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PAGE 5 - November 2,1972
Resurrection—Symbolized and Illuminated by Natural Life
FR. EUGENE J. WEITZEL, C. S. V.
Early last spring in Rome the beauty of the Pieta, the marble
statue of the Madonna cradling the crucified Jesus, was marred
forever. The irreparable damage occurred when a 33-year-old
man repeatedly struck the statue with a hammer.
The Pieta, a majestic, slightly larger-than-life sculpture by
Michelangelo, is one of the world’s most famous and treasured
works of art. In fact, it is so valuable that when it was exhibited
at the New York World’s Fair in, the mid-60’s it was placed in a
bulletproof steel case weighing six tons and insured for $10
million. Art experts say the Pieta is priceless.
While the Pieta is a priceless work of art, its worth is small
when compared with the inestimable value of all forms of life,
especially human life. Even the insignificant amoeba is, in a
sense, more valuable than the Pieta or any other work of art
because it is alive and can reproduce itself.
First of all, the Pieta is only an inanimate chunk of marble -
touched, of course, by a genius - but unlike the amoeba or the
Devonish fish, or The Simeon monkey, or homo sapiens it
cannot do any of the things that living creatures can do.
Secondly, life - the mode of existence and eminant activity
effected by the possession of a vital and energizing principle
that characterizes the organic world as opposed to the inorganic
- is always more valuable than even a priceless object d’ars. This
is true not only because it reflects the image of likeness of God,
but also because in its continual renewal it symbolizes and
illuminates Christ’s resurrection and promise to us of life after
death.
Every time we experience Spring we see life renewed. Every
time we ponder the spawning of fish, the nesting of birds, the
birth of an animal, or even more so, of a child, we are reminded
not onlv that .. .Christ died for our sins, according to the
Scriptures and that he was buried, and that he “rose again on the
third day . . ..” (1 Cor 15:34), but also that “ . . .we shall all
indeed rise, but we shall not all be changed - in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible” (1 Cor.
15:51-52).
If there can be a kind of “natural resurrection” season after
season through growth and reproduction, life and death and life
again in the plant and animal (man included) kingdoms, surely
there must be a supernatural resurrection for man whereby his
temporal life is renewed after death to become immortal.
Though we cannot fully understand how Christ rose from the
dead, and how we shall rise again, the reasonableness of these
doctrines are more firmly established as we daily experience the
renewal of organic creation - plants, animals, men.
Just as the continual renewal of natural life at all levels is an
essential part of Christ’s act of salvation; just as the “natural
resurrection” of earthly life constitutes the mystery of life in
heaven, and just as natural life and death and life again (the
The Church Has Turned a Corner
BY FR. JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
At lunch during a June retreat for priests of the Newark
archdiocese, one young cleric asked me what I thought about
the present state of the Chruch in the United States. I had no
swift and ready response for him. Despite the fact that 41 trips
over the past year have taken me from Manchester, New
Hampshire to Los Angeles and from Napa, California to Miami,
I up to that point had never pulled together those many
impressions.
After a few moments, however, I gave him this observation: I
believe the Catholic Church in America has turned a corner and
is now entering upon a period of relative serenity. I think
painful confrontation is giving way to patient compromise. I
feel we will witness in the Seventies a mature, mutual
acceptance, consolidation of gains made, continued growth and
a deepening of the interior renewal called for by Vatican II.
Notice I employed the terms “a” corner, not “the” corner,
and “relative” serenity. Certainly we expect the Chruch in
future decades to encounter rocky eras like the stormy 1960’s.
Moreover, this space of serenity I predict will unquestionably
include pockets of turbulence (so keep seat belts fastened) and
perhaps see an increasing hostility towards the Church from
those outside the fold.
they could be getting down at this time to the less spectacular,
but very essential inner renewal.
Next week I will outline a lengthy list of further signs which
indicate to me the Church is entering a new, quieter,
resurrection period in its history.
renewal of life), especially as it concerns man, cannot be
understood completely unless pondered in the light of Qirist’s
life and death and resurrection, so his salvific action cannot be
fully appreciated except through the daily experience of
renewed life.
In a word, life renewed enables us more clearly to perceive
the three-fold purpose of the resurrection, namely, that:
1. Christ’s passion and death alone did not save us for his
resurrection is an integral part of the act of redemption .• • -“if
Christ has not risen. . .you are still in your sins” (1 Cor.
