Corazon

"Faith tells us that only a new heart, one regenerated by God, can create a new world: a heart 'of flesh' that loves, suffers, and rejoices with others; a heart full of tenderness for those who, bearing the wounds of their lives, feel themselves to be on the outskirts of society. Love is the greatest force for transforming reality because it breaks down the walls of selfishness and fills the chasms that keep us apart from one another.
....

Think of how many live in desperation because they have never met someone who has shown them attention, comforted them, made them feel precious and important. We, the disciples of Christ, can we refuse to go to those places that no one wants to go out of fear of compromising ourselves or the judgement of others, and thus deny our brothers and sisters the announcement of God's mercy?”

--Pope Francis, June 18, 2013 (link)


(Image in public domain)

The Challenge to Economism from Francis

From his letter to the U.K. Prime Minister on the occasion of the G8 summit of the world's wealthiest nations:

Moreover, the goal of economics and politics is to serve humanity, beginning with the poorest and most vulnerable wherever they may be, even in their mothers' wombs. Every economic and political theory or action must set about providing each inhabitant of the planet with the minimum wherewithal to live in dignity and freedom, with the possibility of supporting a family, educating children, praising God and developing one's own human potential. This is the main thing; in the absence of such a vision, all economic activity is meaningless.

See source link.

(Image of Marshall's classic in economics under Creative Commons License)

Thoughts About the Sunday Mass Readings

For those who are interested, here they are (you can look up the readings if you wish):

1. The sign of a healthy person: a person who can give of himself or herself to others. If someone can't, then the person is not healthy--which does not at all mean that a person is somehow bad.

It is often the case that many do not have anything of themselves left over to give to others, given their internal, emotional struggles for daily psychological survival. Compare Galatians 2:20.

Maybe, in addition to a blood pressure test, we should have a test for giving of oneself to others so we can then search for a remedy.

2. In the Gospel reading, a woman washes Jesus' feet with her tears (Luke 7:36-8:3). The more I ponder, the more the arguments against the custom of including women in the foot washing of Holy Thursday loudly collapse. If you do not see it, then, I guess, you just do not see it, as the biblical saying goes ("Let him who has ears . . . ."; compare Ezekiel 12:2).

3. As someone who studies Latin daily, I thought how essential it is that Mass be available in the vernacular. The message of the liturgy is too urgent not to be widely available in the vernacular language.

(Image under Fair Use Doctrine)

A Good, Simple Maxim from the Roman Historian Tacitus (A.D. 56 to 117)

Well, the maxim is supposedly from the Roman general Drusus, a member of the imperial family (this is the Drusus who was the son, not the brother, of the Emperor Tiberius), as this particular Drusus decides to take advantage of a chance change of heart by mutinous Roman soldiers in Central Europe:

"Those things that chance had presented must be turned to wisdom"
(Quae casus obtulerat in sapientam vertenda).

Tacitus, Annals, Book I, Section XXVIII (my translation).

The Loeb translation by John Jackson says it better than I do: "Wisdom should reap where chance had sown." (By the way, translators, take note how inevitably dynamic a good translation, such as Jackson's, is. Translation is a challenging art, not mechanical duplication.)

Louis Pasteur expressed a similar idea in this way: "Chance favors the prepared mind."

As the philosopher Ortega y Gasset never tired of pointing out, our circumstance offers many opportunities. Living is choosing which one to exploit--in the best sense of the term--to create meaning for one's life and for the lives of others.

It is a simple idea, but then so many ignore it and thus incur a high opportunity cost.

(Image of works of Tacitus in public domain; image of Drusus Julius Caesar in Prado Museum, Madrid, under Creative Commons License)

Seneca on Compassion

The great Hispano-Roman thinker and courtier Seneca (circa 4 B.C. to 65 A.D.) gives us many fine quotes (notice the dates that make him literally contemporaneous with Jesus of Nazareth, who was also born circa 4 B.C. and executed, at a much younger age, on the cross circa 30/33 A.D.).

I will focus (today, at least) on just one quote found in No. 88 of his Moral Epistles:

Kindliness [Humanitas] forbids you to be over-bearing towards your associates, and it forbids you to be grasping. In words and in deeds and in feelings it shows itself gentle and courteous to all men. It counts no evil as another's solely. And the reason it loves its own good is chiefly because it will some day be the good of another.

Seneca, Epistulae Morales LXXXVIII, Section 30, trans. R.M. Gummere, Loeb Classical Library (bold emphasis added).

I want to focus on the words in bold print telling us that kindliness or compassion "counts no evil as another's solely" (Nullum alienum malum putat; "It thinks no evil foreign").

A friend once retorted that my expressions of sympathy were mere pity, with the unspoken implication that such pity was somehow a second best. I immediately responded that it was not a matter of "pity," but rather of compassion.

Well, Seneca defines compassion for us: we take on the evil suffered by the other. Our common humanity unites us as suffering beings, everyone of us (Buddhists will find this very familiar). To be compassionate is to come near and to recognize that bond and kinship.

Pity, on the other hand, can have, to some, connotations of condescending distance. Compassion is far from that distant condenscion but rather takes on the suffering of the other as one's own. There is no distance.

(Medieval image of Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle, from left to right, in public domain)

Now, Sallust (86 to 34 B.C.) on Cato the Younger

The Roman historian and politician Sallust reproduces a speech by the famously moralistic Cato the Younger to the Roman Senate. Cato successfully stirs up support for Cicero's strong action against the conspiracy of Catiline in 63 B.C.

Here is Cato painting an unflattering picture of the Roman Republic of his time in contrast to the earlier days of the Republic:

But there were other qualities [besides military prowess] which made them [the earlier Romans] great, which we do not possess at all: efficiency at home, a just rule abroad, in counsel an independent spirit free from guilt or passion. In place of these we have extravagance and greed, public poverty and private opulence. We extol wealth and foster idleness. We make no distinction between good men and bad and ambition appropriates all the prizes of merit. And no wonder! When each of you schemes for his own private interests, when you are slaves to pleasure in your homes and to money or influence here, the natural result is an attack upon the defenceless republic.

Cato the Younger's speech, by Sallust, The War with Catiline, Sections LII.21-23, trans. J.C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library (emphasis added; to say the speech is by Sallust is to recognize that ancient historians commonly composed the speeches they deemed appropriate to the speaker and the occasion).

If we dare to classify Cato in our modern terminology, he might call him a conservative--but notice the jeremiad and denunciation of wealth. Also, notice the nice phrase "public poverty and private opulence." It was echoed by the famous, very liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his most famous book:

In The Affluent Society (Houghton Mifflin, 1958), probably his best-known book, Galbraith contrasted "public squalor" with "private affluence" and contended that massive public investment was needed to improve social goods in spheres where the private sector was unwilling to invest.

Source link.

So, what gives? The elitist conservative Cato the Younger and the archetypal liberal economist attacking private affluence in the face of public squalor? What gives is that we have to be very cautious in pigeonholing historical figures, especially if they are so ancient. Interestingly, Cato the upholder of traditional Rome was "technically plebeian," not a patrician (see source link, at p. 81).

So, it is odd that American conservatives today focus on castigating poor people getting government benefits but usually give a pass to the excessive accumulation and pursuit of private wealth. Based on ancient history, one could argue that today's American Tea Party is not being very conservative in the Catonian sense of the term. Pope Francis' decrying of the rule and worship of money seems to be more in line with Cato. Maybe, it helps to live in Rome.


