This blog is based on references in the Bible to fear. God wills that we “BE NOT AFRAID”. Many theologians state that the eighth deadly sin is fear. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. By “the power of the Holy Spirit” we can be witnesses and “communicators” of a new and redeemed humanity “even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7 8). This blog is dedicated to Mary the Mother of God.
Monday, June 22, 2020
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Monday in the Octave
of the Sacred Heart
ST. THOMAS MORE
Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 32
Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for
your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
Fear is the eighth deadly sin and the Jewish
authorities were absolutely controlled by fear. Naturally when fear rules your
life you instinctively run or fight. They chose the death of one man to save
the people, which was their rationalization to have Christ killed. Judas was
their answer. The Jewish authorities’ leadership failed miserably out of
self-deception.
The anatomy of peace: resolving the heart of conflict[1]
Leadership and Self-Deception is simple: people whose
hearts are at peace do not wage war, whether they're heads of state or members
of a family. In this semi-fictional narrative ("inspired by actual
events") illustrating the principles of achieving peace, the setting is a
two-day parent workshop at an Arizona-based wilderness camp for out-of-control
teenagers, but the storyline is a mere setting for an instruction manual.
Workshop facilitators Yusuf al-Falah, a Palestinian Arab whose father was
killed by Israelis in 1948, and Avi Rozen, an Israeli Jew whose father died in
the Yom Kippur War, use examples from their domestic lives and the history of
their region to illustrate situations in which the normal and necessary
routines of daily life can become fodder for conflict. Readers observe this
through the eyes of one participant, a father whose business is in nearly as
much trouble as his teenage son. The usefulness of the information conveyed
here on how conflicts take root, spread and can be resolved more than compensates
for the pedestrian writing.
John McCain in his book entitled “Character is
Destiny” tells us that Sir Thomas More surrendered everything for the truth as
he saw it and shamed a king with the courage of his conscience. Thomas was a
brilliant student. He loved learning and would for the rest of his life prefer
the less prestigious but more satisfying rewards of a scholar to the riches and
power of the king’s court. He was part of a movement called humanism, whose
followers were faithful to the Church but hoped to encourage a better
understanding of the Gospels and their more honest application to the workings
of society. They studied the great Greek and Roman philosophers, whose views on
morality and just societies they believed complemented their Christian
principles. They were passionate in pursuit of the truth as revealed by God,
and by discovery through study and scholarly debate and discussion. They
thought the world could be made gentler with Christian love and greater
learning—love and learning that served not only the nobility of court and
Church, but all mankind. Thomas was a devout Christian, and for a time lived in
a monastery with the intention of entering the priesthood. The monastic life
was one of isolation and self-denial. And though he took his religious devotion
seriously, he loved the comforts of family life, and the rewards of learning
and earthly pleasures as well: music and art, reading and writing, friendship
and conversation and jests. He loved his city, London, then the greatest
capital of Northern Europe. He loved life. So, he left the cloister for a wife
and family, and returned to the worldly affairs of men. His love of learning
and truth was second only to his love of God, and he encouraged his children,
for the sake of their happiness, to seek truth through learning as well as scripture.
He cultivated friendships and exchanged letters with some of the greatest minds
in Europe, including with the Dutch priest and famous humanist philosopher
Erasmus, who became More’s greatest admirer outside his family, and whose
description of More became the title by which he is still remembered to this
day: “a man for all seasons.” His scholarly reputation and skill as a
scrupulously honest lawyer first gained the attention of the king’s most
powerful counselor, the lord chancellor of England, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. An
ambitious and shrewd politician, Wolsey recognized the younger man’s talents,
and pressed him into the king’s service. Serving first as a diplomat, then in a
series of increasingly powerful offices at court, knighted, and given lands and
wealth, More became a favorite of Wolsey’s and Henry’s. And while he might have
preferred the life of a philosopher, husband, and father to the rigors of
public life, he no doubt took pride in the king’s confidence and favor. When
Wolsey’s downfall came that would lead in time to Thomas’s death, Henry made
his friend, Thomas, Lord Chancellor. It was the highest office at court, and
Thomas More was the first layman to hold it. His appointment was greeted
favorably by the court and public alike, for Thomas was known by one and all as
an honest man, who would conscientiously discharge the duties of his office. As
it turned out, he was too honest for his king. Thomas More waged an
intellectual and judicial war against the followers of Luther that was at times
surprisingly aggressive and even cruel for such a reasonable and just man. In
the beginning, he had the king’s full support in his persecution and
prosecution of “heretics.” More defended the Church out of religious principle,
and because he and the king feared the uncontrollable social disorder that a
permanent split among the faithful would surely cause. But his hatred, if it
could be called that in such a mild man, was for the heresy and not the
heretics. Death was the judgment for heretics in the courts that Thomas More
governed, but he went to great lengths to encourage the accused to recant their
views and escape their sentence. In fact, in the many cases he prosecuted, all
the accused except for four poor souls, who went to their deaths rather than
recant, escaped the headman’s ax. More was diligent in his duty, but a much
more powerful threat than Luther’s protests had encouraged was growing to the
Catholic Church in England. Henry’s queen, Catherine of Aragon, had failed to
produce a surviving male heir. Henry was determined to have a new wife who
could give him a healthy son. Other kings and nobles had received from the pope
annulments of their marriage. But the most powerful king in Europe, the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V, was Catherine’s nephew, and he had great influence
with Pope Clement VII. He persuaded Clement not to grant an annulment that
would remove the crown from his aunt’s head. Once Henry fell in love with Anne
Boleyn, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a scheming courtier, he would no
longer accept papal opposition to his desire to remarry. In this dangerous and
growing conflict, Thomas More became a central figure, and he would struggle
with all his intellect, lawyer’s skills, and courage to obey his king without
forsaking his church. It would prove impossible. Initially More
dutifully served the king’s wishes, arguing in Parliament that there were
grounds to consider the marriage to Catherine unlawful. But when the king
declared himself, and not the pope, to be the supreme head of the Church in
England, More offered the king his resignation. Henry refused it and promised
his friend that he would never be forced to take any action that his conscience
would not permit. But the king’s assurance was hollow, and soon both he and
More realized that the king’s desires and More’s conscience could not be
reconciled. More again asked the king to accept his resignation, and this time,
Henry agreed. For many months, he was careful not to speak against the king’s
wishes, in public or in private. But he declined to attend the king’s wedding
to Anne Boleyn. When Parliament passed a law requiring the king’s subjects to
sign an oath recognizing Anne as queen, and any children she might bear Henry
as legitimate heirs to the throne, he refused to sign it because it denied the
pope’s authority over the Church in England. He was arrested and imprisoned in
the Tower of London. He remained there until his trial fifteen months later.
The jury, which included Anne Boleyn’s father, brother, and uncle, found him
guilty and sentenced him to be hanged, and drawn and quartered. Then More spoke
his conscience and said he could not in his own heart accept the king as head
of the English Church. The death to which he was first sentenced would have
been a far slower and more painful death than he was made to suffer in the end.
Henry, mercifully, permitted his old friend and counselor to die by beheading.
On the day of his execution, he had some difficulty climbing the scaffold
steps. He thanked the guard who helped him but joked that he should be allowed
to “shift for myself” when he came back down. He recited a prayer of
repentance. The hooded executioner, as was the custom, begged the condemned
man’s forgiveness. More gave him a coin, kissed him, and thanked him for giving
him a “greater benefit than ever any mortal man can be able to give me.” And
then the man who had all his life loved to jest, made one last joke. As he
knelt to place his head upon the block, he asked for a moment to arrange his
long beard so that it wouldn’t be severed by the ax, observing that as far as
he knew his beard had not offended the king. In his last address, spoken
moments earlier, he had asked the crowd of witnesses to pray for his soul and
for the king, for he died “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” One swift
stroke and the king’s will was done. The life on earth of honest Thomas More
was ended. His glory had just begun.
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt is a wonderful
play that captures much of St. Thomas More's vitality. There is a 1966 movie by
the same title that stars Paul Scofield as St. Thomas. If you haven't watched
the movie or read the play yet, put it on your priority list.
·If
you or your children are considering a career as a lawyer you might find Dr. Charles Rice's article helpful.
Religious Freedom Week
All people desire to know their Creator.
All people have a natural impulse to seek the good and to live in accordance
with that good. All people can flourish when they pursue the truth about God
and respond to the truth. Religious freedom means that all people have the
space to flourish. Religious freedom is both an American value and an important
part of Catholic teaching on human dignity. When we promote religious freedom,
we promote the common good and thus strengthen the life of our nation and the
community of nations. Learn more at www.usccb.org/ReligiousFreedomWeek!
Daily
Devotions
·Do not be guided by feeling; it is
not always under your control; but all merit lies in the will. Will is an act of Love.
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