THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY feb. 11, 2013 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE ven casual readers will notice the write for The National Catholic changes to our masthead. The Reporter and another who wrote for PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Ereally astute reader, however, will George W. Bush. It doesn’t seem John P. Schlegel, S.J. notice something even more significant. strange to us, though. America ’s centu - EDITOR IN CHIEF I’ll give you a hint: Look to the top of ry-old motto is Veritatem facientes in Matt Malone , S.J. the Contents page, just below the second caritate , “Doing the truth in love.” There EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT uppercase T. See it? That’s right: You are is no faithful Catholic voice that is not holding the 4999th issue of America . welcome in these pages; there is no MANAGING EDITOR Robert C. Collins, S.J. That means that our next issue will be a quarter of the in which DIGITAL EDITOR collector’s item: so get out the cellophane America is not at home. Maurice Timothy Reidy sleeves and chill the champagne! We will also add a new column in LITERARY EDITOR The 4000th issue was dated Oct. 1, the Books & Culture section. Bill Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. 1988. My predecessor, George W. McGarvey, former editor of the Web POETRY EDITOR Hunt, S.J., wrote at the time that “we journal Busted Halo, will lead off the James S. Torrens, S.J. calculate that America ’s 5000th issue commentary. He will be joined by ASSOCIATE EDITORS will appear sometime in the year 2010.” Angela Alaimo-O’Donnell, professor Kevin Clarke Father Hunt was a typical Jesuit: a 790 and poet at Fordham University, and Kerry Weber on the verbal and a 510 on the math. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., a young friar Luke Hansen, S.J. He was right about one thing, though: who just published and EDITOR AT LARGE He had the good sense to endorse a the Future of Faith . Also, longtime read - James Martin, S.J. statement that John LaFarge, S.J., had ers will welcome the return of the ART DIRECTOR made in the 2000th issue of the maga - Philosopher’s Notebook, a running Stephanie Ratcliffe zine. Addressing America’ s readers in commentary on faith and culture in the ASSISTANT EDITOR S 1947, Father LaFarge wrote, “We know United States. John J. Conley, a Jesuit, Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. that you can help us with your philosopher and playwright at Loyola Olga Segura thoughts, your ideas, your prayers, your University Maryland, will pen the COLUMNISTS suggestions. We depend on you.” monthly column. Angela Alaimo-O'Donnell Indeed we do. America is never fin - One last thing: You’ll want to check Colleen Carroll Campbell ished. We’re always learning, growing, out the revitalized Catholic Book Club. John J. Conley, S.J. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M. seeking new ways to bring you a smart Each month Kevin Spinale, S.J., a James T. Keane Catholic take on faith and culture. So as teacher of English at Boston College John W. Martens we head into our 5000th issue, we’re High School, will introduce a book of Bill McGarvey making some changes. For starters, new special interest to Catholics. You can Margot Patterson columnists will appear throughout the join that discussion at www.americam - Michael Rossmann, S.J. first half of 2013, beginning with our agazine.org/cbc. BUSINESS DEPARTMENT own James Martin, S.J., recently named Of course, change can be bitter - CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER America ’s editor at large. We also wel - sweet. With this issue, we also bid an Lisa come Michael Rossmann, S.J., a blogger affectionate farewell to columnists for The Huffington Post and the 2007 Margaret Silf, Maryann Cusimano 106 West 56th Street valedictorian at Notre Dame. Margot Love, Kyle Kramer, John DiIulio and New York, NY 10019-3803 Patterson, former senior writer for The Thomas Massaro, S.J. We are grateful Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 National Catholic Reporter will also join for their work, which has enriched us E-mail: [email protected]; us, along with James T. Keane, a former all. We hope to see them again soon. [email protected] associate editor of America , now at Whew, that is a lot of change. This Web site: www.americamagazine.org. Orbis Books. Colleen Carroll Campbell much, however, will never change: our Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 will join us in June; Ms. Campbell was a commitment to bringing you the very © 2013 America Press, Inc. speechwriter for President George W. best of who we are, each and every Bush and is now the host of “Faith and week. For your loyalty and trust, we Culture” on EWTN. thank you. For the greater glory of It might seem strange that America God, now it’s on to 6,000! would have one columnist who used to MATT MALONE, S.J. Cover: Shutterstock.com/ollyy CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 208 No. 4, Whole No. 4999 February 11, 2013

ARTICLES 11 FOOLISHNESS! Nonbelievers challenge Christians to take faith seriously. Stephen Bullivant 16 THE AGE OF SKEPTICISM The challenge of relevance in a quickly changing culture Thomas J. Bushlack 19 THIS LITTLE LIGHT Strategies for the new evangelization from the Synod of Frank DeSiano 11 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial After the Boom 6 Signs of the Times 9 Column Jesus, by the Book James Martin 23 Faith in Focus Coming Home Caroline McGraw 28 Poem Procula’s Tears Philip C. Kolin 36 Letters 39 The Word Turn Back to God John W. Martens 19 BOOKS & CULTURE 27 FILM “Zero Dark Thirty” BOOKS Through the Eye of a Needle; The Story of America; The Idea Factory

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Luke Hansen, S.J., explores whether President Obama might close the Guant ánamo prison, right, in his second term. Plus, Chris Haw talks about his new book From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for Catholicism . All at americamagazine.org. 27 CURRENT COMMENT

aid. This figure is instructive regarding the role of govern - Forty Years Hence ment in the lives of citizens. The divide in this country is On Feb. 10, 1973, just 19 days after the U.S. Supreme not between the “47 percent” who depend on government Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade, an associ - programs and those who do not. The story of government ate editor of this magazine expressed fear that “this new assistance is more complicated, more surprising and ulti - law of the land” would “continue to be so, at least for the mately more vexing. next few years and possibly for a very long time.” That edi - Consider this: The top 20 percent of households receive tor’s dismal, worst-case scenario has come to pass: Last 10 percent of entitlement spending, yet they receive 66 month marked 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court percent of tax expenditure benefits. In other words, they established a limited constitutional right to abortion. receive a disproportionate share of tax breaks in the form Approximately one million abortions are now performed of exemptions, deductions or credits. High earners also annually in the United States, a fact that should deeply receive better benefits packages at work. While these bene - pain the conscience of the nation. fits are not government assistance per se, the government Anniversaries are an ideal time for taking stock, and the has opted to let employers handle the disbursement of cer - pro-life movement must carefully assess the social and tain social resources. These facts should shape the way the political realities. Frankly, it is a mixed bag. While an government approaches social welfare. Sensible tax reform emerging conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is within reach and could help to bridge the gap between had raised our hopes for a complete reversal of Roe, most rich and poor. of the justices appear reluctant to do more than adjust the margins of that ruling. While there has been one reliably Don’t Worry, Be Grateful anti-abortion political party in the United States, Robert Emmons, a psychologist at the University of Republicans nationwide, smarting from their losses in , Davis, has the enviable task (an emotion that is 2012, may move away from their anti-abortion orthodoxy not similarly endorsed) of studying gratitude. In Thanks!: in a misguided attempt to attract more voters. Meanwhile, How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, the Democrats, who at one point seemed poised to wel - Mr. Emmons tracks the many benefits realized by folks come pro-life Democrats back into the fold, staged the who have integrated gratitude into their busy lives and its most ardently “pro-choice” convention in memory in 2012. positive impact on their general well-being. He has discov - Still, broader public opinion favors at least some restric - ered that to be effective, gratefulness cannot take the form tions on abortion, a fact that neither party can afford to of ungracious self-approval. Good fortune must be appre - ignore and that no pro-life activist should take for granted. ciated as a gift, unearned, bestowed by God or another There are other signs of hope: The thousands of people individual. who attended the March for Life this year prove that the Fortunately, the attitude of gratitude itself does not nec - pro-life cause still has traction, especially among the young. essarily follow this rubric. Mr. Emmons reports that grati - Polls, too, show that an increasing number of young tude is an emotional skill that can be cultivated—by mak - women describe themselves as pro-life. Pro-choice activists ing a daily habit, for example, of jotting down three things should not so easily link the push for women’s rights with you are grateful for at bedtime or keeping a gratitude jar the pro-choice cause. The success of the annual March for on the kitchen counter to collect notes recording blessings Life affirms another political reality: The most effective and thanks. movements for change are sustained by grassroots support. Now, thanks to the Internet, we can even share our grati - Let us pray that this movement will continue to grow and tude with the world. The World Gratitude Map (grati - thrive, that, 40 years hence, we will pause to celebrate a tude.crowdmap.com) tracks outbreaks of gratefulness newfound culture of life in America, one that protects, in across the earth in microposts from gratitudees, geographi - both principle and law, the most vulnerable among us. cally e-pegged and telling tales of good fortune and thanks that can be read by all. Perhaps in the future U.N. quick- A Nation of Takers? reaction teams can use the map to rush emotional resources Here is a startling fact: About 96 percent of Americans to hotspots of ingratitude. The map has tracked thankful - benefit from some kind of government assistance. ness for a sunset in Cape Town, , heroic snow- Whether the benefit is student loans or Medicare, chances plowing in Nova Scotia and those times a great mom and a are that at some point in your life you will receive public sister “have been there” in Boise, Idaho.

4 America February 11, 2013 EDITORIAL After the Boom

t might not be evident from the prices at local gas sta - speak of an unjust burden on their chil - tions, but the United States is in the midst of an oil dren and grandchildren because of the I boom of historic proportions. Driven by the explosive contemporary generation’s lack of growth in shale oil wildcatting in , Wyoming, North restraint. The same moral call to re- Dakota, Oklahoma and Ohio, U.S. oil producers are straint pertains to fossil-fuel reserves. increasing output at the highest rate ever. The U.S. Energy Planning for the future . While the Information Administration reports that domestic oil pro - oil boom may provide a welcome respite from the nation’s duction averaged 6.4 million barrels a day in 2012 and is energy gloom, it is bound to be short-lived. Because of expected to surge by 23 percent to reach 7.9 million barrels human ingenuity, resource extraction opportunities once a day in 2014. considered impossible have become commonplace. But it That record level of output is expected to transform remains certain that one day fossil fuel resources will be the United States into the largest global oil producer by exhausted. Alternative, sustainable energy infrastructure 2017, surpassing even oil-soaked . After years must be in place when that day arrives. What will come of handwringing over the cost of imported oil and the strate - eventually almost always arrives suddenly. gic and economic vulnerability oil imports propel, the United ExxonMobil analysts predict that oil will remain the States may, remarkably, become a net exporter of oil by 2030. primary global fuel through 2040, when natural gas will That unexpected transformation will also yield higher overtake coal for the number two spot. They predict that tax revenues, more jobs and lower energy costs for other the use of nuclear power and renewable energy will grow, industries. It all sounds too good to be true. It, of course, is. but renewable energy will still represent less than 10 percent Behind the boom lurk some considerable dangers. of the total energy supply 30 years from today. That is an Environmental impact . Much of the oil fueling the boom unacceptable outcome. The Obama administration has is extracted by hydraulic fracturing techniques, or “fracking,” made confronting climate change a primary goal of the pres - a process more often associated with the boom, and now the ident’s second term. It should not allow this unanticipated glut, in natural gas. In terms of its long-term environmental oil abundance to distract from that commitment. Fossil and health impacts, fracking remains underscrutinized, but it fuels burned for energy contribute to climate change regard - has been associated with contamination of surface and well less of their domestic or imported origins. water, bizarre health effects on people and livestock, even The nations of Europe do not have the luxury of methane-flaming water faucets and earthquakes. The burn - squeezing every last drop of oil and natural gas out of novel ing of fossil fuels is also the primary driver of climate change deposits like tar sands or shale. But the resource deficit in and over time has a significant effect on human and ecologi - western Europe is not without a positive side. On the conti - cal health. These environmental concerns must be evaluated nent the inevitable alternative energy infrastructure is without discrimination in balance with the possible econom - already emerging, while in the United States the matter is ic and strategic rewards of greater oil independence. debated in Congress. Intergenerational fairness . In confronting climate change America’s miraculous boom in fossil fuel should prove and issues related to sustainable economic growth in the a blessing, creating new jobs and economic growth across a future, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of the need for both number of industrial sectors that benefit from lower energy international and intergenerational solidarity. Just as the bur - costs, offering a chance to reduce defense spending and dens of confronting climate change cannot morally be shifted move those savings into investments in human capital and to the world’s poorest and least powerful, neither can this gen - domestic infrastructure. More important, it can provide a eration’s responsibility to the next be discounted. The early critical breathing space while the nation uses the revenue 21st-century gas and oil boom in the United States continues windfall from this perhaps last domestic oil boom to invest a pattern of intense extraction and consumption of energy in the transition to renewable energy production. Of course, reserves that can never be replaced. It makes an irrevocable this boom could just as easily prove just another opportuni - claim on a God-given resource now denied to the future. ty for short-term profit for a few, a transfer of risk to the When U.S. politicians emphasize the national debt, many many and oil-intoxicated indolence on climate change.