15:17).
2. The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus not only
signified his supreme love and obedience to the Father, but by
his resurrection he was constituted the Son of God in power,
giving justification to those who believe in him. “ . . .if we
believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who
was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our
justification” (Rom. 4: 24-25).
3. Through baptism the Christian shares in the total work of
redemption, and also rises to a new life in Christ. “All of us who
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. By
baptism into his death we were buried together with him, in
order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, so we too might live a new life. For if we have
been united with him by likeness to his death, so shall we be
united with him by likeness to his resurrection.” (Rom. 6: 3-5).
We can even make a comparison in the fact that just as in the
process of the natural renewal of life - some individual plants
and animals and men die without having reproduced themselves
and some species of plants and animals disappear - so men who
have been unfaithful to God will not be rewarded with a
renewed and glorious life in heaven. Yes, the daily experience of
renewed life does symbolize and illuminate the mystery of
Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, and of our own too.
“EVERY TIME WE EXPERIENCE SPRING we see life renewed
- trees starting to leaf and plants beginning to bloom.”
Narcissus open into full blossoms in Spring. (NC Photo courtesy
US Department of Agriculture.)
J (All Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1972 by N.C. News Service)
[Know Y our F aith j
Overcoming Skepticism About the Resurrection
A rose-colored, naive, simplistic, head-in-the-sand picture of
our troubled Church today? Possibly. Friends and associates do
characterize me as a persistent optimist. Time and history will
be the judge.
Father Frederick McManus, my keen-minded former associate
in Washington, gives little credence to impressions and always
prefers hard facts and scientific data. My observation enjoys the
backing of neither. But it can point for support to some
extensive and wide-ranging experiences on this writer’s part.
These cover 14 months of active pastoral work in the parish,
frequent diocese level committee work and pre-Cana
Conferences, and, above all, numerous lectures to college
students, religious sisters, seminarians, priests and laity.
After that conversation in Darlington, New Jersey, I mulled
over his question and my reply, seeking practical instances from
around the nation which would both illustrate and prove my
assertion. One could add to the items which follow.
Nevertheless, they do, I trust, show that my bright beacon of
hope for the Church rests on a sound foundation. When so
many continue to sound its death knoll and walk around super
serious or sad, we all need reassuring evidence that the Holy
Spirit is indeed with us.
1. The testimony of priests. The 130 Newark priests gathered
for their annual retreat not only made the inquiry; they
substantiated my claim. They represented all age groups and
every attitude. Yet several commented how this year they
seemed happier, less bitter, more settled, cheerful. Young and
old mixed; progressives and conservatives ate together, talked
about their priestly lives, exchanged quite contrary concepts
and still walked away smiling and laughing without rancour of
any sort.
I noted a similar reaction during an intensive three-day
clerical institute on the liturgy and pastoral theology held at the
College of Saint Scholastica for priests of the Duluth diocese.
Men there told me of a shift in the atmosphere. Not only
throughout this workshop, but also at meetings of the priests’
association and senate, participants in 1972 appeared more
understanding of one another with their debates less harsh, less
divisive. Only once did I hear an angry, hard, hostile question.
A woman sharing in the Religious Education Week at Holy
Names College in Oakland wrote to me afterwards with a
remark which further underscores this particular observation.
She found a much greater spirit of peace among the 300
registrants and especially noted a less abrasive, more healing
approach on the part of lecturers, most of whom were Roman
Catholic priests.
2. Vocation picture. Monsignor Colin MacDonald, head of the
U.S. bishops’ office studying the priesthood, told a Serra
International convention, that he had in his travels discovered a
“renewed sense of hope and confidence among the clergy.” At
the same time he sketched the real decline in religious vocations
and the heavy departure of priests from the active ministry.
Even here, however, I see encouraging signs.
Above all, parish priests once more are recruiting. They seem
less apologetic for their calling, more sure of themselves, past
the identity crisis of the sixties. The best vocation ad, obviously,
and better than the controversial PLAYBOY one, is a happy,
hard-working, holy priest. If my remarks in the previous section
hold true for the entire country, then it will be only a matter of
time before young men in greater quantity opt for the
priesthood.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Bishop McCarthy is understandably
pleased with a development which may be a barometer of things
to come throughout the nation. Several men, either in their
upper years of collegiate study or actual graduates, have in the
past year entered the seminary. Perhaps this delayed maturation
of the religious vocation seed could well be a trend for the 70’s.
