Lent
2008:
A guide for spiritual preparation
Week
One
Our
Church and our world
By Janet Haggarty
Special to the CS&T
Catholic theology often addresses the relation between the Church and
the world. In his letters, St. Paul calls that relationship the struggle
between the spirit and the flesh.
For him, flesh refers to the world’s strong pull on us toward pleasure
and ease. Spirit, on the other hand, draws us toward holiness. But how
can spirit hope to compete with flesh? Flesh, the world, offers us so
much distraction and illusion; spirit is poor and comes with empty hands.
But the spirit, as St. Paul knows, is given to us to order the flesh toward
holiness, too. In this way, all is made holy. This is the fulfillment
and glory of the flesh: to be made one with spirit and placed at the service
of holiness.
St. Paul has seen the victorious union of flesh and spirit and sets it
before us as our hope. The victorious union that he witnessed is the Paschal
Mystery of our Lord. Our Lord Himself, then, is our hope that flesh and
spirit can be finally reconciled in us. For that reason, our hope is firmly
grounded.
This victorious union, this raising up of the flesh at the service of
holiness, is unveiled for us on Easter. It allows us to proclaim that
in our Lord the victory has already been won. Hope is the conviction that
there is communion between His flesh and ours, between His victory and
us.
When Catholic theology addresses the relation between the Church and the
world, it is to stress that the mission of the Church is to transform
the world.
We could just as easily say that the spirit transforms the flesh. They
are not simply intended to exist side-by-side. They certainly are not
intended to remain antagonists.
The Church draws the world to herself in order that the world may be put
at the service of holiness. The way in which the Church carries out that
mission is in the lives of her members. When we live our faith by placing
ourselves at the service of holiness, we carry out the Church’s
mission.
We are needed to transform the world. Knowing our participation in the
Church’s mission can bring a new and more fruitful perspective to
our lives. It becomes the substance of our spiritual lives. It is a fuller
way to live our faith.
The primary way by which the Church draws the world to herself in order
to transform it is by means of the Liturgy.
Real transformation can only happen through the liturgy. Only what is
drawn into the liturgy can be substantially transformed. Many celebrations
in the liturgical year sanctify man’s natural attempts at union
with God.
The liturgical year begins with an urgent sense of coming. This is Advent.
In ancient days, mankind observed that the daylight began to last longer
when the winter solstice arrived. Longer days and shorter nights in the
cold of winter caused much rejoicing.
Our Lady brought forth our Lord at the very time when the sun made its
triumphant return to the earth. Our heavenly Father allows the sun’s
return to direct our attention to the coming of another Son and the endless
Day He brings.
Harvest-time is another example of a celebration in the liturgical year
drawing the world into the Church.
In autumn, the harvest is ripe and the fruit of the earth is gathered
through the labor of the farmer, the same one who sowed the seed in the
spring. Through the sweat of his brow and the concerned anxiety of his
spirit, the farmer plants in order to reap.
The fruitfulness of his labor, which is revealed in the harvest, is the
joyful testimony he seeks. The fruitfulness gives meaning and purpose
to the labor. In this relation between the farmer and the fruit of the
earth, the Church recognizes the bloody sweat and labor of our Redeemer.
The threefold communion of saints — in heaven, on earth, and in
purgation celebrated at harvest-time — is the new fruit of the earth
giving joyful testimony to the victory of the Cross.
Dr. Janet Haggarty is a professor of systematic theology at St. Charles
Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. She has served on the Seminary faculty since
1995, after completing graduate studies at Fordham University, New York.
Fast
and abstinence and other acts of penance for Lent 2008
The Bishops of the United States prescribe, as minimal obligation, that
all persons who are 14 years of age and older are bound to abstain from
eating meat on Ash Wednesday, on all the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday.
Further, all persons 18 years of age and older, up to and including their
59th birthday, are bound to fast by limiting themselves to a single full
meal on Ash Wednesday and on Good Friday, while the other two meals on
those days are to be light.
All the faithful are encouraged, when possible, to participate at Mass
and to receive the Holy Eucharist daily, to celebrate frequently the sacrament
of penance, to undertake spiritual reading, especially the study of the
Sacred Scriptures, and to participate in parish Lenten devotions as well
as Lenten education programs.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is especially recommended.
All are encouraged to participate in “Operation Rice Bowl,”
which has aided countless hungry persons here in the Archdiocese as well
as throughout our nation and our world.
