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Saintly figures: Bowman, Rahner and Climacus
by Richard McBrien on Mar. 23, 2009
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionOn March 30 the church observes the day of death and entrance into eternal glory of three saintly figures. One is recognized as such by the universal church; the other two have not been formally raised to sainthood.
John Climacus (ca. 570-ca. 649) had been married early in life but became a monk after his wife's death. After living in community for a while, he took up life as a hermit. His only contact with others would occur at Mass with other hermits on weekends.
An icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent in St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai desertIt was while John was living in solitude that he wrote the work that gave him his name, Climacus, which in Latin means "ladder." The work was titled The Ladder to Paradise.
It was a volume on monastic spirituality, cataloguing the virtues and vices of monastic life, of both the communal and eremetical type. He held up apatheia (Greek, "passive disinterestedness") as the ideal virtue, because it represented a complete mastery over one's feelings and emotions.
Although one does not see North American Catholics today with their noses buried in this book, hoping to find the surest route to heaven, The Ladder to Paradise has had great influence in the East over the centuries.
It has been translated into Syriac, Arabic, Georgian, Armenian, Slavonic, Rumanian, and Russian, and is read today in Orthodox monasteries during Lent. It was translated into Latin by Franciscans in the 14th century.
Lest the reader of this column hastily conclude that John Climacus was an other-worldly type with whom no ordinary person nowadays could identify, it should be pointed out that he was careful not to exalt the soul at the expense of the body. "How can I run away from [my body]," he wrote, "when it will be my companion at the resurrection?"
We strive not for the liberation of the soul from the body, but "a body made holy"–or better, made whole. Although asceticism and obedience are indispensable tools of the spiritual life, he insisted, they are useless without faith, hope, and love, which "bind and secure the unity of the whole."
At around the age of 70, John Climacus was chosen as abbot of Mount Sinai, but after four years in that position he returned to his hermitage. He died about five or six years later.
His feast is not on the General Roman Calendar followed in the Catholic church, but it is celebrated in the East on the fourth Sunday of Lent as well as on March 30 by the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.
Karl RahnerThis is also the day on which Karl Rahner, S.J. (1904-84), the greatest Catholic theologian of the 20 century, died. Rahner's theological work, so reflective of that of St. Thomas Aquinas, was sacramental in character. It was always centered on grace as the presence of God in the individual human person and in the whole created order.
For Rahner, religious experience is not to be found or sought in some separate or exotic compartment of life, but in its ordinary moments and events.
His vision of the church was not only that of a sacrament of Christ, but of a "world church." For him, salvation is available to all people of good will. The church is the sign and instrument of what a loving and compassionate God is doing on behalf of everyone, both inside and outside the Body of Christ.
Toward the end of his life he is reported to have said that, as a writer and teacher, he had "tried in this ordinary everyday way to serve God." And indeed he did.
Thea BowmanFinally, March 30 is also the day of death of Sr. Thea Bowman (1937-90), an African American Franciscan, who helped to found the Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans. The institute became the base for her many lectures and workshops around the country.
In 1984, the same year that Fr. Rahner died, Sr. Thea learned that she had breast cancer. Nevertheless she continued her speaking and her travels, and in the process contributed to the ongoing transformation of the Catholic church in the United States.
Toward the end of her life, she had become bald from her chemotherapy treatments and was confined to a wheelchair. Her prayer in her remaining years was: "Lord, let me live until I die," that is, "to live, love, and serve fully until death comes."
"I don't make sense of suffering," she once said, "I try to make sense of life."
Saints are primarily exemplars, not intercessors. These three fit that profile very well.
(This column was adapted from Fr. McBrien's Lives of the Saints (HarperOne). © 2009 Richard P. McBrien. All rights reserved. Fr. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.)
Too bad Climacus isn't more
Too bad Climacus isn't more well known in Roman Catholicism...and Rahner & Bowman would certainly be timely saints for our era...now can we find some real married saints as an example to the majority of us?? I'm not talking about married couples living like brother & sister, but those with a healthy sex life, normal family, & living in the world like all of us do, not huddled 24/7 in some mansion chapel or desert hermitage. Surely there are saints among us...
Of course, there are. You
Of course, there are. You need look no further than to your own parents. Did they sacrifice their comfort, their predilections for you? Did they give up lattes or dinners out or a cruise because they wanted you to get your teeth straightened or a good education? Did they submerge their personal desires for you and your brothers and sisters? Did your mother have fewer pairs of shoes than her single or childless friends? The answer to this is in front of your nose. My own parents were - without the shadow of a doubt - saints. They thought first of the other and their children than of him or herself. They gave of themselves to their families when their families were in need. A cousin lived with us when her parents fell on hard times. The same with my grandparents.
