December 17th - "O Sapientia"

The "O Antiphons" are ancient pieces of chant that have been sung on the days leading up to Christmas.  Each day, a different title of Christ takes center stage, as the world literally sings out beseeching the Christ to come into the world.  Each of the titles references an aspect of the messiah that is heralded in the Old Testament.

The first day of the vigil, December 17th, sees the Church crying out for Christ, Wisdom made flesh. 

In the video above, the monks of Saint Meinrad sing both the Latin then the English version of the Antiphon. 

English:  O Wisdom who came forth from the mouth of the most high reaching from end to end mightily and gently ordering all things, come to teach us the way of prudence.

Latin: O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,attingens a fine usque ad finem,fortiter suaviter disponens que omnia:veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

To pray for prudence is a dangerous thing.  For all the lambasting of the "law" that goes on today, my experience in the confessional and in helping people in general, most people want God or the Church to tell them what to do in every instance.  "Prudence" is a virtue, however, and it basically is the belief that we as Catholics say that in the vast majority of circumstances, the law DOESN'T dictate what you are supposed to do, and that the only one who will know is the person in the situation who sees the infinite number of variables at play. 

"Prudence" is thus a virtue that we are educated in by God, and as we practice it more frequently, we get better at it, but we need the training and guidance of God, which is why we pray today that "Wisdom" come and train us "in the way of prudence."  May we be open to the training!

For further reading, the Catechism talks about prudence in paragraph 1806

"Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers."  Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid."

Everyone Loves a Complainer!

"Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged." James 5:7-10

How St. John of the Cross Saved My Life

This is an excerpt from my book on how I came to become a priest.  St. John of the Cross is a saint who I tell people "saved my life", not because I was going to kill myself or anything like that, but because his teachings helped me move past a very dangerous spiritual mindset that afflicts most people today - the mindset that if God is working in my life, I ought to feel it, and it ought to feel good.

Being Refined in the Fires of Mt. Carmel

“It must be known that even though these apprehensions can come to the bodily senses from God, one must never rely on them or accept them.  A person should rather flee from them completely.”

St. John of the Cross

The Ascent of Mount Carmel.

At the beginning of my second year of seminary, I happened to be in the bookstore buying my books for the year.  The bookstore at St. Meinrad is a very dangerous place for me.  The bookstore has tons of books that are not required for class, and a lot of them are titles that interest me.  I can hardly go into the bookstore without walking out with a few books under my arm, and my wallet 50 dollars lighter.  That fall day, however, a book caught my eye that really impacted me in a tremendous way.

The book I picked up that day was The Collected Writings of St. John of the Cross.  I was drawn to it because I remembered from George Weigel’s Witness to Hope that Pope John Paul II learned Spanish so that he could read St. John of the Cross in its original language.  I was pretty impressed that a person would learn a language for the purpose of reading the writings of one saint.  The book in our bookstore was actually St. John’s two famous works together, The Dark Night of the Soul and The Ascent of Mt. Carmel.  I decided that I would read a bit of the book to kick off my holy hour each day. 

So it was that St. John of the Cross began to lead me into a much deeper spirituality than I had ever dreamed of for myself.  St. John gave me two priceless gifts.  The first gift he gave me was an answer to my question about my conversion experience a few years ago when I was teaching at Chatard.  As recounted in an earlier chapter, I had a profound vision that lasted intensely throughout the night, and then began to fade over the course of about a week.  Something that had bothered me from that point on was the question of what I had done wrong to make those feelings go away.  I felt like either I had done something wrong, or, on the other hand, I had done something right that I should be doing again to help trigger the same sequence of events, so that I could rest in that vision again.

I knew God had directed me to St. John of the Cross, when, as I was praying a holy hour early in the school year, I read the following from St. John, “The safest and most suitable method of procedure is to oblige souls to flee prudently from these supernatural things.” (The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book Two, Chapter 20).  St. John goes on to say that:

The more importance one gives to these communications the further one strays from faith, the way and means.  Furthermore, persons receiving these apprehensions often develop secretly a special opinion of themselves – that now they are important in God’s eyes.  Such a view is contrary to humility…these sensory things are an impediment to the spirit because they detain the soul and prevent the spirit from soaring to the invisible.

