Wuerl on Amoris Laetitia

This month, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., issued Sharing in the Joy of Love in Marriage and Family: Amoris Laetitia Pastoral Plan.  The document discusses the apostolic exhortation written by Pope Francis and proclaims that all Catholics are called to experience the joy of love.

The desire to love and to be loved is a deep, enduring part of our human experience. God has written onto each human heart the desire for self-giving love, reflected in the divine plan for marriage and family. That plan offers a profound “yes” to true joy in love. It gives us an invitation to experience Christian hope in the love of God that never ends.

The archbishop emphasized that those who have been hurt by others especially need our love:

With humility and compassion, the Church also wishes to encounter, to listen to, and to accompany those whose experience of human love is marked by disappointment, pain, and obstacles.

Their pain is made worse by our society, which is secular, materialistic, and individualistic:

Particularly challenging is an individualism that is concerned only with one’s desires, as well as the throwaway culture that sweeps away marriage and family whenever they prove inconvenient or tiresome.

The often not so silent pressures of popular culture forcefully propose a “new normal” that sells short the dignity of the human person.

Pastors and ministers must lead the process of accompaniment with love:

The Holy Father gives priority to the practice of pastoral accompaniment, which in its most fundamental aspect involves leading others closer to God. We begin each encounter mindful of everyone’s innate human dignity.

[Accompaniment] calls for a conversion of heart. The minister is called to recognize that beyond the assurance of doctrinal statements he has to encounter the people entrusted to his care in the concrete situations they live and to accompany them on a journey of growth in the faith.

In addition, in our families, parishes, and communities, we are all called to help each other grow in faith and hope and love.

Accompaniment is a collaborative effort of priests and laity who understand themselves to be missionary disciples, who experience the love of the Lord in their encounter with him and who seek to share it with others. Pope Francis invites all of us to this practice of accompaniment.

In particular, the family can be "the site of God’s revelation lived out in practice."  But we must recognize that no one is perfect; it is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong; everyone needs God's mercy.

Each of us is a sinner in need of wholeness. ... Each of us is in need of this healing, and so we journey together as brothers and sisters united in our common need for the love and mercy of God that heal every broken human heart.

The Christian Way

The statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together on The Christian Way was published in the December 2017 issue of First Things.  Some highlights:

Being a Christian requires more than intellectual or moral agreement with Christian teachings. Christ asks for our love and loyalty. Following him requires conversion, which leads to membership in the Church, the Body of Christ. To be a Christian means being a citizen of a city that has a rich inheritance and glorious future. 

Even now, the Christian way bears witness to the fullness of life promised in Christ. Caring for the sick and the poor, friendship for the prisoner and the outcast, comforting the sorrowful and educating those who need instruction: These are works of mercy that embody the love of God in Christ. This active witness is crowned by ongoing prayer for the needs of fellow Christians, as well as for the world. 

The Christian way seeks to be faithful to that which has been given by God, which turns it outward rather than inward. It serves God’s love for the world. Evangelization seeks to bring people to Christ. But this is not so that Christianity might grow more powerful and “win.” Instead, the Christian mission proclaims the good news that God, in his mercy, offers deliverance to humanity from the power of sin and death, opening up a new future in which the fullness of life reigns. 

The Comfort of Giving Alms

In A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation (rendered in modern English by Mary Gottschalk), St. Thomas More discussed where one can find true comfort when afflicted by tribulation (pain or sorrow).  This post will discuss one of More's comforts and some related ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas, described by Peter Kreeft in Practical Theology, his book on the Summa Theologica. 

More discussed different types of tribulation, including “the kind of tribulation that we voluntarily take upon ourselves, … affliction of the flesh or bestowal of our goods as we willingly undertake in atonement for our own sins and out of devotion to God.”  This includes not only penance (for specific sins) but also the fasting and almsgiving that Christians perform during the penitential season of Lent (for our sins more generally). 

More wrote that “the courage that … kindles your heart and inflames it toward that tribulation shall … give you in it such comfort and such joy that the pleasure of your soul will surpass the pain of your body.”  To me, this echoes Psalm 51:7-8, where we ask God, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice.”

According to Aquinas, almsgiving includes the seven corporal works of mercy and the seven spiritual works of mercy (cf. http://scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2447.htm).  Aquinas wrote that “we are bound to give alms of our surplus, and also to give alms to one whose need is extreme; otherwise almsgiving, like any other greater good, is a matter of counsel.”  Kreeft commented, “The more generosity, the merrier, both for the receiver and also for the giver.  If you are surprised to hear that, you’ve never practiced sacrificial giving and experienced its inevitable deep joy.  Try it, you’ll like it.”

When I fast or serve others, I voluntarily endure a tribulation (such as hunger or just the loss of something more enjoyable).  If I do this with love, selflessly, “for God’s sake,” then I will experience the comfort of joy.