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TOM McMAHON... |
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ARTICLE NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part 34  Tom McMahon continues his provocative exploration of the evolution of the institution of marriage as perceived by the ordinary person in society, the ordinary person in the church, and those who acted as God's spokespersons within the Church. In recent days in Australia we've learned that even fewer people now are seeking nuptials in a religious ceremony. Is the Church's grip on the lives of ordinary people weakening? The innocence of children… Recently our two grandsons, Sebastian almost 4 and Dominic almost 2, were at Grandma and Grandpa's (that's me folks!) home, busy with trains, cars, play dough, and snacks. They don't view television at their home and they found Grandpa sneaking in a three-minute viewing of the Giants Baseball game to check the score; the young ones were fascinated with the pictures and movement, the little professor Sebastian commenting …… "baseball, grandpa". … and Nicko tracing the figures on screen with his tiny fingers. I saw them in awe at the splendorous color and then the puzzled look on Dominic's face as the TV turned off. I thought of the trance in which many a young bride entrusted herself to her lover in weddings I witnessed; what colorful expensive splendor was offered to its children by the church in its ceremonial, enhanced by the commercial world like Maria in Sound of Music in a royal explosion of instant success … and like so many "Hazels" whom I knew well the lights went out after six months. I have often wished that we had the celebration after twenty years of wedlock, wherein we could dance up a storm. For decades I have approved of young people living together before the marriage ceremony; when we take up celibacy we will see a root problem in marriage for women who are not virgins.
As a professional counselor and grandparent I can now appreciate a healthy nest in which children grow, yet such was not always so. The complications of a dysfunctional society left couples and family with a heritage of destructiveness that overwhelms society today. I think of Charles Dickens and Oliver Twist with no child labor laws, as well as the poverty in A Tale of Two Cities and the debtors prison of innocent Miss Dorrit. Twist had a Gospel eye for the conversion of a villain into a hero as we can see in The Christmas Story, yet society had a terrible misbalance between the haves and the have-nots. That imbalance is deeply rooted in the religious world of the Middle Ages and as far back as early Roman society. The world of reality differs greatly from fantasy. Promoting the Beatitudes the institutional Roman church could have played a vital role in establishing balance in marriage and family life if only mother church understood the complications of marital unions and the raising of children. The exile of women and a negative denial of sexuality by church leaders offered a hideous scar on the human Catholic psyche. (Women and Christianity by Mary T. Malone, Orbis, 2001.) Everything in life is projection... Our oldest son along with his wife-to-be, neither baptized or indoctrinated in a given religion, choose a long-standing family friend and retired Catholic priest to witness their wedding which they prepared themselves, having the ceremony in Shakespeare's Glen in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The spiritual preparation took place in meetings with this 70-year-old celibate priest; I often wondered what was said during those sessions, aware that all advice and direction stems from within the counselor. Everything in life is projection; I can only offer what I have first experienced myself. (I quote from page 89, THE WOUNDED HEALER by Henri J.M. Nouwen, 1972; "How can wounds be a source of healing … no minister can keep his own experience of life hidden from those he wants to help"). Few priests know the art of marital union and its zones of danger and bliss. Negativity can dominate and cancel out God's plan. To clean up a miserable 300-year mess that was created by destroying the wholesomeness of clerical marriage (it was a feather in the church's cap to have a married clergy in the 10th century and this was destroyed by the 1215 c.e. Fourth Lateran Council). The Council of Trent (1542 c.e.) choose celibacy as the way of life for its priests and gathered many of its fine women under the umbrella of vowed virginity. (There are great insights in Eugene Kennedy's FASHION ME A PEOPLE, 1967 esp. the chapter on the Church as a person); the union of man and woman surely took the rumble seat in Catholic life as the clerical state rode in style and power for 400 years. Even Vatican Two missed the boat on human sexuality as a gift of the Creator. We will address John's Council and this era shortly as we highball through the periods of great revolution and the topling of monarchies. The downfall of the Roman power church had its initiation at the signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede on June 15, 1215; John the 23rd opened the eyes of honest people and sealed the doom of clerical power beginning the process of handing over responsibility to the people when he called together Vatican Council Two. What we are experiencing today is the growing attempts of sincere people to educate themselves and to take over the dysfunctional Roman institution; we are all at about a toddler stage, battling the curia and hierarchy who in my opinion cling to an infantile position. The People of God are on our way to maturity without clericalism. When asked recently "how long will it take?" I replied 200 more years; we are the seed sewers. Our task at present is patient education; one can take patience two ways, festina lente and/or a very wounded people attempting to heal ourselves. Camelot...
It will be only in the 18th century that the ordinary woman will begin to emerge as individual person with rights and dignity, always with struggle against male domination. There is a striking difference between the female with one bare breast (letting you know her gender) and gun in hand (letting you know she means business) as she scales the ramparts in a French Revolution painting …. What a licking the monarchy took as well as the monarchial church …. Viva la France and long live Lady Liberty! …. and the demure Mary in her blue formless garment as the model of gentle virginity. The cult of Mary, silently begun in the 4th century, will offer nothing to the Creator-given freedom and dignity of the woman. Joan of Arc, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale and many other women of history are the pioneers and pathfinders who will put behind them the servitude of the Middle Ages and demand co-equal rights in an unbalanced male warrior society. In 1967 Eugene Kennedy wrote about intimacy (Fashion Me a People), a dreaded unspoken word in my 12 years of seminary; we must never get close to the other and in that dozen years I had a room all to myself, a preparation for my future in clerical ministry. As lone wolf cleric I would be in the world but not of the world. Websters offers on INTIMATE: "inmost, essential, most inward, internal," and "most private", "an example, intimate impulses" and the model is taken from "the living membrane of the insect's trachea". In the mythical creation Genesis story when Adam "knows" Eve it is assumed he entered into her body and mind completely — the plan is set for a happy union but fear and distrust will foil the original. God, who seeks intimacy inside the human, is now blocked and few will discover and enjoy the ecstasy. (In the evolutionary process was human male and female one gender away back? Humans need to be very cautious when they play games with God's creation.) By nature those who love seek to be one. Meanwhile back at fortification Vatican the wagons have been circled and the all-male cast is re-enacting the shoot out at the OK-Corral; a married clergy cannot be discussed and women cannot be considered for the priesthood and the only cards that can go on the table are negative and pelvic in nature. Sir Galahad in papal attire rides to the rescue of Mother Church as witch mother Church shutters her doors for the lack of money and priests throughout the world. I admire those who want to rebuild the church, take it back as they say and make it as a refuge for sinners and a hope for society; after a half century, plus, of being a church reformer I give way to the Holy Spirit of Jesus as the Master decides to come forth from the tomb of European Catholicism and invites people to meet him and walk again the Christian path; those interested can meet Jesus any time on his road when we get a group together, traveling on the new Emmaus highway. The Jesus of Luke's 25th chapter always has time to teach and talk … and go for a stroll with friends. Stop him and say hello! The church of the Victorian Age… The church of the Victorian Age played a minor role in the matters of marriage; As people woke up by way of education the Roman clergy and hierarchy stayed stuck in the fear and ignorance of the Middle Ages. In the 1950's and even into the 1970's the standard form for preparing a marriage was dreadful, ignoring the world-wide sexual revolution and having little to do with their future and distrustful of their past as if the priest knew the correct way for people to be successful. One question, which I never trucked with, dealt with the death of a former spouse in the case of a widow or widower marrying; the question — right out of the Borgia era — wanted to know if the new couple had anything to do with the demise of the first spouse. Church law forbade the marriage if one of the couples had done the dirty deed. I refused this type of modern inquisition; for years in the case of a mixed marriage I signed the couples' names rather than embarrass myself and them, knowing the form would be rubber stamped by some chancery official. The people were locked in the mental dungeon of fear and ignorance concerning love and marriage; from the Middle Ages onward a negative outlook on life and human sexuality was preached by the church as clericalism ruled. I am grateful that many people, including my own mother and father, never fell into the clerical trap. The gift of creation belongs to people and was never intended to be clerically dominated. We need teach a just use of the gifts of nature. This is the real issue for spiritually hungry people today: is Jesus really still alive? Don't waste your time in debates about physical resurrection. I believe we will easily find this man of mystery alive among married folk. When balance is restored between woman and man the plan of God will clearly become visible. Do some thinking on Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy as he says: "The History of the Human Race is written on a single theme: How does love become stronger than death?". (More on Eugene coming up; he wrote about the future of Christianity from the trenches of World War One.) Tom McMahon San Jose, Ca. having dinner tomorrow with Jesus and just three weeks before I enplane for Sydney where I'm sure I will meet him down under. 11/04/2009 P.S. An Easter Sunday report: This evening we had a wonderful Easter meal, home cooked by 87-year-old Great-Grandmother Jennie (Nonie), with her daughter Grandmother Elaine and myself Grandpa Tom, son Steve and mother Deya with Sebastian and Dominic (lots of fun) and son Tommy with newly pregnant Phuong. We ate in peace and joy, celebrating ourselves and Tommy's 30th birthday. If I told them Jesus was there they would have been unable to understand, yet with four distinct ethnic backgrounds genetically present his spirit presence was tangible. Would that the world could enjoy such a table and common-union. What joy and satisfaction for this 80-year-old writer … thanks for listening and may you enjoy the same.  ARTICLE
NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part 34 Image Credits: The image used in the headline is adapted from an image available from AllPosters entitled "Tender Passion" available at: www.allposters.com. Clicking on the images in the body of the article will take you to the original source.
©2009 Tom McMahon |
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PREV
Tom McMahon, a former priest now married, lives a very fulfilled life in San Jose and continues to contribute voraciously to several Catholic discussion lists in the States. He has been an enthusiastic supporter and encourager of the Catholica initiative from the very beginning.
Visions of the Future Breathtaking and confronting BBC Channel 4 series with American theoretical physicist Michio Kaku examining life in the future. The series raises big ethical and moral questions that collectively humankind needs to face and answer. Some of these questions are perhaps more morally difficult than anything we have faced in the past. A "must view" series for anyone interested in the discussions on morality and ethics discussed on the Catholica Forum. Part 1: The Intelligence Revolution 58m34s. Part 2: The Biotech Revolution 58m41s. Part 3: The Quantum Revolution. 18 YouTube segments total 175m54s total. [Catholica Discussion String 26Aug10] | [WATCH THE VIDEO]
Docos 019: 03 Sep 2010
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