The issue is that the church still sees the celibate life within a religious community as the preferable, even superior way of life. It is not. Many of the early martyrs were spouses and parents. But over the years, the church of married martyrs became a church of monks. Pity. The church lost a lot when it evolved this way.
My parents were far from
My parents were far from saints, as were my friend's parents. I have memories of coming home to see dad passed out on the floor from alcoholism. When I was 9, mom took us to see evidence that dad was with another woman. I have never been able to trust a man since, and so I have never married (I'm in my 40's). When dad took off when I was a girl of 13, I felt like Mary of the seven sorrows. I fell into a deep depression which lasted over 20 years. I still struggle with depression. My best friend's dad had another family on the side. He was married to a second woman and had kids with her, and his other wife found out and fell into a deep depression from which she never emerged. My friend herself is an alcoholic and dates men that beat her. One man almost killed her. The sins of the fathers continue in the sins of the children.
Nevertheless, we are called to forgive our parents and make lemonade out of lemons. It is one of the ways to carry the cross. I recently heard in a sermon that carrying our own crosses are, like the cross of Christ, instruments of salvation. I had never heard that before. Not all of our parents were or are saints. But it does not mean there is not hope for us. Keep the faith.
Perhaps Rachel, you can be
Perhaps Rachel, you can be that Saint for all of us.
Rachel, I think if you think
Rachel, I think if you think on it, you can identify those saints among us. Fr. McBrien wrote, "Saints are primarily exemplars, not intercessors. These three fit that profile very well."
"Saint" puts a heavy burden on the those that wear it. When we found out that Sr. Teresa of Calcutta had "doubts" did that make her more or less saint like? Well, if saints are perfection, it made her less saint-like; if saints are people who walk-the-walk, walk forward in faith even when they don't feel like it, then their are certainly saints among us.
Maybe a saint is a person who walks a faithful journey, ever asking, ever walking forward in faith.
When we define sainthood, we look to the accoutrements of sainthood; the stories of the miracles. But is that the essence of sainthood? I don't think so. Actually, Fr. McBrien's thumbnails sketches of the three people, with only Karl Rahner's name as recognizable, makes me want to know more about these three people. Other than the brief descriptions of these three people, what drew Fr. McBrien and others to them? What light shone out of their lives?
<<"Saint" puts a heavy burden
<<"Saint" puts a heavy burden on the those that wear it. >>
When caring for a son who was quadriplegic and severely brain-damaged due to lack of oxygen from a near drowning, someone told me "You're a saint"...you're right...it's too much of a burden...and it makes one feel that there is no way to ever be a saint...words like that spoken to one's face are not kind, not consoling, not helpful in the least!!
I'd rather be striving for sainthood than be one (at least until after death)!
Rachel, I used to do case
Rachel, I used to do case management for tech dependent children. God bless you. Not at all an easy cross to bear for you or your son.
Perhaps I should've used the
Perhaps I should've used the word "assuredly" instead of "surely"...it more comfortably demonstrates my knowledge that there are millions of married saints in our past, our present, and will be in our future...and yes, my parents are certainly saints to whom I pray & of whom I think about every day...
They lived thru the Great Depression, winter & bad weather layoffs from construction...we didn't have what my other classmates' families had, but we had enough. My dad somehow obtained many truckloads of dirt and leveled our yard that slanted into a ravine with a wheelbarrow & shovel. My mom made do, mended, did without. They did not cling to material things, happy with what they had...I still love a good bargain rather than something much more expensive which I can easily buy!!
They were people of faith...and they passed on their trust in God.
What more could I want??
The Apostle Paul, the Apostle
The Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles found some real married saints, with whom he boarded in Corinth.
Aquila and Priscilla, Companions of the Apostle Paul
http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/07/08.html
When Paul came to Corinth (probably in the year 50), he met Priscilla (or Prisca) and her husband Aquila, tentmakers by trade like Paul, Jewish, and just arrived from Rome, from which city the Emperor Claudius had recently expelled the Jewish community. (The Roman historian Suetonius tells us that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they were rioting on account of someone named Chrestus -- presumably referring to disputes between Christian and non-Christian Jews.) It is not clear whether Aquila and Priscilla were already Christians before meeting Paul, or were converted by his preaching. After eighteen months, the three of them went together to Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila remained while Paul continued to Antioch. Soon after, a man named Apollos came to Ephesus, who had heard and believed a portion of the Christian message, and was promoting that belief with eloquent preaching, based on a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. Aquila and Priscilla befriended him and explained the Gospel to him more fully, after which he continued to preach with even greater effectiveness.
Priscilla and Aquila were apparently in Rome when Paul wrote to that congregation, and in Ephesus with Timothy when Paul wrote his last letter to Timothy. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus, he joined their greetings with his own. Clearly they were dear to Paul, and were earnest and effective in spreading the Good News of Christ and His saving work. Altogether, Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned six times in the New Testament (Acts 18:2,18,26; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19; 2 Timothy 4:19), and the reader will note that in the odd-numbered mentions, Aquila's name comes first, while in the even-numbered mentions, Priscilla's comes first, as if to emphasize that they are being mentioned on equal terms.
In 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul writes: "I do not permit a woman to instruct or command a man." Jerome, writing over 3 centuries later, mentions a woman he knew, the Lady Paula, who was well equipped to discuss theology and the Scriptures, but who, in discussions with men, instead of simply saying what she thought, would innocently remark, "You know, that reminds me of something I once heard a man say -- his opinion was that...." Thus, she avoided the appearance of being a woman teaching a man, and yet got her point across. Now the Greek GYNE can mean either "woman" or "wife", and the Greek ANER (ANDRO-) can mean either "man" or "husband". Thus Paul may have meant, "I do not permit a wife to teach or command her husband." In interpreting his meaning, it is perhaps worth noting that we are told that Priscilla and Aquila, acting jointly, instructed Apollos in the Gospel, and there is no hint in the text that Aquila did all the talking while Priscilla hovered in the background and kept them supplied with sandwiches and coffee.
(Note: "Priscilla" is the diminutive form of "Prisca", as "Johnny" is the diminutive form of "John". Literally, it means "little Prisca." Diminutives are more common in many foreign languages (Latin, Spanish, Russian, Greek) than in English. They can denote affection, or distinguish from an older person, especially a relative, with the same name.)
Prayer (traditional language)
God of grace and might, we praise thee for thy servants Priscilla and Aquila, whom thou didst plenteously endow with gifts of zeal and eloquence to make known the truth of the Gospel. Raise up, we pray thee, in every country, evangelists and heralds of thy kingdom, that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Prayer (contemporary language)
God of grace and might, we praise you for your servants Aquila and Priscilla, to whom you gave gifts to make the good news known. Raise up, we pray, in every country, evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, so that the world may know the immeasurable riches of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Thank you, Louise, for your
Thank you, Louise, for your beautiful post.
I am sure to be accused of
I am sure to be accused of being picky by some, but I find all too often when articles are referring to male & female persons, the male surname is used, but the female first name is used...as in the above article mention of "Father Rahner" & "Sister Thea", both in the same sentence.I would urge NCR writers (& proof readers) to please be more sensitive to this issue. There are those of us who see this usage as not only sexist, but well past it's time. Thank you for consideration of our feelings.
A good point! It may sound
A good point! It may sound picky to some, but not to me. The respect we show by how we address someone holds a significance that so many are not aware of. Thank-you for writing about it.
While I agree with you in
While I agree with you in general, you might want to be aware that nuns don't generally use their family name, in this case, Bowman. They are usually addressed by Sister + first name, hence Sister Thea. The same is true, actually for men in religious order - Brother (or Father) John, rather than Brother (or Father) Thompson, etc. Thomas Merton, who used his given and family names as a writer, was known among other Cistercians and personal friends as "Father Louis" - just to use one familiar example. I don't see any insensitivity on Fr. McBrien's part - just his awareness of common usage.
OK, then it should be Father
OK, then it should be Father Karl as well as Sister Thea. Rahner is a Jesuit.
There is a different rationale for the difference--the German propensity for last name formality and the American inclination towards first name casualness.
Still, instinctive, unconsious sexism stricks me as more plausible. And the touchstone question is "Why didn't I notice the difference?"
Signs of the Apocalypse:
Signs of the Apocalypse: National Catholic Distorter readers actually calling O'Brien non-inclusive and sexist! I have now seen it all.
Most Jesuits have not adopted
Most Jesuits have not adopted the practice of most other religious (nothing unusual there) of using their first names rather than their family name. Let it rest. Let religious be called what THEY choose. I don't get the impression that the author or NCR are noted sexists. The CONTENT of the artical is excellent.
Religious Sisters have
Religious Sisters have chosen, at least in the past, to be known by their first names rather than the family names. That was the form of address that connoted a close, family style relationship. When everyone knows someone as, say, Sister Mary, or sister Mary Patrick, referring to her as Sister McCarthy seems very cold and impersonal.
The "warp and woof" of
The "warp and woof" of classical and contemporary hagiography have been masterfully interwoven for us here. Even the Bollandists must be pleased!
Aside from the wandering
Aside from the wandering comments here above, I find this as always excellent essay from the Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien to be an appateizing glimpse of ihs major and landmark work on the "The Lives of the Saints" from which it is adapted.
What a wonderful and sweeping view of great saints whose passingis remembered upon the one day!
As with all of the great tomes from Fr. Richard P. McBrien, including Catholicism and his work on the Popes, etc. and the HarperCollins Catholic Encyclopedia which he edited, his Lives of the Saints gracefully rewards its humble space upon every Catholic shelf.
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