The Christian Life: July 2004 Archives

Jesus in the House of Mary and Martha (Vermeer)

....patron saint of housewives (among others.)

19 And many of the Jews were come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

20 Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus was come, went to meet him: but Mary sat at home.

21 Martha therefore said to Jesus: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

22 But now also I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

23 Jesus saith to her: Thy brother shall rise again.

24 Martha saith to him: I know that he shall rise again, in the resurrection at the last day.

25 Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live:

26 And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever. Believest thou this?

27 She saith to him: Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God, who art come into this world. John 11:19-27 (Douay-Rheims)

I would have put this up earlier but I was, um, busy with much serving. Steven has a reflection on St Martha up today and another in his archives.

Jesus didn't tell Martha to stop serving and sit down. Rather, He gently chided her for being "worried and anxious about many things." Perhaps Martha got the message, and this is what enabled her to make her magnificent profession of faith.

Just in case I'm not the last person in St Blog's who hasn't seen this Crisis article by George Sim Johnston, exploring how it wasn't quite all Vatican 2's fault.... here's the link to After the Council:

If the Church was in such good shape before the council, why did things fall apart so rapidly in the 1960s? How do you account for the fact that the rebellion was the work of bishops, theologians, and priests who came out of the Tridentine system? Had all those priests and nuns who suddenly wanted to be laicized received adequate formation under the old system? Why was there so much dissatisfaction? It won’t do simply to rattle off statistics about the decline of the Church since the council. There’s no question that there were good and holy Catholics in the old days—even some saints—and that since the council we have lost much that is good. But there were also problems waiting to erupt. Might not the Magisterium have been correct in addressing them in the council’s documents?

...As for the Catholic laity: Do not underestimate the role of rising affluence in the troubles since the council. The post-conciliar mischief was initiated by disaffected clergy, but during these years, an increasingly wealthy and assimilated laity was perfectly happy to follow the path of least resistance marked by dissident theologians. In 1937, the Protestant thinker H. Richard Niebuhr drew attention to a soft-core spirituality among Americans: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Was it likely that Catholics would be immune once they emerged from the ethnic ghetto, moved to the suburbs, and joined the mainstream? The Book of Revelation’s warnings to the Christians at Laodicea—who “say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing...’”—no doubt find application in every age but have particular relevance for the contemporary Catholic who has made his comfort zone the ninth Beatitude...."

This comment by Sherry Weddell (on Amy's post discussing this article) made my blood run cold:

The image that keeps returning is one that the late great Frank Sheed reported witnessing in the late 60's: seeing a priest tear apart a rosary with his own hands (in front of a cafeteria full of Catholic high school students), dash the beads to the floor and loudly proclaim: "I'm glad we're through with this s - !"

This priest was almost certainly raised with May day crowning of our Lady; a few years previously he might have led one. And now he was doing, with adolescent bravado, what no one had ever truly internalized devotion to Mary or honoured her in any real way would ever do.

And yes, I have met Trads who fiercely insisted that It Was All Vatican 2's Fault.

Steven reflects on the reality behind "Made in China" and provides an infolink about the Laogai.

I was complaining that for some goods, it's hard to find any that aren't made in China: lights for the Christmas tree, for example. Or children's shoes -- it's not just the cheapies; even Stride Rite shoes are made in China. I suppose I could really suck it in and go for those $120 Elefanten shoes from Germany (I have never myself owned a pair that's so expensive) but what about families with many more little feet to shoe, perhaps with much less to do it with?

It seems like the wages in this country are dependent on the availability of cheap imported goods.