El Greco: “Trinity”
It is lovely to contemplate the Mother of Sorrows in the “Pieta”. It seems to me Our Lady conveys to us, on the natural level, the pain and sorrow the Father felt over the atoning sacrifice of His Son. Perhaps it is not theologically correct to say that God the Father could experience sorrow, yet if humanity can offend God by sin, what is this Pieta of El Greco?
The Media and propaganda.
Fr. John Flynn has an article on Zenit concerning the mounting persecution of Christians by the media. As I mentioned in another post, it is rather pervasive and is echoed in the ordinary conversation and opinions of non-religious - albeit, so called spiritual- people. We live in a secular, neo pagan culture, and the media is its propaganda machine.
Similarly, in Nazi Germany, the propaganda against Judaism was growing in intensity long before the concentration camps were devised. To a certain extent, media was employed then, as it is now. Although it was racist in nature, there certainly was a malevolent attitude towards religious belief in general, in so far as it did not accord with the neo-pagan, Aryan philosophy of the Nazi party. What is happening today as regards Christians, especially Catholics, poses alarming similarities - although it remains in the form of defamation and propaganda.
It starts with defamation.
“When Hitler ascended to power on January 30, 1933, waves of state instigated brutality towards Jews, as well as other persona-non-grata was implemented. Foreign governments did protest, but the result was that the Nazi’s blamed Jewish international propaganda to step up anti Jewish measures. Thus began a full-scale defamation of German Jewry.
By April 1, 1933, a large scale state boycott of Jewish stores and businesses was introduced. Armed guards from the SS picked Jewish shops to insure compliance with the ban on buying and supporting any Jewish establishment. The Jewish German citizens, many of whom had served with honor in the German army during World War I and others who were influential in politics felt that the situation would change for the better. Instead, additional anti Jewish laws were passed.
The purpose of the anti Jewish laws was to give credibility to the legality of the measures being taken by the Nazi’s. Hence, all of their actions were “legal”.” - Source
Recently, the ladies of The View, expressed anti-Catholic bias - that is not news however, they are pretty consistent about it. Last year, Elton John suggested religion should be banned. Celebrities like to bash organized religion. Yet we must remember, celebrities are just ordinary people who have come to prominence in the public arena. What they say is more or less what many average people already think. The average person has attended university, and it is the average person who is working and living in various occupations in our society - not to mention media.
Society is infested with anti-Christian bias. Here is a snippet from the Zenit article:
“The increasing number of (television) programs hostile to Christianity was commented on by Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, in his pastoral letter for the New Year.
In his text, dated Dec. 31, Bishop Roche decried the spreading abuse of Jesus’ name in television shows.”It was if my television set had been infested with anti-Christian and deeply disrespectful and derogatory sentiments,” he declared, speaking of his experience in turning on the television recently and switching from channel to channel.
“There is an ease and a carelessness today in which it is possible, without any resistance, to ridicule Jesus, his Church and his followers,” noted Bishop Roche. He then went on to urge believers not to become infected by this tendency and to respect the name of Jesus in everyday conversations.
Hostility toward religion was also one of the topics that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor addressed during a March 28 lecture, at Westminster Cathedral Hall in London.
The archbishop of Westminster declared that he feared contemporary society is increasingly marked by “secular dogmatism or cynicism” toward Christians. He stated: “So when Christians stand by their beliefs, they are intolerant dogmatists. When they sin, they are hypocrites. When they take the side of the poor, they are soft-headed liberals. When they seek to defend the family, they are right-wing reactionaries.”- Zenit
Can it be stopped?
We can and should speak in defense of the Catholic Church, proclaiming the truth, seeking to correct the misinformation that is out there, as well as appealing to government authorities for support. In a country of free speech, there are difficulties in trying to silence people from speaking their minds - especially if you speak counter-culturally, as the Church does - in that case, the popular culture offended is definitely going to speak critically, if not offensively.
As govermental policies evolve in the European Union and Canada, banning the Church from teaching the tenets of faith and morals concerning issues such as same sex marriage, it is becoming more apparent that anti-Christian bias has been more or less politicized as well as institutionalized. The issue is much broader than what four women talk about on television, although their “personal opinions” contribute to the propaganda.
As the trend progresses, it is frighteningly portentous for Western culture, especially Christians. While radical Islamic terrorists and sectarians persecute Christians in various places of the world, we seem to be facing the nascent beginnings of a new persecution in the West. In this country, so far, it is pretty much only experienced through media propaganda, which, as history demonstrates, preceded the all out persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
What to do?
What to do? We can of course, protest and campaign to correct misrepresentations of the Church, carefully choosing our battles however. (I just want to make that clear if it wasn’t understood in another post I did regarding The View.) Yet perhaps more importantly, I think we all need to focus upon becoming better Christians as well. We need to be united in our faith and stop internal bickering which only results in factions. We need to pray and live our faith, witnessing to the faith publicly before the neo-pagan world, much as the first Christians did in pagan Rome - in the ordinary duties of our state in life.
Radical as it may sound, we may want to prepare ourselves for martyrdom - which is pretty much what the practice of an authentic Christian life meant to the ancient Christians and first monks. Origen and St. Clement wrote edifying treatises in this regard.
Reflections on Trinity Sunday.
When one prays, one usually thinks of it as oneself praying alone. We pray; “Lord, grant me…give me…I offer this or that”, etc.. It is true, in private prayer, we, “go into our room, close the door and pray in secret” - “sitting alone and in silence”, yet we are not alone. The mystery of the Holy Trinity teaches us that. (Catherine of Siena wrote something about this, but I can’t remember the text.)
It can sound rather trite, and maybe a little secular, but the Blessed Trinity really is a community of persons - living in ineffable relationship to one another. (That sounds all peace and justice, doesn’t it?) But it is true, and we must know that. As Catholics we know these things; the saints, the Holy Father, our priests and teachers, the Catechism, instruct us in these truths. As the Sacred Humanity of Christ is united to the Word as one person in the Blessed Trinity, if we are in the state of grace, we do not live in isolation from God, nor from one another, even though the circumstances of our state in life may seemingly create a separation of sorts.
So when we pray privately, our prayer is always united to the prayer of the Church, of Christ. It is always the Holy Spirit praying within us - in communion with the Son to the Father. This is extended to the communion of saints, the prayer of the Church, and it is expressed in and through our prayer. It is ‘active participation’ in the very life of the Trinity.
For instance, have you noticed in the Lord’s prayer, we always pray “Our Father…Give us this day…deliver us…etc.? Or as in the Angelic Salutation we end, “pray for us now and at the hour of our death?” We pray not just for ourselves but all of the faithful when we pray. This union is so integral to prayer, it is another reason why Our Lord demands, “When you come to present your gift at the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift, be reconciled, and then come back and offer your gift.” - Matthew 5. Perhaps we cannot always do this in person, but we can surely do so in prayer, forgiving from the heart and asking pardon for our offenses and praying for our ‘enemies’.
Sometimes I am consciously moved to pray every prayer using the plural, “we”. When praying the chaplet of Divine Mercy, I sometimes pray, ”We offer you the most precious body, blood, soul, and divinity, etc.” - rather than “I offer…”. It helps me understand somewhat, that my prayer is united to the Holy Spirit praying within me, reminding me of the unity we have to one another, our community as Church, and our union with Christ in the Blessed Trinity.
I’m not a theologian by a long shot, but it seems to me this is true. It is like that song, “We are one body, one body in Christ…” As Catholic Christians, we are never alone, and it isn’t just “me” who prays. However, it is one thing to understand these things intellectually, and to accept these matters in faith, yet it remains something wonderful to experience them in love.
“That all may be one.” It is very Trinitarian.
(Art from Hallowed Ground Blog.)
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