Cana - An Interesting Wedding Indeed

God loves order: Sunrise, sunset; moon rise, moon set; clouds produce rain, water evaporates to produces clouds. Father William G. Most in his article titled Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces says “it was [Mary] who on behalf of the whole human race consented to God's plan of salvation by proclaiming herself the handmaid of the Lord.  [Mary’s] role was not necessary, since Christ was and is the perfect Redeemer and the perfect Mediator. Rather, Mary was associated with her Son by the free decision of the Father, a decision which we cannot ignore. [Lastly,] her whole ability to do anything comes entirely from her Son.”
In other words, God chose to send His into this world through Mary.  He could have done it any other way.  He is God after all.  In sending his Son to this world to save us in this way , God establishes an order of things sort of speak; an order of the flow of graces that was in effect then and continues to be in effect today. 

At the Wedding at Cana, Mary instructs the waiters "Do whatever He tells you" (see John 2:5).  In a sense she is revealing who Jesus really is and is sending others to him.  In the Gospel of John, the Wedding at Cana is a "new creation" story for the gospel writer John.  He wants us to see Mary as the “New Eve.” At Cana, the New Eve radically reverses the decision of the first Eve. The first woman led the first Adam to commit his first evil act in the garden. At Cana, the new woman leads the New Adam to perform His first glorious work. The first Eve counseled Adam to defy God and eat the fruit. The New Eve brings the people’s needs to her Son and teaches the people to obey Him in faith - "Do whatever He tells you" (see John 2:5). The first Eve was "the mother of all the living" (see Genesis 3:20). By teaching the disciples and servants to believe in Jesus, the new Eve becomes the mother of the Church - "the children of God" (see John 1:12; 19:26-27).

Even today, Mary continues to say over and over again "Do whatever He tells you.”

The Grand Design V. The Intelligent Design

Not quite as old as the battle of the sexes is the battle between creation and evolution.  Stephen Hawking, who is a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, has recently released a new book called “The Grand Design.”  In it he states that “because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing...Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist;" meaning that the universe is something that came from nothing.

Father Robert J. Spitzer, a Jesuit priest who recently published a book called “New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy,” says that “what many term the first principle of metaphysics” is “From nothing only nothing comes.”  He goes on: “If the physical universe had a beginning (a point at which it came into existence) then prior to that point it was nothing,” Father Spitzer said in his blog. “And if it was nothing then it could not have created itself (because only nothing can come from nothing). “So what does that imply?” he asked. “The very reality that Dr. Hawking wants to avoid, namely, a transcendent power which can cause the universe to come into existence.”

“Belief in God is not about plugging a gap in explaining how one thing relates to another within the universe,” Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury said. “It is the belief that there is an intelligent, living agent on whose activity everything ultimately depends for its existence.”

It's All In What You Call It

“Park51,” originally named Cordoba House and controversially referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque", is a planned 13-story Islamic community center and mosque to be located about two blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. It would replace an existing 1850s Italianate-style building that was being used as a Burlington Coat Factory before it was damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The proposed facility's design includes a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, September 11 memorial, and prayer space that could accommodate 1,000–2,000 people.

Using “Cordoba” in the name of the mosque project is not coincidental.  Cordoba was an area of Spain conquered by Muslims in the 8th century.  It was at Cordoba that the Muslims established a caliphate or Islamic seat of government.  A mosque was built on top of a foundation of a Christian cathedral.  Later in the 13th century, the Muslims were driven from Cordoba and the mosque was converted back into a cathedral. 

In an article written by J.E. Dyer (http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/02/a-choice-of-names-tours-house-lepanto-house-or-vienna-house/), he explains that

“Cordoba,” in Islamic symbolic terms, means Islamic rule in the West.  It does not mean “coexistence,” unless coexistence is interpreted as referring to Islamic rule.  Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs cites [an] article (original in Arabic) published by Iraqi-American [columnist] Khudhayr Taher on 18 May [in the Arab online liberal daily Elaph.com], in which Taher explains the following:

We must note that a hostile and provocative name [Cordoba] has been chosen for this mosque…Choosing the name ‘Cordoba House’ for the mosque to be constructed in New York was not coincidental or random and innocent. It bears within it significance and dreams of expansion and invasion [into the territory] of the other, [while] striving to change his religion and to subjugate him…

Adam V. Eve

The battle of the sexes started on the fateful day in the Garden of Eden. While Eve had to battle the “serpent” in a war of words and deceit, Adam stood by silently.  And when God asked Adam why he ate from the apple, he replied, “"The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."  They were ultimately convinced by Satan that God didn’t care about them and couldn’t be trusted.

