No man is an island. Papal proclamations and the like.

I tend to fall hook, line, and sinker for anything that John Paul II wrote about human relationships.  He has a way of taking philosophy, theology, and reality and meshing them together so poetically that my  heart literally starts nodding while I read him.  Unlike some who complain about his style, I find reading him fairly effortless.  Must be the English lit major in me rising up again . . .we can be more intuitional than logical at times, and I admit, John Paul II doesn't always explain all of his bases.  But for me, that has never been a problem.   You can convince yourself to accept a lot of things, but your soul doesn't need to be sold when it simply knows that something is true.

Nevertheless, Benedict's clarity has been a welcome infusion into my sporadic reading of papal proclamations.  For as much as I love John Paul's style of elucidation through relational imagery (despite the protests of you phenomenological nay-sayers), Benedict has a way of summarizing concepts that is direct and clear . . . and, well, German.  I like that.  What struck me about this speech, recently delivered to the Rome's Major Seminary - on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Confidence, no less - was how he captured all of the mystery and poetry of John Paul II's insights about love and man's purpose, but synthesized it so much more concisely.   

"Man is not an absolute, being able to isolate himself and behave according to his own will.  This goes against the truth of our being.  Our truth is, above all, that we are creatures, creatures of God, and we live in relationship with the Creator.  We are rational beings, and only by accepting this relationship do we enter into truth, otherwise we fall into falsehood and, in the end, are destroyed by it."

Read the rest here.  It's good stuff.

He talks about everything that has been on my mind these last few months.  Love, and what it really means in practice.  The impossibility of existing or thriving as an isolated island.  How we, as human beings, need each other to experience the love of God, even when that love demands sacrifice, vulnerability, and pain.  The absolute necessity of bringing every aspect of our lives into the light and being whole.  How the truth and its light set us free and ultimately allow each one us to heal, even if it reveals all our ugliness and scars along the way.  How love means putting the good of the other person first, even when you've been hurt and it means you will continue to hurt.  That concept of dying to self for the good of another.  And what that all means when you're facing reality and crying out for both mercy and justice.  What using the word "love" demands from you - when that love is a reality but nothing like you expected.  When love cannot die, but must be somehow reshaped.

Amazing how the Pope realized that he needed to say something about all that.

"You probably all know St. Augustine's beautiful words: 'Dilige et fac quod vis -- Love and do what you will.'  What Augustine says is the truth, if we have truly understood the word 'love.'  'Love, and do what you will,' but we must really be penetrated by communion with Christ, having identified ourselves with his death and resurrection, being united to him in the communion of his body.  By participation in the sacraments, by listening to the word of God, the Divine Will, the divine law really enters our will, our will identifies with his, they become only one will and thus we are really free, we can really do what we will, because we love with Christ, we love in truth and with truth."

In His presence, with the word "Hosannah"

If I could choose only one week out of my entire life to be in Rome, I would choose Holy Week. It contains the indescribably beautiful sense that arises when you turn your eyes to look at the Cross and Corpus you commemorate - and then turn to see the Pope, the Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and Nuns gathered together around Him. When you afterwards turn inside yourself with eyes closed, and join in prayer with the congregation of thousands surrounding you, pilgrims from every nook and cranny of the globe.

You know, then, in a very concrete way, that your Faith is not something abstract for you to spout out allegiance to and then forget. It is a something that demands to be lived. As the Holy Father has emphasized repeatedly throughout his pontificate, Christ is a person to be known. And you know that you are willing, with your mind and your heart gathered with those fellow thousands, to follow that call.



There is something intensely meaningful and necessary in the physical participation of the rituals of our Faith. It isn't about what you get from it. It's not about trying to rack up Grace Points or Purgatory Exemptions for yourself through the Give-A-Little-to-God Slot Machine. It's about the love. The love that is shown from placing yourself in God's presence - with the boredom and distractions that come with it. It's about sacrificing the thought of "What I Could Be Doing," and trusting that God is at work upon you. And it's about the sense of identity and commitment that arises when you do consciously yourself as a participant in the mysteries.



The Mass at Saint Peter's for Palm Sunday was one of such experiences. From the moment the first palm-bearers started processing up to the obelisk, followed by a stream of red cardinals and culminating in the arrival of the Holy Father, you received a profound sense that you were participating in something very beautiful, very sacred - and very necessary.


Pope Benedict XVI received a fair amount of media attention after the Palm Sunday liturgy, due to his strong words denouncing the kidnap and murder of the Chaldean Archbishop in Iraq Paulos Faraj Rahho. His words were as follows:

"At the end of this solemn celebration in which we have meditated on Christ's Passion, I would like to recall the late Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Monsignor Paulos Faraj Rahho, who tragically died a few days ago. His beautiful witness of fidelity to Christ, to the Church and his people, whom he did not want to abandon despite numerous threats, moves me to cry out forcefully and with distress: Enough with the bloodshed, enough with the violence, enough with the hatred in Iraq! And at the same time I make an appeal to the Iraqi people, who for five years have endured the consequences of a war that has provoked upheaval in its civil and social life: Beloved Iraqi people, lift up your heads and let it be you yourselves who, in the first place, rebuild your national life! May reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and respect for the civil coexistence of tribes, ethnic groups and religious groups be the solidary way to peace in the name of God"

The powerful emotion that carried these words was staggering. The media - Associated Press and Brietbart, among others - were quick to pounce on his address and say that the Pope denounced the War in Iraq again. To my understanding, it was less of a denouncement than an appeal to the Iraqis to congregate, focus, and work to end the violence of radical extremists - the ones who are continuing the bloodshed.

I'm posting a link this video clip - not so much for the coverage, but for a taste of the incredible music and the beautiful aerial shot of the Vatican during the Mass. The music was truly sublime. Buzz has it that music is better when the Sistine Chapel Chior isn't singing. Ouch.

Pope: 'Enough with the Violence' in Iraq

And finally, a link to the Papal Homily for Palm Sunday, "To Recognize God We Must Abandon the Pride that Blinds Us," compliments of the fantastic Catholic news-service Zenit. If you don't receive them in your inbox every day, sign up!

Papal Homily for Palm Sunday

Best lines:

"As Christians, all of this must make us think today: Is our faith pure and open enough that, beginning from it, the "pagans" -- the persons today who are seeking and have their questions -- can also intuit the light of the one God, can associate themselves with our prayer in the atriums of faith and by their seeking perhaps become worshippers? Does the awareness that greed is idolatry also reach our heart and our life practices? Do we not perhaps also allow idols to enter even into the world of our faith? Are we disposed to let the Lord purify us again and again, allowing him to chase out of us and the Church what is contrary to him?"

and

"But, as always from the fall of Adam, the failure of men becomes an occasion for a still greater commitment on the part of God's love in regard to us."

Il Papa's Word to the Wise: The Human Person

With his trademark clarity, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the mystery of man's human nature to a gathering of scientists today, directing their eyes to the richness and complexity of the human person, who cannot be defined by science alone. Some key lines from his remarks:

"'Man,' said the Pope is 'characterized by his otherness. He is a being created by God, a being in the image of God, a being who is loved and is made to love. As a human he is never closed within himself. He is always a bearer of otherness and, from his origins, is in interaction with other human beings.'"

Check out an article with other quotes from the address here:

Pope: Science cannot fully understand the mystery of man (CNA)