A “Purified Experience” of Christmas

“I would like to invite everyone to ‘quicken their step’ toward Christmas - the real one, the birth of Jesus Christ. This year we are constrained by restrictions and discomfort. But let us consider the Christmas of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph: it wasn’t all roses and flowers! They faced many difficulties! So many worries! Yet faith, hope, and love guided and sustained them. May it be so for us as well! These difficulties may even help us to purify somewhat our way of experiencing Christmas, of celebrating by getting away from consumerism. May it be more religious, authentic, and true” (Pope Francis - December 16).

Let it Snow? Let it Snow?❄🎶 Do I Have a Choice?😉

 The snow came... about a foot of it here around Casa Janaro, give or take.

I did a quick digital graphic art workup of a snowy street and the hills beyond it. Are we heading for a "White Christmas"? In Virginia there's no way to be sure what it will be like next week.

In Our Trials, Do We Grumble Against God, or Cry Out To Him?

Christian preaching had always exhorted us to bear sufferings patiently. In particular, we must resist the temptation to grumble against God when sufferings come or grow deeper. 

Faith makes it possible to bear our suffering, and we must never forget about the superabundant resources for courage and endurance that are given to us through our relationship with Jesus Christ. What we are given, in this relationship, is not some "abstract" courage and capacity for endurance, but precisely what each of us needs, personally, to persevere on the path God opens up in front of us. Our Father loves us, and leads us according to His wisdom.

This is good news, indeed. But the knowledge of it doesn't make suffering go away. Even within a personal relationship with the Lord, we are tempted to grumble. We know in faith that God allows us to endure pain and suffering in order to purify us, lead us to Him, and participate in His redeeming love for others. But pain (in itself) remains mysteriously opaque, contrary to our human inclinations, frustrating, and very difficult to carry. We are tempted to reject God's will for us, or rather—at least—to resent His will for us. As we know from human experience, resentment poisons an interpersonal relationship. It will do violence to our relationship with God.

Still, suffering can throw our poor humanity into such perplexity. It cleaves our hearts. How do we speak to our God and Father at such times?

It is important to distinguish between “the grumble” (which is a loss of trust in God motivated by my own misery) and “the lament” (which is a cry of pain—the pain that a creature feels under the weight of the transforming “pressure” of the Divine Creator and Lover who carries out His mysterious plan in my life, which encompasses His permission of what may seem to be an incomprehensible suffering). Both “the grumble” and “the lament” can express themselves as “God, why are you doing this to me?” But they mean two different things. “The lament” is a prayer—read the Psalms or the prophet Jeremiah. “The grumble” gets you forty more years in the desert—read the book of Exodus.

The Israelites grumbled against the Lord in the desert, not just because they were hungry and thirsty, but because this suffering made them forget all the signs and wonders of the loving God who had delivered them from slavery and had proven His faithfulness over and over again. Instead of asking God to give them food and drink, they said, “why did we ever leave Egypt?” Still, what does God do in His enduring mercy for His people? He feeds them with manna from heaven. He quenches their thirst with water from the rock.

How often God tenderly takes care of us and provides for us in ways like this, even when we are grumbling and complaining and forgetful of our own faith. He is so good. How can we not love Him?

But it did not take long for the Israelites to start complaining that the manna was a monotonous diet and start grumbling that they wanted meat. “In Egypt we had meat!” Etcetera, etcetera. This is the path of grumbling—it leads away from God’s love and into selfishness and ingratitude.

On the other hand, let us listen to the prophet Jeremiah: “Cursed be the day on which I was born!” He had just been beaten and put in stocks in front of the gates of the temple for public humiliation, because he had been prophesying the coming destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah constantly laments over the vocation that has been given to him, to be the prophet of disaster, and therefore the prophet that everyone wants to persecute. “Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:14, 18). Jeremiah, in his misery, seems to “wish he had never been born.” That sounds like grumbling, doesn’t it? But there is a difference. In the midst of this very lament, he also says, “O Lord of hosts, who tries the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind…to you have I committed my cause” (20:12). 

Jeremiah does not understand His own suffering. He does not understand why he even exists. Why, O Lord, should a man be born to such misery? — and yet he trusts in the Lord, and remains faithful to the very mission that brings upon him so much suffering. This fidelity—and even the lament of poor human flesh grappling with Divine mystery—leads into the very heart of God’s love.