Lunches
offer glimpses of our human family in need
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — The terrifying reality of human trafficking will
be the first topic for the annual Operation Rice Bowl Lenten speaker
series sponsored by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the Archdiocese
this year.
Pravin Parshuram Patkar, founder and chairperson of Prerana, an organization
committed to fighting human trafficking and assisting its survivors in
India, will speak at the Lenten lunch at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13
in the Archdiocesan Office Center.
India is the world’s most active clandestine source, transit route
and destination point for the trafficking of women and girls into commercial
sexual exploitation. In Mumbai, where Patkar’s organization operates,
hundreds of thousands of women and girls are trafficked annually. He will
talk about how and why human trafficking happens in his country and what
Prerana and its partner, CRS-India, are doing about it.
“Rice Bowl is so much more than just a [monetary] collection,”
said Anne Ayella, CRS archdiocesan director and the organizer of the event.
“It really embraces the traditional practices of Lent ….
“What we try to do in those Wednesday sessions is to pray for the
country being highlighted that week, learn something about the people
and projects, have a simple meal and make a donation — if you want
— rounding out the Rice Bowl spirit,” she said.
In addition to India, the series will highlight how Operation Rice Bowl
helps individuals in the Philadelphia region as well as in Guatemala,
Mali, Haiti and Cameroon.
The speakers will include Sister Barbara Tickner, I.H.M., social service
coordinator for St. Katharine Drexel Social Services and Food Cupboard,
who will describe her local ministry and the way Operation Rice Bowl helps
in that work.
In addition, Candice Harris from the CRS northeast regional office will
talk about Guatemala, where she visited CRS projects. Geraldine O’Hare
will share about her longtime work with the people of Haiti through Hospice
St. Joseph, which was founded in 1989 by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
All sessions will be held at the Archdiocesan Center, 222 North 17th Street,
from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., with a simple lunch of soup and bread provided.
The Feb. 14 session will be in the ground-floor auditorium, and subsequent
sessions will be in the 13th floor conference room. All are welcome.
For more information contact Anne Ayella at 215-895-3486 x717.
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at npozo@adphila.org
or (215) 965-4614.
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Lent’s
40 days of ‘death’
lead to life
By Janet Haggerty
Special to the CS&T
The liturgical seasons of Lent and Easter are a further way by which the
Church transforms the world.
Easter always falls when springtime is upon us and new life is seen on
the earth. Just as nature prepares for spring, the Church renews our faith
lives through the yearly recurrence of Lent.
Year after year, we see new life appear out of the deadness of winter.
At first, it seems as if this new life vanquishes winter. But in reality,
winter and spring are not opponents.
Instead, winter is at the service of spring. Winter is the way the earth
is handed over so that life can come forth. The death that we see in nature
during winter is how new life is formed in a hidden way.
Along with nature’s seasons of winter and spring, we can think of
winter and spring in a spiritual sense, as descriptions of the spiritual
life. The relation between the deadness of winter and renewed life in
spring thus takes on a fuller meaning.
Revelation presents the hidden formation of new life in winter by means
of the number 40.
One famous example is the 40 years the Israelites wandered through the
desert before entering the Promised Land. On a map, the distance between
Egypt and Canaan is not so very great and could be traveled, even on foot,
in a matter of weeks, not years. Did the Israelites simply have bad directions?
That cannot be the case because God, Himself, dwelled at the head of the
people and guided them to the Promised Land.
Forty years in the desert and steady guidance from the Lord are not incompatible.
The purpose of the journey was not to get through the trip as quickly
as possible — new life awaited the Israelites, and that life was
formed through their 40-year journey.
Without those years in the desert, new life with the Lord could not have
happened. Their experiences during the 40 years revealed God to the people
in ways they would not have known without this extended “winter.”
The years also revealed the people to themselves: their sin and hardness
of heart.
For Noah and his clan, the deadness of winter happened as a 40-day flood.
Of course, a flood is very different from a desert, but the same pattern
applies: The Lord invites His people to cooperate with Him in bringing
forth new life.
Noah’s submission to the Lord’s command and the days of flooding
that followed purified the earth of sin, even if only temporarily and
in a limited way. The dove carried back testimony of new life from the
earth as the waters receded.
Also during the Israelites’ 40-year exodus, the Lord called Moses
up Mount Sinai, where Moses remained for 40 days and 40 nights.
The Lord described to Moses how he was to construct the dwelling place
of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, and the consecration of His priests
and their vestments, placed at the service of the altar.