Such a burden was lifted off of me, and I felt like I could spiritually breathe again.  It was such a gift to know that I wasn’t doing something wrong, and that I just had to move on from my experience of the vision.  Related to the grace of finally being able to understand what was going on with the vision I had a few years ago was the second gigantic gift that I felt like the Good Lord blessed me with through my reading of St. John of the Cross.  The main point of St. John’s two books are very simple: religion isn’t something that has to be felt.  If Christians today were familiar with St. John of the Cross, so much of the garbage that passes as spirituality would die out instantly.  Today, it isn’t even up for discussion - religion has to be entertaining.  When Catholics are asked why they don’t attend Mass they most often note that it is boring.  The Rosary, because it is repetitive, seems to most psychologists today (Dr. M. Scott Peck among them) as not a sign of devotion but as a mental illness.  It is taken, as the Gospel today, by many people that religion has to be felt.  That’s why we have the pyrotechnics at church, the Starbucks in the narthex, the screaming preachers, the slide show PowerPoint presentations, etc. 

Elsewhere, St. John of the Cross talks about meditation as prayer.  He notes that this is really only a stage for beginners, and that we are called to move beyond this.  About trying to conjure images and have experiences in prayer St. John notes a person must,

Leave this sense in darkness if it is to reach divine union.  For these images, just as the corporeal objects of the exterior senses, cannot be an adequate, proximate means to God…These considerations, forms and methods of meditation are necessary to beginners…yet these means must not be so used that one always employs them and never advances.

St. John, in The Dark Night of the Soul, also speaks this when he talking about people receiving Communion.  I know I resonated deeply with having tried to do exactly what he warns against for many years.  St. John says,

In receiving Communion they spend all their time trying to get some feeling and satisfaction rather than humbly praising and reverencing God dwelling within them.  And they go about this in such a way that, if they do not procure any sensible feeling and satisfaction, they think they have accomplished nothing.

 

The dark night of the soul is essentially the stage where a person is moving from needing consolations and needing to have experiences in prayer to a point where none of that is needed.  St. John spoke to me in the following passage noting the transition from one to the other.  He said,

Spiritual persons suffer considerable affliction in this night, owing not so much to the aridities they undergo as to their fear of having gone astray…they believe there will be no more spiritual blessings for them and that God has abandoned them…if there is no one to understand these persons, they either turn back and abandon the road or lose courage.

St. John essentially saved my life, in a spiritual sense.  Growing up in the American ethos dominated by Protestantism, the idea that I was supposed to feel something in prayer was ingrained in me.  St. John really showed me a Catholic understanding of prayer and of what my little “vision” experience was really all about. 

St. John of the Cross – pray for us!

My First Homily en Espanol

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe contains countless miracles.  The one that impresses me the most is the fact that for nearly 10 years, 4,000 people converted to Christianity PER DAY!  Since Brazil has about 9,000 people, that means in two days, our town would be converted.  That is truly miraculous!

Just as most of Mexico did not believe in Christ in Mexico at the time of Our Lady’s apparition, so to most in our country today do not believe in Christ nor do they believe in his Church.  

Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to be an important intercessor for people both in Mexico and also in our own country.  Her title is not the patroness of Mexico but the patroness of the Americas, and so we need her intercession north of the border as well.  

Our Lady of Guadalupe is also the patroness of the pro-life movement, as she is the only apparition of our Lady where the Blessed Mother is pregnant in the apparition.  Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for our nation, that all those who do not know Christ may experience conversion, and that we may experience a miraculous growth in the respect for life

Strip Clubs

I was at dinner tonight with two priest friends.  As we were enjoying our meal, I heard a guy tell his female date - "Yeah, I went to a strip club..." and he went on to describe how much certain things cost, and I couldn't help thinking "This guy might be the dumbest person I've ever been in the presence of."  I also thought about how I thought when I was younger I wasn't the smoothest of talkers with the ladies, but this guy made me look like a regular Don Juan.

