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PAGE 5 - October 19,1972
Limitations--They Open Us to God and Other People
BY FR. EUGENE J. WEITZEL, C.S.V.
We know that in God our Father there are no limitations. He
is the Supreme Being, the infinitely perfect One; he has all
perfections without limit. The God of our fathers, is eternal,
all-powerful, all-knowing, all-holy, all-loving, all-just, and
all-merciful.
However, the creatures God made out of nothing have many
limitations. Everything we experience in our daily lives is
limited in scope and ability and this certainly includes man
himself. These limitations might be said to derive from four
sources.
First of all, creatures have limitations simply because they
were created. God, the Creator, is, above all creatures who are
but a faint shadow of his limitlessness.
admit and accept our limitations. If we have continually striven
to acquire a healthy self-concept, our mental health and
adjustment potential is considerably enhanced. Furthermore,
the experiencing of personal limitations can open us to God and
other people, who together can make limitations a source of
development.
Once I realize and admit that I cannot be everything, or do
everything, and that I must frequently have the assistance of a
merciful and loving God, and the helping hands of my friends
and neighbors, I begin to feel the warmth of God’s love and the
splendor of human friendship. Most psychologists agree that it is
very difficult for a person to give or receive love if he will not
admit his own limitations as well as those of others.
Furthermore, psychologists tell us that from the point of
view of mental hygiene, it is important for a person to accept
his limitations and think well of himself. In fact, an honest
self-esteem that admits the presence of limitations is closely
connected with the individual’s capacity for social relations. “A
realistic appraisal of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, said
Wayland Vaughn, the author of PERSONAL AND SOCIAL
ADJUSTMENT, “is helpful in guaranteeing a person adequate
security in human relations.”
An individual needs considerable insight to accept his
limitations and to see himself as he really is. In fact, it requires a
high degree of tolerance for a person to like the self he must live
with, but this is an important prerequisite if one is to have a
productive impersonal relationship with God and neighbor.
Being a friend to oneself and accepting one’s own capacities and
limitations creates an inner freedom that makes one’s full
capacities ready and available for use. This sort of freedom does
not exist in the individual who is preoccupied with condemning
himself and wondering if others are rejecting him because of his
limitations.
Accepting one’s self is juct as important as accepting others
with their limitations. The healthy person, and here we are
talking about spiritual and moral as well as mental health, is
confident of his own worth because he is willing to admit and
accept his limitations as well as his assets and see himself as
others see him. Such a person, is well pleased and can thus be
truly open to the movement of the Spirit within him, and allows
others (God and man) to assist him in making his personal
limitations a source of development.
Granted, some personal limitations cannot be overcome no
matter how hard one tries to overcome them, even with the help
of others. With effort however, many can be surmounted.
Before one can develop means of overcoming them, or of :
learning to circumvent them and continue to make progress, he
must know what his limitations are and' accept those he cannot
eliminate.
The truly mature man not only achieves maturity in spite of
his limitations, but uses his limitations as stepping-stones to
maturity and a fuller life
Secondly, because man refused to remain faithful to God, he
forfeited all of the gifts God had intended for him and thus had
to endure further limitations. The world in which he lived
became hostile and had to be subdued. “To the woman he said,
I will multiply your pains in childbearing . . .Your yearning shall
be for your husband, yet he will lord it over you.” To the man
he said, .. .“Accursed be the soil because of you . . .it shall yield
you brambles and thorns ...” (Gen 3:16-19).
Thirdly, human limitations are sometimes hereditary, and the
hereditary potentials the individual inherits from his parents,
grandparents and more remote ancestors place physical,
emotional and intellectual limitations on the individual. All of
us are aware of our hereditary strengths and weaknesses.
Finally, many of our limitations come from our
environment. Every man is advantaged and disadvantaged;
limited by his environment - time and place of birth,
educational opportunities, economic conditions, racial and
ethnic attitudes, etc.
Yes, every one of us experiences personal limitations and this
included Jesus Christ as man. Thus, our problem basically is not
our personal limitations, though our limitations can cause
problems and sometimes very serious ones, but rather how we
Luck in
Limitations
BY FR. CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
Driving home this afternoon I turned on the radio. The
familiar voice of Barbra Streisand filled the car with her hit
song, “People.” One line struck me. “People who need people
are the luckiest people in the world!”
The lyrics rang true to life, even though the thought at first
jars one. It is a paradox that the experience of need can indeed
be a very lucky experience. Many a person has found that the
painful discovery that he really needed help has been the first
step to new growth and happiness.
