A few months ago, a friend and I here in Leuven went on one of those carnival rides that look, frankly, insane. It was basically a huge pendulum. If you think of it like a clock-face, it swung as high as one o’clock on the one side, and eleven o’clock on the other. All the while, the seats at the end of the pendulum were spinning also – with us attached. Death seemed imminent. At the top of the swing’s arc, we were practically upside down, and the next moment we were plummeting back towards earth, with a sensation as though your heart, stomach and other organs were trying their very best to stay inside your ribcage. Nature has not prepared the human body for this kind of thing.
Across from us was a girl, who looked about 14, sitting nonchalantly in her seat, totally relaxed, arms swinging, just letting herself be carried along by the motion of the ride. Her lot seemed quite enviable compared to mine. So, putting my trust in whatever Belgian safety inspector had cleared this machine for public use, I also let go, made my peace with God, and, basically, went limp. Then it changed.
Terrifying; exhilarating; a bit like flying; the sky beneath, the city hanging upside down, rooftops gilded by the setting sun, the great clock tower looming up and falling precipitously away – it was unforgettable. When you let go, you enjoy the ride.
This should be our attitude to life too. This is what our Lord meant when He said: “Unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
I feel like I’ve been thinking so much lately about the Pope’s death, that I’ve almost entirely forgotten about Christ’s coming to life”
Last Saturday, for the Jubilee Year, being Pilgrims of Hope and all that, my local parish in Leuven participated in a 27km pilgrimage to a Marian shrine in Basse-Wavre. Many fields and forests we passed through, and as the boots got muddied and the legs began to ache, the main thought was: keep going, get to the destination. We pilgrims here on Earth, we also should stay focussed on the goal: Christ, and the destination: Heaven.
I feel like I’ve been thinking so much lately about the Pope’s death, that I’ve almost entirely forgotten about Christ’s coming to life. With most of the usual Easter considerations somewhat submerged in commentary on the conclave, we need to keep our eyes fixed on the more important matter: whoever is elected Pope, Christ is risen. It’s the most important celebration of the Church year; and yet ironically we often focus more on Lent than on Easter, even though the former is entirely a preparation for the latter.
I suppose we don’t quite know how we’re supposed to celebrate Easter; at least with Lent, you know you got to fast. Here’s one way to live it out. In Lent, we did what we could to get right by our own efforts, and found that it’s impossible without grace; now that the grace of the Resurrection has arrived, it’s time to let go, and accept it for what it is: all-powerful, and unmerited.
Hearts
Christ said to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled”, but this is a struggle for us: we tend to fret about what will happen next, who the Pope will be, what will happen to our loved ones, and all the rest. These things are important, but remember this, that if you zoom out far enough, you’ll see that the whole universe is in one person’s hands: Christ’s.
You might be familiar with the famous series of comedic stories by PG Wodehouse, Jeeves and Wooster. Bertie Wooster is a rich, carefree young fellow, with a hyper-competent butler called Jeeves. No matter what trouble Bertie gets into, in the end Jeeves “shimmers onto the scene” and solves everything. The effect is that Bertie can wake up every morning with all the joys of Spring and welcome in the new day, a happy chappy. Well, how much more is this the case with us, who have our guardian angels always at our side, and a Father in Heaven who has all the hairs on our head counted?
I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”
I invite you to look back over your life. How often have you worried and stressed about some upcoming thing, only for it to pass by without a hitch, and often indeed carrying an unexpected blessing? How many prayers have been answered unnoticed? How many heartaches have been mysteriously comforted by the providential course of your life? Will you spend your whole life fearing disaster around the next corner, when the thousand-and-one previous corners turned out to be perfectly harmless? What will it take for you to get the message: good is planned for you, not ill? “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” That doesn’t mean nothing bad will happen; but remember that even the Crucifixion led in the end to the Resurrection. “All things work together unto good for those who love God.”
Triumphed
So, the way to live out Easter is to take to heart the fact that the all-powerful love of Christ has triumphed and overthrown death, the devil, and the whole world, for YOU. He is the Lord of History, and everything that happens, happens on His watch.
So what to do, then, when it’s all been done for you? Here’s what: let go. It’s not all on you. You know you’re loved, that you’re being looked after, and that your life is going somewhere and not nowhere: all you have to do is keep your eyes on the goal – Christ – and stay faithful. Since you don’t need to look out for yourself all the time, you’re free to come out of yourself, and live for another. Instead of tensely holding on, you can close your eyes, let go, and say “not my will, but yours, be done.” Then everything changes.
The Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility
It’s the month of Mary and it’s the month of the conclave – these can teach us a lesson too. Evan S. Koop’s article in the latest volume of Nova et Vetera, which I quote from below, showcases the fascinating theory that sees a link between the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility. According to Matthias Scheeben, who first proposed it, these are the “two most precious and immovable foundation stones of the supernatural kingdom of Christ and… the most beautiful trophies of his victory over hell.” They demonstrate two characteristics of the supernatural order of grace in relation to the order of human nature:
First of all, its gratuity: God grants the Immaculate Concpetion to Mary, and the charism of infallibility to the pope, without regard to their personal merits.
Secondly, its power: though human nature is frail and prone to failure, God’s grace is able to preserve Mary free from sin, and the pope free from error. “Nowhere does grace so greatly show its power to penetrate nature to the root and heal it from the ground up as in the conception of the holy Virgin, who emerged from a stained trunk with all the freshness and beauty of the original grace of innocence.” And though the person of the pope is not so permeated by grace as Mary, nonetheless “precisely herein consists the miracle of grace, that in spite and in the midst of all these human stains and thorns, it preserves the gem of heavenly truth immaculate and inviolate in the official teaching of this person.”
These two doctrines, the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility, “are intended by God to awaken and preserve in Christian hearts the ‘true, noble, childlike spirit’” that Jesus spoke of when He said, “to such as these the Kingdom of Heaven belongs.”