Talking to your girlfriend about a strip club???  Not many people could get "how to talk to girl advice" from a priest, but I could have helped this guy out a TON!

It also got me thinking.  You obviously have to be a complete moron to talk to your girlfriend about going to a strip club, but you also have to be an absolute moron to go to a strip "club" in general, whether or not you talk about it with your girlfriend or wife.

Jason Evert makes the point that, like little kids, we change the name of things to make it sound okay.  So we call it a "Gentlemen's Club" or "Adult Entertainment."  In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.  People who go to strip clubs are the complete opposite of both the word "gentleman" and "adult" because every virtue of manhood is violated in going to a strip club.

Men are taught to protect the feminine, even give one's life for the feminine (our wife, our sister, our Church), but a strip club is the height of the opposite of everything that it means to be a man.

Porn is obviously a horrendous plague afflicting our country right now, but even porn is better than a strip club.  Porn is treating the image of a person as an object, whereas going to a strip club is treating a person right in front of you as an object to their face.

"They need the money" - really, well then give them the money when they have their clothes on before they show up for "work"

"It's just a little fun" - the classic line of people blinded by narcissism and unwilling to accept the fact that their actions impact anyone's life besides their own.

"It's just guys being guys" - no, it's "guys in men's bodies who lack the most basic virtue of self-control" being "guys in men's bodies who lack the most basic virtue of self-control"

If you know of someone going to a strip club, knock them over the head and tell them they're a moron and a coward.

Indiana Bishops Release Pastoral Letter on Marriage

MARRIAGE AS COVENANT BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN

A PASTORAL STATEMENT OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS OF INDIANA

The dignity of the human person, rooted in his or her creation in the image and likeness of God, is a fundamental principle of Catholic social teaching. The Church upholds the dignity of every human person, including persons with same-sex attraction, who “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2358).

At the same time, the Church upholds the dignity and sanctity of marriage, a natural institution established by God. By its very nature, marriage is a permanent partnership between one man and one woman ordered to the good of the couple and the procreation and education of children. It is the foundation of the family, where children are raised and nurtured, and learn values and virtues that help them to grow in maturity.

It is not within the power of either the Church or the State to redefine marriage since God is its author. Male-female complementarity is essential to marriage. Marriage is a “unique” communion of persons with the potential to bring forth human life.

With deep respect for all our brothers and sisters, we affirm the institution of marriage as the intimate communion of life and love between one man and one woman. Marriage is an intimate sharing of conjugal life and love. It involves the total gift of self in a partnership for the whole of life. Only by means

of the complementarity between a man and a woman can this total gift of self be fully given and received.

We respect the equal dignity of all persons while upholding the uniqueness of the covenant of marriage as established by our Creator. The well-being of children, of the family, and of society is closely bound to the healthy state of marriage and respect for its true nature and purposes.

We urge the people of Indiana to respect and defend the dignity and equality of all persons as well as the truth about marriage, according to God’s plan and laws, with charity toward all.

Given at the Catholic Center in Indianapolis on this, the 4th day of December, 2013.

Bow Down in Fear and Trembling Before the Great and Terrible Oz Who Will Smite You if You Sneeze and Will Crush You...Be VERY Afraid!

Our NCYC Experience

The Original "Catching Fire"

50th Anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium...How's it Going in Your Parish?

