Tickets (with apologies to 1 John)

That of which we have heard, we have now seen with our eyes, we have looked upon and touched with our hands .... they have been made manifest, and we saw them and we testify to them, and proclaim that they have life (though perhaps not eternal) .... that which we have seen and heard we now proclaim also to you that you might have fellowship with us ...

Olympic and Paralympic tickets. Not mine, I hasten to add, someone else's, and I saw and touched and photograhed them yesterday. I was child-sitting while Mum plus one went in to Stratford to queue for an hour or so to collect some of these tickets. No time to post the photograph at the moment, but might do at some point.

Day for Life: care for the body

The fuss over the theme for this year's Day for Life has reminded me of a piece of work that I did some years ago now. This work looked in a detailed way at the different aspects of the Church's mission with regard to healing. In one section I argued that the Church was committed to the care of the physical body, particularly of the person coming to the end of their life, because that provided a testimony to her belief in the resurrection of the body. As the last sentence of this section suggests, the call to value the physical body in the light of the resurrection of the body represents a theological principle for the provision of bodily care for the person coming to the end of their life, and so for the opposition of the Church to euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The mission of physical healing is often undertaken in the light[1] of death or serious suffering.  For the Christian, the ministry of health care takes place in the context of the mystery of sin and redemption, of suffering and death. 

“…especially when faced with the mystery of physical and spiritual suffering and death - we must preach ‘Christ crucified’ and with the words of the prophet Isaiah teach people to turn their gaze to Christ who was ‘wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities’.  This truth is the central point of what we would call drawing near in dialogue to, and the real accompanying of, sick people and all those who suffer (and in a special way the dying), aware that only in the passion and death of Christ, and as we will see below, in his glorious resurrection, is it possible to discover a ‘why’ for these dramatic companions of the human condition..”[2]

Health care ministry is undertaken in the light of the resurrection - that is, in the hope that the body cared for in its suffering now will be raised up in glory in the future.  When healing occurs, it is a very visible testimony to this hope in the resurrection of the body.  When healing does not occur, the care shown for the body of the sick person, that is also a care for the very person himself, remains a witness to the faith of the Church in the resurrection of the body. 

“On caring for the sick, you know that one day they will discover the attention now being given … This weakened and broken body we now care for with veneration will rise again, glorious and radiant.  The traces of our affection and attention will remain thereupon forever.”[3]

This understanding of health care as being undertaken in the light of the resurrection of the body gives a rich meaning to the care of those who are terminally or chronically ill.[4]

---

[1] Faith in the resurrection prompts the use of the word “light” rather than “shadow”.

[2] Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno “Palliative Care in the Light of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord”, in Dolentium Hominum: Church and Health in the World  No.58 (2005 n.1) p.64.  See also Oswald Gracias “Identity in Faith in Catholic Hospitals”, Dolentium Hominum: Church and Health in the World  No.52 (2003) pp.86-92.

[3] F S Aguilara in “Christian Attitudes in Care for the Elderly who are Terminally Ill”, Dolentium Hominum: Church and Health in the World  No.29 (1995 n.2) p.23.

[4] It also represents a positive statement of the Church’s teaching that euthanasia and assisted suicide are not morally permissible.

Olympic Village a hive of debauchery? (at least according to the Guardian)

If a double page spread in today's Guardian (G2 section) entitled "Party hard and do some groping", and bordered at the top and bottom by sets of coloured condoms arranged to look like sets of Olympic rings, is anything to go by ......
.... then the strap line of the Day for Life being marked by the Catholic Church over the opening weekend of the London Olympics might just have something to say to the zeitgeist:

Use your body for the glory of God (1 Cor 6:20)

The Guardian have not got the article on their website - they have edited it from another on-line source, who have it, so far as I can tell, behind a pay wall. A flavour:

It's clear that, summer or winter, the games continue long after the medal ceremony."There's a lot of sex going on," says women's football goalkeeper Hope Solo, an American gold medallist in Beijing in 2008. "I'd say its 70% to 75% of Olympians," agrees US world-record-holding swimmer Ryan Lochte, who will be in London for his third Games....Some (athletes) swear off sex until their events are done; others make it part of their pre-event routine.

