"We came, we saw, God conquered"

King John Sobieski blessing his army at the Battle of Vienna

          Today is September 12th. On this date in 1683 a Christian army led by Polish King John III Sobieski defeated the Muslim Ottoman Turks in battle, freeing the city of Vienna from a two months long siege and freeing Europe, for a time, from the fear of Islamic conquest. There is a good Catholic perspective on the battle [here] on the Catholic Exchange site.

     The siege of Vienna in 1683 was the final salvo of a period lasting almost a millennium, starting when Charles Martel’s victory at Tours in 732 stemmed the first Muslim incursion into Europe, during which the Christian West was constantly under the threat of subjugation by the followers of Mohammed. Had Charles Martel failed, or Sobieski, or any of the other Christian commanders in between, our world today would be very different. Consider what Tunisia, Libya, or Egypt might be like today – or Syria – if they had remained part of Christendom. Does anyone doubt that things there would be better, probably much better?

     And we need to bear in mind that this was really a struggle not simply of peoples or of nations, but between Christendom and Islam. Sobieski’s force was called The Holy League, the same name borne by that alliance which defeated the Turks in the naval battle of Lepanto in the previous century. Like those earlier Christian soldiers, who prayed the Rosary before going into battle with the Turkish fleet, Sobieski’s army prayed: they attended Mass, after which Sobieski formed up his army and “commended their mission and their souls to the care of the Blessed Virgin.” After victory was achieved he informed the Pope that “we came, we saw, God conquered”, turning Julius Caesar’s proud boast to Roman Senate into a humble acknowledgement of God’s saving Grace.

     There are two points that stand out here. One is that we need to recognize that sometimes it is necessary to fight; our opponents have been at it for almost a millennium and a half, and there’s no indication that they are any more interested in compromise, or anything short of total victory, than they were at any point since Mohammed emerged from his cave with the Koran. Certainly the outlook and behavior we’re seeing from the Taliban or ISIS is nothing new: during the battle for Vienna, the Turks murdered 30,000 defenseless Christian hostages. The second point is that we will fail unless we rely on God: “Unless the LORD builds the house”, says Psalm 127,“those who build it labor in vain.” Our prevailing secular culture has shown it can’t do the job. Today’s Muslims, enabled by the moral decay and post-Christian depopulation of the continent, are gradually achieving by peaceful migration (although it’s becoming less peaceful) the capture of Europe that eluded the strongest armies of their forebears. Our only hope is to return to God and, as did John Sobieski, to make Jesus Christ the general of our armies.

Hidden Law, Society, and the Church (Throwback)

(This post first appeared in March of this year)

     I’ve heard it said that once you need to pass a law prohibiting something, it’s too late.  In other words, it is better if less formal, more personal factors like family, religion, custom, etc. prepare people to want to do the right thing beforehand, rather than having the state or some other external authority come in to clean up the mess afterwards.  

     This seems to be the thesis of a discussion by Jonah Goldberg about (among other things) what he refers to as “Hidden Law” [link].   He describes it as the intricate complex of customs, attitudes, prohibitions, licenses, etc., that arise from culture, family, and shared experience that shape, and are shaped by,  the vast majority of our interactions with each other.   It is not imposed (directly, anyway) by any official authority, particularly not the state, and is far more effective than any formal laws or statutes for maintaining an orderly and prosperous society.  Leftists are particularly prone to deny or try to override this law, but such recklessness is by no means limited to the left.  Goldberg is arguing (as I have in other places, here for instance, albeit using different language) that we disregard this Hidden Law at our peril.

    Jonah Goldberg is a secular commentator, and I do not share all his views or concerns.  I take serious issue in particular with a passage he quotes from Jonathan Rauch that uses assisted suicide as an example; I may be naïve, but I’m not convinced that there was a long tradition of doctors “helping people to die”, at least not in the sense he seems to mean.  Also there is a huge (decisive, in fact) difference between letting someone die and causing them to die (and let me add that letting them die by withholding food and water is in fact causing them to die). 