A friend sent me this article by Peter Kwasniewski.  Click HERE to read the whole thing.  Here's an excerpt

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgated of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (December 4, 1963). If I may borrow a rhetorical strategy from Fr. Fessio, here is what your local liturgical scene would look like if we were all following, to the letter, the teaching of Vatican II:

1. The Eucharist would be perceived by all as a “divine sacrifice,” in which, as in the Church herself, action is subordinated to contemplation (cf. SC 2). The Mass would be understood to be, and would be called, a “holy sacrifice” (SC 7, 47, et passim) and the liturgy in general “a sacred action surpassing all others,” whose purpose is “the sanctification of man and the glorification of God” (SC 10; cf. 112). Indeed, the liturgy would seem like a foretaste on earth of the heavenly liturgy of the new Jerusalem (SC 8).
2. The faithful would be well catechized and well disposed to receive the sacraments fruitfully (SC 11), and would understand the nature of the liturgy and how to participate well in it (SC 14), led by the example and instruction of the clergy (SC 16-19): “through a good understanding of the rites and prayers they should take part in the sacred action conscious of what they are doing, with devotion and full collaboration” (SC 48). In this way, they would be unlike the majority of Catholics today, who, according to many surveys, are unaware that the Mass is the re-presentation of the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary or that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ—and who also don’t sing very much, in spite of decades of cajoling.
3. The liturgy would look much as Catholic liturgy has looked for centuries, since “there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them; and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing” (SC 23).
4. The ordained ministers would be the only ones performing the actions they are supposed to do, while the laity would be involved in those ways that pertain to them: “in liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who has an office to perform, should do all of, but only, those parts which pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the principles of liturgy” (SC 28; cf. 118).
5. No one, “even if he be a priest,” would ever “add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority” (SC 22.3).

click here to read the other 7 things that should be happening in your parish

Kwasniewski goes on to ask: "Is this what you experience, week in, week out?

Is not the monumental failure to implement much of Sacrosanctum Concilium a scandal?

What became of the great promise of the original liturgical movement? It is hard to escape the impression that Sacrosanctum Concilium was largely a dead letter within a year or two of its promulgation. Should we be happy or sad about that? Indifference seems to be far the greatest reaction. And surely that is unworthy of Catholics."

Eucharistic Prayer 3 - What in the Heck are We Praying For?

Let's Do This!

 

"Be still and know that I am God."  Psalm 46:10

You Have Enemies?

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."
- Winston Churchill

Archbishop Tobin's Opening NCYC Homily

We're blessed to have Archbishop Tobin!

Holy Thursday Homily on the Priest Scandal

Here's a homily from a Holy Thursday Mass in 2010 that was on the priest abuse scandal.  I'm posting it now so I can share it with someone who was interested in it.  Hope it helps.

Every Holy Thursday, by mandate of the Church, the homily is to focus on charity, the Eucharist and the priesthood.  Given the atmosphere of things right now, I want to spend most of my time focusing on the priesthood.

I love movies and so I watch a lot of previews online to see which ones I really want to see. 

I was recently watching one for an upcoming summer blockbuster in which the villain said a phrase that really caught my attention.  He said – “If you can make God bleed people will cease to believe in Him and there will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come.”

The same applies to God’s Church.  There are many out there who think that if they can make the Church bleed, people will stop believing in it.

And OH, they have tried.  The attacks on the Church in the last two weeks would be sad if they were not also a display of the most childish journalism.

1)  The Indianapolis Star published an article a few days ago on page 2 of the main section about protests in London calling for the Pope’s resignation.  In paragraph 7 that we learn it was a couple dozen protesters. 

A COUPLE DOZEN.  I just returned last month from the March for Life, which saw 250,000 young people protest the atrocities against life that our country commits daily, and not a word in the star.  30 people stand on the streets of London, and they make national news.  HUM

2) A little over a week ago, another article in the Star, pretending to be balanced, talked about the abuse case that is now making headlines and quoted two people on behalf of the Church.  First, Hans Kung.  What they didn’t say is that Hans Kung was one of the few people to actually be forbidden to teach theology by Pope Benedict when he was still a Cardinal.  Who honestly thinks that Hans Kung is going to speak on BEHALF of the Catholic Church or Pope Benedict.  REALLY?  Hans Kung?

The articles other voice “on behalf of the Church” was a member of the “Voice of the Faithful.”  The Voice of the “Faithful” is a group of people who consider themselves Catholic but who hate nearly every central teaching of the Church. 

Those are the two voices who are supposed to give a balanced perspective on the Church and celibacy??

