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COLLATING RENEWAL
Advent Liturgy
BY REV. LEONARD F. X. MAYHEW
The Advent liturgy opens with a marvelous
vision. It embraces the entire history of God’s
redemptive plan to gather his people to himself
in Christ. The theme of the Advent celebration
r<- sts upon the two poles of the beginning and the
final end of salvation history.Over the panoramic
vision Christ presides as the Lord of History.
' The four Sundays of liturgical preparation for
Christmas recall the ages of the
old Testament dispensation bet
ween God and his chosen people.
In accord with his promise, God
formed a covenant with the He
brew nation in anticipation of
the “eternal covenant” He
would one day establish through
his Son. The generations of the
Old Covenant were filled with
the wondrous deeds by which
Y ahweh, the living God, gradually revealed him
self to his people. Patriarchs, prophets and kings
were appointed to bear his message, to correct
his people’s faults and to demonstrate the moral
perfection demanded of God’s chosen ones.
THE AGES of the Old Covenant were a time
of faith and hope in the power and faithfulness
of God to his promises. They were a gradual
revealing of Christ, whose advent climaxed the
years of expectation. This is what St. Paul re
called to his readers in the Epistle to the He
brews; “Long ago God spoke in incomplete and
varied ways to our fathers through the prophets;
in these, the last days, he has spoken to us through
his Son, whom he has made heir of all things,
and through whom he created the ages.”
The mystery of Christ’s coming is so rich and
varied in meaning that the liturgy must stretch
the portrayal of it over the weeks of Advent.
The historic coming of Jesus at his birth is the
simplest element of the picture. It is Christ’s
coming as Lord, heralded by all the prophets
ending with John the Baptist, that the Liturgy
wishes particularly to portray. After centuries of
promises that God’s reign would be estab
lished once and for all, Christ emerges to pro
claim effectively; “the Kingdom of God is here.’’
God’s love is now to embrace all men, summoned
by His Son to become his sons.
LAST SUNDAY’S Gospel stretches our imagin
ation to its utmost to impress upon us the full
force of what is meant by Christ's advent. The
coming of Christ which we see leaps from his
historic life and preaching to the final day when
he will return to gather his kingdom to Himself
and subject it eternally to his Father. “Men
will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with
great power and glory.” To the early Christians,
this Parousia, the second coming of Christ in
glory, was a familiar consideration. They look
ed forward to it as the final consummation of
their faith and hope. It is in view of this final
day that the demands and trials of the Chris
tian life are meaningful. From it flows the
assurance transmitted in Christ’s words,
“Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will
never pass away.”
For us, who live neither at the beginning nor at
the end of this history of salvation but in the
middle, so to speak, the lesson is clear. This
vision of faith is to reach into our “here and
now”. As Paul reminds us, we live in a new
day; “It is now the hour for you to wake up
from sleep.” This is a new day when justice must
be done, love must be expanded, solutions and
answers must be struggled for and discovered.
It is a call for action.
QUESTION BOX
Vocation Puzzle?
MONSIGNOR J. D. CONWAY
Q. Suppose that a young man wished to enter
the brotherhood of the Benedictine order, and sup
pose that he really felt that he was being called by
God to this life. If, however, he knew that he had
homosexual tendencies would this disqualify him,
even if he did not wish these tendencies, and for
the most part fought against them, although he had
given in at times? If he would be able to enter
would the superior have to be informed of the con
dition?
A. In my judgment, a person with such tenden
cies - not completely under control - would have
no business in a religious order, and I believe it
wouldx.be •wrong to deceive the
order into accepting him. How
ever, in a particular case I
recommend the counsel of a
wise spiritual director, who can
consider all angles of the case,
*•*
Q, I have a friend who is a
wonderful person and a very
good parent. He was not raised
Catholic, but later was convert
ed, He believes in the Good Lord, but no longer
attends Mass or receives the sacraments. What
will happen to his soul after death?
A, The Good Lord will decide that; He alone
knows what is in the hearts of men. He alone
knows how honest men are with themselves,
***
Q. Now that a change has taken place in the Mass
how shall we say our own private prayers? And
should one buy a new missal?
A. Come early and say your private prayers be
fore Mass, stay after Mass to say them, make a
visit to the church at some other time of the day,
or say them at home. We must grasp the basic
concept that the Mass is a community project.
It is public worship. It is the Church- the People
of God - gathered to hear God’s word, to offer
praise and sacrifice in union with Jesus Christ,
and to participate together in a banquet of love
and brotherhood.