The life coming forth from those 40 days was the presence of the Lord
in the midst of Israel and the call of faithfulness to the Law.
New life is also seen on the earth in the continued formation of the Chosen
People and their worship of the true God. They achieved renown as a people
through the 40-year reign of King David.
For Mary, as for all mothers, 40 weeks pass from the conception of our
Lord to His birth. And 40 days after Christmas, Jesus is presented in
the temple — the life that was formed in secret becomes the Light
of the world.
Forty days pass between Jesus’ resurrection and our celebration
of His ascension to heaven. Forty hours of Eucharistic devotion celebrate
the hidden work of redemption from the hour of our Lord’s death
to the hour of His resurrection from the dead.
Within that clearly established pattern, then, the Holy Spirit drives
our Lord into the desert for 40 days of prayer and fasting before He enters
into His public life.
Now, the 40 days of Lent place us in that saving tradition.
Dr. Janet Haggerty is an associate professor of systematic theology
at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. She has served on the Seminary
faculty since 1995, after completing graduate studies at Fordham University,
N.Y.
Operation
Rice Bowl addresses local needs
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
Thirty million people live below the poverty line in the United States
— which means 30 million people cannot afford adequate food, housing,
health insurance or a good education.
That’s why contributing to programs such as Operation Rice Bowl
is so important: Twenty-five percent of the donations address local needs
such as stocking emergency food cupboards and soup kitchens, including
St. Katharine Drexel Social Services and Food Cupboard in Chester.
“We get 500 pounds of food a month [from Operation Rice Bowl] …
a great help to us, because we have a large number of poor here in Chester
— 300 people a month come here,” said Sister Barbara
Tickner, I.H.M, who is social services coordinator for the agency and
food cupboard.
Sister Barbara will speak about the history and work of the parish food
cupboard at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20 at the weekly Operation Rice
Bowl Lenten lunch series at the Archdiocesan Center. The lunches are sponsored
by Catholic Relief Services.
“[The] Rice Bowl is so much more than just a [monetary] collection,”
said Anne Ayella, the CRS diocesan director and organizer of the event.
“It really embraces the traditional practices of Lent.”
The Lenten lunch series aims to bring Catholics together to pray, fast
and experience solidarity as they learn about the plight of the poor in
Philadelphia and abroad.
The lunches are held on at 12:15 p.m. Wednesdays in the 13th floor conference
room at the Archdiocesan Center, 222 North 17th Street. They consist of
a meal of soup and bread, and will run through March 12. All are welcome.
For more information contact Anne Ayella at (215) 895-3486, ext. 717.
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith can be reached at npozo@adphila.org
or (215) 965-4614.
Lent:
Season of remembering
Guest
Columnist
By Father Leonard Peterson
Being old enough to remember the thrill of watching a steam engine go
past at the head of a train, for me the very mention of the word Lent
causes memory cells to stir with what are now dated images.
From the perspective of a 1950s kid, Lent was a long, dreary season. There
was, for example, the volunteered absence of candy in my life. (After
all, “What are you giving up for Lent?” was a perennial Catholic
question.)
Then came Fridays, marked with tuna sandwiches for lunch, and macaroni
and cheese for supper. Neither of those was that bad — but, ah!
when mackerel came out on the main plate, complete with bones, or canned
salmon with its pink and charcoal tones, then the idea of penance hit
home. Along with all that I would overhear adult conversations about what
constituted “breaking the fast,” although that wasn’t
yet my problem.
Another experience to be endured was Stations of the Cross for children
on Friday afternoons. There we were — 10 young Americans crammed
into a pew made for six, smelling of school and tuna, bouncing up and
down 14 times to the beat of our metal lunch boxes.
We never really understood St. Alphonsus’ foreign-sounding text,
with its “infamous gibbet,” but at least we had the artwork
of Christ’s suffering to follow. We all dreaded being caught being
less than devotional because the punishment was a forced kneeling in the
aisle as the priest and three altar boys processed around us. Lent ended
at noon on Holy Saturday, and one could potentially hit the bag of jelly
beans early, if they were available.
Ours was not an overly religious family, although our lives did center
around the parish and its school. The Friday arrival of this newspaper
in its old form was just as much a part of the routine as Sunday Mass.
The crucifix hung in our living room. My siblings and I all had our statues
of Mary. It fell to Mom to explain the origin of the ashes on Good Friday,
and the meaning of the “Mass of the Pre-Sanctified.” I was
an altar boy, and among other good deeds, Dad faithfully woke me and then
drove me to church in the dark when it was my turn to serve the early
Mass.