The article also featured a juvenile understanding of things Catholic, interchanging celibacy and chastity as if they were the same thing – a pretty serious mistake when celibacy was the point of the article.

3)  New York Times writer Maureen Dowd has absolutely gone off the deep end with her story trying to link Pope Benedict to a case in Wisconsin.  I could spend 10 minutes debunking every lie in her article, but many have charitably done so on the internet.

4)  MSNBC published a headline which they apologized for a day later which said “Pope Describes Touching Boys:  I Went Too Far.”  The article had nothing to do with the pope.  Was the headline an accident?   To the average person on the street who won’t care to follow up with the facts, can that damage ever be repaired?

5)  Cartoons in editorials have been blatantly anti-Catholic and anti-priesthood throughout the country. 

6)  Newsweek magazine recently published an article by Fr. Richard McBrien, a teacher at, surprise, Notre Dame, who has been teaching outright against the Church for 4 decades.  Again, a big shock that he wasn’t exactly pro Church or pro priesthood.

6)  The media machine also loves to talk about a priest shortage (a sure sign that the priesthood is dying out in their minds) – but the United States has one of the best ratio of Catholics to priests in the world.  Are the numbers lower than the 50’s, yes, but that is because we had more than we needed.  A priest friend of mine is a pastor of a parish with about 500 people in it.  The rectory he lives in housed at least two priests in the 50’s, perhaps three.  My priest friend has three parishes and manages just fine - those priests had one parish.  Is there a decline, or is the situation just getting more realistic?

I could go on, but you’ve all seen the Church and the priesthood dragged through the mud

Before moving on, let me here say for the first of many times, the crimes committed against children by priests is sickening, needs to be punished to the fullest extent of both Church and secular law, it needs to be rooted out NOW.  Any bishops that knowingly protected those priests ought to resign instantly.  This homily tonight is not about justification of the tragedies that have happened in any way!

The question that does need to be raised here is this – do the actions of this small portion of priests apply to the priesthood in general? To the over 400,000 priests serving today. 

A question here needs to be asked – what would motivate people to attack the Church and the priesthood in this way?

Some just like seeing if they can move something that claims to immovable by human beings

Some have genuinely been hurt by a member of the Church

But I suspect most see the Church as the last voice that speaks out against contraception, abortion, wars of aggression, unjust social structures, and unchecked greed. 

The real battle here is between two competing views of what sets human beings free.  Atheists and others who hate the Church particularly or Christianity in general like to offer one view of freedom.  They say, “If we can just get rid of God and get rid of the Church, then human beings will be truly free.  They believe, ultimately, that religion suffocates humanity and stifles its flowering.  That view is contrasted with the view of the Church.  What sets humanity free in the eyes of the Church is living as Christ showed us.   The two sides directly contradict the other, and so there is a war going on between these two views of where true freedom lies. 

We get a glimpse in tonight’s Gospel of those with the mindset that religion suffocates humanity, and we see what perhaps motivates them.

Something VERY interesting happens.  Peter says to Jesus, “You will NEVER wash my feet.”

Why is Peter so offended?? – It is because the world is safer where God does Godly things, and humans do human things. 

If we keep God over there, in heaven, the good guy, the guy who floats on a cloud, and if we are the human beings who are to simply continue to wallow in the mire and the muck of our lives, then we don’t have to go through the uncomfortable hassle of CHANGING, of SEEKING FORGIVENESS, OF CONVERSION!!

God, you stay over there, we say.  Be Holy, fix things, send down hail and fire if you want, just leave us alone.  Be God, and we will be human sinners. 

We want, down deep, to be left to the madness of our sins.  We want there to be a divide between the Holy and the Human.

So when Peter sees Christ on a knee, he freaks out.  Lord, you will NEVER wash my feet!”

But with Christ’s words, we see the gravity of this moment.  Peter wasn’t just saying that to Jesus to be nice.  He meant what he said, and we see the severity of the situation affirmed by Jesus when he says – “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

That human beings can stand in the place of Christ, and be his presence in our midst through the sacraments is more than some can handle.  The Catholic Priesthood stands in opposition to the divide between the Holy and the Human.  The Priesthood reminds people that humans are supposed to do God things, and that God works and does human things. 