I remember well a young man who walked into my office, sat
down, and sadly began, “Father, I need your help. I just can’t
make it alone anymore.” Somewhat surprised at his directness
and depth of discouragement, I listened intently.
“I’ve really tried hard, Father. But I just can’t do it. I’m not
cut out to be a lawyer. My wife thinks I’m happy, my teacher’s
encouraging me to keep trying. But I’ve always wanted to be an
artist, not a lawyer. I just can’t get the feel for law. This is the
most embarrassing day of my life. I’ve really tried, but I know I
can’t do it.”
“THE WORLD IN WHICH HE LIVED BECAME HOSTILE and had to be subdued.” Farmer Willard Robbins, 84, uses primitive means to disc his stubborn land in Ogden, Ark.
(NC Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Agriculture)
We talked at length about his feelings, his situation. He was
honestly facing himself for the first time in years. He was
openly admitting his limitations, even though he found it hard
to admit failure. He feared what his wife would think if he
dropped out of law school.
Several years later he visited me again. He was happy,
relaxed, and enjoying creative work as a photographer. We
recalled our first meeting, and he told me, “Father, that day I
broke down and admitted that I just couldn’t learn law was the
most fortunate day I can remember. I never knew how lucky it
could be to discover that you had limitations and needed help.”
His experience suggests the value of recognizing and
admitting one’s limitations. To be limited in ability reveals one’s
needs. To admit that one needs help -- encouragement, support,
guidance, forgiveness, comfort, medical assistance - opens a
person to receive. This is a grace-filled experience.
Jesus confirms the paradox of need resulting in fulfillment.
“How blest are the poor in spirit,” he says in the Sermon on the
Mount, “the reign of God is theirs” (Mt 5:3). Another
translation of the same passage reads: “Happy are they who
recognize their own need.” The second version goes more
clearly to the heart of what Jesus means. The biblical notion of
“Poverty of spirit” is accurately translated as “recognition of
need.”
Jesus’ words rest on centuries of Old Testament usage. The
people who were to receive God’s blessing became known as the
“poor,” the “needy,” in Hebrew called “anawin.” While God’s
chosen ones were often economically poor, the term “poor”
referred rather to “spiritual poverty.” The “poor” recognized
their need for each other and most of all for God.
The opposite of the “poor” were the “rich.” These words do
not primarily indicate financial status. For example, in the
parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the Pharisee probably
was not nearly as wealthy as the Publican - a tax collector - but
in the eyes of God the Pharisee was “rich” and the publican
“poor.” The Pharisee felt self-sufficient, not needing anyone,
whereas the Publican was so conscious of his own inner
neediness that he reached out to God for help.
A passage that sums up the biblical meaning of spiritual
poverty is found in the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse
or Revelation. “You keep saying, ‘I am so rich and secure that I
want for nothing.’ Little do you realize how wretched you are,
how pitiable and poor, how blind and naked.’ ” (Rev. 3:17).
Both Old and New Testaments focus on this central attitude
of “poverty of spirit” or “awareness of one’s need” as the
decisive factor in personal growth as a believer. Only the person
who recognizes his own need can open his heart to God, placing
his life in God’s hands with trust. The person who discerns no
needs in himself finds no need for God or for other people.
Parodoxically, the facing of personal limitations, which
involves the admission of need for help, can be one of the most
valuable and enriching experiences in life. Barbra Streisand’s
song is not far from Jesus’ “Happy are they who recognize their
own need.” “Blest are the poor in Spirit.”
Our Limitations Lead Vs to Others
BY FR. QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
“Show me the coin used for the tax.” (Matthew 22,19).
Take a coin in your hand and look at it. What is money good
for? Nothing much in itself. If, like King Midas, we had nothing
but money to eat, to drink, to wear, to touch and love, we
would soon be desparately unhappy people.
But what is it good for? Well, at least to get us the things we
need and a few of the things we want. We use it to provide for
basic comforts today and some hope of a little security
tomorrow.
Money reminds us of how much we depend on one another.
If each one of us could grow his own food, make his own
clothes, and build his own house, then we could get along
without money. But in fact none of us can do everything. At
least, we can’t do them in the way we like them done. So each
one of us does some of them, and we trade the results back and
forth among ourselves by means of money.
Human society as we know it arose to provide for things no
one man can do for himself. The families we grew up in, the
schools we went to, the unions and clubs, the organizations and
churches we joined, the companies we work for, the cities and
nations we live in - all of them underline how limited we are
personally, at the same time they show how much we can do
when we support one another.
It is the experience of our limitations that leads us out of
ourselves to other persons. The fact that we are weak and less
than perfect makes us look for help and find it even in others
who are weak and imperfect too. Together we can do
something. And, in doing it, we discover one another.