Present-day Lent offers a clear but soul-satisfying contrast to any negatives
of those bygone days. The Church presents the season as a kind of retreat,
or journey toward Easter, with an attendant purification of our souls
from all the post-baptismal clutter that accumulates over the course of
a year, or years.
Fasting is now largely an option, except on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
— merely two mandated days out of 365 (or 356). Books have been
written about the health advantages of fasting. But the greatest book,
the Bible, speaks often about that way of recalling our dependence on
God for everything. Fasting also stands in stark contrast to the current
culture of ease, and answers the health problem of obesity.
The Stations of the Cross prayers have been beautifully expanded and adapted
for many age groups. I now find it my favorite Lenten devotion because
it recalls dramatically how far God’s love is prepared to go for
us.
The one remaining obstacle to a profitable, adult living out of Lent for
many people is the sacrament of reconciliation. There are several reasons
for that, I know. Some ask, for instance, “Why should I have to
tell my sins to a man?” Allow me to try a little logic. Jesus gave
His Apostles the power to forgive or retain sins. How would those simple
fishermen be able to judge what to do? Only by hearing the penitent’s
expression of sorrow and desire to reform. Their ordination did not make
the Apostles mind-readers. Nor did it erase their own personal failures.
It was Christ’s choice of them that gave them the task.
Does going to confession take faith? Absolutely. It also takes humility,
and sometimes not a little courage. Allow me to say that I have great
admiration for a person who has both.
Let me add that hearing confessions is one of the most satisfying and
rewarding of my priestly duties. To those who are fearful, allow me to
quote Pope John Paul II, who said at his installation, “Be not afraid!”
So here is Lent 2008, a long way from the 1950s. Trains can now travel
at more than 200 m.p.h. without a steam engine. Along with so much progress,
we now have a refined understanding of Lent as an invitation as well as
a grace — a time to take stock of our spiritual progress.
It’s a chance to trek down memory lane not so much for nostalgia’s
sake but to evaluate our previous year with Christ, and to be grateful
for a living Church that helps make life worth living.
Father Peterson is pastor of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Hatfield.
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In
desert fasting and prayer,
Jesus continues His mission
By Janet Haggerty
Special to the CS&T
The season of Lent is the way Catholics enter into our Lord’s 40
days of prayer and fasting in the desert at the start of His public ministry,
His proximate preparation for the sacrifice of the cross.
While the whole of Jesus’ life has been ordered toward the cross,
the mission of redemption intensifies during those last three years. His
40 days in the desert bear fruit in His public ministry and in the new
life that comes from the cross.
In the Gospel, we see Him baptized in the Jordan by St. John. After His
baptism, the Holy Spirit leads Him into the desert. All those examples
of the number ‘40’ that we see in salvation history —
whether in 40 hours, days, weeks or years — receive their meaning
through those 40 days.
Jesus, as God and man, fulfills in Himself the work of redemption taking
place in the flood, the Exodus, Moses’ stay on Mount Sinai, David’s
reign and even His own gestation in Mary’s womb. All those mysteries
have their origin in — and are ordered toward — the mission
of redemption that He fulfills in His public life and crucifixion.
It is because our Lord is divine that we can assert such a communion between
all the mysteries of salvation history and Him. In fact, none of those
mysteries can be understood in fullness apart from their relation to His
mission.
But He fulfills that mission in a fully human, as well as fully divine,
way. For that reason, all the human involvement in salvation history —
as well as all the divine — belong to Him. That all becomes the
focus of His prayer during those 40 days in the desert.
The relation between Jesus’ 40 days in the desert and the work of
the three years that follow is very instructive for us.
His desert prayer and fasting come after His baptism, when the Holy Spirit
is seen to descend upon Him. Likewise, our life in the Church begins with
baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit to us.
Baptism inaugurates the public and visible dimension of Jesus’ mission
of redemption. We, too, are given a public and visible participation in
His mission of redemption through our baptism.
His 40-day retreat after baptism — a time of prayer, fasting, and
temptation — is not a test of physical and spiritual endurance.
It is not a show of discipline or willpower or self-mastery. Instead,
it is the way He makes room — time and space — for the Holy
Spirit’s work in Him.
We might wonder, at first, why the Holy Spirit would be at work in Him
— He is divine, after all, and the fullness of perfection.
But it is important to remember that the holiness and perfection of our
Lord are here in the world on a mission: the mission of redemption. And
at the heart of that mission is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart
of man.