The future situation with nuns remains, for me, not so clear.
However, one major superior whose community, like many, has
been absolutely decimated by departures and a decline in
applicants, believes they have hit bottom and are now on the
upsurge. She sees this both in terms of numbers and, more
significantly, in a settling of the restlessness so pervasive in
convents over the past decade. Having suffered a radical
reevaluation of their external habits, life style and purposes.,
BY FR. QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
“They had some arguments about their own religion and
about a certain dead man named Jesus whom Paul claims is
alive” (Acts 25,19).
Twenty centuries ago, a practical-minded Roman governor
summed up the first Christian preaching in those words. It was
just an argument among Jewish fanatics about something silly
and impossible - the claim that a certain dead man had come to
life.
Sometimes we feel very modern in our religious skepticism.
But without much reason. There never was a time when people
weren’t skeptical about resurrection. Not even when the dead
man concerned was Christ our Lord.
It wasn’t easy even for the Lord’s own apostles. They had
seen him die. They didn’t expect him back. When others told
them that he was indeed alive, they refused to believe.
John’s gospel singles out the “doubting Thomas.” Luke’s
gospel tells of two of them walking to Emmaus after the
crucifixion. Jesus joins them, but they don’t even recognize him.
They talk to him as to a complete stranger, and they say of their
crucified leader: “We have hoped that he was the one who
would redeem Israel.”
Obviously, they implied, those hopes were vain. He’s dead.
Some women they knew were already telling stories of angels
who claimed he was alive - but they weren’t putting much stock
in the word of women.
The long ending of the gospel of Mark turns the theme of the
apostles’ disbelief into a kind of litany. Mary Magdalene saw the
Lord and told the apostles, “but they would not believe it.”
Two of them walking in the country saw him, came back and
told the rest, “but they did not believe them.” Afterward he
himself appeared to them all as they sat at table, “and he
upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart,
“THE POWER OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION may be felt
and shared in a thoughtful act toward someone who is lonely.”
A man comforts a little girl who sucks her thumb for security.
(NC Photo)
because they had not believed those who saw him after he had
risen.”
It isn’t the age we live in that makes the resurrection hard to
believe. It never was easy. It was always an enormous
contradiction of an inescapable reality.
Everybody dies. After death, everybody’s body turns cold
and hard and useless; then slowly falls back through decay
toward dust and nothingness. In fact, the people of Jesus’ time
probably saw the realities of death in their own homes and
streets and lot more frequently than we do. They knew that
dead was dead.
If someone spoke to them about a person’s coming back to
life, they would probably ask the same question we would: “All
right, where is he? Show me.” During forty days, Acts says,
Jesus did show himself to the apostles he had chosen, appearing
to them and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. But
even during that short time he showed himself “not to all the
people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses,” as
Peter explains in Acts 10.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus appears to the eleven apostles
only once. It is on a mountain in Galilee, where he is to give
them his last blessing and his commission to preach to all the
world. They come to the mountain, see him, fall down in
worship -- “but some doubted.”
BY FR. CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
“I’ll never let it beat me . . .I’ll never let it beat me ...”
These were Renee’s first words to Dr. Welby on learning that
she had a rare form of spinal meningitis. She was 24.
Renee was playing a role on a TV episode of “Marcus
Welby, M. D.” but her words ring true to life. I could not help
but think of my former director, Monsignor Russell Neighbor.
At age 50 he learned that he had an extremely rare form of a
disease that attacks and destroys the central nervous system.
Doctors gave him at most a year or two to live, during which
time he would become progressively more incapacitated.
We watched him, worked with him, as he progressively lost
the ability to move his fingers, then his hands, then his legs. I
remember walking with him one evening when suddenly his legs
gave out and he fell flat on the ground unable to raise himself
up. His last weeks in the office were spent in a wheelchair.
Finally he was forced to resign and move to a nursing home.
Without expressing Renee’s words to Dr. Welby - “I’ll never
let it beat me” - Father Neighbor amazed us all by his confident
struggle against the effects of his disease. When the diagnosis
was confirmed and his future predicted, he went out and bought
a new car. It was his symbolic gesture of hope and courage.
