"Man and Woman, Created to be Worshippers"

This is a link to a lecture that was given at the Dominican House of Studies in DC last night on "Man and Woman, Created to be Worshippers." The whole video is online.

Enjoy. Notice that it outlined in a similar way to the original breakdown of the TOB.

You can check out more posts from the Dominicans here.

Union and Communion, PT I

This is another four part posting from St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue (also from, A Treatise of Discretion). This has the same format as the last set of posts:

"And they have a special participation with those whom they closey loved with particular affection in the world, with which affection they grew in grace, increasing virtue, and the one was the occasion to the other of manifesting the glory and praise of My name, in themselves and in their neighbor; and, in the life everlasting, they have not lost their love, but have it still, participating closely, with more abundance, the one with the other, their love being added to the universal good, and I would not that thou shouldest think that they have this particular good, of which I have told thee, for themselves alone, for it is not so, but it is shared by all proved citizens, My beloved sons."

St. Catherine's Vision of the Eschaton, PT IV

The second half of the quote ties very nicely in with the first half.

St. Catherine goes from talking about the soul bringing joy to the body, but here she mentions what will happen. The body will pass through walls? Is that part of the glorified body? While it's really cool, and while it'll be great to be neither injured by fire or water, we must look at something else here.

In this passage St. Catherine mentions that these graces come from Grace Incarnate. It is through Christ that the body can be glorified. There is nothing that we can do on earth, apart from Christ, that will aid us in walking through walls. It is a mystery, although a very cool one, to think that one day we could be able to do that. But, it is even more interesting to think about how grace could make this happen.

When we think of the Transfiguration, we must wonder what the amazing reality of grace occurred that Sts. Peter, James, and John were able to behold the glorified Christ. It is simply amazing. They were able to see firsthand what the Final Resurrection would bring. And even more amazing, they probably remembered that event at their deaths, holding great joy in what was to come.

This grace so affected the soul, that it led St. Peter to be crucified upside down. It led him to his Calvary to "share in the sufferings of Christ." Grace affects the lives of saints and helps bring about amazing miracles: St. Joseph Cupertino's elevation at the consecration, St. Gerard's instant conflagration, St. Teresa of Avila's ecstasy, St. Catherine of Siena's wedding ring from Christ, St. Pio's bilocation to save an Italian city, St. Paul's conversion, St. Therese's purity, and the Blessed Mother's life in and of itself. All of these, whether showy miracles or not are examples of grace affecting the body of a person, whether it is through miraculous external or internal instances.

Grace has the power to convert the greatest sinner. Grace has the power to actuate the glorification of the body. We must contemplate this great thought. Grace can actually alter the physical nature of things. That is amazing. Christ is Grace Incarnate. We can see that through the Transfiguration, where Grace was shown Incarnate. We will hopefully all experience this too in the Eschaton.

What an amazing thing to be Catholic.

Finally, if you noticed that there was a section missing from the second half, I took it out because it is a great prayer. This is what St. Catherine says:

"The eye of the intellect is not sufficient to see, nor the ear to hear, nor thy tongue to tell of the good of the Blessed. Oh, how much delight they have in seeing [God], who is every good!"

St. Catherine's Vision of the Eschaton, PT III

Here is the second half of the quote:

"For, as the soul is made immortal, stayed and established in Me, so the body in that union becomes immortal, and, having lost heaviness, is made fine and light. Wherefore, know that the glorified body can pass through a wall, and that neither water nor fire can injure it, not by virtue of itself, but by virtue of the soul, which virtue is of Me, given to her by grace, and by the ineffable love with which I created her in My image and likeness...Oh, how much delight they will have in being with the glorified body, though, not having that delight from now to the general Judgment, they have not, on that account, pain, because no bliss is lacking to them, the soul being satisfied in herself, and, as I have told thee, the body will participate in this bliss."

St. Catherine's Vision of the Eschaton, PT II

We can find great wisdom in this amazing quote. Now, at the same time, we must not think that St. Catherine is in any way saying the body isn't good. Rather, she's arguing that beacuse of the soul, the body has meaning.

At first glimpse, this might seem to contradict JPII's assesment, that the body creates a theology of its own. Afterall, he does say, "At the Incarnation, the body entered theology through the main door." Over and over again, he mentions that the body creates and reveals a theology. "The body, and only the body, can make visible the invisible, the spiritual and the divine" (new translation). This might make one person think that it might be the other way around: the body gives reason for the soul to exist.

That would be wrong. We can look to death to find the reason why. At death, the body and soul are separated. The soul leaves the body, and longs for the return of the body at the Final Resurrection, as St. Catherine states. Yet, the body does present a theology, nonetheless. What we must understand though, is that while the body presents a theology and makes visible the invisible, it only does so because of the presence of the soul.

Angels are spiritual beings with no bodies. They are beautiful in the eyes of God. Up until the Resurrection, they were held higher than sinful man. Yet, thanks to the Word made flesh, the body is given a new dignity, and glorified man is held higher than the angels. If it isn't so, then Christ must've been confused since he came as a man. The Incarnation alters all of history. It affects all of creation, especially the crowning joy - man. Thanks to the Incarnation, "the body enters theology through the main door." It is the Word being made into flesh that does this. It is the soul that gives joy to the body. Not the other way around. While our bodily actions do affect the state of our souls, i.e. virtuous acts or sinful ones, it is the state of the soul that directly affects the state of our body. If our soul leaves our bodies, we die. That's what happens at death (I guess that "Death and the Theology of the Body" could be a post in and of itself). Yet, we must remember that the body and soul are so intricately intertwined that as St. Catherine says, "The soul will give of her abundance, and will re-clothe herself on the Last Day of Judgment, in the garments of her own flesh."

This will bring great joy to heaven.

St. Catherine's Vision of the Eschaton, PT I

This is the first of a four part posting on St. Catherine of Siena's Description of the Eschaton from The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (A Treatise of Discertion). The first part is a quote, the second is the explanation of that quote, the third is the second half of the quote, and the fourth is the explanation of that half. Enjoy part i :

"They [the just] have a desire too, to regain the gifts of their body, but this desire does not afflict them, as they do not actually feel it, but they rejoice in tasting the desire, from the certainty they feel of having it fulfilled. Their desire does not afflict them, because, though they have it not yet fulfilled, no bliss is therby lacking in them. Wherefore they feel not the pain of desire. And think not, that the bliss of the body after the resurrection gives more bliss to the soul, for, if this were so, it would follow that, until they had the body, they had imperfect bliss, which cannot be, because no perfection is lacking to them. So it is not the body that gives bliss to the soul, but the soul will give bliss to the body, because the soul will give of her abundance, and will re-clothe herself on the Last Day of Judgment, in the garments of her own flesh which she had quitted."

On the Baptism of the Lord

In today's Office of Readings, we read:

"He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water...Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him." (From a Sermon by Saint Gregory of Nazianzus)

Here, we are given an interesting thought. Christ sanctifying the world, not just humanity? When we think about it, original sin was such a disorder to God's creation that it affected all of creation. Man's sin altered the creation of God, and thus God had to alter it back to its original state.

In the Baptism of the Lord, we see that. Just as the Easter cander is dunked into the Holy Water font at the Easter Vigil, so too is Christ sent into the waters of the Jordan to sanctify them for all of time and eternity. Christ's salvation was so great that it affected all of creation in some way or another.

On the Epiphany

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, and in light of that we can notice that Jesus was brought the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These are traditionally used to represent his role as priest (frankincense), prophet (myrrh), and king (gold).

Priest - Bl. Marmion tells us that at Christ's coming, all of salvation history changed. Now, God worked through man. That is the power of the Incarnation. That is the necessity of the priest in aiding the spiritual journey. Christ established the priesthood at the Last Supper for an important reason. He gave it to us so that we might have access to the spiritual bounty that He had given us through His life, passion, death, and resurrection.

Prophet - Mary uttered the words "All nations will call me blessed." The saints of the Church tell us that to go through Christ, it is easiest to go through Mary. Thus, to understand Christ's role as a prophet, we can look to Mary. We see in the Blessed Mother's actions and words, a call to obey Christ: "Do whatever he tells you." This is her prophetic utterance that we are to follow. We are both to "do whatever he tells [us]" and to show others that there is great joy in that. Our whole life should be one that prophesies the greatness of the Lord. It should be a life of constant evangelization. It should be a life of the Eucharist, one where we are transformed to be Christ. But, we cannot stop there. We are to bring that love and joy to others through our thoughts, words, and actions. Constant conversion is the life of the Christian.

King - Christ came as the King of Kings. His reign is not of an earthly one but that of a heavenly one. In this we should not forget that all our thoughts, words, and actions are bound up with our path to salvation. If we commit acts that separate the unity of our body and soul, then we are acting against the Lord's call to virginity for all of us, virginity in the sense of the union of body and soul. It's all about His kingdom, not our: "What good is it to gain the world, if you lose your soul?"

On a different note altogether, we can also look at the gifts themselves as something tangible to represent the spiritual, a sort of primordial sacrament. The kings, in offering these gifts, are giving a great precursor to the sacraments of the Church. In offering these gifts, they are contributing to the whole of salvation history in a very special way. Thus, they are given a very special feast.