As a man, Jesus submits Himself to the working of the Holy Spirit in order
to put His sacred humanity at the service of the mission.
We do not see our Lord asserting Himself, as our Redeemer, over the Father
or Holy Spirit. Instead, we see Him entrusting Himself to their care,
and placing His life at their service.
Prayer and fasting are the ways He commends His humanity to the Holy Spirit:
Prayer is the offering of His human soul; fasting is the offering of His
human body — both of which, together, constitute His humanity. Here,
we see our Lord unfold the plan by which He transforms the flesh, the
world, humanity.
In the desert, our Lord entreats the Holy Spirit to accomplish His will
for man in Him — Jesus — first. He lays down His human body
and soul at the service of holiness — at the service of the divine
Son, who is at the service of the Holy Spirit and the heavenly Father.
Then, at the end of His 40 days in the desert, when He is hungry, our
Lord confronts Satan.
Dr. Janet Haggerty is an associate professor of systematic theology
at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. She has served on the Seminary
faculty since 1995, after completing graduate studies at Fordham University,
N.Y.
‘Operation
Rice Bowl’ focuses
on Mali
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Mamadou, a native of Mali in West Africa who
works as a cook in Philadelphia to make ends meet for his family back
home, will speak at a Lenten luncheon sponsored by Catholic Relief Services
of the Philadelphia Archdiocese on Feb. 27.
“Mamadou is a very vibrant individual who has overcome many obstacles
in coming to this country,” said Sister John Dolores Bruno, I.H.M.,
who instructs him in English at the I.H.M. Literacy Center at St. Francis
De Sales Parish in Southwest Philadelphia.
Sister John added that Mamadou, 47, is a good choice for a speaker: “Even
when things are hard, he is able to give us a laugh during class.”
A Muslim who has a son in Mali, Mamadou moved to the United States nearly
seven years ago because his business selling clothing, jewelry and furniture
had slowed.
Highlights of his talk will include stories about his life in Mali, and
the struggle of families there to earn enough to meet the basic needs.
The session will begin with a brief CD-Rom presentation about Mali, including
its need for food because of drought conditions, and CRS-sponsored relief
projects there.
A light lunch of soup and bread is served at the hour-long Lenten luncheon
series, which is held at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesdays during Lent in the 13th
floor conference room at the Archdiocesan Office Center, 222 N. 17th St.
Donations for lunch will be directed to the CRS Operation Rice Bowl.
Obtain a rice bowl and home calendar guide at your parish or Catholic
school, or through the archdiocesan Nutritional Development Services Office
by calling (215) 895-3470, Extension 717, or e-mailing: aayella@ndsarch.org.
Rice bowls and guides may also be obtained through the CRS Northeast Regional
Office in Radnor at (610) 293-4669, or by e-mailing: mmccullo@crs.org.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
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During
prayer and fasting, temptations met in name of us all
By Janet Haggerty
Special to the CS&T
Our Lord Jesus faces Satan in the desert as the New Adam.
He does not face Satan simply as an individual man confronting the old
Adversary. As the New Adam, He faces Satan for us and in the name of us
all.
Adam was formed as the head of the human race. His sin was committed as
an individual man, but also as head of mankind. Because of that, we know
the legacy of his sin is something real that now belongs to humanity —
all mankind comes forth from the old Adam and bears his failure in original
sin.
Because our Lord is the New Adam, we see many parallels between His public
ministry and Adam’s trial at the tree in Eden.
Our Lord establishes an inheritance of holiness, which will belong to
all who come forth from Him. The 40 days of prayer and fasting, and the
temptations He undergoes, in the desert, are for the sake of that holiness.
As the New Adam, Jesus’ fidelity in temptation is carried out as
an individual man and as head of a new humanity
The work of the Savior is one of re-creation: His mission is not merely
to set us a good example to follow, any more than Adam’s failure
was merely a bad example to avoid. Jesus’ mission is to re-create
mankind in Himself.
Satan tempts Jesus away from that mission in three ways. He presents our
Lord with three alternatives to the suffering of the cross.
Satan does not try directly to convince our Lord to give up the idea of
redeeming man. Instead, he offers a “plan of redemption” that
would be more expedient, immediate and successful than the cross. (Of
course, his motive is to destroy any hope of redemption for man.)
There is a parallel here with Satan’s activity in the Garden of
Eden. There, he drew Adam to the tree from which the Father forbade man
to eat. In the desert, he seeks to draw our Lord away from the tree of
the cross, where the Father has hidden Himself.
