Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

GENERALLY SPEAKING...
As I spend my final week at home in preparation for seminary, this hymn haunts me in a terrifyingly beautiful way. The music that's been adapted to fit the words that aided in the St. James liturgy sets the perfect mood of God's terrible and awesome power as something to be feared and revered. It captures, too, God's love and mercy that we see in the Incarnation of Christ.

VERSE 1
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand.
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
for with blessing in His hand,
Christ, our God, to earth descendeth
our full homage to demand.

We are to be humbled. The same God that proclaimed to Moses "no man sees Me and still lives." has come to dwell among us. In our hearts and in our souls -- in His creation. Most bluntly, God appears to us in the Eucharist. He remains the same all powerful God within the Sacrament as He was to David, Jacob, and Abraham. When I visited the Basilica in St. Louis this summer I was hit with fear and trembling. Everything about that building gave me specific direction to the Trinity and the Holy Kingdom of Heaven. I was rendered speechless and was left to fast from noise. Beyond sounds, an interior silence was maintained, leaving an imprint in my soul that I can still feel. The first and third lines in this stanza relate in that way.

VERSE 2
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old, on earth He stood.
Lord of lords, in human vesture
In the Body and the Blood.
He will give to all the faithful
His own Self for Heavenly Food.

Again reference to the consistency of God. His covenant with Abraham and to all of mankind is made complete in Christ the King. Christ who shares in the same power so artfully described in the first verse, humbly obliges to take the form of man in the Incarnation. What's more -- Jesus, though fully God, casts aside His pride and allows Himself to become our "Bread come down from Heaven," in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Thus defining the Eucharist as a physical form of Holy God and absolute Truth. All this for the sake of our salvation.

VERSE 3
Rank on rank the Host of Heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of Endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

While the first two verses give me hope for eternity and an eye that looks towards the end, this verse gives me hope for NOW. The forefront of Heaven's army -- rank on rank -- follows Jesus Christ to earth. Spiritual warfare is constant in our world and while our culture drips with Satan's influence, the Truth exists for our embrace! Angels fight for us! They are our guardians in a time of cynicism, carelessness, and pride. For all our faults and failings Angels fight to take the blindfold off our eyes to see Truth as it really is. As we start to perceive the reality of Truth, darkness slips back into the abyss and Heaven's light shines through!

VERSE 4
At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces in the Presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia Lord most high.

Finally, even the Angels (who outrank mankind in spiritual hierarchy) cannot even bare to look upon their Creator. They hind their faces yet feel no remorse, they feel JOY at being in the presence of the Lord. ALLELUIA is a cry for elation! They cannot contain themselves, and for the entirety of eternity they cry! Be that singing or weeping, they are overwhelmed by the beauty of God.

IN CONCLUSION...
I wonder how aware I am of God's existence on a basic level everyday. I pray, I work, I live with God as an assumption. It's almost an afterthought. However this simple fact is what all of my faith relies upon. My trust in God, my vocation, my ministry, my whole person is contingent upon God's existence which is so eloquently verbalized for us in this hymn. Perhaps I should take the first verse as a command with great priority. I will keep the silence established in my soul and wait for the Lord. Our God is not dead...He's alive! And through His Resurrection He opened wide the entrance to the joy that the angels of the fourth verse experience. If I sit and ponder Him, I will be prepared to give the homage He demands. When Jesus comes to claim His own, you can count on me to sing this song.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

No More Networking

With seminary drawing closer, it is almost time for me to get rid of all of my online networking sites. That means I won't have a facebook, twitter, skype, myspace, xanga, or anything else you could ever think of. THIS BLOG however will stay in existence until I'm told it's no longer allowed. So I'll have this, my phone, and my email to stay in touch.

That being said, again it's been way too long since I last posted. There's no way I could make a post long enough to encompass my 21st birthday, a new Bishop, a 2 week road trip, a week long retreat, and preparation for school...

I guess I'll do an abridged version.

I turned 21 on July 14, 2010. My first drink was a Guinness Draught I shared with my dad and my good friend Joe Konopa. I'm really happy I waited until I was 21 to drink. It made it an almost sacred experience. The next day I went to an Irish Pub with a priest and 5 other seminarians. They took good care of me and made sure I didn't drink more than I could handle, then got me lots of water so that I wouldn't get dehydrated. I was blessed to be taken care of like that for my 21st birthday.

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Bishop Timothy Doherty was ordained a bishop on July 15, 2010. What an experience to see a man offer himself up to God and then be placed into the line of apostles. Because one can only become a Bishop through another Bishop, you can trace the line of Apostles ALL THE WAY back to the 12 apostles Jesus hand picked! Bishop Doherty was choked up and it was evident that the Holy Spirit was present and providing us with a new shepherd for our diocese.

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I left for my road trip that same night. We travelled from Fishers to St. Louis -- took route 66 all the way to the Grand Canyon -- travelled to Las Vegas -- moved on to L.A. -- drove up California 1 to San Francisco -- continued up California 1 to Oregon and Crater Lake -- followed East to Yellowstone -- drove from Yellowstone to Mt. Rushmore -- Mt. Rushmore to Chicago -- then back to Fishers. What a truly life changing experience. Look for pictures on Corey Rudell's facebook and wait for a novel to come out written by Andrew Neylon. My favorite area was Northern California. Giant rocks with waves crashing around them...fog and 60 degree weather. Beautiful. I'll probably retire there.

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My retreat was also awesome. It built on the fraternity between myself and my seminarian brothers. I got to know them well and it made me look forward to school -- which brings me, in fact, to looking forward to school. I've spent the last however long scheduling classes, setting up emails, looking up financial aid, writing for scholarships, etc. The reward will be the peace and formation I get when I finally get there. I'm eager to be in an environment where I will be ENCOURAGED to intentionally make my faith the center of my life and my formation my day to day work.

Til then I'll just be sitting around meeting with people and working at the Eagle. I hope to have another post sometime soon. Pacem brothers and sisters.