Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

Fr. David LeFort has been asked by various folks (including his college students) to lay out the following for regular, thoughtful & prayerful reference and reflection.  He happily provides it here:

 

Belief inand three philosophical demonstrations forthe existence of God

Whenever I begin a college course in theology, so many of the students are very serious and curious in their search for knowledge of God.  This should come as no great surprise since, from my personal and professional experience, so too are many of the adults in our Church.  From the faithful in our parishes to those who have either drifted away or chosen to stay away from our communities of faith.  For the latter, I’ve heard many of their reasons: “I don’t care about God or faith or any of it” (put bluntly, a self-centered approach without, sadly, the real virtue of fortitude and the Holy Spirit’s gift of wonder and awe); “I asked God for something and I didn’t get it” (again, a ‘me-centered’, ATM approach to God); “I’ve been hurt in the Church” (this one is very delicate and oftentimes very painful, but it would be best to address the hurt rather than run away from it); and there are others.  I don’t propose a condemnation of those who find themselves outside of the Church for I honestly feel for them and hope desperately for their return to Love itself, God Himself, and so I do propose a re-awakening of the inner soul of each person, to find what is so beautifully divine within each of God’s human creatures.

And so, I share with my students one of the many explanations of why people might long to believe in God (utilizing our faith’s Sacred Scriptures), and then I present three philosophical (reasoned) demonstrations for the existence of God.  Naturally, I could seek to use theological demonstrations for God’s existence, but those would unfortunately pale in comparison since some simply do not believe to begin with.  Moreover, when faced with the Public Square of our globalized world, most often, and again most unfortunately, people can more easily share wisdom and reason under the influence of pure philosophical debate (since it is perceived as less personal and thus experienced as less threatening) rather than relying on what I, personally, would prefer: a co-mingling of faith and reason, theological and philosophical disciplines.  That having been said, I offer the following question (from within a faith perspective) and demonstrations (from outside a faith perspective), hoping that they will, in all of us, encourage a deepening of desire & longing for closeness with God:

Why do we (and so many, many other people) believe in God? 

From Sacred Scripture we have a sense as to why we long to believe in God: because God is so passionately involved in the world, involved in His creation (including each one of us)…ordering all things sweetly (according to the Book of Wisdom).  God’s providence is God’s steady involvement as the governor and director of all things of the world…He intimately knows, involves, governs and directs all things.   Gratitude for our being, gifts, etc reaches out beyond our selves to someone to whom we can thank…God is the source and summit of all that is…and our gratitude can thus be given to Him.

We can demonstrate the existence of God using three philosophical arguments:

The Argument from Desire

As human beings, we all desire, long, seek.  We desire and seek truth.  And whatever we get in this worldgoods, justice, truthit’s just not enough.  It’s not that we want more of what we have, but we see that there is more behind the experience of a good that makes it good.  So, for example, if I play for you a glorious organ prelude, you will say (hopefully) that it was ‘good’.  But if I ask you whether or not that is finally what “Goodness” is, you will undoubtedly say, “it is not”.  So, I would suggest that what makes the prelude “good” is that it somehow participates in, or demonstrates, and is an instance of, what we know “Goodness” to be.  If I were to defend another who is being bullied and I appropriately punish the bullies, you might say that you have witnessed “justice being done”.  But if I ask you whether or not that is finally what “Justice” is, you will again undoubtedly say, “it is not”.  Again, I would then suggest that what makes the experience “just” is that it somehow participates in, or demonstrates, and is an instance of, what we know “Justice” to be.  And if I were to ask you to state a “truth” of any science, and you do, again, you would not say that it is “Truth” itself, but rather it somehow participates in, or demonstrates, and is an instance of, what we know “Truth” to be.  And so, from these, we find that we cannot be fully satisfied within the boundaries of this existence with particular instances, but rather we are propelled by our desires into the realms of the universal.

There is this desire that is in us that pushes us beyond this world of knowing, into another realm that is beyond us, that we also say, in a different albeit rational way, we know.  We know what “Goodness” itself is, what “Justice” itself is, what “Truth” itself is…and from this knowledge we also know that we cannot contain them, direct them, order them for they simply and grandly “are”.  So, in some way we must already know Truth itself, Goodness itself, Justice itself.  And that is what we call God.  God is not one truth in the world, not one good thing in the world, nor a justice in the world…those are particular expressions of or participations in God Himself (in other words, God is Truth itself, Goodness itself, Justice itself).  If you are seeking God, realize that you’ve already been found by God through our living participation in Him.  From this philosophical argument from desire, then, we demonstrate that God exists.

The Argument from Contingency (of Thomas Aquinas)

Our human experiences from an early age onward demonstrate (often sadly) that everything of creation is, ultimately fleeting.  A favorite pet, a glorious exotic flower, mountains of grandeur, even loving grandparents…all of creation and created things come into being and they pass out of being.  In other words, things of time and space exist, but they don’t necessarily exist.  They don’t have to exist in order for creation to be.  And so we say that all of creation is contingent (dependent upon something outside of itself), there is nothing in creation that possesses in itself the reason for its being; every created thing thus necessarily relies on something outside of creation to be the reason for the thing’s being.  And so, there is a need for a necessary being whose nature itself is “to Be”.  Yes, if there is contingency, there must also be that which is necessary, and for that, we must go outside of contingent realities in order to see that necessary reality…and that is what we call God.  From this philosophical argument from contingency, we demonstrate that God exists.

The Argument from the Objective Intelligibility of the World (of Joseph Ratzinger)

When we go to sleep at night, we expect the sun will rise the next morning and it does; when the temperature falls below freezing, we can rightly predict that most precipitation will be of the frozen variety; when we feel terribly ill, we go to a doctor’s office expecting that help is at hand, and oftentimes it is.  And so many other examples demonstrate that the world and our existence is imbued with meaning and reason.  Every science holds this to be true: psychology holds that it can map, understand and manipulate the human psyche; scientists rightly believe that energy can be fully understood, harnessed, created and manipulated as we choose; genetic engineers demonstrate time and time again that human DNA and all kinds of individual genes can be understood, mapped, duplicated and manipulated…and all this increases daily as science progresses.

If you think about it, every one of us also holds that there is some intelligibility in the world that seems to transcend us.  When we acknowledge that we know something, we often say that we “recognize” it.  In “re-cognizing” something, we hint that we are re-thinking a thing, thinking a thing again after it has already been thought into being.  Scientists assumerightlythat being is intelligible.  But if being is intelligible throughout all time and space, from generation to generation, eon to eon, what is this “intelligibility” and where does it reside?  What is this intelligens that has thought all into being?  That intelligens, that intelligibility we experience is what we call God.  From this philosophical argument from the objective intelligibility of the world, we demonstrate that God exists.

 

From these arguments, we ought now returnin earnestto the question of whether or not we will believe in God.  Sadly, a response for each of us cannot be developed here, but happily and solemnly, a response can be developed within the deep recesses of each one of us who ponder these great mysteries.

“The Lord walks the roads of our daily life”

VATICAN CITY, January 26, 2014 – Here is the translation of the Holy Father’s address before and after the recitation of the Angelus to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square today.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters, hello,

This Sunday’s Gospel recounts the beginnings of Jesus’ public life in the cities and villages of Galilee. His mission did not start from Jerusalem, that is, from the religious, social, and political center but from an area on the periphery, from an area despised by the most observant Jews because of the presence in that region of foreign groups. This is why the prophet Isaiah refers to it as “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Isaiah 8:23).

It is a borderland, an area with many travelers where one meets people of different races, cultures and religions. Thus, Galilee in this way becomes the symbolic place of the Gospel’s openness to all peoples. From this point of view, Galilee resembles today’s world: the joint presence of different cultures, the necessity of confrontation and encounter. We too are immersed every day in a “Galilee of the Gentiles,” and in this sort of context we can be frightened and give in to the temptation of building walls around ourselves to be safer and more protected. But Jesus teaches us that the glad tidings that he brings are not reserved for just one part of humanity; it is to be communicated to everyone. It is a joyful proclamation to those who have been waiting for it but also perhaps to those who have given up and no longer have the strength to seek and to ask.

Starting from Galilee, Jesus teaches us that no one is excluded from God’s salvation, that, on the contrary, God prefers starting on the periphery, from those who are last, to reach all. He teaches us a method, his method, that, however also expresses the content, namely, the Father’s mercy. “Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel” (“Evangelii Gaudium,” 20).

Jesus begins his mission not only from a de-centered (“decentrato”), but also from people that are, we could say, “low profile.” To choose his first disciples and future apostles, he does not turn to the schools of the scribes and doctors of the Law, but to humbler, simpler persons, who make an effort to prepare for the Kingdom of God. Jesus calls them where they work, on the shores of the sea, they are fishermen. He calls them and they immediately follow him. They leave their nets and go with him: their life will become an extraordinary and fascinating adventure.

Dear friends, the Lord calls today too! The Lord walks the roads of our daily life. Today too, in this moment, here, the Lord passes through the piazza. He calls us to go with him, to work with him for the Kingdom of God, in the Galilees of our time. Each of you should think: the Lord passes by today, the Lord looks at me, he is looking at me! What does the Lord say to me? And if one of you feels that the Lord says to him, “Follow me,” be courageous, go with the Lord. The Lord never disappoints. Listen in your heart whether the Lord is calling you to follow him. Let us allow ourselves to be reached by his gaze, his voice, and let us follow him! So “that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of our world” (“Evangelii Gaudium,” 288).

[Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father further addressed those gathered in St. Peter’s Square:]

Today you see that I am not alone. Two of you are with me. They came up here. They are great!  And now these two great kids will release the doves, symbol of peace.

[Release of the doves.]

I wish everyone a good Sunday and a good lunch. Goodbye!

[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]

Siena College began its spring semester this week and after going through the syllabus for my theology course with my students, we hit the ground running.  Every semester begins with questions about God, questions like “does God exist” and “is God knowable”.  And when we do, I eventually present three now-classic demonstrations for God’s existence (I’ve shared these with you before).  God’s existence can be demonstrated by arguments from Desire, from Contingency, and from the Objective Intelligibility of the World.  It’s hard stuff…and it usually takes several discussions and examples for students’ minds to begin to grasp what we’re saying and how we’re thinking.  Throughout our first three hours together, I repeatedly remind them of these demonstrations with arguments that are shorter, varied, some funny, but they’re always consistent: I believe this is the best way for them to learn these difficult yet very significant points.  As the course will unfold, we will regularly make reference to these arguments because a single, consistent message demonstrates credibility, unity of heart, integrity of mind, and singularity of purpose.

• If a person or group says a thing only once, it can be easily missed by any hearers.
• If I tell one person one thing, and then contradict that when speaking with another, I lose all credibility and integrity, don’t I?
• If, as a group, members who are supposed to be aligned with an ideal are consistently arguing, then their unity of heart and singularity of purpose come into question, don’t they?  If none can agree upon the ideal, then their group is surely threatened.

And so, in today’s Gospel, as Jesus hears of John the Baptist’s imprisonment and his almost-sure and impending death, Jesus begins His public ministry as He calls all to repent…for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  And so I think it is important that we recall a simple word from our gospel to remind us of an important aspect of our faith: the word, “all”.  Jesus called all to hear His encouragement of repentance.  He didn’t say this merely to the four disciples that He had chosen in this gospel; He won’t go and whisper it to the chosen Israelite peoples living in Jerusalem; He won’t segregate His hearers and followers….  This “ALL” is really for all.  Notice where Jesus has placed Himself: in the midst of Galilee with all of its many and varied peoples.  He won’t say to one faction, “repent” and to another, “get out of my sight”; He won’t cure certain ones, leaving others to their sin and rot; He won’t gather men into His kingdom, leaving women and children to wallow in injustice.  Instead, Jesus goes throughout ALL of Galileethe good Jews and bad, to pagans and non-believers alikecalling all to follow Him, to walk in His ways, and to inherit the kingdom of heaven.  Moreover, when the sick and disabled of every single kind are brought to Him in droves, He cures them all and sets every one free.

No wonder that in our second reading, St. Paul urges the people of Corinth to be united in heart and mind, with a singular purpose and mission: they are to be disciples of Christ Jesus and bear His kingdom in the world.

