“Reality Has Never Betrayed Me” Proceedings of New York Encounter 2017 “Reality Has Never Betrayed Me” This booklet contains transcripts, not reviewed by the speakers, of talks given at New York Encounter 2017 Crossroads Cultural Center HumanHAB Adventure Books Transcriptions by Karen Kaffenberger Copyediting and layout by Deep River Media, LLC Human Adventure Books "Reality Has Never Betrayed Me" Proceedings of New York Encounter 2017 Crossroads Cultural Center This edition © 2017 Human Adventure Books [ 6 ] [ 7 ] “Reality as it emerges in experience is so positive that it presents itself ” as inexorably appealing. Instead of appealing we might use another word … promising.” — Luigi Giussani We all have the intuition that life, even with all its hardships, is fundamentally good. Its original appeal is continuously being reawakened by things and people—an appeal we can resist, but never eliminate. And yet, we have a hard time relating to many aspects of life: family, work, politics, society, even our own bodies and the very food we eat. We should be the masters of our destiny, but often don’t know what to do with ourselves, and rely on experts to face all kinds of problems. We want to be independent in our decisions, and yet we live in fear of missing out and afraid of really committing ourselves to anything. We claim to be in control of our time, but are constantly anxious about the future. We think we know how to love, but repeatedly feel tossed around by our emotions. We look for “beautiful experiences,” trying to capture the moment, but are left wondering if we are truly experiencing life. In the end, since life does not bend to our desires and its meaning remains elusive, we use our ingenuity to construct our own reality and give sense to life. We believe this is the pinnacle of human dignity and freedom. But the reality we try to create, when put to the test of experience, does not deliver on its promises, and too frequently the ensuing frustration turns into anger and violence. What are we missing? Why do we often perceive reality as disappointing? What can help us reconcile with reality and engage life as it is? Join us for a weekend of public discussions, exhibits, and live performances, to encounter people who, by facing the concrete circumstances of their lives, experience the Reality Has Never Betrayed Me positivity of reality. “ [ 8 ] [ 9 ] CONTENTS Positive Because Appealing Fr. Vincent Nagle and Richard Cabral ................................................. 11 “Economy with a Truly Human Purpose” (Pope Francis): Is It Possible? Paolo Carrozza, Brian Grim, Joseph Kaboski, and Carolyn Woo ......... 23 The Simple Joy of Eating Well Fr. Samuel Fontana, Ginny Laracy, Karen Le Billon, and José Porro .... 45 Reality Does Not Betray. Really? Fr. José Medina, John Waters, and Michael Waldstein ......................... 69 An American Dream...Come True! Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Paige Sanchez, Fr. Matt Malone, S.J., and Claire Vouk ........................................................................................... 87 “Never Lose Infinite Hope” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Tommaso Bardelli and Dan Jusino ..................................................... 109 The Art of Science Maria Teresa Landi, Dr. Luca Matone, and Dr. Polly Matzinger ....... 123 Beauty Does Not Betray Fr. Julián Carrón and Dr. Joseph Weiler ............................................. 147 Longing for You and With You Not Afraid Riro Maniscalco, David Brooks, and Rusty Reno ............................... 163 [ 10 ] [ 11 ] Positive Because Appealing A conversation with Richard Cabral, actor and former gang member in East Los Angeles, and Fr. Vincent Nagle, Missionary Priest of the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo Introduction “Even heaven and earth, which have existed for a million centuries, are an event: an event that still occurs as something new, since its explanation is inexhaustible. To glimpse something greater in the relationship with everything means that the relationship itself is an event, and if man does not look at the world as something given, as an event, starting from the gesture of God which gives it to him now, it loses all its attraction, surprise, and moral appeal. In other words, if man does not look at the world as given, he loses the appeal to adhere to the order and the destiny of things. [...] The common denominator of all realities is the fact that man cannot ultimately explain them or give them an exhaustive definition. Therefore, an event can be defined as the emerging into experience of something that cannot be analyzed in all of its factors, something that contains a vanishing point in the direction of Mystery and something that retains the reference to an unknown [...]