February 11, 2013 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

HUMAN TRAFFICKING Sexual Slavery: A Not-So-Super Side of the Super Bowl uper Bowl Sunday will draw thousands of football fans to New Orleans to root for the 49ers or the Ravens or just to enjoy the spec - S tacle. But the Super Bowl will also attract a less acknowledged pop - ulation to the city: victims of human trafficking forced into prostitution. Globally there are between 100,000 and 250,000 children who are vic - tims of sex trafficking, said Laura J. Lederer, president and founder of the Washington-based Global Centurion Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to target trafficking by focusing on demand. The perception that the practice of selling girls for sex is restricted to Asia, or Africa belies the overwhelming problem in the United States, which each year is exacerbated by a spike in organized sex trafficking at major sporting events such as the Super Bowl, said Lederer. “We want to help people understand that this is a problem here in the United States,” Lederer said. “We have a homegrown sex trafficking prob - lem.” Lederer was speaking at a workshop hosted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Trafficking girls for sex is such a major concern that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans has established a Human Trafficking Joint Task Force that, in advance of Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3, has been meeting Bowl XLIV in Miami—ironically, tutes only, there would “always be with city, state and federal law enforce - won by the Saints—about 10,000 more victims to replace them....What’s ment authorities, faith-based groups prostitutes descended on south missing is the demand side, the men and nongovernmental organizations to Florida. Officials also know that the who drive the market,” Lederer added. develop a collaborative approach to volume of Web site solicitations “We need to reach young men and combat the problem. shoots up during the week of major boys—the new generation—and help Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond sporting events. them understand that human beings of New Orleans, Tom Benson, owner “Human trafficking is basically a should never be bought and sold,” she of the Saints, and his wife, Gayle, and form of slavery,” said John Krentel, a said. “We’re trying to reach people other city officials are scheduled to air local attorney who is on the board of from a values-based, faith-based and a public service announcement before Eden House, a newly opened safe human rights-based approach about the Super Bowl to raise awareness and haven in New Orleans for women the sacredness, worth and dignity of ask people to remain vigilant if they seeking to escape prostitution or every human being.” suspect sex trafficking. “Human traf - human trafficking. New Orleans is a ficking, modern-day slavery...is a pow - major site for trafficking in the United EUROPE erful evil,” Archbishop Aymond says States, Krentel said. “New Orleans is in the announcement. The ad will also a port city, and there are a lot of ‘Life Windows’ highlight a toll-free hotline number— people coming through. But I want to (888) 373-7888—that is staffed 24 emphasize, these are American citi - Controversy hours a day by the Polaris Project of zens we are talking about—not for - n a damp street in Warsaw, the National Human Trafficking eign nationals.” not far from St. Florian’s Resource Center. Lederer said her nonprofit group OCathedral, a tiny mattress lies Exact numbers are difficult to come targets the patrons of prostitution, on display behind a safety-glass win - by, but experts estimate that for Super because if the law went after prosti - dow, installed at waist height on a dull

6 America February 11, 2013 wheel was opened in under has about 80 baby hatches, and Pope Innocent III in 1198. Most has 15. In , 87 hatches were closed in the 19th centu - percent of citizens said they were “very ry, as state social care expanded; but useful or useful” in a 2011 survey, they began to reopen at the end of the while more than a quarter thought 20th century, as more babies were every should have one. abandoned amid economic hardship That helps explain the strong reac - and social breakdown. tions when the U.N.’s Committee on Most now consist of heated incuba - the Rights of the Child, based in tors with simple sign-directions, Geneva, called in 2012 for the closing which trigger a bell or buzzer when a of baby hatches in Europe. A baby is deposited inside. In Krakow, Hungarian committee member, Maria

m e

t , the Sisters of the Holy Family Herczog, denounced the “medieval” s y s

N of Nazareth opened a life window in hatches as a violation of the U.N. o i t

u 2006. When a baby was left there last Convention on the Rights of the b i r t s

i fall, a card was found: “Casper, I’m Child, which has been ratified by every D

y

r sorry. I love you very much—Mum.” major country except the United e g a m

i “We were woken by the alarm at States. She said the hatches contra -

&

o

e night and ran down, and we saw a dicted Articles 7 and 8 of the conven - D TRAFFICK COPS : A Homeland i V

e beautiful boy lying in the window,” tion, which enshrine a child’s rights to

Security investigator stands with s N e two trafficking victims freed dur - F Sister Jozefina told the Catholic week - “to know and be cared for by his or her e D

ing a raid on Jan. 17. :

o ly Gość Niedzielny. parents” and “to preserve his or her t o h

p “The card really touched us, since identity” and encouraged women to we sensed the mother must have real - abandon their babies after giving birth gray wall. When the Polish capital’s ly struggled.... We wonder what made in “insecure situations.” first “life window” was dedicated in her give up her own child, and we’re “Adopted children will one day 2006, it was one of dozens newly supporting such women with our want to know about their roots, but installed around Europe as a safe place prayers.” this is impossible with the life win - for unwilling mothers to leave their While abandoning children is ille - dows,” Monika Redziak, director of babies. Today controversy is growing, gal in Britain and other countries, 11 Poland’s Catholic Care and as an influential U.N. committee of the European Union’s 27 member- Upbringing Centre, said. charges that the windows violate chil - states now allow hatches. Homan, the Caritas spokeswoman, dren’s rights. thinks the objections are “We’re not encouraging all a misunderstanding. mothers to get rid of their She points out the same children,” Agnieszka U.N. convention’s Article Homan, spokeswoman for 6 enshrines a child’s the Polish church’s Caritas “inherent right to life,” charity, said. “These life and this has to take prior - windows offer a facility ity. Supporters say the life where women who don’t windows are saving new - want to give birth in [a] borns. Polish church rep - hospital can leave them resentatives say they’re anonymously, without counting on the Vatican, endangering [babies’] lives.” which is represented at Historians believe the U.N., to resist Europe’s first baby hatch, CLOSE THE DOOR? Some child advocates attempts to close the life window or foundling seek to shut down “baby hatches.” hatches.

February 11, 2013 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Redemptorist Regrets NEWS BRIEFS The head of the Redemptorist fathers in Rome said he deeply regrets the In a recently released letter sent last actions of an Irish member of the order Advent, Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, who accused the Vatican of subjecting vice president of the Pontifical him to “frightening procedures remi - Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” advised mem - niscent of the Inquisition.” Michael bers of the Society of St. Pius X “to aban - Brehl, the Redemptorist order’s superi - don the harsh and counterproductive or general, confirmed that Father Tony rhetoric that has emerged over the past Poached ivory Flannery is under Vatican investigation years.” • The church has never encouraged for alleged ambiguities “regarding fun - the use of ivory for devotional objects, Vatican spokesman Federico damental areas of Catholic doctrine.” Lombardi, S.J., wrote on Jan. 22, responding to questions posed in an In Father Flannery said on Jan. National Geographic editorial about the illicit ivory trade. 20 that he was “threatened with • Following the gang rape and death of a paramedical student, the excommunication from the Catholic Catholic bishops’ conference of called for “comprehensive laws Church for suggesting that, in the and effective measures to ensure the security and safety of women ” future, women might become priests in a statement released on Jan. 23. • A coalition of African civil soci - and calling for this and other matters eties appealed to the African Union to stop the war in ’s South to be open for discussion.” An investi - Kordofan and Blue Nile states, noting in a statement on Jan. 25 the gation of Father Flannery—a founding suffering of more than 700,000 displaced civilians. • With tensions member of ’s Association of rising on the Korean peninsula, the calls for a Catholic Priests—was reportedly trig - “change of course” and the start of a “new era of cooperation,” said gered by an article in a religious maga - the Rev. John Bosco Byeon, national director of the Pontifical zine in 2010. In the article, Father Mission Societies in , on Jan. 25. Flannery wrote that he no longer believed that “the priesthood as we cur - rently have it in the church originated with Jesus” or that Jesus designated “a financial support from business leaders people to a wider range of opinions and special group of his followers as plus expertise in school governance and beliefs, people need to accept the exis - priests.” He has declined to repudiate accountability. “Today it is financially tence of other cultures, be enriched by this and other positions. stable with rising academic standards,” them and offer others what “they pos - said Brian McElwee, the chief executive sess that is good, true and beautiful,” New School Model officer. The successful model was scaled the pope said. Christians are called to up and expanded to include 16 schools, bring truth and values to the whole Visiting a Catholic grade school in mostly in response to the announced world—online and off—remembering Philadelphia on Jan. 18, Pennsylvania’s closures of dozens of Catholic parish that it is ultimately the power of God’s Gov. Tom Corbett lauded a new educa - schools early last year. word that touches hearts, not sheer tional model for Catholic schools in the human effort, he said. Social media city. Independence Mission Schools is a “need the commitment of all who are management organization for 16 inde - Pope: ‘Use Media Well’ conscious of the value of dialogue, rea - pendent Catholic elementary schools Social media need to promote more soned debate and logical argumenta - located in mostly poor city neighbor - logic, kindness and Christian witness tion.” Social forums need to be used hoods. The organization was founded than bluster, star-status and division, wisely and well, which means fostering two years ago when St. Martin de Pope Benedict XVI said in his message balanced and respectful dialogue and Porres parish school was struggling to for World Communications Day, to be debate, he said, and paying special serve the children of its gritty North observed on May 12. The statement attention to “privacy, responsibility and Philadelphia community. Removing was released on Jan. 24, the feast of St. truthfulness.” management of the school from the , patron of journalists. parish, the group brought together Given that the digital world exposes From CNS and other sources.

8 America February 11, 2013 JAMES MARTIN

Jesus, by the Book hat’s the most useful thing Catholic writers should focus on one neglect the wonderful miracles, the I could tell an America or the other, categories that loosely “signs” that his disciples and followers Wreader today? Beyond the correspond to Jesus’ two natures found so astonishing. Lohfink is expected spiritual advice about follow - (human and divine). equally at home talking about the ing Christ, loving others, going to In historical Jesus studies, scholars socioeconomic conditions in which the Mass, reading Scripture, praying regu - try to explain as much as we can know parable of the unjust steward would be larly and helping the poor, try this: about the life and times of Jesus of heard as he is about the healing of the Read Gerhard Lohfink. Nazareth. Books on the historical man with the withered hand. Among the dozens of press releases Jesus might describe, for example, reli - Father Lohfink has also written a we receive at America every day are gious customs in first-century Jewish line I’ve been waiting years to read in a notices from Catholic publishers. One culture in Palestine, the socioeconom - scholarly work. In his chapter on day an e-mail from Liturgical Press ic realities of living under Easter, he responds to caught my eye just as I was about to hit Roman rule or the ways One needs the common tendency “Delete.” The notice was for a forth - that extended families sus - to set aside the super - coming book called Jesus of Nazareth: tained themselves in small to know natural, the miraculous Who He Was, What He Wanted. villages in Galilee. All this or the inexplicable in Currently I’m writing my own book on can help us understand the about the the Gospels. How often Jesus, so anything in that area of schol - context in which Jesus car - historical have you heard, for arship is of special interest. Plus, I’m a ried out his ministry and example, that the multi - member of a Society named after the appreciate Jesus’ humanity. Jesus and plication of the loaves man. By contrast, books that the Christ and the fishes was sim - But the blurb clinched a read. From focus more on the “Christ ply an example of shar - Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., professor of of faith” might consider of faith. ing? Or that the resur - New Testament at Boston College, topics like the Resurrec- rection was simply a and a man who as editor of New tion, how Christ saves us, the nature of “shared experience” of the disciples’ Testament Abstracts has forgotten his relationship to the Father and the remembering Jesus? more about the Gospels than I’ll ever Holy Spirit and so on. As such, they Lohfink has little sympathy for this: know, came this: “Lohfink’s Jesus of help us ponder the divinity of Jesus “It is a way of currying favor with the Nazareth is the best Jesus book I Christ. Enlightenment mentality, which wants know.” I blinked twice before believing Frankly, I’ve never seen much of a to explain away everything unusual.” it. Then I exercised my prerogative as conflict between the two approaches. That no one has stilled storms before an editor at large and requested a copy. The challenge is not to focus overly on or since is not an argument against the So far, I’ve read the German Scripture Jesus’ humanity or his divinity—so authenticity of the Gospels so much as scholar’s book three times. that neither is overlooked. But to an example of Jesus as someone who What makes Father Lohfink’s book understand Jesus’ life, death and resur - was, as Lohfink says, “irritatingly so richly satisfying is its seamless rection as fully as possible, one needs unique and therefore can surpass all attention to both the “Jesus of history” to know about the historical Jesus and previous experience.” and the “Christ of faith.” In case you’ve one also needs to believe in the Christ To believe in the risen Christ you been living under a theological rock for of faith. need to know something about the the last few years, you’ll know that Father Lohfink’s book is—if you’ll man who walked in Palestine. And to there is a lively debate about whether pardon the expression—a revelation. understand what the carpenter from It is one of the rare works that consid - Nazareth was doing you need to JAMES MARTIN, S.J., is editor at large of ers equally both natures. So while he believe he is the Son of God. To come America . His e-book, Together on Retreat: Meeting Jesus in Prayer, has just been elegantly describes the historical to know Jesus of Nazareth, try Jesus of released by HarperOne. milieu in which Jesus lived, he does not Nazareth.