Our relationship with God is mysterious, and its trials are part of the mystery. We are called to share in the infinite life and love of God; we flesh and blood human beings, who have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning even on a good day. We are called by God to a relationship that is destined to transform us into His likeness, to “divinize” us. This is going to take some stretching, to say the least. And on top of our basic fragility as human beings, we all have the effects of original sin and our own personal sins with which we must contend. Then there is the further mystery of the suffering that God calls on us to endure for the sake of others, to participate in His redemptive love.

So we must suffer. Jesus has suffered for all of us, and suffers in all of us. His Resurrection reveals that redemption and glory are destined to rise up out of our own suffering, if we adhere to Him in faith, hope, and love. 

The Resurrection encompasses the whole of God's promise for our destiny. But in the history of the life of the Church, God has given us other "signs" of this mystery, that suffering has indeed been transformed. Some saints have experienced the marvel of an ecstatic and wholly supernatural joy—a kind of anticipation of glory—that penetrates the heart of suffering itself. 

Such joy—the foretaste of glory—is a kind of miracle, a special gift of grace. It is given to a few saints, in order to be a source of encouragement for all of us. This does not mean, however, that we should expect to "feel" some kind of ecstatic triumph in the midst of the sufferings of our ordinary Christian life. We will be transformed, ultimately, by that victory (which is Jesus's victory of death), but each person has their unique vocation, and is given the sustenance they need to fulfill it. The Holy Spirit gives His gifts to every Christian, and through them we grow in the likeness to God. Yes, each one of us is called to become “godlike”—that is our destiny, to “participate” in the life of God. We know that it is here that our ultimate happiness lies, but God alone knows what our true destiny really “looks” like (“eye hath not seen…”). So we must let Him lead the way.

We shouldn't expect (or demand) from God extraordinary "illuminations" and "ecstasies" to compensate for the psychological and emotional perplexity that suffering brings upon us. Of course we can ask to understand more and be consoled, with confidence that the Lord will provide us with what we need to persevere and grow closer to Him. We should pray above all for the grace to allow God to accomplish His mysterious work in us. 

The grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit will sustain and empower us, not overwhelming our emotions with instant joy, but opening our hearts to the signs of God’s presence, with enough certainty, with enough courage to take the next step. We must not be discouraged, or even surprised, that we ourselves are not enraptured by unspeakable joys and the foretaste of glory in the midst of our trials. Peace, patience, and above all prayerful fidelity in suffering constitute the path that most of us are called to travel. 

Perhaps we can manage to be cheerful in the midst of suffering; this is a courageous virtue, and not easily attained. Mother Teresa counsels us to receive everything from God with a smile. She also acknowledges that sometimes it is hard to smile at Jesus. Hard is nevertheless good. Cheerfulness is a sign that we are growing in love, but growing takes time. 

Mother Teresa also tells a story about a person was in great pain from an illness, and Mother Teresa told her that the pain was Jesus kissing her. The woman replied, “can you ask Jesus not to kiss me so much?”

There is no sin in this response. There is no sin in saying, “I hurt. This hurts. Why, O Lord, why must I hurt like this?” This is a form of prayer called “the lament.” The Psalms are so eloquent in expressing this profound human experience. To accept God’s will in suffering, it is not necessary to pretend that it doesn’t hurt. Nor is it necessary to pretend that—because we embrace God’s will—the pain doesn’t bother us. Nor is it necessary to pretend that we understand why God is permitting us to be thus afflicted (we do not fully understand, and never will in this life). 

We should ask Christ to give us the grace to begin to see His Presence in our lives, and especially in our sufferings. With the eyes of faith and the Spirit’s grace and His gifts of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge we can recognize the Presence of Jesus. That Presence is enough, although God in His mercy will not deny us some consolation. He is the Consoler of the Afflicted, and He knows what we need. Indeed, He knows exactly what is good for each of us. The path He calls us to travel is set before us, step by step, as the gift of His infinite goodness and love.

Remember, what God wants for us is so much more, so much greater, so much more glorious and joyful, than what we think we want for ourselves. In eternity, we shall see all and rejoice in all. Here, we see through that dark glass called faith. Sometimes it is very dark, but we must trust God to give us what we need to sustain hope, and to grow in the capacity to respond to His mysterious Love with our own self-abandoning love.

