1942: The Start of a Very Long Summer

1942: The Start of a Very Long Summer

by Rev. George W. Rutler

As I begin to rummage through the files I have from 1942, I notice a pastoral letter of Msgr. Sigismund Waitz, prince archbishop of Salzburg, read in all his churches on October 19, 1941, but only published in London in July 1942. Archbishop Waitz, along with other prominent Austrian clerics such as the Jesuit Rev. George Bichimair, had been typical of attitudes toward the Jews as "an alien people" who were frustrating attempts at political concordats after World War I. He did not share the amiability that made Theodor Cardinal Innitzer a protector and advocate of Christ's "brothers in Judaism." But even the cardinal was strongly reprimanded by Pope Pius XI and Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli for naively welcoming the Anschluss.

After Cardinal Innitzer's episcopal palace was ransacked by Hitler Youth in 1939, Archbishop Waitz's own residence was attacked by a Nazi mob shouting for him to be sent to Dachau. His letter, read from the pulpits, said:

When I was anointed as a Bishop, the Gospel was placed on my shoulders as God's burden so that I should see that it was preached. We Catholics often have to give way nowadays to outside force. Where earthly matters are concerned we can be patient and silent. Where it concerns our belief, however, there must be no yielding; we must stand firm or die.

Eleven days later, Archbishop Waitz was dead.

In June of 1942, Msgr. Paul Yu Pin, exiled bishop of Nanking and future cardinal, offered Mass for the Allied cause in Chungking, the Chinese provisional capital: "A prayer day is like the stone for David's sling, a simple, foolish, and even scorned way according to many, but which is the most efficacious means of attaining a quick victory and a just and lasting peace."

In France, the Protestant newspaper Feuille in the French unoccupied zone called for Catholic and Protestant unity:

The militant Catholics in our country have taken a place which is important and, we do not fear to say, preponderant, at the head of the movement of resistance in which, very often, they have taken the initiative, and of which they remain the inspiration. . . . The Catholics have not feared to affirm themselves in the sphere of positive action, and, in spite of their repugnance, it is they who most often are the soul of the secret associations of resistance, and who publish anti-collaborationist papers.

The Italian-occupied zone in France was a refuge for Jews fleeing the Vichy government. But ethnic tensions rattled the cobbled armistice between the Italians and the French. Italian newspapers scorned the bishop of Nice, Msgr. Paul Rémond, as an "Italiophobe" for exhorting the Italian boys in his jurisdiction to grow up into "good Frenchman" and for expressing a wish to be called "Sa Grandeur" instead of "Son Excellence," since the latter "is a title given in Italy to rogues and cabmen."

The London Tablet frowned upon the Lord Mayor of Blitz-weary Birmingham for organizing lively summer church services in public parks instead of "mumbled services in cold churches." The editorial comment was equally cold: "The view that worship must have an entertainment value has seldom been so frankly expressed. But American experience has not encouraged those Ministers who have shown a film instead of preaching a sermon. It is the 'reductio ad absurdam' of the foolish and fashionable catering for the modern mind."

A correspondent in Lisbon sends word of the grand Jesuit Rev. C. C. Martindale, a prisoner of war in Denmark for six years: "He sounded much better when he wrote, having had the Last Sacraments about Passion Sunday, and settling down to real angina pectoris . . . . The cold is, I gather, his chief horror . . . . The letter is just like one of his old vivid ones, typed, and of immense length." Father Martindale would go on converting souls with wit and stiff upper lip until his death in 1963.

The newspaper of Poles exiled in London, Widdomosir Polskie, prints a prediction -- nay, prophecy -- of the statesman Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki of Lwow written in 1890:

As anything is possible, it may happen that the King of Prussia and the Prussian Junkers will put themselves at the head of a social movement and on its basis establish a new political order. Or, from among the workers there may emerge a dictator who will achieve this after the downfall of the now reigning dynasties. The voice of pessimism will then be hushed for a while and history will witness a final and terrible attempt to realize the German ideal on a new, democratic, foundation. The might of Germany will reach its apogee, individual liberty will shrink in all fields, labour will be intensified, happiness will disappear, and pessimism, returning with a smile of triumph, will proceed to carry out the suicide of a great nation.