The Guardian article suggests that it takes an order for 100 000 condoms by the Games organisers to meet the expected demand. It rather reminds me of the story I heard once of a Personal Development Curriculum (PDC) department in a school rather apologetically alerting their colleagues in other departments that they were going to be doing sex education with the pupils that week and that, if any condoms turned up inappropriately in lessons or around the school, could their colleagues please take them off the pupils and return them to the PDC department. I wonder whether the Olympic athletes will, in reality, have much the same sense of things to do with condoms as these pupils seem to have had .....

There is a temptation to list the names of the athletes who are quoted in the Guardian article, but it is not clear how far most of them actually participated in the fun and games they describe.  That many are Americans is because the original source article was written and published by an American on-line magazine. The Guardian article doesn't suggest any sense of shame on their part, but their reticence, or the reticence of the author of the article, does suggest some sense of a boundary being transgressed. And whilst the Guardian article appears to want to give one impression of what happens in the Olympic Village, I am quite sure that many of the athletes just have far more sense than to behave in the way being described. The Day for Life theme has a chance to affirm these athletes in resisting the pressure of the culture being created around the Village.

Olympic Torch Relay 2012: Barking and Dagenham

I think something of the atmosphere of the Olympic Torch Relay has communicated itself through the media coverage. This morning the Relay was at the end of my road so, after putting my lunch in the oven on a timer, off I went. It is/was definitetly a "not to miss". I walked to the northern end of Dagenham Heathway, past gathering crowds lining the road along which the Relay was to pass. There was a very real sense of people gathering from the neighbouring streets to watch the Torch go past their own patch.

We were blessed with beautiful weather (though a couple of policemen I spoke to were finding it too hot in all their equpiment and would have preferred it to be raining!) and it being a Sunday, so lots of people turned out. The length of the route meant, though, that the pavements were not over-crowded. I then walked back to the Civic Centre, and waited to watch the torch pass Becontree Heath leisure centre. It was fascinating to watch the crowds re-gather at this point some 60 minutes or so after the Torch first passed, on its way to the Dagenham Town Show (it did a short double-back on itself to head up Whalebone Lane South).

I understand that the route through the neighbouring borough of Havering was also well lined later in the day. By that time I was back home, taking my lunch out of the oven....

So far only photographs from the morning have been posted; I assume more will follow.

Two Clare's separated by 800 years

Zero and I recently paid a visit to Assisi (during the same week as the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin - it's our excuse, anyway). The town has been marked by a celebration of the 8th Centenary of the consecration to God of St Clare of Assisi, a celebration that has not really been much noticed in England.

We arrived in the evening of 9th June, and so missed out on an event held that day under the auspices of the Focolare Movement: Clare of Assisi and Chiara Lubich: Two Charisms in Communion. The particular prompt for the event was the dedication of a square near the Basilica of St Francis to Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare.

The following paragraph from the report on the Focolare website struck me in particular. It is worth recalling that the official title of the Focolare is "Work of Mary". This reflects a line of thought which suggests that the Virgin Mary represents a figure of all that is charismatic (ie individually given gift) in the life of the Church.

Moreover, charisms are means for the emergence of the feminine. So it was for these two Clares: Clare of Assisi was able to receive approval for her “Highest Poverty” by the Holy See. Clare (Chiara) of Trent introduced into the Church the great novelty that the president of an ecclesial movement, containing all the vocations, will always be a woman. The accomplishments of Chiara Lubich’s charism are exquisitely secular (like the Economy of Communion), showing how much the charisms of the past and present are like the flywheels, that gradually lead us to a society that is more “humane and beautiful”.

Pope Benedict XVI in Frascati: the value of the Council

Pope Benedict XVI has paid a visit to Frascati, celebrating Mass on there on Sunday. The homily preached on that occasion (no English translation yet available) has attracted comment for reasons of Vatican politics (it expresses confidence in Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, one of Pope Benedict's closest collaborators are time when Cardinal Bertone is seen to be under criticism) and for reason of its coincidence with the general chapter of the Society of St Pius X (its affirmation of the importance of the documents of the Second Vatican Council was seen as a statement of principle in respect of the discussions between the Society and the Holy See which was one of the subjects being discussed at the general chapter).
There is a third interesting point.

