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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY APRIL 4, lv63
Archdiocese of Atlanta
the BpS ^
GEORGIA BULLETI^I
Slit VINO OeOHOIA'S 71 NORTHERN COUNTIES
Official Organ of the Archdiocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur Dekalb News
PUBLISHER - Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
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Are We Forsaken?
HEADBONE'S STILL CONNECTED TO THE FOOTBONE
ACHIEVING BALANCE
Pluralism - Birth Control
One of Christ’s greatest pray
ers was. “My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken me?”
Never did He seem less like
God as when He said this. Yet,
never was He more genuinely
Godlike. Here in this desolate
moment He is giving up every
thing, even the light of day. The
stage is set. * The scenery is
dulled with a brush dipped in the
murky shadows of eclipse. A
funeral shroud is hung over the
sun: there is to be no spotlight
on this scene. The gates of light
are closed. The gates of darkness
are opened. Deep and thick the
gloom is poured on the ground.
It rolls to the foot of the Cross
and climbs to hide the Man upon
it. It whelms Him and cuts Him
off from men, and seemingly,
from God.
Within that cloud is the whiz
zing and the droning of the lo
cust plague of sin. Brood upon
brood, host upon host, myriad
upon myriad this horde settles
on His soul, creeping, loathsome,
noise some. Relentlessly, remor-
sley it advances. The man on the
Cross writhes, unfriended and
alone, left to the whim of the
pestilence. Biting like pride,
chirping like covetousness,
crawling like lust, devouring like
anger, gnawing like gluttony,
singing like envy, smothering
like sloth the pestilence over
runs Him with the slime and
putrefaction of rottenness and
decay. “He was made sin for
our sake. He was made a curse
and an execration.”
His unconquerable will is
steeped in turmoil, caught in the
obscure careening of that pesti
lential cloud, trapped in a
swirling gulf of aloneness. His
anguish embraces eternities. He
must cry out. As He drifts into
that abyss of lonesomeness He
shows that He is more Godlike
than ever. He shows that delay
is not defeat. He shows that dark
ness is not blindness. As His
spirit in plunged into the
lightlessness, He summons His
strength and begins to sing. He
begins to intone the Twenty First
Psalm; one of the Psalms about
His Passion. There is no despair
here. Read the rest of the Psalm
and you will see that it is a song
of hope. It is a canticle which
"SPECK"
“Does Sister know about this
fifty-mile procession?"
shoots a ray of light through the
shadows, to show us that at such
times we must not only pray but
pray all the more. True, it begins
with the words, “My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken
me?” because it is a prophecy
about His Passion, but the Psalm
goes on to say, “Thou hast not
slighted nor despised My pray
er. Neither have You turned away
Your face from Me. When I
cried to Thee, Thou didst
hear Me.” It is a hymn of reli
ance, not a dirge of hopeless
ness. Now more than ever does
Christ earn our salvation for us
by trusting under trial. Never
did He seem less like God. Never
was He more genuinely Godlike.
How could God seem to aband
on Him? His whole life was an
abondonment. The difference
between Calvary and Bethleham
is a difference of degree. His
self-emptying on the Cross con
tinues His self-emptying in Beth
lehem.
The worst thing that God can
do to us is to seem to leave us
alone. Sometimes He does this
as a punishment and that is bad.
Sometimes He does it as a trial,
and that is good. He does it as a
punishment, but as a medicinal
one. God does not punish capri
ciously. He does it, not to avenge
but to bring us to our senses.
Sometimes God leaves us alone
until we realize our weakness
and insufficiency and come back
to Him. Could it be that He is
doing that to the world today?
How often the worst thing that
can happen to us is to have God
to do what we want.
The World has said, “We want
to be left alone.” Yet it will not
be long before the old cry is
heard, “Why has God abandon
ed us?” It is a time-worn re
frain. We push God out, and then
say, “Why has He abandoned
us?” We cast ourselves from the
pinnacle of the temple and expect
His angels to bear us up, lest
we dash our new shoes against a
stone.
Sunday was Passion Sunday.
The statues were covered with
the purple cloth of Penance. The
Church asks that we assume the
purple mantle ourselves as we
tread on the last few miles to
Calvary. It is a reminder that
out of darkness comes light.
Approach
BY FR. ROBERT W. HOVDA
(Priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory)
APRIL 7 SECOND SUNDAY OF THE PASSION.
Our immeidate approach to the central cele
bration of the Christian year, the Easter Vigil,
begins with a triumphal acknowledgement of
Christ as King. For the King is the symbol of
the whole people, their embodiment. Already
conscious of the victory He has achieved for us
and we can attain in Him, we enter upon a
sacred week commemorating redemptive events
with a parade in which we hail “death’s con
queror.”
