CS Lewis on Catholicism

CS Lewis once corresponded with a woman who had converted to Catholicism.  What Lewis wrote to her, I would like to say to Francis Beckwith:  “It is a little difficult to explain how I feel that though you have taken a way which is not for me, I nevertheless can congratulate you – I suppose because of your faith and joy which are so obviously increased.  Naturally, I do not draw from that the same conclusions as you – but there is no need for us to start a controversial correspondence!  I believe we are very dear to one another but not because I am at all on the Rome-ward frontier of my own communion.  I believe that in the present divided state of Christendom, those who are at the heart of each division are all closer to one another than those who are at the fringes.”

Source: C.S. Lewis  -  As quoted in “Evangelicals and the Great Tradition” by Timothy George, First Things, Aug/Sept 2007, p. 21

October 31 is ...

When I was a teenager I displayed my history and theology geekery to its fullest during Halloween.  As everyone walked around in various levels of dazed sugar highs and dressed as alter egos, I would proclaim to anyone interested or listening, “Happy Reformation Day!”

It was on October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  This simple act done by a Catholic monk and theologian was a pivotal act in history that sparked the Protestant Reformation.  2017 marks the 500-year anniversary of this event.

It was significant to me as a youth because I had undergone a reformation of my own.  Against all odds as a Thai American, I grew up in a family of Christian faith.  It’s estimated that there are only 300,000 Thai Catholics worldwide.  Thailand is a Buddhist country and less than 5% of its population counts itself as something other than Buddhist.  Thanks to French missionaries that came to Thailand in the 1700s, I count it a privilege that my family has worshipped at St. Xavier Parish in the heart of Bangkok for generations.  I also need to thank my tenacious maternal grandmother who had the forethought to ensure one condition in my parents’ informal prenup - all of their children were to be raised Catholic.

 I’m also a member of a living community of people who have had a sublime, metaphysical, faith experience.  In some cultures, people refer to this as being “born again”.  Whatever those connotations, I can at least affirm that it was a life-changing experience for me.  In fact, it happened to me while I was in junior high. Since I attended a school that was grades 7-12, when I graduated, I was voted “most philosophical” as well as “most changed.”  It’s a memory that is real, and deeply personal.  It changed me then, and continues to shape who I am now.

​For example, I love science fiction. I often think that I find this genre appealing because the idea of an alternate reality or a portal to another world isn’t so far-fetched to me.  Even though I’m an intelligent, rational person, I touched, saw, and experienced something other. Not only do I believe in a God, I believe God is good and mysteriously powerful enough to care about me personally and still manage to handle the weight of the world. 

It was after this experience that my faith and worldview began to expand beyond my Catholic upbringing.  After meeting God in such a visceral way, I had an unquenchable thirst to know more about the God that I’d met.  My family went through a lot of grief as they watched me go through a “rebellious” stage as I began to question things at the parish I attended, at my Confirmation classes, and in my family.  I went through a vitriolic apostasy phase.  At age thirteen I found myself sitting in the reference section of the city library reading extremely large, bound, hard copies of the Encyclopedia of Religion.  I am thankful to many friends who invited me to different churches and youth groups of various non-denominational and mainline Protestant churches.  That was my first experience with non-Catholic Christians and it felt foreign.  It was in that environment of welcome while feeling a sense of alienation that I had an epiphany about a fundamental aspect of my Christian faith - I could own it.  What did this Thai American have in common with Latin and German speaking, white, male monks like Luther or Augustine?  Same God, same faith, same family, same tradition.  I could own it like I owned my family tree. 

Through providential circumstances I also attended a small evangelical Christian college in the Midwest.  I was culture shocked in more ways than one.  As a native Southern Californian, I learned the definitions of the words “cold” and “autumn”.  I learned that “15 miles from downtown” meant something completely different in the Midwest than it did in LA.  I learned that evangelical Christian culture is a world of its own and also imperfect.  As I entered a new phase of apostasy with evangelical Christianity, I found myself making peace with my Catholic tradition.  In an evangelical environment that I wanted to disown, I found myself taking refuge in Catholic liturgy that spoke to the inexpressible mysteries of faith in my heart.   After much heartache and wrestling, I eventually made peace with my faith “families” both Catholic and Protestant.

