Here is the setting for the April 20th mass (in which I will be attending).  The rendering isn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and thankfully it still maintains some form of dignity.  There's no way around the shape, for it is a baseball stadium.

Just a few excerpts from the exceptional Urbi et Orbi message from Sunday.

"I have risen and I am still with you, for ever." These words invite us to contemplate the risen Christ, letting his voice resound in our heart. With his redeeming sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth has made us adopted children of God, so that we too can now take our place in the mysterious dialogue between him and the Father.

The astonishing event of the resurrection of Jesus is essentially an event of love: the Father's love in handing over his Son for the salvation of the world; the Son's love in abandoning himself to the Father's will for us all; the Spirit's love in raising Jesus from the dead in his transfigured body. And there is more: the Father's love which "newly embraces" the Son, enfolding him in glory; the Son's love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity. From today's solemnity, in which we relive the absolute, once-and-for-all experience of Jesus's resurrection, we receive an appeal to be converted to Love; we receive an invitation to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness, and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is "gentle and lowly in heart", who is "rest for our souls" (cf. Mt 11:29).

And finally, an excerpt that points towards the political and social strife of the world:

How often relations between individuals, between groups and between peoples are marked not by love but by selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence! These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters. They are waiting to be tended and healed by the glorious wounds of our Risen Lord (cf. 1 Pet 2:24-25) and by the solidarity of people who, following in his footsteps, perform deeds of charity in his name, make an active commitment to justice, and spread luminous signs of hope in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person continues to be scorned and trampled. It is hoped that these are precisely the places where gestures of moderation and forgiveness will increase!

Let us take time to remember what politics can do to a society.  I have been reading a biography of St. Thomas More, and politics and misguided social theology cost him his life.  Why do politics and theology interfere so readily together?  Are they meant to be of one "office", or are they meant to be completely independent of each other?

Never, ever divorce yourself from who you are, or the moral bounds which you seek to uphold.  While Machiavelli was a brilliant political "scientist", amoral or immoral leanings are always wrong, no matter how right the outcome can seem.

After months of anxiety, and even more months of study, I will be going to Ave Maria School of Law in the Fall.  I am very excited for this, for it will allow me to grow in my faith by being surrounded by orthodoxy, but it will also allow me to step into my own as I have started too here in Philadelphia.

An update on my works will be given later today or tomorrow.

My apologies for the absence.

After a long retreat, I will be starting a series of posts dedicated to Catholicism lived within the 21st Century, and the pressures and ways it has changed as well as the ways it changes us.

Tonight was the weekly Patristics/Ecumenical Councils meeting at the Newman Center and there were a few things discussed that I would like to mention and throw out there.  This will be from a largely Catholic perspective, so my apologies to those who are not in communion with the Catholic Church.

To start, the council discussed was the Third Council of Constantinople.  It basically circled 2 major issues: the Papacy and the heresy of monothelism- believing that Christ had one will, not 2 (divine and human).  This led to a key talk/discussion in human freedom.  What is freedom?

I believe the secularist vision of freedom is a far cry from that of a Christian perspective.  Secular freedom- the marriage of homosexuals, gun ownership, drug abuse, sexual perversion- is purely an external rationalization of "freedom".  The idea that by being able to choose these ways of life or these activities is the ultimate expression of libertas.  But is it?

No!  The ultimate freedom is the one that Christ gave to humanity.  We have been redeemed.  We have been saved.  He chose His act, and because of this, we have been given free will, to choose to lead a sin-free life.  Sin is the ultimate poverty, the ultimate form of slavery (liberation theologians may disagree).  By being given this choice to break from sin, Christ has given us the ultimate human freedom; the ultimate human identity. 

By rationalizing freedom from a secularist perspective, you are merely creating an inhuman form of libertas that excludes true human nature.  What is free in that?

I render the secular form of freedom an aspect of individualism and human nature as seen through an individualist perspective.   Too often are we focused on our own want's and needs- our ego and our desires- that we completely disrespect our neighbor's want's and needs.  We are, to a point, inherently selfish at times.  Why do we do this?  Is this the fault of the community?  Or let me focus that...what community is there to focus us?

This I believe is central to the Catholic Church.  Some protestant friends have asked me what the "big deal" is with the eucharist.  It is the body and blood of Christ.  It's not just bread and wine; its not just a symbol.  It is.  By partaking of the physical body of Christ, we are all participating in communion.  We are a community.  From St. Peter to your local parish Priest, we are all together, in communion with Christ.

But the problem is...how many Catholics today...or Christians...fully understand this?  Or believe in it?

That is what I would like to understand..