You may have a few moments for private prayer
while the priest offers the common prayer of all
the congregation in Latin; the oration, secret pray
er, and postcommunion. You may findafewmom-
ents for private ado ration at the time of the Con
secration and after it; and also a brief moment
for intense personal thanksgiving after the Com
munion procession and its hymn are completed.
But don't be selfish; do not let-ypur private devo
tions intrude on your participation in the songs,
gestures, prayers, and listening of the priest and
congregation.
I do not recommend a new missal. To the best of
my knowledge none is available with the transla
tions which will be used - especially for the Epis
tles and Gospels. You should listen to these when
they are read to you; you hear God's word. I
would suggest that you take your old missal to
Mass; it can be helpful during the Canon, for in
stance. Then, if your parish does not distribute
cards for the English parts in which you partici
pate, you should obtain a missal insert, which may
cost you a dime.
***
Q. Please help me with a question of etiquette.
Who gives the stipend at baptism, the parents or
the godparents?
A. Frankly I don't know. I have seen it done both
ways without rhyme. Reason indicates to me that
it should be the parents.
ASIAN CHRISTIANITY
Your World And Mine
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
rr SEEMS TO me that in the coming period
of relations on a level of equality between the cul
tures of East and West, Christianity is destined to
play a far more important role. Japan has, for ex
ample, more than 15.000 students in 21 Catholic
colleges and universities and ten times as many in
protestant institutions of higher learning. Chris
tian missionaries made an immense and heroic
contribution to the feeding, settlement, education
and integration of the refugees from China who
more than doubled the population of Hong Kong
since 1946. Hong Kong is today the West's main
point of contact with China. Its people, educated
largely in Christian schools, will be the interpre
ters of the VVest to China when dialogue is renew
ed.
The number of converts to Christianity today is
not insignificant, especially in Hong Kong and Sin
gapore. But the immediate task of Christians in the
new Asia, in India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Japan and
elsewhere, is less to make Christians than to make
Christianity meaningful to the cultures of Asia. It
is a slow, exacting grind, with few visible rewards
for the dedicated men and women engaged in it.
In many places it can be conducted only with dif
ficulty, Restrictions on the entry of missionaries
are the order of the day. Restrictions on their ac
tivities are common. Governments are constantly
more inclined to take over mission schools and
charitable institutions. Development of nationalis
tic attitudes reduces the opportunity for contact
with the people to whom the missionary seeks to
offer the Gospel message,
ALL OF THIS, nevertheless, calls not for a de
crease but for an increase in the number of mis
sionaries. It also compels more specialized and
intensive training. Today's missionary in Asia
needs increasingly to be a scholar both in his own
culture and in that of his adopted home. Already,
all Catholic missionaries to Japan spend two years
on arrival in a specialized language school, return
frequently for further courses.
On the shelves of a rectory in a mountain town
some hundreds of miles north of Tokyo, I found
alongside Saint Thomas the works of Mauriac,
Teilhard de Chardin, James Joyce, Simone de
Beauvoir, Sartre and Jack Kerouac. “I have to
keep up with the people I meet," the French-
Canadian pastor explained. “The newest books are
translated into Japanese as they appear in the Unit
ed States and Europe. Not a few enquirers about the
Church know of us only through such biased sour
ces."
The specific task of these missionaries is to
strengthen and deepen the spiritual life of the tiny
Christian minorities, and to develop among them
vocations to the religious life and the priesthood.
The apostolate to non-Christians will be largely
religious life and the priesthood.The apostolate to
non-Christians will be largely indirect, centers
of learning to familiarize the East with the culture
of the West and the West w*ith that of the East,
re-interpretation of the Christian message and
Christian worship in terms more meaningful to
their people.
Catholic and Protestant missionaries here find
themselves with very similar terms of reference.
To make their work fruitful, they will have to co
ordinate it, according to Father Joseph J, Spae,
specialist in oriental philosophy and languages and
Japan's leading Catholic sociologist. “The attain
ment of Church unity, at least to a degree that
takes away the scandal of division,*’ he^ says,
"seems a requisite for the further penetration of
the message of Christ.”
Saints in Black and White
ST. SERVULUS 130
ACROSS
1 smart
5 concoct
9 tattle
13 corridor
14 woman’s nickname
15 thong
17 auk genus
18 son of Agrippina
20 loose robe
22‘ pullulating
25 Government Organ
ization «.