(Image of Cato the Younger under Creative Commons License)

To Be Magnanimous

The first published edition of this classic of Jesuit humanist pedagogy, Naples, 1598 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Magnanimity is generosity, greatness of soul, which means that in particular situations, the person reacts with great warmth and daring to the needs of others, needs too often ignored. Without this magnanimity, no one can really teach or really evangelize because you will never really touch the heart of the other. Magnanimity is being Don Quixote rather than the Grand Inquisitor.

That magnanimity is the opposite of the fake charm of the politician who is trying to manipulate you into giving him money or your vote or something else that he wants from you.

Magnanimity means having an outgoing and warm personality that is nevertheless integrated and balanced, that also knows how to be quiet and reserved when appropriate and never clownish or overbearing--and certainly never sarcastic. 

Magnanimity does not seek to be the center of attention but to place the real need of the other at the center of attention.

Pope Francis has it.

Watch the video from his talk to Jesuit school students at the Whispers in the Loggia blog (link) to see magnanimity in action--to observe and discern quickly what the audience requires and to react, to meet that need. Anyone who does not have that magnanimity, or is not committed to developing that magnanimity, has no business standing behind a pulpit or standing at the front of a classroom--or sitting where Peter sat.

Now, Petronius: Some Things Don't Change

To be honest, I do not much like what I have read of Petronius; but some parts are indeed funny. In addition, his writings do capture the details of daily life in the Rome of Nero's time, that is, the Rome of the time of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

Here is one excerpt of a citizen complaining at Trimalchio's Dinner Party using the very skilled translation of Sarah Ruden (remember her name; she also has a fine translation of the Aeneid to her credit):

Nobody seems to care how the cost of bread gets you. Today I couldn't find a mouthful I could afford. And the way this drought is keeping up--for a whole year now it's pure starvation. I hope the aediles [officials overseeing the food supply] get what they deserve for playing the bakers' game. 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' That's why the little people are having such a hard time, and the bigwigs have Saturnalia [a December festival] all year round. . . . The town's growing backwards like a calf's tail. How come? Well, we've got this two-bit aedile who'd sell us for a penny. He's sittin' all cozy at home, makes more money in a day than anybody else has got in the family. And now I know where he got that thousand gold denarii, though I'm not sayin'. If we had any ****, we'd wipe that grin off his face. But the people are lions at home and foxes in public.

Petronius, The Satyricon, 44 (Ruden translation; see Amazon image; emphasis added).

The civic ideal is a citizen who avoids cynicism toward politics. But reality contributes to cynicism. Much of politics--legislative, executive, and even judicial--is all about officeholders following the money at our expense. But, of course, these princes are worth it since they are sacrificing so much to serve us. Yet, often voters also are to blame for enabling the princes of plunder.

You can think of astounding elections, whether in the inner city or in conservative Republican areas, where voters reelect people who are fleecing them in one way or another. Lions at home, foxes in public. Every prince needs an enabler.

A Literary and Classical Pope Francis

That's the impression I get from perusing a book written in Spanish entitled Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio by Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti (with an introduction by a Jewish rabbi). In my experience, it is rare to come across a priest making these types of references. Moreover, they are not pedantic references; but rather references that illuminate the present.

In an earlier post, I noted the very nice allusion to Vergil by the Pope when he describes endurance and patience in the face of difficulties: (see
link).

I have also noticed his attachment to the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin--recently highlighted by the German chancellor when she gave Francis a text of Hölderlin's work. He quotes Hölderlin on nostalgia in the first chapter of the book.

But in discussing the nostalgia of his Italian relatives who settled in Argentina, I like better his reference to Homer and the Odyssey:

The origin of the word nostalgia--from the Greek nostos algos ["homecoming pain or grief"]--has to do with the desire to return to a place; the Odyssey speaks about this. It is a human dimension. What Homer does in the course of the story of Ulysses is to sketch the return to the bosom of the land, to the maternal bosom of the land that saw our birth. I think that we have lost nostalgia as an anthropological dimension. But we also have lost it when we fail to educate, for example, in nostalgia for the home. When we put our elders in a convalescent facility with mothballs, as if they were a coat or a cloak, we have, in some way, a dysfunctional sense of the nostalgic dimension because to encounter our grandparents is to embrace a reencounter with our past.

Francis, Kindle Location 299 (blogger's translation).

Anyone fortunate enough to have grown up with grandparents (in some households, we were lucky enough to have some of them actually live with us) knows what Francis means. In that healthy nostalgia, we find ourselves and our future. We also acquire a place from where we can say to so many mindless fads and present-day customs: "Not so fast--I know a different way!" And that is what classics are for: to give us a place apart on which to stand, outside of the whirlpool of mindlessness. And, by the way, Benedict XVI, of course, was and is a first-class intellectual; in comparison, our new Pope may be an underestimated intellectual. But it is good to be underestimated! It makes for surprises, especially for the smug.

(Image of Ulysses on the island of Calypso in public domain)

Now, Pliny: August 24, 79 A.D., Shortly After 12 Noon

Vesuvius had erupted. Pliny the Younger survived; but his famous polymath uncle Pliny the Elder, who had set off toward the eruption, did not.

Pliny the Younger stayed at home reading and writing. As the approaching calamity became visible, he describes his initial reaction before he wisely decided to flee to safety:

I don't know whether I should call this courage or folly on my part (I was only seventeen at the time) but I called for a volume of Livy [a very famous Roman historian] and went on reading as if I had nothing else to do. 

I even went on with the extracts I had been making.

Up came a friend of my uncle's who had just arrived from Spain to join him. When he saw us sitting there and me actually reading, he scolded us both--me for my foolhardiness and my mother for allowing it.

Nevertheless, I remained absorbed in my book.

Pliny the Younger, Letter XX, to the historian Tacitus, section 5, Loeb Classical Library translation by Betty Radice (emphasis added).

To break the suspense, the younger Pliny eventually put the book aside and fled to safety with his mother. The Spanish friend had departed earlier in haste.

This account is fascinating for several reasons. First, it is fascinating to read the raw material of history from an eyewitness. In addition, the scene tells us something about human nature: how we deal with an imminent crisis by taking an initial dose of denial. I cannot help recalling a story told to me by a Loyola New Orleans professor concerning how some German bureaucrats went about their routine office duties even as the Third Reich was collapsing before their eyes.

In a similar way, the younger Pliny seeks refuge in his books as the disaster unfolds. Eventually, he reacts and escapes. But for some time, he retreated to routine.

So I ask: what is your Vesuvius?

There is some wisdom in at least a short and vigilant turn to routine while our mind works out the implications of a crisis. The danger is that we forget to be alert to the danger and remain paralyzed for too long.

An even bigger danger of denial lurks when we are faced with less dramatic sorts of crises--real challenges that we can ignore, not for minutes and hours but even for years and decades. The examples are legion. We stick to a useless and self-destructive routine even as we sense disaster, even as others warn us of disaster.

You see it with the sex abuse scandal in the Church that went on for too long with too many warnings ignored. You saw it in the reckless indifference of local and state government toward the foreseeable Katrina in New Orleans. You see it at a more mundane level when the girl next door simply moves on to the next in a long series of fruitless sexual relationships. Of course, you see it in the addict.

You also see it in personalities that do not mature or develop. You see it in personalities that need radical change from habitual cynicism, coldness, arrogance, or denial, but persist in stasis. You see it in individuals who remain associated with bad people.

Let's take a cue from the younger Pliny and eventually make our escape before it is too late.


(Image of Mt. Vesuvius from Pompeii under Creative Commons License)

More Humanitas from Tibullus (circa 54-19 B.C.)

He was a friend of Horace according to the Loeb Classical Library.

The excerpt speaks for itself--Latin, my translation, and the much better online translation by A.S. Kline.

Book I.10.1-16

Quis fuit, horrendos primus qui protulit enses? Quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit! Tum caedes hominum generi, tum proelia nata,Tum brevior dirae mortis aperta via est. An nihil ille miser meruit, nos ad mala nostra Vertimus, in saevas quod dedit ille feras? Divitis hoc vitium est auri, nec bella fuerunt, Faginus adstabat cum scyphus ante dapes (fem. plural). Non arces, non vallus erat, somnumque petebat //Securus sparsas dux gregis inter oves.Tunc mihi vita foret, Valgi, nec tristia nossem Arma nec audissem corde micante tubam; Nunc ad bella trahor, et iam quis forsitan hostis// Haesura in nostro tela gerit latere. Sed patrii servate Lares: aluistis et idem, Cursarem vestros cum tener ante pedes.

Who was the first who brought forth horrible swords? How savage and truly cruel was that man! Then slaughter, then battles were born to the race of men. Then a shorter road was opened to cruel death. Or did that wretched man deserve nothing of blame, [but] we turn to our own evil purposes what that man gave for us to use against savage wild beasts? This is the vice of precious gold, nor were there wars when the simple beachwood cup stood beside our feasts. There were no citadels, no rampart, and without a care the leader of the flock sought sleep among his scattered sheep. Then there was life for me, O Valgius. I had known neither sad arms nor had I heard with a trembling heart the trumpet-call. Now I am dragged to wars, and now some enemy perhaps bears the weapons that he is about to plunge in my side. But ancestral Lares [Lares are protective gods especially of the home] save [us]; you also nourished [me] when I ran to and fro as a young child before your feet.

Other translation (by A.S. Kline):

X Make Peace Not War

Who was he, who first forged the fearful sword?
How iron-willed and truly made of iron he was!
Then slaughter was created, war was born to men.
then a quicker road was opened to dread death.
But perhaps it’s not the wretch’s fault we turn to evil
what he gave us to use on savage beasts?
That’s the curse of rich gold: there were no wars
when the beech-wood cup stood beside men’s plates.
There were no fortresses or fences, and the flock’s leader
sought sleep securely among the diverse sheep.
I might have lived then, Valgius, and not known
sad arms, or heard the trumpet with beating heart.
Now I’m dragged to war, and perhaps some enemy
already carries the spear that will pierce my side.
Lares of my fathers, save me: you are the same
that reared me, a little child running before your feet.

(Image of Tibullus in public domain)

Humans Becoming More Human

I find myself thinking of this often: people need "to become human." Of course, all persons are already human; and so the more precise language is: the human being needs to become more human.

It is not a mystery. We know what is meant. We speak of humane persons and thereby clearly imply that some of our fellow humans are not so humane. We speak of the warm, the simpatico personality. (But note that I am not lobbying for phony political charm which can be found both in and out of electoral politics. Genuine warmth is very different.)

We speak of people who are loving in contrast to cold people. We speak of the approachable as opposed to the aloof. We speak of the censorious personality as opposed to the encouraging personality. We speak of the opaque, distant person as opposed to the person who is authentically sincere and who clearly signals where you stand in his estimation. (I think of this reality also when I hear about the New Evangelization--which will never get off the ground if the academically certified messengers are cold and aloof.)

Now, personalities are by nature quite diverse; and diversity is the very good gift of a generous Deity. Yet, the truth is that, at some points, we do have to make some objective distinctions: this personality is more humane, warmer, encouraging, approachable, inspiring than another. That is reality. We cannot deny what will not go away. (It is ironic that sometimes the most human are persons we consider disabled in one way or another that makes them either more childlike or creates a more urgent need for them to engage with others. They are not so respectably independent!)

Your project, my project, is to become that more humane, more human person. In the Christian tradition (especially emphasized in the East), we say that the Deity becomes human so that we can be divinized, a "divinization" that--oh, this will be troublesome to those who are addicted to very discrete categories--which makes us more human! Well, if you believe humans are created in the image of God, then it is no surprise that the path to becoming more human is also the path of this mystical divinization.

Words cannot capture it fully. Thomas Aquinas, in his mystical experience, proclaimed that all his prior academic work was like chaff (too many of his followers at this point refuse to follow the angelic doctor). Now, Aquinas' mystical experience also included the message from Jesus that Aquinas had written well of Him. But there was something even and much better than the massive achievement of baptizing the categories of Aristotle.

It is also true that certain humane qualities emerge better in certain cultural contexts. The warmer climates seem to produce warmer people and personalities. It's just a cultural fact. Yes, we really do need "a climate change" in our cultures, especially in the cultures of distance and aloofness. All the wealth and efficiency mean nothing if we never develop the soul we have been given. Life is a project of constant development.

As they say, if you do not use it, you lose it. I say: if you do not develop your humanity and your soul, you gradually lose them. Maybe, in the end, that is the state of hell: we have gradually lost them by the time we pass away. The most salient twentieth century examples are Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Maoist China--but it happens in all countries and cultures if you dig deep enough in history with, admittedly, different magnitudes and levels of destruction: black slavery (practiced not just by Europeans but also by Africans themselves and Muslim Arabs), American Jim Crow, the Spanish Inquisition, our bloody European Catholic-Protestant religious wars, Islamic fundamentalism, Catholic sexual abuse of young people (the list of examples could, unfortunately, go on forever).

The old advertising slogan is "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste." So is a soul, so is our native humanity.

(Image of John XXIII under Creative Commons License)

Nunc Lucretius (Nunc=Now)

Some atheists today like to quote the lines of Lucretius in which he praises Epicurus as the first Greek man who overthrew "religio." It seems that for polemicists, whether atheist or highly religious, all is fair in their censures and bromides. Some atheists have twisted the following lines as an attack on religion.

Any good classicist will tell you that the Latin word "religio" is a very hard word to translate from classical Latin. I find persuasive that Lucretius is here not targeting religion per se, but rather superstition. I say that because the fine translator in the Loeb edition uses the term "superstition" for "religio." (A recent Penguin translation by A.E. Stallings also gives "superstition" for "religio"--but is not consistent in its translation.)

I also say that Lucretius does not target religion per se because, like other writers of epic who invoked the divine muses, Lucretius begins his long poem by invoking a goddess (Venus) and imploring her help and praying that she bring peace to the world. So, if we take Lucretius at face value, he does not deny religion itself but actually practices it in the very beginning of his epic poem. (The introduction by R. Jenkyns to the Penguin edition does point out the ideological confusion raised by Lucretius beginning his long epic poem with a prayer to Venus.)