Let us therefore not grumble. Let us cry out our pains to the Lord with trust in His goodness, and persevere in that trust, because the Lord has promised to hear our prayer and save us from all our distress. This is certainly a theme of this Advent season: waiting for the Lord with confidence, waiting for the fulfillment of His promises. Indeed, we "await" the answer that has already come, Jesus who is God-with-us, who accompanies us in our sufferings and transforms them from within.

He is already at work in us more deeply than we know. He is coming, in ever greater fullness, to complete the work of victorious love that He has already begun in us.

Let us make room for Him.

The River Changes, Yet Stays The Same...

A beautiful December day, listening to the calming sounds of the waters of Happy Creek under the bright air and (mostly) bare trees.🌊🌲 There were tweeting birds too!🐦

Guadalupe: The "Prophecy of an Embrace"

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Maria, madrecita. ¡Buena Fiesta! 

HAPPY FEAST DAY TO EVERYONE!

Today is a day of grace and mercy for the world and especially for the peoples and nations of "the Americas." Today is a day to remember that miracles happen, and that Mary can change history if we give her room in our hearts to come with Jesus.⭐🌹 

Hoy es un día de gracia y misericordia para el mundo y especialmente para los pueblos y naciones de "las Américas".  Hoy es un día para recordar que "ocurren milagros," y que María puede cambiar la historia si le damos espacio en nuestro corazón para que venga con Jesús.

As Pope Francis reminds us: "When the image of the Virgin appeared on the tilma of Juan Diego, it was the prophecy of an embrace: Mary’s embrace of all the peoples of the vast expanses of America – the peoples who already lived there, and those who were yet to come. Mary’s embrace showed what America – North and South – is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor and the marginalized, in every age. A land of generosity" (12/12/2014).

Como nos recuerda el Papa Francisco: "Cuando la imagen de la Virgen apareció en la tilma de Juan Diego, fue la profecía de un abrazo: el abrazo de María a todos los pueblos de las vastas extensiones de América, los pueblos que ya vivían allí, y los que estaban por venir. El abrazo de María mostró lo que América - Norte y Sur - está llamada a ser: una tierra donde se unen diferentes pueblos; una tierra preparada para acoger la vida humana en cada etapa, desde el vientre materno hasta la vejez; tierra que acoge a inmigrantes, pobres y marginados, en todas las épocas. Una tierra de generosidad” (12/12/2014).

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"O God, Father of mercies,
who placed your people under the singular protection
of your Son’s most holy Mother,
grant that all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe,
may seek with ever more lively faith
the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever."

~Collect for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Eighteen Years With Teresa Janaro

Teresa's birthday was on December 6th, so this is a bit late. But when your fourth child turns 18, you have to think about what to say.

When I started this blog nearly ten years ago, it was all about "the family." There were lots of stories about the kids, individually and as a group. Just go look in the archives. We had five kids in January 2011, aged 13, 12, 10, 8, and 4 years old. (Teresa was the 8-year-old.)

The last decade was one of big changes for our kids. It has been the decade in which four of them grew up.

I used to take pictures of them and write about them all the time. Then came adolescence with its drama and its challenges, and with each of them taking up distinctive and increasingly self-possessed pathways. They don't want Dad nosing around with a camera; naturally, they want to take responsibility for telling their own stories.

As a parent, you may have twinges of nostalgia for their childhood years, but the sense of gratitude watching them grow up is far greater. I really want to thank the Lord for His mercy, and frankly acknowledge that He is the one who has sustained us through these years, that He is the source of whatever is good in our family.

We are so "proud" of Teresa, for reasons that are obvious to everyone in our local community. But extended family and others far away may not realize what an extraordinary young lady she has become. She has taken initiative and realized her interests with persistence and dedication. This kid drives an SUV and a truck, owns and works with horses, and has a black belt in karate. She is also (like her sisters) a beautiful girl, full of intelligence and empathy, aware of her dignity, and strong in her faith.

It is a wonderful thing to see a person grow from infancy ("Teresa, you're only the size of an extra large pizza!" I used to sing to her) to the beginnings of adulthood, to see her manifest the qualities of her own personality and the hints of an interiority that is vast and mysterious, that comes from God and answers to Him alone.

Each of our kids has grown in different and special ways, and they have grown together with us as a family. We are grateful to Jesus for each of them, and we trust that He will continue to be our Good Shepherd as the journey of this life continues.

Many happy years, Teresa. We love you!

An "Empty Chair" For Peace

Ten years ago, an empty chair held the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the great Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. In 2010, Liu was in prison in China for his persistent advocacy for fundamental human rights and human dignity. 

The Chinese Communist PartyState denounced the award, put Liu’s wife under house arrest, and effectively prevented any of his friends or associates from traveling to Oslo to receive the award on his behalf. Thus, an “empty chair” has become the symbol of his resistance to the PartyState’s suffocation of the human person. Liu remained in prison until two weeks before his death in 2017. For many months, doctors from all over the world had made offers to travel to China to treat his liver cancer. The world's most advanced hospitals were prepared to airlift the suffering Nobel laureate from the Chinese prison hospital to their own state-of-the-art facilities. Nearly all these offers were stonewalled by the government until it was too late to make a difference. We'll never know if better care could have helped him, or if negligence hastened his death. In any case, China's rulers saw no cause for mourning. They made sure Liu Xiaobo's ashes were scattered over the sea, so that there would be no grave - no place where he could be remembered and honored.

Perhaps their small minds didn't realize that they had already made the empty chair into an "icon" of China's first millennial hero. His courage has not been forgotten. The memory of his dedication and his suffering has not been erased.

The PartyState-controlled Chinese Internet search engine Weibo still censors “Liu Xiaobo” and the term “empty chair.” Now the same PartyState is plotting the fate of Hong Kong’s jailed young activists whose “crime” is their protest against Beijing’s suppression of their city’s guaranteed freedoms.

What kind of people are these men (and the ones at the top are all men) who rule one-fifth of the human race with their obsessive, controlling paranoia? How much longer before their political house-of-cards collapses under its own enormous weight? And what (who?) will take its place?

China needs more great souls like Liu Xiaobo. The unfolding history of the 21st century needs them.

I had a Facebook post on that day, ten years ago (reproduced below). Now, I remember Liu with even more respect, honor, and gratitude. I have learned more about his land, its history, and its people. I have also been moved deeply by what I have read of his writings during the course of my ongoing East Asian studies project. His integrity in the search for truth and for China's authentic path in the emerging new epoch will bear fruit. Really, it doesn't depend on the "outrage" or the global political maneuvering of the "free nations." Liu himself ultimately recognized that the West has its own need for regeneration, and is in no condition to provide solutions for China.

In this respect Liu Xiaobo is not unlike another great dissident, another absentee Nobel Prize winner who fought against a repressive regime - one that no longer exists. They both knew the irrepressible value of truth. As that other famous dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, said: "One word of truth outweighs the whole world."

Juan Diego, Roses, and Eagle’s Wings

December 9th is Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin Day! (The image below is of a statue I got in Mexico some years ago.) Don't forget to keep celebrating the GUADALUPE FIESTA from now until the 12th of December.⭐❗

And in a not-entirely-unrelated incident, I came across a beautiful blooming rose... a rose in December!😮😊🌹 

It hasn't exactly been warm this week, but we've have a few sunny days. Near the top of the hill of "Marlow Heights" I saw one of those durable and prolific garden rose bushes with a couple of buds and this one pink rose!

Maybe I should come back in a couple of days and bring a cloak?😉

Finally, I was struck by the fact that we had the reading from Isaiah 40 on our feast in honor of Saint Cuauhtlatoatzin ("Singing Eagle," Juan Diego's original name in Nahua, the languauge spoken by the indigenous peoples of central Mexico). The eagle represents courage, endurance, and attentive care (such as the mother eagle has for her brood).

The eagle is strong, soaring into the sun, singing down through the centuries, ever renewed in its strength. The eagle does not grow weary.

Here is the text of Isaiah 40:28-31 from the Digital Scriptorum:

The Beginning of These Beautiful "Days of Mary"

Remember, today's Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is only the first day of a five day Pan-American Marian Fiesta! [Picture on the left: detail of a retablo painting of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Mexican, anonymous, 18th century.] 

Tomorrow is the feast of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, and the ensuing days recall the events of his encounters with Mary "the Madrecita" on the way to Mexico City, culminating in a sign given for all ages, a sign that would change the history of the Western Hemisphere. Saturday is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who remains with us today, and continues to change us.

