L iturgy , T heology , P oetry and S laughter in
O ur W orld
Some years ago Allison Ogle, one of the dedicated young Catholic Workers at Casa Juan Diego, introduced us to her fiancé (now her husband) Jonathan Ciraulo. Jonathan was a graduate student of theology at the University of Notre Dame; he has since received his doctorate and is teaching at St Meinrad’s School of Theology. The University of Notre Dame has just published the book which is the fruit of his doctoral studies: The Eucharistic Form of God: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Sacramental Theology.
“Glory is eternal love descending into the uttermost darkness. The liturgy is a mirror for this.”
— Hans Urs von Balthasar (159)
Balthasar is famous for his dense volumes about the Glory of the Lord as well as his presentation of TheoDrama, among many others. As Jonathan Ciraulo points out, however, he did not write a major work on the Eucharist, but rather his theological reflections on the Eucharist are scattered throughout his articles and other works. In The Eucharistic Form of God Ciraulo explores the various aspects of Balthasar’s theology of the Eucharist from his large corpus of writings in a beautiful, albeit challenging synthesis of his sources
By Louise Zwick
and theology. Ciraulo includes Balthasar’s reflections from the book of Revelation, Irenaeus, the mystics, Bernanos, poets Péguy and Dante, and even phenomenologists. We encourage scholars and other serious readers to explore this profound and inspiring book in its entirety.
This article will focus on one theme from the book, that of Liturgy and Slaughter. We know that Christ is the center of history. But how can we reconcile the horrors of much of history with God’s plan and presence? Ciraulo’s reflections on this theme through the eyes of Balthasar can help us meditate on how the glory of God, the mission of his Son and the kenosis of the Son on the cross, the role of the Holy Spirit, and God’s plan for the world intersect and engage with what has been happening in human history — so much of it violent and disappointing — and how we can imitate Christ’s self-giving in the midst of it all, even as we cry out to God for his help.
Liturgy and Slaughter
As I studied The Eucharistic Form of God, two newly paralyzed immigrants came to the door seeking help. One man was the victim of a random shooting as he and his wife finished shopping at a meat market in
Houston, and the other very young man fell from a tree while seeking refuge from the border patrol as he sought to enter the United States. The future is bleak for these men. They came to help their families, but they gave up even the gift of walking in their effort to do so. Now what can they do? If they had been born a few hundred miles closer, this would not have happened. People should not have to hide in trees to feed their families. Going back to the book on Balthasar’s theology I realized again how difficult it is for a Christian, believing in a God of love, mercy, and glory to know what to think and how to respond in thought, prayer, and action to the horrors that have plagued the world: centuries of wars, colonialism, genocide, and countless others. Now each day in this supposedly enlightened time, images of street encampments of immigrants and refugees at the border seeking an opportunity to apply for asylum, images of millions of displaced and murdered people from wars in Ukraine, in Yemen, in many African countries,
and images of mass shootings, slaughter in our schools and communities here in the United States come across our television and computer screens.
The Slaughter of Immigrants
Daily at Casa Juan Diego we see the results of one of the most prevalent occurrences of violence and slaughter — in the treatment of refugees and immigrants. The violence is in the separation of children from their parents, creating lifelong trauma or PTSD. It is in the separation of wives from husbands, adult children from parents and from their brothers and sisters. (We are frequently trying to help families locate their family members.) The violence is in the prison conditions for those seeking refuge and asylum. Violence is in the deportations to dangerous conditions where immigrants and refugees are kidnapped and slaughtered, in the deportation to sure persecution and death in many countries, and the willful ignoring of the many migrants lost at sea. Violence is in the voices that demean immigrants and refugees as less than persons.
Turning to the Liturgy in the Midst of Violence and Darkness
How does celebrating the liturgy relate to violence and suffering? Some believers ask how one can possibly see the tragedies of history through the eyes of faith, or even whether one can go on believing after events of ruthless brutality and destruction of lives. Others demand retaliatory violence. continued pg 8 The Eucharistic Form of God provides insights can that guide us in our prayer amidst the terrible
PUBLICATION OF CASA JUAN DIEGO HOUSE
The cover of Jonathan Ciraulo’s new book features the painting La Disputa , which shows the bishops and theologians disputing and quarreling about the Eucharist, in contrast with the Lord’s real presence on the altar and the glory of the three persons of the Trinity in heaven above with Mary and John.
There’s Water on the Floor Again
By Casa Juan Diego staff
At Casa Juan Diego, we celebrated our 40th anniversary a couple years ago. Some of our buildings are almost three times that old. Our main building on Rose Street, constructed of steel and concrete due to prior fires, opened in 1987, so it is now 35 years old. Many thousands of people have walked the halls.
In Houston, the clay and mud we build on always moves. The sun bakes the ground. The rains soak them. Heavy trucks and the road construction shake the buildings as roads and drainage are removed and replaced. Things shift.
We want to provide a safe environment for our guests. This was true from the beginning even though the first building was poor and even ugly. In the construction of the Rose Street building, living in Houston, we knew we had to have working air conditioning. We want to continue providing services in a safe environment for years to come, including in the deadly Houston heat.
We want to stop so many things from dripping inside. In the past few years, the main building has had water leaks that took some detective work to identify. Was it the roof leaking, was it water coming through porous block walls, or was it the air conditioning pouring water onto hallways on the second floor? (Or could it be an overflowing toilet?)
The building has received a new roof, new air conditioning and heating, new plumbing, and many small fixes in the last year or so. It still needs a lot of work to be done on the foundation to keep the cracks (even openings in the walls) from getting even bigger. We might have to close the Rose Street building for a bit while foundation work is being done. Most of our other buildings have recently had foundation repair and all the roofs and A/C are now in decent shape. We have been playing catch-up on years of maintenance during COVID, working around the many guests. Things are working better.
The last time we broke out the mops, the clinic’s air conditioning created a small flood in the exam rooms. The time before that, it was a toilet broken from its mounts. This time, it is the dental equipment leaking. We have a specialist coming on Tuesday. We have another specialist coming to repair the stained glass in the front of the house from the gift of a stone. We have to fix our barbed wire, which is unfortunately necessary. We need to have some groundwater testing done. There is always a list.
We are grateful to the many people who help us with these projects, hidden away behind the main work of Casa Juan Diego. Your donations are making these many repairs possible.
Casa Juan Diego was founded in 1980, following the Catholic Worker model of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, to serve immigrants and refugees and the poor. From one small house it has grown to ten houses. Casa Juan Diego publishes a newspaper, the Houston Catholic Worker, four times a year to share the values of the Catholic Worker movement and the stories of the immigrants and refugees uprooted by the realities of the global economy.
• Food Donation Central Office: 4818 Rose, Houston, TX 77007
• Women’s House of Hospitality: Hospitality and services for immigrant women and children
• Assistance to paralyzed or seriously ill immigrants living in the community.
Casa Don Marcos Men’s House: For immigrant men new to the country.
Casa Don Bosco: For sick and wounded men.
• Casa Maria Social Service Center and Medical Clinic: 6101 Edgemoor, Houston, TX 77081
Casa Juan Diego Medical Clinic
• Food Distribution Center: 4818 Rose, Houston, TX 77007
• Liturgy: In Spanish Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. 4811 Lillian at Shepherd. (Temporarily Suspended)
Funding: Casa Juan Diego is funded by voluntary contributions.
Houston Catholic Worker Vol. XLII, No. 3
EDITORS Louise Zwick & Susan Gallagher
TRANSLATORS Blanca Flores, Sofía Rubio
Maria del Pilar Hoenack-Cadavid
CATHOLIC WORKERS Dawn McCarty, Marie Abernethy Joachim Zwick, Harrison Larkins, Emma Campbell
Christopher Donofry, Diana Garcia, Kevin McLeod
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Joachim Zwick
DESIGN Bea Garcia Castillo
CIRCULATION Stephen Lucas
AYUDANTES TEAM Julián Juárez, Manuel Rangel, Wilmer Salazar Roberto Narvaez, Victor Díaz, Ramiro Rescalvo, Marlon Nieto Kowassi Souleiman, Alejandro Rodriguez, Jean Carlos Rivas Jésus Celis, José Urbina, Eliecier Martíinez, José Torrealva Rossel Yajure, Carlos Blanco, Roberto Narvaez
PERMANENT SUPPORT GROUP................ Louise Zwick, Stephen Lucas
Dawn McCarty, Andy Durham, Betsy Escobar Kent Keith, Pam Janks, Julia Gallagher, Monica Hatcher Alvaro & Jane Montealegre, Joachim Zwick
VOLUNTEER DOCTORS Drs. John Butler, Laura Netfield, Yu Wah
Jorge Guerrero Sr., Nageeb Abdalla, Wm. Lindsey, Laura Porterfield
Darío Zuñiga, Cecilia Lowder, Roseanne Popp, CCVI, Enrique Batres
Jaime Chavarría, Amelia Averyt, Deepa Iyengar, Justo Montalvo Mohammed Zare, Maya Mayekar, Joan Killen, Stella Fitzgibbons
VOLUNTEER DENTISTS.................Drs. Justin Seaman, Michael Morris
Peter Gambertoglio, Mercedes Berger, Jose Lopez Maged Shokralla, Florence Zare
CASA MARIA.....................................Juliana Zapata and Manuel Soto
Casa Juan Diego
P.O.Box 70113 | Houston, TX 77270 (713) 869-7376 info@cjd.org | www.cjd.org
FOR THE CANONIZATION OF DOROTHY DAY
We encourage our readers, so many of whom are active participants in the work and prayer of Casa Juan Diego through your support, to respond if you can to the letter below from the Dorothy Day Guild.