M. Augustine

Before I commence, I would like to take time to remember and recognize those who passed just 2 days ago from a horrific act of evil. I believe we are all together in saying acts like these are never welcome in humanity, and that we must do all that we can to prevent them.  Let's keep the victims, the victims family, and the family of the shooter in our prayers.

What this situation has done is put our own idea of security in question.  What does it mean to be secure in our own environment?  What does it mean to be secure in our own person?

I don't quite know at this moment.  An event like what happened can throw you for a loop, and it's certainly done that too me.

But a belief that I hold strongly too is that we must preserve humanity and human life.  Without a fierce preservation, a conservation, of the freedom of life we are jeopardizing our security with general and daily living.  How can we walk down the streets and look in the eyes of the needy- spiritually, physically, emotionally, economically- and really understand the torment that some may go through?  How do we walk down those streets, look in those eyes, and quite frankly, sleep at night, knowing the "insecurities" (on a large-scale basis) of those people?

The incident at VT should call us all to a much stronger devotion to life.  Human life.  A life witnessed by, glorified by, and even deified by with the life, passion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  May we all strive to understand the life that was His, and the mercy that he gives us.  For we need mercy in our lives; it keeps us balanced.

God bless, and may the souls of the departed rest peacefully in heaven.

Michael Augustine

"Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism.  Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine" [Ephesians 4.14], seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times.  We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's ego and desires.

We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man.  He is the measure of true humanism.  An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature, adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ.  It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth."- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, April 15th 2005.

I call to you as Christians to read this message and to meditate on it’s meaning.  Why has the world drifted to this “dictatorship of relativism”, allowing its true root and character to be masked by utter arrogance and impatience?  I find that all to often in life, we look for something that can satisfy us now and then, and fulfil that need with the utmost satisfaction.  Yet by looking for these things, these “needs”,  we are losing sight of the patience that Christ Himself showed us by taking the Cross.  We are losing sight of the patience of the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, when they waited for centuries for their savior, Christ Jesus.  What is it about society that saps this patience from us, leaving in it’s stead a ruthless need for pleasure and for “wealth”?

It is my opinion that this secularization happens because we have become too intricate in our lives.  It is not to say that intricacy, or a multi-layered life, can not be completely Christian and successful.  It is to say that we have so much need, worry, and anxiety that we often lose sight of what made us who we are as a people.  We lose sight of how we got to that point; we need to only worry about how we maintain it.  Today all children do is text and instant message online, or play on their Playstation’s.  The art of calligraphy and letter-writing is nearly lost, along with it the simple joy of reading a good book.  It is but an example of how societies impatience is cutting from us the genuine meaning of life: love that comes from God, the Father, and from the salvation that is afforded to us by his Son, Jesus Christ.

This issue baffles me, and I will surely love to hear your opinion’s on it.  I am sure it will be brought up time and time again.  For me, as it is others, it is central in our rediscovery of why we must continue.  Why we must continue to believe, to have faith in Christ.

Amen

In Christ,
Michael Augustine

The other night (Tuesday) I attended a meeting that was a gathering of a few religious minds throughout the campus.  The topic was that of the "Church" in the Christian era.  I will not go into specifics of this debate; it is too vast to list here in its entirety.  However, I'd like to touch upon quite a few things that may help me understand some things myself.

I noticed an idea that Christianity should be able to be flexible beyond all means.  The word used was "dynamic".  But my question posed was...how dynamic, or flexible, should the church be?  The Catholic understanding is that we have 3 parts- a "triune" system of worship.  We have the scripture, the magisterium (teaching body), and the tradition that the teaching body/magisterium has developed over the years.  Is there not dynamics within a body that can develop doctrine?

I see this as more of a battle with ignorance than a battle with the actual Church.  Though, it goes to say that the definition of a "Church" should be clarified and settled upon before we can truly say whether it should be flexible or not.  For instance, a nondenominational American Evangelical Church will be far more flexible than say a Greek Orthodox Cathedral.  But is one moreso a church than the other?

That's where compromise comes in.  Inclusiveness.  Relativism.  Is MY church more of a church than your church?  Oh how the times of the 21st century leave us to wonder...

M. Augustine

It seems to me the grace of God has allowed me to come this far.  This weekend two great events happened for which I am thankful for. 

For one, I was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church.  For me, the confirmation is a realization and an affirmation of what I believe and who I am.  For so long I searched and yearned for an identity, and now I finally have it.

The second event is the beginning of a relationship with Heather.  During quite a period of turmoil, I treated her unkindly and I was not the greatest person.  But she stuck by me, and now I can happily say we are together.  I needed stability in my life, but I also needed life.  My confirmed faith and my girlfriend will do both of these important things, and they will guide me for quite some time.

God Bless.