The problem with this is that I feel like the child of divorced parents.  Along with my personal journey, my love of history makes me aware of centuries of bad blood between Catholics and Protestants, Protestants and Protestants, Christians and Jews . . . The list goes on.  I can’t disassociate myself from these traditions because I’ve been adopted into this family, and even if it’s not my fault that there are skeletons in the closet as well as skeletons paraded around public discourse, it’s my family and so I own it and take responsibility for it.  And when I examine my own life, I know that I’ve been guilty of closing the door to keep those skeletons from view.

This makes me all the more grateful to be here in this time and place.  Today, I write this from a hotel in Berlin, Germany.  I have the privilege and honor of serving on the Board for Wittenberg 2017, a movement dedicated to reconciliation through prayer, repentance and unity.  Rather than culminating in 2017, the goal is to be a springboard for healing and unity as we gather an international and ecumenical group comprised especially of Catholics, Protestants and Messianic Jews.

While there is a vast amount of diversity within the Church community, most everything that divided us in 1517 doctrinally is no longer an issue.  Yet the Church today faces a new set of issues.  It is still seen as fragmented rather than diverse, scandalized rather than transforming, hurtful rather than healing.

As we approach 2017 we are truly in a kairos moment.  In Greek, “kairos” refers to a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens.  Growing up, preachers referred to pregnant women about to give birth as a kairos moment.  Another example can be found in physics.  This morning I read an article about the physics lab in Cern, Switzerland.  Regarding the results of the Higgs mass measurement, there are scientists who believe that our state of the universe is at its least stable. That we are on the verge of a “phase change.”  The article made the analogy to “supercooled water poised to freeze or superheated water on the point of boiling.” Like the pregnant woman analogy, one minute you’re pregnant and the next minute you’re not.  That’s a kairos moment phase change.

What phase change will the Church undergo post-2017? That is a question I find myself dreaming about and imagining almost daily.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Patty's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/pattys-story.html

Forgiving Shavod

Quoting Steven McDonald, a NYPD officer shot by a teenager and paralyzed:

I forgave Shavod because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart.  Such an attitude would have extended my injury to my soul, hurting my wife, son, and others even more.  It's bad enough that the physical effects are permanent, but at least I can choose to prevent spiritual injury.


Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.180

Ears & Eyes

Perhaps, I thought, these good Protestant people could worship like angels, but I could not. Then I realized that they couldn't either. Their ears were using crutches but not their eyes. They used beautiful hymns, for which I would gladly exchange the new, flat, unmusical, wimpy "liturgical responses" no one sings in our masses—their audible imagery is their crutch. I think that in Heaven, Protestants will teach Catholics to sing and Catholics will teach Protestants to dance and sculpt.

Source: Peter Kreeft  -  Hauled aboard the Ark, http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm

Cardinal Dolan honors the Bruderhof

By the way, they brew the finest beer, make the best bratwurst, grow the most delicious produce, raise the finest turkeys, and bake the best pies, that this pro has ever savored...and they are a lot of fun!

Most of all, they show us that the Church of the Acts of the Apostles is still very much alive!

Source: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan  -  "Radical Discipleship Lived in Our Midst", Catholic New York, 27 April 2017, http://www.cny.org/stories/radical-discipleship-lived-in-our-midst,15453

Responding to Painful Experiences with Christians from Different Traditions

Reflection
When I was in college I had several confusing and painful experiences with Christians from a particular tradition that caused me to be judgmental and closed off to this tradition.  It took some time but God has redeemed these painful experiences and I now have wonderful friends who are part of this tradition and have received the gifts and strengths of this tradition I once rejected
 
Action:
Think of an experience in your life when you had an encounter with a brother or sister from another Christian tradition that you dismissed in your heart because they were ‘different’.  Ask God for forgiveness for any critical and competitive attitudes towards other Christian traditions and other brothers and sisters.  Ask God whom He might want you to receive that until now you have kept at a distance.
 