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The Rev. George W. Rutler is the pastor of the Church of our Saviour in New York City. His latest book, A Crisis of Saints: The Call to Heroic Faith in an Unheroic World, 2nd edition, is available from the Crossroad Publishing Company.

Source: http://insidecatholic.com/

The Year of the Priest

La Petite fleur d'Ars

FROM THE PASTOR
by Fr. George W. Rutler
June 28, 2009

On Friday, June 19, Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated a special “Year of Priests” with a special ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica, during which he venerated relics of Saint John Marie Vianney, which had been brought from the French village of Ars where the saint had been parish priest in the nineteenth century. The Pope declared that Vianney, who has been patron saint of parish priests, will from now on be patron of all priests, whatever their particular priestly work may be.

The Pope chose to begin the Year of Priests, which will include the 150th anniversary of Vianney’s death on August 4, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart represents Christ’s merciful love for the world, as Vianney’s own heart, which is one of the preserved relics, represents the saint’s love for his parishioners. He once said that “the priesthood is the love for the Heart of Jesus.” Pope Benedict XVI echoed those words, saying that “the gift of our priesthood originated directly from that Heart.” He said that he wants the Year to be a chance for priests to grow in intimacy with the Divine Love and become “in today’s world, messengers of hope, reconciliation, and peace.”

Not long after I became pastor here, I placed a statue of Saint John Vianney, the “Holy Curé d’Ars,” in our church. Many were unfamiliar with this saint. Around the same time I also restored the altar cross and candles which I found tarnished in the basement (one individual expressed surprise, being under the impression that Vatican II had abolished this arrangement). I am gratified now that the Pope has brought Vianney to wider attention, just as he has called for the restoration of altar crosses and lights as we have them here, to emphasize the mystery of the Blessed Sacrament. Since we erected the statue of the Curé d’Ars, our parish has been remarkably blessed with priestly vocations.

The Gospel (Mark 8:24) records a severe storm on the Sea of Galilee during which Our Lord seemed to be asleep in the stern of the boat, his head on a cushion. Pope Benedict has provided this Year of Priests because the world is storm-tossed: politically, economically, morally, and spiritually. Some have thought that God is paying no attention. The fact is that when he seems to be sleeping he is preparing to calm the storm as Jesus did when he rebuked the wind. Along with that is the other fact that many Christians have indeed been asleep and now must be awakened. The Pope is calling on priests to do that, but not before they commit themselves anew to the saving power of Christ who has called them to show people the road to Heaven, as Saint John Vianney promised to do when he arrived in that little village of Ars in 1818, and which he did do in an amazing way.

The Gregorian Calendar

Father Stanley L. Jaki

(August 17, 1924 – April 7, 2009)

FROM THE PASTOR

by Fr. George W. Rutler

June 21, 2009

On this day of the Summer Solstice, I think of how much I enjoy the calendar published by the Vatican Observatory, with beautiful photographs of the planets taken with its telescopes at its headquarters on the grounds of the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. Under the direct patronage of the pope, it is probably the oldest astronomical research institute in the world. Using it, Pope Benedict XVI’s predecessor Gregory XIII was able to promulgate the Gregorian calendar in 1582, a tremendous scientific achievement which we still use.

In this connection I am also reminded of a dear friend and great priest who died in Madrid in April, having just given a lecture on science and religion in Rome. Father Stanley Jaki was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Science. He was born in Hungary in 1924 and was trained as a Benedictine monk. Throughout his life he remained under obedience to the archabbot of Pannonhalma. Eventually he came to the United States and studied physics at Fordham with the Nobel laureate, Victor Hess, a pioneer in the study of cosmic rays. Father Jaki lectured throughout the world, and was Freemantle Lecturer at Oxford, Hoyt Fellow at Yale, and Gifford Lecturer at Edinburgh. For many years he lived in Princeton and was Distinguished Professor of Physics at Seton Hall. He received the Templeton Prize, which is the largest monetary award in the world, and used the prize money to help support his brother Benedictine monks. The theme of his more than fifty books was how the Catholic understanding of creation gave rise to modern physics and is the most substantial guide for the right use of theoretical physics and all physical sciences.