“All glory, laud and honor to Thee, Redeem
er, King” is the hymn of the day. He is king,
yes. He gives us an identity. He forges bonds
of unity. He creates a people, But, even more,
He is Redeemer. What He gives, forges and
makes is an inner transformation and power —
not, aM other kings, merely a common loyalty
and purpose.
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
We Catholics had a good time during the last
Presidential campaign. We had golden opportuni
ties by the carload to prove how well we have
reconciled our religious loyalty with our adher
ence to the American political system. We vindi
cated ourselves on the outmoded, tired charges
and we settled back for a long rest of self-
congratulations. We belong.
But problems not, only re
main; they abound. Summed
up under the term ’plural
ism’ they embrace explosive
issues which range from gov
ernment assistance to paro
chial education to the
distribution of birth-control
information and service in
tax - supported health
facilities.
A pluralistic society such as the United States
Includes many groups which differ from each
other in religious and cultural convictions. Our
political system is based on achieving a balance
among these groups through majority rule limited
by constitutional protection of the freedoms of
minorities and individuals. Social peace and the
mobilization of a consensus to solve common
problems depend on a further balance among the
diverse groupings within the pluralistic society.
This can be accomplished only on the Initiative
of the groups themselves, since it is not a prop
er matter for legislative direction. Its success
will depend on our awareness of viewpoints
differing from our own and a willingness to com
promise without sacrifice of principle and, fre
quently, to subordinate short-term advantage to
long-term progress.
1 would like to discuss one very thorny con
troversy that has involved our pluralistic society
in recent years and continues still. It concerns
public policy regarding family planning services
and information. A great deal of bitterness and
mutual distrust has been generated in various
parts of the country over this issue. It is im
portant enough to demand our awareness and
thoughtful consideration.
We Catholics believe that artificial or mech
anical interference in the marital relationship
is gravely immoral. At the same time we are
forced to recognize that our conviction represents
very definitely a minority position within the
American community. Where a generation or more
ago there may have existed an almost general
consensus in agreement with our conviction, in
recent years the consensus has shifted to the
contrary view. Certain religious groups have
officially advocated family planning subject to
certain moral norms. They have expressly dis
avowed the doctrine help by Catholics that holds
certain means of birth control to be immoral.
This deep-seated disagreement poses grave pro
blems regarding public policy in this field.
To begin logically, we ought to define with
exactness the bounds of our disagreement. Only
then will it be possible to approach a sane and
just public policy. Our fellow citizens have no
right to expect or demand that Catholics change
their beliefs or their practices merely to con
form to the new consensus of opinion on this
quesion. But neither can Catholics expect to
control by pressure or political tactics the be
liefs and practices of others.
As a beginning we would do well to dispel the
impression that the Catholic Church teaches that
families must have as many children as possible.
Father Stanislas de Lestapis, S.J., professor of
family sociology at the Institut Catholique in
Paris, and representative of the Holy See to the
U. N. World Population Conference in 1954,
wrote in a recent book: “the Catholic Church
teaches that there is, in principle, a right, or
better a duty, to practice a form of birth limi
tation based on careful thought, provided that this
regulation is inspired by motives of genuine
charity, and that it respects the order of values
inherent in the sexual function and also the pattern
of its structural factors.” It will be valuable also
to note the similarity between the statements of
Pius XII and that of the National Council of
Churches listing the conditions making family
limitation permissible. The disagreement, of
course, arises over the question of licit means
of family limitation. The Catholic Church con
demns artificial contraception while non-
Catholics generally do not recognize the moral
prohibition of any means which are not them
selves harmful.
The political society must accept the fact
that differences exist between the religious groups
on birth control.
NOT INVENTED
Priesthood
Is Christ
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
We have been talking quite a lot about the
work of the laity, but one should never forget
the importance of the priesthood. As has been
so often said before in relation to the Lay
Apostolate, the priest is everything and no
thing.
Here are a few ideas which are worthy of
serious consideration by all of the laity in
order that we can better accept some of the
minor irritations of parocial life.
The priesthood
belongs to no man
but only to Christ.
It is for this reas
on that long ago men
began to speak of
the priest as
"another Christ.”
The priesthood
which the human
priest exercises
belongs to Christ. The truths which he is commis
sion to speak belong also to Christ.
Yet the man who is a priest is not an automa
ton. Rather, he is a man who has entered into an
almost miraculous partnership. He has freely
allowed Christ to possess him, to fill him with
divine power, and to set him upon a divine
mission. So when we call a man a priest we
speak rightly. But we speak rightly also when
we say that there is and can be but one priest.
As Cardinal Suhard puts it, “There are not,
therefore, several kinds or degrees of priests,
as if each one were a separate kind of priest.