Prayer:
O God the Father of all, you ask every one of us to spread love and reconciliation where people are divided You open this way for us, so that the wounded body of Jesus Christ, your church, may be leaven of communion for the poor of the earth and in the whole human family.  Amen
-Brother Roger (founder of Taize)

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 1", 18 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-1

Contentiousness

The late Martin Luther King Jr. is famous for his peaceful protests amongst his enemies. In one of his essays, “Non-violoence: The Only Road to Freedom,” King says that the way to shalom “will be accomplished by persons who have the courage to put an end to suffering by willingly suffering themselves rather than inflict suffering on others.” This is one way of turning on the lights. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says, “for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). In the book Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, Brian Walsh and Steven Bouma-Prediger say this about contentiousness (which is the opposite of peaceableness): “Like a parasite living on a host, contentiousness feeds on rage and rancor, antipathy and animosity, to fan the fire of discord and accelerate the spiral of violence.” (214).

Source: Brian Walsh & Steven Bouma-Prediger  -  "Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement", p. 214, as quoted by Jeff Skeens in "The Beautiful Disruption of Peace", A2J Blog, Apprenticeship to Jesus, 7 Feb 2017, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/the-beautiful-disruption-of-peace

New Mexico State Capitol

Vince Torres, Executive Pastor at the Blaze Christian Fellowship, explains it this way, "What happened Sunday was nothing short of historic. Watching Catholics and Protestants come together in worship and prayer to our God was so powerful and unlike anything I have ever witnessed at our state capitol. The gathering served as proof that the gospel message of Jesus Christ has the power to transcend denominations and even politics. It was such an honor to be part of it. To God be all the glory." 

Source: Vince Torres  -  Vince Torres, Executive Pastor at the Blaze Christian Fellowship, quoted by Brian Alarid in "Christians Make History With Worship Event at New Mexico State Capitol", Charisma News, 7 March 2017, http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/63470-is-this-historic-worship-gathering-part-of-james-goll-s-prophesied-west-coast-rumble

David du Plessis

Meanwhile, two other men in the congregation had entered into a feud over a different matter, spewing bitterness and wrath over everything they came in contact with.  I felt that the Lord wanted them to help minister to the devil-afflicted brother, so I went to them.  "Our brother needs you and I'm going to minister to him," I said, "but I can't permit you to come to his house beacuse your attitude towards one another opens teh door for the enemy to attack you.  You must make peace between yourselves or you may become the next victims."
Knowing the urgency of the situation, they agreed to do something about their problem.  One came to me and said, "I want to change, but I won't go to him because he'll say that I surrendered.  But he could say the same thing about coming to me.  Would it be fair if we met somewhere at a neutral spot and you could come and help us?  I'm willing to sak him for forgiveness and also to forgive."
The other man accepted this proposal, and I arranged for them to get together at a big, lovely old house with a garden on one side and a beautiful orchard of fruit trees.  It was a warm, sunny day and we stood together under a large apricot tree.  Immediately the two began to stammer things like, "Brother, forgive me; I've been wrong."  I urged them not to argue about who was wrong.  "Just forgive," I said, "and don't go into too many details."

Source: David du Plessis  -  From "A Man Called Mr. Pentecost", as told to Bob Slosser, Ch. 10, pp 83-84

Father Symonds

Father Symonds was to be the first Catholic priest to give a sermon at Ballymena’s Methodist church for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 18-25.

“I love working here,” he said. “I’ve made great friendships, both within my own congregation and within the Protestant communities. Members of the Presbyterian Church have been particularly supportive of my ministry. I am convinced that I am doing what God has wanted me to do.”

Source: Catholic Review  -  "English priest receives awards for work in Northern Ireland", 5 Jan 2008, http://www.catholicreview.org/article/faith/vocations/english-priest-receives-award-for-work-in-northern-ireland

Patriarch Bartholomew

 According to a new report from the Union of Orthodox Journalists,      during his trip to Mt. Athos the previous month, Pat. Bartholomew attempted to convince several Athonite      abbots and monks that there are no dogmatic differences      between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and that reunion      with the Catholic church is inevitable.

