 Darkness. Dust. Silence. Solitude. Passivity. Powerlessness. Joylessness. The deprivation of all strength and vitality. To be, but to “be” in such a condition as to be deprived of everything but being itself. To be, but to “be” as if one were not. Such are the descriptions of the realm of the dead (Sheol/Hades) in the Old Testament, and such was the realm to which Jesus went on Holy Saturday. During his earthly life, Jesus had been in solidarity with the living; on Holy Saturday, he entered into solidarity with the dead, so that he might forge a path for his fellow human beings out of the realm of death and into eternal life with God the Father.
Jesus descended into the farthest reaches of hell, so that even the sinner who tries to run as far away from God as possible will ultimately find himself running into the arms of Christ. Jesus endured the greatest possible separation from God so that he might bring as many sinners as possible back to God. St. Athanasius gave bold expression to this claim: The Lord has touched all parts of the creation . . . so that each might find the Logos everywhere, even the one who has strayed into the world of demons. May I suggest that each of us spend at least a little time on Holy Saturday reflecting on the beauty and depth of the divine love that would go to the farthest extremes of death and hell for our sake and for the sake of all of our fellow human beings? The more fully we allow ourselves to accompany Jesus in spirit on this most holy of all Saturdays, the more fully we can then rejoice in the annual celebration of our Lord’s (and therefore our) Easter passage from death into eternal life. You can read the rest of this article at Word on Fire.  Eric Liddell was the great Scottish runner who was one of two track and field athletes from the United Kingdom whose life stories were featured in the film, Chariots of Fire. Liddell managed to win a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics despite switching from his strongest event to a different event at the last minute in order to avoid competing on a Sunday, which he felt would have violated his strong Christian beliefs. After winning the gold, Liddell became a national hero, and a plethora of prominent and potentially very lucrative career options opened up for him. But Liddell chose to forego all such opportunities in order to become a Christian missionary in China. He was captured in 1943, and he was kept in a Japanese internment camp until his death from brain cancer in February 1945. The last words Liddell uttered before dying were, “It’s complete surrender.”
This was a man who had sacrificed much that the world values in order to answer God’s call for him to serve as a Christian missionary. It therefore seems entirely fitting that his final words should refer to “complete surrender.” Liddell knew what lies at the heart of the Christian life and, indeed, at the heart of the divine life itself: self-surrendering, self-giving love. You can read the rest of this article here.  Much has been written about the global fertility crisis, but almost all of the solutions to this crisis that have been proposed thus far are unlikely to be effective. What is the solution?
This article can be found at crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-solution-to-the-global-fertility-crisis.  In a recent interview with Fox News, Vice-President JD Vance injected the concept of the ordo amoris (the right or proper ordering of one's love) into the national conversation regarding immigration policy. The proper ordering of love is to be based on the closeness of the connection between ourselves and the potential recipient of our love, defined in such terms as the closeness of the relationship of that person to ourselves and their physical proximity to us (i.e., love of God, then self, then spouse and children, then extended family, then the neighbors who live closest to us, then our community, then fellow citizens, and then the rest of the world), as Vance had at least partly articulated in his interview. The ordo amoris can be conceptualized as a series of concentric circles radiating outward from ourselves, beginning with loving God, who is, as Augustine put it, “closer to us than we are to ourselves,” and ending with loving the rest of the world outside our own country. In other words, the right ordering of love generally requires that we “love locally” first.
This article can be found at www.wordonfire.org/articles/first-love-locally-jd-vance-and-ordo-amoris/?queryID=bc74c7df429a6ebb0a5977293de945ea.  “If you don’t believe in God, at least believe in beauty.” This was the advice that Roger Scruton, a British philosopher and cultural commentator, gave to Ayaan Hirsi Ali a few years ago when she told him about the deep and long-lasting depression she had been battling. Hirsi Ali had tried to cope with her depression by turning to alcohol, and she had also seen multiple psychiatrists and dutifully taken the various medications they had prescribed for her depression, but nothing had helped. At least, not until her conversation with Scruton. His pithy comment helped to set her on a path that not only alleviated her depression, but also resulted in a fundamental transformation of her life.
You can read the rest of this article at www.wordonfire.org/articles/ayaan-hirsi-alis-belief-in-beauty/.  The Blessed Virgin Mary isn’t the only person who was called to give birth to Jesus. We are all called to give birth to Jesus. Not physically, of course. Mary is unique in that respect, as in so many others. But we are all called to give birth to Jesus spiritually in our hearts, in our minds, and in our lives.
You can read the rest of this article at www.wordonfire.org/articles/the-ongoing-birth-of-jesus/.  Gratitude opens us up to a sense of wonder. Gratitude opens us up to beauty, goodness, and truth. Gratitude opens us up to love, and to Love. Gratitude opens up the sluice gate so that God’s grace can flow, and overflow, into our hearts, our minds, and our lives. And the more God’s grace flows into us, the more it can flow through us and outward into the lives of other people as well.
You can read the entire article at www.wordonfire.org/articles/gratitude-opens-us-to-the-flow-of-grace/.  Roger Scruton, in his personal history of the Church of England, makes the thought-provoking claim that when John Calvin removed the sacrament of Penance from his “reformed” list of sacraments, “he made the first and fatal step towards the de-Christianization of the world.”
This article can be found at www.wordonfire.org/articles/the-demotion-of-penance-a-fateful-step-toward-de-christianization/?queryID=2bcf1d02417a6de17b1cdc02e40b5734.  One of the images of the Christian life that St. Augustine used was an upside-down fruit tree. This tree has its roots in heaven and grows with its leaves and branches hanging down toward the earth, and its fruit is available for the benefit of any and all. Each of us is called to be this upside-down fruit tree. Each of us is called to bear fruit for the kingdom of God and for the benefit of our fellow human beings.
You can read the entire article at www.wordonfire.org/articles/st-augustines-upside-down-fruit-tree/.  As Christians, we are called—not to hate the person who does wrong—but to hate the wrong itself.
You can read this article at www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/09/06/there-is-a-time-and-place-for-hate/ |
Rick Clements, Ph.D.
Rick writes and speaks about topics related to the Catholic faith, with a particular focus on the ways in which a rediscovery of beauty, goodness, and truth can help to revitalize our lives and our culture. 
Archives
April 2025
Categories
Header photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
© Richard Clements
|
RSS Feed