May 2008 Archives

It's unfortunate how being published in a certain place tends to shape what you write. Jhumpa Lahiri has had the mixed blessing of publication in The New Yorker, and the downside of that blessing shows in her latest collection of short stories.

The title is taken from Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom Ms Lahiri, in an interview published elsewhere lists as one of her influences. Her prose is still strong and lovely, her ability to sketch in people and place, remarkable. All that fails here is the relentless similarity of all of the pieces. Disaffected, alienated, spoiled, wealthy upper-class Bengali children spend much or all of their time in Ann Beattie territory--angsting over identity, wealth, lack of wealth, girlfriends, boyfriends, lack of communication, sex, you name it.

The charm of some of the earlier stories in Interpreter of Maladies is gone almost completely, replaced by a relentless parade of disaffected, unhappy, bratty Bengali offspring who are worried about their status in the world, their education, or any number of other things. The New Yorker patina of these stories (even if published elsewhere) is more a stain than a coating and I'm afraid it runs deep, so deep that I will be hard-pressed to bother myself with any more of Ms. Lahiri's brand of angst.

Perhaps this was present as well in the first collection--if so, I did not notice. But here the pressure was relentless and there was no escape from it. Ultimately, despite the beautiful writing, nothing is said that hasn't been said before and better, or that cannot be said in a way that provokes more insight or sympathy than Ms. Lahiri's characters can command.

Are there no Bengali's who have never shopped in Harrod's? Who have come to America and not had the money to get home? Are there no second generation Bengali's that have retained some sense of who they are? Who have some alliance with the past? Is everything wiped out in a single generation? If not, Ms. Lahiri has chronicled a true tragedy, but a tragedy of choice not of requirement.

Needless to say, I was profoundly disappointed by this book. While the prose still sparkles and jolts and the authorial command is impressive, the beat of the stories is a dead one--that poor old horse should be buried.

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Sadness

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I'm reading Jhumpa Lahiri's book Unaccustomed Earth for my book group later this month. The stories are as wonderful as those of her earlier collection The Interpreter of Maladies which won a Pulitzer Prize (well deserved) in 2000. The stories, almost inadvertently, put me in mind of several trends I have been exposed to that sadden me considerably.

I have noted that some of the young people who work in the office I do seem to eschew parenthood. One young man expressed nothing but contempt for children (easily done when you have none yourself), another expressed horror at how much children drain from the family coffers and, jokingly or not, expressed the sentiment that he "would never have any of those."

Where once the expectation was that one would marry and have a family, the present expectation seems to be a perpetual adolescence of worry-free sex and freedom from the responsibility of caring for a child.

I will admit that at one time my sympathies were with these young people. I had a horror of having children that knew no bounds. And I suppose that it doesn't help to say that my horror was of a different sort. My chief concern was that given the father I had growing up, I wondered about my own ability to raise a child in any way that would be beneficial. My horror was not for me and my "lost freedom" (whatever that may be), but rather what a wretched individual I was likely to raise in the wake of what I had learned from my father.

I don't know how common this experience might be. But I do know that as I lived with my wife and I saw those around me with children, I began to wonder what that might be like and wondered (despite my horror) why we had so long been deprived of this. Eventually the longing and desire became so great that when Linda came home and asked me what I thought of adopting the child of a relative of a friend, my heart simultaneously fell (with the thought of what a wretched father I would be) and rejoiced at finally being able to care for one of these most precious ones of God. I had been given a gift that surpasses all other gifts and all other things of value. Within a few weeks we were caring for a new baby boy.

As you all know we named him Samuel, very deliberately, because at that time he had been asked of God for nearly fifteen years. He is a source of constant and unending delight and joy.

