Denver Catholic

22 DECEMBER 9-22, 2017 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives A meditation on "Maranatha" H appy (real) new year: The beginning of a new year of grace, which began Dec. 3 with the First Sunday of Advent. "The holidays" so overwhelm our senses each December that it's hard to remember that Advent, the season of prepa- ration for Christmas, has a "thy- kingdom-come" dimension as well as a Nativity dimension. For the fi rst two weeks of Advent, the Church ardently and insistently prays the ancient Aramaic Maranatha: "Come, Lord Jesus!" And that petition is prayed, not in a spirit of disgust or resignation — "C'mon, Lord, let's get this over with...." — but in the sure confi dence that the Lord's return in glory means the ful- fi llment of history: Both the history of humanity and our personal histories. For in the Second Coming, history will be fi nally revealed as His-story, God's story, in which we have been privileged to participate by grace. The Maranatha also prompts the question, what did the fi rst Christians mean by calling Jesus "Lord"? As Dr. Rowan Williams puts it, they meant that Jesus is "the supreme authority." No other authority trumped the authority of Jesus: Not the Law, the Sabbath, or the Temple, for Jewish paleo-Christians; not Caesar or the gods of Greece and Rome, for the fi rst Gentiles to meet Christ. And why was Jesus the supreme authority? Because Jesus displayed "exactly the same lib- erty to love indiscriminately as does God himself." And God himself ratifi ed Jesus's claim to be the embodiment of that indiscriminate, boundless love by raising Jesus from the dead, which "... made him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2.36). The Church of the New Testament and the Church of the Fathers worked out in creed and doctrine what that fi rst confession of faith — "Jesus is Lord" — meant and implied. It meant that the God of Israel intended his salvation to reach all peoples. It meant that Jesus was fully participant in the life of God himself ("consubstantial with the Father," as the Nicene Creed puts it). It meant that God was thus a Trinity of persons, united in one godhead by the mutual gift and reception of love. And that meant that the child born in Bethlehem is, to return to Dr. Wil- liams, "the earthly face on an eternal love [among] Father, Son, and Spirit." Which was, in turn, a statement about us as well as about the triune God. For if we are given a share in that divine life through Baptism, then "being in the body of Christ, the community of baptized believers, gives us the free- dom to love God the Father as Jesus loves him, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so too to love the world with the unquestioning generosity of God, never restricting ourselves to those who are familiar to us and are like us." To say "Jesus is Lord" is to see the world aright and to behave di¥ erently. To say "Jesus is Lord" is to see children of God where before we saw only dif- ference, and to treat others with the respect that befi ts those whom God has loved so much as to o¥ er them the possibility of friendship with his incar- nate Son. Indeed, to say "Jesus is Lord" impels us — or should impel us — to o¥ er others the gift of friendship with the Son that we have been given, not by our own merits, but by sheer grace. That is what it means to be a mission- ary disciple in a Church permanently in mission: It means to deal with the world as generously as God has dealt with us, in order to convert the world. What, then, does it mean to pray in the Maranatha that the Lord will come again? It means to understand that the end of the story has already been revealed in the Incarnation and above all in the Resurrection. God is going to win, in the end, whatever the travails that beset his people between now and then. That conviction is not an invi- tation to indi¥ erence; it is a counsel against despair, about both the life of the Church, when that becomes roiled, and the life of the world, when that turns sour. So, yes, come, Lord Jesus: And give us the strength and wisdom to prepare a fi tting place for your return. The Catholic Di› erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL Navigating major cultural challenges W e're navigating through a true rock and a hard place right now: Moral relativism and the oversaturation of technology. In fact, they are related. Moral relativism leaves us without a compass to discern the proper use of technol- ogy. And technolog- ical over- saturation leads to a decreased ability to think clearly about what matters most and how to achieve it. Fortunately, we have some Odys- seus-like heroes to guide our naviga- tion. Edward Sri's book Who Am I to Judge?: Responding to Relativism with Logic and Love (Augustine Institute, 2017) provides a practical guide for thinking through the moral life and how to communicate to others the truth in love. Christopher Blum and Joshua Hochschild take on the second challenge with their book A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (Sophia, 2017). Sri's book describes conversations that have become quite common. When discussing moral issues, we hear too often, "This is true for me," "I feel this is right," or, "Who am I to judge?" We are losing our ability both to think about and discuss moral problems in a coherent fashion. Morality has become an expres- sion of individual and subjective feeling, rather than clear reasoning based on the truth. In fact, many, or even most, young people would say there is no clear truth when it comes to morality — the very defi nition of relativism. Beyond this inability to reason clearly, Christians also face pressure to remain silent in the face of immoral action, shamed into a corner with the label of bigotry. In response to our moral crisis, Sri encourages us to learn more about our own great tradition of moral- ity focused on virtue and happiness. He also provides excellent guidance on how to engage others in a loving conversation to help them consider that our actions relate not only to our own fulfi llment, but to our relationships with others. Sri points out that it's hard to "win" an argument with relativists, because "relativistic tendencies are rooted in various assumptions they have absorbed from the culture and in habits of think- ing and living they have formed over a lifetime" (13). Rather than "winning," Sri advises us to accompany others through moral and spiritual growth with seven keys, described in the second half of the book. These keys help us to see others through the heart of Christ, with mercy, and to reframe discussions about morality, turning more toward love and addressing underlying wounds. Ulti- mately, he asks us, "Will you be Jesus?" to those struggling with relativism. (155). Blum and Hochschild's book com- plements Sri's by focusing on the vir- tues we need to address our cultural challenges. They point to another common concern we all face: A "crisis of attention" as our minds wander, pre- occupied with social media (2). More positively, they encourage us to "be consoled" as "there are remedies" to help us "regain an ordered and peaceful mind, which thinks more clearly and attends more steadily" (ibid.). The path they point out can be found in a virtu- ous and ordered life guided by wisdom. To achieve peace, we need virtues and other good habits, which create order within us. "With order, our attention is focused, directed, clear, trustworthy, and fruitful" (10). The book encourages us to rediscover fundamental realities of life, such as being attune to our senses and to aspire to higher and noble things. The authors, with the help of the saints, pro- vide a guidebook to forming important dispositions to overcome the addiction and distraction that come with the omnipresence of media and technology. The book's chapters address topics such as self-awareness, steadfastness, resilience, watchfulness, creativity, purposefulness, and decisiveness. These dispositions will create order in how we use our tools and within our inner faculties. They will help us to be more intentional in our action so that we do not succumb to passivity and distraction. Overall, the book leads us to consider how we can rediscover simple and profound realities, such as a good conversation, periods of silence, and a rightly ordered imagination. Both books help us to navigate our culture, equipping us to respond more intentionally to the interior and exte- rior challenges we face. The Catholic Reader R. Jared Staudt, PhD, is a husband and father of six, the catechetical formation specialist for the Archdiocese of Denver, a Benedictine oblate, prolifi c writer, and insatiable reader. DR. R. JARED STAUDT

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