Anchor Shackles
Anchor Shackles Jack LaLanne - Physical Genius When we think of genius, for the most part we think in terms of mental or intellectual power. We think of brilliant human beings. We think of mathema...
Anchor Shackles
Jack LaLanne - Physical GeniusWhen we think of genius, for the most part we think in terms of mental or intellectual power. We think of brilliant human beings. We think of mathematicians or inventors or writers. Painters and sculptors may be in a slightly different category -- a little more physical and intuitive -- but even here, we still don’t think of artistic gifts as a physical skill. It’s the quality of the mind and heart that manifests as paint on canvas. In light of this, let’s look at the foundation of our topic for this session, which is physical genius-- the genius that expresses itself through physical action, whether it’s running or swimming or hitting a ball or, perhaps, even hitting another person. By the time we’re done, I think you’ll have an appreciation of what physical genius really is -- how you can connect with it in your own life -- and how the person I’ve chosen as our model in this session can help you do that. He once did 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes -- an average of 44 push-ups every 60 seconds. He towed 70 boats at once, carrying 70 people each from the Queen’s Way Bridge in Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary ocean liner, which was anchored a mile and a half away -- and he was handcuffed and shackled while he did it. This was to celebrate his 70th birthday. He also has made the supposedly impossible swim from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf, in San Francisco. He not only made it, but once again he was handcuffed and shackled when he did it. Just to make it more interesting, he was towing a 1,000 pound boat. Jack LaLanne is over 87 years old, and there’s one more feat he intends to accomplish. It’s a swim from Catalina Island to Los Angeles -- a distance of 26 miles – and he wants to do it underwater. Jack LaLanne did not start out as a genius of physical fitness. Into his teenage years, he was a sugar addict and junk food junkie. In an interview, he explained what this meant. “It made me weak and it made me mean,” he said. “It also made me sick. I was nearsighted, and I had terrible skin problems. He was 15 years old when he attended a talk by a nutritionist in his hometown of Oakland, California. This was a turning point in his life -- and at that moment, he decided to totally recreate himself. He began lifting weights at the local YMCA, and he made changes in what he ate and drank. He also read everything he could find on anatomy, nutrition, and health. Very quickly, Jack developed the lean, muscular body of an athlete – and a thorough knowledge of physical fitness to go with it. But rather than keep all this to himself, he was determined to share it with the world. He began to develop approaches to physical fitness and nutrition that were both highly effective and scientifically sound. Many, if not most, of the exercise devices in today’s health clubs were first thought of by Jack LaLanne. As he said, there are 640 muscles in the human body, and he wanted to have a specific exercise for each of them. So he invented the tools that could do that. Since then, Jack LaLanne has done many amazing things. But none of them are more amazing than the way he invented an entire industry. In 1936, he opened the nation’s first health and fitness center, on the third floor of an office building in Oakland. He was 21 years old --and he knew more about the workings of the human body than most doctors. Even so, he was viewed with suspicion by many people. Weight lifting which LaLanne has always advocated, was believed to cause heart attacks. Incredible as it seems, even coaches discouraged weight training by athletes, which was supposed to make them “muscle bound.” Over the years, LaLanne’s message was heard. In the 1950s he began to appear on television as an advocate and motivator for fitness and health. The message was simple but compelling: Everyone should engage in physical exercise every day -- and everyone can do that, including the elderly and the inform. Even in 2004, approaching his ninth decade, LaLanne practices what he preaches. He took up golf at the age of 50, and shot his age four times when he was 73 and five times when he was 74. He still describes his daily workout as the top priority in his life, and he’s still coming up with new ideas and exercise programs. When an interviewer asked about the differences between today and when he was ørst starting out, LaLanne replied, “It’s gratifying to see that everything I was preaching and advocating 50 years ago is being accepted. Back then I was a crackpot. Today I am an authority. And believe me, I can’t die. It would ruin my image!” If this has sounded a bit like an infomercial for Jack LaLanne, don’t let that distract you from the facts of what LaLanne accomplished. He wanted to bring knowledge and experience of physical fitness to everybody -- and he did it. Today there are many others in the field that he pioneered, but Jack LaLane was one of the very first. And his message was simple: you can become healthier and stronger, starting right now, no matter how unlikely that may seem. Just as importantly, he himself exemplified exactly what that meant. In this sense, Jack LaLanne models what I mean by physical genius better than many professional athletes and Olympians. The fact is, I could train as long and hard as I want, and I’ll never play in the NFL or run in the Olympics. But I can do what Jack LaLanne teaches. I can exercise and pay attention to what I eat and drink. You can do this also. And when you do, the genius who is your model-- whether you realize it or not – is none other than Jack LaLanne. About the Author Tony Alessandra is a contributing writer for Martial Arts Monthly magazine. http://www.learnmartialartsonline.com |
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The Laity: Called to Action
The Laity: CALLED TO ACTION
(Focusing On Their Rights and Duties)
“At no time have men had such a keen sense of freedom, only to be faced
by new forms of slavery in living and thinking. There is on one hand a lively
feeling of unity and of compelling solidarity, of mutual dependence, and on
the other a lamentable cleavage of bitterly opposing camps.”
(Gaudium et Spes 4)
We affirm the vision and focus of Vatican II in the importance it gives to the laity. The laity now feels a matured outlook of interdependence and self-direction among each other and the clergy. This action calls for more shared kind of spiritual life and responsibility resulting in a unity of ministry – respecting each others rights and duties, with complete knowledge of the bounds and limits of each other’s gifts. But sad to state, we are still in the debilitating throes of sticking to the traditional way of excessive clericalism or secularization in stead of a more fraternal and shared giftedness.
