Posted on 09/27/2014 7:57:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
It's 7:15 Tuesday morning and like most mornings, Fr. Robert Barron, rector of the Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, unassumingly takes an open seat in the audience. Fr. Barron is best and popularly known for the recent PBS series "Catholicism" and his Word on Fire ministry. But here he is on a serene campus outside of Chicago, gathered with his community for prayer.
After a brief greeting, the newly announced archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich, slips in alongside Fr. Barron. "We are people not to worry, but to depend on the mercy of God," Cupich began as he greeted the audience minutes later, expressing his happiness at being with them to celebrate morning Mass.
Cupich said that this was one of the first things he wanted to do as the new archbishop: be with the seminarians under his care. In his homily, he urged them to embrace their roles as beacons of reconciliation and healing. "You all are here because you have heard the word of God," Cupich said. "Be taken by it and share it."
Since the news of a new Chicago archbishop broke on Sept. 20, the buzz has been about politics. Cupich, seen as a "moderate," is replacing Cardinal Francis George, viewed as a "conservative." But there were no politics here, as people prayed in unison and shared in spiritual fellowship.
As in many of his columns, homilies and speeches, Cupich appeared to be something of a radical, that is, he frequently pointed to Jesus Christ and the Gospels, who and which are exactly that.
We're approaching midterm elections, a season that can tend toward polarization. It's good to keep in mind, however, that there is something "majestic" about the American Constitution, as the late William F. Buckley Jr. put it. In a 1979 speech on "What Americanism Seeks to Be," he praised the Constitution, in particular the Bill of Rights, for prohibiting government from infringing on human dignity. But it wasn't merely some grand idea or abstract notion.
"It grew out of a long, empirical journey," Buckley reflected, "the eternal spark of which, of course, traces to Bethlehem, to that star that magnified man beyond any power of the emperors and gold-seekers and legions of soldiers and slaves: A star that implanted in each one of us that essence that separates us from the beasts and tells us that we were made in the image of God and were meant to be free."
When he met the press in Chicago upon the announcement of his new post, Archbishop-elect Cupich said that Pope Francis had just appointed "a pastor, not a message" to Chicago. Rather than distract ourselves with who's in, who's out and what that might mean, as if we're scoring a baseball game or presidential debate, we might consider that sometimes news events might be an occasion for examining our consciences and renewing our most fundamental commitments, rather than engaging in partisan punditry.
In no small part because of the constant bombardment that our senses experience daily and the business of our lives, we often miss the greater context of things. In his work, Barron tries to help with this, renewing our understanding of Christian culture.
"Keep in mind that Christianity is not a philosophy, it's not a program, it's not a theory. Christianity is a relationship to a person, to ... Jesus Christ," Barron says on a new DVD, "Priest, Prophet, King."
If we are to be good stewards, we will consider that not everything is ideology and profit, that among the causal idolatry of popular and political culture, we have lost sight of the spark that we need, for it is the exercise of virtue that keeps us honest and free. We need holy radicals among us. Priests, pastors, parents, sons and daughters, voters, and yes, even businesspeople and politicians.
Where are all the good honest true people? All I see are people with an angle.
Are you looking in the mirror?
It’s not “ideology” to oppose crooked, thieving, Communist politicians and their willing helpers in the GOPe.
When the power hungry money-grubbers running the country are evil, and imposing evil on the people, then it’s the occasional duty of a bishop or priest to say something. Not always, but when it’s appropriate and needful.
FRANCE IS AWAKE… NOW IS OUR TURN AMERICA
CATHOLIC REACTION PARIS:
COUNTEROFFENSIVE of the Catholics in PARIS praying kneeled on the streets (of a report made by the Parisian police)
9/15/2014
Finally Paris starts to move. More than 7,000 Catholics kneel in the street of Paris, is considered to be the beginning of demonstrations in other towns. They want to reaffirm that France is a Christian territory. (Remember Tours).
One thing is political secularism and another that already cannot ring the bells. Well, we will ring our churches bells, and very strong in the morning, at midday and in the evenings.
The Republic is secular, but France is Catholic.
The demonstration took place in the soul of Par4s, the Champs-Elysées, as reparation the wrongs which are made to Christ and religion by non-Catholics (with the parsimony of politicians - mainly the Socialists-justifying the massive taking over of the streets by thousands and thousands of Muslims abusing of the religious freedom while politicians look the other way when Christians are those who are limited and constrained in their religious practices).
Immediately the anti-Christians have accused the Catholics of "Christian fundamentalists". This demonstration and reaction has filled with surprise to journalists and political observers, among other things by the large number of young assistants, mobilized peacefully in prayer, with fervor and devotion, but with determination, in reparation for blasphemies and attacks against the Catholic Church that are becoming common in France.
Ah yes...religion as a warm fuzzy.
excuse my sarcasm....
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