Ecce Ancilla Domini!

Buona Festa! I realize that we are more or less approaching the end of this happy feast day, but I wanted to be sure and get my two cents in before the Solemnity expires completely. For those who haven't had their breviaries handy today, March 25th is exactly nine months before December 25th, which is of course Christmas. Put two and two together. I'll wait....

Yes, indeed, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. What usually happens nine months before a birth? How was this event different in the particular case of Jesus Christ? Bingo. Today is the day that the Church celebrates the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the apparition of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, and her humble acceptance of God's plan for her.

In my opinion, this feast is of particular importance to modern society, and, so say I, ought to be a major tool for re-evangelizing the West, as nearly everyone in the Church believes we must do. Why is this the case? Well, there are two dimensions in which I see this feast as one of paramount importance to contemporary Western society:

First, there is the "Fiat" dimension. In Mary's simple statement, "let it be done to me according to your word," I believe the contemporary West, if it is truly willing to engage in any degree of self-reflection, my find its true and stark antithesis. That is to say, Mary's "Fiat" (Latin for "let it be [so]") is the expression of a very important and very deeply Christian sentiment that is very nearly dead in this civilization of ours. On the contrary, the defining maxim of Western society as it now stands is "let it be done to me according to my word." The West has become spiritually paralyzed the more it has become materially wealthy. Where there is material prosperity, faith becomes a true challenge, and so it is in our society. We are at the crossroads. One path, wide and level, leads to perdition; the other, straight and narrow, leads to salvation. The "Fiat" will reveal which is which.

The second dimension, perhaps of even greater importance, is the Incarnational dimension, if you want to call it that (honestly, I'm not sure I do). Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that today is the day Catholics believe Jesus became Man, and it has been today for many centuries. I have never honestly heard anyone propose that Jesus was not human until Christmas, that Jesus had not yet become a human person until His birth. Rather, it seems to be the constant and continuous thought of the entire Church that Jesus has been a man since the moment of His conception. Consider the tremendous pro-life meaning present in that belief!

I'm not exactly sure why today is not a huge day for promoting the pro-life cause in the Church. The fact seems to be that a great many Catholics do not accept the Church's belief that human life begins at conception, and yet it is the belief of the Catholic Church that Jesus became a human being today, nine months before He was born. The two notions cannot be reconciled. Either the Incarnation happened today, or it happened at some other point between today and Christmas. That simply is not what the Church teaches. Today ought to be a day of great zeal and evangelization, to renew and re-evaluate our commitment to the cause of protecting human life. Today, the day that the most important of all human lives began, ought to be the day the entire Church commits herself to the purpose of defending human life from conception to natural death. Why it isn't, I don't know. Keep it in your prayers.

Also, consider this:





And also this:

St. Joseph's Day

Well, the Feast Day may actually be over and done now, but I'm going to plead "octave" on this one, and, since I therefore have until next Friday to post something about the Feast of St. Joseph, I'm by no means late.

That said, I would like to take a very brief opportunity to say that, after a very wonderful novena preached by a Franciscan Friar from the Custody of the Holy Land (stationed in Washington, D.C.), the Solemnity of St. Joseph was celebrated with great solemnity (go figure) here at the seminary both at 10:30 in the morning with a Mass celebrated by the novena preacher and at 7:00 at night, celebrated by the auxiliary bishop of Scranton, the Most Rev. John Dougherty. Both Masses were splendid.

As you might imagine, the Feast of St. Joseph is a rather joyous occasion for the Oblate community, a day filled with wishes of "buona festa" ("happy feast-day"), laughing, singing, and so on, even if you don't happen to be of Italian descent. I can honestly say that, as has always been the case since my arrival at the seminary, St. Joseph was duly honored yesterday with those celebrations, and I pray to him that he may intercede for all of you! Happy Feast of St. Joseph! Buona Festa!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As everyone most likely knows, this is a special day for myself and for many Irish throughout the world, not least of all the Irish diaspora here in the United States. Yes, indeed, today is the feast day of the Apostle of Ireland, that great snake-driver, St. Patrick. This is a day for all of us of Irish descent to celebrate, of course, that which is "our thing" in common, but also, in my opinion to have a few serious thoughts, if we can manage.

First, all of this drunken revelry--not a part of the actual holiday. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to alcohol, and I'm not averse to the occasional drink, myself. However, the idea that St. Patrick's day is about green beer and consuming as much of it as possible in order to get as sick as possible as early as possible is simply offensive. Does anyone know how they traditionally celebrate this day in Ireland? That's right, the same way we celebrate Thanksgiving (sans football and with different food).

Second, of course, I think this is a great time for all of the diaspora to take few moments and reflect on Ireland itself, and the sorry state that that nation is in. After centuries of oppressions and violence, several attempts at revolution, one finally successful, political turmoil, internal violence tantamount to a civil war, and the continued partition of a once-united nation, Ireland's history is full of grief and sorrow. In my opinion, the partition of Ireland contributes to that sorrow still, and it would be best for Ireland, I believe, if it were once again whole. What do you all think? Does 26+6=1? Would it be better for Ireland to be reunified? Should there be but one Irish people with one Irish culture, given that they have but one Irish history? Let me know, and happy St. Patrick's day!

Not Quite the Ides, but Still Disastrous

In a monumentally terrible decision in his as-yet wet-behind-the-ears presidency, Barry O'Bama has decided to officially overturn George Bush's executive policy prohibiting the use of federal funds (in other words, your tax money) for embryonic stem cell research. Thus, I imagine that it will no doubt shortly be the case that the money the federal government has taken from you will be used to fund embryonic stem cell research, on some level, at least.

Now, what about this research? I mean, there are plenty of scientists and quasi-scientists out there claiming that it will magically lead to the cures for all of the worst diseases that afflict the human race. Supposedly, embryonic stem cell research is going to cure Alzheimer's, diabetes, Parkinson's, cancer, and anything else that the current medical establishment has not yet been able to cure. Somehow, I doubt that this research will swiftly and effortlessly lead to such a fantastic revolution in medicine. However, that's not to say that it does not provide some promise. So, basically, the question on anyone's mind ought to be: Well, if it shows promise for potentially decreasing massive amounts of human suffering, what's so wrong about it?

The answer to that is actually fairly simple. Stem cells, as far as I (a far cry from a scientist, I'll have you know) understand it, are cells that form in the very beginning stages of what I believe to be life just after fertilization. When the fertilized egg (the zygote) needs to grow, it does so by dividing, splitting itself, and forming new cells. Those cells have the remarkable ability to turn into practically anything that they're needed to be on down the line--brain, heart, muscle, lung, and so on. Scientists want to tap into this remarkable stem cell ability to change into different things in order to grow things like brain cells, heart cells, liver cells, pancreas cells, and so forth in order to undo the effects of some pretty nasty diseases. The only problem with the plan, however, is that it requires them to take stem cells from a growing embryo and use them for someone else. In the process, the embryo (a person) is destroyed (i.e., killed). On that grounds, the Catholic Church and many other persons and organizations have seen through the promise of stem cell research to its underlying moral problem, and ruled it out as an unethical alternative. Sure, it could help, but people will die in the process, and that isn't acceptable.

Now that President Obama is lining himself up to be a fierce opponent of the Pro-Life movement, I think it is time to start rethinking our game plan and tackling new problems with new force.