I can only hope that those I work with, those who would eschew the greatest of the gifts God has given us, will in time come to their senses and come to realize that the riches gained in a child to share life with far outweigh the passing riches of this world. Like many parents we have had to give up the thought of European Vacations, cruises, and even, for the most part, vacations to places that don't have relatives to stay with. We don't have the luxury of rich food and expensive cars, we can't afford many of the things our neighbors have. In order to homeschool him we have to forego the two incomes many families have and often struggle along on what I alone can make. And there would be some who would view these things as tremendous sacrifices. But I see them as gifts--each one of them--ways of not being quite so enamored and attached to the world at large. Blessings, mitzvahs, things that enrich our life. Because we have Samuel to share our lives, all these other things fade into insignificance.

And what this taught me more profoundly is the lesson Jesus most wished to impress upon us. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." In a microcosm, when our priorities are rightly ordered to the vocation to which we have been called, we begin to see the light of day. When I look upon my family situation, I see what God is calling me to and I long for it. There is almost no sacrifice too great for what we presently have as a family, because none of it seems like sacrifice. So too, there is almost no sacrifice too great to belong to God's family, because when our priorities are right, none of it seems like sacrifice. Perhaps that is why so many saints longed to suffer for and with the Lord, because suffering is not suffering when it is done in complete, abandoned love. Sacrifice is meaningless when the thing sacrificed loses all value--and so we long to repay in some way the great munificence, the magnificent love showered upon us by God our Father. And there is no way to do so except, perhaps, to love Him and cling to Him as Father forever--as the one who loves us so much that no Sacrifice was too great.

So, today blessing on all of those who accept, welcome, and nurture all the small people God has so generously blessed them with. And blessings on all those, who for whatever reason, have not yet received this gift--blessings that they will change their minds or hearts or be blessed as we have been blessed with an utterly unexpected gift.

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Sam's Birthday

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What can I say to ten years of complete blessing except, "Thank you, Jesus."

As we were preparing the guest list for the festivities Saturday, Sam mentioned the name of a person he had known some time ago. This person tormented him and threatened him and had he been a few years older and in a different place probably would have spent a good deal of time beating him up. In short, a brutal bully. Yes, I know this is more a reflection on family and upbringing than necessarily on the child; however, one must recognize the truth of the matter, this was not a person you wanted to be around. He asked to invite this person and we asked why in the world he would want to. Sam said, "What about 'bless those who persecute you'?"

I said, "We are to bless them, but not invite them to come and persecute us."

Sam remained quietly adamant. And probably rightfully so. Nevertheless, that name was not added to the guest list.

On the way home the other day he was talking about his falling domino project. He said he had drawn up a blueprint for a new one. In addition he was very excited about a new idea. "If you parachutify a domino and blow it in with a fan to start the whole thing tumbling, wouldn't that be cool?

Finally yesterday he was discussing the hoary old trope about the many similarities between the assassinations of Kennedy and Lincoln. He began with, "When Lincoln was assassinified. . . "

Every day something new, every day something wonderful. "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me. (Mark 9:37).

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Writing about Scripture

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As I have written about scripture over the past couple of days, I am humbled again and again by the vastness of it and by how little I know about it. While not a scripture scholar, I have studied the Bible in classes and on my own, and the only purpose that seemed to serve is to play up how really ignorant I am.

But, as the adage goes, ignorance of the law is no excuse. While I am ignorant of all the possibilities of scripture, I know that avoiding it is no way to become more conversant. I think St. Jerome pointed out that "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." In this sense, even a passing acquaintance, a daily dipping into scripture is better than nothing at all--or so I've come to conclude. I learned to love reading scripture from my Grandfather and I can't imagine what life would be like without reading it on a regular basis. Even when I am doing it regularly, I'm struck by how inadequate the time I spend with it is.

I am thoroughly convinced that were I to spend more time reading scripture I would be a far better and a far happier Catholic Christian than I am. I am also thoroughly convinced that if many others did so, with open heart and open mind, we might not have quite the array of disarray that currently plagues the Church.

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Gleanings: Romans 5:3-5

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Gleanings—Romans 5:3-5

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been give to us. (RSV)

First a confession—I’ve never been a fan of the suffering is good so let’s inflict some more school of thought that some of the Saints seem to espouse. I’m much more of St. Therese’s line of thought—there is enough suffering in daily life for complete sanctification, if only we avail ourselves of the opportunities available.

