Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Letter (and Interview) of Bishop Olson

Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth has issued a pastoral letter addressing the response of the local church to the children who have sought refuge in the United States.  It is well worth a read.

In addition, Bishop Olson called for a prudential response to this "humanitarian" crisis.

In a development, Bishop Olson was interviewed on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC.

There is much magnanimity in the new bishop of Fort Worth.

Pope Francis

There are many things I love about Pope Francis.  His summons not to be a people of fear, his solidarity and connection with the marginalized--those on the "periphery" as he calls it.  His gentle acts that manifest the abundant mercies of God are an embodiment of magnanimity.
 
He has called for a "revolution of tenderness" (Evangelii Gaudium, 88).  



Perhaps, we might move from our normal vantage points (our "factory specifications") of fear and cowardice and resentment and pettiness and love-less-ness and embrace those who are different strange, foreign, alien to us.  God did precisely that to us in Christ Jesus.  Such was his magnanimity.







Pope Francis has now addressed the issue of the children of the "border," of the margins, of the periphery.  It would increase the space for love in our souls--make them more magnanimous--if we dared to listen.  Maybe we just might be Catholic in our embrace of human beings...



Sunday, July 6, 2014

A Border Bishop Speaks

Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville has this most awesome reflection situating the church's teaching on life with the teaching on the dignity of the immigrant.  I have always held that the two should be seen in concert as they are dual manifestations of the fundamental biblical principle of welcoming the "other," whoever he or she may be and in whatever condition or state of life they live, be it the pre-born baby in the womb or the woman seeking to cross the Rio Grande to clothe and feed her children.

Ruth the Magnanimous Moabite and Mothers and Children from Central America

I wonder if all these well-meaning people so fearful of mothers and children fleeing precarious situations in their native lands...I wonder if all these well-meaning people have ever read the book of Ruth.  What if Ruth the foreigner (hated Moabite) had not persisted in her pledge of covenantal loyalty and steadfast love to the Jew Naomi?  What if Ruth the foreigner had been told to leave Judah and return to her native land of Moab?  There would never have been this most subversive account of another time where the covenanted people are taught, educated by the Other, the outsider, the one from the margins.  And this foreigner, outsider, alien, stranger, undocumented one was the conduit and instrument by which the Lord God challenged and invited his people to an even greater magnanimity.  What if she had been cut off, refused entry, told to leave?  Then the Old Testament would never have been able to tell such a story of covenantal loyalty and steadfast love that is nearly unparalleled until the gospels themselves.  What a tragedy that would have been...

One never knows how Almighty God is going to cross one's path.  Many times it is through the one that the world would just as soon not notice, give no heed to, ignore, or tell to go back where they came from.  The mysterious letter to the Hebrews has that chilling verse which should give everyone who is serious about following the way of the Lord pause: "Do not neglect love of strangers [philoxenia], for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels" (Hebrews 13:2).  God himself may just be trying to seek hospitality and refuge right here and right now in some mother from Guatemala or some child from Honduras.  And instead of welcoming them with arms wide open (magnanimously), some of us would just as soon push them away (pusillanimously).

I think I will stay with Ruth and say as she said: "Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people are my people and your God is my God.  Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  And may God do thus and so to me and even more if even death separates me from you" (Ruth 1:16-17).

Friday, July 4, 2014

Catholic and Magnanimous

Why this name for this blog?

The English word 'Catholic' comes from the Greek word katholikos (written in Latin letters), which itself comes from two Greek words (a preposition and an adjective): kata-holos.  It literally means "according to the whole."  In other words, one's disposition and orientation is opened to the whole, the entirety, the totality...everything...and everyone.  The typical definitional meaning in English is 'universal'.  But, parsing the word opens up the richness and depth of this most 'catholic' of words.

The English word 'Magnanimous' comes from the Latin word magnanimus, which itself comes from two Latin words (an adjective and a noun): magna-anima.  It literally means "large soul/mind."  One has an all-embracing, all-encompassing, wide embrace of everything and everyone.  The typical definitional meaning in English is 'greatly generous' and 'refusing to be petty and small-minded' which is what its antithesis pusillanimous means--literally, a "small soul."

These two words are sisters.  If one is truly catholic (oriented to the whole), one is truly magnanimous (a large soul).  And vice versa.  If one is truly magnanimous (a large soul), one is truly catholic (oriented to the whole).

And such is God.  There is no pusillanimity (small soul-ness, driven by fearfulness) in God.  You and I are made in the image and likeness of God, who is magnanimous and catholic (notice the small "c").  Yet, many times we want to make God in our image and likeness, which is anything but magnanimous and catholic.  Often we operate only out of our own pusillanimity, small-mindedness, hard-heartedness, pettiness, resentfulness, anger and fear...and say that God is the same.  What we have made is not God, but an idol that must be smashed and crushed.

I write this blog to begin a conversation with fellow Catholics, Christians and others of good will in order to offer a challenge and an invitation.  The challenge is to not live from the pusilla anima (the small, narrow, confined soul) anymore.  The invitation is to live from the magna anima (the large, big, wide, expansive, embracing soul), the One in whose image and likeness you and I have been made.
 

Magnanimous or Pusillanimous...Who Will You Be?

Perhaps a few texts for us to keep in mind as the immigration issue heats up again....  I'm just sayin'....



You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD (Leviticus 19:18).

 

You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21).

 

You shall not oppress an alien; you well know how it feels to be an alien, since you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt (Exodus 23:9).

 

When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him. You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God (Leviticus 19:33-34).

 

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked. For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:16-19).

 

Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me' (Matthew 25: 34-40).

 

El Nuevo Coloso
Poema inscrito en la base de la Estatua de la Libertad

No como el mítico gigante griego de bronce,
De miembros conquistadores a horcajadas de tierra a tierra;
Aquí en nuestras puertas del ocaso bañadas por el mar se erguirá
Una poderosa mujer con una antorcha, cuya llama
Es el relámpago aprisionado, y su nombre
Madre de los Desterrados. Desde el faro de su mano
Brilla la bienvenida para todo el mundo; sus templados ojos dominan
El puerto de aéreos puentes que las ciudades gemelas enmarcan.
"¡Guárdense, tierras antiguas, su pompa legendaria!" grita ella
Con labios mudos. "Denme a sus rendidos, a sus pobres,
Sus masas hacinadas anhelando respirar en libertad,
El desamparado desecho de su rebosante orilla.
Envíenme a estos, los desamparados, sacudidos por las tempestades a mí,
¡Yo elevo mi faro detrás de la puerta dorada!"

 

The New Colossus
Poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"