February 11, 2013 America 9 10 America February 11, 2013 a c i r e m a / k c o t s r e t t u h s

: e g a m i e t i s o

p Foolishness! m o c Nonbelievers challenge Christians to take faith seriously.

BY STEPHEN BULLIVANT

salms 14 and 53 both open with the statement: “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’” Whatever this may tell us about unbelief in ancient Hebrew society, today it is not only, or predominantly, fools who are saying this. And they do not restrict their utterances to their hearts alone. Especially in the United States and Europe—the historic heart of P“Christendom”—there are large (and growing) numbers of intelligent, educated, reason - able people who reject Christianity and the God it proclaims. Many of these find Christian belief to be literally incredible—not just false, but ridiculously and grotesque - ly so. Some of these are high-profile public figures: scientists, philosophers, journalists, novelists, politicians, bloggers and stand-up comedians. But most of them are just nor - mal folks. They are our colleagues, friends, relatives, perhaps even, at least sometimes, a

STEPHEN BULLIVANT is lecturer in and ethics at St.Mary’s University College in , England. Two of his books will be published in 2013: The Oxford Handbook of Atheism (Oxford University Press) and Faith and Unbelief (Canterbury Press).

February 11, 2013 America 11 little bit of ourselves. Crucially, we ought not to forget Consider, for example, Christianity’s most instantly rec - that, particularly in the United States, these non-fools ognizable (and thereby most easily ignorable) symbols: the have likely been (and will ever remain) sealed by ; baby Jesus and the crucifix. The first proclaims that this the Catholics among them will have been catechized, con - God-man spent a significant amount of time doing things firmed and given first Communion as “true witnesses of like suffering from colic and cradle cap, screaming in the Christ,” as the “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” night for no discernible reason and weeing incontinently describes them. over his sleep-deprived (human) parents. Tears, tantrums These hard facts, especially when combined with rising and teething are thus the works of the one true God, just levels of those “non-affiliated” with religion (most of as surely as are “the heaven and the earth, the sea, and whom are not, or at least not yet, actual atheists), present everything in them” (Acts 4:24). The second affirms that the church with even harder questions. For the most part, the God-man was tortured and murdered, subjected not despite the Second Vatican Council’s prescient observa - even to some grandiosely superlative mode of suffering tion in the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the and death, as might befit a king, but to the tawdrily mun - Modern World” that dane form of execution “atheism may be num - to which the Roman bered among the most Empire treated count - serious matters of our It is perhaps fair to say that most less slaves, pirates and time and merits more believers do not quite realize the enemies of the state (a careful attention”— fact that in itself raises they are questions we outrageous character of these most an interesting question have scarcely begun to about the kind of God formulate, let alone basic and taken-for-granted we are dealing with). answer. Doing so, it It is perhaps fair to need hardly be said, is hallmarks of Christianity. say that most believers one of the most urgent do not quite realize the tasks facing “the new outrageous character of evangelization of those peoples who have already heard these most basic and taken-for-granted hallmarks of Christ proclaimed,” as Blessed John Paul II put it in his Christianity. (Is there not something at least a little strange encyclical “Mission of the Redeemer.” about hanging around one’s neck a miniature corpse nailed Of course, there are myriad reasons (philosophical, psy - to a tiny cross?) Irrespective of whether they are true or chological, social, cultural, moral) why a person might be not, these are surely among the wildest and most mon - or become skeptical toward the truth-claims of strous claims ever proposed in human history. And if they Christianity. Here I focus on just one. Somewhat per - are true, then they are, or ought to be, the most profound versely, this is a fundamental feature of the Christian mes - and world-inverting facts about life and the universe. Yet sage, yet one that atheists often grasp more intuitively than somehow, in the course of nearly 2,000 years, these claims we do. Basically, the non-fools have realized something have become so familiar, so tamed and domesticated, as to essential that we ourselves have been trying to forget. seem hardly worthy of comment, let alone wonder or puz - zlement, among the great majority of those who profess Monstrous Claims them. Let’s face it: The God of Christianity is an extraordinarily odd kind of being (if one can call God a kind of “being” at Foolishness to the Gentiles all). And the followers of this God subscribe to—or say Such was not, however, the case for those to whom the they do—a list of quite ludicrous-seeming claims. good news of Jesus Christ was first proposed. As Paul It is one thing to affirm a God who is all-powerful, all- famously put it: “We proclaim Christ and him crucified, a knowing and all-loving, who created and sustains “all stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the gen - things visible and invisible.” That is in itself a fairly strik - tiles” (1 Cor 1:23). For the Jews, of course, the claim that ing and radical claim—in its time, one that was revolu - the Messiah, whether God himself or not, had come but tionary in human history and that the infant Christianity had been crucified was blasphemously scandalous ( skan - imbibed at the breast of Judaism. Yet it is quite another dalon being the Greek word for “stumbling-block”). And thing to claim that this God—or worse, one of three per - they were, it should be said, impeccably non-foolish in sons of this one God—took flesh, resulting in someone thinking so: No one was expecting a crucified-and-raised both fully God and fully human. Messiah (hence, for example, Peter’s “satanic” rebuke to

12 America February 11, 2013 Jesus in Matthew 16 and the disappointment of those trudging along the road to Emmaus concerning him whom they “had hoped...would be the one to redeem Israel” in Luke 24). For the gentiles, meanwhile, the entire proclamation was manifest folly. The very idea that the king of the Jews—indeed, of the whole world—would hail not mere - ly from a backwater of the Empire (Judea), but from a backwater of that backwater (Galilee), would arrive on donkeyback leading a motley assemblage of peasants and fishermen and would be arrested and crucified as a com - mon criminal before miraculously coming back to life a few days later as the savior of the universe—surely these were the ravings, as the pagan philosopher Celsus put it, of “women, slaves and little children.” But for those who have been brought up with this nar - rative and with the idea of a God who was truly a human being—however imperfectly or infrequently expressed or reflected upon—it is very hard indeed to be genuinely con - fronted with the Christian proclamation in all of its (apparently) scandalous foolishness. Whether one believes it all or not, it is very easy to nod along half-heartedly (a diaper-clad creator? Fine; a god who gets murdered? Sure; a carpenter who saves the universe? Whatever) as though these are the most boringly obvious facts one has ever heard. And it has to be said that all too often Christian preaching and apologetics simply reinforce this view. By presenting “Christ and him crucified” as something platitudinous and uncontroversial—something to which all right-minded, non-obtuse people should naturally and non-problematically assent—we risk conditioning not just others, but ourselves, against ever taking this outlandish proposition truly seriously. It is an unusual person who would turn his or her life around for the sake of something platitudinous or commonsensical. And yet it is precisely such a turnaround ( metanoia), or repentance, that Jesus thinks is required in order to “believe in the good news” (Mk 1:15). In The Crucified God, Jürgen Moltmann remarks that the true import of Good Friday “is often better recognized by non-Christians and atheists than by religious Christians, because it astonishes and offends them. They see the profane horror and godlessness of the Cross because they do not believe the religious interpretations which have given a meaning to the senselessness of this death.” In this light, consider these remarks, taken from two of the “new atheists,” that no doubt reflect the views of a wider group of non-fools. Richard Dawkins writes in The God Delusion: “I have described the atonement…as vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent. We should also dismiss it as barking mad, but for its ubiquitous familiarity which has dulled our

February 11, 2013 America 13 objectivity.” And Sam Harris, in Letter to a Christian catechetical efforts, however, seem to focus on convincing Nation, writes, “Christianity amounts to the claim that we people only of the former. Perhaps that is one reason why must love and be loved by a God who approves of the so many Catholics, having been raised and educated in the scapegoating, torture, and murder of one man—his son, faith, are so easily able to drift away from it (often without incidentally—in compensation for the misbehavior and really noticing they are doing so). thought-crimes of all others.” But for the growing number of people brought up out - Now, as fair descriptions of the theology of the cross, side of Christianity, or who have already drifted sufficient - these statements leave much to be desired. But as impres - ly far from it, the possibilities of encountering the Gospel sionist reflections on the kind of thing that the crucifixion in all its mind-bending splendor are more promising. A is—a monstrous affront to, and interruption of, the nor - context in which the good news can be received as scan - mal workings of the world (“God’s foolishness,” as Paul dalous foolery is—as the early church amply demon - puts it)—they are arguably onto something vital to which strates—equally one in which it can be greeted with sur - Christians have inured themselves. While wonderment prise as “all that is good and right and true” (Eph 5:9). and incredulity are not quite the same Viewed in this light, Scripture’s cryptic thing, an unbeliever may yet hear strains ON THE WEB preference for being hot or cold, as overlooked by those with ears grown Chris Haw talks about the new opposed to lukewarm, makes much monasticism movement. “dull of hearing” (Mt 13:15). americamagazine.org/podcast more sense (Rv 3:15-16). Naturally, in emphasizing the radical, Re-encountering the Gospel paradoxical nature of the Christian Dawkins is correct that the problem lies with “ubiquitous proclamation, there is a danger of retreating into fideistic familiarity”—not because it undermines our objectivity obscurity. This, too, is gravely to be avoided: Augustine but rather because it limits our capacity to be shocked and and Aquinas both caution against (unnecessarily) giving astonished, and thus excited, challenged. It is one thing to rise to irrisio infidelium, or “the mockery of unbelievers.” believe that Christianity is true. It is quite another to feel My point is not that Christianity is actually foolish, or amazement that it not only is true, but even could be so, false or ridiculous—on the contrary! But rather that, like and to (re)build one’s life around it. Our evangelizing and so many profoundly true things, it should probably strike us as such on a first and cursory hearing. Compare, for example, the wonders of the universe revealed to us by modern physics: that everything in the universe was once packed into an infinitesimally small space; that the vast majority of a solid object is actually empty space; that there are perhaps a hundred billion galaxies in the uni - verse, each with maybe a hundred billion solar systems and so forth. Popular science writers are adept at carefully explaining how and why all these things are true and the solid reasons we have for believing them. But they also revel in the scandalously foolish appearance of these claims, knowing full well that this is what excites and enthralls their readers. The church fathers, of course, were no strangers to such strategies—and would-be new evangelizers might do well to take note. The second-century apologist St. Melito of Sardis speaks of Christ as “treading upon the earth, yet filling heav - en...standing before Pilate, and at the same time sitting with his Father; he was nailed upon the tree, and yet was the Lord of all things.” And as Augustine famously wrote in one of his Christmas homilies: “The maker of man was made man, that the ruler of the stars might suck at the breast; the fountain, thirst...strength, be made weak; health, be wounded; life, die.” “A stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles” this may be, but better that than a platitude to the “non-affiliated” and boredom to the baptized. A

