I was walking in a gallery with a Mandarin speaking student. He looked at the English label identifying a ink painting from ancient China. He got rather sad at the “translation.” “Three pines by a river” was an accurate word for word translation but he said it missed almost everything of the Chinese title. There were three trees and not two or one and that “three” meant something. They were pine trees and not, say, maples or bamboo. And that meant something. These trees were by a river, not a little stream or a pond. That meant something also. They were by the river and not far from the water. That also meant something. So the point I was making about translating the Bible is easily illustrated by the difficulty of trying to translate three simple words attached to a picture. “Snow Country” by the Japanese novelist Kawabata is one of my favorite novels. The opening scene of traveling north into snow country is incredibly delicate. When I saw a literal translation of the first chapter I got a good lesson in Japanese. There was practically nothing there. The translator had had to put in the details that I loved and which would be evident to a Japanese reader but were there as allusions but not literally. So the crossing over of cultures and languages is like crossing the red sea.
There was a Japanese Catholic priest who was raised a Buddhist and then converted. He said he nearly went crazy reading the Bible in translation. The Japanese translation was not based on the Hebrew and Greek texts but on an English one. So the Japanese was several layers away from the original. It was nearly impossible for him to make his way through those layers. He learned Greek and Hebrew and did the translations himself into Japanese and that saved him, enriched him. His Christianity did not have to have a layer of western thought on top of Greek and Hebrew and then into yet another mentality.
Later in a very austere plain house of prayer he gave retreats that were completely original. The retreatants would spend their time writing in old style Chinese like characters the opening of the Gospel of St John. They would do only one word a day. If they could only spare three or four days for the retreat they only got to meditate on three or four words. A thirty day retreat would get them into the text but it would still take more time to finish. One character at a time is a Chinese and Japanese discipline because to write the character properly takes great attention, concentration, so that the writer with a brush can enter into the reality of meaning.
We would think it very strange to spend a whole day writing one word and meditation on that word. Is this because we understand so clearly the English translation of John’s opening, “In the beginning was the Word” ??? I don’t know anyone who ever said that they understood “beginning” or understood “Word.”
A silent, respectful “chewing” on the text of the Bible might lead us closer to the Word that was with God from the beginning…

Tags: Bible, Japanese, Kawabata, Mandarin, translation

I was living in Hawaii 9/11/01. The attack was on a Tuesday. Thursday evening the secular Oratory met as usual. In that small group and in that parish so far from New York City we found that one couple had a son going to work at the World Trade Center at the time of the attack. The subway train kept going and did not stop until it reached 42nd Street. There was no explanation but he looked downtown and saw the horrible sight that he had just missed being a part of. Another woman’s God child was killed in the attack when she was caught in the lobby where she was to meet other people who were being rewarded by their company with a seminar at the World Trade Center. Another couple in Hawaii had a son working just a few blocks down the street and he could see everything and eventually had to flee the collapse and the debris. So in this small group so far away there were these three. I had a school mate who had just gotten promoted to a chef’s position and was in the restaurant. It cost her her life. Can any of us think that we live isolated lives?
Now again thanks to Congressman Wilson of South Carolina we have a country that thinks mistakenly that the health care package will allow illegal aliens to get access to a doctor. As I said in a previous post, we are facing disaster again if someone sick but illegal cannot get to a doctor and they have something like swine flu. I think we should bring back those medical disaster movies. We are all linked and if we do not know this now we will find out to our great sorrow later. It is really only a matter of time.