26 capable
27 baseball abbrevia
tion
28 existence
29 personal pronoun
30 Benedictines (abbr)
31 Its capital is
Raleigh
52 no person
34 a variety of beans
35 wild animal’s trail
39 completes
41 hole-ln-ono
42, even if
44 His life teaches us
48 camouflage
52 fall ill
53 pertaining to the
loot
55 quarrel
56 autumn pear
59 disorder
60 and (Latin)
61 Hezekiah’s Mother
62 limited (abbr)
63 suffix denoting
origin
64 exclamation!
66 drones
68 Miao, Chinese Tribe
69 herded
71 advantage
73 guided missile
75 Russian sea, inland
76 eternal (arch)
78 unwritten
80 bluster
81 among
82 Portuguese naviga
tor
83 stains
DOWN
1 talks
2 drags
3 that one (Latin)
4 He was carried to
St. Church
to beg
5 a Bachelor’s degree
6 environ
7 compass point
8 loud shout
9 bags (abbr)
10 shavetails (abbr)
11 melody
12 reed
16 He was afflicted
with from birtt
19 pertaining to the
peritoneum
21 i/ 2 Hebrew shekel
23 Inclusive
24 Canadian province
(abbr)
29 drunkard
33 devourer
34 compass point
35 heavy
36 landing craft
37 O, plural
38 He died December
twenty- ——
40 glowed
42 Philliplne Island
tree
43 small bone of the ear
45 siesta
46 Labor Union (abbr)
47 young pig
49 good till cancelled
(abbr)
50 an aardvark
54 youth
55 manager
56 Polish cake
57 bulky
58 rest
60 W. W. IT Theatre
63 correlative
64 hoist
65 dawdles
67 appear
69 crowd
70 squirrel’s nest
72 triple
74 medieval money
77 Sioux State (abbr>
79 note; music
ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE, PAGE 7
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 iq^ GEORGIA BULLETIN PAGE 5
LEGION OF DECENCY
‘Condemned’Films Increase
Family Productions Drop
WASHINGTON, D.C, (RNS)—
The Legion of Decency announ
ced here that in the past year
Hollywood has produced the
smallest number of "family
film*" in the history of the
Raman Catholic reviewing
agency.
Its annual report said that the
period (August 1963 through
August 1964) saw Hollywood
(and distributors who import
foreign films) reflect "an avid
desire for mass audiences and
high profits, and a disregard
for the spiritual and moral re
quirements of the spectators.”
OF THE 209 American-pro
duced films reviewed by the
Legion of Decency, only 42 —
or 20 per cent — could be con
sidered "family films," the
agency said.
Ektring the period, the Legion
reviewed 270 films, 62 of
foreign origin. Of this amount,
it said:
Sixteen (or 5.93) per cent)
received condemned ratings,
the greatest number and high
est percentage in the 30-year-
history of the reviewing agen
cy. Three of the films were
U.S, productions.
2. Domestic films rated "for
adults only" rose sharply in the
year — 53 films or 25.48 per
cent of all productions. The
figures for the previous year
were 35 films or 18.6 per cent.
3. So-called "B" classifica
tion films also rose. Forty-
three films, described by the
Legion as "morally objec
tionable in part for all," rep
resented 20.6 per cent of the
U.S. output (up 17 films, 7 per
cent).
THE "DEPLORABLE trend,"
the Legion report said, of "sub
stantial decrease in family
films and the increase in objec
tionable fare’’ is well describ
ed as "moral brinkmanship.”
The Roman Catholic agency
also assailed double-features
which pair family films with
those which are either "adult"
fare or "objectionable."
In the report of the Episco
pal Committee for Motion Pic
tures, Radio and Television,
made up of five bishops, a plea
was made for increased produc
tion of family films. It said:
"Religious leaders, educa
tors and government officials
should join in urging film in
dustry leaders to produce a
greater number of family films.
We make a particular and fer
vent appeal to parents to meet
their conscientious responsi
bility towards their children in
is matter.
"WE BEG them not to expose
their children to the corruptive
influence of morally objection
able movies.”
Children, the report conclud
ed, should not become "pawns
or victims of the dangerous
game of ’moral brinkmanship’ ”
played by U.S. and foreign film
producers.
The report was submitted to
the U.S, hierarchy at its annual
meeting held in Rome. On Dec.
13, the bishops will invite Cath
olics to renew their pledges of
support to the Legion's program
for better films.
Superior Dead
MILWAUKEE (NC)—Mother
Mary Hilaria, 77, commissary
general of the 6,000-member
School Sisters of Notre Dame
from 1956 to 1959, died (Nov.
27) at Notre Dame Infirmary in
suburban Elm Grove.
Seminary Fund
Remember the SEMINARY FUND
of the Archidocese of Atlanta in
your Will. Bequests should be made
to the “Most Reverend Paul J.