Vatican II reminds us that there is only one holiness in the Church – God's. "They are really made holy...All the faithful of Christ, of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #40). There are to be no second-class citizens in the Church, negating the truism that the clergy and religious belonged to a segregated elite group. All are called to receive God's holiness not just the clergy and religious.
The Church, like any organization, has laws. These bind the consciences of Catholics in varying degrees of seriousness, according to the matter or events tackled.
Canon law never explicitly addressed the laity until it was revised in 1983 and it defined with mirror-clear clarity the rights and duties of the laity. It was aptly said by Renato Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace that, "Religion cannot be relegated to a corner of the private sphere of life and in this way risk losing its social dimension and its charitable action toward vulnerable people it serves without any distinction." Though, secularism is a Church-recognized value:”unfortunately, a secularism prevails today that is often intolerant" and "increasingly anti-Christian." This reality was stressed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Tensions and divisions among the laity, and between laity and clergy, have become, though not visible to the naked eye, an indelible part of the Latin Church characteristic of the post-Vatican II era caused perhaps by personal and selfish motivations and intentions which in most parts are not palatable for Christ’s laity. Perhaps this is understandable, as people accept change differently, although with varied emotive and spiritual responses. This is, especially, too glaring and patent as not to be felt nor seen when it deals with matters as personal as faith, spirit, and church. The subtly disguised tiers of suspicion and bitterness with which lay initiatives have been subjected to by the ordained clergy have tremendously increased causing the heavy dehydration of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. These resultant conflicts are seriously dispiriting and daunting to be simply ignored.
This condition perhaps triggered the promulgation of several pre- and post- conciliar documents of Vatican II, notable among them are: Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Catholic Church; Apostolicam Actuositatem (Decree on the Apostolate of the Lay People; Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church; etc. All of these speak of the rights and duties of the laity. The latest being the revised Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici), where the real and authentic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is buttressed. Canon law is, as is true with all man-made laws, imperfect and still shut- close to the wisdom and findings of secular jurisprudence that could aid the church in handling certain issues of justice. And it still adheres to a sharp division between laity and clergy, lacking provisions for all the people of God to participate in decision-making in the church. Though much has been done, more can be expected, if and when, we the muzzled and shackled laity become aware, practice, and safe-guard our rights and duties.
Knowledge of the doctrines of the Church and the WORD is not now within the exclusive competence of the ordained clergy. Attuned to the call of Vatican II and recognizing that all believers can contribute to theological reflection and progress when it expressed the hope that lay people, not only the clerics, be well informed in the sacred sciences. (Gaudium et Spes 62) More and more of the lay faithful, have on their own efforts, are presently efficient, competent and “possess a lawful freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought and of expressing their mind with humility and fortitude in those matters on which they enjoy competence.” (supra) Theology has now become a nourishing food for the long starving, deferential, and subservient laity.
Some of the pertinent Canons are:
Canon 208 is anchored in the reality that all the faithful “are truly equal in their dignity and their activity in cooperating in building up the body of Christ.” In the Code of 1917, the Church was perceived as “a society of unequals, depending upon whether one had received ordination or not.” (New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, Beal, et al., 258) Simply it connotes that the participation of the Laity was on POP basis only: pray, obey, pay. This revised provision has led to a giant shift in understanding the relationship of the laity vis-à-vis the clergy and the Church. Presently, it reflects a communio ecclesiology and develops theologically the implications arising from baptism (C204). From this communio, the fundamental equality of the people of God derives a sacramental source. The laity is obliged to stay in communion with the church, lead a holy life and promote the growth of the church. These rights of the laity include: access to the Sacraments, Christian education, due process, association and assembly, and to their own spirituality.
Cc 212 ¶2 and 212 ¶3
The first says the faithful have “the right” to make known “their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires” to their pastors.
The second says, the faithful “have the right and even at times the duty” to make their opinions known to their pastors and to the rest of the Christian faithful.
The Christian faithful are obliged to express their opinions about the good of the church to their bishops, parish priests, and fellow church members. Not only is it their right, but it is their obligation as members of the Body of Christ. In doing this, they actively participate and partake, by virtue of their Baptism, in the priestly, prophetic and kingly character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our lay brothers and sisters have to get people to re-vision their role as Catholics, to start taking some responsibility for the condition of the Church, for we can no longer sit and weep and moan about what is going on unless we take an active role in matters of the Church most especially where we are involve daily – our Parishes. We must be in communion with the Church. It is in dealing and dialoguing with the clergy that we are heard and our views made known. Differing theologies have always been a part of our Christianity and we should not allow anyone to disregard us or cast us out just because we may not agree with all church teachings. Provided, the things we oppose are not instituted doctrines or dogma. No one can tell us we do not belong.
In this time where the raging storms of dissent magnify our spiritual, social and religious divisions, we are reminded in words as well as in deeds that Jesus’ teachings of love and compassionate living are core to the Christian faith as we the obedient lay move forward and be more involved in greater leadership roles, as lay leaders, in our church. There is no room in the Church for selfish and individual activities whether they be lay or clergy. We are all called not in isolation but to be a community of believers.
“You have been purchased at a price. Do not become slaves to human beings.” (1Cor 7: 23)
–rra 09.02.07
About the Author