{"id":77,"date":"2012-03-06T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T01:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/egregioustwaddle\/2012\/03\/walking-the-way-of-love-in-lent\/"},"modified":"2016-05-02T11:24:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T17:24:32","slug":"walking-the-way-of-love-in-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/egregioustwaddle\/2012\/03\/walking-the-way-of-love-in-lent.html","title":{"rendered":"Walking the Way of Love in Lent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Love\u2013as the root and ground of our public discourse, as the only answer to the tyranny of hate\u2013seems to be everywhere this week. I asked<\/a><\/u> if we as a Church could, should dare to love those who disagree with us so genuinely and visibly that we might stop getting in the way of the message we too often speak with pursed lips and arms folded defensively across our hearts. And all around me others are answering, Yes, of course we can, we should. What else is there?<\/i><\/p>\n

Cardinal Dolan, who doesn\u2019t know from pursed lips, made it clear that ad feminam<\/i> attacks like Rush Limbaugh\u2019s on Sandra Fluke\u2013though they echo the sentiment of some Catholics in some comboxes\u2013aren\u2019t worthy of Church leaders, even when they feel most beleaguered and set up. (H\/T to Deacon Greg Kandra<\/a><\/u> for the quote.)<\/p>\n

Whatever we do, and however strongly we feel, we do it charitably, we do it civilly. We don\u2019t judge the motives of other people. We just try, in a confident, peaceful, inviting way, to make our position felt, to invite other people to respect it.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My Anglican friend Jenkins Minor sent me these words of Georgetown President John J. DeGioia, channeling Augustine\u2013he who all but taught the Church to purse its lips!<\/p>\n

In an earlier time, St. Augustine captured the sense of what is required in civil discourse: \u201cLet us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us.\u00a0 For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rocco Palmo<\/a><\/u> shared the CBS 60 Minutes<\/i> interview with Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, and added the full text of Archbishop Martin\u2019s latest address on faith and Irish society, from which this gem comes:<\/p>\n

For too long the Church appeared in a role of moralisation and people failed to transmit the real depth of the Christian message which is about Jesus as a person who in his life and teaching reveals to us who God is. God is a God of love with whom we can in Jesus enter into a personal relationship, which then brings richness to the way we live of our lives.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this NPR piece<\/a><\/u> reminded me that this is the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of my favorite parables of the power of love, Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s A Wrinkle in Time<\/i>. The conformist planet of Camazotz, ruled by the totalitarian IT (all brain, no heart, no soul), may have stood for our fears of godless communism in the 60s when L\u2019Engle wrote it and I first read it, but today it eerily evokes the kind of religion-free, purely utilitarian society so many people I know tell me would be best for America. It is good to remember that IT is only fed and made more powerful by engaging it in anger, no matter how righteous we believe that anger to be.\u00a0ITs stranglehold on the soul is broken only by love\u2013in the story, the love of the innocent-but-knowing Charles Wallace, the kind of kid we would call special needs<\/i> today because of our inability to fit his genius into existing social categories. The lesson of love\u2019s power is often taught to us by those a utilitarian society classes as expendable, if we are granted the grace of listening to and learning from them\u2013if we grant them the grace of existence. L\u2019Engle remains one of my favorite spiritual writers, for A Wrinkle in Time<\/i> and for her nonfiction like Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art<\/i>, and so it was also some comfort this week to be reminded that she, too, most often pitched\u00a0her tent in\u00a0the uncomfortable territory between Too Religious and Not Religious Enough.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/b> Lisa Mladinich<\/a><\/u> is thinking along loving lines, too. (H\/T to Elizabeth Scalia for the connection.)<\/p>\n

So yes . . . reminders that love abides. None more profound, this Lent, than this face of love, beside whom we walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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For more reminders of what it means to \u201clive in love as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering\u201d (Ephesians 5:2)<\/i>, I recommend:<\/p>\n

The Way<\/b><\/i> \u2014 It\u2019s not an orthodox Catholic pilgrimage, but it\u2019s the kind of walk I\u2019m walking right now, and you may be too. The story<\/a><\/u> can get predictable (as what story of redemption is not?) but the performances are terrific and you\u2019ll feel you\u2019ve walked every step of the tough and beautiful road to Compostela. Buen camino!<\/i><\/p>\n

Little Portion Hermitage<\/b> \u2014 My friend the Hermit shares a daily florilegium<\/i> of inspirational words<\/a><\/u>, an instant cure for spiritual dryness like the soul equivalent of one of those sponge-pellet flowers you drop into a glass of water and it blooms into a rose.<\/p>\n

Catholic Relief Services<\/b> \u2014 The folks who know about putting their love where their mouth is offer an online Lenten series of Tiny Retreats<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

And finally, if you\u2019re looking for a place to give some spare alms, consider investing<\/a><\/u> in All That Remains<\/i>, a project to bring to the screen the story of Dr Takashi Nagai, the spiritual chronicler of Japan\u2019s nuclear nightmare.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love\u2013as the root and ground of our public discourse, as the only answer to the tyranny of hate\u2013seems to be everywhere this week. I asked if we as a Church could, should dare to love those who disagree with us so genuinely and visibly that we might stop getting in the way of the message […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWalking the Way of Love in Lent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Love--as the root and ground of our public discourse, as the only answer to the tyranny of hate--seems to be everywhere this week. 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