I am glad to say that we shared a common affinity for the writings of Newman and Chesterton. While he took no prisoners in academic debates, he had a splendid sense of humor, was an accomplished pianist, and particularly enjoyed the conversations of children. The rosary was a favorite devotion and he dutifully kept a daily Holy Hour which strengthened both his heart and brain (don’t think he made a distinction between them).

He often said, “Science lives by hope no less than religion.” His own priestly witness gave hope to many in his own day who might otherwise have lapsed into the “ennui” which is the moral infection of our present culture. Indeed, he knew with all great thinkers that there can be no culture without cult, which is worship. As Pope Benedict inaugurated the Year of Priests on the Feast of the Sacred Heart to help priests live priestly lives, we should also give thanks to the “Saviour of Science,” as Father Jaki called Our Lord, for priests who have already finished their earthly work.

Saint Paul

Saint Paul at His Writing-Desk

FROM THE PASTOR
by Fr. George W. Rutler
June 14, 2009

The last Sunday of June will end the Holy Year of Saint Paul, commemorating the 2000th anniversary of his birth. The end, of course, should be the beginning of a new reverence for his teachings. In the liturgies of these weeks, an emphasis is on his two letters to the Corinthians. They have never been more timely. Corinth was a Greek city, located south of Athens in the area connecting the Peloponnesus to the mainland. In the arts and sciences it excelled and it produced some engineering marvels. It was full of energy, much of it uncontrolled, and money was the real god, although everything sensual was extolled. The temple of Aphrodite at one point housed one thousand cultic prostitutes and every sort of fantastic superstition was tolerated. In very many ways it was like New York City, and just as we say “If you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere,” the Romans who took over the city said “Not for everyone is the journey to Corinth.”

Saint Paul was a brave man to preach the Gospel there and it is no surprise that he had severe difficulties. Unlike the Galatians, whose caution about doing the wrong thing bordered on scrupulosity, the Corinthians were tempted to think “anything goes.” Their lush cosmopolitan environment, symbolized by the third architectural order which was the most elaborate in contrast to the Doric and Ionic, tolerated any kind of behavior and philosophy so long as it was aesthetically satisfying. They were heavily influenced by the Gnostic notion that the spiritual world had nothing to do with the material world. They compartmentalized their existence, thinking that they could engage in high abstract thoughts while living dissolute lives. A sacramental sense of creation was alien to the Corinthians, like some New Yorkers who prefer to speak of “spirituality” rather than Christianity, and who think they can be Catholic without confession, and “do what they want with their own bodies” while ignoring the sacredness of life, fornicating and cohabiting outside the marriage bond, and sanctioning perversions as “alternate lifestyles.”

After Saint Paul established the Church in Corinth in about 51, he wrote to them from Ephesus in Turkey, reminding them, sometimes with tears, that the human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He knew how hard it was for the Corinthians to be counter-cultural, as a Christian must be in a pagan environment. He was never discouraged, nor did he “lower the bar” by watering down doctrine like a false evangelist who would attract crowds by preaching a non-threatening generic Gospel. So he blesses the raucous Corinthian flock with a highly developed Trinitarian theology: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14)

Painting: Rembrandt's Saint Paul at His Writing-Desk
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

Angels and Demons

FROM THE PASTOR

by Fr. George W. Rutler
May 31, 2009

On the fiftieth day after the Resurrection, God filled his Church with the Holy Spirit. Jesus kept his promise: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Pentecost is the start of Christian life rather than the end of the story, rather as Churchill said after the battle of El Alamein: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

The power the Holy Spirit gives the Church is the truth. Truth is the ultimate power because it is reality. “Men may all lie, but God is always true” (Romans 3:4). Truth always wins, in the long run. In the short run it may seem that lies win. But truth sustains life while falsehood destroys it. Jesus said that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Lies do have power, but it is a fatal power and eventually self-destructs. In our society there are lies that an unborn baby is not human, and that marriage is not naturally the union of male and female, and that truth is only opinion. When a society accepts these lies, it eventually clashes with inescapable reality and crumbles. Even Satan is forced to tell the truth in the presence of Christ: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24).