Dear Friends,
As we rejoice in the completion of the diocesan phase of the Cause for Canonization of Servant of God Dorothy Day, we are reaching out to Catholic Worker communities throughout the United States to join us in promoting the advancement of the canonization cause as it continues. Your lives as contemporary Catholic Workers bear witness to both the way Dorothy Day’s holiness continues to infuse our world and to the endurance of her vision
Completion of Phase I of the Inquiry required an overwhelming concentration of effort by volunteers from across the world and the Dorothy Day Guild in New York. While all documentation is now at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at The Vatican to be examined, we are asking for your help primarily in the form of prayer! Building a “prayer campaign” to support the Cause for Canonization is our primary emphasis and our necessary work during this second phase.
We are asking you to pray to Dorothy Day for your own needs and for the needs of those you love, to ask her intercession in areas in need of healing in your lives, whether they be physical or emotional, chronic or recent. We also encourage you to pray for the favors and graces that will bring you closer to God. You might address her in prayer in your own words or in the words of the “Prayer for Canonization” printed below. We ask that you inform us if you feel your life has been affected in any way by the intercession of Dorothy Day, particularly if you think you might have experienced something miraculous. Please email any relevant information to us at gracesandfavors@gmail.com We are also hoping to create a prayer group online, to enable us to pray to and for Dorothy Day as a community on a regular basis. We hope you will consider praying with us in that manner as well.
While your prayers are our greatest need at this time, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, we encourage you to consider joining the Dorothy Day Guild, which provides some financial support for our continuing efforts and a wealth of information related to both Dorothy Day and the Cause for Canonization. Please write to www.dorothydayguild.org to access the Guild’s website.
Let us also pray for each other, that we might continue to make Christ’s presence palpable in the work we do and the words we speak, and that we continue to honor Servant of God Dorothy Day in humble service to the neediest among us and build peace.
In Christ’s peace,
George B. Horton Director, Dept. of Social and Community Development Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York
God our Father, Your servant Dorothy Day exemplified the Catholic faith by her life of prayer, voluntary poverty, works of mercy, and witness to the justice and peace of the Gospel of Jesus.
May her life inspire your people
To turn to Christ as their Savior, To see His face in the world’s poor, and To raise their voices for the justice of God’s kingdom.
I pray that her holiness may be recognized by your Church and that you grant the following favor That I humbly ask through her intercession (here mention your request) I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
MARK ZWICK – Founder
A crane lifting the new air condition units onto the roof on Rose Street
Photo: Joachim Zwick
PRAYER FOR THE CANONIZATION of SERVANT OF GOD DOROTHY DAY
From Casa Juan Diego to the University of Texas
My philosophy in this world is to maintain hope, in spite of the darkest hours of life. My parents brought me to the United States when was seven years old, and since the program started, I have been a participant in the DACA and DREAMer programs.
During most of my adult life, I realized that I had a big heart for others. I came to know God through the Mormon religion. I left that church when I was eighteen because was not in agreement with many of its tenets. As a person, I have always fought against injustice and I have never understood why someone treats another human being with contempt.
While I was distancing myself from the church and a religious style of life, felt an emptiness inside that I could not fill. Then I found a friend who introduced me to the Catholic Church and I discovered a place where I could pray and listen to the Word of God in peace. I appreciated that Catholics portrayed God as a kind person; he did not punish and did not see us as individuals who sinned from the moment we woke up.
Thus, I began my journey to this religious life. I went through RCIA in 2020 and I studied at the University of Houston Downtown in order to become a social worker. A couple of months after my baptism, started my field placement in the Casa Juan Diego clinic. On January 1, 2022, I decided to live and work at Casa Juan Diego. The clinic was a sacred place for me. This free clinic put flesh on the concept of hope. I met challenges of real life, since many people came with terrible illnesses, and God gave me the wisdom each morning to adequately translate into Spanish what the doctor said to the patients. I am very
surprised and inspired that these doctors took
By Gabriela Medina
time from their busy schedules in the time of COVID to continue treating the patients and that they could who such empathy, all the while they worked with the life style of the patients to convert them for better health.
There were some cases, like that of Consuelo (not her real name), that left me in awe. Consuelo came to our clinic one morning, appearing to be about eight months pregnant. As soon as she sat down, she explained to me that what we thought was a pregnancy was a tumor. Consuelo told us that the private hospital told her they could not treat her because she did not have health insurance. The urgent concern led me to invite her to accompany me to Ben Taub Hospital, operated by the county. She was a little confused about why I was taking her to the hospital when she had just left one. explained that she had to go to Ben Taub in order to apply for an economical medical program of the government.
Consuelo was a mother of four small children, with an older daughter who was twenty-something years old and a grandmother of four small grandchildren. When we arrived at the hospital, explained Consuelo’s problem at the reception, where they assured us that she could be treated. Consuelo informed me that she could not stay in the hospital because she had no one to pick up her children from school; she had promised them that she would be there. Her youngest daughter was very worried about her mother’s health and where she would be. And so I brought her back. She told me she was afraid to have surgery. Who would take care of her children was the source of her worries, as the thought of “what will happen to the children?” harassed her. told her that we are all afraid, including me, but that we must pray to God that he will strengthen us, because he doesn’t put anything in our lives with which we cannot cope. Our faith will grow and we will allow God to act in our life, since he has promised us that we will never be alone. I told her that do not pray the rosary very much, but that night I would pray a rosary to ask God that she would receive the discounted health insurance in order to obtain the necessary operation. We arrived back at her house and embraced as we said goodbye.
Later that night, I was too exhausted to pray; however, I felt that the rosary was my last opportunity for God to hear me. That night walked to the ground floor to the chapel of Casa Juan Diego and I prayed the rosary. A few days later, Louise mentioned that Consuelo was outside and that they had diagnosed her with stage 4 cancer, that it had spread. However, she did qualify for the discounted medical insurance and she would soon have surgery. Without doubt, the majority of those who read my narrative will see a bad outcome, but that night in the chapel of Casa Juan Diego, know that God as listening to me. Consuelo is waiting to receive the surgery and chemotherapy, even if we
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hello Louise
do not receive exactly what we wish for.
Several weeks later, Consuelo returned to her “Ensure,” because she would not eat sold food after the surgery. She was radiant and no longer had the great bulge of tumor in her abdomen, which gave her a surprisingly altered appearance. God operates in mysterious ways, but each morning when we open the doors of Casa Juan Diego the community is there, and see God in them, no matter how small or how great their problems may be. This place is genuinely remarkable, and it has brought me closer to God.
In my opinion, Dorothy Day is a modern saint. She spent her life teaching us to love our neighbor and help the poor, and she was right. Serving the poor and loving your neighbor brings you closer to God, but also teaches you about the concerns and worries of others.
I am grateful to Louise Zwick and Casa Juan Diego. I will always consider this my second home. This place has given me the opportunity to become a better social worker, to face difficulties in real life, to follow freely my moral instinct and pray to God about how to serve the community better. I am leaving Casa Juan Diego with only three dollars in my pocket. I found a temporary place to live in Austin, where I am studying for my master’s degree in social work with a scholarship. As a daughter of undocumented parents and a DREAMer, this seems impossible, but Casa Juan Diego is a place where unexpected miracles happen.
Perhaps if we pray to Dorothy Day, there will be an immigration reform and the DREAMers will have a path to citizenship one day. But until that day comes, will keep hope, since have seen the works of God first-hand. My life has no limits because, with God, everything is possible. And following the wise words of Dorothy Day will bring more love and hope to a world full of anger and war.
Editors’ Note: Gabby was a Catholic Worker at Casa Juan Diego during the past months. She graduated from the University of Houston Downtown this May and will soon begin studies for her master’s degree in social work at the University of Texas. We sent a small stipend to Gabby in Austin to help her as she begins her studies at UT.
am writing this message to thank Casa Juan Diego for everything has done for my family. After follow up all process my family and received a permanent resident to live in USA. My wife has started working also. My oldest son is going to middle school and Houston Dynamo academy for soccer wants to sign him.The two other boys were the best in their classes in school this year. Our daughter next year will start school. I am very happy and thankful for everything Casa Juan Diego did for us.