After Jesus’ 40-day communion with the Holy Spirit in the desert,
He steps forth as the New Adam to face Satan and temptation in the name
of us all. As He does in eternity, He chooses the Father.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit it was because Satan convinced
them that it would make them equal to God. They grasped at that prospect.
God the Son, who does possess equality with the Father, “does not
deem equality with God something to be grasped at.”
In eternity, He possesses this equality by emptying Himself. On earth,
He continues to empty Himself, “taking the form of a slave.”
Satan, then, tempts our Lord to grasp at His equality, as he tempted Adam.
He baits our Lord to prove His equality with the Father. He says: “If
you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn into bread,”
knowing that Jesus’ divinity would allow Him to do so.
He tells Jesus to throw Himself off the temple: “If you are the
Son of God … He will bid His angels take care of you.”
Jesus more surely reveals His equality with the Father by refusing to
rely on the power of His divine nature. He relies, instead, on His Father’s
love for Him. Emptying Himself in trust this way is how He possesses equality
with the Father, because it is how He possesses (with love) the Father.
Finally, Satan tempts Jesus with the mission of redemption, itself. He
offers our Lord power, control and domination over the kingdoms of the
earth.
Jesus’ equality with the Father, however, could never be revealed
through control and manipulation of man. Through worship and adoration
of the Father as His God, the Son chooses to decrease, in order that the
presence of the Father in man’s life may increase.
Dr. Janet Haggerty is an associate professor of systematic theology
at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. She joined the Seminary faculty
in 1995, after completing graduate studies at Fordham University, N.Y.
Operation
Rice Bowl focuses on hunger, poverty in Guatemala
By christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — About 76 percent of Guatemala’s nearly 13 million
people live on less than two dollars a day, according to an official with
Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
Candice Harris, an advocacy program officer at the CRS northeast regional
office in Radnor, will bring information about that Central American country’s
poverty — especially its hunger — to the table at the archdiocesan
Lenten lunch series on March 5.
The lunch series runs for an hour, beginning at 12:15 p.m., on Wednesdays
during Lent at the Archdiocesan Office Center on 17th Street in Center
City
In her talk, Harris will discuss her trip to Guatemala last year and describe
sites where CRS provides relief work there.
“Guatemala has the region’s largest economy,” Harris
said recently. “However, the highly unequal distribution of income,
infrastructure and land contribute to the high level of poverty, low levels
of health and education, and chronic food insecurity for the majority
of the population.”
The nation’s economy is based on agricultural exports and depends
heavily on a small variety of cash crops, including coffee and sugar cane,
Harris said.
About 60 percent of its people are indigenous, living in communities that
speak more than 21 distinct Mayan languages. They make up the majority
of the rural poor, especially the extremely poor, Harris said.
Yet those same, desperately poor people share in making Guatemala “such
a culturally rich place …,” she said. “It’s also
a beautiful country — with breathtaking landscapes and a diversity
of cultures [that include the] Mayan ethnic groups and the Caribbean Garifuna
people.”
Harris said CRS Guatemala promotes human dignity and social justice throughout
the region in coordinated programs that aim to increase the local communities’
income and production, thereby improving their general health as well
as protecting and advancing their members’ basic rights.
CRS has been working in Guatemala since 1963, targeting the poorest and
most vulnerable sectors of its society, Harris said. She added that the
organization works with local civic organizations and church partners
in its efforts.
Harris said most of CRS Guatemala’s programs are in the following
“departments” — the equivalent of states — Alta
and Baja Verapáz, Chiquimula, Guatemala, Izabal, Quiché,
San Marcos, Santa Rosa, Retalhúleu and Suchitepéquez.
A light lunch of soup and bread is served at the lunch series, which is
held in the 13th floor conference room of the Archdiocesan Office Center
at 222 N. 17th St.
Donations for lunch will be directed to the CRS’ Operation Rice
Bowl.
Reservations are not required.
Obtain a rice bowl and a home calendar guide at your parish or Catholic
school, or through the archdiocesan Nutritional Development Services office
by calling (215) 895-3470, Extension 717. Or e-mail: aayella@ndsarch.org.
Rice bowls and guides may also be obtained through the CRS office at (610)
293-4669, or by e-mailing: mmccullo@crs.org.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
Jesus’
victory is seen on the cross
By Janet Haggerty
Special to the CS&T
The
events of our Lord’s original Lent are not lost in history. Even
though the details are not spelled out in the Gospel, we know the content.
