On Hope and Presidents

This post is primarily in response to having watched the second inaugural address of President Barack Obama. Between some rather disturbing progressive exhortations and position statements, which always included sweeping generalizations as their justification, the re-elected president offered several thoughts that do stand the test of common sense and right philosophy. Quotes given are as nearly verbatim as I could take down during the speech.

Obama declared that we “must care for the vulnerable” among us, which is great, the collective responding to the needs of those who cannot help themselves. He declared that we have a “freedom inextricably bound to every soul on earth.” But he continued explaining that that deep-seated freedom “does not mean defining liberty the same way ... but that we act in our time.” This is quite foggy and is meant to dilute the absolute term (which is a practical one, governing the way we proceed to make policy and decide judicial matters).

He declared that we should work, “knowing that ours is an imperfect work” and that our “victories” may be “partial.” This is a surprising acknowledgement of human weakness and the reality of constant failure and shortcoming with the notion that we may progress incrementally and, at times, haltingly, even regressing as we continue striving onward—in a word, baby-steps. And that is a great way to approach things, so long as it is a legitimate acknowledgement of our capacity and not an excuse to drag our feet. 
He also suggested that “absolutism” should not be taken for “principle,” again opening a window for relativism.

He referred to “words spoken to us from a spare Philadelphia hall,” obviously referring to the Declaration of Independence and the compelling statements of rights and dignity of persons that had become sufficient reason to cast off imperial governance for our own. This appeal to the historical, specifically in the transitive dynamic of words spoken hundreds of years prior, yet reaching the ears of those alive today, is remarkable at a time in our history when the judicial process wrestles with the language provided in our founding documents and the corpus of case precedent to date, preferring the disparate conclusions from this study to the spirit of the law and its underlying principles as is evident from the original documents themselves and their contemporaries. This preference for the textual interpretation over historical seems to have more easily led us (or permitted us to go) astray.

Toward the end of his speech, he noted that participation in society is “not only votes cast but voices raised for ancient values and enduring ideals.” This is also remarkable in an age in which innovation often trumps history, the new superceding the time-tested. And it is an amazing line, noting the continuous membership of individuals in society and their corollary continuous responsibility to effect change and order within that society.

The underlying appeal is to a spirit of hope rooted in truth: those values which have persisted from of old and the ideals and perfections toward which we strive are themselves evidence of the possibility of their attainment. As we know, attaining perfection (becoming “perfect as our Father in heaven”) ultimately requires grace, the free gift of participation in the divine, but an appeal to hope rooted in truth approaches, from natural terms, the transcendent.

So where there cannot be found an ounce of hope in the history of this man’s presidential service, as he erodes legitimate freedoms on so many fronts, and opens the door to immoral activities destructive to society in virtually all of its many dimensions, there is a stirring in the American people—an awakening with alarm—to realize the depth to which we have fallen and to become sufficiently restless with the lack of progress toward repairing our nation and society that people may be encouraged more and more easily to take up the fight and do their part.

We see this among the youth—at least the ones thinking on their own without having been snatched from the free exercise of their rational powers by the kind of propaganda present in every line of the president’s address—ravenous for truth and ultimate meaning, either finding a poor but stimulating substitute among the diversions of the world, or despairing to the point of taking their own lives and sometimes those near them. The neat quotes are many and well-known:

• “that evil prosper, it suffices that good men do nothing;” (that the need to act is urgent) and 
• “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime;” (for education to liberate citizens from their captivity to ignorance: “the truth will set you free”)
•  and that “a society may be judged by the way in which it treats its children” (which applies to abortion, but, through the “vulnerable” also to those patients elderly or otherwise who require constant medical assistance in varying degrees).

President Lincoln, with whom I have become fascinated as of late, having seen the Spielberg production and heard numerous references to him, knew this well. “Honest Abe” had to split political hairs so as not to compromise his morality, which appealed to what could be termed “ancient values and enduring ideals” on the grounds of human dignity in freeing the slaves and prudence in leading a country from discord to unity politically and idealogically and, finally, socially. I meant to take up Lincoln as a more complete counter-point to Obama’s shortcomings, but alas, we must conclude.

Why do we settle for the brokenness and decay in which we find ourselves? As the poor bishop concludes in The Mission, it is more than the simple fact that “the world is thus [corrupt; fallen];” rather, “thus have we made it; thus have I made it.” The lack of personal responsibility for our part in society is catastrophic.

For those who are able, higher-profile efforts may be coordinated, such as the efforts of numerous Catholic and other entities dedicated to inspiring value-based political process (Rick Santorum’s Patriot Voices, SBA List, CatholicVote, etc). For those less able, their grassroots expression of charity and joy courageously living a virtuous life will turn the tide. We, the citizens of this great nation (and by extension those non-citizen inhabitants) are responsible to and for one another, and we are all worth every effort by everyone else to reform our society, beginning with our own lives.

Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca

New Year!

Happy New Year! It’s been a month since my last post, again. After a final week of classes and several final exams, I had a nice couple weeks home for Christmas and New Years with family and friends, including a nice Christmas Eve Matins and Midnight Mass (in Latin, of course!) with the Norbertine priests and seminarians at St. Michael’s Abbey.

We had a very good retreat this past week: four days of silent prayer with scriptural passages selected by Fr. Michael Warren, OMV, who is parochial vicar at our Holy Ghost Church in Denver, CO. He began by defining prayer as seeking the face of the Father, the encounter with Him that invites us to surrender our lives, giving way to His grace, a sharing in His divine life, and realizing that He sought us first. This idea stayed with me for the whole retreat, as we looked at kataphatic and apophatic prayer (leaving behind the foundation of feelings and knowledge and understanding into the indescribable experience of God, a taste of heaven), praying with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and taking Mary as our model.

Adding to the notion of seeking the face of the Father, I was particularly attracted to the image of a child seeking his father’s face: a child sitting with his grandfather on the couch who looks up at his grandfather’s face, perhaps scratched by the stubble on his chin, as I fondly remember... or a child at play coming over to tug on the sleeve of his father as he converses with other adults, perhaps thirsty or just expressing the intimate love for his father, head back, looking up at his face. The invitation to “become like little children,” has attracted me for some time; “for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mt 18:3; 19:14).

This semester promises lots of interesting stuff to read and learn! I continue Old Testament studies with the Narrative Books (Genesis, Exodus etc and Joshua, Judges, Kings, Chronicles, etc); New Testament studies continue with the Letters of Paul; the Christological issues that were so much a part of Patristics and Fundamental Theology in the past semester give way to a course on the Blessed Trinity; we get to explore Communication and Evangelization with the director of Catholic TV, Fr. Robert Reed; and we open Sacramental Theology with an Introduction to Sacred Liturgy.

During my retreat, I began reading a recent book by Fr. James Martin, SJ, entitled Between Heaven and Mirth. I heard a few references to it last semester and grabbed a copy. It is a hilarious book that, using stories from the lives of the saints and prominent spiritual authors, as well as passages from scripture, demonstrates that humor, laughter, and joy (esp. in the fully spiritual sense) are an integral part of a healthy life, and, in the case of joy, evidence of a soul close to God. It is a very entertaining yet thought-provoking read with much material for prayerful reflection, and I highly recommend it.

And for a little fun, check out this screenshot of the weather report for Long Beach. As you can see at the top of the page, I was sitting in a cool but not freezing Boston while my family was freezing back home!

Happy Feast of the Baptism of the Lord! As we leave the Christmas Season and move into Ordinary Time, let us recall how Jesus set the example, in the words of St. Francis and following the themes in today’s readings: to preach, and, when necessary, use words. Let us live out charity toward our neighbor so that what we do “all over [our] Judea” (Acts 10:37) will inspire the same charity in others bring all into the Father’s good pleasure (cf. Lk 3:22). And let us invite Mary, who nurtured the boy Jesus until He began His public ministry, to likewise nurture us with her Son’s graces and her simple example that we might come to see clearly the face of the Father, the Beatific Vision for eternity!

Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca