Today, 581 years ago in France, a 19 year-old girl was burned at the stake. 

Her name was Joan and she came from a peasant family. She couldn’t read and it wasn’t until she was leading the armies of France against the most powerful nation in the world at the time, at the age of 16, that she learned to write her name.

She was an amazing young lady, I’d say. One of her first actions was to march an army to Orleans, where the English had held a siege for seven months; she defeated them in nine days. Even after being wounded in the neck with an arrow she was back on her horse leading the final charge.

Ultimately betrayal, politics and some awful bishops would capture her, put her through a crooked trial, and burn her alive at the stake. A few decades later the Pope would reverse that corrupt court’s ruling, but it wasn’t until until 1909 that she was pronounced Blessed Joan, and not until 1920, after stories of her amazing intercession in France throughout World War I spread like wildfire, was she declared a Saint. I’ve long considered her a good friend.

By the grace of God we not only have the transcripts of her infamous trial, but also several letters that she dictated. I thought I would post one of her letters below for your enjoyment and also so you can see the fiery temperament of a young girl whose whole heart was consumed with a desire to “serve God first.”

 

“+ Jesus Maria + 
King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself Regent of the kingdom France; you William de la Pole, Count of Suffolk; John, Lord Talbot; and you Thomas, Lord Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the said Duke of Bedford, do justly by the King of Heaven; render to the Maid who is sent here of God, the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good cities that you have taken and violated in France. She has come here from God to restore the royal blood. She is all ready to make peace, if you will deal rightly by her, acknowledge the wrong done France, and pay for what you have taken. And all of you, archers, companions of war, nobles and others who are before you; and if this is not done, expect news of the Maid, who will go to see you shortly, to your very great damage. King of England, if you do not do this, I am Chef de Guerre, and in whatever place I shall find your people in France, I will make them go whether they will or not; and if they will not obey I will have them all killed. I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven, each and all, to put you out of all France. And if they will obey I will be merciful. And stand not by your opinion, for you will never hold the kingdom of France through God, King of Heaven, son of Saint Mary; it will be thus ruled by King Charles VII, true heritor; for God , the King of Heaven, wishes it, and this to him is revealed by the Maid, and he will enter Paris in good company. If you will not believe the news from God and the Maid, in whatever place we shall find you, we shall strike in your midst, and will make so great a hurrah [hahay] that for a thousand years there has not been one in France so great, if you do not deal justly. And you may well believe that the King of Heaven will send more strength to the Maid than you will be able to lead in all your assaults against her and her good soldiers. And when the blows fall we shall see who will have the better right from God of Heaven. You, Duke of Bedford, the Maid begs you and requires of you that you work not your own destruction. If you listen to her you will yet be able to come in her company to where the French will do the finest deed that ever was done for Christianity. And reply to this, if you wish to make peace at the city of Orleans; and if thus you do not do, you will shortly remember it to your great sorrow. Written this Tuesday, Holy Week. [March 22, 1429.]“

 

She would later, on April 30th of that year shortly after her arrival on scene, write a second letter that repeated these same demands, but the English ignored her. Finally she sent a third and final letter on May 5th, this time delivering it by having it tied around an arrow shaft and fired into the English stronghold. It read simply:

“You, men of England, who have no right to this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven orders and notifies you through me, Joan the Maiden, to leave your fortress and go back to your own country; or I will produce such a clash of arms to be eternally remembered. And this is the third and last time I have written to you; I shall not write anything further.

 

Jesus, Mary;

Joan the Maiden.

 

I would have sent you my letter more properly, but you detain my heralds; for you have detained my herald called ‘Guyenne.’ Please send him back to me, and I will send some of your men captured in the fortress of Saint Loup, for they are not all dead.”

 

 

The English were defeated at Orleans three days later. I remember learning a good deal about St. Joan in novitiate, at the age of 22, and thinking, “She did all of this by the age of 19; what have I done with my life?” What an amazing young woman of God!

When I was in high school I camp up with what I thought was a very clever response to a homework assignment, a project, or some other effort of mine upon it’s completion.

“Perfect enough.”

What that meant was, “It is sufficient for it’s purpose.” That didn’t mean it was complete; otherwise it would indeed be perfect. It meant that I was done putting effort into it and that I knew it was good enough for the standards of the one who would evaluate or judge it. I did very well in school actually, but the standards of public schools weren’t all that hard for me to reach.

That attitude carried on into my college years, though I certainly had to work a little harder, though not much. I was an infamous procrastinator but for the most part achieved good grades; once I put off a paper for nearly four months, researched it the week it was due while simultaneously putting together a presentation, typed up the paper the night before the due date, and was given the only A in the class the whole semester. I thought it was because I was “that good.” Now I know better; that was God’s mercy.

Novitiate changed all of that. Novitiate showed me the smugness of that mindset, that “good enough” approach to everything. Novitiate showed me that, ultimately, my every single deed–as well as the spirit in which I carried it out–would one day be evaluated not merely by a boss, a teacher or some other figure whose job it was to assign me a task, evaluate me and then award/punish me according to the results and their proximity to the standards set for success or failure. No, the one who would evaluate me would be the very one who created me. 

After two years of novitiate and coming to love Christ and desire to serve Him in an entirely different way, I was missioned to St. Louis University to study philosophy for three years. I wasn’t going to college because “that’s what you do after high school;” I was going to college because Jesus was sending me there to learn. “Perfect enough” was no longer an option; now it was, “Yes, Lord, because I love you.” I poured my whole heart into my studies, Christ asking me to take some of the most challenging courses of my life, putting me under the instruction of some of the most challenging professors I have ever had. By His grace I graduated summa cum laude; I did fairly well in my first bout of college, but I did not expect this at all. I checked my grades only to see how well I was honoring Christ in my work; I never really kept track of my GPA or anything. So when I met with my advisor to see if I was all lined up to graduate he made some calculations and such and said, “Well, looks like you will graduate summa cum laude.” “…….is that good?” “Yes, Jacob; that means ‘highest honors.’” “Oh…well, good. Thank you.”

I don’t offer that to brag but only to demonstrate what can happen when your motivation for doing anything–work, study, relationships, etc.–is reordered to love. Love of Christ, love of your family, friend, spouse. And our motivation can be reordered to loving the wrong things, too–love of pleasure, food, image, honor, self, a person, a place, a thing, etc.. 

 

You see, we little human beings, so often lamenting how generic and common we are, how talentless, unattractive, unlucky, poor, etc. we are, well, we are so often then totally wrong. We couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus said, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:11) So what did the perfect Father give to His perfect Son?

When praying for His followers He said, “Father, they are your gift to me.” (John 17:24)

Think about that, dear ones. You are a gift given to the perfect Son of God by His perfect Father. What about us could possibly matter more than that reality? Does it matter that I don’t have the good looks of this or that celebrity? As much money as this person? Talent like that guy on the TV? No; they are gifts given to the same Christ by the same Father.

You are a treasure; Christ died to save those who were His. 

Now, we can be pretty awful people, so much so that it may seem that if we are gifts from the Father to the Son, we are “white elephants.” Whether or not that is the case I couldn’t say, but even if we are we were given to Christ out of the Father’s love, and Christ gave His life to spare ours. I know I wouldn’t die for any gag-gift I’ve ever received.

So where does that leave us? What do we do with that? Nothing. Everything.

You see we’ve looked at the Father and the Son; in the Old Covenant God made Himself known to His people and He stood above them. From Heaven He showered down bread, defeated enemies, worked all manner of miracles for His people. In the New Covenant God made Himself known to His people by becoming one of them, and He dwelt among us. From His own Body He gives us our Food and Drink, defeated our greatest enemy, Death, worked miracles and spoke such words that they echo in the hearts of billions and shape history still to this day. He became one of us to gather up all His gifts into one gift: the Church, His Bride. On the Cross, right before He died, He said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) In the ancient Latin translation it was worded, “Consummatum est:” It is consummated. Granted, it is an interesting choice of word for the original Greek (tetelestai; literally “it has been accomplished”) but I think it more fully conveys the reality of that moment.