A recent film, Angels and Demons, is the latest embarrassing attempt to lie about Christ and his Church. It is filled with amateurish technical mistakes, not to mention the historical and archeological ones. The script says the Church opposes scientific truth, when in fact, as the recently deceased Benedictine priest Stanley Jaki explained in dozens of books, the Church provides the philosophical matrix for the motive and method of physical science. The Church attends to the truths of Heaven, but she does not neglect physical science, because God made the world as a blessing. Galileo, whom the film mentions as a member of an esoteric secularist sect known as the “Illuminati” (which in fact was founded two centuries after Galileo), became the leading member of the original Pontifical Academy of Sciences founded under the patronage of Pope Clement VIII. Major discoveries in mathematics, astronomy, physics, genetics, botany, zoology, and medicine have taken place in universities established by the Church and they continue to be the work of Catholics from John XXI and Sylvester II, through Hermann of Reichenau, Robert Grosseteste, Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Buridan, Descartes, Copernicus, Schyrleus, Pascal, Lobkowitz, Secchi, Pasteur, Carrel, Marconi, Fleming, up to Father Georges Lemaître who proposed the Big Bang theory.

On Pentecost, we rejoice that “God cannot lie” (Titus 1:1-2). The same cannot be said of Hollywood.

Never Let a Crisis Go Unused

FROM THE PASTOR

by Fr. George W. Rutler
June 7, 2009

During the persecution of Christians in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman prefect Rusticus was frustrated by the serene equanimity of the Christian convert Justin, a Platonic philosopher. The Romans considered Christianity a superstitio parva (a perverse superstition) and classified its morality as immodica (immoderate) for, among other things, refusing to abort the unborn and “expose” the newly born. Bereft of rational arguments against Christians, Nero blamed them for burning Rome, as some would blame the Jews for the bubonic plague. The demagogic policy, updated by Lenin and made a political craft in our day, was “never let a crisis go unused.”

Every great cause attracts its sociopaths who cloak their pathology in the mantel of righteousness. It is always wrong to do something intrinsically evil, no matter how good the desired end may be. If Jesus admonished St. Peter for cutting off a man’s ear in an instance of self-defense, the principle of proportionality is much stronger when an individual wildly appropriates to himself the right to kill in cold blood. When an outlaw destroys life in the name of human dignity, however depraved and macabre the target, the raucous contradiction gives cynics a chance to exploit the crime. This is the manner of hypocritical Pharisaism, as opposed to the venerable Pharisees whose righteousness Our Lord said should be exceeded by his disciples. The debased Pharisees gave themselves a bad name because they cynically postured as scandalized in order to haul themselves onto a shaky moral platform higher than their opponents.

I cite the case of a man gone off the edge who committed murder in Kansas in the name of the sacredness of life. Impatient with rational voices, he said: “These men are all talk. What we need is action—action!” He was rightly called a “misguided fanatic” but opportunists exploited the crisis to blame their political opponents. On the other hand, some deluded people actually defended and praised the murderer.

The Kansas killing to which I refer was the Pottawatomie Massacre; Abraham Lincoln used the term “misguided fanatic”; the opportunists were Southern slaveholders; and those who praised the maverick killer included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The “inventor of American terrorism” was John Brown, whose body “lies a-mouldering in the grave.” A more prudent abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe, transposed the lyrics of the old song into a hymn of Christ who “is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” The sane diction of authentic confessors of faith, as opposed to the demented, was very like what Justin patiently told Rusticus: “We hope to suffer torment for the sake of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and so be saved. For this will bring us salvation and confidence as we stand before the more terrible and universal judgment-seat of Our Lord and Saviour.”