The priesthood cannot be invented, it is. It is
not even, in a sense, something. It is someone:
Christ.”
Any ordination day, therfore, is a challange -
a challenge to our realization of what Christ has
done for us.
There are attitudes abroad today which would
seem to indicate that many lay people do not
understand. There are some who see the priest
as a man with a job to do, a man suscept-
biel to the same evaluations as other man. And
this is not true.
The priest is a carrier of Christ. He may,
indeed, carry Him lovingly and nobly, as Mary
did, or — this would be an extreme case — he
may drag and transport him as the soldiers
did on the way to Calvary. In either case he
remains a carrier of Christ. He and the Mas
ter are linked inseparable for all eternity.
Hence, when any of us look at a priest, be
he young or old, suave or abrupt, dapper or
dishevelled, pleasing or irritating, good or bad,
we cannot close our eyes to the presence of the
Master.
Christ chooses a priest to carry on the ex
pansion of God’s kingdom on earth through the
preaching of die divine word, and through the ad
ministration of the sacraments. He entrusts
the renewing of His redeeming death to him, who
has become one of Christ's chosen few.
True, we can conceive the redemption so de
vised that we might participate in its saving
grace without any mediation, whatever. If God
so wished He could require that we merely say:
” I believe in Thee, my Lord”, and thereupon
we should become Christians without any out
ward baptismal ceremony. If God wished, he
could require that we merely kneel down, beat
our breast, and say "Lord, be merciful to me,
a sinner”, and then our sins would be forgiven
without confession and priestly absolution.
But the truth is that God did not will it so.
Christ decreed that we are to avail ourselves
of outward sign and ceremonies for the dis
pensation of His grace, and that these cannot
be performed by anyone except those to whom
He has entrusted this office. Since man is not
merely a spirit but is composed also of a
material body, it is fitting to our material na
tures that God, in dispensing His interior,
invisible grace, should use external, visible
signs and ceremonies.
To this end He needs the priesthood, a priest
hood living only to serve God and to lead souls
to God. Even though God knew that human weak
ness would still remain in His priest, yet He
wanted their love to reach so far as to em
brace all mankind. Without hesitation the priest
must go wherever duty sends him: to the little
village, to the great city, to children at school,
to sick persons in hospitals, to the poor in the
slums, to strangers and to heathens.
All over the country in every diocese, the
vast majority of our priests perform an unsung
task of being "other Christs.” They are active
in the civic organizations, especially those con
cerning charity and education. So very often
we are apt to forget that the priest is expec
ted to be an expert in practically everything.
Only die other day I sat for a couple of hours
in the austere room of a very busy pastor. I
was not at all surprised that there must have
been 20 to 30 telephoned interruptions.
Three or four callers wanted to know whe
ther Father could come to dinner (it was al
most dinner time then). They had a good roast
in the oven and they would love Father to be
their.guest. He knew there was a problem, and
Father was expected to be the counselor. Another
phone call was from a local judge. He had a
problem Catholic Juvenile, whom he would have
liked off his hands. He was sure Father could do
it — and right away. Then there were the calls
from non-Catholics. Some merely to say hello;
some to ask questions about the Faith; and oth
ers just plain cranks.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
LITURGICAL WEEK
To Central Celebration
So when we hear the graphis accounts of His
suffering, in the Mass following today’s pro
cession and in the liturgy throughout this week,
we realize we are lndenti-
fied with Him in His
suffering as well as in
His victory. And not only
as sinners, whose failure
to love has crucified the
Savior but also as co
sufferers — as men and
women whose suffering ac
quires in Him in a postive
and a redemptive value.
APRIL 8 MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK. The un-
velieving world sees only waste and weakness
in the passion of Jesus and indeed in all wor
ship of God. Isaia’s fellow citizens scoff (First
Reading); Judas complains (Gospel). Why this
needless suffering? Why so much effort, time
and money given to worship when man stands
in need of so many things? Can history teach
those whom faith does not reach that without
God and worship man is no longer man?
APRIL 9 TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK. Per
haps nothing portrays as vividly as this week's
liturgy the fact that Christianity is principal
ly not a cause, nor an institution, nor a code,
nor a philosophy, but a Person. Another ac
count of die Passion, in place of the Gospel to
day, again simply, starkly narrates the total
self-offering of the Suffering Servant. The First
Reading describes man’s plot against Him. The
hymns sing of His trust in the Father.
APRIL 10, WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK. The
contrast in the first two lessons of today’s Mass
(both from the Old Testament) between the sob-
dler hero and the suffering hero leads to another
reading of the Passion and the clear choice of
the Redeemer. A lesson in power for the Christ
ian who is as mesmerized as other men by
Continued On Page 3
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM