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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, December 20, 1973
POPE PAUL DECLARES
Man “Deliberately Blind” to God’s Existence
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- Modern man
is too often, “deliberatly blind” to the
existence of God, Pope Paul VI told a
general audience Dec. 12.
For the second general audience in a
row the Pope centered his thoughts on
the “problem of God.” Too often
today, “men walk like blindmen,
deliberatly blind,” he said, “giving no
thought to the existence and
importance” of the relations between
themselves and God.
Some, he said, advance the ideas that
God does not exist or of the “death of
God,” as if that were a step forward in
the “progress of the mind and science.”
But he added, “we know that the
suppression of the ‘problem of God’
means that everything becomes a
problem; the essential bastion of the
supreme cause of everything
collapses ...”
The Pope said that the “forgetting of
God is not a means of liberation, but is
a privation; it is not an affirmation of
scientific logic, but the admission of a
radical ignorance of an insoluble
mystery ...”
Christians, on the other hand, know
that God exists, he said, but “the more
we are certain of the existence of God,
the more difficult for us it is to have an
adequate concept of Him. It is difficult
to think of God precisely because He is
God.”
The Pope said this inability to
conceive of God adequately “explains
somewhat the fact that the religious
mentality does not always progress in
parallel lines with the rational and
scientific mentality” which only
achieves an “incomplete and inexact
concept of divinity.
“The idea of God becomes so new, so
grand and so superior to the capacity of
human comprehension that the
temptation arises to refuse to measure
up to it. One prefers to deny it, rather
than accept the effort to adapt thought
to the demands which derive from that
idea. ”
Prayer, the Pope said, becomes the
necessary link for the Christian with
God, who in many ways remains
hidden. “Why is God mysterious? Why
is He silent?” the Pope asked.
In reply to his questions, the Pope
said he would give “for now a single and
partial answer: “God hides Himself
because He wants us to search, to go in
search of Him. For this reason the Lord
has hidden Himself in His mystery: not
to draw far away from us to make us
look for Him.”
The Pope continued: “His revelation
in history and in men has a timing that
does not concide with the clocks of our
human calculations.
His revelation does not always fit into
the forms of our earthly conversations.”
Man’s encountering of God “will
happen when and where God wishes,”
Pope Paul concluded. We know the lines
along which this encounter can occur,
he said. “The first of these, as far as we
are concerned, is the desire on our part,
the seeking out, that is, prayer. Prayer is
our vigil while awaiting the light.”
The Boy Who Spent Christmas with Michael
BY TICKI LLOYD
Michael laughed. And when Michael
laughs his whole body laughs, and his
face shines like the sun. Around his eyes
get crinkly and he roars as loud as
Santa. And the empty space where he
used to have a tooth looks like a rut in a
road.
Michael is our five year old grandson.
He had reason to be happy. The Boy
Jesus, who was as many fingers old as he
was, was coming down from Heaven to
spend Christmas with him. It was true.
His mother said he could.
Michael lay still in his bed where the
drawn gold drapes in his room revealed
the night outside. It was a clear, calm
night and the beautiful orange moon
was laughing as well as Michael. Harp
music sounded far away through the
tree tops.
Michael jumped out of his bed and
landed on the green shag rug, his heart
racing. He flung open the window and
the night air chilled his button nose.
The mOon shone and the sky glittered
all silvery. The room was brilliantly lit.
“Is this a dream?” he asked himself.
Michael said, “Hi, boy Jesus. I
thought you’d never come. I couldn’t go
to sleep until you came.”
The boy Jesus was dressed in a
red-hooded jacket and wore red mittens
and his arms were full of Christmas
presents to put under Michael’s tree.
“This is the first time I have ever
spent Christmas with a real live boy on
earth. I am in everyone’s heart at
Christmas, but not in everyone’s home
like now.”
Michael did not understand how one
little boy could be in everyone’s heart at
the same time, but he said nothing. He
just laughed and his whole face and
body laughed. And the boy Jesus
laughed too.
The two boys ran downstairs
bumping into eac other. Michael’s
mother, Peggy, poured them cups of hot
cocoa which they balanced on their
chubby knees, and they ate fat Santa
Claus cookies until they almost popped.
After the boys were back upstairs in
bed, Michael asked, “How come people
talk about you when you were born in a
stable at Bethlehem because nobody
would take you into their homes? And
then nobobdy talks about you anymore
until you were twelve years old in the
Temple teaching. You had to be five
before you could be twelve. How come,
huh?”
The Boy Jesus, scratching his curly
blond hair, smiled. “I wonder about
that myself,” he said.
Michael continued, “Boy Jesus,
sometimes I think animals are nicer than
people. They didn’t turn you away.
They breathed on you and kept you
warm. People call animals dumb. I think
they are plenty smart.”
Mrs. Claude Starr Wright and Nativity Scene from Spain.
Augustans See Crib Displays
Dr. and Mrs. Claude-Starr Wright
spoke last Sunday at Augusta’s St.
Mary’s on the Hill Parish Hall on
Christmas Cribs, and displayed 18 of
them from various parts of the world.
Though the theme is always the same
the treatment of the manger scenes
varies considerably with each land. In
the nativity scene from Spain pictured
above, the figures are of children. One is
bearing a toy car; another, a teddy bear;
and another, a gift wrapped up. The
figures from Holland are also of
children. The manger scene from
Switzerland is carved from wood; from
Chile, it is made in ceramics; from Peru,
in clay; from Taiwan, in bamboo.
Perhaps the set Dr. and Mrs. Wright
treasure the most is the one made by
their son, Hank. He constructed it from
driftwood at the age of nine. It is
estimated that approximately 800
persons viewed the display.
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Michael paused and said. “My mother
said you could have come into the
world as a King with a gold crown and
beautiful clothes, but you wanted to be
poor. Most people want to be rich.”
The boy replied, “If I had been rich
the prophecy would not have been
fulfilled. ” Michael did not know what a
prophecy was, but he did not like to
admit it.
A mighty wind whistled and groaned
outside. It sounded like Santa Clause
and his reindeer. The boys pulled the
covers up and pretended to be asleep
when Michael’s mother, Peggy, and his
daddy, John, came to tuck them in.
Christmas morning the boys ran
breathlessly downstairs. Michael’s daddy
switched on the Christmas tree and it
became ablaze with gay colored lights.
The next minute the boys tumbled and
climbed all over the rug searching for
presents.
“Oh, I’m so happy!” the Boy Jesus
exclaimed as he ripped open the present
that Michael gave him. It was a beautiful
harmonica. He blew on it and made
pretty music. Then he handed Michael a
real angel’s harp for his present. All of
the happy Christmas people ate dinner
in a beautifully decorated dining room.
Christmas bells and holly hung from the
ceiling with red poinsettas primly
occupied tall vases.
Late Christmas afternoon an angel
appeared at Michael’s bedroom window
to get the Boy Jesus. Michael’s mother
would have it no other way but the
angel should have turkey and dressing
and all the trimmings of the Christmas
dinner.
Michael siad, “Mr. Angel, don’t take
Boy Jesus back to Heaven. I don’t have
a sister or a brother and I want him
forever and ever.”
The angel smiled. “I can’t do that
Michael. The Boy Jesus is his mother’s
and father’s only child too. They would
be lost without him.”
Through tear-dimmed eyes Michael
looked at the bright lights on the tree
and said, “I will miss you, Boy Jesus.
Come again next Christmas, will you?”
“Yes, Michael. Yes indeed!” the Boy
replied. “I will come each year.”
Cold shivers ran up and down
Michael’s spine as he waved to the Boy
Jesus who was disappearing into the
starry bright sky.
Michael sat close to his mother and
father. He took his harp out of its gold
case and strummed a tune that didn’t
sound like very much.
He was startled by what sounded like
a voice from outer space. It was his
mother and she was saying, “Michael,
you must have fallen asleep before we
finished decorating the tree. It is time
for bed. Soon Santa will be here with
presents for all of us, and the Baby
Jesus will be born in Bethlehem.”
Michael rubbed his eyes that were
now green. How long had he been lying
there on the sofa? “Santa has already
come,” Michael said. “Don’t you
remember the Boy Jesus being here too?
An angel brought him from Heaven.”
Michael struggled to his feet.
“Did you have a dream and you saw
and heard something just like it really
happened?” his mother asked.
Michael persisted, “I did not dream.
The Boy Jesus WAS here. You and
Daddy kissed and hugged him.” Michael
swallowed the lump in his throat. When
his mother attempted to draw the gold
drapes in his room, he begged that they
be left open. How else could he keep
the memories of the Boy Jesus’ visit
with him?
Canada Bishops Issue Statement
OTTAWA, Canada (NC) - “To follow
one’s conscience and to remain a
Catholic, one must take into account
first and foremost the teaching of the
m agister ium (the Church’s teaching
authority),” the Canadian bishops said
in their “Statement on the Formation
of Conscience,” which was released Dec.
12.
“For a Catholic ‘to follow one’s
conscience’ is not, then, simply to act as
his unguided reason dictates,” they said.
The bishops explained conscience as
“that ultimiate judgment that every
man is called to make as to whether this
or that action is acceptable to him
without violating the principles which
he is prepared to admit as governing his
life. If he goes against those principles,
he is said to be acting ‘against his
conscience. ’”
Conscience, they said, is “not simply
some ‘still small voice’ which is evoked
by some mysterious mechanism within
us when we are faced with a practical
decision as to whether a given course of
action is acceptable or not.”
