritual native country, his “mother and his brethren,” and nothing that concerns her will leave him indifferent or detached; he will root himself in her soil, form himself in her likeness, and make himself one with her experience. He will feel himself rich with her wealth; he will be aware that through her and her alone he participates in the unshakeableness of God. It will be from her that he learns how to live and die. Far from passing judgment on her, he will allow her to judge him, and he will agree gladly to all the sacrifices demanded by her unity. [The Splendor of the Church, 241-2]

In case you missed it . . .

Just passing along another item I think worthy of your attention. This from one of the people who has most successfully cleared his head of fuzzy multicultural pieties, Mark Steyn.

Not Swimming but Drowning
Mark Steyn
National Review Online -- March 6, 2008

A while back I mentioned Harvard's decision to ban men from its pool and fitness center six times a week in the interests of "accommodating" Muslim women. Our pal Michael Graham picks up the theme:

In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged “girls-only” campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed.

At Harvard, that’s called progress.

Well put. And thus "progress" comes full circle. In Minneapolis last year, the airport licensing authority, faced with a mainly Muslim crew of cab drivers refusing to carry the blind, persons with six-packs of Bud, slatternly women, etc, proposed instituting two types of taxis with differently colored lights, one of which would indicate the driver was prepared to carry members of identity groups that offend Islam. Forty years ago, advocating separate drinking fountains made you a racist. Today, advocating separate taxi cabs or separate swimming sessions makes you a multiculturalist.

Every society has culturally self-segregating groups - the Amish and whatnot. But they're usually in small numbers somewhere out on the edge of the map. In Europe and Canada, the self-segregating group happens to be the principal source of population growth, which presents a profound challenge to societal cohesion. America does not face the same scale of problem, but nevertheless "sharia creep" ought to be resisted before it becomes remorseless. The rest of Michael's column goes on to explain why that doesn't happen: at Harvard and elsewhere, bigshot Saudi princes waving gazillion-dollar checks are in effect buying silence about one of the central questions of the day - Islam's relationship with the west.

Atheism

My friend, Fr. Mario Arroyo, the pastor of St. Cyril's parish in Houston where we hold one of the Emmaus Road Initiative sessions each month -- posted this on his weblog. I thought you might appreciate it.

A Voice Sighing in the Wilderness

Once again, my schedule prevents me from attending to this weblog, but occasionally I see something worth passing along, and here is such an item. Sherif Girgis has spoken a great truth with great eloquence.

The Audacity of Hope: A second-generational query.

By Sherif Girgis – from National Review Online – March 4, 2008

Dear Senator Obama:

As an immigrant from Kenya, your father found new hope in America’s noble principles and vast opportunities. The same promise brought my parents here from Egypt when I was still too young to thank them. Now you have inspired my generation with your vision of a country united around the same ideals of liberty and justice, “filled with hope and possibility for all Americans.”

But do you mean it?

As a legislator, you have opposed every effort to protect unborn human life. Shockingly, you even opposed a bill to protect the lives of babies who, having survived an attempted abortion, are born alive. Despite your party’s broad support for legal abortion and its public funding, most Democrats (including Senator Clinton) did not oppose the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. You, however, opposed it. Your vision of America seems to eliminate “hope and possibility” for a whole class of Americans: the youngest and most vulnerable. You would deny them the most basic protection of justice, the most elementary equality of opportunity: the right to be born.

As a prerequisite for any other right, the right to life is the great civil-rights issue of our time. It is what slavery and segregation were to generations past. Our response to this issue is the measure of our fidelity to a defining American principle: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life.”

You have asked me to vote for you. In turn, may I ask you three simple questions? They are straightforward questions of fact about abortion. They are at the heart of the debate. In fairness, I believe that you owe the people you would lead a good-faith answer to each:

1. The heart whose beating is stilled in every abortion — is it a human heart?

2. The tiny limbs torn by the abortionist’s scalpel — are they human limbs?

3. The blood that flows from the fetus’s veins — is it human blood?

If the stopped heart is a human heart, if the torn limbs are human limbs, if the spilled blood is human blood, can there be any denying that what is killed in an abortion is a human being? In your vision for America, the license to kill that human being is a right. You have worked to protect that “right” at every turn. But can there be a right to deny some human beings life or the equal protection of the law?

Of course, some do deny that every human being has a right to life. They say that size or degree of development or dependence can make a difference. But the same was once said of color. Some say that abortion is a “necessary evil.” But the same was once said of slavery. Some say that prohibiting abortion would only harm women by driving it underground. But to assume so is truly to play the politics of fear. A compassionate society would never accept these false alternatives. A compassionate society would protect both mother and child, coming to the aid of women in need rather than calling violence against their children the answer to their problems.

Can we become a society that does not sacrifice some people to help others? Or is that hope too audacious? You have said that abortion is necessary to protect women’s equality. But surely we can do better. Surely we can build an America where the equality of some is not purchased with the blood of others. Or would that mean too much change from politics as usual?

Can we provide every member of the human family equal protection under the law? Your record as a legislator gives a resounding answer: No, we can’t. That is the answer the Confederacy gave the Union, the answer segregationists gave young children, the answer a complacent bus driver once gave a defiant Rosa Parks. But a different answer brought your father from Kenya so many years ago; a different answer brought my family from Egypt some years later. Now is your chance, Senator Obama, to make good on the spontaneous slogan of your campaign, to adopt the more American and more humane answer to the question of whether we can secure liberty and justice for all: Yes, we can.

— Sherif Girgis of Dover, Del., is a senior philosophy major at Princeton University and a 2008 Rhodes Scholar.

It is moral clarity of this sort that gives hope.

The Anti-Toxin

Since I am on the road most of the time these days, with little or no time for attending to this weblog, I have essentially abandoned blogging for the time being. Occasionally, however, something catches my eye which I think worthy of passing along. The following is such an item. It is a withering, but I think accurate, comment by the wit at the Catholic World News "Off the Record" website -- who goes by the name "Diogenes" -- about a homiletic tone which is all too familiar. If I could, I would hand a copy of this to every priest, every seminarian, every diaconate candidate, and every lector. (Feel free to do so.) Diogenes paints with a broad brush, sometimes too broad, and in primary colors, but there is substantial truth in what he says.

Here it is:

TRANSFIGURED

Below is Fr. Andrew Greeley's homiletic "background" to yesterday's gospel of the Transfiguration. It's a fine illustration of progressivist discourse, and will explain the dread that grips believing Catholics whenever their pastor climbs into the pulpit.

The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus in today's gospel is one of the stranger stories in any of the Gospels. Evidently Jesus had a powerful "religious experience" at some point in his public life, an experience which had a profound effect on him and on the apostles who were with him. As the story of this experience was related among the early Christians it took on a heavy overlay of theological symbolism. In the context of St. Matthew's Gospel it becomes a turning point in Jesus' life, an experience in which he saw that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die while he was there. Since Jesus was human he was fated to die just as all of us are fated to die. In his death, however, there would be something more. Since God was present in Jesus in a special way, God would also go down into the valley of death to show us how great was his love for us, to assure us that He would be with us at the time of our own deaths, and how all of us should face death. The manner of Jesus' death was not fated. He could have declined to go to Jerusalem without sin. Yet he came to see that he had to go there and so he did.

The clear implication of Greeley's account is that the Transfiguration didn't really happen, but instead Jesus underwent some kind of spiritual invigoration that he and his disciples attributed to divine favor. The Gospel account is (in this scheme) an expression of later Christians' symbolic understanding of their experience of the apostles' experience of Jesus' experience of God -- or at least of what he took to be God. What is of interest, for Greeley, is religious narrative technique of second century Palestine. Please stand for the Creed.

Even considered in its most positive light, this is a form of spiritual voyeurism, and it's characteristic of liberal dilettantes that they derive a second-hand thrill by observing at a distance the unfeigned piety of genuine believers. Dr. Rowan Williams gives voice to this enthusiasm in describing the effect viewing an Orthodox liturgy had on him as a boy: "I felt I had seen and heard people who were behaving as if God were real ... If people worshipped like this, I felt God must be a great deal more real than even I have learnt him so far." See the epistemic buffering? Not, "I was touched by God," but, "I was moved watching others who were touched by God." As a first step to faith that would be edifying, but it's clear that progressives never get beyond the voyeurism. For them the second-hand kicks are what religion is all about.

