Epigraphs
I’ve just finished reading 38 papers from my “Exploring Catholicism” course. They are a take-home final: an effort to encourage the students to bring the semester’s readings and presentations together into a synthesis that is both faithful to the material covered, yet also personal. Reading them is sometimes tedious, but more often stimulating, even thrilling.
One of the requirements is that, on the title page, they place an “epigraph,” some excerpt from one of the semester’s readings that conveys a particular insight they carry away with them. Here is a sampling of what they chose and the authors from whom the quotes come:
“The Word of God, the eternal Son of the Father, became man; God became part of what he created. But this work of God was not an event that occurred once and then receded into the past; the Incarnation was meant to change creation and to change history, and to do so in a way that the change remained palpably present” (Robert Sokolowski)
“For Christians, Jesus Christ is the center of everything: our meaning, our hope, our self-understanding, our church lives, our theologies, and our spiritualities … What Jesus wants of us is that we undergo his presence so as to enter into a community of life and celebration with him” (Ronald Rolheiser)
“He did not say: You will not be assailed, you will not be belaboured, you will not be disquieted, but he said: You will not be overcome” (Julian of Norwich)
“We should recall that no man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone” (Benedict XVI)
“I saw the scattered elements unite, bound all with love into one book of praise, in the deep ocean of the Infinite” (Dante Alighieri)
“Here ceased the powers of my high fantasy. Already were all my will and my desires turned — as a wheel in equal balance — by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars” (Dante Alighieri)
Post Scriptum from a student:
“I thought you should know that the piece we read by Andre Dubus, “On Charon’s Wharf” had a profound affect on me. It made me appreciate the time I have with my friends and the ones I hold close to my heart. I continually re-read the piece throughout the semester, and went as far as sharing it with a few people. I do hope you continue to pass out that small, but important piece for future classes!”
“No one sins alone.”
Hmmm, food for thought. Doesn’t seem to square with a live-and-let-live creed, but then how could so many people be wrong?
38 papers? Does that mean this course is part of the core curriculum at BC? Hope so.
Mark,
it is a core course: one of several possible ways to fulfill the two-semester theology requirement.
It is a luxury to have two semesters; and to see the growth in understanding the tradition in the course of the year is a joy.
That’s why reading the final papers is much more delight than drudgery!
I can’t tally the number of people I know who list Dubus’ “Broken Vessels” (and the essay your student mentions) as one of those readings to which they return again and again. Lucky students. Happy end of term!
“You will not be overcome.”
So, when we sang, “We shall overcome”, were we missing something fundamental? Would it have been more faith-filled to have sung, “We shall not be overcome”? Would that have evinced a greater equanimity of soul, accepting that Thy will be done was enough? Gotta think about that one too.
Padre-
Please pass on to your students my thanks for giving us something to carry with us–seems to me like that deserves extra credit, if grades haven’t closed yet. ;-)
Hopefully students take their 2-semester theology requirement early enough that courses like this will spur them to take more before they graduate–hope they know that’s allowed! Such a waste that only 2 seeds be sown in such fertile soil, but at least they be mustard seeds.
This message should be sent by millions to Bp. William Morris:
“He did not say: You will not be assailed, you will not be belaboured, you will not be disquieted, but he said: You will not be overcome” (Julian of Norwich)
The confessional ramifications of THIS are blatant:
“No one sins alone.”
Particularly for teenagers.
“No one sins alone.”
I remember a conversation some of us once had at my parish on the question “Can a man alone on a desert island commit a sin?”
The traditional answer is, yes, obviously: he can commit blasphemy, he can commit onanism, he can do unnecessary servile work on the Sabbath, he can torture the hermit crabs.
This doesn’t seem to be what Pope Benedict means. He probably means that if the man on the desert island had never previously met any other human in his life, he could not commit a sin.
“The traditional answer is, yes, obviously: he can commit blasphemy, he can commit onanism, he can do unnecessary servile work on the Sabbath, he can torture the hermit crabs.”
Or worse, he could lose faith, he could lose hope. I think Benedict was trying to counter the disconnectedness that comes from relativism. The man who harbors bitterness in his heart does not sin alone if it was sparked by, say, reading a nasty blog comment, or a kindness available to him that was forgone.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding this, but I have to say I don’t find it convincing. It seems to speak of “happy endings” which, so often, simply don’t happen. I mean, don’t we have overwhelming evidence of people who, in fact, have been overcome?
What does make sense to me is something Thomas Merton wrote in 1968:
Sorry. Got the italics wrong. At the very end, it should say “He shall overcome.
Also:I should have given the source of that last quote. It appears in “A Footnote from Ulysses: Peace and Revolution.” You can find it on page 28 of The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton.
http://books.google.com.sv/books?id=PN9xYU8FbTMC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=%22happen+to+us,+He+shall+overcome%E2%80%9D+%22merton%22&source=bl&ots=odGUKykcLr&sig=FMzgJ_jV3mLfvQij_MFkTCgh2Jg&hl=es&ei=Bj_PTZbgIobLgQfio-SvDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Gene,
I see your point, and would not want to universalize a revelation made to a specific individual. On the other hand, does the just person not participate in God’s overcoming? Was Romero overcome? I presume the answer is “yes” and “no.” Do you agree?
Fr, Imbelli –
As I see it, your position is the (?) Catholic one as distinguished from the Lutheran one. Unfortunately, Benedict’s seems to be the Lutheran one too. Isn’t it interesting how the non-theologians are so concerned with this fundamental theological issue. People in the pews really do care about some theological issues. The trick (for philosophy teachers, anyway) is to find out just which ones they are.
As a theology teacher — or preacher, which theological questions do you think “the average person” is very interested in? I suspect the presence — or absence — of God to the individual is at the top of the list. It’s why the arguments for the existence of God are easy attention getters in philosophy classes..
Robert,
You ask, “Does the just person not participate in God’s overcoming?” I certainly hope so, but my point, precisely, was that while I do hear Merton saying that – or something along those lines — I don’t hear Julian of Norwich saying it; she seems to be saying, instead, “You will not be overcome, period.” But maybe I’m missing something.
You also ask,
Yes, I agree: in the case of Mons. Romero – as opposed, it seems to me, to so many other cases — the answer is “yes” and “no.” More than that: in his case, the magnitude of the “no” is extraordinary, as you may have heard from the B.C. teachers and students who have visited here [El Salvador] and seen that for themselves.
Father,
Any chance you can post the reading list for your class? Based on your post and the thoughtful reflections from your students, I no doubt need to add some books to my library.
“You shall not be overcome.”
I think Julian of Norwich just meant, if you persist, at the end of time you’ll be in the Church Triumphant.
Did she say “Non superaberis” or “Non superabimini”? Maybe she just meant to say that the Church is indefectible, a truism.
Matt,
Here are a trio of titles:
Robert Sokolowsi, “Christian Faith and Human Understanding: Studies on the Eucharist, Trinity, and the Human Person.”
Robert Barron, “The Strangest Way.”
Andre Dubus, “Broken Vessels.”
I also show the German film: “The Ninth Day;”
and next year, Deo volente, I hope to show “Of Gods and Men.”
Did she say “Non superaberis” or “Non superabimini”?
Felapton, she said neither; she was writing in 14th century English. Here’s from the 16th vision or “shewing”:
“He seid not, Thou shalt not be tempestid, thou shalt not be travelled, thou
shalt not be disesid, but He seid, Thou shalt not be overcome. God will that we
taken heede at these words, and that we be ever myty in sekir troste in wele and
wo, for He lovith and lekyth us, and so will he that we love Him and lekin Him,
and mytily trosten in Him, and al shal be wele. And sone after al was close, and
I sow no more.”
I hate to intrude some more, but it might be useful to note that elsewhere in her “shewings” (fifth vision), Julian uses the word “overcome” with reference to the Devil, who tries to overwhelm the soul in various ways. When she uses the word “overcome” again in the 16th vision, I think she is saying that her vision tells her that God does not promise us freedom from temptation, travail, and pain, but that, if we trust Him, we will not be overwhelmed by hopelessness.
I would caution against construing any of Julian’s visions to refer strictly to overcoming in temporal or earthly terms.
Father,
Many thanks.
If “reading the final papers is much more delight than drudgery” it is no doubt owing to the certain fact that participating in the course likely entailed its share of delight, as well. I recall having had a similar intellectual experience some time ago.