Defining Lady and Gentleman

FROM THE PASTOR
by Fr. George W. Rutler
May 17, 2009

The ordination of new priests for our archdiocese last week was accompanied by delightful receptions well suited for the month of May. Graceful conviviality is becoming as rare in our coarsened culture as when the pagan Romans were astonished by the celebratory “refrigeria” of the Christians, free of the vulgarity and cruelty which the post-republican empire had come to equate with fun.

Loss of reverence for innocent life corrupts the manners which were the signature of the classical ages and whose exchange for gaudy excess was the emblem of their decadence. The way people dress and speak and treat one another signals their self-perception. When civility is disdained as bourgeois, the servant is deprived of his royal dignity as a child of God and the king is absolved of his duty to revere those he governs.

Cardinal Newman defined the gentleman, and by inference the lady, in cadences which have become almost as incomprehensible as the terms gentleman and lady themselves. “It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain.” He speaks of moral care for the consciences of others. The gentleman puts others at ease and “makes light of favors while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring.” He does not slander or gossip, treats his enemy as a potential friend and is “merciful to the absurd.”

This is not the low discourse of modern politics and journalism. So annually we now have the perfect storm of barbarism in the White House Correspondents Dinner. Each year it gets worse, and this year a woman, hired as a comedienne, failed in the useful role of court jester, wishing on those “traitors” she did not like sickness and worse. The highest officials of our land joined in the harsh laughter and added sexual innuendoes. Like the Vandals who ridiculed the noble Romans senators, they mocked abstinence from vice and dissected virtue as weakness. The cynicism matched Oscar Wilde saying that a gentleman is one who never inflicts pain unintentionally. Drawing on the fifth century “Psychomachia” of Prudentius, mediaeval writers charted kindness among the “heavenly virtues” to cure envy, which is a motive for cruelty, and pride, which is the alchemy of disdain. Newman knew, like St. Paul, that classical kindness is only aesthetical moral furniture without the love of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 6:6). But he also knew that uncourtly behavior courts blaspheming the Holy Spirit. When journalists approve the rants of poor breeding as “just comedy” and its victims as “fair game,” they approve the sadism of Petronius and the vulgarity of Rabelais. They shift from Mark Twain, who could disagree without being disagreeable, to Fellini who relished degradation. For all his populism, Dickens was a rank snob when he said the term “American gentleman” was a self-contradiction. We should not want to prove him right.

Painting: The Romans of the Decadence, 1847 by Thomas Couture 1815-1879

Coincidence = Providence

FROM THE PASTOR
by Fr. George W. Rutler
May 10, 2009

On April 30, Monsignor William F. Guido died peacefully and his soul was committed to Christ the High Priest. He was the third pastor of the Church of Our Saviour, having previously been an associate pastor at the Church of Our Lady of Victory in the financial district. By coincidence, I succeeded him in that parish, never thinking that someday I would succeed him as pastor here. By another coincidence, our new archbishop, having offered Mass here on May 1 for the Sisters of Life, also offered Monsignor Guido’s funeral Mass the next morning. You know my strong view that the word “coincidence” is a vague shorthand for providence. God works all things according to his design and, to the degree that we cooperate with his plans, he makes all things well with us.

As we pray for Monsignor Guido’s soul, we also give thanks for all his efforts in his year here to maintain and prosper this parish when it was burdened with heavy debts. We also give thanks that exactly one week after Monsignor Guido’s burial, Vincent Druding of this parish was called to the Sacred Priesthood. Monsignor Guido was born in 1918. Vincent Druding was born sixty years later. I was born halfway between both. So the priestly line goes on from the Resurrection when Our Saviour breathed on the Apostles in the Upper Room, giving them authority to forgive sins.

Whatever age a man is chronologically, when the priestly stole is placed on his shoulders he becomes 2000 as he is united to the office of Christ the Priest. And however old a priest is chronologically when he dies, he is as young as the youthful Apostle John who recognized the Voice from the shore and said, “It is the Lord!” That is what every priest says each day when he raises the Blessed Sacrament at the altar.

