We should be displeased at what displeases God

We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God. Sinful though we are, let us at least be like God in this, that we are displeased at what displeases him. In such measure then you will be in harmony with God's will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

St. Augustine, Sermon

Pazzi Madonna

Donatello, Pazzi Madonna

 

Psalm 19 (part 3) — Right Relationship with Nature and God

As you wonder at the order of creation, the grace of providence and the sacred prescriptions of the Law, sing Psalm 19

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

Psalm 19 reveals the truth about what "everybody knows" in ancient and modern times. First  it sets the record straight for the pagans living around them at the time by pointing out that the sun, moon, and stars are not divine beings.

Psalm 19 has some enlightenment for us today too. It points out that the Law is a source of delight and love, rather than the idea of punishment or restriction that our narrow modern understanding of the word "law" might suggest.

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud,
ESA/Hubble (click the image to see it larger)

19:1. The Heavens Tell the Glory of God

A Rebuke to Idolators. Athanasius: Creation ... points to God as its Maker and Artificer, who reigns over creation and over all things, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; whom would-be philosophers turn from to worship and deify the creation that proceeded from him, which yet itself worships and confesses the Lord whom they deny on its account. For if people are awestruck at the parts of creation and think that they are gods, they might well be rebuked by the mutual dependence of those parts; which moreover makes known and witnesses to the Father of the Word, who is the Lord and Maker of these parts also, by the unbroken law of their obedience to him ... Against the Heathen

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

Demythologizing the Cosmos

What we usually recognize as inanimate creation is here given life and voice as the heavens and skies "declare," "proclaim," and "pour forth speech in praise of the creator. ... [The verbs and participles] emphasize the continuously ongoing nature of the proclamation made by the heavens ... This is, then, a continual outcry of nature to God from the moment of creation until now and on into the future.<br><br>In a more subtle fashion the heavens in Israelite Scripture proclaim that Yahweh is the only true God. In the pagan world of the ancient Near East the heavenly bodies — sun, moon, stars — were divine beings who exercised power over their own realms and over humans. In Psalm 19, however, the sun appears not as an independent deity but as one of the "works of [God's] hands" who carry out his bidding ... By removing the polytheistic element of creation the biblical poets emphasize the sovereignty of Yahweh over the created universe. In this way the heavens with all their features testify to the glory and creative might of the one who made them.

Psalms vol. 1 (NIV Application Commentary)

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Torah as Guidance and Blessing

As Psalm 19 suggests, Israel proclaimed the Torah to be no onoerous burden but instead the source of wisdom (19:7), joy (19:8b), and light (19:8d). Torah is both precious (19:10a) and pleasurable (19:10c). ...

It is this broader understanding of Torah that makes the traditional translation "law" such an inadequate interpretaion of this complex concept. We tend to equate Torah and law on a one-to-one basis that leads us frequently to misunderstand what Israel experienced through her long acquaintance with Torah. ...

The purpose of Torah is to "warn" the faithful servant of Yahweh (19:11a) to remain on the path that leads to "reward" (19:11b). By its buidance, one is empowered to understand one's errors and to avoid "hidden faults" or "willful sin" (19?12-13a). Rather than restriction, Torah offers freedom from the rule of sin and consequently escape from divine judgment (19:13b-c).

The appropriate response to Torah, according to the psalmists, is "delight" (1:2; 119-70, 77, 92, 174) and "love" (119:97, 113, 163), not some grim-lipped adherence. It is through Torah that life is preserved (119:93, 149, 165). It is little surprise that the later postbiblical celebration of the end of the yearly Torah reading cycle and the beginning of the next was called Simhat Torah ("Joy of the Torah"), emphasizing the joy that the Jewish community experiences in having the Torah to guide their lives before God. ...

Rather than a heavy burden, rightly understood, the law was the guide to continued life and restoration of communion with the holy God.

Psalms vol. 1 (NIV Application Commentary)

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.

Julie and Scott travel across America, using only Blue Highways, keeping a sharp lookout for banana slugs and ho-made pies.

Join us for Episode 261 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast where we discuss Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon.

C/o Kancharapalem

From a schoolboy’s crush to a middle-aged bachelor’s office romance, four love stories spanning age, religion and status unfold in a small Indian town.

Kancharapalem is the name of a little neighborhood, which some of the residents actually call their village, in a small Indian town. Telugu is spoken there so this is not a Bollywood film but a Tollywood film, as the Telugu-language film industry is called. This movie features four very sweet love stories which engaged us from the beginning. Interesting side note: none of the 80 people in the film are actors.

Director Venkatesh Maha recruited most of his cast, nearly 80 non-actors, who are from the town itself. While no one in the town took seriously that he was making a film, they had shown great enthusiasm to act nonetheless. — Wikipedia

And they do a great job. The critics loved this and so did we. It went on my favorite movies of 2021 list as soon as we saw it.