As a result, God levied a series of consequences upon them including for woman, that their “urge shall  be for your husband, and he shall be your master." This is a prophecy of how men and women will wrongly treat each other. And the battle begins and rages on.

Fully understanding the spiritual battle of marriage, as well as fully understanding marriage as a sacrament and what "the two shall become one flesh" really meant, Tobiah and Sarah, in the Book of Tobit, were much wiser. Before he and Sarah consummated their marriage, this is the prayer they prayed together:

" 'Blessed are you, O God of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever.

'You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended. You said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.'

'Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.'

They said together, 'Amen, amen,' and went to bed for the night" (Tobit 8:4-8).

Clearly, Tobiah's and Sarah’s prayer is words of a married couple that clearly understand the sacrament of marriage. A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality. This sincere gift of oneself is also called "a communion of persons becoming one flesh" which reflects in a mysterious way the self-giving love between God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our bodies and conjugal love is a sign of the self-giving love between God the father and His son, Jesus Christ.

Christopher West in his book The Theology of the Body for Beginners says “If we want to know what is most sacred in this world, all we need to do is look at what is most violently profaned.” God’s plan of self-giving love in a communion of persons is part of His original plan we must diligently protect.

Ever Hear of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Manhattan?

                                        Nashua, NH 03064
                                        July 24, 2010

Archbishop Timothy Dolan
1011 First Ave
New York, NY  10022

Dear Archbishop Dolan,

Can you help me understand what is going at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Manhattan, NY?   As I understand it, the parish for years has not been faithfully presenting the Church's teaching regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts.  Most recently, the parish ignored your request to not carry a banner in the city's annual gay pride parade (in fact, they didn’t carry a blank banner as they claim – the carried their typical banner backwards).

More disturbing to me was the presentation to you, as the main celebrant at a recent church rededication there, of the parish's Lesbian Association and the parish's Gay Organization.  Unless the reaction of you I have seen through the parish’s video of the occasion was mis-edited with the audio, you genuinely seem pleased to welcome the presentation of these groups, let alone the idea of the presentations themselves.

So, on the surface it seems that maybe even you have not been faithfully presenting and upholding the Church's teaching regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts as it is clearly stated in CCC 2357-2359.  Maybe, just maybe, it hasn't been made clear that the message that Sacred Scripture itself presents of "homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity" and that of "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered" are being made at St. Francis Xavier. It doesn't seem likely though.

I enjoy listening to you on “Word to Life" on Sirius/XM's The Catholic Channel.  However, I'm very disturbed that it appears that you in your compassionate manner cannot be more faithful to the Church's teaching on homosexuality. Archbishop, please help me feel better that you, whom I admire, can and will continue to faithfully represent the Gospel and the Magisterium in this matter.

Yours in Christ,

Daniel E. Goddu

It is a mistake to compare Catholicism with Islam in the name of religious freedom

A recent article in Catholic News Service titled "New York mosque controversy echoes anti-Catholicism of another era"  (www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1003399.htm) compared the current public criticisms against Muslims surrounding the building of an Islamic mosque near Ground Zero with what Catholics once experienced in the United States.  The article's premise is that Islam is facing similar distrust of immigrant faith that Catholics faced 100 years ago, implying some equivalency between the two, and that some day Islam will  be as "accepted" in the same manner as Catholicism has today.

This is a dangerous comparison. There are two types of equivalency related to religions: the manner in which the US Government treats religion and religious organizations, and moral equivalency - the two are often wrongly related together, as such is the case in this Catholic News Service article.

The fact of the matter is that Americans have very good reason to distrust Islam (the religion). A deeper review of Islam reveals: