Paradise Lost?

              In Theology of the Body, a teaching of Pope Saint John Paul II, we look to the Garden of Eden to show us truths about the human person.  Often, when talking about the Garden of Eden, we talk about how great it was, with all of the innocence and peace, and how all of that is lost forever because of sin. This was how I understood the story of the Garden of Eden for a long time, that we had one chance for paradise and we blew it. We would always be controlled by sin which meant that I would always be stuck in a whirlpool of sin and unhappiness. It is true that mankind was expelled from the Garden because of sin and, through our disobedience, we broke our relationship with God.  This would be a really awful story, if this were the end.  It’s not. Christ came into the world and died on the cross to redeem us.

            Redemption in Christ offers us something better than the Garden. Here, I would like to differentiate between restoration and redemption. Restoration would be to go back to the original state of being in the Garden. Redemption involves a saving transformation. God has made it new. God is all-knowing. He knew we were going to sin when He created us with freedom and so made a plan to give us something better than the Garden.

This is not just about living in a heavenly paradise. It’s also about our daily life. He gave us Christ who instituted the sacraments.  The grace that we receive in the sacraments gives us the power to live out the call of the Kingdom of God. “What is the Kingdom of God?” you ask.   Jesus gives us the answer to this question in the Gospel of Luke. "The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.' For behold, the kingdom of God is among you" (Lk. 17:20b-21). Every day, we have the opportunity to live out innocence and peace through grace. We can choose love instead of use, generosity instead of greed, and humility instead of pride. It is when we choose goodness that we make the Kingdom of God present in the world. At times, this seems insurmountable.  You do not have to look far to see the pain and hurt caused by sin, but by grace, we are set free from sin. Slowly but surely, God changes our hearts to love Him better. He has changed me. I once thought that the battle against sin was hopeless and that even trying to overcome sin was pointless. I felt helpless. God would not let me keep believing this lie and showed me that He had given me the power, through the sacraments, to choose freedom instead of sin. Here’s the thing about grace, it’s stronger than sin.

This relates back to Theology of the Body because in our relationships, we can feel like we will never be able to love the other person as we should. Sometimes, chastity seems too difficult to master but we have to remember it is grace that enables us to love our significant other.  There’s a story of several bishops in the early Christian Church, who saw a prostitute passing by. All but one bishop turned away as she walked by so that they would not lust after her. The one bishop looked at the woman intently with love. As a result of the love that this bishop showed her, the prostitute turned her life around and became a saint, St. Pelagia. The difference between the two responses, both noble, is that God ultimately wants us to be able to look at everyone the way that Adam looked at Eve in the Garden. The freedom that the one bishop had is offered to all of us. When we have this freedom, it translates into our relationships. In freedom, we can truly love. This is the essence of the Garden of Eden: freedom and love. These are not lost to us at all but through Christ, available to us right now. Let’s not forget this truth.

Guest blogger: Camilla MacKenzie

Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12th, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

"Am I not here who am your

mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection?

Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?" - Our Lady to St. Juan Diego

I love being Catholic. No where else can you get the Eucharist, Christ, and no where else can you get the fullness of the beauty of Our Lady. Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of my special favorites particularly because she reminds me to be open to God. Openness to God. As you can see, if you look closely, this is the only picture of Mary while she is pregnant; she's bringing Him to you. Openness and receptivity.

P.S. AND patroness of the Americas and the pro-life movement. Another great reason to love her.

A Champion of Love

I love Mother Teresa.

Today is (what would have been....) her 100th birthday. Her life continually reminds me to fight against simple mediocrity, to strive for the best, to strive for purity - not just physically, but purity of heart, purity of intention, and the fact that loving Christ with an undivided heart is always first in our lives when trying to accomplish this.

This is beautiful....

Anyway

People are often unreasonable,
illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

- Mother Teresa

And who knows if she was an influence for this....

Speaking of Beauty . . .

Last week Cosmopolitan magazine hosted the 2009 Cosmopolitan Beauty Awards in London, where awards were presented to the top beauty products in the business. Awards went to the “Best blemish buster,” the “Best body-firming potion” and the “Best age-busting night cream." Reading about these awards made me smile, because I am always amused by the enormous amount of attention given to beauty products, designer jeans, hair salons, and expensive pedicures. The covers of magazines like CosmoGirl sport catchy headlines such as “909 Tips to Look Amazing this Fall” or “50 Ways to Get Sexy Hair.” Our culture puts an incredible emphasis on being beautiful . . . that is, on the outside.