Here is my translation from the first book (lines 62-79) of De Rerum Natura (Concerning the Nature of Things) by Lucretius, a contemporary of Cicero, Caesar, and Catullus:

When human life before our eyes shamefully lay on earth oppressed by harsh superstition, which, oppressing mortals, was raising its head from the regions of heaven with a horrible aspect from above, a Greek man [Epicurus] as the first human being dared to raise his mortal eyes against it and was the first to resist it; whom neither the reputation of the gods nor their thunderbolts nor heaven with its menacing murmur held down, but all the more irritated the vigorous courage of his soul, that he first sought to break the closed bars of the gates of nature. Therefore, the lively force of his mind overthrew and proceeded far beyond the flaming walls of the world; and he journeyed with his mind and spirit throughout the immeasurable universe, from where as victor he reports to us what is able to arise, what is not able, finally now by what law each thing has its power limited and clings deeply to its limits. Therefore, superstition overthrown, in turn, was trampled with his feet; the victory made us equal to heaven.

(Image of Penguin translation included under fair use doctrine)

Assessing Pope Francis: The New John XXIII

Italian vaticanisti Andrea Tornielli writes a golden piece at this link.

Here is an excerpt:

Then there was the time John XXIII spent Christmas 1958 at the Regina Coeli prison, speaking off-the-cuff about a relative of his who had been arrested for poaching. His words were censored at the time, by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. More than half a century later, some still grumbled about Francis’ decision to celebrate his first Holy Thursday with young offenders at the Casal del Marmo detention centre in Rome, unhappy with the direct way in which he expressed himself, without paying too much attention to protocol.

Their focus on mercy is another point which links the two popes together. John XXIII spoke often of mercy as a medicine, while Francis has stressed right from day one that “Jesus’ message is mercy. For me, I say this humbly, it is the strongest message of the Lord.”

Both men place an emphasis on the Church’s closeness to the people, instead of it being conceived as the world’s “courtroom”. Both appear to be deeply rooted in a simple and popular faith. Roncalli’s faith is ingrained in northern Italian Catholicism, while Bergoglio’s is tooted in Latin American Catholicism. Their style is miles away from the detached intellectualism of some.

See source link above.

I also like this observation from the former secretary of John XXIII:

When John XXIII was elected Pope, Fr. Primo Mazzolari said: “We have a Pope made of flesh.” “This is no trivial thing, because God became flesh,” Capovilla said. “Pope Francis is an eloquent manifestation of this.”

See my earlier blog link concerning why we should also become human.

We are living at a very special time.

Self-Evident to Juvenal

The Roman satirist Juvenal has an interesting passage speaking of rich Roman women:

[H]ardly any woman lies in labour on a gilded bed. So powerful are the skills and drugs of the woman who manufactures sterility and takes the contracts to kill humans inside the belly.

Satire 6, lines 595-97, trans. Susanna Morton Braund, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 91 (2004).

Juvenal flourished in the 120's and 130's A.D., that is, well before Christianity would be a dominating force in Roman society and culture.

What I find interesting about the quote is how Juvenal in a matter of fact way tells us that abortion is "to kill humans inside the belly" (Juvenal's Latin: "homines in ventre necandos").

A more literal translation of this phrase would read: "that human beings be killed in the womb."

Whatever you may think of the modern legal issue of whether a woman has the right to choose to abort, I think we should be able to agree with the intuition of Juvenal: abortion is the killing of a human being in the womb.

So even if you are pro-choice, you should be able to recognize where those of us who are pro-life are. The intuition of the pagan, non-Christian, non-Jewish Juvenal was not based on the Bible or religious belief. His intuition was based on what he thought self-evident to any literate, pagan Roman observer of his time.

Note: See the link at the beginning of this post for other interesting bits of Juvenal.

(Image of Juvenal in public domain)

Good Advice to the Opinionated: Take It Slow

In politics and religion, opinionated people are omnipresent. They often jump the gun, so to speak. They leap before they deliberate. They often think they are too smart and knowledgeable to have to deliberate.

I came across a hymn with a line that gives good advice to those trigger-happy when it comes to criticizing and correcting others:

"Do not form opinions blindly; hastiness to trouble tends."

Now, most of the opinionated, by virtue of being who they are, will promptly disregard this advice. And they will never see how foolish they look to others. Often the silence of others simply means they have written you off, not that you have persuaded them.

(Image below by blogger)

Now, Horace

He seems to have been a mellow fellow, son of a freedman (former slave), who lived life realistically (at least as he portrays it in his poems).

Selections (English translations from the Loeb Classical Library unless stated otherwise):

1. He disdained the busyness of the ambitious and contrasted his own tastes:

Odes (Carmina) Book I.1:

"the frightened trader recommends an easy life on a farm near his home town; a little later he repairs his shattered fleet, for he cannot learn to put up with modest means. One man does not refuse cups of old Massic [wine], and is prepared to take a slice out of the working day, stretched out at length beneath a leafy arbutus [tree] or at the gentle source of a sacred stream" (circa lines 16-22).

Horace is that one man.

The old question arise: if every one were so sane, would our economy be so prosperous?

The old question assumes the answer, namely, that the most important thing is higher GDP.

2. He was proud of his father, the former slave, who gave him an excellent education, both academic and moral:

Satires (Sermones) I.vi (circa ll. 89-97)

"Never while in my senses could I be ashamed of such a father, and so I will not defend myself, as would a goodly number, who say it is no fault of theirs that they have not free-born [Horace's father was born a slave and later freed] and famous parents. Far different from this is what I say and what I think: for if after a given age Nature should call upon us to traverse our past lives again, and to choose in keeping with our pride any other parents each might crave--content with my own, I should decline to take those adorned with the rods and chairs of state."

Yes! Here is the humanitas which motivates the study of the classics. In the lines immediately preceding the above excerpt, Horace describes in detail the parental guidance he received. It is a tribute to every dedicated parent.

3. Finally, I cannot pass over his most famous lines (blogger's translation; feel free to ignore my grammatical notes in the Latin--they are for my own use):

Horace, Ode I.11

XI

Tu ne quaesieris [syncopated, Fut. Pf.] (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris [syncopated Fut. Pf.] numeros. Vt melius quicquid erit pati!
Seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare 5
Tyrrhenum, sapias (hortatory), uina liques (strain) et spatio breui
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit (future perfect tense) inuida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula (adj. feminine vocative) postero (to the future; 2nd masc.).

Do not ask, Leuconoe--it is contrary to divine law to know--what end the gods will give to me, what end to you, nor consult the Babylonian star charts. How much better to endure whatever happens!
Whether Jove has assigned more winters [for us] or the last,
which now pummels the Tyrrhenian Sea against the cliffs,
be wise, prepare your wine, and scale back your distant hope because time is brief.
While we speak, hateful age and time slip away: seize the day, trusting as little as possible to the future.

Blogger comment: The older you get, the more you should pay attention to your priorities and concentrate on what you must do. In a way, it is a time of great freedom to jettison what needs to go, as you make your final approach for landing.

(Public domain image from University of Toronto library)

Living Latin

A very good friend of mine is attending the 2013 Latin immersion experience called "Rusticatio" held in an historic Virginia mansion over seven days. I recently attended a two-day workshop with the head instructor (Nancy Llewellyn) and can vouch for her great skill and talent in teaching people to speak Latin.

See this link for more information on this week-long immersion experience.

(Image below of Rusticatio sponsor used under fair use doctrine)

Sor Teresita: The Nun of 10 Popes

That is the headline of the Spanish newspaper ABC at this link.

Why is she the nun of 10 Popes?

Because she has lived under all the popes from Pius X to Francis. She entered the convent on Holy Saturday, April 16, 1927, at age 19--the same date on which Joseph Ratzinger (who is her favorite pope) was born.

She is 105 years old and has been in the cloister for 86 years. She did leave once in 2011 to see Benedict XVI when he visited Spain for World Youth (!) Day. The newspaper reports that she holds the world record for time in the cloister.

She reads newspapers voraciously. She notes interesting articles for the other sisters. Apparently, her health has begun to worsen only in the last two years.

She prays very much for Benedict XVI--oh, what a good example for the elderly to pray for those younger!

Update: Sor Teresita has passed away according to a news report dated June 12, 2013. What a marvelous life! See link from Spanish press.

(Image from ABC under fair use doctrine)

When Do You Lack Power?

Looking more closely at some Latin words can be an enlightening experience. I am sure that experience is also the case in other languages.

Take the word "impotens." As you can guess, it has the basic meaning of being impotent: weak, feeble.

But there is another common meaning in Latin that might take you by surprise as it did me:

"not master of himself, unbridled, headstrong, violent, insolent, immoderate, excessive, furious" (source: online Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary).

In other words, you are impotent when you lack self-control. Thus, being impotent is not just a matter of lacking some sort of vital energy but also of not being strong enough to control your vital energy, even if you have plenty of it.

So you lack true power when you cannot control yourself.

Our culture glorifies excess when in fact excess is impotence. This idea of excess as weakness is countercultural in our culture, as it was in much of Roman culture, especially as the empire became richer and unchallenged.

(Image of golden mean in public domain)

Two Simple Ideas from a Baptist Preacher

I was privileged to attend a memorial service for a friend at a Baptist church. The preacher gave a short and simple message with two points that I fastened on:

1. Love is seeking to do good for the other;

2. Life is a task.

They are very simple ideas but profound--their importance lies in the reality that they are so often ignored by a wide margin.

If you dare to tell someone of the opposite sex that you love them, the last thing they will think of is that simple definition of active benevolence. The word "love" has been narrowed down and has lost a lot of richness and fruitfulness in the process.

Yes, life is a task. Life is not searching for the next thrill to sedate us as we run away from our unhappiness.

Link the two simple ideas together: life is the task of seeking the good of the other.

There it is: the most important things you need to know about life from a Baptist preacher on Memorial Day weekend.

(Image used under Creative Commons License)

Pope: Open the door to faith

Blogger: You just have to read this. Many parishes follow the approach criticized by the Pope.

2013-05-25 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Those who approach the Church should find the doors open and not find people who want to control the faith. This is what the Pope said this morning during Mass in the Casa Santa Marta.

The day's Gospel tells us that Jesus rebukes the disciples who seek to remove children that people bring to the Lord to bless. "Jesus embraces them, kisses them, touches them, all of them. It tires Jesus and his disciples "want it to stop”. Jesus is indignant: "Jesus got angry, sometimes." And he says: "Let them come to me, do not hinder them. For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." "The faith of the People of God – observes the Pope - is a simple faith, a faith that is perhaps without much theology, but it has an inward theology that is not wrong, because the Spirit is behind it." The Pope mentions Vatican I and Vatican II, where it is said that "the holy people of God ... cannot err in matters of belief" (Lumen Gentium).

And to explain this theological formulation he adds: "If you want to know who Mary is go to the theologian and he will tell you exactly who Mary is. But if you want to know how to love Mary go to the People of God who teach it better. " The people of God - continued the Pope - "are always asking for something closer to Jesus, they are sometimes a bit 'insistent in this. But it is the insistence of those who believe ":

"I remember once, coming out of the city of Salta, on the patronal feast, there was a humble lady who asked for a priest's blessing. The priest said, 'All right, but you were at the Mass' and explained the whole theology of blessing in the church. You did well: 'Ah, thank you father, yes father,' said the woman. When the priest had gone, the woman turned to another priest: 'Give me your blessing!'. All these words did not register with her, because she had another necessity: the need to be touched by the Lord. That is the faith that we always look for , this is the faith that brings the Holy Spirit. We must facilitate it, make it grow, help it grow. "

The Pope also mentioned the story of the blind man of Jericho, who was rebuked by the disciples because he cried to the Lord, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

"The Gospel says that they didn’t want him to shout, they wanted him not to shout but he wanted to shout more, why? Because he had faith in Jesus! The Holy Spirit had put faith in his heart. And they said, 'No, you cannot do this! You don’t shout to the Lord. Protocol does not allow it. And 'the second Person of the Trinity! Look what you do... 'as if they were saying that, right? ".
And think about the attitude of many Christians:

"Think of the good Christians, with good will, we think about the parish secretary, a secretary of the parish ... 'Good evening, good morning, the two of us - boyfriend and girlfriend - we want to get married'. And instead of saying, 'That's great!'. They say, 'Oh, well, have a seat. If you want the Mass, it costs a lot ... '. This, instead of receiving a good welcome- It is a good thing to get married! '- But instead they get this response:' Do you have the certificate of baptism, all right ... '. And they find a closed door. When this Christian and that Christian has the ability to open a door, thanking God for this fact of a new marriage ... We are many times controllers of faith, instead of becoming facilitators of the faith of the people. "

And 'there is always a temptation - said the Pope - "try and take possession of the Lord." And he tells another story:

"Think about a single mother who goes to church, in the parish and to the secretary she says: 'I want my child baptized'. And then this Christian, this Christian says: 'No, you cannot because you're not married!'. But look, this girl who had the courage to carry her pregnancy and not to return her son to the sender, what is it? A closed door! This is not zeal! It is far from the Lord! It does not open doors! And so when we are on this street, have this attitude, we do not do good to people, the people, the People of God, but Jesus instituted the seven sacraments with this attitude and we are establishing the eighth: the sacrament of pastoral customs! ".

"Jesus is indignant when he sees these things" - said the Pope - because those who suffer are "his faithful people, the people that he loves so much."

"We think today of Jesus, who always wants us all to be closer to Him, we think of the Holy People of God, a simple people, who want to get closer to Jesus and we think of so many Christians of goodwill who are wrong and that instead of opening a door they close the door of goodwill ... So we ask the Lord that all those who come to the Church find the doors open, find the doors open, open to meet this love of Jesus. We ask this grace."

(Image used under Creative Commons License)

The Spanish School of Latin Literature

It is wonderful that so many old books lying in libraries throughout our great universities have been digitized. Below is a facsimile of an old 1908 edition by a Professor Edwin Post of the Selected Epigrams of Martial digitized at the University of Michigan by Google. When you read the very first paragraph, you will see what I mean by the Spanish School of Latin Literature.

Hispanic culture is ancient and very Roman.

Here is the relevant digitized text plus an easier-to-read reproduction of paragraph one for your convenience:

1. It is a fact at once striking and suggestive that very few of the great representatives of Latin literature were born and bred in Rome; they came from the Italian towns and country districts, nay, in many cases, from the outlying provinces. Of these provinces Spain furnished more than her share of the men who gave distinction to the literature of Rome. M. Annaeus Seneca, the rhetorician, L. Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher, his more brilliant son, and Lucan, nephew of the latter, were all born at Cordoba, Quintilian at Calagurris, Martial at Bilbilis. These writers, with others of lesser note, such as Columella and Pomponius Mela, almost constitute a Spanish school of Latin literature.