"God was present in Jesus in a special way," says Greeley. That's not how Christians speak. Sure, it can be construed in such a way as to acquit him of heresy, but what spiritual good does he invite us to embrace? He begins his exposition of this "strange story" by throwing ice water on our faith by undermining our belief in the face-value reliability of the Gospel. Does he then go on to restore that faith by removing some important misunderstanding? No, he makes the typical liberal move and focuses on the community of believers instead of on the truths those believers believed -- and all of it is presented within a framework of mundane cause and effect ("since Jesus was human, he was fated to die ...").

This smug professorial didacticism would be more excusable if it were part of a university seminar wherein all religions are treated as dead religions and where the grad students could make allowances for Greeley's approach. But these are things we hear at Mass, and that's what rankles. There was a time when Catholics could come to the Eucharist with the understanding that what took place was intended to deepen their Christian faith. Of course, fewer than a third of Catholics regularly attend Sunday Mass these days, yet those that do show up have to coach themselves and their loved ones not to pay attention to the twink in the pulpit, precisely because he's out to take something important away from them.

Re-read Greeley's remarks above, and ask yourself what impression they'd be likely to make on a 14- or 15- or 16-year-old in the pews. Even the word "story" (how often have we heard that term from the pulpit?) communicates the conviction that the gospel is fiction and not fact. So put yourself in the place of the parents who succeed, against the odds, in convincing their teenagers to get out of bed and put on some clothes and take off the Death Crew t-shirt and get in the van and come to Mass -- having answered or parried all the whining objections in the meantime -- and who THEN have to explain to them why they should ignore Father's preaching.

One of the glories of Pope Benedict's extraordinary book Jesus of Nazareth is how completely it overturns the facile reductivism we've been spoon-fed for so long. Benedict takes modern scripture scholarship seriously -- more seriously than many of its practitioners -- yet there's scarcely a page in which he does not give back to us, as fact, some event in the life of Jesus that had been taken away from us by the critics. And he does this not by some appeal to fideism (or even to conciliar teaching) but by reading the Scriptures as a unity, by obliging the critics to account for the whole of revelation and not just for the particular problem that snagged their attention. Pope Benedict examines the same process of composition and redaction that the union-card-holding critics do, yet argues that the only adequate explanation for the emergence of the biblical text in the form we now have it is that Jesus was God. In brief, Benedict is Greeley's anti-toxin.

Emmaus Road Initiative

The Emmaus Road Initiative travel schedule precludes any serious (or even lighthearted) blogging.

For the next few months, most of my communication will be either in-person (the best kind) or via email, which, though no substitute for the former, serves in a pinch.

I want to encourage my friends and those interested in the work of the Cornerstone Forum to please add your name to our email newsletter list (to the right of this message at the top of the blue column).

Meanwhile, I hope to see as many as I can at one or another of the Emmaus Road Initiative sessions. For a schedule of when and where the sessions are being held, go here.

Keep us in your prayers.

Gil

Girard and von Balthasar

A friend who knew the great Catholic theologian Henri de Lubac recalls that, late in life, de Lubac remarked that, if he were young and beginning his theological work again, he would begin with René Girard.

What de Lubac wrote about his friend and colleague Hans Urs von Balthasar could also be said of Girard, namely:

Despite the silent hostility that superiority invariably encounters, and despite the remarkable resistance of certain professionals to take note of this unclassifiable man and acknowledge him as one of their own, even in France . . . von Balthasar’s thought has captured one by one the spirit of an elite youth.

As for the “diverse presentations of Christian origins by contemporary writers," de Lubac says of von Balthasar what could as well be said of René Girard:

He takes hold of them, so to say, in one fell swoop which in itself is an intellectual feat – and then, with keen discernment comes up with an altogether different and unexpected view.

And then again:

. . . instead of, like many others, laboriously striving to rejuvenate scholasticism, for better or worse, by making gestures toward contemporary philosophy, or else abandoning, as so many others, all organized theological thought, von Balthasar shapes a fresh, original synthesis with radically biblical inspiration, without sacrificing any of the traditional dogmatic elements. His acute sensitivity to cultural developments and to the problems of our own times give him the necessary courage to do so.