Through this singular gift to all our peoples (and to the world), Mary's all-holy, boundless mother's heart has been bringing her Son to the poor, the sorrowful, those who are burdened, sinners, and all those "who live in this land" for 489 years. At the geographical center of "the Americas" - the middle of a varied continuous landmass and regional islands stretching from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, with a population of more than a billion human beings - the Mother of Jesus, and of all of us, is uniquely "present" through the scientifically inexplicable "icon" she entrusted to an indigenous man (Saint Juan Diego) on December 12, 1531. She remains "with us" at Tepeyac, and every year during these days millions of people set out on pilgrimage. I don't know what restrictions there will be this year, but they will come in whatever way they can.

In these "Marian Days" let us accompany the pilgrims in our hearts (at least), let us approach Mary who will give us Jesus, and who will lead us to reconcilation with one another - our brothers and sisters in Jesus, the children of Mary.

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En Español: Recuerde, ¡la Solemnidad de la Inmaculada Concepción de hoy es solo el primer día de una Fiesta Mariana Panamericana de cinco días! [Imagen: detalle de una pintura retablo de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, mexicana, anónima, siglo XVIII.]

Mañana es la fiesta de San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, y los días siguientes rememoran los hechos de sus encuentros con María "la Madrecita" camino a la Ciudad de México, culminando con una señal para todas las edades, señal que cambiaría la historia de el hemisferio occidental. El sábado es la fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, que permanece con nosotros hoy y continúa transformándonos.

A través de este don singular a todos nuestros pueblos (y al mundo), el corazón de la madre santísima e ilimitada de María ha llevado a su Hijo a los pobres, a los afligidos, a los agobiados, a los pecadores y a todos los "que viven en este tierra" durante 489 años. En el centro geográfico de "las Américas" - en medio de una variada masa continental continua e islas regionales que se extienden desde Alaska hasta Tierra del Fuego, con una población de más de mil millones de seres humanos - la Madre de Jesús, y de todos nosotros, está singularmente "presente" a través del "ícono" científicamente inexplicable que confió a un indígena (San Juan Diego) el 12 de diciembre de 1531. Permanece "con nosotros" en el Tepeyac, y cada año durante estos días millones de personas parten peregrinaje. No sé qué restricciones habrá este año, pero vendrán de cualquier forma que puedan.

En estas "Jornadas Marianas" acompañemos a los peregrinos en nuestro corazón (al menos), acerquémonos a María que nos dará a Jesús, y que nos conducirá a la reconciliación unos con otros, nuestros hermanos y hermanas en Jesús, los hijos de María.

Evanescence is Still Around and Still Solid

Evanescence streamed a "virtual live concert" tonight, from Nashville, California, and Germany. The entire show was excellent!🎵🎸🎹 

Amy Lee and the band have returned to the "traditional rock" format, but their new hard-driving music continues to be innovative, brilliantly crafted, and superbly performed.⭐💥

The video presentation features shining individual moments from every member of the band: Jen Majura in Germany backing Amy's vocals and playing guitar, Troy McLawhorn also on guitar in the studio in Nashville, Will Hunt bringing rhythmic energy and precision on drums (Nashville), and Tim McCord doing the bass from California.

Ordinarily, on stage, the powerful voice and virtuoso musicianship of singer-songwriter, keyboardist, pianist, and creative genius Amy Lee dominates the show. The video allocates the musical space differently, and illustrates well the coherence, durability, and breadth of talent of the whole current band lineup (which with one exception has remained consistent for more than a decade).

Still, Amy's creative leadership and charisma are everywhere apparent. In addition to singing lead vocals on all the songs with her inimitable expansive range and depth of tone, Amy also presents the final two songs alone, accompanied only by the piano she plays so beautifully.

Moreover, before the concert, she spent a half hour answering pre-submitted questions, discussing the challenges of the past year and the upcoming new album. As ever, she was articulate and cheerful when speaking - seemingly quite different from the melancholic intensity of her songs.

The big dramatic Evanescence style has a quality analogous to Opera, in that it treats much of the "twilight" themes related to sorrow, tragedy, disappointment, loss, anger, and seemingly irresolvable conflict. But the music, especially, suggests a persistence of hope. It has a "dark" character, but the twilight here is the one that usually signals the coming of the dawn.

An audience from all over the world watched this virtual show from wherever they happened to be. Listeners of my age and condition appreciated this kind of accessibility. There were nothing but "good seats" for everyone.

Arrests and Prison Sentences for Hong Kong Activists

Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow (whom I wrote about earlier this year), and Ivan Lam - three of the inspiring young adult leaders of Hong Kong's freedom movement - have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms of 7-13 months for various infractions related to their involvement in an "unlawful assembly" at police headquarters during the Summer 2019 protests. Agnes Chow received a 10 month prison sentence for her first "offense," on a matter that would ordinarily involve nothing more than "community service."

But there is nothing ordinary about Beijing's escalating tactics this year in their aggressive move to smash Hong Kong's civil society. This is only the beginning of their offensive. All three of the young people face further "charges," and they may end up being imprisoned for longer - even indefinitely if "national security" requires it.

Nevertheless, as Joshua Wong said, "Cages can't lock up souls." He is right. These kids are opening a new chapter in the history of their people.

Moreover, not all of Hong Kong's heroes are kids. 71-year-old Jimmy Lai - the main sponsor of the pro-Democracy media (and publisher of the popular opposition newspaper Apple Daily) - has been jailed without bail, and charged with a minor technicality involving the use of rented office space. This allegation of "fraud" pertains to an arguably perfectly reasonable use of the space, and is not financially related. It is clearly an attack on his courageous activism, which he has continued even after Beijing's imposition of the draconian "national security law" last Summer.

We are seeing new methods of repression in our time. Instead of employing tanks and the military as they did to massacre dissidents in 1989's Tiananmen Square protest, the 21st Century CCP wages what some have called "Lawfare" against its opponents, using bureaucratic legalism to make them "disappear."

A noteworthy point: Jimmy Lai was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1997, and has been a strong supporter of the precarious religious freedom preserved in Hong Kong (a freedom not likely to last much longer). My column in Magnificat only treats "conversion stories" of people who are dead. I hope I don't have the chance to write the story of Jimmy Lai anytime soon. But if the Chinese Communist PartyState "disappears him" from this world, then I WILL WRITE IT. Jimmy Lai will be first on my list.

But for now, let's all pray for his safety, as well as for Joshua, Ivan, and Agnes, and for an end to the repression of Hong Kong.

Missionary Saints: Poor Beggars Driven By Love

Today we honor the great pioneering Jesuit missionary Saint Francis de Sales. He is remembered, of course, for his tremendous passion for the gospel, and for the way that the love of Jesus drove him to "the ends of the earth." Francis took the risks of traveling great distances, often under conditions so appalling that we cannot imagine them, to bring Jesus to the peoples of South and East Asia: ancient peoples with long histories and religious traditions of their own.

But Francis didn't pour out his life to be a cultural imperialist. He didn't go to Asia to force "Western Religion" down the throats of "inferior peoples."

There were plenty of cultural (and economic and political) imperialists who would come from the West in the ensuing centuries, to impose their structures and modalities of life in Asia. Their legacy endures today: some positive and constructive elements have been integrated into post-colonial Asian societies, but much remains ambivalent and problematic, and much has caused, or exacerbated, division and violence. 

Generally speaking, the agents of 16th to 20th century global imperialism stand out because they were rich. Or at least, they became rich. They came to Asia to make money off the Asian peoples (even if it meant turning them into drug addicts, as happened in 19th century China).

Francis de Sales went to Asia out of love. He wanted people to know the unfathomable riches of the love of God. Evangelization is not "proselytism" (as we understand the term today) — it has nothing to do with coercing or manipulating people to "join your group" so that you can exercise power over them. It has to do with revealing and embodying God's love for people. This means that genuine evangelization doesn't intentionally go against anything that God has already done in the hearts of people by the mysterious workings of his grace. It doesn't endeavor to belittle or despise any of the immense depths of truth, goodness, and beauty that people in non-Christian cultures have discovered — the diverse facets of the richness of existence they have perceived and developed — in their lives, through their traditions, and as the fruit of their splendid efforts to seek the meaning of life and to respond, mysteriously, in their own hearts to grace of the Holy Spirit. Authentic evangelization opposes only evil and sin. It brings freedom from the destructiveness of sin by the gift of God's love. It promises the fulfillment and transformation of every good thing, and the flourishing of human persons and cultures in their whole truth.