Source link. 

It Is Time

Yes, it is time for the beatification of assassinated Archbishop Óscar Romero of San Salvador to go forward. Recent news from Rome makes many of us optimistic.

In 1980, Romero was killed while celebrating the Eucharist. What more need be said? For more details, see link.

His martyrdom is an honor to the Church that produced him and to those of us unworthy to be his brothers and sisters in the faith.

(Image used under Creative Commons license)

"Fortune Aids the Brave"

These words have been uttered by many in one form or another. I came across them again in a letter of Pliny the Younger describing for the Roman historian Tacitus the brave actions of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, in the face of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on August 24, 79 A.D. The uncle died during the eruption.

Here is the saying in Latin: "Fortes fortuna iuvat" (classical Latin uses "i" as a letter "j").

The Loeb translator suggests that Pliny the Elder was quoting Terence's words found in his play Phormio (Act I, scene iv, line 203).

You can find the same saying in Vergil and also uttered by other historical figures with similar or different words. Caesar was a famous believer in the role of the goddess Fortuna which nevertheless called for individuals to take the bull by the horns in order to benefit from fortune. (See link.)

This ancient wisdom seems trite, but it is really quite profound.

Regardless of the limits imposed by our circumstance, we have a margin of action. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we call it free will. Even the most avowed determinist will live as if he or she has that free margin of action. Look at what people do, not at what they say. Within limits, we are indeed free.

Boldness is a recommendation for engaging that margin of freedom, hopefully after we have prudently scouted the terrain.

(Image of Caesar at the Rubicon in public domain)

Francis' Papal Simplicity Is Profoundly Roman

A relatively few odd birds in our vast Church were initially taken aback by the refreshing simplicity of style of Pope Francis.

Well, that simplicity is a very old Roman virtue (and it certainly is a Christian one):

[Augustus] displayed the quality admired by the Romans under the name of civilitas, absence of unnecessary pomp. Genuinely preferring simplicity to luxury, he at first lived in an unpretentious part of Rome near the Forum, and then moved to a modest though tastefully decorated house on the Palatine . . . where for forty years he slept in the same bedroom. A later ruler, Marcus Aurelius, said he had been taught by his unostentatious predecessor Antoninus Pius that an emperor could almost live like a private gentleman. The founder of the principate [Augustus] had already been imbued with the same idea.

Michael Grant, The Twelve Caesars (N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 67.

(Image of Augustus in public domain)

Dramatic Prayer

Official Vatican Statement:


Tuesday, May 21, 2013
FR. LOMBARDI ON ALLEGED EXORCISM PERFORMED BY POPE
Vatican City, 21 May 2013 (VIS) – In response to questions from reporters about an alleged exorcism performed by the Holy Father Francis in St. Peter’s Square after last Sunday’s Mass, the Director of the Holy See Press Office Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., said: “The Holy Father had no intention to perform any exorcism. Instead, as he frequently does for the sick and suffering persons who approach him, he simply meant to pray for a suffering person who was presented to him.”

Blogger comment: I can hear bloggers now: "Wait, he didn't follow the rubrics! He is setting a bad example!" They should get an Academy award for best, unwitting, spontaneous impersonation of the ancient Pharisees.

Related articles

• Vatican denies 'exorcism' by Pope

In Pure Fun: Plautus

From Act I, scene ii of the comedy (about the twin) Brothers Menaechmus:

Unless you are evil, unless you are stupid, unless wild, unless bereft of your mind,
what you see that is hateful to your husband, you should find it hateful to yourself.

Besides, if, after today, you act toward me in this way, I will pack you off divorced back to your father.

For as often as I wish to go out, you delay me, you call me back, you interrogate me: where I may be going, what I may be doing, what business I am carrying on, what I may be looking for, what I may take along, what I did outside the house.

I have married a customs officer! So I must describe everything, whatever I did and whatever I do.

I have made you too pampered; now therefore, I will say what I will do, since I maintain you well: with slavegirls, food, wool, gold, clothing, purple--you do not lack anything,

You will beware of repercussions if you are wise, you will stop spying on your husband.

And so, lest you watch me in vain, on account of your diligence, today I will take a prostitute [some like to soften this term to "girlfriend"] to dinner and I will engage myself as a guest to anyone outside the house.

(The above is my translation; I consulted the 2011 Loeb translation by Wolfgang De Melo--I like his term "customs officer.")

Plautus, like Terence, wrote comedies. The Loeb Classical Library editors tell us that the comedies of Plautus "are the earliest Latin works to survive complete and are the cornerstones of the European theatrical tradition from Shakespeare and Molière to modern times." His works inspired the musical and movie "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."


For those interested in the original Latin, see below from the online Latin Library collection:

MENAECHMVS Ni mala, ni stulta sies, ni indomita imposque animi, 110
quod viro esse odio videas, tute tibi odio habeas.
praeterhac si mihi tale post hunc diem
faxis, faxo foris vidua visas patrem.
nam quotiens foras ire volo, me retines, revocas, rogitas,
quo ego eam, quam rem agam, quid negoti geram, 115
quid petam, quid feram, quid foris egerim.
portitorem domum duxi, ita omnem mihi
rem necesse eloqui est, quidquid egi atque ago.
nimium ego te habui delicatam; nunc adeo ut facturus dicam.
quando ego tibi ancillas, penum, 120
lanam, aurum, vestem, purpuram
bene praebeo nec quicquam eges,
malo cavebis si sapis,
virum observare desines.
atque adeo, ne me nequiquam serves, ob eam industriam
hodie ducam scortum ad cenam atque aliquo condicam foras.

Did This Contribute to a Soccer Upset in Spain?

Did the holy cards of Josemaría Escrivá (founder of Opus Dei) contribute to the upset victory of an underdog Madrid soccer team over the dominant Madrid soccer champion?

The story can be found in Spanish at this link.

Why the Pope Washed Feet (Including Female Ones) on Holy Thursday 2013

Here is the link, and below is an image of the Pope's letter to a fellow Jesuit who also washed feet in a juvenile prison on Holy Thursday--a bridge from Rome to L.A. by the bridge builder.

Pope Francis is an Intellectual in the Best Sense of the Term

See this link at Religion News Service (credit to M.S. Winters at Nat'l Catholic Reporter).

Here is an excerpt from Professor Mark Silk of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut:

Francis is very wary of those who pride themselves on their intellectual grasp of religious doctrine. In a talk six years ago, he had this to say about the Prophet Jonah, who fled God’s command to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh:

Jonah had everything clear. He had clear ideas about God, very clear ideas about good and evil. On what God does and on what He wants, on who was faithful to the Covenant and who instead was outside the Covenant. He had the recipe for being a good prophet…
What he was fleeing was not so much Nineveh as the boundless love of God for those people. It was that that didn’t come into his plans. God had come once… “and I’ll see to the rest”: that’s what Jonah told himself. He wanted to do things his way, he wanted to steer it all. His stubbornness shut him in his own structures of evaluation, in his pre-ordained methods, in his righteous opinions.

Source link.

We never learn, do we. That's why it's good to reread what we think we already know.

(The image of Jonah in the Sistine Chapel is in the public domain.)

Now, Terence (circa 185 to 159 B.C.)

He was a freed slave from North Africa, who uttered one of my favorite quotations (one that fanatics of all stripes should consider carefully):

"Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto"/"I am human, I do not consider anything human to be alien to me" (see link).


