The Curt Jester – Page 7 – Punditry, Prayer, Parody, Polemics, Puns from a Papist Perspective

There is this idea that if we presented with enough evidence, acceptance of the purported truth would follow. It is all about evidence and almost always empirical evidence. Add enough straw to the camel’s back and wham! acceptance follows. We like to think of ourselves as truth-seekers willing to accept uncomfortable truths. I like to think that about myself, but in reality, my accepting of uncomfortable truths has mostly been grudging and painful in shedding false premises or just not wanting to accept life-changing truths. Conforming to reality often requires self-reflection when I would rather just skip ahead to acceptance. I think of most learning as unlearning what you previously thought.

There are various stories of Betrand Russell being asked if, after dying and facing God, how would he justify his failing to believe? “I’d say, ‘Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence!’”

This is an example of blaming the evidence without looking at our own motives. The stories told in the Pentateuch give us plenty of examples where divine hiddenness was not to blame for their lack of trust and effective unbelief. They sent Moses as their representative and were not willing to meet God face-to-face. Moses unnerved them, coming back glowing and thus having to wear a veil before them. The number of prophets who experience God working through them miraculously and then trying to rely on their own effort or falling into despair.

I think of the Nobel winning medical doctor, Alexis Carrel, who witnessed two miracles at Lourdes. He could not believe them as miraculous, and it would be a long road for his conversion to the Catholic Church. It was a friendship with a Seminary Rector, that led him to a dialogue with a Trappist monk. There are plenty of other stories where the seeming miraculous has entered people’s lives, but did not change them in the long term, as far as we know.

I think of the Transfiguration when Jesus more fully reveals himself to Peter, John, and James. Peter’s reaction was not edifying and it would not be long before he would deny he even knew Jesus. Yet, surely Jesus was revealing himself to strengthen them. We often forget that Jesus is strengthening us with grace, but the effects are not as immediate as we would want.

What if Jesus had not returned to the Father on the day of Ascension and remained with us in his glorified body to the present time and beyond? That we had a constant reminder of the incarnation that would be hard to deny. That Jesus could have gone to the Jesus Seminar and say, “No, I actually said that bit.” His existence would be hard to deny, but likely many of us would be up to such a denial. Empirical evidence is not the same as belief and faith. Our free will leaves room for doubt. Love is not forcibly created with evidence, but requires a relationship that deepens.

I am tempted to complain about my dry prayer life. That while being faithful to prayer and meditation, I only feel Ezekiel’s dry bones. As if the portal to the dark night of the soul is an even darker path. I should instead be thankful for my reified intellectual faith, which has not wavered since my conversion. When I was young, I aspired to be stoic, so I can only blame myself. Yet I know God is working in me despite my brokenness. I know I would be as insensible as Peter if I saw what he saw. So in that I am thankful for divine hiddenness.

Mostly, I am thankful for divine hiddenness, because this was his will for us.

Resources

Why Doesn’t God Show His Face?: Making Sense of Divine Hiddenness – Karlo Broussard I bought this audio a couple of years ago and have listened to it twice. Very good from the philosophical level.

The Problem of Divine Hiddenness | Is There Non-Resistant Non-Belief Belief? w/ Dr. Stephen Napier I found this episode of Pat Flynn’s “Philosophy for the People” especially good on an aspect of this.

May 9, 2024May 9, 2024 4 comments

The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 506

by Jeffrey Miller May 9, 2024May 9, 2024

written by Jeffrey Miller

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc., which I also cross-post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week, from 28 April 2024 to 9 May 2024.

Bull

9 May 2024 – Spes non confundit- Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025

General Audiences

8 May 2024 – General Audience – Cycle of Catechesis. Vices and Virtues. 18. Hope

Homilies

28 April 2024 – Visit to Venice’ Celebration of Holy Mass (Saint Mark’s Square)

Regina Caeli

5 May 2024 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

Papal Instagram

Franciscus

May 9, 2024May 9, 2024 0 comment

Spirituality

The Aspirational Life – From the Carmelites to G. K. Chesterton

by Jeffrey Miller May 2, 2024May 2, 2024

written by Jeffrey Miller

As part of the mystagogy part of OCIA, I was asked to give a brief talk about our local Carmelite group that has their meetings at my parish. While I would have been quite happy to pitch Carmelite spirituality, I wanted to do something different along this line.

As a sponsor this year, one of my goals was not to influence or set someone on a path that mimicked my preferences for how to live out the Catholic faith. That my opinions on prudential matters should be their opinions. This is really hard to do, but it is worth attempting to separate out what the Church teaches and your own opinions on this. Partially, just being aware of your own biases is helpful, not that we can totally separate this out.

So for this 4-minute or so talk, I just wanted to pass on the importance of prayer and the devotional life. I started by quoting the Catechism paragraph 2744.

“Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned.” St. Alphonsus Liguori.

I said there were certainly caveats regarding this, but I wanted a striking statement to start with on our fundamental need to pray. I went on to explain that we would have to discover for ourselves those practices that are helpful in growing closer to Jesus, from those that are helpful to others, but not for yourself. That some devotional practices might take a while for you to discern this. To be weary of fads in the spiritual life. That we’re all going to suffer and to experience a variety of pain in our life, from the spiritual to the physical. That prayer and our actual relationship with God, was going to help us through this. Despite the detraction we have in prayer and how inept we think our prayer life is, that we should not be harsh on ourselves for this.

I suspect I mostly got applause for this talk since I kept it short and to the point. There were points I wanted to make that I didn’t and those that I would have phrased better.

Thinking about this subject, I was also thinking about two aspects of my life that I spend some time with and my motives for them.

For me, my attraction to Carmelite spirituality was not because I am naturally contemplative, quite the opposite. Coming from a lifetime of zero prayer life, I knew I needed all the help I could get. I figured they have three “Doctors of the Church” and I needed all the doctors I could get on the spiritual life. While my prayer life is still dry and abstract, I also grew to fall in love with Carmelite spirituality. Sometimes, you find yourself drawn to something despite knowing that you lack the virtue you want. My atheistic prayer life and Carmelite spirituality were “opposites attract” kind of thing.

Another area I knew I lacked coming from atheism was gratitude. Thanksgiving and gratitude were rather perfunctory for me. I was glad when something went well, but it was just an accident of life or that I could just pat myself on the back. I had a sense of wonder, which was blunted by my materialism. When I first came across the line, “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” it stunned me because it described my experience. People often credit G.K. Chesterton with the quote. It was actually GKC attributing Rossetti to the statement in his book on St. Francis of Assisi.

When I started reading Chesterton, it was his quotes on thanksgiving, gratitude, and wonder that were an aspiration for me. I wanted to feel this way since I saw this was the reality of how I should respond to God. An appreciation for things that exist that might not have existed. Gratitude was the proper response to life. How he charitably interacted and was friends with those whose viewpoints he opposed was another aspiration for me. These aspirations for what I desired for myself would lead me to love the man and his writings and to gain much more from them.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” GKC

Considering this quote, I am rather surprised that I persevered aspirationally for things I found difficult with no natural inclination towards. Self-awareness is difficult when you suck. It’s like poking at stick at yourself and going “Ha, Ha!” The unexamined life might not be worth living, but the examined life is also pretty annoying.

Yet, know my many lacks made me at least aware enough to seek remedies and in the process to grow in love with the Carmelites and GKC, which in turned helps me to fall in love with Christ more.

May 2, 2024May 2, 2024 0 comment