Sadly, not nearly the same attention is given to inner beauty. While the war is raging on the outside to have the perfect body, complete with the perfect clothing and perfect skin, it’s sometimes hard to remember how incredibly important it is to cultivate one’s inner beauty, or focus on developing a beautiful soul. What makes a person beautiful? It’s someone’s dedication to growing in virtue that makes him or her truly beautiful. Every time you take steps to become more courageous or more generous you’re growing into a more beautiful person; every time you go to Mass or spend time learning to pray, you grow more beautiful; every time you come out of yourself and selflessly seek someone else’s good you become more beautiful. The closer you grow to Christ, who is Beauty itself, and the more you become like Him, the more beautiful you become. It’s your character that makes you a beautiful person.

This week we celebrated the feast of another awesome saint: St. Kateri Tekakwitha. This girl had smallpox when she was very young, and so her face was permanently covered in scars. Based on her outward appearance, others probably would have labeled her as “ugly.” This girl, however, truly had a beautiful character. She consecrated her virginity to Christ and dedicated herself to the Virgin Mary. The scars on her face miraculously vanished when she died, revealing a woman of incredible beauty. This quote from a priest always reminds me that true beauty is a matter of the heart and comes with great responsibility: “A girl’s real beauty is still within. It is a thing of her soul . . . It is something by which she makes men aware of the truth and beauty and goodness of God by reflecting that beauty and goodness herself.”

(Fr. Poage, In Garments All Red, 1950).

http://www.cosmobeauty.uk/.

St. Maria Goretti: The Strength and Courage of a Pure Heart

Since I had the day off work, yesterday morning I woke up early with the determination to resist the snooze button and to get out bed and go to morning Mass. Some days I’m not a morning person, and today was one of those days. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up trying to go 8 a.m. Mass, didn’t quite make it, and by sheer grace ended up in a neighborhood near my apartment in front of a Church with a 9 a.m. Mass. Perfect. I was more than a little surprised, though, when I saw the celebrant walk out in a red garment. Red? It's a martyr's feast day? Who is it? As soon as the priest made the sign of the cross, I remembered. It’s July 6th - the feast of St. Maria Goretti.

St. Maria Goretti is one of my all-time favorite saints. She is a “modern” saint, dying in 1902 at the young age of twelve. St. Maria has an amazing story. Even though she was just a young girl, she had the strength and courage to prefer to die rather than give up her purity.

She grew up near Nettuno, a small city on the coast of Italy. One hot afternoon in July she was approached in her house by a young man named Alessandro, who tried to rape her. Maria refused to give up her purity, saying over and over again “No! No! It is a sin! God does not want this!” Many years later, Alessandro stated that at this moment something inside of him snapped, and he ended up stabbing Maria fourteen times.

St. Maria forgave Alessandro on her deathbed, stating that she wanted him to be with her in heaven someday. Alessandro had a profound conversion of heart during his prison sentence, and later he joined the Brothers of St. Francis.

Pope Pius XII gave a beautiful address on the occasion of her beatification, praising the courage and strength of this young girl. I read it often, and each time I am struck by the depth and beauty of this remarkable girl’s life. Pope Pius XII says that the characteristic virtue of young saints, especially martyrs for purity, is strength of soul. It requires great courage, he says, “to live firmly . . . amidst the baseness of the world. . . we must admire the strength of pure hearts.” It takes great courage and strength to stand up for purity and to live a life that is dedicated to protecting it in the world. It is my hope that we might all have the same strength and courage of St. Maria to live a pure, chaste, courageous life today and everyday :)

(St. Maria Goretti: In Garments all Red, Fr. Godfrey Poage, TAN Books and Publishers, 1950).

Reflections on the Assumption

In the Catechism (n.966) it states: “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.’ The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:

In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.”

Reflections

1. I can’t fathom the profound holiness and sanctity that she, our fully human Mother, has. The Lord regards her so highly that he chose for her to join him, in her full humanity, in the Kingdom. I keep stressing “fully human” because humans, in a biological sense, are dirty and base compared to the divinity of God. How humble and loving is our God to bring this creature into his full presence? This is infinitely more humble than what a human could consider humble: Washing the feet of the homeless, caring for the wounds of lepers, etc.

2. Here’s a deep thought: Since Our Lady was bodily assumed into heaven, her body occupies the space of Heaven (mass, her body, occupies space). Does this mean that Heaven is a physical place out there somewhere? Or, since this assumption is “an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians,” was she assumed in a glorified body (Christ calls the bodies of the resurrected “glorified”)? What is a glorified body? Is it matter that necessarily occupies space? Some deep, deep questions, huh?

I know that these questions and thoughts are pretty philosophical and abstract. Yet, they are fun to think about, huh? Sometimes I can almost imagine Heaven and the choirs of angels and saints, the Holy Family, and the Glory of the Trinity. I try to reach it in human terms, through my senses. Yet, the reality of Heaven is indescribable. A professor in seminary told me once: “We have to use words to talk about God. Yet, He is infinitely more complex than any set of words.” Therein lays the mystery.

God Bless.