Just like in a marriage, the consummation–as any married couple can remember–is hardly the accomplishment or finishing moment of a marriage; it is the very beginning. 

What began on the Cross? Christ is making a return of all humanity to His Father; you see now why, so soon after His rising, Christ makes way for the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, as some theologians have tried to explain Him, is the perfect love shared between the Father and the Son. The Father loves the Son perfectly, the Son of course returns that love; that Love is perfect, as God is perfect. That Love IS God; God IS Love. When we stop to ponder the reality that the Father gave us to His Son out of Love, what do you think the Son desires to do in return? 

Jesus desires to give us back.

But love, real love, perfect love isn’t about to pull the classic “re-gift.” Oh no; perfect love desires to give an even greater gift. Think back to the parable of the talents; who was the wicked servant? The one who gave back precisely what he’d been given in the first place. Jesus is the perfect servant, the perfect everything; He’s going to give back, and then some.

What this means for us, then, is that by accepting the reality of our being a gift from the Father to the Son–being a Christian–we agree to participate some how in that great return of all mankind to the Father. Christ’s whole salvific work isn’t so much His heroic and sacrificial effort to restore us to how glorious we were when God first created Adam and Eve, but He is working to glorify us and to make us more like Himself. Can you imagine what a gift it would be to the Father to present Him with a whole humanity that bore a very real, total–not merely superficial or Luther’s “blanket of snow over a manure pile”–likeness to that One Whom He loves most of all? 

 

Being a Christian is absolutely not about being “perfect enough;” it isn’t even about being perfect. Being a Christian is about being perfected. By the power of the Holy Spirit, in the matrix of the Church, remade in Baptism, new-forged in Confirmation, fed and transformed in the Eucharist, purified one drop of dross at a time through Reconciliation, patched up and strengthened in the Anointing of the Sick, and made a coworker in all of this through the Sacrament of Matrimony or Holy Orders Christ is perfecting the whole of humanity, making each of us more and more like Himself, uniting us intimately with Him, to the point that we aren’t merely beneath Him (Old Covenant), beside Him (Incarnation) or having Him dwelling within us (the Holy Spirit), but rather we are living in divine union with the whole Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the whole goal of Christian life: to be made like Him. (1 John 3:1-3)

Christ is not about to settle for “perfect enough” while He is laboring constantly to purify us and make us whole, lacking in nothing (the true meaning of the word “perfect”); after all, nothing unclean or impure shall enter into the presence of God in heaven. (Revelation 21:27) Jesus wants with His whole heart to present each and every one of us as a gift to the Father, given in the same Spirit of Love that He first received us. 

I encourage all of us to examine our Christian life and to pray constantly for guidance in how we can, more and more, surrender to the purifying flames, hammers and chisels, sandpaper and every other means by which the Divine Carpenter is perfecting us in preparation for that day when He presents us before the Father. Will we be a gift for which the Son is glorified (and thus so are we!) or will settle for “perfect enough” and hope we’ll slide by with a B+? 

So often this work involves the sacrificing and giving up of many aspects of our life. For me it was marriage and family, possession, self-determination and a few other major things. For others the sacrifices are different, and regardless of what they are they are fuel for the purifying flame, a whetstone to sharpen the carving knife or chisel, grit for the sanding. Our sacrifices, those things which Christ asks us to give Him and by the Holy Spirit, inspiring us with love, we do, allow Christ to shape us and perfect us.

As anyone who has done sculpting work can tell you, the easiest part is knocking off the big chunks. While there is a huge commitment in, say, taking vows of perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience, those are things that one can pretty much make a final decision on. However the hardest part of sculpting is the finer work, the sanding and such, the removal of any final impurities before the work is finally perfect. So often the small sacrifices–treating a certain nemesis with love, remaining chaste, saving money, putting aside your plans for the afternoon to help an annoying neighbor, an attachment to junk food, constant music, and a million other little things–are the hardest not because they are hard to give up, but rather because they are so easy to take back. 