On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, having been ordained in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick the previous day, Vincent offers Mass for the first time on his own, having concelebrated yesterday with the archbishop. To the Eucharistic thanksgiving, we offer our own prayers of thanksgiving for our first parishioner to be ordained a priest for the archdiocese, and for all the young men of our parish now heeding the call of Christ to do the same. Christ asked his first Apostles, “Have you caught anything?” When they cast their nets into the deep (“duc in altum”) their catch was great. So we pray it will be for Vincent, whom we now call Father Druding, and for all the priests who obey God’s command. A nineteenth century hymn recalls what began many centuries ago:

God of the prophets! Bless the prophets’ sons,
Elijah’s mantle o’er Elisha cast;
Each age its solemn task may claim but once;
Make each one nobler, stronger, than the last.

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Queens' Roots

Saint Nuno Alvares Pereira 1360-1431

FROM THE PASTOR

by Fr. George W. Rutler

May 3, 2009

Nuno Alvares Pereira, born in 1360, was a descendant of Charlemagne and, by the marriage of his daughter to a son of the King of Portugal, became ancestor to many shapers of history, including Catherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor. One of his descendants was Catherine of Bragança who became Queen Consort of England by her marriage to Charles II and in whose honor our city’s Borough of Queens was named. She also popularized tea-drinking in England. With his friend Henry the Navigator, Nuno began the “Age of Exploration” and took the Gospel to Africa. Columbus might never have sailed without the patronage of Nuno’s descendant Queen Isabella. The assassination of another descendant, Archduke Ferdinand, triggered World War I and changed the world again.

On April 26, Pope Benedict XVI, having recognized the miraculous cure of a blind woman by Nuno’s intercession, declared him a saint, 578 years after his death in the same year that Joan of Arc was burned. Saint Nuno consecrated his life to the Blessed Virgin, whom we crown with flowers in the month of May because she was granted to us as our mother by her Son when he was crowned with thorns. Nuno engraved the name of Mary on the sword he wielded to protect the people of his land. He secured Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of Castile in battles against tremendous odds: Atoleiros, Aljubarrota, and Valverde. Under a banner emblazoned with Our Lady and St. George, he would stop in the middle of the fighting to fall on his knees in prayer, as once when his 6,000 troops were being attacked by a force of more than 30,000.

Like Wellington and all true soldiers, he knew that “save for a battle lost, nothing is so tragic as a battle won.” Called “the Peacemaker,” he nursed his wounded enemies and refused the spoils of battle. When his wife died, he distributed his wealth to his comrades in arms and orphans, and became a Carmelite monk. When former foes came to see “Fra Nuno of St. Mary” in his monastery, he showed them his armor beneath his religious habit and warned them he was ready to mount his steed again if anyone harmed the innocent. Sir Galahad was of legend; Nuno was the perfect knight in fact. He died on Easter Day as a priest was reading Our Lord’s words from the Cross: “Behold your Mother.” His epitaph said:

“Here lies that famous Nuno, the Constable, founder of the House of Bragança, excellent general, blessed monk, who during his life on earth so ardently desired the Kingdom of Heaven that after his death, he merited the eternal company of the Saints. His worldly honors were countless, but he turned his back on them. He was a great Prince, but he made himself a humble monk. He founded, built and endowed this church in which his body rests.”

"...whosoever shall deny me before men..."

FROM THE PASTOR
by Fr. George W. Rutler
April 26, 2009

Saint John was the only Apostle to remain with the Blessed Mother at the Crucifixion, and seared into his mind was the name of Jesus at the top of the cross. The Apostle was always reluctant to mention his own name. In his humility all that mattered was that he was loved by the Lord. When we receive our names in baptism, they radiate the Holy Name, for every Christian is a spark of the Saviour. We should say the Holy Name with reverence, and make reparation when we hear thoughtless people use it as a curse. They do not know its power, but Satan does, and that is why he wants us to twist it if he cannot blot it out.

