St. Martha, Model of the Active Life

Happy Feast Day of St. Martha!

"The Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." Lk 10: 41-42

As some of you may remember, this quote and the image to the left were what Liz and I chose to put on prayer cards at our wedding. We got a lot of questions about that, since the quote doesn't seem to be directly related to marriage. However, for us, this quote is essential for us to remember as we strive to live our vocation.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this passage is that Christ is not rebuking Martha for what she is doing, namely serving, but rather for how she is doing it. The act of serving Christ, of using talents in the kitchen and around the home, is an admirable one. Martha is a devout disciple of Our Lord, and she is using her talents to serve Him. As Dr. Janaro pointed out on Facebook today, Martha is the woman who responds to Jesus, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." Martha is a woman of profound faith (she is a canonized saint).

So what is Martha's fault during this meal? I think there are two aspects to it. First, Jesus points out that she is anxious. What is she anxious about? From the context of the text, it seems that she is anxious about the amount of work involved in serving Our Lord. One can assume that she is anxious about getting all the food together, preparing the table, perhaps cleaning. She wants everything to be perfect for Our Lord. And while this desire for perfection is good in and of itself, Martha goes too far and lets it disturb her peace. Jesus is teaching her that while serving Him, His disciples must remain at peace.

But how do we accomplish this when there is so much to do? That's where the second fault of Martha's comes in: she doesn't seem to understand the primacy of the contemplative life her sister Mary has chosen. These two sisters are the picture of the active and the contemplative lives. Martha's time is spent in active service, while Mary's time is spent sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to His teaching. Jesus teaches Martha here that what Mary has chosen is the "good" portion (this is also sometimes translated as "better.") Listening to Christ in silence, sitting at His feet and gazing upon Him lovingly, is higher than actively serving Him. Both are good, but one is closer to what we were made for.

In order to remain at peace while living in the active life, one must adopt certain practices of the contemplative life. We "active" disciples must find time to silently sit at the feet of Our Lord and listen to his teaching. This is the reason Liz and I chose to make this passage and St. Martha such key aspects of our wedding day. We wished to be always reminded that no matter how busy we become, only "one thing is needful." And that one thing is loving contemplation.

St. Martha, Pray for us!

The Return Trip

There are three essential parts to any road trip - the trip there, the visit, and the trip home. All three of these have completely unique aspects to them. During the trip there, an excitement unlike anything else permeates the air. You've been looking forward to this for a long time, and now you're breaking out of the routine to do something special. The visit itself always goes too fast, and more often than not it exceeds your expectations. After looking forward to the visit for so long, when it finally comes, it goes by in the blink of an eye. The return trip, though, is whole different kettle of fish.

Being somewhat melancholic in temperament, I relish the return trip. It is a time for reflection, a time to start moving a little bit more slowly. Usually on the return trip, I enjoy taking my time. I'm not in a rush, I just want to drive and think about everything that just happened. There is an element of sadness in it, since what you have looked forward to for such a long time is now over. However, there is also a fullness. You have been given great blessings and often seen loved ones, and now you are on your way home.

Of course, Liz and I had the chance to experience this just this past weekend. On Wednesday, we drove out to Hilary Schafer and Clement Bataille's wedding in Lafayette, IN. The wedding was beautiful, particularly since they had been engaged for such a long time, and it was wonderful to see old friends again. All of this really sank in on the return trip, though. It was only at that point that we had enough time to sit quietly and think about everything that was said and done. During the weekend, things just happened too fast to really process. It took silence, and in some sense separation, to really appreciate what had just happened.

The experience of the return trip, though, is hardly unique in life. In some sense, the whole experience of a road trip is like life itself. There is the anxious build up to being an adult when you are young, there are your adult years (which already seem to be going faster and faster right now), and finally in old age you are able to slow down and reflect on what has just happened. This is why old people are so famous for their stories; they have entered into a time of life when reflection has become truly possible. They have become separated from the hustle and bustle of early life, and now they can draw out wisdom from everything that's happened. You know a culture like ours has gone down the wrong path when a period in life like old age, a period for reflection and wisdom, is detested.

