From the Jesuits

The Jesuits have been much in the news lately (keep up with GC35 here), and today we’ve got some good Jesuit-penned blogfodder:

 First, in today’s First Things page – Edward Oakes, S.J. on atheism and violence. Important to read if you’re bumping up against the “Religion makes you want to kill people” argument. He cites Benedict’s Spe Salvi, spends a great deal of time with Nietzsche – particularly how the latter is ignored by contemporary pop atheists, and concludes:

Given these hopelessly confused and superficial arguments, it’s hard to take the new atheism seriously. Nietzsche was surely right when he said that serious Christians would come to appreciate his witness. But who can take seriously these recent tub-thumping accusations that believers are the sole source of violence, all coming from writers who themselves advocate violence in their next breath? That’s why these books from the new atheists can hardly represent a threat to believers. Pascal was already on to their game in the seventeenth century: “All those contradictions that seemed to take me furthest from the knowledge of any religion,” he said in the Pensées, “are what led me most directly to the true religion.”

Then, at MOJ, Robert Araujo, S.J. publishes his homily from yesterday, “Thomas Aquinas and Christian Vocation:”

To meet this controversies with fidelity to God was an ideal and a commitment that Thomas embraced—it was not only his vocation, it was also the essence of who he was—one called by his baptism to follow Christ, not only for the salvation of his soul, but also that of those whom he would assist to the present day and beyond. The model of Thomas’s vocation is a source of prayerful instruction for us all because his greatest personal desire was union with God.

And with this thought in mind I end with a story, a true story: in my early priesthood I had the blessed experience of concluding my studies in England before I began to teach. In short order, I was asked to serve Campion Hall as acting bursar when then bursar was away. This meant that I had not only the use of a nice office but also the keys—if not to the Kingdom of Heaven, at least to a well-stocked wine and spirits cellar. It was this office that I enjoyed: for, in addition to being a quiet place to study, it contained a number of artifacts that captured my fascination. One such appointment was an original cartoon given to a former British Provincial and Master of Campion Hall, Fr. Martin D’Arcy. The cartoon showed St. Thomas Aquinas ascending into Heaven—and clasping on to Thomas’s legs was a black robed Jesuit who looked curiously like Fr. D’Arcy.

When Jesuits would come to this office seeking some assistance from me, most would cry out in delight upon seeing the cartoon: “Oh, look,” they would say, “there is Fr. Martin trying to keep St. Thomas from entering heaven!”

But my take was different: there was St. Thomas fulfilling his destiny of salvation and discipleship by seeking his own salvation and trying to bring Fr. D’Arcy along with him.

That is what the faithful disciple does in his vocation: to seek God not only for one’s self but to try and bring along as many others as one can take.

Thomas Aquinas was faithful in the execution of his charge as one who chose to follow Jesus Christ. And, as fellow disciples each with our own vocation, are we not called to do the same?

Totally unrelated, but put here just because I don’t want to start a new blog post – The Atlantic Monthly has let the subscriber firewall crumble, and the whole site is accessible to anyone.