   Pat. Bartholomew expressed his personal convictions during   a private talk at Pantocrator Monastery with the brethren   and guests of the monastery, including other Athonite   abbots. Eyewitnesses report that Pat. Bartholomew’s   security did not allow anyone to record the conversation.

   In his opinion, the division that now exists between   Orthodoxy and Catholicism is merely a matter of historical   events, not dogmatic differences.

   Catholics “are just as Christian as we are,”   Pat. Bartholomew emphasized, adding that the recent gift   of the relics of St. Peter from Pope Francis is proof of   the Catholic church’s nearness to Orthodoxy.

Source: OrthoChristian.Com  -  "Patriarch Bartholomew tells Athonites reunion with Catholics is inevitable, reports UOJ", Mt. Athos, November 27, 2019
https://orthochristian.com/125924.html

LaGrange

The words echoed through LaGrange's Warren Temple United Methodist Church Thursday night, where more than 200 people crammed into pews and folding chairs to remember Callaway.
It was a rare public reconciliation for a lynching, attended by black and white people, police, civilians and clergy, sitting and standing side by side. Programs ran out as attendance exceeded expectations, forcing people into an overflow room in a building next door.

Source: Emanuella Grinberg, CNN  -  "'Justice failed Austin Callaway': Town attempts to atone for 1940 lynching", Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, 28 Jan 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/us/lagrange-georgia-callaway-1940-lynching/index.html

Apologizing to Jesus for ...

ORIGINAL POST BY TRACI VANDERBUSH: 
Last night, I found myself on my knees, overwhelmed with a sense of a collective, heavenly cry. I physically felt the weight of it pressing me to kneel, and to join in with that cry.
You know that oft-repeated question before the holidays, "What do you want for Christmas?" This past year I've often felt like apologizing to Jesus because He is yet to get what He prayed for long, long ago when He prayed in John 17 for our oneness. He said, "So that the world may know that You sent Me." He told us, "I am in the Father. You are in Me. And I am in you" (John 14:20). What mind-boggling oneness!
Much of Christian America has elevated the inferior realm above the superior realm. We have shut off ears to hear the hearts of brothers and sisters around us, and we bicker, quick to give our opinions. All the while, heaven cries out for our oneness. Jesus asked for our oneness. "So that the world may know...." Do you want the world to know who He is?
So I knelt last night, hearing a collective cry of, "Father, hold me!" Cries from all over the world joined with the cry of heaven for unity. The whole world will never know who He is until we put Him on display...not with signs, not with programs, not with selfish agendas, not by our political stance, but by being in Him, walking more aware of His realm, the way He walked..."he went around doing good...releasing captives and prisoners and healing all who were oppressed." Thankfully, many, many people are doing that today. I marvel over friends of mine who risk their lives daily to feed, rescue, and extend the hands of Love to humanity. THAT is how the world will know.
RESPONSE BY THOMAS COGDELL:
George Miley once said, "Is it conceivable that the Father's answer to His Son's prayer before the cross will be ... 'No'?" This should encourage you, Traci, that we WILL be one, as the Father and the Son are one. The question is, as you so beautifully put it ... "How long?". Usually it's us crying out "How long, O Lord?" but in this case perhaps Jesus is crying out to us, "How long, O Church?" ... and we turn a deaf ear because we're so busy with the other things we think He cares about. This is a matter worthy of contemplation, grieving, and repentance ...

Source: Traci Vanderbush  -  Posted on FB 27 Jan 2017

It's a Process

Reconnection and Reconciliation is a process, not a one stop shop.

Getting a conversation started is a great place to begin. As with all relationship, we need to look at what happened; how close or far away you came to your and their expectations. Is it possible to continue the conversation again? Sometimes it is not. However, if the door is still open, move forward!

Reconnection and reconciliation is worth whatever hardship and time you may put into it.

Rebuilding bridges is never time wasted! Even if reconciliation does not happen, the attempt was made. It is easier to not regret trying that to regret not trying at all.

