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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
This paper explores St. Paul of the Cross's passion-centred spirituality as a context for avoiding the distortions of such spirituality and promoting proper praxis. These distortions are not the legacy of Paul of the Cross himself, but the fact that his contemplation of the passion was primarily performative and mystical, along with the lack of a systematic theology on the passion-death-and resurrection, there remains a context wherein distortions of passion-centred approaches can occur. The paper then presents some aspects of Bernard Lonergan's thought on lex crucis and also from his Trinitarian work in order to provide a theological framework (orthotheoria). This framework can help prevent the distortions of such a passion-centred spirituality and guide orthopraxis of passion-centred spiritualities. In the final section we explore some insights from Buddhism that are consonant with both Paul of the Cross's spirituality and Lonergan's law of the cross as fruits of the Spirit and seeds of the Word.
1 Spencer, Paul Francis, ‘Elements of Passionist Spirituality’, Studies in Passionist Spirituality 29 (1992), p. 10Google Scholar.
2 Cited in Spencer, ‘Elements’, pp. 11–12.
3 Mercurio, Roger CP, Passionists (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992). p. 57.Google Scholar
4 See chapter 15, Mercurio, Passionists.
5 The Passionists were established as an order by the Papal Bull Supremi Apostolatus (November 18, 1769); Although they are unrelated events, it is perhaps ironic that the same pope, Clement XIV (1705–1774), who confirmed the establishment of the Passionists as a religious order was the one who suppressed the Jesuits.
6 On the Spiritual Exercises see Fleming, David L. SJ, Draw Me Into Your Friendship: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading of the Spiritual Exercises (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996)Google Scholar.
7 Gregory Lenzen, CP, ‘Spiritual Discernment in the Diary of St. Paul of the Cross,’ Sandra Harper (tr). (Whitesville: KY: www.passionistnuns.org, 2004), p. 8.
8 Crowe, Frederick E., ‘Complacency and Concern in the Thought of St. Thomas,’ in Three Thomist Studies, Supplement to Boston Workshop, Vol. 16 (Boston: Boston College, 2000), p. 83Google Scholar.
9 Paul of the Cross, Spiritual Diary, quoted in Bialas, Martin, Mysticism of the Passion in St. Paul of the Cross (1694–1775) (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990), p. 276.Google Scholar
10 Spencer, ‘Elements,’ p. 9.
11 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 291ff.
12 David Colhour, C.P., ‘Introductory Comments to the Treatise on Mystical Death,’ Studies of St. Paul of the Cross, www.Passionsist.org (October, 2009).
13 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 125ff.
14 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 304, n. 87;
15 Ibid; Colhour and Bialas do not raise the question of female authorship but the only two exemplars mentioned in the Treatise are Blessed Clare of Montefalco (1268–1308) (par. IX) and Sr. Magdalene de Pazzi (1566–1607) (par. XVII). Both women came from wealthy families and both died at roughly the same age Montefalco (age 40) and de Pazzi (age 41). Pace Bialas, it is unclear why this does not raise the possibility of a female abbess or some spiritual authority in a women's community authoring or redacting the text (See Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, 304, n. 87).
16 Mystical Death or Holocaust of the Pure Spirit of a Religious Soul, trans. Silvan Rouse, C.P.www.Passionsist.org (2009), XI.
17 Lonergan, , Method in Theology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), p. 40Google Scholar.
18 Ibid.
19 Stoeber argues: ‘So there is a distinction here between (1) destructive suffering, which diminishes and hinders the person in some way or another and for which there is no transformative impetus or response in the person (but there will, we hope, be healing or recovery) and (2) transformative suffering—that which contributes positively to personal growth—what we might call redemptive suffering.’ Michael Stoeber, Reclaiming Theodicy: Reflections on Suffering, Compassion and Spiritual Transformation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), p. 61.
20 Stoeber, Reclaiming Theodicy, p. 44.
21 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 332.
22 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 327.
23 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 332.
24 Cited in Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 316.
25 Stoeber Reclaiming Theodicy, p. 46.
26 Stoeber Reclaiming Theodicy, p. 39ff.
27 See Dadosky, John, ‘Healing the Psychological Subject,’ Theoforum, 35/1 (2004): 73–91Google Scholar. On dramatic bias See Lonergan, Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, CWL 3, ed. Crowe, F.E. and Doran, R.M. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), pp. 214–15Google Scholar.
28 Stoeber, Reclaiming Theodicy, p. 45.
29 For a comprehensive and accessible critical overview of Bergler's theory See Michaelson's, Peter Why We Suffer: A Western Way to Understand and Let Go of Unhappiness (Kindle Edition, 2011)Google Scholar; The volume is overwritten but it provides a very accessible overview—one that has received positive recommendations from Berglarian practitioners.
30 Comment made in a recorded lecture while on retreat at Gethsemane. Reference unknown.
31 In Lonergan's review of Gibson Winter's book The Social Ethic, he was impressed by Winter's argument to place an ethics in between social theory and social praxis. I am taking my clue from this although the content of my application is different. See ‘The Example of Gibson Winter’ in A Second Collection (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp.189–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32 Lonergan, Bernard, De Verbo Incarnato (Rome: Gregorian University, 1964), p. 552Google Scholar, tr. Charles Hefling, cited in Doran, Robert, ‘Nonviolent Cross’, Theological Studies 71 (2010), p. 46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
33 Hefling, Charles C., ‘Lonergan's “Cur Deus Homo”: Revisiting the “Law of the Cross” in Meaning and History in Systematic Theology: Essays in Honour of Robert M. Doran, SJ, pp. 145–166, ed. Dadosky, John (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University, 2009), p. 152.Google Scholar
34 Bernard Lonergan, A Second Collection, p. 9.
35 The law of the cross can also be invisibly present in the hearts of non-Christians, a topic I will address in the final section of this paper.
36 Lonergan, De Verbo Incarnato (Rome: Gregorian University, 1964), p. 552, tr. Charles Hefling, cited in Robert Doran's ‘The Nonviolent Cross,’ p. 46.
37 Stoeber Reclaiming Theodicy, p. 61.
38 Bernard Lonergan, De Verbo Incarnato, Thesis 17, p. 527, quoted in Jean Higgins, ‘Redemption,’ in The Desires of the Human Heart: An Introduction to the Theology of Bernard Lonergan, ed. Vernon Gregson (New York: Paulist, 1988), pp. 201–21 at p. 220.
39 Ibid, quoting Lonergan, De Verbo Incarnato, p. 507.
40 Bernard Lonergan, ‘Supplement [to De Verbo Incarnato] De Redemptione,’ [The Redemption] unpublished manuscript, (tr) Michael Shields (Lonergan Research Institute: Toronto, 2010), p. 136.
41 Lonergan, ‘The Transition from a Classicist World-view to Historical Mindedness’ in Second Collection, pp. 8–9.
42 Matthew (16:24–25), Luke (9:23–24) and John (12:25–25).
43 Raymond Moloney, ‘Lonergan's Soteriology,’ Irish Theological Quarterly 78/1 (2013), p. 34.
44 See Doran ‘The Nonviolent Cross,’ pp. 46–61.
45 Hefling, Charles C., ‘Lonergan's “Cur Deus Homo”: Revisiting the “Law of the Cross,” in Meaning and History in Systematic Theology: Essays in Honour of Robert M. Doran, SJ, ed. Dadosky, John (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University, 2009), p. 161Google Scholar. See also Hefling, Charles C., ‘A Perhaps Permanently Valid Achievement: Lonergan on Christ's Satisfaction,’ Method: Journal of Lonergan Studies 10 (1992): pp. 51–76Google Scholar.
46 Hefling, ‘Cur Deus Homo?’, p. 161.
47 Lonergan, The Triune God: Systematics pp. 471, 473. “For the brackets within the quote I follow Robert M. Doran who coined the phrase ‘four-point hypothesis’. See his What is Systematic Theology? (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), pp. 65–66.”Google Scholar
48 Lonergan, The Redemption, p. 156.
49 See Dadosky, John, ‘The Official Church and the Church of Love’ in Balthasar's Reading of John: An Exploration in Post-Vatican II Ecclesiology.’ Studia Canonica, 41 (2007): 453–471Google Scholar; The work of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr have laboured to bring this dimension into the church's self-understanding. I would wager that this passage should be considered as equally constitutive as the passage in Matthew's gospel concerning Peter as the founding rock (Matt 16:18). It is the official church upon which Peter is the foundation and it is the church of love that is founded at the foot of the cross. These two passages should be held together as key constitutive passages in any ecclesiology albeit not exclusively so. There may be more.
50 Lonergan, Bernard, Method in Theology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), p. 307Google Scholar.
51 See Girard, René, I See Satan Fall Like Lightening (Maryknoll: NY, Orbis Books, 2001), p. 118Google Scholar.
52 Bialas, St. Paul of the Cross, p. 395.
53 John Dadosky, ‘Ecclesia de Trinitate: Ecclesial Foundations from Above,’ 94/1049 New Blackfriars, (January, 2013), p. 77.
54 Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation (New York: Broadway Books, 1999), p. 170.
55 Hanh, Heart of Buddhist Teaching, p. 169.
56 Adapted from Pema Chodron, The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times, (Shambhala Classics, 2010) Kindle Edition, pp. 206–7. On the Four Limitless Qualities See also Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, pp. 169–176.
57 See Kyabgon, Traleg, The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2007), pp. 1–15Google Scholar.
58 Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Training the Mind, (Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 2010).
59 Chodron, Pema, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living (Boston: Shambala Classics, 2011) Kindle Edition, p. 103Google Scholar (location 1656).
60 Chodron, Start Where you Are, p. 101 (Kindle, # 1621).
61 See Berry, Thomas, The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988)Google Scholar and The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future (New York: Random House/Bell Towers, 1999)Google Scholar; Berry, Thomas and Clarke, Thomas, Befriending the Earth: A Theology of Reconciliation Between Humans and the Earth (eds.) Dunn, Stephen and Lonergan, Anne (New London, CT: Twenty-Third Publication, 1991).Google Scholar
62 Dadosky, ‘Ecclesia de Trinitate’, pp. 74–8.