The Emmaus Road Initiative is an effort to bring René Girard’s extraordinary anthropological insight into Christian uniqueness into conversation with the equally extraordinary theological contributions of Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), and others. In a few days, I will resume the monthly round of Emmaus Road Initiative sessions in (in chronological order) Washington, DC; Glastonbury, Connecticut; San Francisco, California; Santa Rosa, California; Dallas, Texas; San Diego, California; Wheaton, Illinois and Houston, Texas.

I hope to see as many friends – old and new – as are able to join us. For a schedule of the sessions, go here.

Happy New Year

2008 Emmaus Road Initiative

Emmaus Road Initiative for 2008

Inspiring a Wholehearted Faith in a Half-Hearted Age

Deepening Faith, Bringing it to Maturity,
& Passing it on to the Next Generation

A Project of the Cornerstone Forum

In this Newsletter:

* A message from Gil Bailie
* What's new in the 2008 Schedule
* The 2008 Emmaus Road Initiative Schedule
* A message from Randy Coleman-Riese

Glancing Back and Looking Forward

From Cornerstone Forum President, Gil Bailie

Dear Friends,

Christmas this year was an extraordinarily quiet time for me, surely the most contemplative Christmas I have ever had. But it was touched with grace, and I am grateful for the time I've had to recollect myself.

As I begin to pack my things for the first monthly round of 2008 Emmaus Road Initiative sessions, I look forward to continuing the explorations we began last fall and to deepening friendships, old and new.

I'm grateful to those who sent Christmas greetings and to those (mostly unknown to me) who have kept me and the Cornerstone Forum in prayer during this season of renewed hope and faith.

A digital recording of the November session of the Emmaus Road Initiative -- entitled: "What is happening in history? History and Hope" -- has been made and is now available (free) from the "store" on our website. We will have CDs of each of the three fall sessions at the fourth session in the series in January. I hope as many as can will join us in January.

If you live in or near Washington, DC - Hartford/Glastonbury, CT - San Francisco, CA - Santa Rosa, CA - Dallas, TX - San Diego, CA - Seattle, WA - Chicago/Wheaton, IL - or Houston, TX - please join us if you can. If you have friends in these locations who might be interested, please forward this newsletter to them by clicking here. (You can add a personal message as well.)

Below is the January-to-May schedule of the Emmaus Road Initiative, and below that an appeal for your participation and your help. I hope you will be able to take part in our efforts in whatever way is possible. If you live close enough to one of the nine cities where we will be holding monthly sessions, please join us. Otherwise, you can listen in on our explorations each month -- either by ordering the monthly CD or downloading the free audio file from our website: here.

If you are able to support our work with a tax-deductible donation, we would be most appreciative. Our work depends on the generosity of our friends. Toward the bottom of this newsletter you will find some information about supporting us.

Thank you again. On behalf of Randy Coleman-Riese, the Forum's Executive Director, and our Board of Directors, I wish you a most happy and holy new year.

Gil Bailie

What's New in the 2008 schedule:

San Francisco:

We meet on January 9th at St. Mary's Cathedral. Our San Francisco venue for the February to May sessions will be announced soon.

Seattle:

We are now meeting on Saturday morning rather than Tuesday evening, and the session will be followed by a brown-bag lunch at which we will have an informal discussion of the material presented at the morning session.

Dallas:

Our Monday evening session (now at St. Monica's parish) will now be an informal discussion of the material presented on Saturday morning 10 a.m. to noon at St. Monica's parish and on Sunday noon to 1:45 p.m. at St. Joseph's parish. All are invited.

Houston:

Our regular session at St. Cyril's on Wednesday evening will be followed on Thursday evening with an informal discussion session led by Fr. Mario Arroyo and Gil Bailie.

The 2008 E.R.I. Schedule

Washington, DC

Washington Theological Union
6896 Laurel Street NW
Washington, DC 20012

Saturday: 9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

January 5
February 9
March 8
April 5
May 10

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Glastonbury, Connecticut

St. Dunstan's Church
1345 Manchester Road
Glastonbury, CT 06033

Monday: 7:30 - 9:15 p.m.

January 7
February 11
March 10
April 7
May 12

For more information: 860-633-3317

MAP

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San Francisco, California

St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral
1111 Gough Street (at Geary Boulevard)
San Francisco, CA 94109

Wednesday: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

January 9
February 13
March 12
April 9
May 14

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Santa Rosa, California

Spiritual Enrichment Center
St. Eugene's Catholic Cathedral
Montgomery Drive at Farmers Lane
Santa Rosa, CA 95405

Thursday: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

January 10
February 14
March 13
April 10
May 15

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Dallas, Texas

St. Monica's Catholic Church
9933 Midway Road (at Walnut Hill)
Dallas, TX 75220

Saturday: 10:00 - Noon

January 12
February 16
March 15
April 12
May 17

For more information: 972 416-5815

MAP

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Dallas, Texas

St. Joseph's Catholic Church
600 S. Jupiter Road
Richardson, TX 75081

Sunday: Noon - 1:45 p.m.

January 13
February 17
March 16
April 13
May 18

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Dallas, Texas
An Informal Discussion about the material presented at
the Saturday and Sunday sessions.

St. Monica's Catholic Church
9933 Midway Road (at Walnut Hill)
Dallas, TX 75220

Monday: 7:15 - 9:00 p.m.

January 14
February 18
March 17
Our April session will be on Sunday, April 13 at St. Joseph's Parish:
600 S. Jupiter Road in Richardson.
May 19

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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San Diego, California

University of San Diego
Degheri Alumni Center
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA

Wednesday: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

January 16
February 20
March 19
April 16
May 21

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP - Map to the Campus

MAP - Map of the Campus

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San Diego, California

Immaculate Conception Church
2540 San Diego Avenue - Old Town
San Diego, CA 92101

Thursday: 10:00 - 11:45 a.m.(Coffee at 9:45)

January 17
February 21
March 20
April 17
May 22

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Seattle, Washington

St. Benedict's Catholic Church
1805 North 49th Street
Seattle WA 98103

Saturday: 10:00 - 11:45 a.m.
(Followed by a "brown-bag" lunch and informal discussion)

January 19
February 23
March 22nd

The March session will be held at Blessed Sacrament Parish
5041 Ninth Ave N E, Seattle

April 19
May 24

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Wheaton, Illinois

St. Michael Catholic Church
310 S Wheaton Avenue
Wheaton, IL 60187

Monday: 7:30 - 9:15 p.m.

January 21
February 25
March 24
April 21
May 5

For more information: 630 220-7329

MAP

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Houston, Texas

St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church
10503 Westheimer Road
Houston, TX 77042

Wednesday: 7:30 - 9:15 p.m.

January 23
February 27
March 26
April 23
May 28

For more information: 713 789-1250

MAP

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Houston, Texas
An Informal Discussion -- with Father Mario Arroyo and Gil Bailie --
of the material presented at the Wednesday evening session.

St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church
10503 Westheimer Road
Houston, TX 77042

Thursday: 7:30 - 9:15 p.m.

January 24
February 28
March 27 (Gil Bailie will be unable to attend this session)
April 24
May 29

For more information: 713 789-1250

MAP

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Supporting Our Efforts

From Cornerstone Forum Executive Director, Randy Coleman-Riese

Dear Friends,

We are extremely grateful to all those who have helped make our Emmaus Road Initiative such a success in 2007. We hope you will want to continue to support our efforts. We will, as always, work tirelessly to live up to the trust you place in us by contributing to our work and by keeping us in your prayers.

As you know, the E.R.I. sessions are free and open to all, and we make the CDs of the sessions available at no charge to those who attend the sessions and/or download audio files from our website, here. The extraordinary assistance and cooperation we receive from our local hosts notwithstanding, the expenses involved in this project are considerable. Our efforts are only possible because of contributions we receive from those who appreciate our work. If you are able to make a tax-deductible donation to our work, we would be most grateful.

There are several ways you can contribute:

* You can simply send a tax-deductible donation to:
The Cornerstone Forum
Post Office Box 9249
Santa Rosa, California 95405

* You can make credit card donations by click here: "Make an Online Donation."

* For those able to do so, the most helpful way to support our work is to make a regular monthly donation, either through the automated online banking system now provided by most banks or through a recurring credit card donation. This is a convenient way to donate to our work, and it is extremely helpful to us, for it allows us to better budget our resources. I would be happy to speak with you about this option. You can reach me simply by replying to this email newsletter or by calling toll-free: 866-506-5451, ext. 703.