Old age and return trips are full of sadness and joy. Both involve a sort of sadness at the end of something good. I've heard old timers talk about raising their families and building their lives with something like sorrow in their voices. They recognize how good those times were, and they know they can never get them back.

At the same time, both return trips and old age are times of great joy as well. Though there is a sadness when you are coming back from a long trip, there is also an anticipation for home. This anticipation is different from the anticipation of going out; it's not so much an anticipation for adventure but rather an anticipation for rest. It's the image of the weary traveler returning home. It's the joy of knowing that your bed lies just a few more miles down the road. Old age certainly seems to have this joy. Like on a return trip, old age brings with it a longing for rest. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." 2 Timothy 4: 7-8


God gives us these short periods of life (like the return trip) and longer periods of life (like old age) to wonder at His goodness. If he grants me the gift of old age, I do believe I will enjoy it.  Until then, I hope our culture comes to appreciate each period in life - youth, maturity, and old age. Each has a completely unique blessing to offer.

A Man I Knew So Little but Owe So Much

The characters who affect our lives can often times be larger than life and small children in the Father's house at the same time. Truly great men are humble, unassuming, and may never realize the great effects that they will have on history and on the world. They touch other people's lives by faithfully following the will of the Father for them. They may not be saints, and we can't know if they are (well, unless the Church says so or until we get to Heaven ourselves), but they are surely disciples in the truest sense.

Yesterday, Dr. Warren Carroll, who I believe to be one such man, passed away. He was a true Christian scholar, and he was not afraid to bring his Faith with him into his works. It's not that Catholicism tainted or distorted his view. Rather, Catholicism was the lens through which he knew he could see the truth. His "History of Christendom" is Catholic in its thinking because Catholicism is the guardian of truth. His writings and works are of incredible value, and I can only hope and pray that they will continue to inspire people to study history.

The further work he did in founding Christendom College will be of inestimable value. It already has been. The College he worked so hard for has deeply affected the lives of thousands of people. I think of my friends, my sister, Liz and myself. So much of who we are and what we think is tied up with our time at Christendom. Through study, community, and friendship at Christendom, we gained a clearer vision of the face of Christ. He founded a place that could be a bastion of Tradition, giving students a place of their own within the history of the Church. There are thousands of us that have received the fruits of his labor.

Personally, I never had the opportunity to really know the man. I read his books, I heard stories about him, but by the time I arrived at Christendom in the Fall of 2005, he had already retired from teaching at the College. I'd see him occasionally - for lectures, special events, and of course, St. Patrick's Day celebrations. For me personally, though, Dr. Carroll remained a great figure of local history. He was instrumental in the place that I was, though I did not know him myself.

However, this local connection to him is something that is powerful in its own right. Sure, I may not have had a personal relationship with him, but there is still an incredible bond. I was in his tradition. I am an heir to his intellectual work, and as such I owe him a great debt of gratitude. I was formed in the community that he worked so hard to start. My wife and I met and grew closer to one another in an environment envisioned by his great intellect. Though I may not have personally known the man, I do know him. All of us Christendom students do. Much of who he is formed much of who we are.

Already today on Facebook, many Christendom students and alumni have been pouring forth praise for this man who affected all of us. I'd like to join my voice to theirs. Some knew him personally, others only distantly, but we all knew him. So far, the pre-dominant sentiment seems to be, "This one man affected so many." Thank you, Dr. Carroll. Requiescat in pace.

God is in the Details

This article that Michael Collins recently posted on Facebook got me thinking about the work that lies ahead for Catholics across the world. Specifically, this section stood out to me:

"We have depreciated work that is done with back and hands, because we don’t have to do that work; we’re educated, you see, and can do such necessary things as come up with Five Year Plans for the teaching of gender diversity. 

I have no quarrel with studying the humanities. It’s how I earn my living. But I know well that all that I’m privileged to do, I do upon the bent backs of thousands of men who sweated more than I ever will. I am reminded of it every time I take a walk; I see roads, and houses, and bridges, and stone walls, miles of stone walls that once were the boundaries of farms and pastures in my neighborhood, and I know that all those stones came from the acres and acres of fields cleared by man and horse, and all those walls were built up of stones either muscled into place by the men, or lifted to their place by winch and pulley."

The idea of hard work is something that I think gets lost sometimes in our modern idea of work. I'm not solely talking about the back-breaking work Mr. Esolen refers to, but also the menial, tedious tasks that often accompany work. There is a tendency today to look only at the big picture, and to lose sight of all the little things that must be done before the ultimate end of our work can be reached. A solid foundation must be laid before the roof of a cathedral can rise towards heaven.

Of course, attention to detail is at the center of St. Therese of Lisieux's "Little Way." We find God in the details of our work. We are called to a faithfulness in small actions that the majority of people (myself included) just don't comprehend. Each action, each choice is a chance to love God. How often do we remember this? How often do I purposely make a choice because I know it is pleasing to Jesus? In my own life, I know that the answers to these questions are quite difficult to hear. Sure, I go to daily mass and pray with Liz each day, but there are so many more opportunities to love God than just these!

The true value of a menial task is the fact that it is an opportunity for love of God. This is first and foremost why it is important that we perform the menial tasks. However, there is a practical value to the details as well. The larger goals, such as the conversion of the world, cannot be accomplished without first understanding the details that go into such a large goal. However, since the details are no fun, I find that a number of people are eager to skip them in order to just get on to the larger goals. They rush through the gritty details of work in order to try to achieve the larger goals. A system set up like this is doomed for failure, though! Eventually, details do catch up. If the details of work are consistently ignored, at some point they become major problems with the capacity for derailing the whole project.

The small details of work, whether it be paperwork to set up a new project or the joys of taxation laws, must be appreciated in all endeavors so as to provide a solid foundation for the work. Most importantly, though, we must take the words of Jesus into consideration, "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much." Lk 16: 10

Ups, Downs, and All Arounds: Part 2

Family is truly an amazing thing. It's spectacular to think that we are placed with people to grow up with, people whom we have literally known our entire lives. We're given parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins to love and serve throughout our lives. We're given the opportunity to watch them grow and develop, to watch them change and mature. The family is a good that God has given us so that we might see what it's like when persons truly know and love each other. And we must come to know what this is like, so that we might come to know the Triune God.

In today's modern world, though, it has become the norm for families to live thousands of miles apart. In the past, it was more traditional for marriages to occur between a man and a woman of a local community. By "marrying local," as it were, the large majority of people continued to live around their family. However, modern means of transportation have largely changed that. Today, people move around very easily and often end up far from families. Don't get me wrong, without modern transportation I couldn't have gone to Christendom, and a small town boy from Illinois might not have met the woman of his dreams from Michigan! I simply wish to point out that while modern transportation has made life easier in some ways, it has also made it harder.

Thus, on the one hand, our trip up to New Hampshire was only made possible by modern transportation. On the other hand, though, the trip was also made necessary by the willingness to live far apart that modern transportation tends to engender.  It's interesting how the same thing can bring so many blessings and yet also so many difficulties.

In the end, though, the trip up to New Hampshire was an incredible blessing. We were able to spend 3 full days with Freddie, Nicole, and the kids, even after the fiasco of the ride up. Much of this time was spent in conversation - in beautiful reflections, jokes, stories and even a few debates. Most mornings we were able to sit around leisurely in the kitchen and just talk. The afternoons were spent visiting other family, friends in the area, and even traveling to Liz's childhood home. This hour long trip out to Tilton and Hill, NH was particularly fun. When your married, it's an incredible blessing to be able to glimpse a part of your spouse's life that occurred years before the two of you had ever met. You hear stories, of course, about those places. As you become a member of your spouse's family you're bound to hear a large number of stories. So, for me to actually see where these stories happened was a great blessing.

The whole time we were up there, it really struck me what beautiful families God has placed in Liz and I's life. Many families have serious divisions in them, and I pray for these families with my whole heart. It was not meant to be so. But in Liz and I's case, we realized that though we may be far from some of our family, they are still truly family. We don't stop being a family because of distance. We're too close to them. And it fills me with joy to think that, God-willing, one day we'll all be present together in from of Him Who Is, and we'll know each other in a more true light. Until then, trips to New Hampshire, Michigan, Illinois and just down the road in Virginia remain glimpses of the life to come.

Ups, Downs, and All Arounds: Part 1

Sometimes God shows us how much He loves us by making everything go right. Sometimes, He shows us how much He loves us by giving us small gifts when everything is going wrong. This past weekend was certainly one of those latter times for Liz and I.

As some of you may know, Liz's brother Freddie moved up to New Hampshire about a year ago to begin working at Thomas More College. Since then, we haven't really had a chance to see much of him and his family, so Liz and I decided we would take the 4th of July weekend to travel up north and visit the family. It's a 10 hour car ride up to New Hampshire, so Liz and I aimed to leave by 8:00 in the morning on Thusday. Since having a baby, though, we have discovered that leaving times are very flexible, so instead we left at 8:30. It was a beautiful cool morning, and we were able to roll the windows in the car down and enjoy the countryside as we drove. We started out on Interstate 81, and went North through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The stretch of 81 through Pennsylvania is a particular favorite of mine since you can see a number of Amish farms from the Interstate, which is pleasing to me but probably maddening to the Amish.

Alan was good through out this time, sleeping in his car seat and only fussing when he got hungry. After stopping once or twice to feed Alan, we got on to I-78 which would take us towards New York City, where we would turn more north into Connecticut. Though Alan was still asleep, I needed to stop for gas, so I pulled off at the exit for Bloomsbury, NJ. Unfortunately, the car would never reenter 78. After stopping for gas and to use the restroom, we hopped back in the car ready and rearing to go when our 280,000 mile car finally failed us.

I turned the key once, and the car valiantly struggled to start.... but failed. I turned they key again, and it still struggled but not so valiantly. After a third try, and a more pitiful attempt by the car, I knew we were in trouble. We opened the hood, waved a couple of nice people down (they were actually on the way to the hospital to see their newborn grandson), and tried to start the car, but all to no avail. So, after trying what we could, we had to call a tow truck to take it to a shop.

We broken down right around 1:00, but weren't able to get the car to the shop until 4:00. This meant that we'd have to wait a night in New Jersey before continuing our journey northwards. This loss of a day was the hardest thing for Liz and I. Though we both tried to shoulder on, it definitely brought our spirits down. We had planned to drive up on Thursday and back on Tuesday, giving us four full days with Freddie and Nicole. By losing a day, we knew we were losing a significant part of the trip. We had also been planning to visit Liz's godfather on Friday, but now we would have to cancel that visit.

We checked into a hotel that night and then found out that a cousin of Liz's mom lived close by, so we made arrangements to meet with her the next day. The cousin (who we call "Aunt Pat") offered to visit with us and also to drive us to the shop if needed. As it would turn out, we'd be incredibly greatful for this later.
And so the next morning we waited. When we'd dropped the car off, the mechanic had told us that there was a problem with the o-rings and that he could get us on the road before noon the next day. So, Liz and I waited anxiously, fearing we'd have to miss another day. Around 12:45, I called the mechanic again, only to find out that after having replaced the o-rings the car still didn't start.

By this point, we were desperate to get on our way, so  Liz and I rushed to the shop with the aid of Aunt Pat. After grabbing a few things from the car, Aunt Pay drove us to a rental car place just a few miles away, where we were able to rent a Dodge Durango (very luxurious, by the way). Finally, around 3:00 on Friday, we were on our way again. At the hour of mercy, the Lord let us continue our journey. I can't tell you how good it felt to be on the road again. With each passing mile, the stress from the previous 26 hours wore off. Slowly we made our way towards New Hampshire, just thankful to be on the road again.

Though our trip had been stressful, we knew God had given us the gift of breaking down near family (after Aunt Pat, the closest family was 3 hours away!) and before we got to New York City. As we went along, other blessings made themselves evident. It was a warmer day than the day before, but the rental car had air condition, which was something our little car was lacking. Going through New York City we had to cross the George Washington Bridge, but didn't have the money for the toll. So, God sent my guardian angel (a 5' 10" guant Mexican with long greasy black hair smoking a cigarette) to let us pass without paying the toll.

After 6 1/2 hours in the car, we arrived at Freddie and Nicole's so thankful to be visiting. Losing a day had made us incredibly grateful just for the time we were being given. We felt like Odysseus coming home from the Trojan war, except that Freddie and Nicole didn't have people trying to take our place.

To be continued....