Tags: 9/11, health care, plague

It is very hard for modern people to read anything written even a little way back in time. Even the recent past fades fast so we do not understand who the people are in the text or what the event is that the text talks about. Worse, we bring our experiences to the text first and so often misinterpret what we are reading. Of course, past attitudes must be judged and reformed if necessary, but still we miss a lot and cannot get the picture even if it were helpful to us today.
Before we get to the Bible we know that we cannot read the poet Milton without footnotes and references and just a little while before Milton, there is Shakespeare whose huge vocabulary throws us. The King James Bible is beautiful but again the vocabulary is a problem. Of course “language changes” so that means we have to learn more than the language that is current for the day. As a senior citizen I know that I have to learn to expand my language in order to talk to undergraduates. Asked how many languages I speak, I say, “None.” My English is really bad and that is the one I was born into.
So when we read the Bible we have to adjust to the culture it comes out of. Let me say something that is true but so little thought of that it may shock you. Whether the world is flat or round or whether human beings evolved or were made directly out of earth in an instant is of no theological or religious significance at all. Some academics say that Galileo and Darwin shocked religious people and changed their consciousness. Well, perhaps, but it means their consciousness had to be shocked. The world of the Bible and the Word of God is not tied into science in any religiously signficant way. The Word of God is about wonder and awe in the face of life as we find it and the big items like God, our contingency, our suffering, the proclamation of Jesus, the identity of Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit remain central and call us into relationships that could cost us and certainly do risk all sense of our security.
And if science does anything for us besides make vaccines possible, electricity manageable (people still electrocute themselves with faulty wiring), and cars run, it provides us a weird and wonderful view of the world. The latest Hubble pictures is a happy case in point.

Tags: Bible, Darwin, Galileo, King James, Milton, Shakespeare

Some great literature begins with a sentence about getting lost…and how did we get here? Peggy Steinfels has a Commonweal article, about how her Catholic life in Chicago and some great teachers and great questions. One of her teachers was John L. McKenzie…a priest who knew so much about the Bible he did a huge biblical dictionary by himself. He probably dreamed in Ugaritic. It was from great scholars that we have had so much to think about as we go through our own journey. Those people with the dust on their eyeglasses and musty dictionaries bent over ancient books, ancient scrolls, and even clay tablets, have changed our lives in many pratical ways.

Tags: Bible, Chicago, journey, Peggy Steinfels

September 8 is a feast day common to the western and eastern churches. Of course, like the birth of Jesus, we have to pick a date ourselves to celebrate since such information was not considered important so long ago.
But we celebrate a lot when we celebrate anyone’s birthday and in our faith, Mary the richness and complexity of Mary’s role in the life of the Church…our lives!!!…means it is a lovely and loving thing to contemplate.
The picture chosen here shows Anne (again a name that is not historical) and many women around here delivering the baby Mary. They look like they know what they are doing and they are doing it as a team. Ann looks exhausted even if she is in a nice bed. She has brought new life into the world and her daughter Mary’s own flesh and blood would be taken on by God, the Word made flesh. We are not gnostics. We think that passing, aging, weak flesh, so frail, so beautiful makes human nature and the creator shine and shine.
So we have September 8, the birth of Mary. It is also traditional to celebrate initiation into religious communities on this day. In 1966, Fr Hal, after two years in the Oratorian apostolic school, took a big step this day and entered the Oratorian novitiate. If you know a member of a religious order ask them about this day or the day they went into the novitiate. (A novitiate is like boot camp but it lasts and lasts). So have a happy feast day, this September 8th. And pray with me, “Rejoice, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”

Tags: flesh, human nature, Mary, novitiate, St Anne

XXIII Sunday: Mark 7:31 ff. The restoration of speech!

Shy? Afraid to speak? Here is Jesus approached outside Jewish territory and the encounter enables someone who could not speak before.

In some ancient cultures the heart was thought to be a kind of thought producer, like our brain because people had experiences of words “getting stuck in the throat.” The words came up from somewhere…the heart?…but did not make it out.

There are certain words that get stuck in our throats…Do you remember trying to say “I love you…” to someone? Do you remember your reaction when someone said that to you?

Speech or some kind of communication makes us human because we can in some way say that we love someone. We can say in some way “I promise….” Our communication can prepare another person for our actions. John Henry Newman, the famous English convert to Catholicism, said of one of his “bosses”…Cardinal Manning… “His eminence’s words do not always prepare me for his eminence’s actions.”

Jesus is God’s Word to us. God’s word to us is “Yes” and it prepares us for the action of God, the gift of the Spirit, where trust and peace abound, a community grows despite many many limitations.

Tags: God's Yes!, Healing, speaking

There is an email erronesouly saying that the Obama care bill allows illegal aliens access to government health care. If you get sick in France or the UK you walk in and get medical attention. In France you pay a small amount without paper. In the UK they do not accept payment. You could make a case for illegal aliens getting health care because like it or not they are here and if they get sick it could be bad for all of us if they are not treated. I could write a novel called The Plague to prove this or refer you to all kinds of medical literature. Do we want illegal aliens who have swine flu staying away from the doctor. I don’t think so. This world is interconnected, you know.

Tags: health care, undocumented

The Kennedy family was and is still part of American history, world history. Ted Kennedy’s brother was the first and only Catholic president. We now have an African American president. We have never had a woman president.We have not had a Jewish president.  I do not think we are post anything yet.
The rise of the Kennedys is remarkable. They may look like white males and so part of the power structure of this country but Irish and Catholic lowered them considerably…I try to tell Catholics…as a former WASP myself…that Catholics are not “white” in the commonly accepted meaning of that term…which is really WASP. So the passing of this giant is a significant milestone for all kinds of reasons.
One editorial said that Ted Kennedy took the needs of his constituents as his program. It is tragic that this has to be pointed out as a special aspect. But we know that the political structures cater to money and not many constituents have money. You can vote for politicians but money is really power. We were all lucky that the Kennedys were rich and looked out for those who were not. Lots at Wesleyan would encourage the talented students here to use their talents on behalf of the people who need them but cannot afford to pay for them. It is a great place to be a chaplain.

I cannot leave August behind without sharing Newman’s honest description of the depression he suffered as a Catholic. I do this because we think of saints as cheerful in God’s service even though John of the Cross writes horrific accounts of the dark night of the soul, Therese of Lisieux suffered near despair the last year of her life, Teresa of Calcutta lived in darkness for decades, and we have this account from Newman published only once in the 1950s as Autobiographical Writings. Americans especially are optimists and mistake optimism for hope. Optimism is not hope and optimism can be damaged by facts. In my own ministry I have had to protect people from optimists who only make the sufferings of others more wretched with their bad advice…advice that fits well on a greeting card but which is mockery to those suffering. Real hope says one saint is being able to sit in the middle of hell praying without despair.
So here is Newman: “This morning, when I woke, the feeling that I was cumbering the ground came on me so strongly, that I could not get myself to go to my shower-bath. I said, What is the good of trying to preserve or increase strength, when nothing comes of it? what is the good of living for nothing?” …further down he says “Well, it came upon me this morning as I lay in bed, What is the good of all this? what is to come of it? what am I living for? what am I doing for any religious end? Alas, it is my habitual thought, now for years, but circumstances have it urged on me at inverals more than usual of late…[God] has rewarded me in ten thousand ways, O how many! but he has marked my course with almost unintermittant mortification…since I have been a Catholic, I seem to myself to have had nothing but failure, personally.”

Tags: depression, God, Newman

This week of August 22, I arrived in South Carolina to be an Oratorian seminarian. The year was 1964. In my experience that year was in between the Hungarian revolution in 1956…the first international event that I followed, the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, the Berlin Wall crisis, the Cuban missile crisis, the JFK assassination, the killings of civil rights workers in the South, and Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech. 1964 was quickly followed by more crises after the assassination of Martin Luther King, riots, the death of Karl Barth and the death of Thomas Merton, the moon landing, Woodstock (honest, folks, it was just meant to be a party NOT a fashion statement so I am shocked, shocked to find the Woodstock look stuck), and my discoveries of John Updike (read while working in Dole pineapple cannery), Flannery O’Connor, Teilhard de Chardin (the Divine Milieu saved my sanity in the seminary), and D.H. Lawrence’s short stories. It was a time of boot camp as the seminary was in those days…a boot camp that lasted years and years, lots of silence, manual labor, incredible large academic burdens, isolation from much of the society around us, and summer jobs in the Service Corps in Connecticut (working in mental hospitals), migrant labor camps in South Carolina, and Dole in Honolulu. I remember seeing troops on their way from Hawaii to Vietnam…our state was the first to send national guard units back to full service to handle the losses in the regular army. I remember our school memorial service in 1966…usually a pro forma exercise remembering alumni killed in wars…so looooong past…and then…that year there NEW names…people I knew killed in Vietnam. I cannot remember anyone, even in that conservative school, who was supportive of the war. It last almost ten years more.
So in 2009…there is nostalgia after the death of Walter Cronkite who reported on all this and stood up to authority if necessary and was a model of journalistic ethics, the young hippie couple in a quilt at Woodstock have never separated and have children 12 years older than the incoming frosh, and we have a Hawaii born president from Punahou who has his own wars to deal with. The topic in 1964 for the national forum and debate contests was on health care!!! Some things have not changed. How is that?

Tags: change, health care, Obama, seminary, sixties