“When doubt arises due to a conflict
of ‘my’ views and those of the
magisterium, the presumption of truth
lies on the part of the magisterium,” the
bishops explained.
They said that there must be a
religious submission of mind and will to
the authentic teaching authority of the
Pope - even when he is not speaking ex
cathedra, when he exercises the
authority of his office in defining a
doctrine concerning faith and morals to
be held by the whole Church.
Such papal teaching, they said, “must
be carefully distinguished from the
teaching of individual theologians or
individual priests, however intelligent or
persuasive.”
The Canadian bishops said that the
many changes that have taken place in
modem history have led to some
confusion in the minds of many
Catholics.
Factors contributing to that
confusion, they said, are: the notion
that if something is legal it must be
moral; widespread propaganda
con ce ring sexual permissiveness;
individualistic ethics; economic
inequalities; and the depersonalization
of society and the exploitation of man.
The bishops statement said that “an
act of conscience is an individual thing
but must be based upon certain
accepted principles and positions. It
becomes, therefore, the duty of the
individual to acquire the necessary
information and attitude in order to
make the right decision. ”
They described the formation of
conscience as the “never-ending search
which every man must undertake for
himself in order to find out what is
worthy of a man and what is not
worthy of a man.”
In the Bible and tradition, the
bishops said, the Christian will find not
only “the designs of the Father in the
historical context of the world, but a
refined series of ideals, precepts and
examples given to us by the same Lord
Jesus.”
In discussing how the teaching of the
Church is handed down, the bishops
cited the service of the Apostles and
their successors, calling it a “doctrinal
service.”
A believer, the bishops said, “has the
absolute obligation of conforming his
conduct first and foremost to what the
Church teaches, because first and
foremost for the believer is the fact that
Christ, through His Spirit, is ever
present in His Church, in the whole
Church to be sure, but particularly with
MILWAUKEE (NC) - The Hindu
philosophy of yoga is being promoted in
the United States by imposters,
according to a native of India who is a
Catholic journalist.
Yoga teaches the suppression of all
activity of body, mind and will so that
the self may realize its distinction from
them and thus attain liberation.
The Indian journalist, Victor J.F.
Kulanday, told the Catholic Herald
Citizen, Milwaukee archdiocesan paper,
that the so-called yoga that attracts
many young people in this country and
Europe is not genuine.
Kulanday, here to address the Veritas
Forum, said that real yoga ascetics do
not take a jet plane from New Delhi to
commercialize yoga and sell it. “Those
who are here are simply fake,” he
charged.
He said the Catholic faith, with its
own teachings, has already given a way
for those who want to meditate and
contemplate. “The Church has not put
all this into rules about standing on
your head each day,” he said. “All the
saints did not practice yoga but they
reached a certain amount of
perfection . . . Their mysticism came
from their own faith.”
The man who codified yoga in 100
B.C., Patnajli, described two kinds of
yoga, Kulanday said. One helps a person
reach a transcendental level, achieved in
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those who exercise services within the
Church and for the Church, the first of
which services is that of the Apostles.”
In discussing the question of law, the
bishops said that “the spirit of God’s
laws take priority over the letter.”
The bishops went on to say that in a
society “which finds it extremely
difficult to accept any limitations upon
even the grossest perversions of
freedom, law has become a sort of
whipping boy. Yet it can be said that
the law is nothing more or less than the
expression of conditions which must
exist if man is to be free.”
The bishops said that “any law set up
by legitimate authority and in
conformity with divine law must be
taken into account in every moral
action.”
The bishops said that in their
statement they “tried to avoid legalism”
and to make, as the basis for their
considerations, “the person of Christ,
His teachings and His Spirit.”
a search for truth or for God. The
second is the commercialized yoga
which one gets “only by the practice of
magic spells, diabolical practices and
drugs. ”
“What we are getting here,”
Kulanday said, “is the second type. The
danger is that Americans today are
lapping up this pseudo yoga which in
the long run is giving them problems.”
Kulanday said that the Maharishi
Mashes Yogi, who gained worldwide
popularity among the young several
years ago, still advertises that
Hollywood actress Mia Fa^few and the
former British singing group the Beatles
came to his camp.
“But what he doesn’t say is that they
left early because they were
disillusioned,” Kulanday said. ‘This
‘great’ Yogi, after the breakup of his
camps, has never again been in India.”
The journalist said he has sensed a
wave of frustration among youth in the
United States. He said that in seeking
something new many of the youth have
gone for what the Maharishi calls
“transcendental meditation.”
“I fear young people still developing
will power, in causing a vacuum of the
mind, are developing a great deal of
psychiatric problems. Transcendental
meditation will not give them the
calmness or stillness of the mind they
are seeking.”
Fake Yoga In U. S.