Like Plautus, he wrote Latin comedies. The one I read today was The Brothers.

Here is a wise tidbit:

"Life is like a game of dice. If you don't get the exact throw you want, you have to use your skill and make the best of the one you do get" (Loeb translation).

As a fan of the great and underappreciated philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (maybe, his being underappreciated is a good and telling sign), I have always loved how Ortega captured the drama of each of our lives: "I am I and my circumstance; and, if I do not save it, I do not save myself." See link. What is this "saving"? It is finding meaning and purpose.

It's ancient wisdom as Terence attests. It also strikes me that those who get the throw they want may actually be worse off: what they want is often the product of vanity, egotism, and ignorance. They have their reward. For the rest of us, the rewards are surprising and come in unexpected ways that our small minds could not have foreseen.

(Images of Terence and of Latin manuscript of The Brothers are in the public domain.)

Christians Emphatically for the Poor

POPE TO NEW AMBASSADORS: FINANCIAL CRISIS ROOTED IN REJECTION OF ETHICS
[Bold emphasis added by blogger]

Vatican City, 16 May 2013 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received the credential letters of four new ambassadors to the Holy See: Mr. Bolot Iskovich Otunbaev from Kyrgyzstan; Mr. David Shoul from Antigua and Barbuda; Mr. Jean-Paul Senninger from Luxembourg; and Mr. Lameck Nthekela from Botswana. In the address he gave them, the pontiff urged them not to forget the predominance of ethics in the economy and in social life, emphasizing the value of solidarity and the centrality of the human being.

“Our human family,” the Pope said, “is presently experiencing something of a turning point in its own history, if we consider the advances made in various areas. We can only praise the positive achievements which contribute to the authentic welfare of mankind, in fields such as those of health, education and communications. At the same time, we must also acknowledge that the majority of the men and women of our time continue to live daily in situations of insecurity, with dire consequences. Certain pathologies are increasing, with their psychological consequences; fear and desperation grip the hearts of many people, even in the so-called rich countries; the joy of life is diminishing; indecency and violence are on the rise; poverty is becoming more and more evident. People have to struggle to live and, frequently, to live in an undignified way. One cause of this situation, in my opinion, is in . . . our relationship with money, and our acceptance of its power over ourselves and our society. Consequently the financial crisis which we are experiencing makes us forget that its ultimate origin is to be found in a profound human crisis. In the denial of the primacy of human beings! We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”

“The worldwide financial and economic crisis,” the pontiff observed, “seems to highlight their distortions and above all the gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces men and women to just one of their needs alone, namely, consumption. Worse yet, human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away. We have started down the path of a disposable culture. This tendency is seen on the level of individuals and whole societies; and it is being promoted! In circumstances like these, solidarity, which is the treasure of the poor, is often considered counterproductive, opposed to the logic of finance and the economy. While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling. This imbalance results from ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to States, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good. A new, invisible and at times virtual, tyranny is established, one which unilaterally and irremediably imposes its own laws and rules. Moreover, indebtedness and credit distance countries from their real economy and citizens from their real buying power. Added to this, as if it were needed, is widespread corruption and selfish fiscal evasion which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The will to power and of possession has become limitless.”

“Concealed behind this attitude,” the Bishop of Rome warned, “is a rejection of ethics, a rejection of God. Ethics, like solidarity, is a nuisance! It is regarded as counterproductive: as something too human, because it relativizes money and power; as a threat, because it rejects manipulation and subjection of people: because ethics leads to God, who is situated outside the categories of the market. These financiers, economists and politicians consider God to be unmanageable, God is unmanageable, even dangerous, because He calls man to his full realization and to independence from any kind of slavery. Ethics—naturally, not the ethics of ideology—makes it possible, in my view, to create a balanced social order that is more humane. In this sense, I encourage the financial experts and the political leaders of your countries to consider the words of Saint John Chrysostom: 'Not to share one’s goods with the poor is to rob them and to deprive them of life. It is not our goods that we possess, but theirs'.”

The Pope asserted that “there is a need for financial reform along ethical lines that would produce in its turn an economic reform to benefit everyone. This would nevertheless require a courageous change of attitude on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and farsightedness, taking account, naturally, of their particular situations. Money has to serve, not to rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ’s name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them. The Pope appeals for disinterested solidarity and for a return to person-centred ethics in the world of finance and economics.”

“For her part, the Church,” he reiterated, “always works for the integral development of every person. In this sense, she reiterates that the common good should not be simply an extra, simply a conceptual scheme of inferior quality tacked onto political programmes. The Church encourages those in power to be truly at the service of the common good of their peoples. She urges financial leaders to take account of ethics and solidarity. And why should they not turn to God to draw inspiration from his designs? In this way, a new political and economic mindset would arise that would help to transform the absolute dichotomy between the economic and social spheres into a healthy symbiosis.”

Finally, Francis greeted—through the ambassadors—the faithful of the Catholic communities present in their respective countries, urging them “to continue their courageous and joyful witness of faith and fraternal love in accordance with Christ’s teaching. Let them not be afraid to offer their contribution to the development of their countries, through initiatives and attitudes inspired by the Sacred Scriptures!”

Blogger Comment: Neoconservatives will turn their noses down at this cri de coeur.

(Image in public domain)

From Seneca (circa 4 B.C. to 65 A.D.)

As my review of Latin literature continues, here are some tidbits from the Hispano-Roman philosopher Seneca:

I. From Epistle/Letter 114:

He observes that a lax writing style indicates the moral state of the writer:
"a lax style, if it be popular, shows that the mind (which is the source of the word) has lost its balance" (Loeb translation, Epistle 114.12).

It reminds me of the saying--you will know them by their fruits. People's words and actions reveal what is within. When we see art and music that are full of darkness and the bizarre, we are seeing minds that are also dark and bizarre. The shame is that many in the audience can identify with the darkness and irrationality of the artist or writer.

Seneca follows up at section 22:

"Therefore, I say, take care of the soul; for from the soul issue our thoughts, from the soul our words, from the soul our dispositions, our expressions, and our very gait. When the soul is sound and strong, the style too is vigorous, energetic, manly; but if the soul loses its balance, down comes all the rest in ruins" (Loeb translation).

Readers of the gospels will find these words very familiar (notice the dates for Seneca).

II. From Epistle 88 (all from the Loeb translation):

Seneca presents a sensible way to deal with the uncertainties of life:

"For just as I know that all things can happen, so I know, too, that they will not happen in every case. I am ready for favorable events in every case, but I am prepared for evil." Ep. 88.17

There is a sound, healthy core to this viewpoint. You are steady and ready, shocked, as your humanity requires, by the evil people do but never really surprised.

Seneca also gives a word of warning to legalists, utopians, and fanatics of every stripe:

"Wisdom is a large and spacious thing. It needs plenty of free room." Ep. 88.33.

I think that Seneca's point is similar to that of 20th century phenomenologists: we must clear our minds first and look at things with fresh eyes. He continues:

"And in order that these manifold and mighty subjects may have free entertainment in your soul, you must remove therefrom all superfluous things. Virtue will not surrender herself to these narrow bounds of ours; a great subject needs wide space in which to move. Let all other things be driven out, and let the breast be emptied to receive virtue." Ep. 88.35.