Not all our dependence can be found symbolized in a piece
of money, however, any more than all our needs can be fulfilled
by things that money buys. In actual living with others, we soon
find we have limitations and needs beyond food, warmth and
protection. We also need sympathy and friendship and love. We
need understanding and dialog; encouragement and warning; a
common pursuit of truth and fidelity to good.
Looking at a piece of money is not likely to remind us of
these. It often distracts from them. We become aware of these
limitations and we find their healing only by looking at another
human being.
There are still other ways we are limited, where not even our
fellow men can help us. We can’t know everything we want to
know, and neither can they. We can’t do a tenth of the good
we’d like to, and neither can they. We can’t guarantee ourselves
one extra day of life. We can’t see beyond our death. We can’t
lay our hands on any treasure that will last forever, and neither
can they.
We stand afraid in the darkenss of a universe vast beyond our
imaginings. So do all other men. We didn’t ask to come into it.
We can’t be sure if, in the long run, it is kindly or cruel, whether
ultimately it all makes sense or is a pointless absurdity. No man
can help us here.
These deeper limitations too urge us out of ourselves toward
another - toward the only One who can do anything about
them. He built the limitations into us. As we become aware of
them, we begin to be able to see our whole world as one great
sign of him, bearing his mark, pointing us toward the discovery
of him.
Looking at the coin and at Caesar’s image on it, Jesus could
say: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” But looking to the whole
world of which we are a part, he could add: “And whose image
and inscription does this bear? Then give to God what is God’s.”
Communion at the Air Force Academy
BY FR. JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
About ten years ago I visited the Air Force Academy south
of Denver at Colorado Springs. It’s an impressive campus and
the interdenominational chapel there framed in a background of
the Rocky Mountains struck me as a particularly beautiful sight.
However, after talking this summer on the west coast with
Major Dennis Dwyer, the Catholic cadet chaplain, I would like
to return for a few days and observe some of the religious
activities his five-priest team ministry sponsors. For example:
* An 11:00 a.m. Sunday Mass with the Academy’s
magnificent eighty-voice male choir under the direction of
talented musician Mr. Edward Ladecour. One dooesn’t have the
opportunity to hear such a choral group very often and to listen
as it performs traditional Latin motets and Gregorian chant or
contemporary hymns and harmonized pieces alone would
justify the trip.
* The 6:00 p.m. weekday Eucharist with 50-70 cadets
present who, because of their disciplined, busy schedule, really
must hustle to make the celebration. Father Dwyer estimates
some 200 (out of 1200) Catholic cadets participate each week
in these daily liturgies. They, naturally, act as lectors and servers
with the students seeing to the arrangements themselves.
* A weekend engaged couples retreat. Cadets contemplating
marriage bring in their fiancees from all over the country for
this event.
* An early morning Word-Prayer-Communion service
prepared and executed by the cadets. A number of students
asked for this brief, 10-15 minute paraliturgical celebration to
complement the evening Mass. About 20 regularly attend the
ceremony which involves some reading of Scripture, a short
homily and the distribution of Holy Communion. Cadets plan
the service and four specially designated lay ministers of the
Eucharist care for this aspect of the liturgy.
In the beginning, Major Dwyer’s flock reacted with shock to
the concept of cadets as ministers of the Eucharist.
Nevertheless, in time they came to see the wisdom of this
development and the chaplain senses their devotion to the
Blessed Sacrament has grown tremendously as a result of that
innovation.
We shouldn’t be surprised at the students’
initial reluctance nor our own parishioners’ first negative
response to the introduction of lay ministers for Holy
Communion. After all, Catholics for years were told only the
sacred, anointed hands of a priest may touch the host, even the
tabernacle key. Now I suddenly find a man who had a beer
with me at the local bar last month is up there in the sanctuary
acting like a priest, or I learn my next door neighbor is to give
me Communion.
Such hesitation tells us instruction before introduction is
essential.
Changing times and new needs of people are the basic reasons
why our Holy Father has endorsed this return to a pre-ninth
century practice. Fewer priests, more Communions. It really
boils down to those hard facts.
The Air Force Cadets would in effect be deprived of the
Holy Sacrament at this daybreak service without permission for
lay ministers of the Eucharist. Catholics in larger parishes
already have experienced long, long delays at Communion tinie,
a phenomenon not conducive to good liturgy.
No one should rush through Mass or grumble about a few
extra minutes each week for the Lord. But if these moments
could be saved by a permissible practice, why not? They might
then be used for a common period of Thanksgiving after
Communion