Source: Steven Lee  -  Posted on Facebook, 20 July 2018

St. John Maximovich of Shanghai and San Francisco

Adam and Eve, before their Fall, were in full accord and of common spirit with one another at all times. Having sinned, alienation was immediately sensed. Justifying himself before God, Adam blamed Eve. Their sin divided them and continues to divide all of mankind. Emancipated from sin, we approach God, and, filled with His grace, we sense our unity with the rest of mankind. Such unity is very imperfect and lacking, since in each person some portion of sin remains. The closer we approach God, the closer we approach each other, just as the closer rays of light are to each other, the closer they are to the Sun. In the coming Kingdom of God there will be unity, mutual love and concord. The Holy Trinity remains eternally unchanging, all-perfect, united in essence and indivisible.

Source: St. John Maximovich of Shanghai and San Francisco  -  "On the Holy Pentecost", quoted in Orthodox Church Quotes, http://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/tag/unity/

Baptist and Catholic ... together

A warm and friendly relationship between the two faith communities has developed. All agree that respect has been key. The Baptist and Catholic communities work hard to share the building and to be good neighbors. The Catholic congregation keeps the necessary items for Mass on carts at the back of the church. They set up for Mass and then meticulously return the space to its original configuration so that it’s ready for Baptist Sunday School and worship.
The Catholic and Baptist communities share more than just a church building. Friendships have been formed and strengthened. They pray for each other regularly and assist each other when needed. In January, the Catholic community treated their Baptist hosts to an afternoon meal and social time in appreciation for their hospitality.
“It’s [the fire] bringing the (larger) community closer together,” remarked Pastor Buck. “It has really been a blessing.”

Source: Frank Lesko  -  "After the Fire", Posted 3 Jan 2017 on Glenmary Home Missioners, http://www.glenmary.org/after-the-fire/

Your Church is Too Small

The vision Armstrong offers, however, perceives by exegesis that the unity of Christians, which Jesus prayed that the world might see, is neither unanimity nor uniformity nor union (as he neatly puts it) but loving cooperation in life and mission, starting from wherever we are at the moment and fertilized and energized by the creedal and devotional wisdom of the past.  Thus the internal unity of togetherness in Christ may become a credibility factor in the church's outreach, just as Jesus in John 17 prayed that it would.

Source: J.I. Packer  -  Forward from Your Church is Too Small, by John Armstrong, p. 11

Intra-Pentecostal Hostility ... and Reconciliation

I had all the sympathy one could hope for from that collection of Pentecostals, but they had very little sympathy for one another.  The clash occurred at the outset, the organizers against the non-organizers, the Americans against the Sweeds, and so on.
As for me, I was mellowed, a new man, so full of love from my new-found experience with forgiveness that I refused to be drawn into a quarrel.  Things were so tense and so filled with fears of loss of individuality, of conformity to man rather than conformity to the Lord, that some factions couldn't even eat together.  Their hostility had to be bridged.
I met privately with several of the brothers who trusted one another and still had some trust in me, posing a step towards reconciliation.  "Could some of you who are respected and influential suggest that the arguments stop, even for just a few hours, and that a committee be appointed for just one evening to seek solutions for these problems and bring forth a report?"
In desperation, these leaders agreed and the idea was posed to all factions. ... Finally it was agreed ... We secluded ourselves in one of the smaller meeting rooms of the conference center, slightly uneasy about our purpose as well as about one another ... I jumped right into the heart of the matter, turning first to the one who had been described as the Swedish champion fighter, Joseph Mattson-Boze.  "How far, Joe, would you go at working out a plan for us to meet in fellowship and to discuss our common problems, to try to help one another, without calling it an organization?  How much could you do without violating your conscience?"
There was a long silence.  Then he began, slowly at first, but warming to his vision for mutual assistance and fellowship without sacrificing autonomy.
When he finished, I turned to the Englishman, Fred Ssquire, who was the leading champion for organization.  He said quite simply and openly, "If that's what Joe feels will satisfy the Scandinavians - and I think he's made a fine proposal - then I'm sure that will satisfy me, and I'm confident it will satisfy the British and Americans."
And just that quickly, it was settled.  The two champion fighters were reconciled, finding that they were not nearly as far apart as their loud public words had made them seem.

Source: David du Plessis  -  From "A Man Called Mr. Pentecost", as told to Bob Slosser, Ch. 18, pp. 168-170