Just think about Lent. Giving up TV? Piece of cake: unplug the thing and don’t go near it for forty days. Giving up chocolate? “Well, I had a hard day at work; I deserve one, little piece…”

Or the rest of the year. Waiting until marriage? Manageable; set firm boundaries, date responsibly, etc. Giving up pornography? “Well, I’m not hurting anyone.”

Christ desires us to be perfect; He desires us to let Him perfect us. That means trusting Him, giving Him everything He asks of us, cooperating in His work in us and assisting Him in His work in others, not merely by not getting in His way mind you; after all, He said DO unto others as you would have them do unto you; it is the other religions that say, “Do NOT do unto others…”

Because of His love for the Father and His love for us, Jesus refuses to settle for “perfect enough.” 

What about you?

 

 

What are some ways Christ is asking something of you in order to make you more perfect? What is standing in your way and what could help you to trust Him? How are you cooperating with Christ in His work of perfecting you and others around you? How can your church and your fellow Christians help?

In the last several years on Xanga I’ve had many, many fascinating discussions with all sorts of people about the Catholic faith, with Catholics, non-Catholic Christians, and non-Christians alike. Such discussions have helped me to learn a lot about my own faith and to help me better explain and articulate it to others, especially those who have a hard time understanding Catholicism. It can, after all, be a daunting subject: 2000 years of ancient tradition, unparalleled diversity, a world-wide presence, 23 different rites…even the Pope would probably admit that he’s only scratched the surface! Not that I presume to speak for him; he does well enough speaking for himself.

 

One thing that I’ve realized is so different from any Christian denomination I can think of is that Catholic Christianity is not merely a religion, nor merely a spirituality; it is almost more like a nationality. I think this quality makes it somewhat difficult for people to grasp because even if you understood the religious aspect of Catholicism, or if you understood one aspect of its spirituality, you still might not get “it.” 

Why do I say that being Catholic is like being part of a nation? Firstly, I think that is what Christ intended: to call out of the world (this is what the word “church” originally meant in the Greek) a people uniquely His own, a people that would live their whole life with Him. Like the Jewish people were uniquely God’s people, so the Christian people would be the People of God, the difference being that all people are invited to be a member of this new nation, not merely people born into it. Being Christian should be different from being anything else; someone should be able to look at you or get to know you and realize you are different somehow. 

Catholics really do stick out; we tend to be fairly visible Christians. Whether it is our clergy in their black clothes and white collars, our sisters, nuns, brothers and monks in their habits, our little First Communicants in their little white dresses, or our Pope all in white, or even our knights in their various attire, not to mention our laity in their splendid diversity, some women wearing mantillas of black or white, people from all cultures wearing their various raiment; goodness I could go on! Ash Wednesday is a visible day for Catholics; granted we aren’t the only Christians who observe this ancient ritual but it tends to be seen as a very “Catholic” thing. We have our rosaries, our pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, statues of Mary in the front yard, holy cards, scapulars and all sorts of devotionals. He have processions, Eucharistic Adoration, we have cathedrals and churches, chapels and basilicas, shrines and other places of pilgrimage. There’s just something “different” about being Catholic that isn’t necessarily true about Lutherans or Methodists for example. 

The thing about the Catholic “nation” if you will is that we don’t have a home here on Earth; we are sort of passing through. But we are very much a nation! For example, we have a King. And a Queen Mother to boot!

   

We don’t have a capitol city, but we do have an embassy. It is located in Vatican City, which is an insular country located within the great city of Rome.

 You see the great curved colonnades? They are meant to symbolize the “arms” of the Church, which embrace all people and all nations.

We also have a prime minister; our first one was appointed by our King nearly 2000 years ago and his name was Peter. He last held office in Rome but was executed, so a successor was named until he, too, was executed and so on until today. Pope Benedict XVI is the 265th prime minister of the Catholic nation. When he passes away (hopefully we are past having our popes executed but, who knows) his successor will be elected and so on until our King returns.

Our prime minister labors alongside his brother ministers, the bishops, in governing the Catholic nation throughout the world. They pray and serve with their whole life to preserve the unity of our nation and to help all its citizens to remain faithful to and in love with our King. Generally our prime minister allows his brother ministers to care for their own territory (a diocese) but on occasion the whole ministerial body must gather, as they did in the 1960s in what was known as the Second Vatican Council. It is an impressive sight:

All these ministers of the Catholic nation help keep our people together throughout the world, each facing the particular challenges present in different parts of the world. The challenges a bishop faces in China are very different from those faced in America, for example! Sometimes a bishop is the minister not of a particular region, but a group of people; for example there is an archbishop who is the pastor for all Catholics serving in the United States military.

The bishops also have local representatives in neighborhoods and communities all over the world who are in charge of nourishing and sustaining our nationality in this foreign world. You’ve probably met one yourself:

They are in charge of caring for and ministering directly to God’s people, wherever they are. Some are pastors at a local parish, some are teachers, doctors, lawyers, artists, authors, some work as hospital chaplains, military chaplains; wherever citizens of the Catholic nation are living, there are probably priests there somehow!

We have many public servants as well, people who give their whole lives to the service of their “country” and the people in it. I couldn’t begin to list all they they do, be it an active life of service doing just about everything you can imagine, to a quiet, invisible life of intense prayer for the whole world.

And of course we have our citizens! Over a billion, and counting, from every race and language, every corner of the world.

We even have our own knights and soldiers, though they play a very different role that their counterparts do “in the world.”

We of course have a long history–2000 years–whether you’d like to study it through archaeology, literature, religion, tradition or countless other ways. We have our heroes; thousands of them:

and our villains:

We have our own traditional languages including Aramaic (still used today in the Maronite Rite), Greek (the Byzantine Rite and in the “Kyrie” of the Latin Mass), Latin (Roman Rite), and more.

We have our own Pledge of Allegiance, formulated at least 1600 years ago:

I believe in God,the Father almighty,Creator of heaven and earth,and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,born of the Virgin Mary,suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, died and was buried;he descended into hell;on the third day he rose again from the dead;he ascended into heaven,and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy catholic Church,the communion of saints,the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,and life everlasting. Amen.

 

We have natural-born citizens:

and immigrants:

 

These are just some of the many ways I could think of that makes Catholicism more like a “nation” than simply a “religion.” We really are a people of God, passing through Earth on our way to our Heavenly homeland. There are simply a lot of things that are just “Catholic” and a part of who we are as a people, and some of those things seem pretty strange to other folk. But I for one am so grateful to belong to such a beautiful nation; it certainly makes my faith life interesting!

 

For my Catholic readers, what are some things you can think of that are “uniquely Catholic?” What are some of your favorite Catholic attributes?

For my non-Catholic readers, what are some things you notice about Catholicism that makes it so different? What are some things that make it similar to your own religion or denomination?

Hello all!

 

I have just returned from some time home; my sister was married on May 5th! It was an absolutely beautiful Mass; so often a wedding can be very bride- or couple-centered but it was all 100% Christ-centered. It was about the Sacrament of Matrimony and about making a covenant with Christ. I can only hope the very best for my sister and my new brother!

 

This week I am playing catch-up after being away for a week and a half; I have all sorts of things to do. I have a future post in mind but I likely won’t get to post it until next week. In the meantime, however, I wanted to extend the invitation to all of you to send me your prayer requests either below in the comments or via message if the requests are personal or require a degree of privacy. 

 

On Friday, at the ripe old age of 28, I’ll be having all four of my wisdom teeth removed. One of them has already emerged so it will be easy to remove; another will be fairly easy. My bottom two, however, will be extremely difficult! All this to say that I will likely have looooooooooooooots of time to pray over the weekend, since I plan to do nothing but recover and go to Mass. So send me your prayers and I’ll keep them with me all weekend before I copy them down in my prayer journal.

 

God bless; you are all loved. If you know of others on Xanga in need of prayer, send them over! And if you are looking through the comments here and see someone’s intention that touches or moves you to want to pray for them, too, do so!