The disease finally won out over his body. He died totally
helpless and incapacitated. But his spirit was never beaten. At
times we noticed fleeting signs of apparent sadness cloud his
face, but a quick smile wiped away the traces. He maintained an
unshakable love of life - of music, of beautiful things, of his
work, of children, of his friends - a very simple faith in Christ
and the power of his resurrection.
Renee’s TV struggle against the power of diminishment, Russ
Neighbor’s very real struggle against the forces of death, brings
one up short against the mystery of the resurrection in human
life. How is it that the human spirit can overcome the
destructive inroads of disease? Why is it that even death cannot
destroy man’s spirit? What is the source of life found even in the
shadows of death?
The Second Vatican Council teaches that “through Christ and
in Christ the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful”
(CHURCH IN WORLD, 22). In these words the Council focuses
our attention on the core of Christian tradition.
The preaching of the Apostles after the Resurrection centered
on the good news that “Jesus who was crucified has been raised
up by God to new life. Those who believe will share in the
power of his resurrection.” This good news or “Gospel” was
gradually distilled into the four words: “Jesus Christ is Lord”
(Phil 2:5-11).
What about all the others who were to believe? What about
the thousands across the world to whom Paul and Peter and the
other apostles one day would preach? How easy was it for them
to believe?
Just about as easy as it is for us today. And just about as
hard. If it all depended on taking the word of a few fanatical
foreigners, it would not have been possible. Like the Roman
governor, people would merely have said: “Oh, it’s some
nonsense in their own religion.”
Then why did people believe? Why do they believe today?
The first answer to that is always, because of the grace of God
in their hearts.
Grace opens men’s eyes to the fact that life and death are
really in God’s hands; that if God wants to he can raise the
dead. It opens men’s hearts to the conviction that our God is
indeed the kind of God who would do that. He promised and he
will fulfill. It makes men willing to acknowledge that when God
actually did do this, he would begin where men might least
expect it - with someone whom men had judged and
condemned and put to death for going beyond their own
narrow religious standards.
Whether or not we can believe today depends on the same
sort of grace taking effect in us. Whether or not we let it do so
shows what kind of people we are.
Each Sunday at Mass Catholics the world over repeat this
same good news in the brief formula: “Christ has died. Christ is
risen. Christ will come again.” This is the kernel of traditional
Christian faith. '
We believe that Jesus Christ really did die. He experienced
life’s diminishments fully - fatigue, failure, injustice, prejudice,
hunger, pain, insecurity, loneliness, suffering and finally death.
We believe that the Father raised him from death to new life,
that He is alive, and is with us to bring us fulfillment of life. We
believe finally that His coming again will ultimately transform
the whole of creation, overcoming every power of evil, including
death. “He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there
shall be no more death or mourning; crying out or pain. . .’’(Rev
21:4).
We believe in the resurrection as a past reality of Christ’s life,
as a present power in our lives and our world because of His
presence with us, and as the future culmination of the power of
life over death. Such faith has led people like Russ Neighbor to
live confidently in the face of disease.
The power of Christ’s resurrection may be felt and shared in
less dramatic ways than in the fight against crippling disease or
death itself. It may be experienced in a simple smile at the right
moment, a thoughtful act toward someone who is lonely or ill,
an encouraging word (or a discouraged friend. Picking oneself
up after failure, struggling against poverty, war and injustice,
creating beauty in one’s surroundings, sometimes just getting up
in the morning to face a difficult day - all reveal something of
the power of life over death, the resurrection power of Christ
Jesus and His Spirit.
Renee, despite Dr. Welby’s best efforts, never did walk again.
Russ Neighbor actually did die at the peak of his best years. But
we know from watching Russ and other very real people
symbolized by Renee, that life is stronger than death, that hope
can transform the human spirit, that meaning can be found even
in life’s shadows. “I’ll never let it beat me,” said Renee. Smiling,
Russ bought a new car.
Many who share the power of Jesus’ resurrection may not
know the source of their courage. Christians are blessed in
knowing through faith that because Jesus died, rose again, and is
with them through everything, they can take a firm stand
against every power of diminishment and death. They can make
St. Paul’s words their own: “I wish to know Christ and the
power flowing from His resurrection; likewise to know how to
share in His sufferings by being formed into the pattern of His
death. Thus do I hope that I may arrive at the resurrection from
the dead”. (Phil 3:10-11).
The Power of His Resurrection