We know the content because we know it is the obedient undoing of Adam’s
disobedience. The work of the 40 days before Jesus’ encounter with
Satan shapes the way our Lord triumphs over temptation. His human nature
is, of course, perfect and without sin. But it is so for a purpose —
the purpose of the mission.
That mission is for Him to place His human nature at the service of Divinity.
That is the right and proper relation between man and God. When humanity
is at the service of Divinity, it allows Divinity to give Himself over
to man, to raise man up, to enlarge him to receive the very fullness of
God.
The “service” here is to be understood as the laying down
of one’s life. In the 40 days, our Lord places His human body (flesh)
at the service of His human soul (spirit). That is the right relation
between body and soul. Flesh serves spirit in order that spirit may raise
up and ennoble the flesh.
Fasting is the way Jesus places His body at the service of His soul. Prayer
is the way His soul directs His body — thus serving His body.
The right relation between body and soul was neglected by Adam by the
time he faced Satan. That neglect led to Adam’s fall: he was unable
to triumph over Satan’s temptations.
If we look closely, we will see that all the temptations faced by the
human race, in all times and places, are contained in Adam’s trial
at the tree.
As the New Adam, Jesus faces all those same temptations anew.
In a real way, any temptation that we face today is already found in Adam’s
failure and our Lord’s victory. All the temptations associated with
our bodies are presented to our Lord in His hunger. The temptation to
turn stones into bread addresses all of man’s appetites.
Adam’s sin also involved the satisfaction of appetite. While the
details of the sins associated with our appetites are too numerous and
varied to name, all of them confront our Lord in His hunger.
With every temptation, there is also the presence of the Father’s
will. Adam knew the Father’s will that he not eat the fruit of that
tree. In His temptation, Jesus has recourse to the Father’s will,
and replies to Satan that man lives on that will more surely than he lives
on bread.
Satan’s suggestion that our Lord throw Himself off the roof of the
Temple may be seen as the temptation to presumption. Presumption is what
we often choose rather than trust.
Trust is built up in us by the cross, by trials. Presumption seeks to
avoid the cross. In choosing to eat the fruit, Adam and Eve showed their
mistrust of the Father’s goodness. Satan suggested that a good father
would never withhold good things from his children. They failed to see
that abstinence from one good could prepare them to receive something
greater.
As the New Adam, our Lord does not seek proof of the Father’s love
in anything other than the Father’s will.
In the third temptation, Satan presents Jesus with a shortcut to victory.
He is in a position to offer Jesus power over all the kingdoms of the
earth, which could be given to Him simply by offering homage to Satan.
Every temptation toward control in our lives is confronted here by the
Redeemer. Adam and Eve sought to control themselves, one another, and
the outcome of their lives. They rendered themselves powerless through
their grasping.
Satan offers Jesus control over mankind, but our Lord came to serve man
instead. By serving rather than seeking to be served, He offers a pleasing
sacrifice to the Father.
On Good Friday, it becomes clear that He “serves” by laying
down His life for man. His victory over temptation in the desert is seen
on the cross — the right ordering of appetites, radical trust in
the Father’s goodness, and surrender of control into the Father’s
hands.
Dr. Janet Haggerty is an associate professor of systematic theology
at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. She joined the Seminary faculty
in 1995, after completing graduate studies at Fordham University, N.Y.
Rice
Bowl series takes
a look at Haiti
By Lou Baldwin
Special to the CS&T
People at Hospice St. Joseph, an outreach program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
like to quote from a Kreyol (Creole) proverb: “Men anpil, chay pa
lou.”
“With many hands the load is not heavy.”
Geraldine O’Hare, a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia, is one of many who have donated their time and
efforts to make the load light for the hospice, which operates in what
has long been the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. In fact,
she is now chairwoman of its board.
O’Hare is scheduled to speak about the hospice’s work on Wednesday,
March 12 at the weekly Lenten lunch sponsored by Catholic Relief Services
of Philadelphia in the Archdiocesan Office Center at 222 17th St. in Center
City.
Hospice St. Joseph was founded 20 years ago by the Sisters of St. Joseph
of Tipton, Ind. At that time, the outreach program was co-sponsored by
the Indiana Diocese of Lafayette. It now operates under the auspices of
the Diocese of Norwich, Conn.
One of the main services it provides is shelter for international medical
groups visiting Haiti, patients who come in from the provinces and the
patients’ families.