     Having said that, it’s very helpful to understand, in a particular way for Catholics, this idea of the Hidden Law.  It illuminates not only much of Catholic teaching, but also helps us to understand some important ways in which God interacts with His creation.  The concept of the Dignity of the Human Person, for instance, is inseparable from our gift of Free Will, and from our right to exercise it within appropriate bounds, which we see formulated in the importance of Conscience, in the Principle of Subsidiarity, the right to form associations such as labor unions and fraternal groups, and so on [link].  We can see that the Church has long recognized in the working out of all sorts of individual human decisions something very similar to what Goldberg means by Hidden Law (with the important addition, in the Catholic understanding, of God’s Grace).

     One thing that comes through, both in Catholic teaching and the secular understanding of this unwritten law, is an emphasis on human individuals, not on things, institutions, or programs; it relies on people, properly prepared to conduct their own lives and to order their relations with each other.  I see a correspondence in the way God is revealed both in Sacred Scripture and in His Church.  God always seems to act through individual people, doing their human best (in most cases) under His guidance. The Bible is all about people, that is, persons, starting with Adam and Eve, through Noah, Abraham and the other Patriarchs, David and the other kings, Elijah and the prophets up through the God-Man himself, Jesus, with whom we are explicitly called to have a personal relationship.  Jesus (born of a woman, Mary) chooses to act through his Apostles, whose names are all carefully preserved, and whose authority has been personally handed on to their successors, the Bishops.  A constant feature of the formal passing on of authority from the earliest days has been the laying on of hands, one man physically touching another.  Furthermore, a very large part of Catholic practice has always been the Cult of the Saints, whose individual lives are held up for emulation and who are called upon, individually, to intercede for us with the Father.  It amazes me how many people I know personally who have met Saint John Paul II or Blessed Mother Theresa (often both), and this in a church of one billion people.  Isn’t it interesting that the Catholic Church, probably both the largest and oldest existing Institution in the world, depends so much, and focuses so much, on individual human beings?

     It’s for this reason that I have become increasingly critical of a reliance on programs and structures, and of those who put their faith in those rather than the action of God’s Grace working  through those who love him.  There is certainly a place for such things, but in a supporting role, not a leading one.  Jesus says: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27).  If it's true that it's an inversion of right order to give a Divine Institution such as the Sabbath precedence over people, how much more so it must be of merely human institutions.

Resist Him, Steadfast In Faith

     The Communion of Saints is one of Christ’s great gifts to the Church; we have more than enough intercessors and models of heroic virtue for any one of us. I like to go to Catholic Online (Catholic.org) and look at the biographies of some of the lesser-known saints, some of whom have led to posts on this blog (here, for instance, and here). There are 59 separate entries for today, September 10th. While many of them are from the same persecution in Japan in 1622, a random sampling finds Saints, mostly martyrs, from throughout the history of the Church; it is interesting how, as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. For instance:

St. Nemesian, Felix, and Companions

A group of Nicomedian martyrs condemned to labor in the marble quarries of Sigum. They all died in this arduous servitude. The group was comprised of nine bishops from Numidia, along with other clergy and laity. The bishops include Lucius, Litteus, Polyanus, Victor, Jader, Dativus, and a second Felix. St. Cyprian wrote to them from his place of exile. (c. 250?)

We are all familiar with the first three centuries of the Church as a time of persecution. The Romans took particular care to target the leaders of the Christian movement, the bishops.  There are places today (most notably Syria and Iraq) where Christians are persecuted with a ferocity equal to, or even greater than, that under the Romans.