Il vostro Vescovo mi ha informato circa l’impegno pastorale che maggiormente gli sta a cuore, che è in sostanza un impegno formativo, rivolto prima di tutto ai formatori: formare i formatori. E’ proprio quello che ha fatto Gesù con i suoi discepoli: li ha istruiti, li ha preparati, li ha formati anche mediante il «tirocinio» missionario, perché fossero in grado di assumere la responsabilità apostolica nella Chiesa. Nella comunità cristiana, questo è sempre il primo servizio che i responsabili offrono: a partire dai genitori, che nella famiglia compiono la missione educativa verso i figli; pensiamo ai parroci, che sono responsabili della formazione nella comunità, a tutti i sacerdoti, nei diversi campi di lavoro: tutti vivono una prioritaria dimensione educativa; e i fedeli laici, oltre al ruolo già ricordato di genitori, sono coinvolti nel servizio formativo con i giovani o gli adulti, come responsabili nell’Azione Apostolica e in altri movimenti ecclesiali, o impegnati in ambienti civili e sociali, sempre con una forte attenzione alla formazione delle persone.

[Your bishop has informed me about the pastoral effort that he has at heart, which in susbtance is an effort for formation, dedicated first of all to those responsible for formation: to form those responsible for formation. This is exactly what Jesus did with his disciples: he taught them, he prepared them, he formed them also through a missionary "apprenticeship", that they might be gradually able to assume the apostolic responsibility in the Church. In the Christian community, this is always the first service that leaders offer: on the part of parents, who in the family have a mission of education towards children, we think of parishes, which are responsible for formation in the community, of all priests, in their different fields of work: all live with a first importance an educative dimension; and the lay faithful, in addition to the role of parents already mentioned, are involved in the service of formation, with young people or with adults, as leaders in Azione Apostolica and in other ecclesial movements, or working in civil and social environments, always with a strong attention to the formation of persons].

It does seem to me that Pope Benedict has a very clear view of the importance of the documents of the Second Vatican Council for the life of the Church in our times, and his statements about this need to be read alongside his suggestions of a "hermeneutic of continuity" with regard to the Council. The acceptance of the teaching of the Council in this sense seems to me vital for a correct understanding of Pope Benedict's intentions with regard to the Year of Faith.

 I Documenti del Concilio contengono una ricchezza enorme per la formazione delle nuove generazioni cristiane, per la formazione della nostra coscienza. Quindi leggetelo, leggete il Catechismo della Chiesa cattolica e così riscoprite la bellezza di essere cristiani, di essere Chiesa di vivere il grande «noi» che Gesù ha formato intorno a sé, per evangelizzare il mondo: il «noi» della Chiesa, mai chiuso, ma sempre aperto e proteso all’annuncio del Vangelo.

[The Documents of the Council contain an enormous richness for the formation of new generations of Christians, for the formation of our consciousness. Therefore, read them, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and so rediscover the beauty of being Christian, of being Church, of living the great "we" that Jesus has established on himself, to evangelise the world: the "we" of the Church, never closed, but always open and committed to announcing the Gospel.]

But an orientation towards "forming those responsible for formation" suggests an interesting orientation of this perceived importance of the teaching of the Council in the light of the forthcoming Year of Faith.

Inspired by the Rule of Carmel

Saturday last was not a day for visiting anywhere in Kent - it rained, and, at least according to a road sign on our way to Faversham, the Kent County Show was closed.

Faversham houses the national shrine in England dedicated to St Jude. The parish attached to the shrine is in the care of the Carmelites, (O.Carm variety). Of interest on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are four icons in the shrine dedicated to people inspired by the rule of the Carmelite order. They are featured at the bottom of this page. Best known among these are perhaps Blessed Titus Brandsma and St Edith Stein.

I also found it striking to look at the three windows described on the page under the heading "The stained glass in the outer shrine area". It is unusual to see a representation of God the Father such as that shown in one of the windows. Working from right to left, one sees this image in a relation to that of the Virgin Mary overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and bearing the Son and then in relation to the image of the Resurrection of Christ. Together, they offer the mystery of salvation history in a Trinitarian and Marian perspective. On the web page, only parts of the windows are shown, so I post below full images of the windows. The full images contain details not visible on the web page.