Advent in the East and West

By Artur Suski, S.J.

Credit: http://www.familylifeministry.atlanta.goarch.org

In an address to the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic bishops in 2001, Pope John Paul II said that “the Church breathes with the two lungs of the Eastern and Western traditions.” A few years earlier, in Ut unum sint, we hear the same call: “The Church must breathe with her two lungs!” (# 54) But how are we to understand the Pope’s words? Are we all to become bi-ritual? I don’t think that is what the Pope had in mind. The Pope spoke of the whole Church. Given this context, the Pope wanted to point out that the Catholic Church has been dominated primarily by the Latin tradition. A balance must be restored. Both the East and the West ought to learn about the other and they ought to be faithful to their own respective traditions.

Helping to Germinate the Kingdom of God: Young Adults and the Mystery of the Church

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

Photo: http://catholicnews.com

“The Church is not a country club for saints, but a hospital for sinners!” I have pondered this statement many times. I have considered it as I think about what the Church is and is not. The Church is neither a club or a hospital. It is not a sacrament dispenser, a spiritual service provider or a Sunday show. The Church is the Body of Christ, “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:4-5). As the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium (LG) of the Second Vatican Council stated, the mystery of the Church is manifested in its own foundation. The Lord Jesus set the Church to build the kingdom of God, which began with him, and continues to germinate and grow in all nations. The Church is not an end in itself. As our Pope Emeritus has often said, the mission of the Church is to carry on what Jesus started, to act as Jesus would act. As Lumen Gentium expresses, the Church is a sheepfold whose one and indispensable door is Christ (LG 26).

I recently began to ask young adults about how well the Church is living out such a mission: what they perceive as the Church's strengths and limits; the ways they have experienced consolation and desolation through the Church, that is, an increase or decreased in faith, hope and love. This question came as a I prayed with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. In the First Exercise of the First Week, or the first phase of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius invites us to contemplate: “What I have done for Christ, what I am doing for Christ, and what I ought to do for Christ?” This contemplation led me to ask the same of the Church.

Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body in a Nutshell

By Artur Suski, S.J.

Credit:www.genopro.com

It may be that some of you have previously come across Pope John Paul II’s (JPII) Wednesday general audiences on the topic of marriage and sexuality, known as the Theology of the Body (TOB). I was recently asked to give a talk to grade 12 students on this very topic, and the presentation itself went rather well. Upon hearing that the talk was about sex, students of both sexes were equally attentive.

JPII’s work is truly marvellous. He goes into such depth that often one has to re-read whole sections to perhaps grasp a part of what he means. Not many come in contact with the actual content of the TOB, especially given the fact that the book is two inches thick! As such, I would like to share with you some of the key ideas of the TOB.

The Sacred Heart: God's Boundless and Passionate Love for Us

By Santiago Rodriguez, S.J.

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I have always had a devotion to the Sacred Heart, the heart of the shepherd who loves us deeply. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is not one devotion among many, but the devotion from which all devotions ought to flow. The Sacred Heart is Christ himself, divine and incarnate. In the words of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, the devotion to the Heart of Jesus is as old as Christianity itself.

The pierced Heart of the Crucified speaks a word of compassion to all of humanity. That word was carved out in the flesh of Jesus by the lance of the Roman soldier. God's word of compassion as expressed in the Sacred Heart is an invitation for every Christian to feel and to think like Jesus. The Heart of Jesus thirsts for souls to open up to Him. This is highlighted by the words of St. Francis of Sales, which were later appropriated in a new way by Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman: cor ad cor loquitur – heart speaks to heart. The pierced Heart of Jesus desires to speak to our hearts that we might enter into a deeper communion with Him. Jesus offers His Heart to us, and He desires that we offer our hearts to Him.

Being Salty and Bright

By Artur Suski, S.J.

“You are the salt of the Earth…you are the light of the world.” (Matt 5:13–14)

Before his Ascension, the Lord Jesus gave his disciples a difficult task: go to all nations and make of them his disciples. This is undoubtedly a daunting task, but the disciples did not give in to their fears. They received the power of the Holy Spirit and went forth into the unknown, preaching Christ crucified to all who would hear them. Their holy lives were lights in a dark world; their words added flavour to an insipid Hellenistic culture. They brought people to the faith through their lives and their preaching.

Jesus’ commission equally applies to us today, as we find ourselves in a post-Christian society. Many have encountered Christianity, and have found it unappealing and stale. But how have they encountered Christianity? Perhaps in Catholic schools; through their Christian friends; in the media, etc. Often times the Christianity that they have come into contact with is an incomplete and distorted one. They have often found Christians who are unfaithful to their faith; what they see is not appealing to them.