The hospice also provides scholarships for 165 children in the Christ
Roi neighborhood of Port-au-Prince along with summer and after-school
children programs. This year, it plans to initiate a mother-child health
care program, focusing initially on the families of the children in the
current programs.
O’Hare said she believes it is not the role of Hospice St. Joseph
and other nonprofits to go into Haiti and run things.
“Nonprofits should cooperate and collaborate,” she said. “Programs
should be community-driven. Haitians have what it takes to put their country
back together. Our job is to collaborate and let them take the lead.”
O’Hare will speak at the final session of the lunch series Wednesday
at 12:15 p.m. in the 13th-floor conference room of the office center.
In addition to food for thought, a light lunch of bread and soup is also
provided. Donations for the lunch are directed to CRS’ Operation
Rice Bowl.
The series has gone very well, according to Anne H. Ayella diocesan CRS
coordinator.
“There is a nice core of people who come weekly, praying, learning
and eating the simple meal,” she said. “It’s been a
nice community gathering.”
For further information about Operation Rice Bowl call (215) 895-3470,
extension 717, or e-mail: aayella@ndsarch.org. For more information about
Hospice St. Joseph visit: www.hospicesaintjoseph.org.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.
Radical
holiness: Our mission in the world
By Janet Haggerty
Special to the CS&T
As the Redeemer, our Lord does for us what we cannot do for ourselves:
He conquers Satan and temptation, sin and death.
But He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves in order that now we
may do it too — through, with and in Him. He accomplishes the mission
completely in Himself but in a way that makes room for us in this victory.
Each of us is invited into His radical holiness. This means we each have
the mission to conquer sin in communion with His victory. Insofar as we
enter into this mission, we participate in the Church’s transformation
of the world — out of sin and into holiness. Our participation,
though, is designed to follow the exact lines of His victory. After baptism,
we expect to find ourselves led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. Our
baptism does not spare us from this desert; it prepares us for it.
During Lent, the whole Church enters into the desert with our Lord in
preparation for the cross. But we are not only preparing for His cross;
we are preparing for our own as well.
His victory over sin begins in the desert, but is consummated on the cross.
Because our participation in the mission is one with His, we look for
the same pattern in our lives. The desert, or the deadness of winter,
is not something we only experience in Lent. It can come at any time of
year, and does come at different times in our lives.
Its manner of appearance is determined according to our vocations. Through
the yearly return of Lent, the Church accustoms us to the desert and its
meaning so that we can recognize it when it comes. We can become better
equipped for the desert by faithfully incorporating Lent into our lives
each year.
The weapons our Lord gives us from His Lent to crush Satan’s head
are prayer and fasting. This language of the Gospel is “code”
for the total gift of self we must give to our Father.
Our Lord is victorious over Satan in the desert through recourse to the
Father’s will. Whatever forms they take, prayer and fasting are
the ways in which right relation is restored between flesh and spirit,
placing them at the service of holiness.
Holiness, then, crushes Satan underfoot.
When our Lord emerges from the desert in victory over temptation, He sets
forth on His three-year pilgrimage toward Calvary. The discipline of the
desert and the defeat of the temptations were for the sake of the final
sacrifice.
The laying down of body and soul in the desert formed Him for the total
gift that could only be given on the cross. In like fashion, we are formed
for our cross. Our life in the Church is a slow and steady reordering
of body and soul into holiness so that we may be ready for Calvary.
Our Lord does not spare us from sacrifice; He gives us the Church in order
to equip us for it. Sacrifice is the language of love, and by His mission
our Lord makes us fluent in that tongue. On Good Friday, our Lord reveals
Himself to be that grain of wheat He spoke of in His parable. He is the
grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies in order not to remain
a single grain but to bear much fruit.
On Easter, He bursts forth from the ground as the wheat that becomes the
living Bread.
The fruit of His sacrifice is the eternal life now hidden in the living
Bread. As the Bread of Life, He is fed to us so that this new life belonging
to His sacrifice may belong to us. By growing strong on this most blessed
Sacrament, we can pick up our cross and head to Calvary. There we become
one voice with our Lord in His language of love.
Through, with and in Him, we, too, fall into the ground and die in order
to bear much fruit. When the sacrifice of our lives is made one with the
sacrifice of the Mass, the world is transformed by the Church into a sacrifice
of praise to our merciful God.
Dr. Janet Haggerty is an associate professor of systematic theology
at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood. She joined the Seminary faculty
in 1995, after completing graduate studies at Fordham University, N.Y.