Sunday, December 10, 2006
CATHOLIC CULTURE
Mitchell Kalpakgian reviews Paul Horgan's Catholic short story "One Red Rose for Christmas" in the current NOR. A portion of his review applies to Catholicism across the board, not just to the story. I thought it needed to be blogged. Kalpakgian writes:
God is always mysteriously present in daily life--hidden but present; God answers prayers and gives signs; God's grace comes through the ordinary persons in our lives--family, friends, colleagues; God can bring good out of evil, and there is nothing that cannot be turned to God's glory; God performs miracles, and nothing is impossible for God; sadness and tragedy must never lead to despair or a loss of faith; God expects all who love and follow Him to bear crosses; coincidence is just a nickname for divine providence, and, in Chesterton's words, the more coincidental things seem, the less coincidental they are; God loves and cares for all human beings and manifests the same divine favors to a wayward child that He grants to a devout mother superior.
That is a perceptive description of what it means to be Catholic. God is part of simply everything. Whatever we can discern God would not be part of is what we must avoid. The Trinity is the standard by which all decisions are made, and all actions are judged. Relationship with God is daily--moment to moment--and may even penetrate our dreams. There is no area of life from which God can be excluded.
This is what we lost starting with Vatican II. This is what we need to regain for there to be a renewal in the Church. It doesn't come via some do-good program that helps the poor or shelters the homeless or cares for the environment. All of those activities are good, but none of them can be a first principle. These activities all flow from the first principle which is God Himself in relationship with each of us here on earth, individually, and in union with the angels and the saints. Until we get this right, we are going to continue to make a mess of everything else.
This is what used to be reflected in our churches before the iconoclasts got loose. This is what is still reflected in Orthodox churches with their rich artistic heritage. The icons, the statues we used to have, all draw thoughts up to heaven and to the heavenly hosts who praise God always. They remind us to do the same. The more we are drawn out of ourselves and into God's presence, the humbler we become, and the closer to sainthood we move.