Hallinan, Archbishop of the Catho
lic Archdiocese of Atlanta and his
successors in office". Participate
in the daily prayers of our semi
narians and in the Masses offer
ed annually for the benefactors of
our SEMINARY FUND.
ARNOLD VIEWING
Basically Ludicrous
BY JAMES W. ARNOLD
In 'The Outrage” the people who made "Hud”
(director Martin Ritt, cameraman James Wong
Howe, actor Paul Newman) labor at length try
ing to re-paint the "Mona Lisa.” They produce
a picture that is often pretty but basically ludi
crous. Yet even if it were a masterpiece, the
looks of this film would not really salvage the
mischief of its meaning.
’The Outrage” is a close remake of Kuro
sawa’s 1951 Japanese classic, "Rashomon,”
which won the Venice grand
prize, the Academy Award as
best foreign film, and continuing
critical acclaim as one of the
truly great movies. Why do it
again? Ritt has said he had to get
back to work and it was the only
good script available. Besides,
most Americans had not seen
"Rashomon.” Vast treats are
in store when he recalls that
most of us have not seen 'The Seventh Seal” or
“La Dolce Vita” either.
T ISN'T quite the same as updating a classic,
since "Rashomon" is timeless, or as putting
on a new version of "Hamlet.” A play has no life
of its own; it can be passed from generation to
generation only by repeated, and hopefully better,
productions and interpretations. But a film exists
as long as prints of it exist, and once a concept
is perfectly filmed, we are not obliged to produce
it again but only to screen it again.
Ritt's new enterprise is better compared to do
ing the "Hamlet” story with a new script.
Worse, it is as if there were a conscious effort
to stick very closely to Shakespearean structure
and style. There is no point in reworking a mas
terpiece unless the new man takes only the basic
concept and completely re-creates it according to
his own gifts and vision. There can be new paint
ings of smiling, enigmatic women, but they ought
to be more than Mona Lisas in beehive hairdos
and basic black cocktail dresses.
THE ETHEREAL 12th century Japanese fable
has been transplanted to 19th century Arizona, a
guilty, realistic territory as familiar to movie
goers as their own backyards. The fit is as snug
as if Scarlett O’Hara had been moved to a split-
level in San Diego.
Actor Newman plays a mean Mexican bandit who
ambushes an aristocratic Southern couple (Claire
Bloom, Laurence Harvey) in a forest of brush and
papier-mache saguro cactuses. The husband is
killed, the wife raped. The bandit is brought to an
open-air trial on the dusty main street of a town
which looks, inexplicably, as if it had recently been
hit by a small atomic bomb.
they have hold of Something Profound.
TWO POSSIBLE solutions are suggested. One,
favored by critics, is that there is no objective
truth. Each person sees only a part of the whole,
and what is true for him may at the same time be
false for someone else. This notion, popular in the
colleges today, is important to Ritt, who confes
ses he made the film to promote this idea, which he
describes as "terribly pertinent" to Americans.
A second solution is to accept the idea that
everyone is lying, but that the prospector, the most
objective observer, is closest to the truth. In his
version, all the actors behaved like clowns and
cowards, and lied to make themselves seem noble
or important. As a cynical character puts it, men
like to think they are heroes, but in reality they
are pipsqueaks.
THUS THE field is leftto two contending modern
philosophies. Truth is relative, or else man is ab
surd, a comical creature whose tragedies cannot
be taken seriously. The intellectual poing is sof
tened (as in Kurosawa's film) by a far-fetched
sentimental ending. An abandoned baby turns up,
and the prospector resolves to care for it. We
are left with the thought; men are fools, liars
and thieves, but deep in our hearts, we know
they are loveable.
The most charitable view of all this cerebral
jousting is that is is oven-rated. It is certainly
true that the same event can be experienced dif
ferently by different people (e.g., the wife thought
she resisted, the husband thought she consented).
But an event still occured ’ out there" whose
truth is independent of what anyone may think or
say about it.
Furthermore, one tires of this terribly fash ion-
able disparagement of man. He is either made in
the image of Gsd, or he is not. If one believes that
he is, then man is loveable not because he is small
but because he is large. Our films are full of
small men, but our press is not: a peasant Pope,
an assassinated president, a martyred missionary
doctor. These are men who asked to be taken
seriously.