Priests are, in some ways, the last reminders to our world of what Jesus was sent to do.  A friend of mine once said “You don’t get it, you are the last sign of the Church to people out there.” 

He didn’t mean me – he meant THE PRIESTHOOD. He meant this white collar.  The priesthood is not an individual priest, it is something much more than that.  Trust me, I know my own limitations very well.  Indeed, no doubt, some of you probably wish I preached differently, or held my hands differently, or didn’t chant, or smiled more, and I’m sure you have a list for Fr. Joe as well – much shorter than mine of course! – and I’m sure he has a list of things for me that he’d like to see changed!  I, of course, have no complaints for him!  that myself and Fr. Joe have shortcomings is the whole point that most of the world doesn’t get.  The Holy and the Human, through Christ, through his Church, through his priests and through ALL OF US are to be mingled.  This mingling takes place most notably through the Eucharist.  We receive him, and the Holy and the Human mingle. 

Those that say to Christ – “You will never wash me” and who want God to stay in Heaven so that they don’t have to change have to overcome the priesthood itself.  They have to devalue the priesthood, they have to change it and bend it according to their own will.  The first thing they always come after – celibacy.  A great Church historian once said that all the great attacks on the Church start by attacking the priesthood and celibacy.  That is true from the earliest heresies through Arians, the Gnostics, the Agnostics, the Lollards, the Jansenists, the Donatists, the Hussites, the Lutherans, and now the dissenters of the Church and atheists.  The game plan has always been this – TOPPLE THE PRIESTHOOD AND WE TOPPLE THE CHURCH. 

Celibacy is said to cause all the problems that we see right now with the abuse cases.  They hear not just angry journalists but even some ex priests saying – “I made this vow in my youth, and it just became more than I was expecting.”  HELLO – does that sound like any marriages any of you know about??  EVERY vow becomes more than people bargained for.  Married Life, Religious Life, The Priesthood – it all is more difficult and MORE rewarding if lived right, than people bargained for. 

Also, those who hate the Church have always, throughout history, sought to make the priesthood a club that anyone can join, because they know that then it loses its power.  They portray the current priesthood as some rich boy’s club set up solely to keep others out and preserve power.  Let me just say that that historian was right, when you meet someone who is trying to change the Catholic priesthood into what they think it should be, you should run far away from them because Heresy and Dissent and hatred of the Church follow quickly in their footsteps.  To those people, the priesthood is no longer something that God gives as a gift to the Church, it is something humanity makes for itself.  The divide between the Holy and Human is reestablished.  Humanity is free to be irresponsible and live however they want once again. 

the Letter of the Hebrews in this morning’s office of readings smashes the portrayal of priesthood as an “all are welcome club” to pieces.  Referring to the priesthood, St. Paul says “ONE DOES NOT TAKE THIS HONOR ON HIS OWN INITIATIVE.”  The priesthood was established by Christ – about that the Scriptures are very clear. 

In the preparation of the Gifts, the priest pours water into that which is still wine and says silently, “By the mingling of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”  Priests are called in every age by God to be signs that in Christ the Holy and the Human have mingled.  In the Eucharist, the Holy and the Human have mingled.  And in all of us here, the Holy and the Human have mixed.  It is the Church’s vision of humanity which is meant to set us free.  May we not settle for the vision of humanity that those who hate the Church and want to devalue the priesthood offer up.

And so, we remember the words of that movie, “If we can make God bleed, people will stop believing in Him.”  Well God has been bleeding for 2,000 years now, and His Church has been bleeding for 2,000 years because it is full of people who sin.  Some rejoice at the blood because they believe it spells the end of God or of His Church or both, thus setting humanity free to rule itself.  We the Church mourn our sins, but just as those who hate the Church, we too rejoice over the fact that God is bleeding; we rejoice because Christ’s blood will win us a freedom that those who hate the Church could never imagine.