I’m on Dr. Ambrosio’s email list, and today’s mailing included an article on Faith vs. Works. Dr. Ambrosio happens to be a member of my parish, and used to be a professor at the University of Dallas, but now he’s primarily a conference speaker, and he has his website which is full of good articles and resources. He is very much in the Catholic mainstream, but I find his writing very understandable from a Protestant perspective, which is not the case with a lot of Catholic writers I’ve encountered. Unfortunately, like a lot of arguments in this world, much of the problem stems from each side missing the essential points of the other side. However, from time to time people emerge that are able like C. S. Lewis and Pope Benedict XVI who are able to articulate their beliefs in a way that outsiders can understand.

Here is a quote from the article that I believe beautifully captures the point of the Faith and Works issue.

Biblical faith is not just belief.  It is surrender.  It is a complete entrusting of oneself to God in Christ and acceptance of his power, his will, and his plan.  If we truly say yes to Him and let his grace into our hearts, we’ll never be the same.  His love begins to work through us and change our lives.  His Spirit takes up residence within us, giving us the strength to do what we could never do on our own, even to begin to love like He loves.

So true biblical faith is not passive.  It is active, dynamic, and alive.  That’s why St. James says that faith without works is dead (James 2:24-26).  Abraham believed that an unknown God was calling him to leave civilization and march into the desert to find a land that this God has promised him.  He did not sit and contemplate this call or set up a shrine to this God.  He got up and began walking (Genesis 12).

So we justified by faith, if we mean the authentic biblical faith that causes us to walk in God’s ways.  And we are justified by works, if we mean the works of charity that can only flow from faith and grace.

So really, it’s not faith vs. works.  It’s faith that works.

I’m studying for my Patristic and Byzantine Theology final, and I’m rereading First Principles written by Origen between 220 and 230. Here is a passage I have marked as “The Rule of Faith”.

When we find many who think they hold the doctrine of Christ, some of them differing in their beliefs from the Christians of earlier times, and yet the teaching of the church, handed down in unbroken succession from the apostles, is still preserved and continues to exist in the churches up to the present day, we maintain that that only is to believed as the truth which in no way conflicts with the tradition of the church and the apostles.

I just read a beautiful interview with Annie Herring, who used to be a member of the band, “The 2nd Chapter of Acts”. The interview is about an album they did in the 70s called “The Roar of Love”, which was kind of a gospel, Jesus-music, rock opera inspired by The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. I bought the album on cassette tape when I was 17 and a new Christian, and I listened to it over and over again. The interview brought back many memories, so I’ve put the CD on my wish list.

I made a claim in a previous post that Christianity was responsible for the development of hospitals, which seemed to be called into question by a comment I received. I also today got a free subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica for use on my weblog that allows me to link to articles. I thought I would put this subscription to use with this hospital article. A quick read of the history of hospitals shows that the Church did play a significant role in their development. The Wikipedia article is not as detailed, but does mention the Christian role.

It’s been several months now since the latest encyclical letter from Pope Benedict was issued. This was the first encyclical that I read all the way through, and it is very good. The theme is that we need hope, and that ultimate hope can only be found in Christ. That’s nothing new for anyone who knows the basics of the Christian faith. What is astounding and important about this encyclical is the way Pope Benedict makes this case in terms that relate to the prevailing ideas of our world, especially as found in Europe. He is speaking of those who have already written off Christianity as having no relevance for true hope, relying instead on politics, education, economics, or technology to provide hope for the future.

There is a lot of good stuff in there that I won’t comment on here, choosing to focus on how he addresses the hope people put in technological progress. When I was a teenager, I completely embraced that hope until I came to a point where I wanted something more. This desire led to Christianity, which gave me my ultimate hope, but I did not initially find good answers to the issue of technological progress. This encyclical is the best treatment of this question I’ve found so far.

Here are a couple of quotes that I found particularly thought provoking. I provide them hoping that you will check out the rest of the letter and benfit from the treasures found there.

 First we must ask ourselves: what does “progress” really mean; what does it promise and what does it not promise? In the nineteenth century, faith in progress was already subject to critique. In the twentieth century, Theodor W. Adorno formulated the problem of faith in progress quite drastically: he said that progress, seen accurately, is progress from the sling to the atom bomb. Now this is certainly an aspect of progress that must not be concealed. To put it another way: the ambiguity of progress becomes evident. Without doubt, it offers new possibilities for good, but it also opens up appalling possibilities for evil—possibilities that formerly did not exist. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.
(N. 22)

In this next quote, I was particularly struck by the fact that anything we might do to ensure moral goodness in future generations requires the loss of moral freedom. If people have true freedom, then they have freedom to be evil. We will never build a political system that will guarantee a perfect society.

