A woman I know once suffered amnesia. One morning, her surroundings suddenly looked strange and she found she could not recognize her house or remember where she lived. Fumbling for the phone she tried desperately to call somebody for help. However, try as she might, she could not even remember
In Leviticus, God gives Israel a number of covenant blessings and curses which describe the benefits and consequences of keeping (or failing to keep) the Sinai covenant. One of the covenant curses is curiously descriptive of the jittery culture of fear in which now live: But if you do not
It is common knowledge in our secular culture that the Catholic Church is “anti-choice” and that the only hope for a truly liberated future is to trust to the forces of scientism, birth control, and rational materialism to crush the Dark Age superstition of a Church that shackles the minds
The Western mind can’t help but live in constant debt to the God of Israel. That’s why when Westerners blaspheme, it’s always the God of Israel they blaspheme and not Zeus, Quetzlcoatl or Athena. Western blasphemy relies almost wholly on ideas stolen from revelation. The Western blasphemer protests that God
As a kid, I often overheard conversations or snatches of news about the great fracas which seemed to have broken out inside our television about something called “civil rights.” Now, growing up in a town like Everett, Washington in the Sixties, surrounded by Olsons and Andersons as far as the
I’m a big believer in the adage that most of human history can be described in two sentences: 1. “What could it hurt?” followed shortly thereafter by 2. “How was I supposed to know?” One of the reasons I so much appreciate the Catholic Church is that its lifeblood is
Last week, we began our discussion of how to speak the truths of the faith to a new generation of kids, hungry to know the answers to life’s deepest questions. This week we continue that discussion, with the focus on the place of the Church in a very pluralist world.
As we noted last week, the root problem in a lot of bad catechesis is ultimately not ignorance, but pride. The cure for the sin of pride, as with all sin, is repentance and a willingness to humbly listen to the Church. However, that said, the problem of how to
What with the media hubbub about the “Jesus Seminar” and the supposed unreliability of Scripture, many modern readers naturally wonder, “Where did the Bible come from anyway? Why are these gospels included in the canon and not, say, the Gospel of Thomas?” This is a question profoundly troubling to the
Creation is, in a certain sense, one gigantic sacramental created by God, at least in part, in order to communicate his love to us. In her beauty, we see something of the beauty of her Creator; in her vastness, something of his immensity; in her complexity, something of his creativity;
Reading Scripture as a modern Catholic is a perpetual balance between extremes; among them, the extremes of farfetched skepticism and equally farfetched supernaturalism. For, unlike these extremes, the Faith takes both the unseen realities of the Spirit and the ordinary life of human beings seriously. It believes in both accountants
Many people assume “true” Christianity is wholly and utterly altruistic and sentimental. Often, to illustrate this, Jesus’ command to the rich young man (“Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor, and then come and follow me”) is trotted out to support the notion that the gospel is
“They say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.’” So wrote the Apostle Paul describing the scuttlebutt about himself in one of his periodic gusts of annoyance with the Church at Corinth. The Corinthians had definite ideas about what
Two years ago, the Mainstream Media (MSM) gathered in a special conclave in Rome to discuss the disastrous election to the Papacy of Ratzinger the Enforcer, God’s Rottweiler, the hardliner, inflexible, rigid, etc. blah blah. Some of us suggested to our television screens that the Talking Heads might want to
If you consult the Mainstream Media (MSM), you’d swear that all Benedict (aka “God’s Rottweiler/The Enforcer/Former Hitler Youth”) did is concoct new Rules and then “lash out” or “crack down” on people for not keeping them. Given this view of the Faith, discussions in the press often break down into
Okay, gang. Game time! What do these statements have in common? If you guessed that they all come from the mouth of the same person, you’re wrong. Indeed, the most striking thing is, all these statements (which are accurate paraphrases of comments I have heard with my own ears) were
Not infrequently, Catholics are asked to give reasons for why they are Catholic. This, in itself, is not a bad thing. After all, St. Peter himself says “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. – Matthew 5:11-12 The Beatitude before this
I remember when I was in fourth grade as a re-run of The Twilight Zone was interrupted by a news bulletin announcing that somebody named “Martin Luther King” had been shot. I had not the foggiest idea who that might be, but I could tell from my Mom’s worried face
“It takes three to make a quarrel,” said Chesterton. “There is needed a peacemaker. The full potentialities of human fury cannot be reached until a friend of both parties tactfully intervenes.” Chesterton was being funny, of course. But as always, he was wisely pointing to a truth as well. It
A certain mindset which postmodernity finds very appealing identifies “purity” with sterility. To be “pure” is, in this view, to be uncontaminated, germ-free, barren, scrubbed, metallic. This mindset (which is actually very ancient) tends to think of “pure” spirituality as a spirituality unsoiled by contact with grosser elements such as
“Whereto serves mercy, but to confront the visage of offence?” asks Portia in The Merchant of Venice. It’s a good question and one which most of us don’t really think about these days. That’s because, increasingly, we are a culture that only has “mercy” on people who “couldn’t help it”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6) The goods of this world, though they remain good, can be deceptive when you are a member of a fallen race. In certain moods of rude good health and the flush of adolescent insolence,
Today’s Beatitude (Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5) continues Jesus’ tradition of transmuting lead into gold. Just as nobody wants to be poor and nobody wants to mourn, so nobody wants to be “meek”. That’s because we think of the meek as doormats
The second beatitude says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). I remember it like yesterday. The insistent kitchen phone was ringing on the other side of the wall as I woke. I had gone to bed exhausted with sorrow and fear the night before,
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