St. Theodard of Maastricht

Bishop and martyr. A disciple of St. Remaclus in the Benedictine abbey of Malniely. Stavelot, Belgium, he succeeded him as abbot in 635, receiving appointment as bishop of Maastricht, Netherlands, in 662. He was murdered by a band of robbers in the forest of Bienwald, near Speyer, Germany, while on his way to defend the rights of the Church against the harsh confiscatory policies of King Childeric II (r. 662-675) of Austrasia. (670)

Imagine needing to “defend the rights of the Church against . . . harsh confiscatory policies”. We can’t think of anywhere today where the state is encroaching on the Church, can we?  In any case, here’s a Saint and who didn’t hesitate to stand up for Christ’s Church in the public square.

St. Cosmas of Aphrodisia

A bishop and martyr, born in Palermo, on Sicily. He was named bishop of Aphrodisia, ordained by Pope Eugene III. When the Saracens captured his see, Cosmas was seized and died as a result of harsh abuse. His cult was approved by Pope Leo XIII. (1160)

Speaking of Syria and Iraq, here we see a Catholic Bishop murdered by the Muslim jihadists of the day. While not always as virulent as it is under ISIS, persecution of Christians is endemic throughout the Islamic world.

St. Joseph of St. Hyacinth

Dominican martyr of Japan. He was born in Villareal, Spain. The provincial vicar of the Dominicans in Japan, he spoke perfect Japanese. Joseph was burned alive at Nagasaki.  He was beatified in 1867. (1622)

Bl. Lucy de Freitas

Martyr of Japan. A native Japanese, she was the widow of Philip de Freitas. Lucy, a Franciscan tertiary, was arrested for sheltering Blessed Richard of St. Anne, a Franciscan priest. Although advanced in age, Lucy defended the faith before the authorities and was burned to death for it at Nagasaki, Japan, on September 10. She was beatified in 1867. (1622)

St. Joseph and Blessed Lucy are just two of a large number of Christians martyred at Nagasaki in 1622; there is no part of the world that has not been baptized with the blood of Christian martyrs.

     Jesus says: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” (Matthew 5:11) It’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s as ugly and brutal as it was for the Saints above, or as it is for many Christians in the Middle East today; sometimes it’s a much milder variety of uttering “all kinds of evil against you falsely”, as is becoming more common in the United States and other Western countries.  Nonetheless our own sufferings for the name of Christ, even when they don’t rise to the level of serious persecution, are still hardships and injustices. As St. Peter wrote:

Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. (1Peter 5:8-11)

The example of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have undergone, and are undergoing, much worse than we are shows us that we, too, can stand firm.

William Byrd-Sanctus (Mass for 4 voices)

Last week a Sanctus by 19th century composer Johannes Brahms; this time we step back a few centuries for a very beautiful but very different Sanctus by William Byrd.  The best way to experience this is live . . . in church . . . at Mass.  If that's not possible, well, take a look at Isaiah 6:3, put on your earphones, close your eyes, and picture the Seraphim . . .

Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival (7 September 2014)

     Happy Day of the Resurrection!  Welcome to Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival, a weekly blog-o-rama of Catholic writers. We link up here at This That and the Other Thing, home of Sunday Snippets Mastermind RAnn.

     This blog, Principium et Finis, took a back seat this past week to the beginning of classes for the year, which is why I didn't publish much until the end of the week.  I was working on a few things while I could, and I did manage to pull a few items together.  One that never quite took shape was a full-bore Culture War Rant on this story [here] in Indiana, where the usual lone atheist was “offended” by a small cross (not a crucifix; it looks more like a representation of a grave marker) that’s part of a larger sculpture that a veterans group is trying to place in a public park dedicated to, well, veterans. This individual contacted the felicitously named Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is working assiduously to force the State of Indiana to remove any evidence that its citizens who died for their country entertained any sort of religious sentiments. I had intended to expound (very eloquently, naturally) on the corruption of language involved in equating the allowing of private individuals to express themselves on public land with a government Establishment of Religion.  The one thing that people most remember about George Orwell’s novel 1984 is his vivid depiction of how a totalitarian state corrupts language, and in doing so destroys the very concept of truth. That tendency is very much with us today, and is a theme in several of the posts listed below.

     Speaking of which, here are this past week’s posts at Principium et Finis:

Monday –  I took a break this week from composers whose names start with “H”; instead I went for one of the Boyz with a B.  Needless to say, it’s simply Beautiful: “JOHANNES BRAHMS Sacred Choral Music SANCTUS”  [here]     

Thursday –  This past winter everyone, it seems, was talking about this one little cake shop in Denver.  In this Throwback Thursday post I warn that a failure to insist on clear distinctions in language can lead us into a trap, as intended by those who would transform society in their own image: “Bake Me A Cake: Loving the Sinner, Hating the Sin” [here]

Friday – A little college Mass gives a tantalizing glimpse of what could be: “The Reform Of The Reform” [here]

Saturday – We should be unnerved that the crimes of which Bishop Clemens August von Galen accuses the government of Nazi Germany have become common today: “It Is A Fearful Thing When Man Sets His Will Against The Will Of God” [here]

It Is A Fearful Thing When Man Sets His Will Against The Will Of God

In today's Gospel we read of an unusual event: Our Saviour weeps. Yes, the Son of God sheds tears. Whoever weeps must be either in physical or mental anguish . . This is the reason for the tears of Jesus, for the tears of God. . . . Tears for the misrule, the injustice and man's willful refusal of Him and the resulting evils, which, in His divine omniscience, He foresees and which in His justice He must decree. . . . It is a fearful thing when man sets his will against the will of God, and it is because of this that Our Lord is lamenting over Jerusalem.

Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen

The passage above is the opening of a remarkable sermon [full text here] delivered August 3^rd, 1941, in the city of Muenster in the German state of Westphalia. It is one of a series of sermons that summer by Bishop Clemens August von Galen harshly criticizing the policies of the Nazi government of Germany,  at the same time that Hitler’s Wehrmacht was thundering toward Moscow.  In his homily of August 3^rd, the Bishop of Muenster (dubbed the “Lion of Muenster” because of his outspoken bravery in the face of the Nazi tyranny) went on to say:

For the past several months it has been reported that, on instructions from Berlin, patients who have been suffering for a long time from apparently incurable diseases have been forcibly removed from homes and clinics. Their relatives are later informed that the patient has died, that the body has been cremated and that the ashes may be claimed. There is little doubt that these numerous cases of unexpected death in the case of the insane are not natural, but often deliberately caused, and result from the belief that it is lawful to take away life which is unworthy of being lived. This ghastly doctrine tries to justify the murder of blameless men and would seek to give legal sanction to the forcible killing of invalids, cripples, the incurable and the incapacitated.

Bishop Von Galen stresses that these people are not being put to death because of some crime they committed, or because they represented a threat of some kind:

No, these are not the reasons why these unfortunate patients are to be put to death. It is simply because that according to some doctor, or because of the decision of some committee, they have no longer a right to live because they are ‘unproductive citizens’. The opinion is that since they can no longer make money, they are obsolete machines . . .

He reminds his flock in forceful terms that murder is violation of God’s commandments:

. . .there are sacred obligations of conscience from which no one can release us and which we must fulfil even at the price of death itself. At no time, and under no circumstances whatsoever, may a man, except in war and in lawful defence, take the life of an innocent person.

But he also give a very common-sense argument against the destruction of the infirm, one accessible to people of all faiths, or no faith at all:

Here we are dealing with human beings . . . unproductive—perhaps! But have they, therefore, lost the right to live? Have you or I the right to exist only because we are ‘productive’?  . . .

Once admit the right to kill unproductive persons . . . then none of us can be sure of his life. We shall be at the mercy of any committee that can put a man on the list of unproductives. There will be no police protection, no court to avenge the murder and inflict punishment upon the murderer. Who can have confidence in any doctor? He has but to certify his patients as unproductive and he receives the command to kill.

Once the state, or a committee or, ahem, a panel created by the government has the power to declare one human life not worth living, then it can decree death for any one of us, because it will no longer recognize that we have an inherent right to exist. If it has the power to remove such people from their unwilling families, it will have removed one of the last meager checks on totalitarian tyranny. At the same time, it will necessarily corrupt the medical profession, because doctors will be transformed from healers to dealers in death.  Who indeed can trust his doctor in such a world?

     I was reminded of Bishop von Galen’s sermon by this story [here], about a young mother whose disabled child has been taken from her by the state, which refuses to lift a Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR) on the baby, even though the mother has not been declared unfit. A lower court has already sided with the state against the mother and her family. This case did not happen in Nazi Germany, however, but is taking place right now in my own State of Maine.  And, while it doesn’t involve active euthanasia, that is the direct killing of the child, forcing the unwilling family to stand by helplessly while “care providers” allow the child to die is not that far removed. Fortunately, a collection of advocacy groups including the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland have filed amicus briefs on the mother’s behalf, and are providing her with legal help in her appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.  As recounted in the Fox News story, a brief filed by the group echoes the Bishop’s argument cited above [italics mine]:

State officials, according to the attorneys on behalf of the girl's mother, have an interest in affirming the medical profession as one that heals and does no harm. "Allowing a physician to mandate that a mother agree to a DNR does not properly respect that duty," the brief continues. "The integrity of the profession depends on its ability to utilize the best practices, with the best information, to promote patient well-being. In contrast, a physician-mandated DNR would be fraught with uncertainty and risk."ADF Senior Counsel Steve Aden said the state is effectively arguing that the girl’s mother is unfit to make medical decisions for her child and called upon the state’s highest court to preserve the value of life.

The brief also argues forcefully for the rights of parents to control the care of their children.

     There have been some positive developments in this case the past couple of days: Governor Paul LePage has said that regardless of the court’s decision, he will not allow the DNR order to be put into effect against the mother’s wishes (I’m not looking to make this a political ad, but I can’t help but point out that there are real consequences of electing candidates who are pro-life . . . or not).  That will help in this particular case, but the legal precedent will be set by the court – and even a favorable decision now can be overturned later.  And of course if LePage is re-elected (the oddsmakers don’t favor it), the next governor, regardless of political affiliation, is likely to act differently.  In future cases where the state removes a child from his or her parent, there is a good possibility that families here will be in the position described by Bishop von Galen: “We shall be at the mercy of any committee that can put a man on the list of unproductives. There will be no police protection, no court to avenge the murder . . .”  There is a persuasive argument that such committees are also mandated in the federal Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).

     Bishop von Galen’s allegations were considered so shocking at the time that German authorities banned publication of his sermons, and allied planes dropped them in leaflet form onto German troops in the hopes of rousing their consciences against their government.  After the war, participation in the euthanasia program was one of the atrocities for which Nazi doctors were tried by the Nuremburg Tribunal [here].  And yet today respected public officials feel no shame about asserting the government’s right to remove those whose lives they consider “not worth living” from their families and allowing (or even causing) those people to die.  We need more von Galens, and not just in the pulpit (although assuredly we need them there);  we all need to find a little “Lion of Muenster” somewhere inside and roar in defense of human life.  Nothing else will prevent our slide into a society where none of us can trust our doctor, or be sure that loved ones won’t be taken away from us to be discarded like “obsolete machines.”

Note: Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 9 October 2005; his feast day is March 22^nd.

The Reform of the Reform

The chapel at Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi – “The law of praying is the law of believing”.  I can’t quote that enough. It suggests not only that how we pray is a reflection of our belief, but in fact, and perhaps more importantly, that how we pray informs and shapes our belief.  Our most direct encounter with God colors everything else.