* And finally, we welcome the opportunity to speak with those interested in making a more substantial contribution to our work. If you are interested in a more generous program of support, please contact me or Gil Bailie and we will arrange to sit down with you and explain in more detail our goals and needs. Messages can be left at 866-506-5451, choose extension 703 for me and extension 704 for Gil.

We are sincerely grateful for your support, encouragement, and prayers.

Randy Coleman-Riese

Best wishes for the new year.

Warmest Christmas Greetings

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Christmas 2007

Warmest Christmas Greetings
from the Cornerstone Forum

With gratitude for your friendship,
fellowship, support, and prayers.

Gil Bailie, Randy Coleman-Riese,
and our Board of Directors

- - - - - - - - - - -
Dear Friends,

Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers during this Christmas, as we count our many blessings and remember all the kindness and generosity that has come our way during the last year. It was a year of great personal sadness for me, as my saintly wife passed away in February, but it was a year of unexpected graces as well. Indeed the Light shines in the darkness.

On behalf of Randy Coleman-Riese, on whose friendship and wise counsel I constantly depend, and the Cornerstone Forum Board of Directors, I wish you a blessed Christmas and pray that the new year will be filled with grace and peace.

Affectionately,

Gil Bailie

In Hope We Were Saved . . .

Hardly anyone who has read Pope Benedict's latest encyclical has been able to resist the temptation to excerpt it or post musings about it, and I am likewise unable to resist this impulse.

For what it is worth, here are a few passages from the encyclical that struck me:

It is not science that redeems man: man is redeemed by love. This applies even in terms of this present world. When someone has the experience of a great love in his life, this is a moment of “redemption” which gives a new meaning to his life. But soon he will also realize that the love bestowed upon him cannot by itself resolve the question of his life. It is a love that remains fragile. It can be destroyed by death. The human being needs unconditional love. He needs the certainty which makes him say: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38- 39).

In our Emmaus Road Initiative literature and elsewhere, we have said this:

Christianity spread through the ancient world in part because of the hope it awakened in a world engulfed in crisis. As the revelation of the Cross was freeing humanity from the spellbinding power of sacred violence and the myths and rituals that perpetuated it, the Resurrection was opening up a panorama of hope invulnerable to worldly disappointments. At the very moment when civil order seemed to be dissolving, and the barbarians were closing in on its besieged outposts, Christians – St. Augustine prominent among them – bore witness to a hope unlike anything the surrounding pagan world had ever known. In the 21st century, under similar circumstances, it will fall to those directly or indirectly inspired by Christianity to recover a hope capable of filling the vacuum left by the collapse of modernity’s naïve optimism, on one hand, and postmodernity’s erudition of despair, on the other.

In this encyclical, Benedict gives specificity to these general remarks.

Amid the serious difficulties facing the Roman Empire—and also posing a serious threat to Roman Africa, which was actually destroyed at the end of Augustine's life—this was what he set out to do: to transmit hope, the hope which came to him from faith and which, in complete contrast with his introverted temperament, enabled him to take part decisively and with all his strength in the task of building up the city.

In these remarks about Augustine, however, it is easy to recognize something of Benedict's own understanding of the responsibility that rests very largely on him at this moment in history. Augustine, he writes:

. . . once described his daily life in the following terms: “The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weak supported; the Gospel's opponents need to be refuted, its insidious enemies guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be encouraged, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved.”

And in light of Joseph Ratzinger's earlier desire to return to the quiet life of a theologian, the pope's depiction of the Bishop of Hippo has the feel of a personal signature:

. . . Augustine dedicated himself completely to the ordinary people and to his city—renouncing his spiritual nobility, he preached and acted in a simple way for simple people.

. . . And then there is this:

All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action. . . . Yet our daily efforts in pursuing our own lives and in working for the world's future either tire us or turn into fanaticism, unless we are enlightened by the radiance of the great hope that cannot be destroyed even by small-scale failures or by a breakdown in matters of historic importance. If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope.

And finally this beautiful insight, one that serves as a powerful reminder to me of how many lives have spilled over into mine and how blessed I have been as a result.

Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse.

You can find the entire encyclical here.

I hope you have a blessed Advent.

Dying Daily . . .

Posting from the Notre Dame conference on "The Dialogue of Cultures," and with apologies for how rarely I have been able to post during the Emmaus Road Initiative sessions.

Writes Fr. Robert Sokolowski, professor of philosophy at The Catholic University of America, in the Eucharist we:

. . . anticipate our own death as to be joined to the death of Jesus. Our death becomes part of the divine mystery, part of the great saving action of God, because it can be identified with the sacrificial death of Christ. Even if our death is not to be especially heroic or memorable in the eyes of the world, it can become sanctified through the death of Jesus, through the action that he performed before the Father when he let himself be put to death. The celebrations of the Eucharist at which we assist are like so many rehearsals of the one transition, the one exodus that is reserved for each of us, the one offering in which we no longer sacramentally but bodily participate in the death of the Lord.

November Emmaus Road Initiative

The theme of the November Emmaus Road Initiative sessions is "What is happening in history? -- History and Hope."

The Emmaus Road Initiative schedule for NOVEMBER is as follows:

Washington, DC – Saturday, November 10th

Washington Theological Union
6896 Laurel Street NW
Washington, DC 20012
9:30 to 11:30 a.m. (Coffee at 9:15)

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Glastonbury, CT - Monday, November 12th

St. Dunstan's Church
1345 Manchester Road
Glastonbury, CT 06033
7:30 p.m.
For more information: 860-633-3317

MAP

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Seattle, WA – Tuesday, November 13th

St. Benedict's Catholic Church
1805 North 49th Street
Seattle WA 98103
7:30 p.m.

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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San Diego, CA – Wednesday, November 14th

University of San Diego
Degheri Alumni Center

5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA
7:00 p.m.

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP - Map to the Campus

MAP - Map of the Campus

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San Diego, CA – Thursday, November 15th

Immaculate Conception Church
2540 San Diego Avenue - Old Town
San Diego, CA 92101
10:00 a.m. (Coffee at 9:45)

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Santa Rosa, CA – Thursday, November 15th

Spiritual Enrichment Center

360 Farmers Lane
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
7:00 p.m.

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Wheaton, IL – Monday, November 19th

St. Michael Catholic Church
310 S Wheaton Avenue
Wheaton, IL 60187
7:30 p.m.

For more information: 630 220-7329

MAP

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Houston, TX – Wednesday, November 21st

St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church
10503 Westheimer Road
Houston, TX 77042
7:30 p.m.

For more information: 713 789-1250

MAP

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Dallas, TX – Saturday, November 24th

St. Monica’s Catholic Church
9933 Midway Road
(at the intersection of Midway Road & Walnut Hill)
Dallas, TX 75220
10 a.m. to Noon

For more information: 972 416-5815

MAP

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Dallas, TX – Sunday, November 25th

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
600 S. Jupiter Road
Richardson, TX 75081
Noon to 1:30 p.m.

For more information: 866-506-5451

MAP

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Dallas, TX – Monday, November 26th

University of Dallas
1845 E. Northgate Drive
Gorman Lecture Center, Room B
Irving, TX 75062
7:00 p.m.

For more information: Mrs. Suzanne Alexander: 972-721-5219

MAP - Map to the Campus
MAP - Map of the Campus

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The Funniest Journalist We Have . . .

Mark Steyn is the funniest journalist writing today.

This from his most recent:

Until this here Hollywood writers' strike came along, I had no idea so much of television was scripted. One charitably assumed it was the way it was because they were winging it. But across late-night the fastest wits in the West have fallen silent, apparently unable to produce a snide Dick Cheney crack without armies of accredited highly trained professionals. I haven't checked the Weather Channel lately but it wouldn't surprise me to find their photogenic meteorologists standing slack-jawed in front of maps of the Midwest, unable to decide whether to go for a high of 70 with a 25 percent chance of precipitation or vice-versa.

As I said earlier, I met Steyn briefly at a conference on the fate of Europe last summer, and he seems solid to me. Few manage to be both as well-informed and as funny as he is.

Back to the Cornerstone Forum business, click here for the November schedule of Emmaus Road Initiative sessions.