Translator Really Needed?

Sad to learn that the U.S. lost in the baseball world games. A tip o' the cap to the fine Mexican team. In the article linked above we find:

"We came here to win, and that is how we performed this evening," Mexico manager Paquin Estrada said through a translator.

Baseball cliches are such that I don't think a translator is required.

Mattingly's Article on Lack of Penitence

"She's always late to chapel, but her penitence is real."

So go the words of the Sound of Music tune, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"

And how do you solve the problem of modern Catholicism, i.e. the lack of penitence? Maria's situation is unbearable for the modern Catholic in which there can be no serial sin since there are no "bad Catholics". To identify oneself as a serial sinner in the modern culture is so difficult because we are taught to embrace and love what we are good at. If we're not "good at" Christianity, we tend to either reject it completely or lower the standards to the point where we are superficially good at it.

So many sins of our time are of a chronic nature and those don't lend themselves to repentance. A person caught in a pornography addiction or in a gay relationship or co-habitating will repent with great difficulty simply because to admit it would mean drastic, life-altering change, change that is nearly unimaginable since it would involving living without either the crutch of pornography or the companionship of another person. Anger, by contrast, is a sin that is easily repented because our imagination allows us to believe we will not be angry in the future. But to confess a sin in which we have no plans of avoiding is, to put it mildly, problematical. Yet everyone of us can probably relate to Maria's plight - trying to repent of a sin we are unwilling to give up.

Parade Thoughts

Twas a crisp, sunny St. Patrick's Day, perfect for a parade, but I'd lost track of the time and hustled there late and missed about half of it. The most grevious loss was the beloved Ancient Order of Hibernians, Patrick Pearse Division. I'm not a joiner by nature, but if asked they would prove the exception. The other Columbus area Irish group is the Shamrock Club, and I was surprised to hear that their "Irishman of the Year" was Judge John Connor, a judge who has been arrested for DUI eight times and convicted thrice. He also made the O'Reilly show (Bill called him "America's worst judge", which, if you think about it, is really saying something) because he allowed a man who raped two children off with only probation. Connor excused the man by saying "had a disease" like himself.

In contrast, the Ancient Order of Hiberians usually pick some soul devoted to charitable causes while, at the same time, taking care of his eight or nine children. I kid thee not, some of these Irishmen or Irishwomen of the year get more done before 9am than I do in a year.

So I took my place on the parade route next to a large group of children, eyeing the competition. I had size on them if not speed. Shortly thereafter the local firemen came by throwing out candy and we were off! One threw chocolate wrapped in gold paper and I dove, ala Pete Rose, head first in order to beat a young ruffian bent on the same object. I came up battered and bruised but a chocolate coin richer. (Of course I jest, I made no mad scrambles for any candy but was amused by the kids.)

It's interesting that politicians are so prevalent in the parade. They apparently think this use of their time is worthwhile, which means that they believe that some people vote based simply on the fact that they saw this person in the parade. Certainly doesn't give democracy a good name, does it? I was amused that none of them identified their party affliliation on their placards. No need to turn off a potential voter, 'eh?

St. Patrick's Day

We of Irish descent today celebrate God's use of St. Patrick to deliver us (mostly) from our pagan waywardness. A fun exercise, for cradle Catholics, is to try to figure your "spiritual genealogy" - who passed the Faith to your ancestors (assuming they weren't converts). For the Irish, it's a pretty good bet that it's traceable to St. Patrick. Rarely is it that clear. But I have a couple great-grandparents from Baden, in Germany, so I went to the Catholic Encyclopedia and found the following:

The southern part of the country received the Faith about 610 from St. Columbanus and his pupil St. Gall, who were followed a hundred years later by St. Pirminius. St. Trudpert labored in the Breisgau, and St. Kilian in the north-eastern part of the territory.

In other words, Irish missionaries were responsible. St. Columbanus and St. Gall went to a religious school begun by St. Finian of Clonard. St. Finian had been placed, from an early age, under the care of St. Fortchern. St. Fortchern was the Bishop of Trim, Ireland who had been converted by St. Loman. St. Loman was a nephew of St. Patrick, and was consecrated bishop by today's saint.

Interesting Excerpts...

...from Philbrick's "The Heart of the Sea". He writes of the effects of a lack of food, such as lethargy and irritability. Concerning a 1945 experiment in food deprivation he quoted one chronicler of the study who said, "Many of the so-called American characteristics - abounding energy, generosity, optimism - become intelligible as the expected behavior response of a well-fed people."

Philbrick writes that many participants were shocked at how coarse they became during the study:

A majority of the volunteers were members of the Church of the Brethren..."they marveled at how thin their moral and social veneers seemed to be."

I'm surprised that they were surprised. Fasting, if nothing else, teaches how much of our "goodness" is simply bodily satisfaction mistaken as such.

In the Latest NRODT....

Rich Lowry sounds awfully adult:

[Y]ou can already hear people thinking “never again.” Not just never again fight a war for democracy in the Middle East, but never again fight an insurgency.

This replicates almost exactly the reaction to Vietnam. The post-Vietnam Powell doctrine — calling for simple political objectives and the mustering of overwhelming force before launching a war — was meant to keep the U.S. from getting embroiled in another Vietnam-like insurgency. Who wouldn’t prefer to avoid that? But this is where “to hell with them” hawks suffer from their own naivety. Wars rarely line up with your preferences. The first Gulf War met the specifications of the Powell doctrine. No subsequent American war has, from Somalia, to Bosnia and Kosovo, through the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq...Insurgencies can be beaten, and it can be worth it to fight against them. To say “never again” is to give our enemies a road map to deterring us by threatening guerrilla war. It would limit unnecessarily our options in the world. Not all insurgencies look like Iraq. We defeated one by proxy in El Salvador during the Cold War. We are more than holding our own against one in Afghanistan right now.

~
First, the contention that Islam is a religion of peace. Even if this seems a polite fiction, it is an important one. Influential Muslims believe it to be true, and it is crucial that they prevail in the Muslim struggle for self-definition. Rather than scorning them, we should be doing what we can to support the likes of King Abdullah of Jordan, who has launched an anti-terror initiative, and Iraq’s Ayatollah Sistani, who has been consistent in condemning terrorism. Whatever the theological niceties of Islam, religious cultures take on different colorations across time....We should want to do all we reasonably can to create the conditions in which the positive elements within Islam flower.

Various

Remembering the heroic qualities of Pope JP II, there is one often missed: his simple ability to listen, ad nauseum. There is perhaps no more impressive feat than his chairing interminable bishopric synods and enduring thousands of speeches (ala the senators at the Alito hearings, though the bishops hopefully exercise more intelligence, tact and holiness.) But I say "Santo Subito!" just for his patience in meetings! Make him the patron saint of business men and women?

~
The Crunchy Con debate is as fascinating as it is no-holds-barred; I haven't been this entertained since the old SNL skit with the tagline, "Jane, you ignorant slut!". The subject is serious though, and what makes this interesting is that there are people I respect on both sides which is an increasingly rare occurrence. The only honesty you see in debate nowadays is intra-party. Despite my contra-Crunchy Con general disposition, the retorts and responses from the Crunchies are often potent - it's like two really good lawyers on opposite sides well-arguing their case. Was it a low blow for Maggie Gallagher to bring Rod Dreher's religious conversion into it?

From a Christian perspective, grace builds on nature so I'm sympathetic to Rod's desire to "build up nature" by promoting more beauty in the physical environment and delivering good food to the ol' physical plant. If I'm eating pork rinds and elephant ears all day, I can hardly expect grace, i.e. God, to overcome the psychic ills which I am perpetuating on myself, can I?

Our neighbor's choices obviously affect us, and not just in the obvious situations of, say, an increased need for health care or, architecturally-speaking, pink front doors. It's sad that my buddy Ham o' Bone cannot buy the 60 m.p.g. Geo Metro he so adores, the stripped down model for $6,000 that he has driven for over fifteen years. An economy predicated on two incomes means that prices for near-necessities like cars may not be easily purchased by a single-incomer with four kids who wants to retire at 45 or write the Great American Novel - whichever comes first.

~
Amy "Emmy Lou" Welborn pointed out how irrational Garry Wills is when it comes to the subject of things papal, writing that he seems to consider there is a "total disjunction between 'Popes' and 'People of God' as if both exist in a vacuum." Cardinal Newman was certainly right when he said men govern themselves by their sympathies, not their intellect. Even in someone as smart as Wills! How counterintuitive, like a great athlete who refuses to rely on his athletic prowess when encountering a physical obstacle. And speaking of popes, an article asks: "Does Islam need a Luther or a Pope?"

~
What bibliophile worthy of the name would not experience a sharp intake of breath when first encountering this lovely site?

Objectifying Pretty Women

Lascivious, they were,
brutes who compared the curves
of cars to those of girls and
would she innocently
bend to pick something up
their minds raced like the
revved-up cars they worshipped.

Different, he thought himself,
in his reverence for a maiden's eyes
and long, straight, beckoning hair
eyelashes and lipstick and
bangs of a different sort even
though, in the end,
were they not still his idol?

The Holy Spirit & the Deists

A clockmaker God He was
they claimed,
for they didn't believe
in the Holy Spirit
the Sanctifier who finishes
the Creator's work.

They didn't believe,
therefore, in Jesus,
who promised to send the Spirit
and not leave us orphans.

They didn't believe,
therefore in the Father,
for we know not the Father
except in the Son.

They didn't believe,
therefore in God,
at least the God who exists.

Nail, Hammer, Head

I feel suitably chastened for not visiting Kathy Shaidle more often since I almost missed this high-larious gem:

"I complained about it last year, and here we go again: I'm up for Best Blog by a Woman over at the Catholic Blog Awards. I will lose (deservedly) to Amy Welborn, as usual, the Nancy Kerrigan to my Tonya Harding. Some categories I'd like to see next year:

* The Spot the Convert Award for compulsive use of those two rhetorical giveaways: "the Holy Father" and "our Blessed Mother"

* The Purple Sacred Heart, for anyone who can translate Disputation's posts into normal English

* The Inklings Schpinklings (You're From Iowa, Ferchisakes) Award for Anglophiliac Avoidance, presented to the blogger who goes a whole year without quoting Chesterton, Lewis or Belloc"

Found via this short alternative history of the world, also humorous. Given humor's raffish reputation, Kathy's comment about Amy being the Nancy Kerrigan to her Tonya Harding was telling.

Maggie Gallagher...

...has a blistering retort to crunchy conservatism:

If you want the key to Rod and his fellow crunchy cons, I think it is in statements like, "Beauty is more important than efficiency." Well, gee sure, but only if you live in a society where the great public health threat to the poor is obesity...

Tommy DiMaria, World War II vet, retired Grumman aircraft worker, describes his first glimpse of his own personal paradise, carved out of Long Island potato fields: "Down the street is a Quonset hut with a long line of men waiting out front, half of them still in uniform. Waiting for jobs, I figure, like in the Depression ... here we go again." Finally it dawns on him: "What these men are lined up for isn't work, it's homes!"

Kathy Shaidle weighs in.

This Just In...

George W. Bush was blamed for the pornography culture by two of a panel of experts discussing "The Pornification of America", televised on C-Span over the weekend. One sexpert explained that due to the repressive, conservative Bush Adminstration, many seek surcease via pornography. This panel just made every parodist's job a wee bit harder.

~

Bill O'Reilly praised a NY Times series on Iraq that detailed the events leading up to the war. He quoted Michael Gordon's piece about how top Iraqi generals were shocked to learn that Hussein had no WMDs, just three months before the war began. (A columnist in the Columbus Dispatch recently bragged how the Left was right about WMDs; the Iraqi generals apparently should've consulted Michael Moore and Howard Dean for their Iraq intelligence needs.)

What O'Reilly doesn't realize is that by praising Michael Gordon he is not encouraging accurate and honest reporting. Poor Mr. Gordon is surely getting roasted by his Times colleagues, the attention being similar to being called "a good person" by Adolf Hitler. The type of reporting done by the Times is the sort that is invaluable when not biased and can be gained nowhere else, certainly not in the blogosphere. So Bill, let's not antagonize them with Factor "attaboys".

~

Speaking of the Times articles, it was sobering to read - finally - what Hussein was apparently thinking in keeping the world in doubt as to the WMDs. It seems to have come down to this:

He never took the threat of a U.S. invasion seriously. It was simply not in his wheelhouse. The U.S. would obviously never take the casualties that a ground war would involve, or so he thought even up to our entry into Baghdad.

What he did take seriously was the threat of internal strife and/or Iran making moves. So he wanted something called "deterence by doubt". Let Iran - and Bush - think he had WMDs.

Our unpredictability, in Hussein's mind at least, did not extend to our willingness to use force in enforcing the Gulf War resolutions. I really don't see how we could've communicated it to him; it seems obvious in hindsight not only that he didn't have WMDs but that we would've never found out that he didn't have WMDs short of a ground war to Baghdad. Greater patience would've only confirmed to him that the U.S. was not serious.

~

"Nobody Puns It Better" - possible title of a Scott Hahn biography?

~
For our Spectacularly Misguided File, to be placed next to Tom Cruise and Muslim Jihadists, comes this photo:

I expect that one reason for the astonishing popularity of the imposition of ashes is that so many people want to be reminded of their mortality on Ash Wednesday. They powerfully resist efforts to turn the Ash Wednesday ritual into yet another “celebration.” It is a day of solemn remembrance beginning the Lenten season of mortification and self-denial on the way to Easter...People intuitively know that we should not “rush to Easter.” - Fr. Neuhaus of "First Things"

I've been very slowly working my way through "Charles Dickens, The Last of the Great Men" by G.K. Chesterton - reading it alongside other books for quite awhile now. It's so rich that I'm enjoying it more this way than plugging through it quickly like so many others. Chesterton has a masterful understanding of human nature. ..

"[Dickens] was popular in a sense of which we moderns have not even a notion. In that sense there is no popularity now. There are no popular authors today. We call such authors as Mr. Guy Boothby or Mr. William Le Queux popular authors. But this is popularity altogether in a weaker sense; not only in quantity, but in quality. The old popularity was positive; the new is negative. There is a great deal of difference between the eager man who wants to read a book, and the tired man who wants a book to read. A man reading a Le Queux mystery wants to get to the end of it. A man reading the Dickens novel wished that it might never end... In short, the Dickens novel was popular, not because it was an unreal world, but because it was a real world; a world in which the soul could live.

- Love2Learn Mom of "Studeo.blogspot.com"

An agrarian way of life isn't for everyone (it's probably not for me!), but the more important point is that it is for someone — Victor Davis Hanson's ten percent, perhaps — and when it disappears that disappearance comes at great cost to society. It's similar, I think, to the traditional Christian attitude toward monasticism, poverty, celibacy, and so on — which wasn't that every rich man needed to sell all he had and enter a monastery, but that some did. Christ told the rich young man to give away all his possessions and follow him, but he didn't tell that to everyone he met — it was a specific mission for a specific person, or kind of person. At the moment, though, that mission seems to be vanishing into the shadows of American Christendom, forced out of the limelight by megachurches, bestselling pop theologians, and preachers for whom a large congregation and a swank auditorium are the only necessary signs of God's grace. - Ross Douthat on "Crunchy Blog"

I also found myself thinking, this dude really believes in the power of prayer. I mean, most Christians I know believe in it, but there’s believing and believing, if you know what I mean...In my experience prayer has done good things for me, but they always seem to be interior sorts of things, so it’s difficult to say whether it’s really God intervening or just a weird but sometimes fruitful mind game that I play with myself. And there does seem to be a tendency among more intellectual Christians to see prayer as a bit more like meditation than like an action that can effect change in far-distant places like Vietnam. I don’t know exactly how VP believes that prayer works, but maybe only by inviting the action of the Spirit through prayer do we even know how to solve problems like that, or do others listen to us. - Camassia

My interest in Catholic writers during what I consider the New Golden Age of Western Literature (1920 - 1970) led me to [the Modern Library anthology of T.S. Eliot's writings]. I was not disappointed. You may not agree with my designation or its range of years but you will perhaps agree with me that, in a macro sense, this prior era is our nearest peak in literature. It was modernity barely alive after the coronary thrombosis of World War I. American and British education just prior to this gilded age had been at its peak in terms of quality if not quantity, and a high school graduate from 1890 to 1920 would have been a master of English, a worthy apprentice of Latin and Greek, and more than a little acquainted with French. Compared to today's students, most of them would appear to be polyglots....By devaluing the notes, Karr fashions her analysis using a favorite tool of the postmodernist: linguistic theory that places the word on the page above the intent of the author. She makes it clear that, for her, "The Waste Land" is a much better poem without bothering too much with what Eliot was trying to communicate. - Ham o' Bone o' "soceng.blogspot.com"

The practical problem with universalism, of course, is that it leads to antinomianism: If there’s no ultimate reason to believe or behave a certain way, then do whatever feels right. You might find other, mundane, reasons to behave properly–the Stoics did, after all–but the ultimate reasons for doing so are gone. As for its theoretical merits, I simply don’t get it. The gospels and church tradition seem to condemn unequivocally any such proposition. The formidable von Balthasar, however, flirted with the doctrine (or, more precisely, with the “hope”), so I don’t feel qualified to offer much commentary. - Eric Scheske of "Daily Eudemon"

In a not-so-subtle bit of apologetics, the U.S. Catholic Bishops list the Bible in the sidebar under "Church Documents." - Terrence Berres

But if God loves, then His love isn't just human love ramped up a million times, or even to infinity, any more than His existence is just a superduper form of our existence. It isn't just present in the things of creation as seasoning or leaven. It isn't really present in a manner similar to anything other than itself. It's odd that something so explosive, something that simply replaces everything that is not itself, should be so easy to overlook, to ignore, and to forget. Love is weird stuff. - Tom of Disputations

