"Christian, recognize your dignity!"

“Pray for us O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”

One of the many things I love about the Cathedral of the Incarnation is the Angelus being written high above the congregation. My favorite line upon which to meditate is “ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.” And there is no better place to do it from to-date than as the book-bearing altar server—because his seat is perfectly situated to face this line of the prayer. From my seat, I can contemplate that line during the liturgy and dwell upon it exhaustively before receiving the Eucharist. And since I have told you my favorite line, my favorite vantage point, why not hone in and let you in on my favorite word: “promissionibus.”

Translated as “promises,” I think most of us have a sense of the word which reflects commitment or loyalty through a vow or pledge. We pray to our Blessed Mother that we be made worthy of Christ’s commitment or loyalty to us—we be able to receive the fruit of His vow. “Promises” is one of those words in English that we use all too often that we simply neglect to dwell on its meaning—we sort of hear it and forget that it might be worthwhile to unpack what it means. That is why I like seeing it written in Latin so much: “promissionibus.” While the root of the word is ‘promissum,’ I can never help seeing the rendering in the Angelus as ‘pro’-‘mission’ followed by ‘of Christ.’ And while we are praying that we be made worthy of Christ’s sacrifice, too, we must be praying not only on a passive level—that we may simply receive worthiness to receive His vow. We must pray it on an active level, where we ask to be made worthy to do something—that something, I contend, is a mission-for-Christ. The etymology of ‘promise,’ shows that it is not wholly incorrect to view the word as a personal charge—the root of ‘missum’ is ‘missionem,’ which means ‘the act of sending out;’ ‘pro’ simply means ‘before.’ When it is read as for-the-mission-of-Christ, the prayer takes on a whole new facet—a great prayer of humility and anticipation. We pray that we be up to the task of taking Christ and all He stands for into the world. As the Soul of the Apostolate reminds us, “it is through men that men are to find out the way to salvation.” Indeed, the Canticle of Zechariah affirms this: “You my children shall be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” That is your mission. May the Blessed Mother pray we be worthy of this—Christ’s charge to us.

I think about what that means for me often. Why has God chosen a slug like me to take Him into the world? Sometimes I think Heaven must really be hard-up and scrapping the bottom of the barrel. But that is precisely the problem that I think too many of us imagine when faced with such a grand calling. We feel unworthy; which seems to follow upon the prayer to be “…made worthy…” But there is a difference between humility and being unconfident and shirking responsibility. The humble man certainly oughtn’t walk haughtily, but neither does he have to slouch and crawl. We can simply walk. We can be dignified without being cocky and arrogant. This is precisely what I think of when I hear St. Leo the Great, “Christian, recognize your dignity!” We cannot shrink away for the promises of Christ, from the mission-of-Christ. We cannot think we are so unworthy as not to accept it. But we mustn’t be too proud to think we are beyond the need of prayer when entering upon the task. We are His prophets. We will bring Him into the world. Wow. What a dignity! Embrace it confidently, but prayerfully. Do not despair at the awesome task of taking the Cross upon your back to journey into the world—for it is by that act that the world will be exalted. Armed with your Cross you become a one-man, sin-killing machine—you become Christ, Himself! Indeed, “Christian, recognize your dignity!”

This dignity has been dominating my thoughts as of late due to discussions about the Pope’s recent comments on contraceptives, as well as concluding my critique of liberation theology for a class at the divinity school. In his private papers and notes preparing to respond to the ‘phenomenon of liberation theology’ in the mid-1980’s, then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “We shall only survive this crisis if we succeed in making the logic of faith visible in an equally compelling manner and in presenting it as a logic of reality, i.e., manifesting the concrete force of a better answer attested in lived experience. Since it is so, since thought and experience, interpretation and realization, are equally called for, it is a task for the whole Church. Theology alone is insufficient, Church authority alone is insufficient. Since the phenomenon of liberation theology indicates a lack of conversion in the Church, a lack of radical faith, only an increase in conversion and faith can arouse and elicit those theological insights and those decisions on the part of the shepherds which will give an answer to the magnitude of the question.”

In accepting the charge of Christ’s mission in the world, we must remain steadfast and focused on what war we are fighting, what battles are the real battles, and why they are more worth fighting than worldly battles. We are prophets of the Most High who will bear witness to humanity’s salvation by the forgiveness of sins. Sin is the enemy, the root of all evil. Like a rabid weasel, go for the throat, my fellow Christians! Only then will we eradicate the enemy that enables all the visible evil in the world. The battlefield is the hearts and souls of mankind. Distraction and discouragement operate at their optimal height in the midst of this fight. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, pray that we be made worthy...