III. From Epistle 65:

The Stoic advice: Fortes sim adversus fortuita. "Let us be brave when facing chance events" (blogger's translation). Ep. 65.24

Here is good advice when listening to a discussion by very self-assured know-it-alls:

"[S]tate who seems to you to say what is truest, and not who says what is absolutely true. For to do that is as far beyond our ken as truth itself." Ep. 65.10 (Loeb trans.)

(Image under Creative Commons License at this link)

Niagara Falls and Life

I write these thoughts after spending a day watching the torrential, unbelievable force of nature that are these greatest of waterfalls. They are beautiful as you see massive columns of water pour over the edge of a cliff, turning bright blue-green as the columns flow over the edge and descend. They never stop. We see a continuous, constant, massively powerful but graceful descent, elegant in its beauty.

People come from everywhere on the globe to take it all in. There is a healing and calming effect to see such an overwhelming, perpetual combination of power and beauty.

Our own lives are part of that constant movement, as each generation follows another and is in turn replaced. As I showed my kids the falls, we enacted a pilgrimage to a holy place bespeaking the power of the deity, the source of all life. I know many others see no need to invoke the deity, yet also feel struck by the beauty and majesty of the falls. Our intuitions differ.

In the falls, we see the transient nature of our human lives: how they are constantly passing away. Yet, in that passing away, I see vibrant life, beauty, grace, elegance, meaning, and purpose. That is why my intuition differs from that of my atheist friends. No matter all the evil and mistakes of this world--the falls remain, life endures with its truth, goodness, and beauty, fused into one. No evil can defeat the falls. No evil can defeat the goodness of life. The crashing, continual descent of the falls drowns out the evils present in nature and the evils we choose to impose on nature. The falls with their soft, constant roar marginalize evil and stupidity. The falls persist in spite of everything that is wrong. It is as if the falls are continuously baptizing the world. The idiots who bring so much evil into the world have lost.

(Image by blogger)

Gospel=Exodus

Here is today's papal homily from Vatican Radio at this link.

When I teach the Gospels, the Exodus is the theme that I emphasize (in fact, I emphasize the same theme when teaching the entire Bible).

Like a master, Pope Francis takes the theme and runs with it.

By the way, in my personal opinion, these simple and profound homilies are of more value in reaching ordinary people than lengthy encyclicals which sometimes have a greater impact on theological connoisseurs than on the rank and file.

Next time you hear someone criticize the simplicity of Pope Francis, remind yourself that the teaching office does not exist primarily for the pleasure and comfort of self-styled theological connoisseurs.

(Image of Israelites leaving Egypt in public domain)

Loyola New Orleans Gets State Funds for Chair in Catholic Studies

See link.

My native state of Louisiana is different. After all, I never heard of counties growing up. All we had were parishes, sometimes even named after saints (St. Mary, St. John the Baptist, St. Bernard, St. Helena, St. Martin, St. James, etc.). Our cultural background (at least in the southern half of the state) was French and Spanish, not Anglo-Saxon.

By the way, congratulations to my Jesuit college alma mater, Loyola University New Orleans, for celebrating 100 years as the largest Catholic university in the South in 2012, and for having survived the Katrina crisis. And how providential to celebrate this anniversary with the crowning event of the first Jesuit pope ever!

I was fortunate to be part of a cohort in an honors scholarship program that required courses in Metaphysics, in Epistemology, and in close study of a major philosopher (in my year, Heidegger). That program instilled in me a lifelong love of philosophy. The philosophy courses were required of all majors, even if you were in the business school. Without the requirements, I doubt that I would have ever taken a philosophy course on my own. After the four years honors program, we were deeply educated--probably more so than many attending elite graduate schools, certainly more than many at elite undergraduate colleges where curricular chaos reigns.

Maximas Gratias, Alma Mater!

Bridges for Listening

“The Christian who would bring the Gospel must go down this road: [must] listen to everyone! But now is a good time in the life of the Church: the last 50 or 60 years have been a good time - for I remember when as a child one would hear in Catholic families, in my family, ‘No, we cannot go to their house, because they are not married in the Church, eh!’. It was as an exclusion. No, you could not go! Neither could we go to [the houses of] socialists or atheists. Now, thank God, people do not says such things, right? [Such an attitude] was a defense of the faith, but it was one of walls: the LORD made bridges. First: Paul has this attitude, because it was the attitude of Jesus. Second, Paul is aware that he must evangelize, not proselytize."

-----Pope Francis at this link.

(Image in public domain)

Moderation is Grace Under Pressure

I recall hearing a conservative, multimillionaire talk-radio "performer" continually mocking political moderates as those who stand for nothing, who are just indecisive, spineless, and useless.

That line of mockery makes sense for him since the cash flow for conservative talk radio is in direct proportion to the amount of over-the-top rhetoric provided to the audience. Many audiences have a natural taste for extreme rhetoric, a taste related to a general liking for vulgar, outrageous behavior and speech in books, movies, videos, and social media.

But it is easy to be immoderate. It really takes little courage to be so. Once you adopt a take-no-prisoners ideological posture in politics or religion, your intellectual life is easy: you have all the answers, the old reliable tropes trip off your tongue with ease and without thought.

What is harder and takes more courage is to let the facts determine your response. Letting the facts in means taking time to observe and collect facts, both the kind you can read about and the kind that comes only from human experience and interaction.

Facts are very difficult and challenging things. They usually do not conveniently fit ideological agenda. Borrowing from 20th century philosophy, I recommend a phenomenological approach: bracket your preconceptions and focus on the facts first and foremost. Only after doing that, should we start exploring solutions. This approach is supremely fruitful in our personal lives and can also be very fruitful in our social and political discussions. The best way to approach reality is inductively, not deductively from unthinking assumptions.

We also have to be careful to know ourselves, as the ancient Delphic oracle said. Our political conservatism, for example, may be rooted in great personal insecurity about our personal identity. Our political liberalism may also be rooted in visceral personal reactions based on resentment or, even, ironically, on a sense of elitist grandiosity. Those visceral, emotional stances shape a lot of what is passed off on the surface as rational discussion and analysis. Both the right and the left thrive on plenty of personal anger.

Another major inducement to immoderation is the drive to reject the good because it is not perfect. If you reject the good because of the unattainably perfect, you will often end up doing nothing at all for no one at all. The moderate knows how to save what he can. I recall the wisdom of an elderly, African-American councilwoman (Fannie M. Lewis) in a major Midwest city when she was attacked for supporting school vouchers: you "save who you can." That approach doesn't mean giving up on others--but it also means not refusing to help those whom we can indeed help now.

The answer to personal insecurity is not to create a right wing world of neat pigeonholes. The answer to injustice is not to overthrow all traditional customs and taboos. A friend I like recently mentioned that she would never again have a child without being married but made clear that she was motivated by practical, not ethical, reasons. I simply noted that the ethical is often rooted in the practical that has been validated over centuries of human experience.

So, be moderate: look for facts first then take a stand. That is the braver option because it requires a personality comfortable with a period of ambiguity as the facts emerge. Hemingway once observed that courage was grace under pressure. Moderation is grace--being able to suspend rash judgment--under the pressure of events until the moment is ripe. The true moderate is more courageous than an ideologue of either the right or the left. The true moderate can stand on his own two feet without an ideological crutch--as long as it takes to get it right.

(The image of "Know thyself" in Greek is in the public domain.)