Thanks, A refugee from Angola
Hello,
My name is Lucia Plata and I am 5 years old. For my 5th birthday my parents decided I should be generous and share my blessings. Instead of gifts, chose for my friends to give a donation to Casa Juan Diego. am sending in this envelope everything I have collected. My parents are immigrants. My mother was born in Colombia and my father is from Venezuela. We will never forget our journey and where we are from. My brother and I will continue to make donations. We hope this small donation can help friends our age that are in need. Thank you for all your help to our community. In this dreaming I am sharing my toys and things with my friends from Casa Juan Diego.
Lucia, Houston
Dear Louise and Workers/Volunteers at Casa Juan Diego, The Holy Spirit speaks to us through your Houston Catholic Worker news publication. Though we cannot volunteer physically, God blesses with funds that will help. “How You Can Help.” God bless each of you for all you do to welcome the immigrants and indigenous into your home of rest.
Judy Armstrong, Wausau, Wisconsin
p.s.. Luke Prohaska’s article, p. 3, Apr.-June 2022 was excellent!
BECOME A CATHOLIC WORKER
Artist: Angel Valdez
God Will Say To Us ... WHERE ARE THE OTHERS?
French poet Charles Péguy said, When we get to heaven, God will say to us, where are the others? Dorothy Day quoted Péguy on this in her original statement of the Aims and Purposes of the Catholic Worker movement. The gentle personalism of the CW means personally responding to Jesus who comes to us in the disguise of the poor, not waiting for the government or whatever hierarchy to decide what we should do. We hope that if we are fortunate enough to get to heaven, the Father will not have to call us out for ignoring the others who are his children.
The Works of Mercy, as some have criticized them, are not coddling, but trying to live the words of Jesus, as he asks us to do in John 14 and Matthew 25. We are cautious, however. For example, before adding people to our sick and injured list for the disabled for those who cannot receive government help, we ask to see the hospital papers for their diagnosis. Sonia (not her real name) came for the first time several months ago, walking from the car that had brought her, bringing her oxygen tank behind her up to the table where we give out groceries. She was noticeably pregnant. Sonia explained that she had had COVID when she was four months pregnant. We added her to our sick and injured program and helped with rent and groceries. When Sonia visited last week to seek more help for the month (still with her oxygen), we asked about the baby. Her baby was born blind in one eye and had other complications from her mother’s COVID when she was in the womb. Sonia, still with her oxygen, will now have to have surgery for her kidney. The baby has to have a special formula; she is hoping to be able to find it, with the help of her pediatrician.
José (a fairly young man) had a stroke and has been coming to us for help with the rent for the one room he lives in. We assist with food and his small rent as he arrives each month with his
walker and cart for groceries. One day he came into the entrance and saw a lovely comfortable armchair that had been donated. He asked If he could have it. We said yes, and Kevin drove to the place where he rents with the chair. The only furniture in the room was a bed; he had had nowhere to sit. When he came recently for groceries, Jose told one of our volunteers that he would be unable to live without Casa Juan Diego. He has nothing except what we give him — $300 to his landlord each month, groceries and toilet paper and dishes soap, occasionally some toiletries, and MetroLift tickets. Once we gave him a hooded sweatshirt.
Anita, an immigrant woman from El Salvador who says she cannot return to her country arrived in a wheel chair and with a special boot on her leg, holding her two-month-old baby in her arms.
Two neighbors had driven her to Casa Juan Diego.
A tumor had ruptured during her pregnancy. The first question we asked was, do you have formula for your baby? She had less than an inch in a can. We brought her one of the cans of formula (not the recall brand) which volunteers had bought for us when the news first came out that so much of the baby formula was contaminated. After that we talked with her about her rent and provided an ample box of food for her. She will come back each month for as long as necessary.
Armando came, struggling to walk with a cane after his stroke. He asked our help to pay the rent. His son had been helping him but could no longer do so because he had been hospitalized after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. I couldn’t understand Armando’s speech enough to decipher the name of the apartments, so he called his wife so that she could explain.
Volunteers, including permanent deacon candidates who have been placed at Casa Juan Diego for service hours, helped take his box of food out under the shade tree where he could wait for MetroLift to pick him up.
A woman came yesterday to ask for a walker for her mother who had suddenly been hospitalized and could not walk on her own. We had one for her.
When wheel chairs are donated, we are very happy to be able to give them to those who come to ask for one for their relative who has recently been ill or disabled. We also have a large room filled with adult diapers, some pull-ups and some with tape fastening for the bedbound. Those on our list of the sick and injured but others also in need of them regularly come to ask for those diapers — expensive to buy. Donations greatly appreciated.
Prolife After Dobbs — Who Will Care for the Mothers and Babies?
