Founders Friday, Friday, September 30, 2011 – Benjamin Franklin

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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"

Too Orthodox?

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One thing that happened over the weekend that I didn’t note down yesterday, is that I searched the web (I hate the verb Google) for some material on lectio divina, for no particular reason, and came across a website by obviously zealous Catholics. On there they included a little write up on Bible versions to use for lectio. In that discussion, they wrote that the NAB Bible was heretical, citing the example of the translation of 1 Corinthians 9:5. This verse reads, in the NAB, “Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and cCephas? The reason they say that passage is heretically translated is that it seems influenced by “Catholics” who are attacking celibacy, the word used for wife is translated “sister” in the Douey Rheims version. Well, a couple of obvious problems with that idea. One is that the notes to the NAB fully acknowledge that it’s possible to translate the word as “sister”, rather than wife. Another is that heresy is defined by St Thomas Aquinas thus, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia:

". . . a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas". "The right Christian faith consists in giving one's voluntary assent to Christ in all that truly belongs to His teaching. There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to Pagans and Jews; the other by restricting belief to certain points of Christ's doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics.”

Further, the Catholic Encyclopedia goes on to say,

"Before turning to the history of this observance it will be convenient to deal in the first place with certain general principles involved. The law of celibacy has repeatedly been made the object of attack, especially of recent years, and it is important at the outset to correct certain prejudices thus created.”

The practice of celibacy is not a doctrine, it is a law, or regulation of the Church, it can, quite legitimately be overturned at any time. I’m not saying that is a good idea, but to clarify that I think we should be careful flinging about the term “heresy”, where none can be found. I also don’t say the NAB is my preferred text of the Scriptures, it isn’t, although the NABRE does represent a considerable improvement over the old version. No, it’s a bad translation, but it’s not heretical. 

Also, I sometimes wonder, even though I wish to be a very orthodox Catholic, if orthodoxy can’t be taken too far, at the expense of charity. We don’t after all place our faith in the Church, rather in the person of Christ. I firmly believe doctrine must be protected, but not in a way that becomes judgmental and lacks charity and patience.  As St Paul says, we are to speak the truth in love.

Oh, by the way, I think any translation accepted by the Church can be used for lectio, including the NIV. My favorite is the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. It translates the verse in question this way, Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, September 28, 2011 – St John Bosco

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When tempted, invoke your Angel. he is more eager to help you than you are to be helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him: He trembles and flees at the sight of your Guardian Angel.

It's the Little Things

My father-in-law, Bill McGaw was many things, including an actor in a movie with Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck, no less, but he always considered himself a newspaperman first and foremost. In the 1970’s in El Paso he started a weekly newspaper dedicated to getting at the truth of many stories that seemed to always go unreported in towns with a very strong and closely knit power structure. One thing that he always said was that, for many powerful people, it was usually some small and very trivial mistake that tripped them up, something they never considered important at the time. As an example, think of Al Capone and the failure to file tax returns in a timely manner. 

It turns out this is good advice in the Christian life also. Here’s a good quote from Blessed Peter Favre, SJ (no I don’t think he was a quarterback long ago).

"Seek grace for the smallest things, and you will also find grace to accomplish, to believe in, and to hope for the greatest things. Attend to the smallest things, examine them, think about putting them into effect, and the Lord will grant you greater. Many seek anxiously for grace to perform good works of a more general kind while neglecting in the meantime particular tasks for which it would have been easy to find grace. "

The Desert Fathers, Sunday, September 25, 2011 – St Sebastian of Optina

“What is more precious than anything in the world? Time! And what do we waste uselessly and without being sorry? Time! What do we not value and what do we disregard more than anything? Time! When we waste time, we lose ourselves… Time is given by God to use correctly for the salvation of the soul and the acquisition of the life to come… The Lord will call us to account for having stolen time for our own whims, and for not using it for God and our souls.”

Founders Friday, Friday, September 23, 2011 – Charles Carroll

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Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence

A Word on Wednesday, Wednesday, September 21, 2011 – St Francis of Assisi

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It would be considered a theft on our part if we didn't give to someone in greater need than we are.