14 America February 11, 2013 February 11, 2013 America 15 The Age of Skepticism The challenge of relevance in a quickly changing culture BY THOMAS J. BUSHLACK

ver since I first visited St. Peter’s Square as an possibility of knowing the truth in our world today. The undergraduate, I have been struck by the archi - sociologist James Davison Hunter calls this phenomena tectural image of the two open “arms” reaching “dissolution”—an intellectual and linguistic breakdown of from the basilica, welcoming the pilgrim people the trust that words accurately convey meaning or express Eof the entire world into the church. Yet if we pay attention anything as objectively true. This dissolution manifests to the data and to anecdotal evidence, for every one person itself in both intellectual and popular culture. I see it every walking into that embrace there are roughly four walking day in my students, even if they cannot articulate what it is out the back door. that makes it so difficult for them to take their required the - With this cultural background in mind, Pope Benedict ology classes seriously as an academic pursuit. XVI called the Synod of Bishops together to discuss the Ever since I read Ralph McInerny’s biography of Jacques topic, “the new evangelization for the transmission of the Maritain, I have been struck by the example of Jacques and Christian faith.” In addition, he has announced a “Year of his wife, Raïssa Maritain, who, struggling with questions of Faith.” The October gathering was attended by the bishops of the possibility of knowing the truth, made a pledge that if the synod, who were joined by 45 experts and 49 observers, they discovered that they could not access truth, they would including 10 female experts and 19 female observers, the commit suicide. This was a dramatic response to cultural largest contingent of female ever invited to such an event. dissolution, to be sure, but also a poignant example of the Much of the diagnosis provided by the bishops regarding need for some sense of truth to make life meaningful, rich the challenge to faith and to the church in the late modern and worth living. Many in our culture today would not take world is accurate. There is widespread skepticism about the the Maritains’ pledge so seriously; but perhaps it is true, as Henry David Thoreau put it, that most people are living lives of quiet desperation. It may not manifest itself in a pact THOMAS J. BUSHLACK, an assistant professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., is a regular contributor to to commit suicide, but many people today are living without the blog catholicmoraltheology.com. a sense of meaning or purpose. I cannot help but think of

16 America February 11, 2013 Jesus’ words: “When he saw the crowds, he was moved with of life and death for many and is the central task of the new pity for them, because they were...like sheep without a shep - evangelization. So I offer here a few thoughts and sugges - herd” (Mt 9:36). Given the challenges that face us, how are tions on the new evangelization from my perspective as a we to proceed with the engagement with culture to which moral theologian working in the American context. the Gospel and common sense call us as people of faith? Disengage from the “culture wars.” In Jesus’ time no less than now, people are ultimately persuaded to the truth of A Modern Disease the Gospel by the visceral appeal and the raw beauty of the Perhaps no one has diagnosed this modern struggle better truth that Christ embodies. Political bantering and vil - than the German philosopher and Thomist, Josef Pieper. lainizing those with whom we disagree only fosters alien - Writing in the wake of World War II and drawing on a ation, resentment and hatred in our culture. Worse, it term with ancient resonances in the monastic tradition, he divides the members of the body of Christ against each called this spiritual disease the modern manifestation of ace - other. I am not sure, but I suspect the unforgivable sin dia. For Pieper, acedia is a “deep-seated lack of calm,” rooted against the Holy Spirit (Mk 3:29, Mt 12:30) has something in a person’s refusal “to give the consent of his will to his to do with fostering this kind of division. In addition, I am own being,” especially as that being is made in the image and not so sure any more that it is our responsibility to likeness of God (Gn 1:26). The human person can only find “Christianize” modern culture. The Gospel of John tells us: its true rest in contemplation of and relationship with the “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of divine beauty and goodness. Although acedia can manifest this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from itself as a depressive state (hence it is sometimes inaccurate - being handed over” (18:36). The culture wars are a violent ly translated as “sloth” or “laziness”), more frequently in fight (even if only verbally), so why are “my followers” taking today’s world it manifests itself in excessive busyness—the up arms? (Let me be clear that this does not mean we turn pursuit of activity, success, achievement, possessiveness— away from public or cultural engagement or the struggle for anything to justify my existence in the face of apparent justice, but that we make sure we are doing this in ways that meaninglessness and to keep me distracted from the creep - align with the Gospel). ing sense of despair that underlies day to day existence. Do not compete with pop culture. The old saying is true: The church is the steward of a vast array of spiritual “The medium is the message.” For all the benefits of mod - resources—not least among them the liturgy, the word of ern technology, its predominant forms of communication God and the Eucharist—that speak directly to the suffering foster superficiality and mediocrity at their worst, and even and acedia of the human person in the late modern world. at their best are incapable of fostering the kind of deep con - The attempt to convey these resources authentically, peace - templation that can address the acedia of the age. People fully and with great love and compassion is literally a matter today, especially young people, can sniff out insincerity from

l e o N i m a c / k c o t s r e t t u h s

: o t o h p

February 11, 2013 America 17 a mile away, and modern media cannot fully capture or con - truth of the Gospel should be presented as containing vey the most authentic and beautiful expressions of the essential and timeless truths about the triune nature of Catholic tradition. God, about the human person and about creation in a way Bring forth out of our treasure what is old and what is new that is interpreted and lived in as many ways as there are (Mt 13:52). The church historian Jaroslav Pelikan report - Christians (living, dead and yet to come). Please note: This edly remarked that it takes approximately 100 years for each is not relativism. The rule of faith and the Nicene- ecumenical council to implement the fullness of its vision Constantinople Creed remain normative, yet within these and genius. If that is true, we are only half way to realizing boundaries of orthodoxy there are an infinite number of the fullness of the Second Vatican Council, a process that is ways to live out the Gospel joyfully with faith and authen - still working itself out (see “A Time to Harvest,” by Ladislas ticity. Orsy, S.J., Am., 10/8/12). The council’s genius was Model servant leadership. This applies to every Christian, expressed in the French term ressource - not just the bishops (although they have a ment. The ideal was to go back to the ON THE WEB distinctive responsibility in this regard). sources, to Scripture and the vast wisdom America ’s coverage of Christianity can only be respected as a of the early and medieval church, in order the new evangelization. way of truth if public leaders exercise americamagazine.org/new to speak the truth of Christ’s love to the responsibility and power in ways that modern world. The Catholic tradition is model Christ’s servant leadership (the beautiful in its expression of the truth that it conveys, and washing of the feet, for example, in John 13). Late modern we can witness to the beauty of that tradition in as many believers and unbelievers are skeptical toward those who ways as there are Catholics in the world. exercise any form of authority, and the only way they will Uphold the truth. The defense of the faith will not appear trust the church enough to listen to its message is if they see the same today as in past centuries. It certainly will not look Christian leaders living noble, even if quiet and unassuming, like the kind of reactionism against the modern age that lives. This applies to everyone, as expressed in the characterized the neoscholasticism of the 19th century. If “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” as the priesthood the presentation of the truth is to appeal to the modern per - of all believers, and it is an essential element of the “univer - son, it will most likely need to be hermeneutical. That is, the sal call to holiness.” Christians can exercise authentic leader - ship in a wide array of public forums—business, media, education, literature, art, academia, politics and govern - ment, as well as official positions within the hierarchical church. This kind of servant leadership requires attention to the contours of one’s individual life, to the roles one inhab - its and to the institutions to which one belongs and exercis - es influence. By mindfully embracing each Christian’s par - ticular roles and manifestations of the call to holiness, we can embody the Gospel in creative and life-giving ways in all aspects of culture. Mohandas Gandhi referred to his life’s mission and work on behalf of justice as “experiments in truth.” The modern age, with its hermeneutical approach to truth, recognizes that truth can be discovered only through lived experience, and this often involves wrong turns and ventures down dead- end alleys. But if we believe the Holy Spirit is still guiding the church, then, as the singer Emmylou Harris put it, we just might “stumble into grace.” We should have no illusion that everyone in our culture will turn toward the Gospel and the church, but there is a universal hunger for truth and the church has a distinctive role to play in proposing Jesus Christ as “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6) to the hearts and minds of the human community. Despite the fears and uncertainties about the future of the church and late modern culture, the open “arms” of St. Peter’s Square continue to challenge us to remain open and hopeful. A

18 America February 11, 2013 This Little Light Strategies for the new evangelization from the Synod of Bishops BY FRANK D ESIANO

he Synod of Bishops brought the church a new The new evangelization, accordingly, invites modern perspective and comprehensive strategy for the people to rediscover God through a personal relationship new evangelization. Even though there were with Jesus Christ. The heart of the new evangelization is many cautions at the sTynod about not making evangeliza - tion into a program, the overall thrust of the synod discussion pushed toward a very different, and potentially rich, pastoral approach to Catholic life today. This approach has these major components: the background for pastoral action; the vision of God revealed by Jesus Christ; reception of the vision of Jesus through conver - sion and personal following; exten - sion of the vision into one’s closest daily relationships, notably the fami - ly; extension of the vision through involvement in small Christian (base) communities; transformation of the parish through conversion, discipleship and outreach; building partnerships through ecumenical connections and ecclesial move - ments; and finally, a renewed church.

Rooted in Faith Undoubtedly the drastic drop in the percentage of people this renewed personal experience of Jesus Christ in all his regularly involved in church in the developed world is a dimensions—in the Word, in sacrament, in community main cause for the call for the new evangelization. Many and in the poor. The synod often spoke of the Holy theories might account for the diminishment of Catholic Spirit, sent by Jesus as a result of his resurrection from D l participation and fervor in the developed countries; the the dead, in order to involve us personally in the reality r o W

chief named culprit, however, is “secularism” with its many of God. W e N

c attendant “isms”—individualism, relativism and material - This all amounts to strategies of conversion—to call i l o h ism. These qualities identify not only the broader developed Catholics to deeper conversion and to help Catholics know t a c

, world (and increasingly the developing world), but, more that their lives are filled with experiences of conversion. y a W a frighteningly, the lives of believers themselves. Pope The ministries of the Word, particularly those of the litur - l l a c

Benedict XVI speaks openly about the “desert” of the mod - gy and prayer, bring believers into vivid contact with Jesus N e r a

ern world in which reference to God has become occluded. Christ. Strategies of conversion help Catholics see the for - k / o t

giveness, healing, renewal and unconditional love that are o h p

s

part of their lived experience. This conversion happens N

E c FRANK D SIANO, C.S.P., president of Paulist Evangelization : o

Ministries in Washington, D.C., attended the Synod of Bishops in through the Catholic experience of the Mass, other sacra - t o h

October 2012. His blog is at www.synod2012.org. ments and daily prayer. p

February 11, 2013 America 19 Catholics receive the renewed vision through their expe - Certainly, references to popular piety belong here. These rience of Catholic life. The Word of God opens the vision; are the spontaneous and deep devotions that often define the celebration of the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, a Catholic culture and the families within that culture, deepens the vision of conversion in the Catholic heart. This including Marian devotions, devotions to the saints and calls for an attitude toward worship quite different from the the Rosary. routine of “getting the Mass done” in 45 or 50 minutes. While many participants acknowledged difficulties— Often the synod participants spoke of the need for competing pressures that stultify a sense of unity within conversion on the part of bishops and clergy. This asser - families, broken homes, non-nuclear family clusters, as well tion might shock those outside and within the church— as the need to personally accompany those who have suf - how can the church’s own leaders not understand the ker - fered from divorce or separation—they also argued that nel of their own faith these are hardly an experience? One synod argument against participant spoke of The new evangelization is shared faith in the how clergy can too eas - home; indeed, they urge ily become more like inconceivable without lay it more. functionaries than mis - Many bishops from sionaries—centered on people who instill the Word developing nations the external needs of God in the lives of insisted that small of organization rather Christian communities than the personal need the faithful. (also called “base com - of relationship with munities”) have become God. essential in the growth Many synod fathers spoke of the need to focus on lay and maintenance of faith. They spoke of the way Catholics people, both in professional roles as catechists and in their help reinforce the faith of others, become part of a larger ordinary lives, as witnesses to Christ. The new evange - support system and bring the experience of conversion into lization is inconceivable without catechists, lay people their relationships with neighbors. Parishes in developed who instill the Word of God and elaborate it in church countries might well ponder the gain that can accrue from teaching—in personal and powerful ways—in the lives of such communities of faith. the faithful. Synod participants saw the catechumenal In terms of organizing a congregation, small groups can process (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) as accomplish what parishes, with their sometimes large and one of the great gifts of the Second Vatican Council—a anonymous styles, often cannot—putting a personal face on process of conversion and growth that should be a prime the experience of Catholic life. Further, they can be the first instance of the formation that happens in all catechetical points of outreach beyond the faithful, calling the ever- processes. growing numbers of uninvolved people into some kind of This vision has to give rise to a range of spiritual involve - faith relationship. If it is difficult for someone to make it to ments on a personal and parish level, all of which bring a parish church, it certainly is much easier for them to make Catholics to a surer path of conversion. Local churches and it to a neighbor’s house or apartment. parishes can focus on the renewal experiences, prayer These small groups, breaking open the word of God in events, moments of adoration and prayer in the Spirit, more consistent and extended ways every time they meet, together with retreats and parish missions that further this help believers experience the power of the word through sense of conversion. Surely, too, regular daily prayer has to reflection, discussion, personal sharing and common prayer. be a part of this experience of ongoing conversion and grow - Making lectio divina a part of small group sharing can be a ing discipleship. It will take years to elaborate the implica - way to link Catholics to experiences of contemplation and tions of this direction toward conversion. adoration, as the Word leads them to fuller awareness and acceptance of God’s action in their lives. Family and Community Hardly a session of the synod went by without mention of Transforming the Parish the family. Synod fathers see parents and families as indis - Nearly every session at the synod referred to the parish as pensible for the new evangelization. Referring to families a central nucleus in Catholic life and renewal. Certainly, as “domestic churches,” participants underlined the impor - many commentators remark on the unique role that the tance of the lived experience of faith and conversion in the parish has played in American life, being a force for com - family as a key element in the transmission of faith. munity unity and organizing for generations of immi -

20 America February 11, 2013 grants. But participants from every continent spoke of the those without much esteem in society. parish’s central place in evangelization. If the Second The synod spoke often of the need to reach out to those Vatican Council underlined the importance and power of who have no faith or who have become “tired” in their faith. liturgy for Catholic life, it also thereby affirmed the cen - Much of this work falls to parishes and other movements trality of the parish, where the Eucharist is celebrated in connected to parishes. No document received more atten - an open and regular way for a community of the faithful. tion than “On Evangelization in the Modern World,” an Synod fathers urged the devout and expressive celebration apostolic exhortation of Pope Paul VI, which spoke of of the Eucharist as a key value in the Catholic experience. evangelization as the essential mission of the church, the They spoke about welcome and inclusion as part of one’s reason for its existence. While the new evangelization experience of the parish. Looking at Catholic life in rela - focuses particularly on those peoples who have already tional terms, Catholics could see the parish as the main received the faith (rather than those who have not explicit - gathering community for the smaller communities of ly heard the Gospel), it recognizes that hard-and-fast cate - faith (families and small groups) that are part of the new gories cannot be laid down in a world as mobile as ours, a evangelization. world where people shift their alle - Parishes should also embrace charity, giances so often. the dramatic way in which the new evan - ON THE WEB How parishes embody outreach America ’s coverage of gelization receives its most compelling the new evangelization. beyond their members remains the witness. If the Trinity is the experience of americamagazine.org/new major challenge for them. Parishes have God’s superabundant love, then the some images to fall back on when they Trinity guides us to reveal that love to all think of liturgy and catechesis (much as humankind. Synod fathers pointed to the works of these images need to be infused with new life); few of them, Mother Theresa and other initiatives to feed the hungry however, have institutional images of reaching out beyond and care for people in need as examples of how the reality their own membership to those who have ceased practicing of faith is revealed through charity. Jesus coupled his their faith or who might be ready to accept an invitation. preaching with “miracles”—deeds of wonder that showed The synod did not see parishes and dioceses as working God’s liberating power and forgiveness to all, particularly in isolation when it comes to the new evangelization. The

February 11, 2013 America 21 prevailing notion of the synod was that, in effect, “we are all interacting with other believers. in this together”; there is no need for independent move - The notion that the new evangelization began with the ments and parishes. Second Vatican Council could be heard at various times during the synod. The grounding of the council’s work in its Broadening the Vision four major constitutions—on liturgy, the church, revelation In addition, the synod was quite open to ecumenical and and the church in the modern world—provided an initial interfaith dimensions of the new evangelization. Many blueprint by which the church could express itself anew, in Protestant representatives attended the synod, universally accord with its deepest tradition, to the modern world. The speaking with joy and support about the move of the call to live faith boldly, while dialoguing with modern cul - Catholic Church toward the new evangelization. Archbishop ture and all believers, hearkened back to the confidence that Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican Communion at the Pope John XXIII engendered when he asked that the time, delivered one of the major addresses to the synod. He ancient windows of the Catholic Church be opened up to spoke about the importance of helping people relate to God let in more air. through Jesus in the practice of contemplation. The synod, then, looks for a renewed Catholic people, Interreligious dialogue focused to a large extent on Islam this time engaged in faith through their own experience, not and the need to share common beliefs and concerns and to just recipients of faith through a Catholic culture. The expe - grow in understanding of each other. Bishops from countries rience primarily turns on Jesus and the community of faith with large Muslim populations frequently noted the difficul - he began. As Catholics live in the world, they bring to that ty of being a Christian church in a society where conversion world the power of these re lationships of faith, sharing to Christianity is often a crime and inviting people to con - them freely within their families and i nviting others to par - version can mean imprisonment. ticipate in the joy of faith in Jesus Christ. Similarly, bishops from Asian countries reflected on the Should these goals and directions take root, the primary unique place of Christianity in the midst of religions that vision of the Catholic faith, the people of God who have flourished long before the coming of Jesus Christ, the joint encountered their savior in Jesus, can transform not only the values that Catholics shared with these ancient faiths and the billion plus who identify as Catholic, but, as importantly, essential dialogical posture that Catholics must have when many beyond the community of faith. A

22 America February 11, 2013 FAITH IN FOCUS Coming Home The liberation I found at L ’Arche BY CAROLINE M CGRAW remember exactly where I was my bafflement and moved forward life. He invited three men with intel - standing. It was in a small hallway with the visit. And just a few months lectual disabilities (Raphael, Philippe Iat a L’Arche home in Washington, later, I was dragging my suitcase up and Dany) to move from a local insti - D.C., when I met my friend and the stairs and hugging my mother tution into his home in the French vil - housemate Pedro. At the time, I was goodbye. My time as a live-in direct lage of Trosly-Breuil. That first night visiting L’Arche for a series of inter - care assistant with L’Arche had was particularly challenging for all views. I had not yet received an official begun. involved. In fact, Dany was gone the job offer, but even so, I knew that I next day. But Raphael and Philippe would be coming to live and work An Unconventional Household remained with Vanier, and their there. I could feel it in my bones; this L’Arche (French for “the ark”) is a unconventional home grew and gave was where I needed to be. And amid faith-based, nonprofit organization rise to others like it. this sense of assurance, a white-haired GRACE: Pre-dinner prayer man walked up to me. at L’Arche, D.C., in 2011 He leaned in toward my face, speaking loudly and emphatically in Spanish. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure about coming to live in the communi - ty. The man before me raised his arms and gestured emphatically, but I hadn’t the faintest idea what he was saying. The foreign words were incomprehensible, and Pedro’s (not his real name) unique pronunciation, proximity and volume disconcerted me. I wondered: How should I s respond? Finally my companion r e D e translated a few phrases. Pedro was u l

N i giving me a blessing, welcoming me t r a m

into his home. I smiled and nodded, y b

o grateful for the prayer. Yet I also t o h p

thought: We’re going to be house - s N mates? But I can’t understand a thing c he says! God, are you sure? that creates homes where people with At present, there are over 150 The answer came back, almost and without intellectual disabilities L’Arche communities worldwide, before I’d finished the question: Yes. share life together. L’Arche began not located in 40 different countries. So I took a deep breath, swallowed as a crusade to change the world but L’Arche has made a significant contri - as a single individual’s daring act of bution to social change and inclusion

CAROLINE M CGRAW is the author of I Was kindness and hospitality. L’Arche came in the 40-plus years since its incep - a Stranger to Beauty (ThinkPiece), now into being in 1964 because a man tion; Vanier’s recent Nobel Peace available as a Kindle single. She lives in named Jean Vanier, under the spiritu - Prize nomination comes as no sur - Alabama with her husband and writes about caring for people with disabilities at al guidance of The Rev. Thomas prise to those who know L’Arche. But AWishComeClear.com. Philippe, welcomed strangers into his in 1964, Vanier little dreamed that his

February 11, 2013 America 23 act of obedience would ripple outward him, to become a part of his family. It comes a tremendous secret that we in such a profound way. In fact, was a strange sensation, knowing that rarely acknowledge: With or without Vanier’s first impression of L’Arche this man was a part of my path but a formal diagnosis, we all need the was that it was a failure. not having the faintest idea as to how kind of compassion and care he Most accounts of L’Arche’s found - I might connect with him. offered. Another paradox: We all are ing mention just two men, Raphael in need of support, yet we all have and Philippe (and even those key My Journey to L’Arche something to offer one another. We all individuals often go unnamed). Even so, remembering how I came— have gifts to give. And it is on this sub - Dany’s arrival and subsequent swift or shall I say, was brought—to the versive truth that L’Arche stands. departure are largely omitted. In a L’Arche community helped me to per - L’Arche communities seek to be a world obsessed with achievement, it sist in forging connections there. place where the “least of these” are the seems strange to say that the first L’Arche was an unexpected twist in first of all. L’Arche household lost one fourth of my life story. Despite the fact that my Of course, doing so takes time and its members overnight. And yet this younger brother, Willie, is on the deliberate effort. Putting people with first “failure” is an important part of autism spectrum, I never suspected special needs first is not what society the story, vital to understanding that I would care for others with spe - teaches. In an era when essential L’Arche’s “success” today. cial needs after graduating from col - Medicaid funding is cut more and Many community members will lege. I thought I would be a full-time more every year, when many care - tell you that their first introduction to writer—and now I am—but it turns givers earn the minimum wage or less, a L’Arche community is a study in out that finding a place among those caring for the least of these is not an paradoxes. Coming to community is with special needs was a prerequisite easy path. Furthermore, many adults both illuminating and unsettling, to finding my story, finding my voice. with intellectual disabilities move comforting and disorienting. My path to L’Arche became clearer slowly; in order to meet them where Likewise, my first meeting with Pedro when I learned more about Jesus’ life, they are, we must slow our frantic felt like a failure in that I perceived how he reached out to people with pace. And it is hard for us to cultivate him as a stranger, unknown and special needs who were outcasts from that kind of loving patience in this age unknowable. Yet at the same time, I society. Jesus loved people with all of super-fast everything. Yet it is pre - knew that I was being led to live with kinds of disabilities, and with that cisely because it is so hard for us that

24 America February 11, 2013 it is so fruitful; we need this change of Gradually, the man who seemed like a just what it felt like: liberation. pace more than we know. stranger became a beloved friend. Indeed, that is the work of L’Arche, Working in ministry alongside Pedro revealed to me that, as Leo to break down barriers between peo - people with special needs requires Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina , “If it ple with and without intellectual dis - that we change, and that change is, in is true that there are as many minds as abilities. The organization’s charter the words of Madeleine L’Engle, “both there are heads, then there are as states, “In a divided world, L’Arche a challenge and a joy.” To be sure, there many kinds of love as there are wants to be a sign of hope.” When is treasure to be found in the special hearts.” I came to love Pedro before I people visit L’Arche homes, they are needs world. My friends at L’Arche could fully comprehend his speech. struck by the ways in which the mem - have been my greatest teachers in the Why? Because even though I could bers depend upon one another. Core art of enough and the spirit of suffi - not understand his words, I grew to members (individuals with intellectu - ciency. They have taught me to stop understand his heart. al disabilities at the center of commu - my flurry of activity, to pause and Soon after, an unexpected miracle nity life) depend on direct-care assis - stare out windows and watch the occurred. I woke up one day and tants for help with personal care tasks birds fluttering in the trees, to nurture found, to my immense surprise, that I like showering and dressing; in turn, friendships and breathe deeply. could understand Pedro. It was as assistants depend on core members though someone had flipped a switch for invaluable things like friendship, Sitting with Pedro inside my brain; hours and hours of support and mentorship. Yet it is also These gentle lessons served me well listening had finally paid off. Soon, I important to remember that implicit when it came to building a relation - took delight in translating Pedro’s in the statement, “L’Arche wants to be ship with Pedro. Since I did not know speeches for visitors. I had despaired a sign of hope,” is what L’Arche does what to do, I did the same thing of ever feeling connected to Pedro; not attempt to be. It does not pretend Vanier did: I started small. I practiced now, I helped new members to con - to be a solution to the problem of pro - Spanish with my fluent housemates. I nect with him. I had the privilege of viding for all individuals with special sat with Pedro, letting the rhythmic helping others dismantle their barri - needs. Instead, L’Arche seeks to signi - cadence of his words wash over me ers, and I never tired of seeing it, that fy a larger reality: God’s love and the (and, hesitantly, I pronounced a few moment when people started under - promise of welcome for the stranger phrases in Spanish in response). standing Pedro for themselves. I knew within us all. A

February 11, 2013 America 25 26 America February 11, 2013 BOOKS &CULTURE

FILM | JOHN ANDERSON “enhanced interrogation” techniques so popular with the Bush administration THE HUNTED AND THE HAUNTED in the understandably hysterical moment following the terrorist attacks The disturbing brilliance of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ of Sept. 11, 2001. It should be said right away that the any of the more talked- the uncivilized or the cruel, they are film is gripping, masterfully executed, about movies this season pretty much against it. engaging, revelatory and enormously Mconcern themselves with Zero Dark Thirty, the much-dis - entertaining. It also takes the strategi - barbarity in one manifestation or cussed thriller about the hunt for cally brilliant dramatic tack of steering another. “Lincoln” is about slavery; Osama bin Laden, takes a slightly dif - all the audience’s emotional equity into “Argo” about imperialism, radical fun - ferent point of view. As many readers one character, Maya, an agent for the damentalism and sociopathic politics. already know, the film—directed by the Central Intelligence Agency, whose sin - As for “Les Misérables”—where can Oscar-winning Kathryn Bigelow (“The gle-mindedness would earn the admira - you even begin? They are very different Hurt Locker”) and written by her part - tion of Al Qaeda. As played by Jessica movies, of course, but they share a com - ner/producer Mark Boal—proffers a Chastain, who seems to be everywhere mon impulse: Regarding the inhuman, shall-we-say generous view of the in films these days, Maya is attractive, . D e V r e s e r s t h g i r l l a

. c l l

, y t r i h t k r a D o r e Z

2 1 0 2 © HOMELAND INSECURITY: Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty”

February 11, 2013 America 27 vulnerable and sympathetic enough to put flesh and blood on a story that is Procula’s Tears largely about electronic surveillance, track-and-trace technology and the Mt 27:19 less-than-cinematic wonders of G.P.S. It should also be said that Chastain, The city suffocates with the smell who has been accused in some quarters of giving a “chilly” or “remote” perfor - Of hemp, soaked in blood, everywhere. mance, does exactly what she is sup - Hour after hour after hour she tosses posed to do. Maya is something close to a lunatic, manically engaged in finding From one nightmare to another. the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks Her bed sheets, once silvered to a degree that precludes her having With the scent of nard, taste of gall. any other life. One could say that Bigelow and Boal do not give us enough She dreams she sees her husband, the prefect information about Maya, not enough Of equivocation, leaning over the portico backstory. But there isn’t any. As we learn, she was recruited out of high Trying to appease the mob’s spite. school to join the Central Intelligence Agency and has been religiously devot - A blood-drenched man with woven thorns ed to capturing Bin Laden ever since. (If there’s romance in “Zero Dark Thirty,” Crowning his head stands before him. it is between hunter and prey.) Her He seems to speak in monosyllables C.I.A. boss, played by James Laced with ancient prophecies. Gandolfini, an unlikely sub for Leon Panetta, asks her what she has done for Something deep within her says to intervene the agency besides hunt for bin Laden. Plead with the fates, and reverse history, “I’ve done nothing else,” she says. She’s Nancy Drew, with obsessive-compul - To barter this god man’s life for human years. sive disorder. In a very encouraging sense, Maya is As night vanishes some deeper dark descends. a stand-in for an America that was, and seemingly is (see: drones), willing to In the late morning frenzy that follows abandon democratic principles to kill She sends her husband her dream its enemies. But there also seems very little doubt Rolled in a scroll, which he unravels that Bigelow and Boal drank the intelli - Then lets drop. gence community Kool-Aid. When it was learned early on that the “Zero Dark Thirty” project was receiving priv - What he has written he has written. A cross ileged access to Department of Defense Casts its shadow across her warning. Is this the Christ? and C.I.A. information surrounding Or just one more raw-boned prisoner the Bin Laden pursuit, there was a knee-jerk outcry among certain con - Sentenced to die on Mars’ day. gressional Republicans that a pro- Obama film was in the works. (The PHILIP C. KOLIN project was under way well before Bin Laden was killed in 2011 and had to be quickly refashioned.) The fears were PHILIP C. KOLIN has just published a volume of poetry, Reading God’s Handwriting . He recently founded Vineyards: A Journal of unfounded. President Obama, circa Christian Poetry. 2008, does make an appearance in the film, on a television screen, decrying the

28 America February 11, 2013 use of torture and the damage it has has spent 10 years and her entire young not worth viewing or reading, albeit done to the moral standing of the adulthood in search of a something with caution. All art is about truth, and United States in the world. The film that. when it finally arrives, just leaves each artist arrives at his or her own ver - shakes its head in disgust. her empty. sion, presumably after careful consider - The head-shaking should be on the “Zero Dark Thirty” is a magnificent ation of the alternatives (which, per - other side of the screen. Without movie—if we ignore the moral ambigu - haps, is why fundamentalists are not going into too much excruciating ities. But can we? Louis-Ferdinand usually artists, and why Hitler was a detail, suffice it to say that “Zero Dark Céline was a rabid anti-Semite; Ezra bad painter). Thirty” reaches the indirect but Pound was a fascist; Leni Riefenstahl What adds to the disturbance sur - unavoidable conclusion that torture was a propagandist for Hitler. But no rounding “Zero Dark Thirty” is its worked, that the key piece of informa - reasonable person would say they were makers’ insistence that what they have tion that led to bin Laden was not great artists, or that their work is done is both truth and just a movie. achieved through waterboarding and the variety of deprivations suffered by detainees. It also suggests, in a manner that only film can do, that a govern - ment that forbids enhanced interroga - tion is tying the hands of its overseas operatives, who have much more important things to worry about than petty politics back home. This ignores the conclusions reached by the petty politicians on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who include John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona. Their study of the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program concluded—following the examination of more than six million pages of records from the intelligence community—that the C.I.A. did not obtain its first clues about the identity of Bin Laden’s courier from “C.I.A. detainees subjected to coercive interro - gation techniques.” But saying otherwise certainly makes for exhilarating cinema. The tor - ture scenes that follow the very opening of the movie—a series of voices in dark - ness, from people trapped in the World Trade Center, and whose plight deftly sets up the movie’s revenge mecha - nism—are deeply disturbing. They dehumanize the “heroes” as much as the “villains”—which was one of the critical findings, following the investiga - tions into the Abu Ghraib and Bagram and Guantánamo detention centers. One of the things “Zero Dark Thirty” does not do is a dance of victory after the death of Bin Laden. No one is more conflicted in the end than Maya, who

February 11, 2013 America 29 Bigelow has repeatedly called her new reviewer belongs) have named it the the heroes and heroines of a ‘true’ work a “reported film,” and she wields a best picture of 2012, even if a certain Christianity” or considering “all other palette of documentary techniques in voter’s remorse seems to have settled forms of religious giving as somehow a applying a coat of in. It will be interest - betrayal of the essential radicalism of veracity to her time- ON THE WEB ing to see whether the Christian movement.” Rather, compressed story. At America ’s annual round-up Hollywood, with its Brown’s task is “reconstructing the the same time, she of the Oscar nominees. allegedly leftist lean - imaginative content of religious giving” americamagazine.org/podcast and Boal—who ings, will endorse a in all its quotidian forms: weekly offer - reported the report - film that takes such a ings, gifts to the poor, donations to ed film—counter accusations of being controversial position and whose direc - building projects, constructions of pro-torture (or, rather, not vehemently tor seems genuinely dismayed at the funerary monuments, payments of enough against it) with the claim that reactions she has gotten. One way of vows, supporting clergymen and their movie is told from the perspective defining art, after all, is as something teachers and so on. of the participants and therefore should that achieves exactly the effect its Brown’s survey of wealth in late be viewed with the cocked eyebrow maker intended. If ambiguity was Roman society shows that the rise of with which we address any work of fic - Bigelow’s intention, she has created a the Christian rich did not completely tion. masterpiece. alter the societal landscape. Romans Can they have it both ways? Of had long maintained that “the posses - course they can. And they do. Several JOHN ANDERSON is a film critic for Variety sion of wealth should be legitimated and The Washington Post and a regular con - critics groups, including the New York tributor to the Arts & Leisure section of The (or at least be given a more gentle face) Film Critics Circle (to which this New York Times. by acts of generosity.” The primary change involved not the deeds but their recipients and outcomes. In BOOKS | MICHAEL PEPPARD short, Roman culture was devoted to city life: the ancient and deep social EARLY CHRISTIANS WERE RICH? transaction that traded civic benefac - tions for civic honors was enacted THROUGH THE EYE through games, sacrifices, feasts and OF A NEEDLE processions and memorialized Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the through titles, ranks, statues and mon - Making of Christianity in the uments. West, 350-550 AD The Christian innovation was Peter Brown twofold: first, benefactions were redi - Princeton University Press. 806p $39.95 rected from the “citizens” to the “poor,” social groups whose fundamental dis - “Woe to you who are rich!” (Lk 6:24), tinctions Brown vividly delineates; said Jesus. “It is easier for a camel to second, the outcome of individual gen - pass through the eye of a needle than erosity was transferred from a monu - for one who is rich to enter the king - ment in a town forum to “treasure in dom of God” (Mt 19:24). Agrarian heaven.” peasants in first-century Galilee no The theological teachings of Jesus doubt cheered at such indictments of and Paul were meaningless apart from the wealthy in their zero-sum econo - economic metaphors—debt, gift my, which was marked by stark income (“grace”), redemption, treasure, inequality. But how did the economic reward. Brown charts how, over the message of Jesus ring out centuries long fifth century, Christian leaders later, when in the late fourth and fifth which holy men and women painted such biblical images on the centuries—for the first time—the renounced wealth, sex, domestic life Roman cultural backdrop of the hon - church became rich? and civic honor to seek virtuosic com - ors-for-benefactions structure. The Historians, including Peter Brown munion with God. In the current ensuing drama transpired locally and himself, have often focused on the book, however, Brown argues against regionally. Each city’s emerging ascetic response in late antiquity, by treating “the renouncers of wealth as Christian leaders were writing scripts

30 America February 11, 2013 in which local elites could play the new role of a wealthy and honorable Christian. The logic and metaphors of com - mercial transaction were not rejected but appropriated in many local attempts “to consolidate the Christian community.” Bishops like Ambrose and Augustine “preached urgently” in order to “tame and redirect” the “adrenalin of civic love,” which pulsed through their newly wealthy congregations. As over 20 discrete chapters of microhistories show, the adaptation of Roman cultural ideology to a Christian piety of giving had mixed results. Then, as now, the preachers were not always persuasive. Brown’s “unremitting sense of place” assures the reader that few sweeping general - izations are forthcoming in the book’s conclusion. But some leaders were suc - cessful in promoting regular pious giv - ing of small donations as a means by which to expiate sin and secure a kind of heavenly retirement account. “Seek heaven with a pious heart,” proclaimed an inscription from a church in Mauretania, “through donating a few cubes of mosaic.” Poetry Contest Each chapter is effortlessly guided by Brown’s distinctive style. It is Poems are being accepted for the doubtful the book could have under - gone a really “blind” peer review, 2013 Foley Poetry Award . because every student and scholar of late antiquity would recognize the trademarks of the author’s historical prose: the explication of both continu - ity and change; attention to all possible Each entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem of 30 lines or fewer types of evidence, especially those that that is not under consideration elsewhere. Include contact information on the same reveal glimpses of non-elites (e.g., page as the poem. Poems will not be returned. tombstones); ample comparisons to Please do not submit poems by e-mail or fax. other cultures and to the contempo - rary world; and a wonderfully dynam - Submissions must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2013. ic style of translation of ancient texts. Poems received outside the designated period will be treated as regular poetry sub - We find aspects of the late ancient missions and are not eligible for the prize. world compared to toxic factories, polar ice caps, crystalline pseudomor - The winning poem will be published in the June 3-10 issue of America. The three phosis, 1960s-style teach-in and sumo runner-up poems will be published in later issues. wrestling, just to name a few memo - Cash prize: $1,000 rable analogies. Send poems to: Foley Poetry Contest, America Magazine, 106 West 56 Street It is also doubtful that any other New York, NY 10019