. So, an event indicates the contingent, the apparent, the experiential, because it is apparent, as something born from Mystery, as a ‘datum,’ not in the scientific sense of ‘data,' but in the profound and original Latin meaning of the word: datum, something that is given. An event is therefore a fact that surfaces within experience and reveals the Mystery that constitutes it.” Luigi Giussani, Generating Traces in the History of the World, 2010, McGill University Press Friday, January 13, 2017 [ 12 ] Positive Because Appealing T.J. Berden: “Picture yourself being born, coming out of your mother’s womb at the age you are now, at this very moment. What would be the first, absolutely your first initial reaction? If I were to open my eyes for the first time in this instant, emerging from my mother’s womb I would be overpowered by the wonder and awe of things as a ‘presence.’ I would be bowled over and amazed by the stupefying repercussion of a presence, which is expressed in current language by the word ‘thing.’ Things! That’s ‘something!’ ‘Thing,’ which is a concrete and, if you please, banal version of the word ‘being.’ Being: not as some abstract entity, but as a presence. A presence which I do not myself make. Which I find. A presence which imposes itself upon me. [...] Empirically translated, it is the original perception of a given. Gift. One comes to understand oneself as a given, as made, and this last step within the perception of reality as thing, things. The prime, original intuition is the awe in front of this given, and of the ‘I’ as a part of it. The prime, original intuition, then, is the awe in front of a given, the ‘I’ is a part of it. First you are struck, then comes the recognition that you’ve been struck. It is from this idea that gift originates. And without this concept, everything man touches turns to dust. I open my eyes to this reality which imposes itself upon me, which doesn’t depend on me, but upon which I depend. The great conditioning factor of my existence is the awe which awakens the ultimate questions within us. Not as a cold observation, but as a wonder pregnant with an attraction.” “Almost a passivity in which simultaneously is conceived an attraction. The wonder of the presence attracts me. And that is how the search within me breaks out. And what is the formula for the journey to the ultimate meaning of reality? How can this enormously rich experience of the human heart become vivid? How can it become powerful in the impact with the real? The formula for the journey to the meaning of reality is to live always the real intensely. Without preclusion, without denying or forgetting anything.” [applause] Richard Cabral: Thank you. I was asked to give a brief history, the story of who I am and where I am today. So, I wrote this for you guys. I came from a world that never planned for me to succeed. Opinion, some might [ 13 ] Positive Because Appealing say. Well, if they lived a day in my shoes they might have the right to say. If they grew up in a family that cursed you before you were born, they have the right to say. If your mom was an alcoholic, and dad was nowhere to be found, they have the right to say. If you were looking for toys at your grandma’s house, and stumbled upon your uncle’s heroin syringe, they have the right to say. Violence, gangs, and drugs, my mind, body, and spirit were shattered. It was all meant to be, God was gonna make everything all right. The truth is, my uncle sliced his wrists to commit suicide. My grandfather came home night after night, drunk; beat my grandmother in front of my mother, aunt, and uncles. My little cousin was walking home in the night. A little homie drove up on his side, asked him what gang he’s from, and he shot him in the face. No laughs. No whispers. This is reality at its finest. But I do not accept that what happened to me as an innocent child was normal. The trauma I endured would be an obstacle I would forever have to face. It prepared me for survival in a violent, savage world. The world of the streets, gangs, and prisons. Society threw us in the barrio, in the ghetto, and told us, “Figure it out.” I was given no education that was worthwhile, no history of my people. Schools and housing projects looked like prisons. Disconnection from our roots has always been death to our people. Society fed us the crumbs and told us that is all we are good for. Thebarrio has not changed; more liquor stores than libraries, more poisonous food than health food. It is easier to find the dope spot in my community than a museum or a well of knowledge. Broken society produces broken homes, which products a broken family, which ultimately produces a broken child. For every outlet, there was an empty source.