It is streaming on Netflix and for rent on Amazon and various other places.

Tasty Caterpillar

Tasty Caterpillar, Remo Savisaar

I do not have to win the world ...

I do not have to win the world, even for Christ: I have to save my soul. that is what I must always remember, against the temptation of success in the apostolate. And so I will guard myself against impure means. It is not our mission to make truth triumph, but to testify for it.

Henri de Lubac, Paradoxes of Faith

Worth a Thousand Words: Celia Thaxter's Garden

Celia Thaxter's Garden, Isles of Shoals, Maine - Childe Hassam
Source

August Afternoon

Childe Hassam, August Afternoon

 

Optional Memorial: Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions

“St. Augustine Zhao Rong”
Artist and Date are unknown. Via Memorial Bench.

Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China's relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly.

The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Most of them (eighty-seven) were born in China and were children, parents, catechists or laborers, ranging from nine years of age to seventy-two. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests.

The thirty-three foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse (Paris Foreign Mission Society) to his martyrdom in Beijing. Augustine was baptized and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.

Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized in Rome on October 1, 2000. ...

The fact that this considerable number of Chinese lay faithful offered their lives for Christ together with the missionaries who had proclaimed the Gospel to them and had been so devoted to them is evidence of the depth of the link that faith in Christ establishes. It gathers into a single family people of various races and cultures, strongly uniting them not for political motives but in virtue of a religion that preaches love, brotherhood, peace and justice.

Catholic Culture

I am not sure why but I have always been fascinated by the witness of these brave Catholics in China. Perhaps it is because I've always been interested in China anyway and so these saints naturally draw my attention. Their witness is just as important today as when they were martyred.

You may read more about the individual martyrs.

One of them who recently came to my attention is St. Mark Ji Tianxiang. He was highly respected until he treated himself for an illness with opium and became addicted. Sounds just like the morphine problem after WWII or today's opioid addiction crisis, doesn't it? As he continually struggled with his addiction, his confessor gradually became convinced that the repeated confessions meant that Tianxiang wasn't really trying. So he was banned from the sacraments ... for 30 years. But Tianxiang never turned away from the Church, instead praying that he could become a martyr. His entire family was martyred during the Boxer Rebellion.

Ji begged his captors to kill him last so that none of his family would have to die alone. He stood beside all nine of them as they were beheaded.

That is a beautiful bit of selflessness that I hope I would have the courage to emulate. Read his story here.

When people forget to worship God

When people forget to worship God they begin to worship human beings, and from there it is but a short distance to tyranny.

Jonathan Sacks, Exodus: The Book of Redemption

À Chloris

À Chloris, Edward B. Gordon

 

Psalm 19 (part 2) — God's Self Revelation

As you wonder at the order of creation, the grace of providence and the sacred prescriptions of the Law, sing Psalm 19

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

God's creation is a revelation. The more we learn, the more we wonder at the intricacy of the natural world, all of which is a mute testimony to God's creative genius.

God's law is a revelation. Below we will see some Jewish commentators about the connection with the sun and Torah. Of course, the Church Fathers didn't miss that connection and further connect the sun with Christ.

Christus helios, the mosaic which is interpreted as Christ-Sol (Christ as the Sun).
From the necropolis under St. Peter's Mid-3rd century

The classical Jewish commentators all point to the connection the psalmist makes between the sun and the Torah. These connections include:

• The Torah enlightens man, just as the sun lights his way (Rashi)
• Both the sun and the Torah testify to the glory of their Creator (Ibn Ezra and Radak)
• The Torah is more perfect, whole, or complete than the powerful sun (Metzudat David)
• While the sun conveys God's glory and greatness in the physical world, the Torah expresses God's glory in the spiritual realm (Malbim).

Wikipedia

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19:6. Nothing Hidden from Its Heat

The Benign Light of Christ. Ambrose: Christ fills his world with copious lights, since "his going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end of it, and there is no one who can hide himself from his heat." Benignly he gives light to all, wishing not to repel the foolish but to correct them and desiring not to exclude the hard of heart from the church but to soften them. Hence ... Christ in the Gospel invites them, saying, "Come to me, all you who labor, and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." On His Brother Satyrus

19:10. To Be Desired

Desirable Light. Clement of Alexandria: "Sweet is the Word that gives us light, precious above god and gems; it is to be desired above honey and the honeycomb." for hos can it be other than desirable, since it has filled with light the mind that had been buried in darkness and given keenness to the "light-bringing eyes" of the soul? For just as, had the sun not been in existence, night would have brooded over the universe notwithstanding the other luminaries of heaven, so, had we not known the Word and been illuminated by him, we should have been nowise different from fowls that are being fed, fattened in darkness and nourished for death. Let us then admit the light that we may admit God; let us admit the light that we may admit God; let us admit the light and become disciples to the Lord. Exhortation to the Greeks

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.