CZAS UCIEKA WIECZNOŚĆ CZEKA (Time flies. Eternity waits.) Left footer reports on this text on a sign near the sanctuary where he attended Mass. (H/T Mundabor) The photo above is from the Cathedral at Trier - the inscription says "You do not know at what hour the Lord will come" and applies both to the second coming and to our own death. St Alphonsus Liguori used to quote St Augustine "God promises us His grace, He does not promise us tomorrow."
At this time of year I devote four Sunday sermons to the four last things. It is easy to gloss over the eternal truths even though they are an obviously major part of the teaching of Jesus Christ in the gospels. St Alphonsus, in his Sermons for every Sunday of the year focussed mainly on the four last things. His sermons were what we would today call "talks" or "conferences" - they were not given during Mass but at a separate devotional service. His aim was to bring people back to the practice of the faith by reminding them of the eternal truths and of the great mercy of God which allows us the opportunity for conversion in this life. He stressed the urgency and vital importance of such conversion.
Speaking about the last things has become unfashionable in recent decades. It is supposed to be psychologically unhealthy because so many clerics cling to the personalist "I'm OK, You're OK." psychology that was fashionable in the 70s and 80s. (For more information on this, see this Interview with a repentant psychologist. If anyone has more links to stuff by William Coulson, please drop links in the combox. I'd like to feature his work in another post.)
Surely the point is - are the eternal truths actually true? If they are, it is supremely important that people know about them, and negligent for a priest to ignore them in his preaching. Unless the Lord returns first, we are all going to die within a few decades - that we know. If we believe Our Lord's teaching in the Gospels, there is going to be a judgement and we are all going either to heaven or to hell. Most of us should hope that we will be given the merciful provision of purgatory to make us fit for heaven.
In fact meditating on the eternal truths, the four last things, is consoling, not a psychologically damaging threat. Take for example the sermon of St Alphonsus on the threefold remorse of the damned. In summary, the soul in hell is aware of
- The little he required to save his soul
- The trifles for which he lost his soul
- The great good which he has lost through his own fault
All of the things that we need to do to save our souls make us better people here on earth so this is not an attack on the priority of social justice: in the time of St Alphonsus and indeed until relatively recently, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy were seen as necessary, not occasions to pat ourselves on the back.
If you don't hear about the four last things at this time of year, you could make them a part of your own meditation. If you can get a copy of the sermons of St Alphonsus they are great - but the kindly and gentle St Francis of Sales also has meditations on them in his Introduction to the Devout Life.
19 comments:
Thank you, Father!
In Christ,
Patricia
It still creepy that though a soul knows all of this and feels remorse at the loss of God, he still hates God and does not want to be in heaven- his will is set. Our priest said that God doesn't send anyone to hell, they run from Him into hell.
Beatus qui horam mortis suae semper ante oculos habet,
et ad moriendum quotidie se disponit.
Si vidisti aliquem mori,
cogita quia tu per eandem viam transibis.
Blessed is he who keeps the moment of death ever before his eyes
and prepares for it every day.
If you have ever seen a man die,
remember that you, too, must go the same way.
Quando illa extrema hora venerit
multum aliter sentire incipies de tota vita tua praeterita,
et valde dolebis quia tam negligens et remissus fuisti.
When that last moment arrives
you will begin to have a quite different opinion of the life that is now entirely past
and you will regret very much that you were so careless and remiss.
(excerpted from De Imitatione Christi, Book 1, Chapter 23. Would that I could have quoted from Henry Carrington's metrical translation (Kegan Paul & Co, 1889), but alas it is unobtainable.)
Tempus fugit, aeternitas manet.
Good point Father.
It was probably about this time last year when I chided a young visiting priest about his sermon on the "four" last things.
He dealt eloquently with death and the promise of heaven - but not a hint of judgement and the danger of hell.
He took it quite well, and I suspect that his sermon this year might at least hint at the "other two"
Somewhere I have three cassette tapes of talks by William Coulson, which were very good. If you are interested in them, rather than www links, I could try to dig them out and send them to you, Father.
His account of his work with Carl Rogers and the impact of it on Rogers himself, as well as the subjects, is very powerful.
Thanks for this reminder. If one has lived a life of wickedness and running away from God how to repent? I guess the answer is to take little steps back to God but where to start?
Sadie - little steps can work: so can a big step like doing the Ignatian exercises (if you can find a priest who will do them in the traditional way) or carefully following the Introduction to the Devout Life.
This is a good question and worth a post on its own.
Ben - kind of you to offer but I don't actually have any means of listening to cassette tapes. Those talks may well be on the internet somewhere. When I get a chance I'll have a more thorough googling session.
Fr Finigan - Thank you for the kind mention.
I seem to remember seeing engraved on a sundial, "Perierunt et Imputantur". I have felt guilty over misuse of time ever since.
Excellent father. What I think is often missing in to-day's Church is a sense of the sheer drama we are faced with. I can see how young people in particular can see the Church as dull and boring unless they are told about death, judgement, heaven and hell. It certainly impressed the children at Fatima to be reminded of these.
Hello,
I just want to point out sites with free catholic books written by the saints
http://catholic-books.blogspot.com/
http://www.saintsbooks.net/
http://www.storyofasoul.com/
I hope they are helpful
Father,
I've had a link to that interview for 4-5 years, also at EWTN. However, the document to which it links begins with content which appears to be missing from yours. Theirs is an address given to contact Dr. Coulson. Of course, it is dated and may be defunct, but you can try.
Here is the missing content:
"WE OVERCAME THEIR TRADITIONS, WE OVERCAME THEIR FAITH"
A contrite Catholic psychologist's disturbing testimony about his central role in the destruction of religious orders.
Dr. William Coulson was a disciple of the influential American psychologist Carl Rogers, and for many years a co-practitioner of the latter's "nondirective" therapy. In 1964 he became chief of staff at Rogers' Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La
Jolla, Ca., where, he says, as the resident Catholic it became his task to "gather a cadre of facilitators to invade the IHM "community" of nuns-and later some two dozen other orders, among
them the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Providence, and the Jesuits. It was only in 1971 that he began to "back away" from his belief in psychotherapy, when its destructive effects on the religious orders - and on the Church and society in general - became apparent to him.
Having abandoned his once-lucrative practice, Dr. Coulson now
devotes his life to lecturing to Catholic and Protestant groups on the dangers of psychotherapy. He is also founder and director of the Research Council on psychology, where he can be reached (P.O. Box 134, Comptche, CA 95427). He and his wife Jeannie have seven children.
In the following interview with Dr. William Marra, Dr. Coulson
discusses his role in the detruction of Catholic religious
orders, and his subsequent change of mind Additional copies of this magazine are available for $4 each, first-class postage included, from: , 1331 Red Cedar Circle, Ft. Collins, CO 80524.
Here's the link itself, for you future use:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PRIESTS/COULSON.TXT
Given the year of his recantation I suspect the reformed doctor may have passed on by now. Still, the P.O. Box may still be in use by family members working to restore his good name. You could try.
Sadly, these are not things we will be hearing at my parish. *sigh*
One of my favorite books has been The Four Last Things by Fr M von Cochem. When I need a boost, I read the chapters on Heaven. When I need a swift kick in the pants, I read the chapters on Hell. Very edifying.
Dear Father Tim, it is interesting that you quote "Czas ucieka wiecznośc czeka" which is an inscription in Polish on the southern wal of the house wher Karol Wojtyla lived in Wadowice, Poland. Young Karol saw this motto every day from the windows of his flat. The motto was recalled a couple of times by blessed John Paul II, especially when He visited his native Wadowice. Such motto is not rare in other places as well as another one Memento Mori.
With regard to your call for some more information on Roger Coulson, a converted psychologist and former co-worker of C. Rogers, I would like to make reference to the articles which deal with the same problem of destruction of the religious orders in California, USA through encounter groups and similar techniques. Please see Carl Rogers and the IHM Nuns: Sensitivity Training, Psychological Warfare and the "Catholic Problem" - http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/1999/rogers.html
It is also worth looking into the writings of psychiatrist and founder of so called Logotherapy - Viktor E. Frankl, Holocaust survivor, who unlike Rogers and to some extent Maslow, recognized the importance of values in psychotherapy (see for example Man's Search for Meaning.). Being a survivor of concentration camps (Auschwitz and Thurkeim) he had much deeper insights in the role of spiritual life compared to Rogers or Maslow. He wrote based on his observations in Auschwitz “If a prisoner felt that he could no longer endure the realities of camp life, he found a way out in his mental life– an invaluable opportunity to dwell in the spiritual domain, the one that the SS were unable to destroy. Spiritual life strengthened the prisoner, helped him adapt, and thereby improved his chances of survival”.
Piotr (PL)
Excellent post Father! Reminds me of my need for Confession this week. Blessings and prayers for you and all priests during this upcoming Advent season.
Finola
Father TIm
I have finally found two of the cassette tapes of William Coulson I mentioned last year, and I have converted them to digital files. Would you like me to email them to you (or burn them onto a CD and post them)?
Dear Ben, email would be fine.
blackfencatholic@gmail.com
Many thanks indeed
Ben,
is there any chance you could also share the recording with me. The only problem might be size of the files which might go hardly via email. But it depends of the size.
I translated an article of Dr Coulson in Polish and shared with some priests, colleagues who work as psychologists. For them Coulson was unknown person so his views added new dimention to their perception of so called humanictic psychology. Even if Maslov and Rogers are known, and cited in psychology handbooks, Rogers negative impact on religious orders was not known. In that context, some of them posed the question whether his approach was a decisive factor in destruction of the morale of woman religious orders he worked with or was a catalyst of the already existing dissent tendencies. And whether some of his ideas were totally wrong (non-directional counceling, allowing client to speak instead of directing his as in typical behaviourstic approach preceding humanistsic psychology). Best regards
Piotr Bednarski (Poland)
(Fr TIm, with your indulgence...)
Dear Piotr
I can email the first talk (the Closing of the Catholic Mind) in two files. The second (Overcoming the Effects of Values Clarification) is too large for email. I could either break it into smaller segments (and you could, perhaps, reassemble it?) or I could burn it onto a cd.
To avoid cluttering Fr Tim's comments box, would you like to contact me directly: Benny.trovato (at) gmail (dot) com ?
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