The joy of many after the Supreme Court ruling to leave abortion decisions to the states should spark a big response among Catholics to respond to many more pregnant women who will be in need. Prolife groups who give baby furniture, diapers, and clothing are to be commended, but where will homeless pregnant women live? Who will help them to get started again after they have their babies? Who will help the couples who are on the edge financially and now have more mouths to feed? Who will care for the babies so that the mothers can go to work?
At Casa Juan Diego we have always tried to receive pregnant undocumented women so they will not be homeless. It is difficult now because we are swamped every day with new immigrants and refugees — literally no room in the inn, even overflowing.
Anyone who is in need of food can come to Casa Juan Diego once a week for groceries – including pregnant women and new mothers and families with children. It is not fancy food, but very basic. It can help to keep people alive. Many times when people come for food, they ask if we have diapers for their babies or toddlers. We are so busy with our guests and their needs and the hundreds who come for food each week that we could not possibly keep up with giving out disposable diapers, even if we had them. And we would only be contributing to the massive landfills. For some time now we have been purchasing cloth diapers, waterproof pants, and special safety pins for babies. Some people do not wish to accept the cloth diapers when we offer them, but the poorest and the desperate, who are growing each day, are very glad to receive them. (There is also a middle-class movement to use cloth diapers to help to save the environment.)
The Eyes of Faith
By Mark Zwick
Faith changes things, and hopefully, it changes us so that we can see with the Eyes of Faith.
With faith we have a new vision — a new person.
FOR OURSELVES: We can see beyond our selfish, immature, egotistical, oversensitive, frustrated, self-pitying, hypercritical, paranoid, greedy self to a new self, a new eucharistic self — if we have faith. The Nazarene makes that possible. “He is risen and still with us.”
However, when we received a call from a Catholic prolife group this morning, we found a way to make a space. The pregnant woman, the caller said, is at 39 weeks and may give birth any day. She is living in a garage that has no air conditioning. (We paid the way for a family currently living at Casa Juan Diego to go to New York and thus a bed opened up, even though others are on overflow cots if we can receive them at all.) We pray that Catholics will open homes (or even their own homes) to receive pregnant women who have no resources. Unfortunately, Casa Juan Diego cannot serve the whole city of Houston. We pray that there will be a strong Catholic organizing effort for universal day care so that the mothers can begin to work and the babies will be safely cared for.
We Catholic Workers are just a few doing this work at Casa Juan Diego. We would not be able to do it at all without the support of our readers, the many who participate in our work from afar. We also depend on food donated from the Houston Food Bank. We would not be able to do so much if our own guests and the many part-time volunteers did not help each day with the Works of Mercy, bagging groceries, sweeping and mopping the floors, trying to keep up as so many come to our doors. We often comment with a bit of irony, that it is beautiful to do the Works of Mercy, but they require a lot of work — manual work.
FOR OTHERS: With the new eyeglasses of faith, we see all of our sisters and brothers in the world differently and yes (?) even our family members and fellow workers.
With the eyeglasses of faith we see beyond selfishness, self-centeredness, greed, angry hatred in our brothers and sisters to the new person, again, arranged by the Nazarene.
Mark of Cain
With the eyes of faith we no longer see the mark of Cain on everyone’s forehead (of Cain who killed Abel and who responded to those looking for Abel — “Am my brother’s keeper?”)
With the eyes of faith the mark of Cain is gone and there is a neon light flashing — maybe like those at cheap motels, saying, “You — yes, you — are your brother’s keeper.”
Well, not exactly, sad to say. Those neon lights are lousy and there are always letters and parts missing.
Frankly, to read the new sign takes a pretty thick set of glasses of faith — and we are always fogging up the faith glasses. Participation in the Mass can deepen our faith and clear away the fog.
Dorothy Day warned us that “love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing” and involves the cross — as opposed to love in dreams.
Faith and the Eucharist change our whole perspective and enable us to love anyone, no matter how ugly — even ourselves! Faith can help us to give of ourselves in small ways as Jesus gave himself on the cross.
Hans Urs von Balthasar references the idea of the Eyes of Faith from Pierre Rousselot. Below is a slightly adapted reflection on the Eyes of Faith from the Houston Catholic Worker, February 2, 1995.
Artist: Angel Valdez
L iturgy , T heology , P oetry
realities, the slaughter in our world. We can turn to the liturgy in the midst of darkness. “Ultimately, then, the one who will account not only for sin but also for suffering is Christ, who takes upon himself the entire horror of humanity in history.” (181) This is the Lord who is present in the Eucharist.
