One of the best interviews Bruce and I ever had discussing the many aspects of the Holy Saturday experience. Dr. Regis Martin is a professor of Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and the author of several books on spirituality and theology.
Making sense of human suffering is a challenge in every age, and many a person confronted with man’s inhumanity to his fellow man has lost his faith in a good God. The Holocaust, in particular, because of the scope of its ruthlessness, has raised the question for modern man: “What kind of God allows the horrible and systematic murder of so many innocent people?”
Quoting widely from Christian, Jewish and secular sources, Regis Martin makes an unflinching examination of this universal question on the meaning of suffering. By meditating on Christ’s passion, death and descent into Hell, he asks us to consider anew the God who overcomes evil by plunging himself into the depths of human misery.
Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.
In part two of this second “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles reflects upon “The Coming of the Light”
Here is the excerpt that is read in the conference:
Do not take offense, you branches, at the deformity of your trunk. Do not scorn the powerlessness that strengthens you. For in me death is at work, but in you, life. You are sated, you have already become rich; without me you have attained to lordship. Were it only true lordship, then could I reign in you! But while you are strong, I am still weak; and at the same time as you make a show of your honors, I am despised. To this very hour I suffer hunger and thirst, nakedness and blows. I am the homeless one who slaves away at the work of his hands. I am the accused one who blesses, the persecuted who bears it patiently, the slandered consoler, the world’s refuse. Still today, as always, I am the draining dishwater in which you all wash. And just as you despise me, so you despise my disciples and emissaries, for in them also the same law of weakness is at work. And because all life has its origin in the impotence and even disgrace. I have appointed the last place for them, as if they were evildoers condemned to death. But just as I live from the power of God after being crucified in weakness, so too will they prove themselves to you to be alive in me with the power of God. For look: in them my life has begun to circulate and to bring them to ripeness as my firstfruits. Just as the strawberry plant sends out long shoots which soon form roots and finally produce a new plant, so too have I multi plied my inner center and established new centers in hearts sprung from mine. My children become fathers and new communities blossom from the blood of my Apostles’ hearts. For my grace is always fruitful, and my gift it is for you to pass my grace on. My treasure is to be found in prodigality, and only he possesses me who gives me away. For I am indeed the Word, and how can one possess a word other than by speaking it?
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979), 82-83.
Though having the “Heart of the World” mentioned in this “retreat” is not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase this outstanding spiritual classic.
A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.
Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is the St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, CA. He has served the Church and assisted in the formation of clergy since 1994, and now previously served in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as Academic Dean of St. John’s Seminary, associate professor of theology and Academic Advisor of Juan Diego House. The son of a California farmer, married with young adult children, he holds a BA in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville with both the ecclesiastical licentiate and doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum). He was a founding faculty member of Saint John Vianney Seminary in Denver where he also served as academic dean, department chair, director of liturgy and coordinator of spiritual formation for the permanent deacon program. He has recently published Hidden Mountain Secret Garden, Omaha: Discerning Hearts (2012)
During this podcast, Deacon Keating will offer his insights on the mystery of this Good Friday.
Here a few of his comments:
Deacon James Keating:
John is the one who gives us that famous line. It is finished. It is finished. What is finished? This creation, creation is finished. Everything after the crucifixion, the resurrection, everything after that is creation, a sort of groaning as Paul says, to catch up to what Jesus has already done, that perfect man, that perfection of God. And again, perfection is not as we understand it perhaps mathematically with no errors or faults, but scripturally, perfection is what Jesus said it was, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And then he contextualized that within the sense of welcoming your enemies, welcoming the other, welcoming those who are not you. And of course, that’s what Jesus was literally doing on the cross. He was welcoming those who were the enemy, who were not him, in other words, were against him, and this is what perfection is for the Christian.
On the cross, Jesus was the perfect man because he was the man who was forgiven, welcoming of the enemy, welcoming of the one who was literally killing him, and still not calling down his angels to destroy them, but actually welcoming the one who is killing into his own heart. As scripture says, “God has the sun shine on the good and the evil”, and that’s what Jesus was doing from the cross. He was saying, “You’re still welcome in me even as you’re killing me because I am love itself.”
And so as we meditate on Good Friday and on the crucifixion, we’re also meditating on our own dignity as Christians. We have, again, through the Holy Spirit, we have that spirit of perfection in us, the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of welcoming those who are not ourselves. In other words, to no longer live as extensions of our egos, but to literally be hospitable to the other, even the other who would hurt us through the process of forgiveness.
Obviously, great mysteries here that the Holy Spirit must tutor us in real life. We can always think about them and write about them and speak about them, but when it comes to living them, we really need the incredible combustible power of the Holy Spirit moving our will to actually welcome the enemy and forgive those who are hurting us. But it’s all there on the Cross. The perfect man, the forgiven man, the man who is in perfect harmony with God, all of those things Jesus is trying to gift us with as well.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.
R. (Lk 23:46) Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
But my trust is in you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
all you who hope in the LORD.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.
In part one of this second “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles reflects upon “The Coming of the Light”
Here is the excerpt that is read in the conference:
The Word, however, came from above. It came from the fullness of the Father. In the Word there was no urge since it was itself the fullness. In him was light and life and love without lust, love which had compassion for the void, willing to fill up what was hollow. But it was the essence of the void itself to press on to fullness. It was a menacing void, a chasm fitted with teeth. The light came into the darkness, but the darkness had no eye for the light: it had only jaws. The light came to illumine those who sit in the shadow of tombs, and such illumination required that the radiance of the light be recognized and that one be oneself transformed into streaming light. This would mean the death of the urge and its resurrection as love.
Man wants to soar up, but the Word wants to descend. Thus will the two meet half-way, in the middle, in the place of the Mediator. But they will cross like swords cross; their wills are opposed to one another. For God and man are related in a manner far different from man and woman: in no way do they complete one another. And we may not say that, to show his fullness, God needs the void, as man needs fullness to nourish his void. Nor that God descends so that man may ascend. If this were the mediation, then man would indeed have swallowed God’s love up into himself, but only as fodder and fuel for his addictive urge. His will to power would finally have over. powered God, and thus the Word would be strangled and the darkness would not have grasped it. And man’s final condition would be worse than his first, for he would have encircled in the narrow spell of his ego not only his fellow-man, but also the Creator himself, degrading him to the role of a lever for his egotistic yearning.
But if, rather, they were really to encounter one another, what road had to be followed? The darkness had to become brighter; blind urge had to pass over into a love that sees; and the clever will to possess and develop had to be transfigured into the foolish wisdom that pours itself out. And then a new instruction was issued: instead of going past God’s Word in its descent and pursuing the rash ascent to the Father, we are now to turn around and, along with the Word, go back down the steps we have climbed, find God on the road to the world, on no road other than that by which the Son journeys on towards the Father. For only love redeems. Yet, what love is God only knows, for God is love. There are not two sorts of love. There is not, alongside God’s love, another, human love. Rather, when God so determines and he proclaims his Word, love then descends, love then flows out into the void, and God has set up his claim and his emblem over every love.
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1979), 39-41.
Though having the “Heart of the World” mentioned in this “retreat” is not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase this outstanding spiritual classic.
A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.
Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is the St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, CA. He has served the Church and assisted in the formation of clergy since 1994, and now previously served in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as Academic Dean of St. John’s Seminary, associate professor of theology and Academic Advisor of Juan Diego House. The son of a California farmer, married with young adult children, he holds a BA in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville with both the ecclesiastical licentiate and doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum). He was a founding faculty member of Saint John Vianney Seminary in Denver where he also served as academic dean, department chair, director of liturgy and coordinator of spiritual formation for the permanent deacon program. He has recently published Hidden Mountain Secret Garden, Omaha: Discerning Hearts (2012)
During this podcast, Deacon Keating will offer his insights on the mystery of this Holy Thursday.
Here a few of his comments:
Deacon James Keating:
So the fullness of Holy orders is there and we celebrate that because obviously without Holy orders, there’s no power of salvation that’s unleashed in the sacramental economy and we would just be void or it would be devoid of his presence and his power through the things of the earth. And that’s the beauty of the sacraments. We get both the presence and the power of Jesus through the things of the earth. That’s what makes the sacrament so accessible. The human body of the priest. Oil, water, wine, bread. So simple, so humble, so accessible. Again, the meditation of God’s great love for us that he is generously available through the things of the earth.
And that’s what makes our sacramental system so mindbogglingly joyful is that when we really are in a sacramental imagination as Catholics, our joy deepens because we realize, Oh my gosh, we are so loved. It’s not like he said, “You have to go up this mountain and find me. I’ll come to you as bread and I’ll come to you in oil and I’ll come to you. My power will come to you through the waving of a hand in a blessing. I will do all that for you and you just have to show up at the corner of Maple and 50th street. Your parish church and I’ll be there through these things of the earth.” It’s very, very humbling and powerfully beautiful to think about how close he wants to be with us and how accessible he is to us through the sacraments. And that’s why so many more people are mourning these days in the midst of the Coronavirus because even that is unattainable. The most ordinary accessible elements of the earth where Jesus wants to give us his power and his presence is unaccessible. Inaccessible these days because of the sorrow that we’re in.
Further in the conversation:
We always say, try to live in the present moment. But that’s a real grace to live in the present moment and to live in the present moment as grace is something we need to be asking for now. It may not be easily attained or easily appropriated, but we will miss something very vital if we’re not going deep and we’re just going towards fantasy to the future and daydream about when this will be over. And even emotionally anticipating it. Thinking that I’m happy now because I’m thinking this won’t last forever. And meanwhile, a lot of goods are present where you should be going deep into the relationships of the home. Even into the relationship somewhat of suffering. But not to utilize suffering, but to just realize that even in suffering there is a presence emerging from him because obviously he’s dwelling within us. And so we never utilize suffering, but within suffering itself, if we can pay attention to it, we may linger there long enough to allow his presence to come.
Whether it’s a suffering of the end of our daily routine, which we’re all suffering now, or the horrific suffering of sickness itself, which is so sacred that only the sick should really talk about it. But we have testimony from the saints that in the midst of sickness sometimes they sense his presence emerging as they pay attention to their own limit and finitude and weakness and he comes from within to minister to them. So the whole theme of are you living in the present moment is truly a contemplative gift that perhaps God is giving all of us now, and we don’t want to miss the hour of our visitation.
Deacon James Keating, Ph.D., the director of Theological Formation for the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, in Omaha.
Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
Join Dr. Anthony Lilles and Kris McGregor as they offer a type of “online retreat” based on the spiritual work Heart of the World written by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar.
In this first “conference” talk, Dr. Lilles discusses, as a primer for the retreat, the teachings of Fr. von Balthasar found in Christian Mediation.
Dr. Lilles will talk about the disposition for entering into prayer during this particular time. He will discuss the nature of “spiritual exercises” as expressed by St. Ignatius of Loyola
Dr. Lilles will offer solid direction about entering into mental prayer during this “retreat” time and how to experience the encounter with the Word.
He will also offer suggestions for further reading for this grace-filled time and how to create a space for prayer given the circumstances you mind find yourself.
He would especially encourage the listener to read The Gospel of John 13 – 19 during this time.
Though having the books mentioned in this “retreat” are not necessary, we would encourage you at some to purchase these outstanding spiritual classics.
You find the paperback book and ebook discussed in this first conference here
From the book description:
When it comes to meditation the decisive question, according to Hans Urs von Balthasar, is whether God has spoken or “whether the Absolute remains the Silence beyond all words”. Christianity claims God has spoken, and spoken fully, in his Son, the Word made flesh. While God remains mysterious, he is not utterly unknown or unknowable.
Von Balthasar insists through Christian meditation we enter with mind and heart into God’s self-disclosure. In Jesus, God reveals his own inner depths to us. At the same time, because Jesus is God-made-man, he also reveals our inner depths to ourselves.
Christian Meditation is at once a book about what meditation is, in light of God’s revelation, and a book that assists believers to meditate. In a treatment that is both fresh and profound, von Balthasar describes the central elements of all Christian meditation, provides a guide for meditation and then points the way to the union that prayer achieves in the footsteps of Mary, within the Church and in and for the world.
A great Catholic theologian speaks from the heart about the Heart of Christ, in a profound and lyrical meditation on Our Lord’s love for his Bride the Church.
Avid readers of Hans Urs von Balthasar often describe Heart of the World as a “surprise”. The “pure serenity of a volcano under snow” readers usually find in Balthasar, as translator Erasmo Leiva puts it, gives way to “the poet-theologian” who dares to “bare his own heart”. The sult is what can only be described as lyrical, even intimate spiritual reflections.
“Heart of the World”, the translator continues, “deserves a place next to
the Imitation of Christ. Especially in the passages where Christ speaks to the soul, Father von Balthasar shows himself a worthy successor of
Thomas a Kempis. Both works combine an intense personal piety with
a precise awareness of the believer’s position as child and servant of Christ’s Church…. For Balthasar, as for Kempis and all genuine Chris tians, the saint is first and foremost the one who renders constant thanks for having been loved.”
Heart of the World is a profound and theologically rich reflection on the
Heart of God.
Anthony Lilles, S.T.D. is the St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, CA. He has served the Church and assisted in the formation of clergy since 1994, and now previously served in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as Academic Dean of St. John’s Seminary, associate professor of theology and Academic Advisor of Juan Diego House. The son of a California farmer, married with young adult children, he holds a BA in theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville with both the ecclesiastical licentiate and doctorate in spiritual theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum). He was a founding faculty member of Saint John Vianney Seminary in Denver where he also served as academic dean, department chair, director of liturgy and coordinator of spiritual formation for the permanent deacon program. He has recently published Hidden Mountain Secret Garden, Omaha: Discerning Hearts (2012)
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘“
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”