This unity of heart, this singularity of purpose is also at the heart of who we are, here in this place, today at this time.  No longer can we be a people who are limited and divided into factions: “I am a conservative Christian”, “I am a pro-life Christian”, “I am an anti-gun, liberal Christian”, and so on.  No, instead, we must be Catholic Christians, united under the head of the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who calls us out of darkness (as we hear in our first reading) and brings us into His own wondrous light.  We must be His people, who walk in authentic love for all others, who forgive transgressors just as we need to be forgiven, who serve others as we wish to be served in our need.  This is our banner, is it not?  The Creed we profess propels us deeper and deeper into the love of God which is then our pattern, our call, our mission and the purpose of all of our ministry.

I reflect on these things with you again todayvery early in this Ordinary Timebecause remembering this and recalling it regularly impresses upon all of us that our single, consistent message demonstrates credibility, unity of heart, integrity of mind, and singularity of purpose…and that authentic love is our source, is our way, and is our goal, now and always.

May the God of LoveFather, Son, and Holy Spiritkeep us firm in our purpose, humble in our actions, and loving in all our relations with peoples always and everywhere.

A singular, purposeful ray of light shines through the smoke into the edicule – the structure that has been built over Jesus’ tomb in the Holy Land of Jerusalem.

How do I know it snowed last night?  Easy enough, I went outside and saw it snowing.  How do I know that the earth is round?  I’ve read it several times in various books and journals that are trustworthy.  How do I know the 49ers are going to win the Super bowl this year?  …well, it’s all over the internet!  Okay that one doesn’t count!  Why?  Because there’s no credible authority…the internet says all sorts of things, proven true and proven false.

But so many other things that we know are known to us not by our own personal experience or knowledge, but rather, we know them because a certain authoritative, tested knowledge has been shared with us.  I know the science of philosophy because of great philosophers sharing wisdom by their writings and teachings that I’ve been privileged to read and study.  Some of you know the arts because great artists have influenced you in profound, spectacular ways.  Some of you know how to play a sport or a musical instrument extremely well because you’ve had great and masterful coaches who have nurtured you with their abilities and skills.  And many of you are fine parents because you have, in your own turn, learned from some of the best!  This list can go on and on…we’ve all experienced great witnesses to a truth and we’re better because of their witness.

Well, in today’s gospel, John the Baptist knows that the Lord God has promised to reveal “the Lamb of God” to him and John rightly trusts God’s authority.  John has been created from the womb for such a revelation and profound task and so, John, too, has become a credible authority.   Thus, John tells his disciples about Jesus.  Some of the future Apostles had originally been John’s disciples; they were there with him on the banks of the Jordan, helping him baptize, when he first pointed out who the Master was.  They heard his testimony about Jesus, and because they could believe him, it sparked their interest, and so they went to meet the Lord for themselves.  And the rest…is history.

Jesus chooses to use the testimony of those who believe in Him to draw others into His friendship.  If John had kept quiet about what God had shown him, his disciples might never have found the Lord.  Likewise, Christ is counting on us to introduce Him to others.

In our efforts to build Christ’s Kingdom, we can hardly choose a better model than John, who teaches us never to work merely for our own satisfaction or for the esteem of our peers.  Our goal is Christ and our path is His willand in the end, nothing else matters.  We’ve received great and credible witness and knowledge of the Truth of Jesus Christ; in the same way, we now must become His witnesses.

My brothers and sisters, we possess a great wisdom within the Church.  We hear of the teachings of great saints and the witness of great martyrs.  We continually experience God’s holy Word come alive in our Scriptures proclaimed during Mass.  We are the multitude of guests who have said “yes” to the invitation to enter into the banquet of Christ’s Body & Blood whenever we celebrate Holy Communion.  And at the conclusion of every Mass, we are the people who are chosen to go forth and proclaim God’s saving gospel, by our words and by our works.

Let us then renew our appreciation for the wisdom that has been shared with us through God’s authority.  But let us not bury it away where no one else will ever see it, or be privy to it, or fail to grow from it because we’ve failed to share it.  Just as you and I always rely on gifted ones to share their gifts with usteachers, coaches, instructors, prosin order for us to grow in Truth and knowledge, so too is our own world, in our own day, awaiting the witness of our own authority which can rightly proclaim, “Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and has mercy on us.”

May God’s blessings of grace be upon us as we take up such a holy task.

Loving in order to give Hope: One Day at a Time

By Fr. Kevin

Here we are a few days into a new year that cannot seem to make up its mind, one day frigid another nearly warm. With each New Year we think about beginning again, about resolutions for growing in virtue. Hopefully we seek to improve in order to love more and more consistently. As Christians we realize that the resolution to grow is with us daily, we call it conversion. Conversion is a turning to the Lord, to the Heart of Mercy, He who has come among us as one of us to heal, adopt, and raise us on high.

When I first came to visit your pastor, Fr. David, here at St. Mary’s, I was moved to see all the groups that make use of the parish facility for the sake of improving lives. In a particular way I mean those groups of mutual support and encouragement that have helped with the problems and imprisonment of addiction. There are active Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Food Addicts Anonymous, and, more recently, Self-Mutilators Anonymous groups in this parish. This work is of great importance and these men and women who meet regularly to help one another bear their crosses are deserving of our consistent prayers.  The hospitality shown by the parish toward them has become a heritage of love in Clinton Heights.

Long ago among the first centuries of Christianity there was a Mass offered at the New Year for “the banishment of idols”, it was a world then emerging from the darkness of paganism and stepping toward the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. An idol is that which takes the place of the Living God. An ancient homily for the Christmas season by St. Peter Chrysogonus reminds us that the pagans carved images of gods in a misdirected attempt to draw divinity closer.

It is all too easy in a fallen world to fall into idol making. An idol seems to be a short-cut, an easier path. Addiction comes when we have sought to make a kind of short cut to happiness and refuge. What we come to find, however, is not freedom and refuge and home but diminishment and imprisonment.  Addictions are based on an exaggerated and disordered pursuit of pleasure, honor, wealth, or power. When any of these in their many variants take center place in life then we have ourselves chained to an idol. God wants to be our center. Addictions that have formed in pursuit of any of these four ends mark an arrest in our development and they throw a wet blanket on pursuing fully the mystery of love. Often, we fall for the false promises of these idols because of our own insecurity, lack of love and fear of not being loveable. God is here in His Holy Spirit, sacraments, word and community to be our center and to give and empower love. He is for our liberation and happiness.

From among the many admirable people who have aided the addicted in finding freedom let us consider Sr. Mary Ignatia Gavin. She is not known to many, but she was important to many in the early years of A.A. She was born in Co. Mayo, Ireland in 1889 and came to the United States with her parents where she later entered the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine. Her early days as a sister were spent using her special talent as a musician to teach music to children.

Sister M. Ignatia found herself eventually worn out and so in 1939 she turned to hospital work in the field of admissions. Here we see the often seemingly strange ways of God who calls us to places we never imagined. Sister worked in St. Thomas hospital in Akron, Ohio where she met Dr. Bob Smith, a co-founder of A.A. With prophetic bravery sister began accepting alcoholics into the hospital, seeing alcoholism as a condition in need of treatment and not merely a flaw of character as it was commonly viewed at the time. By 1952 Sister was transferred to St. Vincent Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, to direct a ward for alcoholics. Upon arrival sister began to renovate the hospital ward with the help of alcoholic men who had the skill of carpentry. She even insisted that there be a bar for serving coffee.  Her mission was to love in order to free and restore broken hearts to the Heart of Jesus so that they would know love, have courage in the face of temptation, and begin loving again; that each live in accord with his or her  dignity in Christ.

Prior to her death at age 77 in 1966, Sr. M. Ignatia ministered to thousands who had found themselves in the prison of addiction. To her patients she recommended the practice of retreat, in order to be with the Lord, to form that relationship which is primary. She gave to each a badge or medal of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a token and reminder and asked that if one decided to drink again he should first be kind enough to return the medal to her. In Dante’s poem, Inferno, the entrance to hell is marked with the words, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” Over the exit of Sr. Mary Ignatia’s ward for alcoholics was an icon of Mary Mother of Perpetual Help and the words: “Take hope all ye who leave here.” Love is Hope’s key found daily in the presence of the Lord and then given to others in attentive service to need.