February 11, 2013 America 31 current historian could have written it. Like other great works of historiog - Franklin Pierce did not. Neither does No search engine can do this work. raphy, this book feels timeless and the Constitution require the president Obscure points of social history are timely at the same time—an instant to offer a post-ceremony address. plucked from unheralded monuments, classic. Christians have always been After his inauguration, Washington sermons and speeches from every cor - and currently are concerned about addressed members of congress at ner of the empire. Even seasoned income inequality and about finding Federal Hall. “He made,” Lepore says, scholars will learn something on every the proper balance between individual “no pretense of speaking to the page. As an example of Brown’s labor- acts of charity and just civic structures. American people.” The first open-air intensive style of argument through But like a master chef, Brown does not inaugural address was made by James miniscule details, he cites in passing a remind the reader of how seasonally Monroe in 1807. And while we might unique reference to a slang term for appropriate his product is. Nowhere appreciate the pious sentiment of “So the “poor box” at Augustine’s church in does the prose trumpet, “Look how help me God,” the concluding phrase Hippo: it was called the quadriga , “the relevant this is!” Rather, we devour the of most presidential oath-takers, that four-horse chariot that swung low to book and leave satisfied by its hearti - phrase does not appear in the official sweep the alms of the faithful (as it ness and subtlety, fully aware that all oath of office, and may never have had once swept the prophet Elijah the ingredients were in season and art - escaped the lips of George himself) far beyond the stars to heav - fully prepared by a master. Washington or his immediate succes - en.” By the end of the book, Brown has sors. shown through hundreds of such MICHAEL PEPPARD , author of The Son of Historical excavations of our politi - God in the Roman World (Oxford examples the transformations of late University Press), is an assistant professor of cal traditions, like the one offered in antiquity with respect to wealth. theology at Fordham University in New York. this piece, seem to come easily for Lepore, a Harvard historian who has gathered into this volume a collection of 20-like-minded essays, most of JAMES M. LANG them reprints or revisions of pieces EXCAVATING AMERICA originally published by The New Yorker. Lovers of the leisurely, digres - sive prose of that magazine will wel - THE STORY OF AMERICA people—to those who have served come this happy yoking together of so Essays on Origins before him. many finely crafted meditations on By Jill Lepore And yet, as Jill Lepore details in the American history, politics and litera - Princeton University Press. 427p $27.95 concluding essay of Excavating ture. America , very little of what we see in You will not find a single guiding If you paused in your day to watch the inaugural ceremony thread in the essays the presidential inauguration cere - comes to us scripted by gathered here, monies on Jan. 20 and 21, you either the Consti- although you will find observed a series of rituals that seem tution, the traditions of constant attention to firmly scripted and deeply embedded the distant past or— the genre of history in America’s past. The president, for for that matter—our itself. Lepore wants us example, placed his hand on a Bible, nation’s religious her - to understand that uttered an oath laid down by the itage. The Constitution while our past comes Constitution and concluded with a calls only for the new to us through docu - brief acknowledgment of the divine: president to swear the ments, “documents “So help me God.” Following the offi - official oath. It does not aren’t to be trusted.” cial ceremony, he offered his inaugu - require the oath-taker They require interpre - ral address to the American people, to place his (or her) tation, and that act of setting the tone and agenda for his hand on the Bible. interpretation can be a four years in office. Like all of our That was a last-minute deeply political one. public rituals, the ceremony strikes decision George “The heart of politics,” viewers as providing an unbroken Washington made on the morning of she argues in her introduction, “is link to our rich national history, his inauguration; and while most pres - describing how things came to be the bonding today’s president—and his idents have followed his precedent, way they are in such a way as to con -

32 America February 11, 2013 vince people that you know how to ed his deeply held Christian beliefs. digressive style. That wandering essay make things the way they ought to be.” In “Longfellow’s Ride,” her disman - form, made famous by writers for the By that definition, the role of the his - tling of almost every fact narrated in The New Yorker and their imitators, torian—who describes “how things Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s works well when you are sitting down came to be the way they are”—looms famous poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” with a magazine article after a long large in the political process. leads her to a nuanced and complex day. But, as a colleague rightly pointed And so Lepore offers us an essay, reading of the poem—one in which out to me, it can wear thin over the for example, detailing the trope of the she argues that Longfellow had less course of 20 essays in a single volume. presidential campaign biography— interest in the story of Paul Revere and More than 300 pages of sharp turns whether that comes in the form of a the American Revolution than he did and winding pathways can leave one multi-volume tome or a convention in offering a covert rallying cry to his feeling dizzy and exhausted, stumbling video. Unsurprisingly, most campaign fellow abolitionists at the outbreak of wearily toward the finish line of a long biographies tell the story of a plucky the Civil War. trail race. youth who overcame adverse circum - Given the broad range of subjects in Still, I do not hesitate to recom - stances in his rise to political power. I this book, any reader with even the mend this book to lovers of American watched political campaign videos most passing interest in the history of history and literature, who will find this season with a much clearer view America will find here at least an essay themselves mostly relishing Lepore’s of the ways in which aspiring office- or two on a favorite topic and plenty of deeply researched and elegantly writ - holders were crafting their biogra - essays that will stimulate interest in ten essays, newly aware of the shifting phies in order to mold themselves to historical and political subjects that grounds of some of America’s most this firmly established narrative. In remain central to us today. But most deeply held historical myths and tradi - another essay, wittily entitled “Rock, readers will also find themselves, as I tions. Paper, Scissors,” she narrates the his - occasionally did, skimming through tory of voting in America—not in essays on subjects that held little inter - JAMES M. LANG is an associate professor of some broad sense, but finely focused est for them and that were perhaps not English at Assumption College in Worcester, on the actual process of stuffing a bal - well served by Lepore’s conversational, Mass. lot into a hole or marking an X on a piece of paper. Just as she did with the inaugural ceremonies, she pro - vides a fascinating account of the patchwork history of the voting pro - cess in America, highlighting the con - tingent nature of both past and pre - sent practices. Her historical and critical lens extends beyond politics. Essays on Edgar Allan Poe and Charlie Chan sit side-by-side with stories of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, or a reflection on the post-civil war migra - tion of American blacks from the TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW EB0909 9

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February 11, 2013 America 33 data, television—were likely to merge.” WIL LEPKOWSKI And so, as everyone now knows, they INVENTING THE FUTURE did, and fairly recently, at an almost blinding rate. The paradox of Bell Labs is that its THE IDEA FACTORY ties, complete with foibles and virtues. success led to the diminution of Bell Labs and the Great Age of The transmission/voice/switching AT&T. Everyone who has carefully American Innovation story serves as the groundwork for the observed Bell Labs would add, “Why, By Jon Gertner astonishingly inventive era Bell Labs of course it would,” since the things Penguin Books. 432p $29.95 enjoyed for three decades, which will produced by Bell Labs simply exceed - probably never be repeated by one sin - ed the ability of AT&T to use them. Each invention and new research into gle organization. The story calls upon The company’s history was in voice technological possibilities has its own mathematics, physics, communication. It story, and we can now add to the best chemistry and the spe - could not easily absorb of them the latest and probably most cialty sciences accom - the immense potential compelling one of our time. It is told in panied by brilliance and of the laser, fiber the book The Idea Factory , by Jon cooperation. optics and the full Gertner, a history of the Bell Consider the com - development and mar - Telephone Laboratories—or Bell munication satellites keting of the cell Labs—the epic research center that (the original was called phone. The merger of served the American Telephone and Telstar), the field of these innovations that Telegraph Company. radio astronomy, con - led to the new era of AT&T was founded by Alexander tributions to the devel - communications Graham Bell, who invented the tele - opment of radar, the escaped their enthusi - phone more than a century ago. Over invention and original asm. Significantly, time AT&T became a government- use of digitized com - other companies sanctioned monopoly, granted to puters, the theory and fought for their own ensure that the newly expanding tele - science that made pos - roles and filed suits phone system—in other words, com - sible the “bit” system of computer lan - demanding equal standing with munications—would be developed in guage, the laser and basic work in the AT&T in the competition for mar - a uniform way, unfettered by disrup - invention of synthetic rubber during kets. Communications was no longer tive conflicts among competing corpo - World War II. Add key contributions the industry of a single corporation. It rations. It was, in a sense, a public util - to the science needed for effective cold would grow without boundaries and ity whose development had to be fed - war espionage and, highly important, turn out to be fiercely competitive. erally nurtured for the good of the the initial and continuous develop - Federal litigation against the country. ment of solid state science for the monopoly function of AT&T led to So what did Bell Labs actually do? underlying materials that made possi - its breakup, which further led to the Basically, over the years it was busy ble the electronics behind communica - diminution of Bell Labs until it extending the future. First, it invented tions. The list is easily extended, but became a unit of a company called the transistor, which led to semicon - the point is that these and more inven - Alcatel-Lucent that was devoted to ductors that were composed of, and tions made possible just about every competing with other communication increasingly packed with, transistors. communication product we see companies for the development of The tiny transistor was truly a miracle around us today. communication products. Basic device because it replaced vacuum The accomplishments of Bell Labs research, except for a few laboratories tubes. Vacuum tubes were hot, heavy, then were the epic phenomenon of the here and there, essentially disap - expensive, demanded too much elec - 20th century. A few Bell Labs scien - peared. tricity and were too large for the hous - tists saw early what the research would The social consequences of the ing needed for the equipment. accomplish over time. One was John information revolution and its relent - Transistors generated less heat and Pierce, the inventor of Telstar and less expansion now fill numerous were miniscule. Most useful are much else. He said that because of the books, including the recent biography Gertner’s efforts to give the reader a products that Bell Labs produced, “all of Steve Jobs. full reading of the inventors’ personali - electronic exchanges—letters, calls, The key questions now are social

34 America February 11, 2013 and moral. Many of them early con - Yes, we will be enabled to apply our research devoted to the ethical impli - cerned William O. Baker who headed mobile communications to new kinds cations of all that is unfolding before the Labs a couple of decades before of social good. But mustn’t we also ask us? today’s era of communications began. what innovative forms of evil might People spend full days communi - ride the ethers. Might we need a new WIL LEPKOWSKI is a science writer, editor cating by smartphones, crowding out form of Bell Labs as a new center of and researcher. true, traditional human discourse and producing discourse of other kinds. But sharing information among those with serious intentions to improve the THE CATHOLIC BOOK CLUB human condition can also depend on these new communication systems. MARCH 2013 Think of Africa, where so much com - munication is carried out today by cell phone, and where iPads are increasing - Join Kevin Spinale, S.J., ly common. for a conversation about The best solution for satisfying human needs is to recognize the need the new biography of for communications and the sharing of Joseph P. Kennedy. knowledge, says Steven Johnson, author of Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age . “The world is filled Submit questions and fol - with countless needs for community, low the online creativity, education, personal and envi - ronmental health that traditional mar - discussion at americamagazine.org/cbc. kets do a poor job of satisfying.” Michael Saylor , author of The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything , says, “Mobile computing will provide a universal computing platform to the majority of humankind and will spur the creation of innumerable new applications that are not possible without a universal networked computer that is carried on one person 24 hours a day. It means the disruption of long-standing behav - ior.” Saylor adds, “Each revolution cre - ates an upheaval requiring new rules and new cultural dynamics. Information and automation will lead to loss of anonymity. There will always be a trail of who you are, where you are, and what you do. Even as we establish rules to protect the data and limit its use it will still exist. So…it will be a mater of information foren - sics to dig it up.” Indeed so. The new problems and challenges are just beginning when the world’s cyber communicators have access to an enlarging family of others.

February 11, 2013 America 35 LETTERS neighborhood. (1/7), which scrutinizes the machina - Many of the base communities in tions of the Corrections Corporation Central America are not those of the of America. Liberation Approach 1970s and 1980s, which incorporated Anyone seeking to re-enforce such As a lay missionary in western a strong social analysis. The hierarchy suspicions of for-profit prisons should Honduras, I’m grateful for “Still is generally much less inclined to speak read Michelle Alexander’s powerful ‘Presente’?” by David Golemboski out forthrightly on the issues. There book, The New Jim Crow . In it Ms. (1/21), especially for the emphasis on are exceptions, of course, including Alexander, a civil rights attorney, economic issues in Central America. several Guatemalan bishops. demonstrates how mass incarceration The economic issues are harder for In the long-term, more needs to be has been propelled by the so-called U.S. Catholics to deal with, especially discussed, researched and done. It war on drugs. Spawned under the the social and political aspects that won’t be like the solidarity of the watch of Ronald Reagan, the war on involve U.S. trade policy and the 1980s, nor should it be. But I do drugs fostered discriminatory proce - actions of major corporations. believe that a liberation approach, one dures and laws that disproportionately I am involved in two “sister parish” that recognizes and encourages the penalize African Americans. relationships. People do seek relation - participation of the poor in the church At the same time, it is no accident ships and the sharing of faith; but and the nations, is critical for real that many benefit from the war on without some careful analysis, this can change to happen. drugs. Police agencies are rewarded in become another way for U.S. JOHN DONAGHY proportion to the number of drug- Catholics to be “good neighbors,” Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras related arrests. Furthermore, private emphasizing the personal but not real - investors have now found that con - ly facing the fact that the neighbor - Mass Incarceration structing new prisons can be quite hood needs to be changed and that I heartily concur with the sentiments lucrative—and, sadly, they benefit U.S. policy has negative effects on the of your editorial “Conflict of Interest” most when the prisons are full. parishes on the 20- by 40-square mile Fort It is ironic that programs in crime CLASSIFIED Belknap Indian Reservation. Comfortable trailer, prevention and rehabilitation are car and insurance provided. Salary negotiable. deemed entitlements, while astronom - Contact: [email protected], or call (406) Books 673-3300. Joseph R. Retzel, S.J., Pastor; St. Paul’s ically expensive and highly unwarrant - ADULT FAITH STUDY. Faith and reason togeth - Mission, Hays, MT 59527-0040. ed mass incarceration is deemed to be er: www.WordUnlimited.com. in the public interest. Translator CHARLES BUTERA Positions I WILL TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH any book, East Northport, N.Y. THE CENTER OF CONCERN in Washington, article, essay, blog, Web site, newsletter. Luis D.C. (www.coc.org) is seeking a full-time Baudry-Simon, [email protected]; Ph. Redemption Is Possible DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, who will (815) 694-0713. be responsible for all aspects of development and “That Man is Me,” by the Rev. Charles donor outreach. These include the Center’s direct Wills Klamut (1/7), reminds me of Christ’s mail appeals, major donor relations and new donor Please remember America in your will. Our legal title injunction: “For human beings this is acquisition, foundation grants and Center mem - is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New impossible, but for God all things are berships. He/she will work closely with the Center York, NY 10019. President, Center C.O.O., program staff and possible” (Mt 19:26). Only the grace of Board of Directors. More information is available America classified. Classified advertisements are God acting through Monseigneur at https://www.coc.org/coc/job-opening-direc - accepted for publication in either the print version of tor-development-center-concern. Cover letter and America or on our Web site, www.americam - Bienvenu, the of Digne, could résumé should be submitted to [email protected] agazine.org. Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word have reached a man as embittered, as by Jan. 31, 2013. per issue. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 numb, as fatalistic as Jean Valjean in times: $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 times or more: Victor Hugo’s Les Misérable s. PASTORAL ASSOCIATE. Montana Indian $1.12. For an additional $30, your print ad will be Reservation parish makes request for religious posted on America ’s Web site for one week. The flat God’s grace is not the cold predesti - woman to minister in following capacities: director rate for a Web-only classified ad is $150 for 30 days. nation of Calvinism, but an offer of of religious education; provide weekly day-time Ads may be submitted by e-mail to: ads@americam - freedom from the powers of this presence at parish/parish center; provide pre-bap - agazine.org; by fax to (928) 222-2107; by postal mail tismal instruction/preparation for approximately to: Classified Department, America , 106 West 56th world. Without this grace, many of us 80 families. Be a part of (though living at St., New York, NY 10019. To post a classified ad would be powerless and inexorably Lodgepole nine miles from) an active community online, go to our home page and click on “Advertising” condemned by a seemingly arbitrary of three Sparkill Dominican Sisters, four Jesuit at the top of the page. We do not accept ad copy over Volunteers teaching in our mission grade school the phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more and often merciless fate. and two Jesuit priests staffing three separate information call: (212) 515-0102. I pity poor Javert’s inflexible adher -

36 America February 11, 2013 ence to the laws of man. The law is Maryland. The Milwaukee city is bound to implode to a size that made by men. We all have to respect it, Archdiocese recently ordained and nature, standing in for God, will nur - but we must not allow it to become a assigned the Rev. Christopher ture. Escaping survivors had best learn good unto itself. There is a higher law. Klusman to St. Roman Parish and to how to farm again without the use of Javert was imprisoned in a purely the deaf ministry at St. Matthias inorganic fertilizers and chemical pes - human and technical concept of jus - Parish. My parents, who are deaf and ticides applied to expansive monocul - tice. Pure justice, untempered by Catholic, are absolutely thrilled. We tures zoned far from human habita - mercy, can be a terrible thing. For had the privilege of being at his first tion. Javert, it all ends in despair, in the Christmas Mass, where he signed with ERNEST MARTINSON Hayward, Wis. Seine. great fervor and the parishioners The French Revolution was a horri - responded in kind. Transformative Process ble historical episode that turned into For my parents and other deaf, a “After Ideology,” by Ivan J. Kauffman an example of human will run amok. deaf priest is a special gift. After 80 (12/10), reminded me of the process The story of Valjean, however, is real years, my folks are finally having con - our U.S. bishops created for writing to us. It is the redemption of someone fession, Bible classes and the Eucharist the pastoral letters on peace and the beyond redemption—the story of in their own language by one of their economy in the 1980s. By engaging Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. own. The response to Father Chris has with experts across all divides, they MATTHEW F. TERRANOVA been overwhelmingly positive from the Hackensack, N.J. were able to produce living docu - deaf and hearing members. Indeed, ments that at their root were trans - more deaf shepherds are needed. Following Jesus FRAN KNOLL formational. My experience was like that of Father College Park, Md. This approach came to a grinding Charles Klamut, described in “That halt with the attempt to write a pas - Man Is Me.” In 1946, as a sophomore End Petroleum Subsidies toral on women in the church. Rome in a Catholic high school, I read Les intervened, and that was the end of Re “City Limits,” by Kyle T. Kramer Misérables. The story of Monseigneur this socially fruitful and collegial (12/24): Industrial agriculture and Bienvenu left an indelible impression approach. Ever since then, it seems, the manufacturing have been necessary on me about how a sincere follower of conditions for the abnormal Jesus ought to live—an important growth of cities. But indus - influence in my life, although I chose trial processes would not be WITHOUT GUILE the route of marriage and an engineer - sufficient were it not for the ing career. petroleum windfall. The book was recommended by my Cheap oil has fueled the mother, who, despite having to quit transportation networks school after eighth grade, was excep - required to secure inputs tionally well educated. Since the book and discard resources dis - was still on the Index Librorum guised as wastes. But the Prohibitorum (it was finally removed in inevitable end of cheap oil 1959), my book report raised some spells disaster for metropoli - eyebrows among my teachers, Sisters tan areas, a disaster that of St. Joseph, but it was still accepted. could be avoided by a pre - Could Victor Hugo ever have imag - emptive attack—not on Iraq ined that 150 years later his work or Iran or God’s children would still be an inspiration, and to elsewhere on God’s good such a huge audience? DON RAMPOLLA earth, but on petroleum sub - N O

Torrance, Calif. sidies. R D A

The phasing in of a car - W H C S A Special Gift bon tax would sound a Y E L

Thank you, Marlana Portolano, for strategic retreat from R A H

your article “Sign of God” (1/7) about metropolitan areas back to Y B

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Joseph Bruce, S.J., a deaf priest who sustainable and distributed O O T R ministers to a deaf congregation in economies. Otherwise, the A C

February 11, 2013 America 37 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops practitioners across the divides within Jimenez, S.J., and Joseph E. Mulligan, remains ruled by fear of this kind of church and society in a process that, in S.J. (12/10): Permit this defense of the intervention—and not without some its very nature, holds the promise of military chaplaincy. Chaplains exist for cause. transcending and transforming. the military personnel—and their Perhaps it is time for some leader - CAROL STANTON dependents—to remind them that ship to emerge once again within the Orlando, Fla. morality may not be forsaken either in U.S.C.C.B. that will resurrect that the field or at the garrison gate. process. Their impulse was a good Grateful for Chaplains Organizationally, chaplains are part one: Engage the best thinkers and Re the letters to the editor from Ben of the commander’s “special staff” for formal advice and counsel. But they To send a letter to the editor we are also the links in an informal chain recommend using the link that from troops to successively higher appears below articles on Ameri - headquarters. ca ’s Web site, www.americam A chaplain’s field visit was always agazine.org. This allows us to publicized and well attended. I consider your letter for publica - remember Mass on the hood of a tion in both print and online ver - Jeep, below deck on a transport and in a tent under lantern-light. For sions of the magazine. Letters may also be sent to Ameri - ’s editorial office (address on page 2) or by e-mail to: troops, these events seemed like ca touchstones to their earlier civilian [email protected]. They should be brief and formation. For those chaplains, I include the writer’s name, postal address and daytime phone remain grateful. number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity . JAMES A. MAHANEY Brooklyn, N.Y.

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38 America February 11, 2013 THE WORD

satisfy his doubts. He cites Deuteronomy a third time—“do not put the Lord your God to the test” Turn Back to God (6:16)—exhibiting his willingness to FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT (C), FEB. 17, 2013 wait on God’s plan and not to substi - Readings: Dt 26:4-10; Ps 91:1-15; Rom 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13 tute his own schemes, a lesson drawn from the wandering of the Israelites in “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:13) the desert. Jesus’ unique character and being ent is a time to prepare for spir - ed in Luke as offering perfect resistance allow him never to turn away from it ual transformation, whether to wilderness temptation. Jesus “was led God, even in the face of stark tempta - Lthis will be signified by the by the Spirit into the desert for 40 days, tion. He grounds his defiance of the sacraments of initiation at the Easter to be tempted by the devil,” a time devil, though, in the example of Vigil or by other rites and signs of con - period meant to recall the 40 the lessons learned through the version. But in order to prepare for years the Israelites, led into failings and persistence of transformation one must turn back to the desert by God, the Israelites. They both God. This is not easy, and those who stumbled and become for us perfect have turned back to God sometimes grumbled while models. The fact that feel the mysterious tug of evil, simulta - wandering. The the Scripture passages neously so repellent and attractive. temptations the cited by Jesus all come In Exodus, the people of Israel, while devil presents to from the time of the enslaved in , turn to God in their Jesus in Luke’s Israelites’ wandering in the suffering: “Out of the slavery their cry narrative mirror for help rose up to God. God heard realities that tempt us all. The PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE their groaning, and God remembered devil tempts Jesus during his fasting his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and with bread, the promise of earthly • What am I doing to get ready to be trans - Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, power and glory, and his own self- formed? and God took notice of them” (2:23- reliance by reciting words from the • What Scripture passages sustain me? e

25). In Chapter 26 of the Book of very source to which Jesus will turn N N u

• What passages have brought me to call D Deuteronomy, Moses presents this to resist them—God’s word. D a

out to God again and again? t

:

same event to the people at the end of Each time Jesus is tempted he t r their long journey from slavery and turns to Scripture and finds his spir - a wandering in the wilderness, recalling itual sustenance in passages precisely desert indicates that those lessons that “when the Egyptians maltreated from the time of the Israelites’ wander - ought to remain a model for us, as they and oppressed us, imposing hard labor ing and stumbling. When tempted by did for Jesus. In the face of temptation, upon us, we cried to the Lord, the God bread, he cites Dt 8:3, where Moses one turns away from sin and turns back of our fathers, and he heard our cry and explains that reliance on manna taught to God. One turns back to the events in saw our affliction, our toil, and our the Israelites not to rely on bread alone which God raised up and sustained oppression.” The starting point for the but to be fed “by every word that comes those who stumbled; one turns back to liberation of the Israelites is the cry to from the mouth of the Lord.” When the Scriptures, which tell us to cry out God. There were, though, numerous offered power and glory if only he to the Lord. temptations throughout these 40 years, would worship the king of this world, Spiritual transformation, though, is during which the Israelites, including Jesus turns to Dt 6:4-13 to stress the tricky business, and we may wish that Moses personally, stumbled. But Israel unique worship of God. The devil then our cry to the Lord would stick and that continued to get up and turn back to cites Scripture back at Jesus (Ps 91:11- temptations and our willingness to God. 12), challenging and taunting him to indulge them would finally end. Yet our Jesus, on the other hand, is present - put God to the test, to see if God is own stumbles, like those of the truly there for him. Jesus resists the Israelites, make us no less worthy to call JOHN W. MARTENS is associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. temptation to use Scripture not as a on God and turn back to him, again and Paul, Minn. sign of dependence upon God, but to again. JOHN W. MARTENS

February 11, 2013 America 39