     I explored this vital point last week (“Quick! What’s The Source And Summit Of The Christian Life?” here), in the course of which I briefly alluded to a blog post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf [here] in which he discussed ways to improve the celebration of the Ordinary Rite (“Novus Ordo”) of the Mass.  Today I’d like to look a little more closely at what the good father said.  Here’s the heart of his post:

We must use the actual prayers of Holy Mass, the propers, that is, those antiphons and so forth which are provided in the Roman Missal. I also suggest

-  all male service in the sanctuary;

-  phasing out of Extraordinary Ministers of Communion where they are not truly 
    needed;

-  the use of Gregorian chant and polyphony and the Latin language, as the Council 
   did ask for;

-  inculcating a silent and recollected atmosphere before and after Mass;

-  elimination by teaching and invitation of Communion in the hand;

-  providing the opportunity and example of kneeling to receive Communion;

-  phasing out, through catechesis and preaching, of the community “group grope” sign 
   of peace;

-  working with readers (if they are employed) to read well;

-  dressing in your Sunday best on Sunday, decent and respectful on weekdays;

-  women might wear chapel veils or mantillas;

-  bring the tabernacle back to the center of the church if He has been exiled;

-  bringing back traditional devotions in the church space outside of Mass 
    (novenas, Exposition, Stations, Vespers, etc.).

In my discussion last week I commented: “I’m willing to bet that any church that followed Fr. Z’s advice from this article would be bursting at the seams.” I didn’t expect to see such a liturgy any time soon.  Imagine my surprise and delight, then, this past Saturday when I found myself attending the very Mass (almost) that Fr. Z was prescribing.  The place was Thomas More College of the Liberal Arts (TMC) to which we had brought our son to kick off his college career.  A Mass was offered Saturday afternoon for the convenience of families whose travel back home after leaving off their scholarly offspring would hinder their attendance at Sunday Mass the next morning.

Marian Grotto at Thomas More College

     The TMC campus was originally a farm, and a beautiful chapel has been reverently created in what had once been a barn (a nice touch, given where Jesus Christ was born).  The first thing I noticed when I entered the chapel was the wooden altar, topped with the tabernacle and of simple but traditional design.  It appeared to be affixed to the back wall: any Mass here would necessarily be ad orientem. And I could see by the late-day sun falling on the altar from the open double door in the back of the chapel that the priest would literally be facing East (Latin purists among you might want to point out that he would also be, literally, ab occidente – but I digress).  The small chapel was almost filled (I and several of my sons had to stand), and the people were all silently praying, several of the women wearing veils. There was no music during the Mass, unfortunately (although other masses at the school do have sacred music), but a sense of reverence pervaded the entire liturgy.  The Mass was in the Ordinary form, and mostly in English, although many of the prayers (the Confiteor, Gloria, Credo, etc.) were said in Latin; there was one male altar server, who held a paten under the chins of communicants, every one of whom received kneeling on a Prie-Dieu that was brought out for communion.  The problems that arise when the “Sign of Peace” gets out of hand, so to speak (which I discuss here), were avoided by simply omitting the optional rite.

     As for Fr. Z’s last point about devotions outside of Mass, those are also abundantly available on campus (see here), as well as Mass in the Extraordinary Form every Friday (and a shuttle to bring students to another celebration in the Extraordinary Form in a local parish every Saturday).  It’s encouraging to see that this and some other Catholic colleges (allow me to refer you once again to the Cardinal Newman Society’s list, as I do here) are working hard to retain and even enhance their Catholic identity, and that they see the reverent and faithful celebration of the Eucharist as the heart of that endeavor.

     This or something like it, I think, is what the "Reform of the Reform" [here] will look like. Of course, a small Catholic college is one thing, a parish is another.  It will be even more encouraging to see the same sort of Mass start to proliferate outside the world of academia.  It’s my impression that many diocesan priests are afraid that a more traditional-looking, less informal Mass will drive lay people away.  They should take heart: most of the grumbling about, and resistance to, the new, more literal and reverent Mass translation a few years ago did not come from the laity.  Most took it in stride, and many welcomed it enthusiastically.  I'm sure the same would be true of a more traditional looking (and feeling) Ordinary Form Mass.  More importantly, there’s something else that will keep them coming back: the Real Presence of the Incarnate Word, right there on the altar.  As Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Bake Me A Cake: Loving the Sinner, Hating the Sin

This Throwback Thursday post first appeared on March 3rd of this year, at which time the case of the Christian Cake Shop in Denver that would not cater to gay "weddings" was a big topic of discussion.  A major theme of the post is the way that language is corrupted in order to blur important distinctions.

Totalitarians have been playing the language game for a long time; it was already a hoary tradition sixty-six years ago when George Orwell published 1984.  Those who want to deconstruct our most important social institutions so that they can rebuild our society according to their own likes know that if they control the language they’ve just about won the battle.  And we somehow never seem to catch on.   

     I’m thinking in particular about a couple of pieces I read recently dealing with the whole “gay wedding cake scenario”, that is, the various issues represented by the case in Denver (only one of many such cases) wherein a bakery owned by Christians was sued for refusing to provide a cake for a homosexual wedding ceremony.  The first post was by Elizabeth Scalia at The Anchoress [link], the other by Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator [link]. Both commentators are relatively conservative and calm-headed, but both fall right into the linguistic trap that the Left has built around this issue.  Both seem to take for granted that the question is business owners denying service to homosexual persons.  That’s the trap.  Once you accept that version of events, the game is already lost, because it’s the easiest thing in the world to cast you in the role of hater, at which point you are no longer entitled to an opinion.  The fact is, however, that the cake shop in Denver, as well as the various photographers and other businesses subject to similar lawsuits, are all perfectly willing to do business with individuals who present themselves as gay.  What they object to is being forced by the state to participate, at the risk of losing their livelihood, in a public event (a homosexual wedding) that they consider immoral.  If George III ever did anything quite so tyrannical, I’m not aware of it. 

     Scalia doesn’t help matters when she suggests in a subsequent post that some of her correspondents are telling her that “because Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple, all enraged non-God-men are justified in being cruel and ugly to their also-redeemed fellow humans”.  Now, it’s possible that she is indeed hearing that, but I myself haven’t heard or read any Catholic commentator making any such suggestion.  Nonetheless, I do think the incident with the moneylenders is important here, and not because I favor making whips out of cords and driving the gay wedding parties out of the Knights of Columbus halls.  It brings some clarity to a line of argument to the effect that we should bake the wedding cake for the gay weddings so we can “meet them where they are” in order to evangelize them. After all, what would Jesus do? 

     Well, we know what Jesus would do, because the Gospels tell us.  And the meet-them-and- evangelize-then people do have a point  . . .  to a point.  In Luke’s Gospel 19:1-10 we see how Jesus encounters the tax collector Zacchaeus on the street (or in a tree, rather), invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house and, by showing Zacchaeus that he loves and accepts him as a person, leads him to foreswear his evil ways (which Jesus, apparently, does not love and accept).  I submit that the various cakesellers are acting similarly when they treat their homosexual customers with kindness and dignity in the regular course of business.  It’s a different story when Jesus encounters men of similar ilk in the Temple courts, as recounted in all four Gospels (Matt: 21, Mark: 11, Luke: 19, John 2).  Notice that he does not sit down with them at their money-tables to win them over with a friendly chat.   Again, I’m not suggesting we emulate Jesus’ violent actions (Scalia is correct that, as God-Made-Manifest, he is not subject to the same standards that we are), but rather the distinction he makes between accepting persons, such as Zacchaeus, while condemning their sinful actions. "Love the sinner, hate the sin."  The whole strategy of the cultural left stands on the denial of that principle.  

     Despite the attempts to trivialize this matter as nothing more than a kerfuffle about wedding cakes, we are dealing with some very serious issues.  If we don’t insist on truth even in the words we use, how can we hope to arrive at The Truth? 

  

JOHANNES BRAHMS Sacred choral Music SANCTUS

A stunningly beautiful Sanctus from yet another under-appreciated composer, Johannes Brahms.  I remember as a very young lad being taught about "The Three Bs": Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.  Aside from the tune known as the "Lullaby", Brahms is pretty much a silent partner in that triumvirate these days.  Maybe he can be the opening act for Haydn on his comeback tour?

Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival (31 August 2014)

     Welcome to Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival . . . which reminds me, it’s almost fair season here in the State of Maine, when my lovely bride and I take our fine progeny off to see enormous pumpkins, sheep shearing and an event called the “pig scramble” that must be seen to be believed.  But that’s not the kind of carnival I’m talking about here.  No, Sunday Snippets is a gathering of Catholic bloggers who share their posts for the week, and there’s no “midway”, although we do have a communal site [here] at This That and the Other Thing, presided over by the sober and sensible RAnn, where you the reader can wander along and sample at leisure from a variety of booths . . .I mean, blogs…

     Anyway, fair season . . .  It’s funny, but as Summer dwindles and we move toward Fall, it feels like a time of renewal.  There are good reasons for that, of course:  as the air gets cooler and drier (at least in these parts) we naturally feel less lethargic, more energized.  Also, I wouldn’t be the first to see in the yearly cycle of decline and renewal a reflection of the God who dies and rises again: the dying of the year is a reminder that Easter lies on the other side.

     We have also been conditioned from an early age to associate the arrival of Autumn with the beginning of a new school year, with all its feelings of promise and dread.  For some of us that same cycle continues well into adulthood (I’m talking about teachers, not perpetual students).  Accordingly, in addition to enjoying some beautiful late Summer New England weather this past week, I spent a few days at school preparing to meet the students who will be coming through my door Tuesday morning.

     This weekend we also went to another school, bringing our first-born for his first year of college. Talk about dread.  And all too often, it’s not simply the normal apprehension of letting one’s child loose in the wide world.  One can’t be too careful about colleges today, what with venerable and respected institutions hosting the like of “Sex Week” [here, for mature readers only] and “Kink Clubs” [here, also for mature readers].  Even ostensibly Catholic schools don't think twice about giving a platform to Planned Parenthood [here], the world’s largest abortion provider.  And that’s not even taking into account the foolish and deadly things that take place in many classrooms.

     Fortunately. The Cardinal New Society [here] – and, yes, this is a plug – can help you (it did for us)  find a Catholic Institution of higher learning that actually does offer “higher” learning, and will have no part in the ugliness cited above.  No matter where you go there will be no shortage of dangers and temptations, but it’s good to know that there are still some colleges that don’t actively connive in the corruption of our sons and daughters.

     OK, I said my piece.  Now, on to the posts for the week:

Monday – Don’t tell anyone, but when I was young I used to get Haydn confused with Handel. Of course, that’s not happening here, I just thought Haydn could, you know, use a break from his comeback tour.  And this is a very cool piece of music. “Handel: Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba” [here]

Tuesday – In which I discover once again that missing confession for an entire summer is not a good plan. “Confession Is Good For The Soul” [here]

Wednesday – A little reverence never hurt anyone, especially directed toward our Lord and Creator. “Quick! What’s the Source and Summit of the Christian Life?” [here]

Thursday – A little Night Prayer, anyone? “Compline: For Tonight And Forever (LOH 8 – Throwback Thursday Edition) [here]

Friday – So many Saints, so little time . . . Augustine, Monica, and Ambrose. “Three Great Saints: A Dynamic Trio” [here]

And

-          A brief nod  to Friday’s Saint. “The Beheading of St. John The Baptist: A Timely Reminder” [here]

Finally, RAnn has invited us to republish one older post.  I haven't been at this very long, so I don't have anything that old, but I do have this post from March 11th of this year.  It's a sort of manifesto, and a call to arms for the spiritual combat that confronts us: "Why We Fight" [here]

This is the Gorn.  I can't really say what he's doing here.