Understand the great secret:

To be masters of our souls

		Notes from the  Vicar General  Msgr. Paul J. Swain

Have you understood all this? Jesus asked that question of the disciples after he had told them a series of stories, parables.

The reign of God, the kingdom, is like a dragnet, like buried treasure, a merchant's search for fine pearls, a mustard seed, like yeast. Have you understood all this? Yes, they answered. I wonder if they did, if we do.

Have you ever been in a class or heard a lecture or been shown how to do something on a computer and when the leader asks whether you understand, you answer yes. But once they are gone or you reflect on it later or try to do the computer task alone, become stymied. Now what did he or she say? I should have paid closer attention.

To truly understand requires not just hearing the words, but incorporating the message into daily living. Surface knowledge will not sustain us.

Two children were talking about their religious education classes. One said, "we're up to original sin." The other said, "That's nothing. We're past redemption."

Truths do not change

Surface knowledge of Christian teaching will not be enough to withstand the challenges to us by the secular culture or those our human frailty raises. That is why we need to regularly pray over Scripture, contemplate Church teaching, ponder spiritual readings, and actively partake in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

The truths do not change, but the context does. Those who were taught by Jesus in person could never have imagined his teaching on life and the responsibility to love one another as he has loved us would be discussed in the context of terrorist attacks or anthrax scares, embryonic stem cell research, or abortion and euthanasia.

These teachings are not always well received because they are counter to prevailing thought that emphasizes personal comfort over sacrificial outreach to others in need. They are not always well understood because they focus on lasting core values and not immediate results.

Solid grounding in Catholic teaching provides the rootedness to get us through the societal and personal agonies of our day. It eases our burdens because it reminds us we are not alone and that the reign of God is much more than this earthly journey.

Context does

St. Cyprian wrote in the third century, "If I could ascend some high mountain and look out over this wide land, you know very well what I would see: selfishness and cruelty, misery and despair. It is a bad world but in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are the masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians and I am one of them." True then, still true today.

To be masters of our souls we need to constantly place ourselves in the great secret that is the teaching of Jesus Christ expressed in today's context through His Church. We need to at least be up to original sin, but never beyond redemption.

Christ Jesus has overcome the world and invites us, though we are in its midst, to do so as well. But do we understand?

Redistricting:

Few understand it,
but its impact is enormous

		Eye on the  Capitol  John Huebscher

Economic uncertainty and a growing ethical cloud over campaign practices may impact some legislative races next fall.

However, far more political futures will be changed by the constitutional mandate to redraw the boundaries of Wisconsin's 132 legislative districts and those of its congressional delegation.

Powerful impact

Redistricting has a powerful impact on personal and partisan fortunes. As in most states, redistricting in Wisconsin is a potent form of term limits.

The election year in which the new districts are drawn is marked by a sharp increase in legislative retirements as lawmakers opt not to seek re-election in districts that are new or less favorable to them. Others who try are defeated.

Redistricting can also alter partisan fortunes as sections of the state that voted reliably for one party lose seats to areas more supportive of the other.

Wisconsin's Constitution assigns the task of redistricting to the legislature and for the first 75 years of statehood the legislature discharged it. Over the last 80 years, however, reapportionment has been more contentious and the legislature has done it less often.

Legislative districts went unchanged in Wisconsin for the 30 years between 1920 and the mid 1950s as rural legislators used inaction to delay the shift of political power to Milwaukee as a result of its growing population. Since 1960, state or federal courts have drawn the lines most of the time because the Democrats and Republicans in the legislature were unable to agree on a plan.

Congressional redistricting has generally elicited less controversy in part because population shifts have a lesser impact on districts of 600,000 than on much smaller legislative districts (about 54,000 for an Assembly District and 162,000 for a State Senate seat).

Moreover, legislators have less at stake in congressional districting and have been more willing to accept compromises negotiated.

Rules changed

Rules for redistricting have also changed. Wisconsin's Constitution included a requirement (yet to be repealed) that Assembly districts follow county lines and that no county be split between two districts. That made it impossible for districts to be nearly equal in population.

Beginning in 1972, following rulings by federal courts that legislative districts have an equal number of inhabitants, legislative and congressional district lines have divided counties, cities, and even towns to achieve this equality.

Courts have also ruled that districts should avoid diluting the political voices of voters of minority groups by spreading communities with concentrated minority populations among several districts. For example, several Native American tribal communities and reservations in Northeastern Wisconsin have remained together in the same Assembly District.

Re-mapping legislature

In Wisconsin, the unofficial deadline for this task is June of 2002, when candidates are permitted to circulate nomination papers for the next general election.

The task of redrawing the congressional districts had looked more challenging because Wisconsin loses a seat and our delegation will shrink from nine to eight members, thus forcing at least one member of the group into retirement. However, the decision by Milwaukee Democrat Tom Barrett to run for governor may make the situation easier to resolve.

Re-mapping the legislature is certain to be difficult again this time. Once again the courts are expected to have the final word.

It is too early to predict the course of redistricting 2002. But its impact will be with us for the next 10 years.

John Huebscher is executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.