Suffering is painful, unpleasant, and not the way things were meant to be—it is a radical sign of our separation from God and it exists because of that separation. And yet suffering is something that builds us up. Suffering with the help of the Holy Spirit becomes endurance, a kind of spiritual stubbornness.

However, one of the first thoughts that came to mind as I read this passage is a specific sort of suffering—the kind we call temptation. Every temptation and the struggle to resist it is a kind of suffering. In some cases, struggling against certain physical addictions, it may actually produce a bodily sensation of pain. In some cases the suffering may be psychological in nature as we at once struggle against the temptation and find ourselves strangely, magnetically attracted to what would separate us from God.

The suffering that comes from resisting temptation is particularly efficacious in the way that St. Paul describes. If ordinary suffering that comes from a head cold or a bodily wound can work its way to endurance, how much more so the suffering and the tempering that comes from choosing to act in accord with the Holy Spirit. If suffering that appears to have no spiritual context builds up the spirit to give us the strength to endure and grow, what does suffering that stems from the spiritual struggle itself do?

Struggling against temptation is a form of suffering that we experience every day When we, with the aid of the Holy Spirit succeed in resisting the temptation there may be no “feeling” of victory, no sensation of triumph or of conquering what truly leads to death. The life of faith is beyond that of sensation and sense. Great things are accomplished with virtually no recognition on our part. When we leave the battlefield without having given in, the victory does not belong to us, or at least not to us alone, but to the Holy Spirit within us, to the presence of the indwelling Christ, to whom we have approached a step closer, even if we are ignorant of it.

A friend recently shared with me his experience of confession and of admitting to being tempted time and again and of struggling against temptation. The wisdom that came to him from his confessor is worth repeating and sharing, “But it is worth it, isn’t it?” As Saint Paul points out in this passage, the struggle, the suffering is beyond the worth a human being can know in this life

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Gleanings: Titus 1: 15-16

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A brief introduction before the actual "gleaning" as to the purpose of these writings. I cannot pretend to be a Biblical scholar. I haven't the training or the background to make definitive pronouncements as to the meaning and theological implications of specific passages. However, I do love scripture and have been raised with a love of scripture, and I do enjoy reading it and trying to come to terms with what it has to say. There are as many purposes to reading the Bible as there are people doing the reading. For me the primary purpose is not to understand, extract, and deliver that abstract truths (theology) that can be found there, nor is it to understand the people and the times, or even to attempt to grasp the grand panorama of salvation history--all of those things are beyond my means. One of the reasons I read scripture is to come to know God and to love Him more. And the chief means of doing this for me is to look at the application scripture can and does have to my life now. Scripture is not carved in stone with a set permanent meaning that never changes. It is a fact that the truths laid down in scripture are Truth, revealed for all time to all people. But scripture is also a living document, speaking now to people as they live now. It is in denying this aspect of scripture that a great many people make mistaken judgments as to its applicability. On the other hand, it is in overemphasizing this aspect of scripture that other errors are made--there is a tendency to pick and choose the pieces we would most like to be true.

So, after that long preamble, these gleanings, if they continue past this point to be public, are simply my attempts to apply individual scripture passages and understandings, hopefully informed by a larger knowledge of the whole of scripture, to modern life. While they are personal reflections, I hope that their personality is not so pronounced as to make them inaccessible for others.

Sacred scripture is a living and beautiful thing. If we allow it to do so, it will speak to us today as it has spoken through the centuries to all the saints of God.


Gleanings: Titus 1:15-16

To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed. (RSV)

It would be easy enough to read this passage as suggesting that for the pure anything is acceptable and indeed, it is exactly this sort of misrepresentation of the thought that in the past led to heresies such as Gnosticism and Albigensianism. If to the pure all things are pure, then if one becomes pure, whatever one decides to do must be acceptable.

But it seems that St. Paul may have been attempting quite a different point. To the person transformed in Christ, the person whose life is lived in union with Him, the person who “is perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” all things are pure because that person has ceased to be his or her own judge of what is acceptable. Instead, they have accepted and embraced the gifts of the Holy Spirit, relying heavily upon Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Holy Fear. With these four serving as guides, it is not possible for the pure guided by the Holy Spirit to err in matters of the spirit.

However, as with all things, there are people who come to believe that they have achieved this purity who haven’t any idea of what this purity consists. They profess to know God and after a fashion, to be fair, they know OF Him, if they do not know Him. They understand some basics and then pride themselves on their understanding and knowledge. These people can end up denying God by their actions. They may begin to teach false gospels and spread their misunderstandings far and wide. They cannot be corrected; they become the sole interpreters of God’s will. They know that He intends happy married lives for homosexuals or that women should be priests as is only fair and right in the world. They refuse correction and so they wander further and further away from the truth—one error compounds and becomes an invincible armor of prideful ignorance which then becomes an agenda.

If we cannot surrender to those God has put in authority over us—priests first and then bishops, we probably partake in some part of those who profess to know God but deny Him. The first and most essential actions of those who know God are humility and obedience—obedience to God’s well as expressed in the authorities put over us. When God chooses, they will be moved or removed, but until then, we are bound.

But so long as we remain in this disobedience, we may as well align ourselves with those launching the worst assaults on God, because we are blind.

All healing of spiritual ills begins with humility, with the understanding that we cannot take the steps alone, even if we desire to do so. God must take each of us by the hand and lead him in the way we would go.

Gleanings: Titus 1:15-16

To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed. (RSV)

It would be easy enough to read this passage as suggesting that for the pure anything is acceptable and indeed, it is exactly this sort of misrepresentation of the thought that in the past led to heresies such as Gnosticism and Albigensianism. If to the pure all things are pure, then if one becomes pure, whatever one decides to do must be acceptable.

But it seems that St. Paul may have been attempting quite a different point. To the person transformed in Christ, the person whose life is lived in union with Him, the person who “is perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” all things are pure because that person has ceased to be his or her own judge of what is acceptable. Instead, they have accepted and embraced the gifts of the Holy Spirit, relying heavily upon Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, and Holy Fear. With these four serving as guides, it is not possible for the pure guided by the Holy Spirit to err in matters of the spirit.

However, as with all things, there are people who come to believe that they have achieved this purity who haven’t any idea of what this purity consists. They profess to know God and after a fashion, to be fair, they know OF Him, if they do not know Him. They understand some basics and then pride themselves on their understanding and knowledge. These people can end up denying God by their actions. They may begin to teach false gospels and spread their misunderstandings far and wide. They cannot be corrected; they become the sole interpreters of God’s will. They know that He intends happy married lives for homosexuals or that women should be priests as is only fair and right in the world. They refuse correction and so they wander further and further away from the truth—one error compounds and becomes an invincible armor of prideful ignorance which then becomes an agenda.

If we cannot surrender to those God has put in authority over us—priests first and then bishops, we probably partake in some part of those who profess to know God but deny Him. The first and most essential actions of those who know God are humility and obedience—obedience to God’s well as expressed in the authorities put over us. When God chooses, they will be moved or removed, but until then, we are bound.

But so long as we remain in this disobedience, we may as well align ourselves with those launching the worst assaults on God, because we are blind.

All healing of spiritual ills begins with humility, with the understanding that we cannot take the steps alone, even if we desire to do so. God must take each of us by the hand and lead him in the way we would go.

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Happy Easter

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May the joy of the resurrection fill and permeate the lives of all who visit and the lives of all Christians throughout the world. May we take this season of grace as the true beginning of the new year and of all years to come. May He bless each of us and keep us from all harm and from all evil as we share the message of this joy with all around us.

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This page is an archive of entries from May 2008 listed from newest to oldest.

April 2008 is the previous archive.

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