In the fifteenth century St. Bernardine of Siena went from town to town preaching, holding a banner emblazoned with the letters IHS, which are the first Greek letters of “Jesus.” It was most effective in getting people’s attention and Bernardine now is the patron saint of advertisers. In response to humbugs who accused the saint of making the acronym a kind of magical device, Pope Martin V told him to put a small cross over the letters, to make clear that this was the name of the Crucified One.

Young John survived all the Apostles and, grown old and still remembering how the Master had called them “teknia”—“little children”—the night before the Crucifixion, he used the same word: “Little children, I write to you because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake” (1 John 2:12). After Pentecost, with John standing next to him, Peter healed a crippled man by invoking the name of Jesus, which was better than “silver and gold” of which he had none. John and Peter were put on trial for this and Peter boldly declared, “There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

In the spiritual combat of our generation, Satan would tempt timorous Christians to esteem other names as greater than Jesus. Recently a Catholic university covered the letters IHS at the request of politicians, so that the Holy Name would not be seen by the cameras at a public event. When the powers that be were finished, and the letters uncovered again, so also was the weakness of the university exposed. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven” (Matt. 10:33). St. Peter had no money, but he had the name of Jesus. Any institution ashamed of that name, will find that its golden endowment is tarnished and its silver adds up to just thirty pieces.

Ashamed of Jesus! That dear Friend
On whom my hopes of Heaven depend!
No; when I blush, be this my shame
That I no more revere His Name.

Photo: IHS monogram, on top of the main altar of the Gesù, Rome, Italy

Surpised by Joy

FROM THE PASTOR

by Fr. George W. Rutler

April 19, 2009

A book about his conversion to Christianity by C. S. Lewis is called Surprised by Joy because he was astonished by the power of Christ to shatter his cynicism. The first Christians were very much surprised by the Resurrection, requiring Jesus to tell them to calm down. While an eager and alert mind always will be surprised by things in this world, Christians should not be surprised any more by joy. We should expect it, while never failing to give thanks for it, because Christ is joy himself, which the world cannot take away.

We celebrate the joy of eternal life with special solemnity in Eastertide, knowing that “solemnity” really means not dourness but elegant serenity, like a formal dance or award ceremony. Solemnity takes us out of ourselves, and the inability to be solemn in rituals indicates self-consciousness. In this spirit, we have to give thanks to all those who selflessly have helped with the joyful solemnities of Easter. Saint Paul thanked his helpers in Rome and Galatia and Corinth, and we should thank our own helpers, hoping that our parish matches the good spirit of those churches without all of their concomitant enormities.

The problem with naming names is that names inevitably are left out, because there are so many to thank. So I express a general gratitude to everyone who has been helping in this season. Of course there are Robert Prior and our musicians, and our ushers, and the devoted women who spend many hours counting offerings, and our dutiful staff who prepare the church and help visitors. Samuel Howard and Thomas Vaniotis have been tireless in preparing our growing number of altar servers, and the liturgical results have never been finer. I do not remember so many people worshiping here. I certainly thank those many who stood for so long during the sacred rites, around the church and outside. I was not surprised by the joy of having our seminarians assist so well, and those priests who heard confessions without pause for up to six hours at a time. This was the hardest work of all and the source of much joy in heaven.

Our Risen Lord does not make all new things. More wonderfully, he makes all things new, even things that are very old. Saint Melito, bishop of the busy commercial city of Sardis in Turkey, whose birth was about as distant in time from the Resurrection as we are from the opening of the Manhattan Bridge, wrote: “The paschal mystery is at once old and new, transitory and eternal, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal. In terms of the Law it is old, in terms of the Word it is new. In its figure it is passing, in its grace it is eternal. It is corruptible in the sacrifice of the lamb, incorruptible in the eternal life of the Lord.”

Painting:The Resurrection of Christ and the Women at the Tomb; Fra ANGELICO; 1440-41 fresco; convento di San Marco, Florence