BEYOND THIS, space only for a few random
comments on art. Parts of ’The Outrage" are
visually stunning, and the prospector’s story is
deft satirical comedy. All the tales, in fact, are
interesting interpretations of such genres as the
traditional western, the feminine sociological
tragedy, etc. But actors Newman and Harvey are
too funny. Newman's bandit caricature proves
again that no actor can hold the peak of his powers
when he allows himself to be abused in a string
of worthless, unchallenging roles. As for Harvey,
he comes off best when completely bound and
gagged.
The crux of the matter is that events in the for
est are narrated differently by each of the four wit
nesses - the bandit, the wife, the dead husband
(reporting, hold on, through an Indian medicine
man who found him before he died), and an aged
prospector who wanders by. Who really killed the
husband? Was the woman willing or not? What is
the true character of the participants? In raising
these questions, the film-makers seem convinced
Miss Bloom, when visible behind acres of dis
heveled hair, is trapped by the need to play a
make-believe woman in a realistic setting, and
never quite figures a way out. Muchof director
Ritt's work is admirable - the lyrical, spinning
shots, the blurs and mists, the outting, the fast
tracking shots through the brush. But the more art
he uses, and too much of it is obvious, the more
this false, contrived, stagey western is exposed
for what it is.
God Love You
BY MOST REVEREND FULTON J. SHEEN
Sometimes one must look into the future to decide what one must
do in the present. The Apostles looking on the glory of the Temple
of Jerusalem shining in the moming sunlight, called to Our Lord to
gaze upon it. They saw magnificence; He saw not a stone upon a
stone.
Now what of America? The most momentous decision in our his
tory, even more than our involvement in two worlds
wars, was the decision of the Supreme Court to.
exile God and prayer from schools. All the future
chapters in American history will start here. One
can foresee what is to follow. The next chapter
will be the elimination of religious education alto
gether by taxation. This is already being prepar
ed. The third chapter will be taxing churches and
religious life out of existence. In the fourth, re
ligious people will affirm their liberties andpro-
,test the destruction of constitutional rights. This
will provoke the fifth, a chapter of persecution, because of the re
fusal of religion to be anti-religious.
Here we are not concerned with legal measures to be taken, but
rather with spiritual attitudes. Today, we can go to bed without
fear. But is it not just make-believe to think that the attitude we
take to people who have no bed has nothing to do with our future?
The more capital we amass the more drives we have, the more we
add bam to barn and gymnasium to social center, the more we be
come like that gleaming Temple of Jerusalem, which to the Apos
tles seemed a sign of prosperity, but to Christ Himself was al
ready a ruin.
We now need to prepare for the future; 1) By building humbly
to share more of our wealth with the rest of the world, 2) By
inspiring our college youths to dedicate two years in the Missions,
as do the Mormons. 3) By self-criticism, asking ourselves if we
are not like rich relatives whose poor relatives envy us to a point
of waiting to lay hands on our money, 4) By going out into the world
since the world will not come to us, reviving parish visitations,
tightening bonds with men of good will, praying together with them.
5) By facing the sad fact that Communism is more missionary than
we are, does more for the poor than we do and all for the sake of
the partyl Does Christ mean less to us?
Call that day when we lose our schools, X day. What regrets we
will have that we did not have more drives for souls and less
for money 1 Christ alone can save us. And where is He? In our tab
ernacles I Yes. But that is His private presence. He also has a
social presence, the Divine Incognito. He is in the leper; in the
starving in India; in the famished children of Latin American
slums. He is hidden in the heart of a lonely soul down the street;
in the lives of the little children in Africa who yearn to go to
school and in their parents Who long to have even a hut for a chapel,
THERE is the Christ Who will save us I
Religious vitality and love of Christ are on the wane \<nen they
are interested principally in "acts of devotion." Scripture says
that judgment begins with the Church! May we prevent it in our
time by helping you share these sentiments, cut out this column
and send it to us with your reflections, your prayers and your
concrete proof that the Cross means something in your life,
GOD LOVE YOU to M.J.S, for $100 "1 am only a secretary. 1
don’t have everything but I can spare two weeks salary for the
poor of the world. 1 know they need more than I do." ...to M.V.K.
for $14.35 "for months now I have been trying to go on a diet.
Then I read about the starving millions of the world and here is
the result, no sweets to fatten me and the sama money to feed
them,"
Not too late for Christmas giving! Bishop Sheen’s, THE TRUE
MEANING OF CHRISTMAS, is a book the whole family will en
joy and treasure. Simply and movingly, he tells the story of the
Nativity - its meaning through the ages and for all of us today.
Beautifully illustrated in color, this compact hard-bound book can
be purchased for $1,50 by writing to the Order Department of The
Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 366 Fifth Avenue, New
York, N, Y, 10001. Allow one week for delivery.