One of my college history professors, a socialist, said, "If you want to know how a man thinks, take a look at his world when he was 22." Believing Catholics under-forty like yours truly have the sense that we survived an unnecessary, decadent gauntlet created by the generation or two that went before us. Want to know why we get agitated over things like liturgical "creativity" and sit-cross-legged catechesis? Because (1) we know the agenda behind it, and (2) we've seen it work like faith-repellent on our brothers, sisters, friends, and classmates. - Rich of "Ten Reasons"

And then Teresa [in Ecstasy], being watched, in what I wonder is a sly comment by Bernini on precisely the relationship I'm contemplating, between art, spirit, observation and participation, by Cardinals and others from the side. They sit in witness, as we do, to the ecstasy of the moment and the perfection of its expression, but they do, indeed, simply sit and discuss amongst themselves, just as those beyond the chapel rail do in the flesh, pointing and marveling, perhaps even reading the excerpts from the Life that are helpfully provided in cards in front of the work...but at how much distance? We could turn around in S. Maria della Vittoria and find ourselves in the Real Presence who pierced her heart with love. Where am I then? Am I still just watching? Or am I stepping closer, with the pilgrims come to the Virgin, with Matthew, answering the call, or even yearning for even a glimpse of what I can so easily just observe in the words and depiction of the body blow of Divine Love? - Amy Welborn

The Anti-"Drama Queen"

She wasn't a martyr. She didn't have a golden tongue. She didn't begin a religious order or write the words that would eventually become Scripture. There was no dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus. And yet she is the Christian held in the greatest esteem by the most Christians, and has been at least since the 3rd or 4th century. But the lack of drama around her is sort of the point isn't it? That it's not about her, and therefore not about us? She merely obeyed God and we are blessed, just as with Abraham. John the Baptist said, "I must decrease that You might increase" and yet with Mary, the mother of God, there was no need for decrease; she was already "full" of grace.

I think some of my evangelical buddy's discomfort with Catholic and Orthodox attitudes towards Mary is less about devotion to her, though I could be wrong, than seeing the doctrines about her as the "smoking gun" disproving other Catholic and Orthodox teachings. He specifically points out about Mary remaining a virgin after Christ's birth given the scriptural passages about "brothers" of Jesus. But on a personal level I find my devotion to her a sort of spiritual thermometer. Her very invisibility is a mark of her greatness and to the extent I appreciate her I also more fully appreciate the Eucharist, which is also a place where I meet the God who whispers.

Scriptural Symbols

As a child and young adult I never really seemed to appreciate Scriptural symbolism. I didn't much appreciate symbolism of any kind, being mostly interested in the quickest way between two points - i.e. if Melville meant certain objects in Moby-Dick as symbols, why didn't he plainly tell us what he meant? Why did he want me to work for what he could've just said in plain English? No wonder "Plain Speaking" Harry Truman was an early favorite president of mine.

I'm not sure what led me, in my early to mid twenties, to begin to savor symbolism. Maybe just growing up. But I find it delightful in Scripture, where it is as if God has written love letters with some words in invisible ink. And when the ink is revealed it thrills.

For example, Jesus was gone for three days before being found in the Temple - and he was also gone for three days in the tomb. Was he preparing Mary? Was he reminding her that even when He seems to disappear all is not lost? Another example is Mark 9:13, where Scott Hahn writes "As Elijah suffered at the hands of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, so John the Baptist suffered matrydom by Herod Antipas and his mistress Herodias." Origen wrote, concerning the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8), that Christ "led the disciples up the mountain after six days to show that we must rise above our love for created things, which were made by God in six days, to enter on the seventy day into the vision of Christ's glory."

It always helps to read Scripture in context. I'd always thought that the Lord's warning that "those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory" referred to those ashamed over doctrines like the Resurrection, the Eucharist, etc...- ie. those things which the Greeks laughed about when Paul preached to them. But the context is chilling. Following on the heels of his instruction about the need that we carry our cross, it's our unwillingness to sacrifice that is counted as "shame" . Jesus says we cannot be like "this generation" where the generation of Christ's time sounds remarkably similar to our own. The Jerome Biblical Commentary says, "Based on texts like Dt 32:5 and Ps 95:10, 'this generation' became an execratory term in the NT for all those who distrust Jesus and seek unmistakable signs of his divine mission." In our society, where choice and options are king, Jesus is is methodical about removing options, telling us that we have no option but to follow Him for He is where our life is: "For what will a man give in exchange for his life?" (Mark 8:37). Indeed.