A Thought for Your Consideration...

A thought for your consideration from Mark Shea

Consider, in a *single year* 1998, the Dept of Justice listed 103,600 cases of sexual abuse in public schools. From 1950 to 2003, there were 10,667 reported cases of clergy sexual abuse. That's 10 times as much in one year as there were in 53 years in the Church...

Now the article was about special laws directed only to the Catholic Church but it does give one some sense of perspective.There is never a good excuse for clergy sexually abusing the faithful but the bottom line is that your children and loved ones are very much safer from sexual predators in church then they are at school.

Sad, though, that we even have to play this kind of numbers game.

And now to Holy Week...

Holy Week is a few short hours away and the most glorious night of the world awaits.

For a week the hearts of the faithful and even of some of the faithless will be touched by the drama as it unfolds. We will walk in sign and symbol, liturgy and sacrament, with Jesus towards the cross and empty tomb; a global event, a movement of the hearts of people expressed in rituals that cross the centuries expressed in a chorus of human languages. And yet each one who observes this week is touched in their own unique way. The sights, the smells, the words, and the swirl of events express both the way this Jesus has touched the world and the souls of those who encounter him.

Into this sacred intensity the faithful now begin to draw in body and soul, heart and intellect. For a small moment we who can appreciate it see time in some sense suspended and the long ago made present. We are here but not here, there but present in the world we know. In a profound way the upper room, the garden, the betrayal, and the suffering reach out from their place in history and join our brief moments.

In the end there is Pascha, late into the evening, moving towards the dawn. We stand in sacred vigil and share in holy light. All that has come before is part of us now and the future is as well.
Because in the hope of that glorious night we see ourselves one day freed from death and everything becomes different, holy, and new.

Judo holiness...

To be Christian is to struggle with the reality of sin, the knowledge that somewhere deep inside of us there is a profound disconnect between the way we ought to be and the way we are that manifests itself as a kind of murder against ourselves, each other, the structures we live in, and the very creation itself.

I am no master at dealing with sin, my life is more a testimony to surviving it through grace over and above vanquishing it, but there is a little wisdom acquired in pain that may be worth sharing.

They say we must wrestle against sin but in truth it may be more like judo. Let me explain. Part of the genius of judo and other martial arts is the ability to turn the force of an opponent against them. The force of an opponent's actions, when properly handled, can actually magnify the strength and impact of the person defending against it.

Temptation and sin are often effective because they touch something inside of us, a place where we are vulnerable and needy, and therefore it has impact and can induce us to actions that would even repulse us were all things the way they should be. These needy and vulnerable spots are unique to us reflecting our life experiences, our psychology, and perhaps even our genetics to some extent. Regardless, they exist and Satan, through trial and error, is aware of them like any good enemy knows a combatant's weak spots.

But there lies the potential solution and its about a simple question people don't often ask. Why is this temptation, this sin so powerful for me? What does it reveal about me and where I need to grow and change and work to eliminate its strength? Why is it that say, bank robbery has very little power over me as a temptation but lust is strong? Why do I find myself doing almost anything to get approval but could care little for doing someone personal harm?

This may sound like a radical thing but perhaps we should, with good help, not just drown out our temptations and sins but listen to what they reveal about us and then in coming to that knowledge use it to correct the part of us that makes us vulnerable to its charm.

Some studies, for example, show that for the most part men do not commit adultery purely for the sake of sex but rather because there is a lack of intimacy or depth in their marriage. A man seriously tempted towards this sin has two choices. Either he gives in or for a brief moment he asks "Why do I feel like I want to do this?" If he probes just a little, especially with Godly counsel, these underlying vulnerabilities and needs will quickly surface and if he wishes he can address them and fix the real problem without devastating himself or his family. The temptation reveals a place in his life where grace and healing need to be and thus lays the basis for its own mangement and eventual demise.

Now there is no quick fix in any of this. Our wounds are often deep and our vulnerabilities complex but somewhere between rashly acting out or killing ourselves with guilt over the dark and weak spots in our lives that are so vulnerable to attack there is a place where we can learn to hear what they say to us and by grace take steps to shore up the levee and weather the storm.

Politics and the person...

I admit to a certain amount of fatigue at the behavior of some of our politicians and the way they conduct the important business of state. And increasingly I believe I'm not alone.

There seems to be too few genuine practioners of statecraft and way too many selfish, ambitious, shallow, and deviant personalities in the realms of power. Perhaps they reflect who we've become. Perhaps they are the emanations of the perpetual adolescence of the 60's brought to the halls of power. Perhaps power drives even the best of us to a certain madness.

Regardless, can anyone really say they are passionate about the affairs of state in a good and wholesome way, a way empowered by nobility of cause and desire for the common good? When is the last time anyone in public office inspired our highest ideals rather than catered to our basest fears?

All we have are sound bites, inflammatory words designed not to better the body politic but rather inflame our basic and dark passions. There is no sense of nation, only of power. There is no call to higher things, only the desire to rule others and enrich personal fortunes. Politics has become the end, not the means, the goal, not the process, and common sense and the general welfare have become the victims of it all.

This crisis in our politics is often portrayed by the partisans as a crisis of ideology. Elect us, they say, and all will be better because we have better ideas, a better plan, better goals. The true nature of the crisis, though, is personal and moral and spiritual.

No structure of government can rise above the quality of the character of the people within it. Good civil order can only come from people who are capable of transcending themselves, their times, and their baser instincts for the sake of the common good.Lacking that they will poison whatever institutions they inhabit and their brokenness will infect the culture as well.

I believe this is why St. Paul asks us to pray for the civil authorities and why we who are Orthodox still do every time we celebrate our Liturgy. Everything flows from the heart and unless the heart is committed to perpetual change towards the good all else is futile. Everything flows from the building not of better forms and structures but from the construction, by the grace of God, of a better person.

This is the unique role and calling of the Church. We are called not so much to be a political entity as we are called to enable the betterment of the human person who then touches everything in their lives, including politics, with the grace they have been given.

There is no argument for quietude in this, we must profess and be what our faith tells us to be. But without transformed lives making a real difference in the real world all we have are claims, ideas, propositions, and in one way we are no better than any interest group already competing for a snout at the public trough.

A changed heart remains the greatest political force of all. Perhaps its time to think about that again.