The Catholic Weekly 14 June 2020

19 14, June, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au COMMENT A priest and layman show how Confession is meant to be done. The Porpoise Galaxy, as seen by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. PHOTO: NASA dredmillion years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two gal- axies shown, was likely a nor- mal spiral galaxy – spinning, creating stars – andminding its own business. But then it got too close to themassive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937…and took a dive. Dubbed the porpoise galaxy for its shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravita- tional interaction. Aburst of young blue stars forms the nose of the porpoise….while the centre of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair look to some like a pen- guin protecting an egg.” Whatever. Porpoise or pen- guin, it’s breathtakingly beau- tiful. Themarvels archived at APOD suggest more than the possibility of a post-mortem galactic Grand Tour, however. They suggest that the burden of proof ought to be on those who insist that all this gran- deur ismere randomness: the accidental by-products of a Big Bang fromwhichwhat we now knowas “the universe” was born. Really? Just an accident, if a happy accident? But whilewe’re on the sub- ject, howdid the Big Bang, so to speak, bang? And if what we knowas “the universe” evolved from that primordial erup- tion, what accounts for the high-density, high-temperature primal material that burst into an expanding universe? The healing of the First Rite An accidental universe? Not! I n his Life of St. Augustine , the 5th-Century bishop Possidius tells us that the greatest of the LatinDoc- tors of the Church, knowing that his earthly endwas near, had four penitential psalms copied and hung on the walls of his room. “From his sickbed,” Possid- ius writes, Augustine “could see these sheets of paper… and would read them, crying constantly and deeply.” It was an act of deep piety that we all might ponder ways to em- ulate. Were I to do something simi- lar, however, Imight add Psalm 42 (“Like the deer that years for running streams, somy soul is yearning for you, my God/ My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life; when can I en- ter and see the face of God?”) – and a fewcolour prints from Astronomy Picture of the Day , an extraordinary project of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration, available for free at apod.nasa.gov. NASAhas come in for a lot of (justified) criticism in recent years. By contrast, Astronomy Picture of the Day is a service for which I (as anAmerican) amdelighted to pay federal tax- es. Every day, it providesme a previewof what I hope to see post-mortem: the glory of God declared in a display of astro- nomical wonders that vividly il- lustrate the extravagance of the divine creativity. Astronomy Picture of the Day liftsmy spirits, which is why I try to accompanymorning prayer with a visit to the site. For a brief glimpse of the visual feast that awaits anyone sim- ilarly inclined, let me suggest four recent gems, available at apod.nasa.gov. On 25 April, APOD and the Hubble Space Telescope of- fered a brilliantly-hued pan- orama of the “Cosmic Reef” within the LargeMagellanic Cloud, 160,000 light years away. On 15May, APOD featured two dancing galaxies 12mil- lion light years away, which, as the brief explanation following the striking image notes, “have been locked in gravitational combat for a billion years” – a dance that “in the next fewbil- lions years” will lead to a cos- micmerger. On 1 June, APOD intro- ducedme to the “whirlwind of spectacular star formation” happeningwithin the Lagoon Nebula, captured in resplen- dent magenta byHubble at a distance of 5,000 light years. And then therewas themost extraordinary of this lot: Hub- ble’s dazzling colour portrait of the “PorpoiseGalaxy,” which APOD posted on 10May.The description of how this fantas- tic phenomenon came about is worth quoting: “Just a fewhun- To suggest that it, too, was an accident, something that just happened, begs a host of questions: beginning with, how can something come from nothing? The notion that we live in an accidental universe, one that need not be, has had ugly ef- fects inmodern history. It sug- gests that we’re accidents, too, mere embodied stardust.That dumbed-down notion of the human has underwritten a lot of the awfulness of the last two centuries. Astronomy Picture of the Day hints at a different story: none of this is accidental and thus ul- timatelymeaningless. And that includes you, me, and all those who study the heavens and give us the gift of their work. GeorgeWeigel is theDistin- guished Senior Fellowand WilliamE. SimonChair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics andPublic PolicyCentre in Washington C onfession seems to have suddenly be- come topical again, which is amazing because it’s always been our least popular sacrament. The relative absence of people in the Saturday queue, even before COVID-19, is pretty telling. I’ve said that Holy Com- munion is more intimate than sex, and it is. Confession is a close second in terms of touching God; of being vul- nerable and naked before Him. A good, honest Confession rebuilds you from the inside out. It’s more powerful than an exorcism. It regenerates the soul, so that even the deepest and most messy wounds can heal from the bottom up. It recon- The notion that we live in an accidental universe, one that need not be, has had ugly effects in modern history. It sug- gests that we’re accidents, too, mere embodied stardust.” Anypush to resurrect theThirdRite of Confession as the norm is a delightful exercise in retro 70sCatholicism. But why try to revive theThirdRitewhenwe have the First? Unless, of course, youhave something tohide ... nects you with Jesus Christ Himself because you must face your pain and shame with Him. He can’t heal your wounds unless you show them to Him. If it were enough just to sit at home and think about them, He’d have left us to do that. But it’s not. Christ the Phy- sician is not content with put- ting a band-aid on emotion- al and psychological ulcers that go down to the bone. He wants to get in there and heal them. But He needs your co- operation. This is one-on-one work. It’s intimate, demanding, joy- ous, and relieving. But you need to keep going back. Don’t ever be ashamed of that. Don’t let anyone else make you ashamed of going to Confession frequently, ei- ther. Did you know that during the lockdown, you could still go to Confession pretty much anywhere in Austra- lia? I checked all the dioce- san guidelines, and only three dioceses seem to have sus- pended individual confes- sions (the First Rite of Recon- ciliation, which is the normal means of going to confes- sion). The hard part was finding a priest who would be willing to get close enough to hear you without shouting - or in fact close enough to you at all. Two of the recent Plena- ry Council discernment doc- uments have claimed that people in Australia want the Third Rite of Reconciliation back. For those of you who were born after 1996, the Third Rite was a communal celebra- tion of confession that en- joyed popularity in parts of the Church where individu- al confession had gone out of fashion. It was designed for very unusual circumstances where individual confession wouldn’t be possible, and it gave absolution without it. It became hugely popu- lar in some places (for some mysterious reason), to the point where it had replaced the First Rite and was being abused. Rome was informed of this and accordingly sus- pended the Third Rite in Aus- tralia in the late 1990s. This became a huge is- sue for the relatively small number of practising Catho- lics who thought that Rome should stay out of Australian church affairs. These individuals have re- peatedly tried to make this into a cause celebre, but it’s not working – mostly because young Catholics weren’t even born when the Third Rite was suspended. Individual confession of sins is the norm in the Catho- lic Church. It’s you and God. It’s often difficult - but if we really understood Confes- sion, we’d be there a lot more often. Dr Philippa Martyr is a Perth- based historian, lecturer and researcher. She can be con- tacted at: Philippa.martyr@ gmail.com Philippa Martyr George Weigel Columnist A good, honest Confession re- builds you from the inside out. It’s more pow- erful than an exorcism. It regenerates the soul, so that even the deep- est and most messy wounds can heal from the bottom up.