 Let us ask once again: what may we hope? And what may we not hope? First of all, we must acknowledge that incremental progress is possible only in the material sphere. Here, amid our growing knowledge of the structure of matter and in the light of ever more advanced inventions, we clearly see continuous progress towards an ever greater mastery of nature. Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making, there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man’s freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. These decisions can never simply be made for us in advance by others—if that were the case, we would no longer be free. Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. Naturally, new generations can build on the knowledge and experience of those who went before, and they can draw upon the moral treasury of the whole of humanity. But they can also reject it, because it can never be self-evident in the same way as material inventions. The moral treasury of humanity is not readily at hand like tools that we use; it is present as an appeal to freedom and a possibility for it.
(N. 24)

Last week I went to a meeting of technology directors and teachers in the Catholic schools of the Dallas Diocese. Some of them talked about using Twitter, which I earlier played with but had not had much use for. I decided to go back to it and follow some of the Education Technology folks using Twitter.

I’m starting to like using it to post little snippets of interesting things I find on the web, more like what the original concept of a weblog (origin of the term “blog”) was. Twitter has a message size limit of 140 characters, which keeps one from writing a long post. This has the effect on me of encouraging me to go ahead and post something, even when I don’t have a lot of time, because I can’t write a real long post. All that to say that I have another alter ego on Twitter which you can check out if your so inclined.

By the way, the question above the input box on Twitter is, “What are you doing?” A lot of people use Twitter as a way to broadcast their current mood or activity. I’m a little too private for much of that, so I will tend to restrict my posts to things I consider more informative.

I’m now on MySpace and Facebook, in case you’re interested. I still prefer “old-fashioned” email and IM for communication, but these other services can be useful sometimes. I’ve been able to reconnect with several people through Facebook; I’ve only just started on MySpace.

René Descartes is known for his saying, “I think, therefore I am.” However, I’ve found virtually the same idea expressed by St. Augustine of Hippo, over a thousand years earlier, in his work, The Trinity, book X, chapter 13. In this chapter, St. Augustine is trying to figure out what we know for sure about ourselves. He makes the statement, “It is beyond doubt that understanding implies life and life implies existence…”

Happy Easter everyone! Since I posted yesterday about Holy Saturday, I felt like I should at least post something for Easter. This is the Exultet, a hymn dating back at least to the 7th century, which is always sung in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, the night before Easter Sunday. (I believe many, if not all Anglicans have a similar practice. I’ve also been to an Eastern Orthodox Easter liturgy which began at midnight with a lone candle in a dark church, but many of the details were different.)

The Easter Vigil begins with a “new fire” lit outside the Church, from which a large white candle is lit. The Easter candle is carried in procession to the front of the church, which is completely dark except for the candle light. Three times on the way to the front of the church, the procession stops and the deacon or priest lifts high the candle and sings, “Christ our light!” The congregation responds, “Thanks be to God!” At celebrations I’ve been to, the congregation also has little candles that are lit from the Easter candle as it moves through the church.

When the procession reaches the front,  the deacon or priest sings the Exultet, which follows:

Rejoice heavenly powers!  Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God’s throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered!  Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church!  Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!

It is truly right
that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God,
the all powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam’s sin
to our eternal Father!

This is our Passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night
when the pillar of fire
destroyed the darkness of sin!

This is the night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin
and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace
and grow together in holiness.

This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!
Of this night scripture says:
“The night will be clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy.”

The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed
when heaven is wedded to earth
and man is reconciled with God!

Therefore, heavenly Father,
in the joy of this night
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church’s solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.

I want to give credit to the electronic sources of these texts which saved me from having to type them in by hand. I got the Exultet from Dr. D’Ambrosio’s Crossroads Initiative. Dr. D’Ambrosio is a former professor at the University of Dallas, but now he travels all over the country as a speaker. His website is a gold mine of informative articles, ancient texts, and other resources. Yesterday’s post from the Office of Readings came from Universalis, an online version of the Liturgy of the Hours (aka the Divine Office).