Christian missions didn't always live up to the task of evangelization. Sometimes, they were distorted by elements of false proselytism (especially to the extent that they were "sponsored" by "enthusiastic" people-in-power whose main interest was to establish new ways of enriching themselves). To a significant extent, the history of the first real Globalization Project recounts a series of complex, daring enterprises by Western Europeans who had various motivations for their efforts to "spread the benefits of civilization." Even as Europe's own identity (which was rooted in an imperfect but real inculturation of Christian faith) was breaking down into warring factions, Europeans tried to take up this global project of unifying the whole world. Western powers were fighting with one another for dominance in Europe. Not surprisingly, they also fought over who would get which piece of the global pie.

Christian missionaries, including some saints, accompanied or followed (and occasionally even preceded) the expansive efforts of these temporal forces. Many missionaries endeavored heroically to preach the gospel and bring new peoples to an encounter with Jesus Christ. But Christian missionaries were human; their understanding was limited and their motivations could be ambivalent; even more ambivalence was to be found in the political forces that tried to control missionary activity. 

We must not, however, make the mistake of judging the whole project to be an irredeemably villianous enterprise. The European powers had much to give, to share, and to help build up for the benefit of the whole world. But their motives were inevitably mixed. They wanted to exercise their power for what they thought was "the good" of people, but they also wanted to accumulate power and seek their own glorification. They wanted to open up trade and cultural and economic exchange but they also wanted to be the ones to dominate the process. They even wanted people to come to know Christ, and they told themselves that this more than compensated for the fact that they also wanted to make a ton of money. Too often they deluded themselves into thinking they could "serve two masters" — God and mammon. Thus, genuine achievements were inevitably compromised in some respects, and many evils were perpetrated and condoned under the cover of hypocrisy. This is the inevitable result when Christians think they can do God's will and indulge their own covetousness at the same time.

Francis de Sales had no such ambiguous and divided aspirations. He burned with an unquenchable thirst for God, and to bring others to the joy of knowing the love of God through Jesus Christ. This was his whole focus. He was a lover; all his wealth consisted in belonging to Christ and serving his brothers and sisters. He lived poor. He begged for whatever means he could get to share the love of Christ. And though he evangelized many in India, and began the mission to Japan (that would flourish only for a short time), he was never satisfied. He spent himself entirely in this witness, and he died in 1552 on Sangchaun island, at the threshold of China, trying until the very end to begin an unprecedented evangelization of this immense country and its exceptional people.

Francis died poor and alone. And after nearly five centuries, the great mission to China has barely begun. We know that God works in peoples' hearts, but we also know that God became incarnate so that every person could see his face and know his love in the communion of the Church. Real missionaries know that God wants to reach people and give himself to people through Jesus. They belong to Jesus, and seek to "extend" the presence of Jesus to every place.

Real evangelization is not about power, exploitation, asserting one's own superiority, or amassing wealth. It's about love. It follows the "law of love." It dares things that might seem futile to unloving eyes.

This brings to mind another great missionary, a "pioneering" missionary who is a special witness for our time, for the beginning of the new evangelization: Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), who we celebrated on December 1. Charles, the "little brother of Jesus," devoted the final years of his life to living with and serving the poorest of the poor among the nomadic peoples of the Western Sahara (in what is now Algeria).

He was no agent of 19th century French imperialism. He died poor and alone, in the desert, without great achievements, without success — not even any (apparent) success at "being a missionary." He was Christ's beating heart in one small place in the world, Christ loving those who are forgotten by everyone else.

"Let us concern ourselves with those who lack everything, ...those to whom no one gives a thought. Let us be the friends of those who have no friends, their brother. The love of God, the love of men, that is my whole life, that will be my whole life, I hope. When we can suffer and love, we can do much, the most that one can do in this world" (Blessed Charles de Foucauld).

The Last Leaves Of November (Photos and Art)

Here is a good way to begin December: by saying "goodbye" to November!

Some of these photos and/or digital artworks have been posted to Instagram but others are appearing here for the first time. But in any case this is a good sample of the scenery of this very pleasant November (at least in terms of the weather).

Most of the leaves have... well... "left" by now. (Ha, you see what I did there?😉) With December's bare trees opening new vistas and the low arc of the sun bringing a distinct "style" to the skies, we will begin to have a new kind of beauty in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

And, as I say again and again, it never gets boring to me. (I hope you feel the same way!😊)

Note that leaves were not the only colors of this warm month. The multiple blooming rose bushes were in flower quite a bit:

But it was mostly leafy colors, with lots of yellow late in the season.

Beautiful scenes. December already bears great promise, nevertheless, offering us vistas like this: