Amber Waves of Grain? We Are Bread in the Hands of God

©2010, Randall A. Beeler

14 Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart … 17 And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name  … 19 And I will espouse you to me for ever: and I will espouse you to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations. 20 And I will espouse you to me in faith: and you shall know that I am the Lord. (Hosea 2, DRE)

VATICAN CITY, 4 JUL 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI today made a pastoral visit to the town of Sulmona, in the Italian region of Abruzzo, to mark the eighth centenary of the birth of St. Celestine V, the hermit Pope

At 10 a.m. he presided at a Eucharistic concelebration in the town's Piazza Garibaldi, attended by some 25,000 faithful.

The Holy Father began his homily with a reference to the difficulties the local people have to face every day, giving them assurances of his "closeness and recollection in prayer", especially for "those who live their lives in precarious situations due to a lack of work, uncertainty over the future, and with physical and moral suffering and a sense of loss due to the earthquake of 6 April 2009."

Speaking then of Celestine V, known as Pietro da Morrone because he lived in seclusion on a mountain of that name until his election as Pope in 1294, the Holy Father highlighted how "he abides in history, ... above all for his sanctity. Sanctity, indeed, never loses its power of attraction, it does not fall into oblivion, it never goes out of fashion; rather, with the passing of time it becomes ever brighter, expressing man's perennial striving after God."

This saint was, "from his youth, a 'seeker after God', a man who wished to find answers to the great questions of existence: Who am I? Where do I come from? Why am I alive? For whom do I live? ... In exterior silence, but above all in interior silence, he managed to perceive the voice of God which was able to guide his life." (Pope Benedict XVI in Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy)

Are we beset with anxieties about where our homelands are headed? Do we desperately want to do something but feel helpless, even though we put in your two-cents-worth on every blog and Facebook or Twitter group from here to our particular purple-mountain majesties?

We are tied to the soil on which we live. We do not merely occupy space on this good earth, but, by our work, we name these patches of land (Gen 2:19-20) and thereby claim their character.

Yet, we are worried about how we are naming things today—making "unclean" those things which God has set apart as clean (Acts 10:15). So we strive to pour avalanches of words into the battle:

we live in a society in which every space, every moment must be "filled" with initiatives, activities, sounds. Often there is not even time to listen or to converse. Dear brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid to create silence inside and outside ourselves if we wish to be capable not only of hearing the voice of God, but also the voice of those near us, the voice of our fellow man (Pope Benedict XVI in Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy)

Don't get me wrong—after all, with these very words, I am adding my little snowball to the avalanche. Naming is vital, especially when we invoke Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the face of the world's baal-ish babble.

But let us not forget that our naming is but an image of the Divine Name. Our words, our naming of our heavens, earth, and firmament image Christ's salvation and thereby reveal to ourselves and the world from whence comes our help.

We must name the Way, the Truth, and the Life—but not under the delusion that our words effect what we proclaim. Rather, our words reflect what God accomplishes. When God speaks, we happen. Silver and gold have we none, for our hands are empty. When we cast out demons in Jesus' Name, Satan is thrown down from the heavens and chained and cast into the lake of fire. But not by our efforts.

Our help comes in the Name of the Lord. When we invoke His Name, we do so not out of our fullness, but from our emptiness. Not from our wholeness, but from out desperate need to be healed.

40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down, said to him: If you will you can make me clean. 41 And Jesus, having compassion on him, stretched forth his hand and touching him said to him: I will. Be made clean. (Mk 1, DRE)

The secular media have blazoned "Benedict Praises Pope Who Quit" headlines in response to the Pontiff's homily on Pope Saint Celestine V, as if our current Pope and the Church itself trust in self-defeat. Surely, we do:

What [Saint Celestine] had and what he was did not come from him, it was given to him. It was the work of Grace and, therefore, constituted a responsibility before God and before others … God anticipates us always. Each individual life contains good and beautiful things that we can easily recognise as His Grace ... If we learn to recognise God in His infinite goodness then we will be able to see, with wonder, the signs of God in our lives, just as the saints did (Pope Benedict XVI in Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy)

We do not name our own reality; we name The Name above all names and do so out of a blessed recognition of our own poverty. We are called, as individuals, and as nations, to "quit" ourselves and lay suppine on the crosses this age carves:

The cross was the focal point of Pietro da Morrone's [Saint Celestine's] life, it gave him the strength to face harsh penance and the most difficult moments, from his youth until his final hour ... Though leading a hermit's life, [Pope Saint Celestine] was not "closed in on himself," but was seized with the passion to carry the good news of the Gospel to his brothers and sisters … [The Church's mission] consists in the calm, clear and courageous announcement of the evangelical message—even in moments of persecution—without surrendering to the lure of fashion, or of violence and imposition …  [It consists] in detachment from concern for things (money or clothes), trusting in the Providence of the Father; in particular attention and concern towards those sick in body or in spirit. (Pope Benedict XVI in Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy)

In Naming the Name, we Name our Salvation—for ourselves and for the world. Our nation is as great as God allows it to be—and always will be. Nothing that is truly good and blessed about our amber waves of grain is lost in the Supper of the Lamb. Our fruited plain and amber waves of grain are but reflections darkly in a mirror of what God has in store for us as He mends our every flaw.

If we feel the birth pangs of this time, we understand that such mending is not cheap but costly—not in terms of our fruit of the vine and the work of our human hands—but in terms of the wrenching of His Body on the Cross and the even more profound raising of His Body—and us—from the dead.

Our liberty is alone grounded in His Law:

Also in our own time there are many Christians in the world who, animated by love for God, daily take up their cross, both the cross of everyday trials and that of human barbarity which sometimes requires the courage of the supreme sacrifice. May the Lord enable each of us to place our solid hope in Him, certain that, by carrying our cross, we will, with Him, attain the light of the resurrection (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Message, 20 June 2010)