As we struggle to understand violence in the light of faith, it may help us to realize (as Ciraulo points out with Balthasar) that “Christ’s response on the cross was not understanding, but eucharistic self-abandon in order to transform slaughter into liturgy.” (184)
Balthasar’s sources include poet Charles Péguy: “Balthasar sees in Péguy a truly Christian answer to the liturgy/slaughter tension… Péguy commends hope…, a hope that in the end the liturgical consummation of the Son to the Father is extended to include and heal the winding paths of history.” (187) And the book of Revelation
Psalms of Lament
Violence is not new, nor is the response of God’s people to pray when facing it. In the course of salvation history, all through the Hebrew Scriptures, when cruel wars and brutality threatened, the chosen people continued to pray. Balthasar writes: “It was possible, even in the Old Testament tradition, to worship
God’s majesty amid the confusions and collapses of the world as such.”
Their liturgical prayer was filled with the Psalms, including Psalms of Lament in difficulty times. Ciraulo adds: “The Psalms of Lament indicate that Israel still prays even when all cause for praise and thanksgiving seem to be taken away” (191).
Many of the Psalms are Psalms of Lament. The word lament may lead us to think that these are Psalms of complaint, but they are not simply complaints about what may be happening. They are a crying out to God that He may hear our prayers in the face of persecution and death. It may not be our own death, but we join our prayers in solidarity with those who suffer.
The Psalms of Lament, sung throughout the centuries as prayers of petition, count on the Old Covenant that God made with his people so long ago. We count now on the New Covenant as we pray these Psalms today. Balthasar said: “In the Eucharist of his surrendered Son, God concludes his new and eternal covenant with mankind, committing himself to it utterly and with no reservation.” (22) The Psalms of Lament are very much a part of the Divine Office, the Liturgy of the Hours, prayed by Catholic Christians around the world now from the perspective of Jesus in the Psalms.
The Lord’s Death and the Eucharist Christ suffered a very violent death,
crying out in the words of one of the Psalms of Lament at the time of his crucifixion, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22). The wounds on the body of the crucified Lord stayed with him, even as he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. (Remember Thomas who put his hand in the Lord’s side in order to believe.) Jesus, present in the Eucharist, is the Lamb who was slain.
Ciraulo reflects:
In almost every discussion of the Eucharist, Balthasar turns to language that serves to highlight the violent origins of the sacrament… He rarely says simply “Christ’s body and blood,” but instead draws on a host of adjectives: it is ‘torn flesh,’ ‘slaughtered flesh,’ and ‘poured-out blood’ and it is the body in its state ‘of being torn,’ ‘the blood in its state of being shed’ that are offered to us as food and drink.” (25)
Balthasar teaches that the very intent of the Incarnation and the Cross was to bring the Eucharist to the world. As Ciraulo summarizes: Thus, if the drama of the Incarnation was a saving event, the Eucharist is its application or reverberation in history. And, for Balthasar, because the reverberation was the goal from the beginning, the Incarnation was always oriented toward Christ becoming bread, and more specifically, the cross was not so much an end in itself, but rather the means by which Christ became eucharistic. (25)
Some have suggested that Balthasar was speculating too far. Jonathan Ciraulo places him very much in the tradition which has maintained the “indissoluble link between the Eucharist and the cross.” Balthasar worried “that this connection is being lost, which is why he complains that the Eucharist is ‘so poorly understood and watereddown by many theologians and preachers.’” (26)
The Eucharist Can Change Us, Transform Us
It is important that we focus on the changing of the bread and wine into Jesus, but likewise important is the change that must take place within us at the Eucharist so that we might in some small way help to bring the presence of Christ to our world.
Otherwise, the Eucharist is, for us, almost an empty rite.
Balthasar emphasizes the Lord’s kenosis, his free self-surrender, and the invitation to respond with ourselves as a reciprocal self-gift at the Eucharist.
If we cooperate with our will and our heart as we receive the Eucharist and abandon ourselves to Divine Providence (as in Caussade’s spiritual classic), we can be transformed to be more like Christ. We can participate in His mission to save a world filled so often with violence and the atrocities of war, joining our prayers and our hope to the crucified and risen Christ. We cannot do this on our own. We need the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us as well as communion in the Mystical Body of Christ, communion with so many saints to support us.
Liturgy Not Just for Specialists and Asthetes, but Especially Brings Strength to Ordinary People
The impor tance of the liturgy in our lives as Christians in the world cannot be underestimated. But the most rarified liturgies, however beautiful, are not the only valuable ones. According to Ciraulo, Balthasar was influenced by Romano Guardini who wrote about how ordinary persons can find the strength to continue on in their daily lives through the Mass. He includes this Guardini text, quoted by Balthasar: “The many people who… merely seek strength for their daily toil—all these penetrate far more deeply into the essence of the liturgy than does the connoisseur who is busy savoring the contrast between the austere beauty of a Preface and the melodiousness of a Gradual.” Ciraulo adds, “Those who come to the liturgy to encounter Christ, or even more basically, to ‘seek strength for their daily toil’ are the true participants, the true liturgical actors, even if they fail to grasp the marvelously arranged liturgical performance” (160). What Can We Do in the Face of Violence and Slaughter?
May we seek strength in the liturgy as we lament the brutality of wars in which even our own country participates as we sell or sometimes give arms to country after country around the world – even though we cannot understand the atrocities. On the themes of the Psalms of Lament and abandonment to God, respected biblical scholar N. T. Wright wrote in Time Magazine (March 29, 2020) suggesting a Christian response to crises today, including COVID:
It is no part of the Christian vocation… to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain — and to lament instead. As the Spirit laments within us, so we become, even in our selfisolation, small shrines where the presence and healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness, new scientific understanding, new hope. New wisdom for our leaders? Now there’s a thought.
When Dorothy Day was criticized for not endorsing one side or the other during wars, she, along with Fr. John Hugo (her spiritual director over many years), insisted on using the weapons of the spirit — prayer and fasting, nonviolent action, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5,6,7). The Catholic Worker believes in the Works of Mercy as opposed to violence and the works of war. Nonviolent action includes generously receiving those seeking refuge from violence and slaughter.
Dorothy Day famously said, I can write no other than this: unless we use the weapons of the spirit, denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Jesus, dying with Him and rising with Him, men will go on fighting, and often from the highest motives, believing that they are fighting defensive wars for justice and in self-defense against present or future aggression.
As long as men trust to the use of force–only a superior, a more savage and brutal force will overcome the enemy. We use his own weapons, and we must make sure our own force is more savage, more bestial than his own. As long we are trusting to force–we are praying for a victory by force.
We are neglecting the one means — prayer and the sacraments, by which whole armies can be overcome. “The King is not saved by a great army,” David said. “Proceed as sheep and not wolves,” St. John Chrysostom said.
St. Peter drew the sword and our Lord rebuked him. They asked our Lord to prove His Divinity and come down from the cross. But He suffered the “failure” of the cross. His apostles kept asking for a temporal Kingdom, even with Christ Himself to guide and enlighten them they did not see the primacy of the spiritual. Only when the Holy Ghost descended on them did they see.
New Apostolic Letter:
“I Have Earnestly Desired to Eat this Passover With You Before I Suffer”
On June 29, 2022, Pope Francis published his Apostolic Letter, Desiderio Desideravi on the Liturgical Formation of the People of God. The Holy Father wrote, affirming Balthasar’s Eucharistic theology:
“The content of the bread broken is the cross of Jesus, his sacrifice of obedience out of love for the Father.”
He adds: “When the Risen One returns from the dead to break the bread for the disciples at Emmaus, and for his disciples who had gone back to fishing for fish and not for people on the Sea of Galilee, that gesture of breaking the bread opens their eyes. It heals them from the blindness inflicted by the horror of the cross, and it renders them capable of ‘seeing the Risen One,’ of believing in the Resurrection.” (No. 7)
In our Eucharistic prayer in the Mystical Body of Christ now, as we pray with all the angels and saints in praise of God, may we pray that we can be aware of His presence interacting in history in spite of all the terrible things that happen. We pray that we may be joined one day in person with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and all the saints in the
cosmic, ceaseless heavenly liturgy, “lauding God’s sovereignty and goodness.”
The Bishops’ Eucharistic Campaign
The thought comes to mind that the bishops are making a new effort (after a somewhat strange beginning) to renew Catholic people’s understanding of the Eucharist. We hope that the profound Eucharistic spirituality and theology of Balthasar brought together here by Jonathan Ciraulo will inspire the bishops and the preachers they are sending out to speak about the Eucharist.
We hope that they will also incorporate the wisdom of the new Apostolic Letter on Liturgical Formation. Hopefully, the bishops’ represen-tatives will not just rely on phrases like transubstantiation (important as they are), but help people enter into an understanding of how the Lord’s self-giving presence in the Eucharist can bring hope to a suffering world: “God’s glory, eternal love descending into the uttermost darkness.”
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Thanks to Noemí Flores for her help in editing this article.
Artist: Angel Valdez
Artist: Daniel Erlander