My Own "House"

In the Gospel according to St. John (chapter 7), we hear of a certain "division among the people" that occurs over Jesus and the message he brings. The jealous religious leaders send men to arrest Jesus, but when they return empty handed, the following occurs: 

The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, said to them, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.”

The passage concludes with this telling line: "They went each to his own house." Interesting phrase. We see a rather heated dispute erupting between different factions, each having their own opinion about Jesus. And how does the dispute conclude? It doesn't, really. They each "go home" with their own vision of who Jesus is, what his Gospel means, and whether or not his words even apply to them at all.

We all face the challenge of what to believe about Jesus, and this story makes me ask these questions:

• Where is my "house" when it comes to Jesus?
• Where am I most myself when it comes to him?
• Is this house built on a rock or on shifting sands?

In other words: Who am I going to believe when it comes to Jesus?

Oh say can you see... Pope Francis!

With the arrival of the Holy Father on our shores today, I thought it might be good idea to share some observations and suggestions. For about two and a half years now, I've found myself routinely on the scale between bewilderment and utter disappointment with so many people's conception of who Pope Francis really is at heart. All you have to do sometimes is look at a Facebook news feed: Pope Francis the radical dogma rejecter (or even dogma "hater" according to Jane Fonda)... Pope Francis the Marxist extremist... Pope Francis the superstitious, devil-obsessed moralist. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

So, since a blog isn't really the place for a long and drawn out argument (at least that's what I think!), here are a few things to keep in mind while the Pope is visiting our nation:

Some examples of what Pope Francis is NOT

Pope Francis is not a Republican or a Democrat. He is not merely the leader of an NGO. He is not an advocate of an earthly utopia. He is not a Marxist radical or liberation theologian. He is not a harsh moralist who has no compassion for those who are leading lives that are incompatible with Christ's commands. He does not "hate" dogma. He is not in favor of a social justice that is stripped of a deep and primary commitment to the Gospel. He is not a radical environmentalist. He is not in favor of changing Church teachings on the nature and requirements for the priesthood. He is not lukewarm on things like abortion, euthanasia, government infringement on religious liberty, or the redefinition of marriage. His many statements on these topics are absolutely in accord with his predecessors, especially Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Some examples of what Pope Francis IS

To put it quite simply, Pope Francis is the pope. He is the Vicar of Christ and the supreme pastor of the Universal Church. He is the successor of St. Peter, chief of the apostles. He a follower of Jesus Christ, a witness to the world that Christ is risen and calls all people to himself. He is the advocate of the poor, especially the unborn and the infirm. He is the defender of God's creation, of which we are all responsible before God as stewards and cultivators. He is the champion of the moral life, human life according to the blueprint of the Architect, and he stands in opposition to the idea that freedom means doing whatever we feel like doing.

The harder we try to understand Pope Francis apart from his actual vocation and mission, the more we will be left confused or even upset. Listen to what he actually says. Read what he actual writes and do so in context. It's worth the effort! May God bless and protect our beloved Holy Father during his pilgrimage to our land.

God Doesn't Work For Me

Joseph: Protector of Husbands, Fathers, and Priests

As I get closer to the Big Day (wedding's only a few weeks away!) I am struck more profoundly on a daily basis just what a tall order it is to be a husband and, God willing one day, a father. We live in a world that seems to have completely lost its azimuth when it comes to following the direction God designed us to follow. The Catholic Church has always held up two beautiful, holy, challenging vocations to which God calls men. They are very distinct, yet they are complementary and both very necessary for advancing the Gospel. They are, of course, the Priesthood and Holy Matrimony. Both vocations demand that the parties entering into them give not just of their earthly treasure and time in some kind of contractual agreement. They demand our entire lives. Ordination to the priesthood and entrance into the married life are covenants, not contracts. They are not exchanges of goods and services, they are exchanges of persons. They are not based on feelings, emotions, potentially prosperous lifestyles, self-assertion, or even strong attraction. They are completely based on love. Love is sacrifice. Love is doing whatever is best for the beloved's sake, especially the beloved's soul.

For the priest, he gives his life entirely to God in service of Christ's Bride, the Church. The Church truly becomes the bride of the ordained priest. He is entirely for Her in all places, all settings, all times. He is never "off duty." Likewise, for the married man, his commitment to his wife and to the children God may send them can never be something he hangs up at the end of the night like a grilling apron. He himself is theirs, he is not his own. This is the Church's understanding of marriage and the priesthood precisely because they are images of God's spousal love for the human race. Look no further than the crucifix if you want a rather brutal summary of how unthinkable the notion of just giving us some of His love was to God the Father. He gives every last drop of blood to save us. He sacrifices everything He is for our own good. That's the model - a better one just does not exist.

Next to Mary, I don't think anyone ever lived with that kind of love to a greater extent than Saint Joseph. A fallen man, he was the one that the Father chose from all eternity to be his very representative in the human life of His Son. Joseph was, in a very profound way, the face of God the Father to the Christ Child. He protected him from harm, hid him from adversaries, traveled day and night through heat, dust, sand, wind. Joseph never, never stopped loving and serving Mary and Jesus. We have no record of him saying so much as one word in all of the New Testament. He just sought out the will of God, and he did it the best he could. He prayed. He worked. He didn't complain. He absolutely spent himself in devotion to Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother.

I can't think of a better model for me to emulate as I stand on the threshold of married life. In a time like never before, when the Church's beautiful, God-given image of marriage is being assaulted from every possible angle, we all need Saint Joseph. Priests as well as husbands and fathers need to humbly call out to Saint Joseph and ask for his intercession, his protection, and his guidance along the path that will require us to give everything away for the sake of our bride and our family. Indeed, it will require our very lives.

O Saint Joseph, patron of husbands and fathers, pray for us.
O Saint Joseph, patron of those who labor and those who seek labor, pray for us.
O Saint Joseph, patron and protector of the Church, pray for us.
O Saint Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us.

Saint Augustine's Sage Advice

JULY 4

LET OUR LIVES BE GOOD

Bad times! Troublesome times! This is what people are saying. Let our lives be good and the times will be good. For we make our own times. Such as we are, such are the times.

What can we do? Maybe we cannot convert masses of people to a good life. But let the few who do hear live well. Let the few who live well endure the many who live badly. (Sermon 30, 8)

PRAYER: O Truth, light of my heart, let not my shadows speak to me. Let me not be my own life, for I lived badly on my own power and was deadly to myself. In You, however, I live again. It is You Who speak and converse with me. (Confessions 12, 10)

(from Augustine Day by Day, Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 1986)

The Insufficiency of Self

It seems these days that there are far too many issues to count, too many topics to discuss, too many truths to defend. Where do we even begin anymore? The sanctity of true marriage which, as Christ defined it, has "from the beginning" been the one-flesh union between one man and one woman for life? Or should we pour all of our energy into the crucial effort to defend our most innocent and helpless brothers and sisters on earth, the unborn? Or what about our brothers and sisters who genuinely feel they ought to be recognized as a member of the opposite sex, even though no reassignment surgery could ever change the reality that at the chromosome level they are a man or a woman?

Many of us have experienced the seeming impossibility of discussing any of these issues from the basis of our faith, our firm commitment to the truth and reason, or our deep sense of authentic compassion without incurring hateful slurs, intellectual bullying, or angry ridicule.

Emotion, no matter how sincere, can never replace true reason and genuine love and respect for every human person, no matter what they believe. But emotion rules our society, and no reasonable argumentation can likely break through to hearts and minds that are so rooted in the soil of emotions and passions.

Love is not an emotion. It just isn't. Love is an act of the will. Love means willing someone else's good, that which is truly in their best interest, most especially their eternal life. It means choosing to think, say, and do whatever is right, regardless of how that person feels or how I feel about it. Love is putting someone else's needs before my own wants (or even my own needs!) Ultimately, love is always about the other, not about me.

Our culture is drowning in a sea of confusion that goes far beyond mere individual behavior anymore. Now the confusion has spilled over into the realm of trying to redefine reality itself, and I believe that it all stems from one deep wound that must be treated urgently. We have refused the true love in whose image we are each made. We have instead remade "love" in our image. We have allowed ourselves to believe that we can define love for ourselves. This can never work, and nothing but more pain, anger, heartbreak, and confusion awaits us if we don't recognize that.

Pope Saint John Paul II was one of the few people in the world brave enough to challenge our focus on radical self-assertion. It's our favorite activity (look at the popularity of "selfie-sticks"). We keep trying to go deeper and deeper into ourselves in order to find the answer to who we are, why we are here, why we exist, what love is, and how to be happy. But that's a problem, because my "self" is insufficient to answer those questions. No one is self-sufficient. We are made for love, for other. We are made precisely to go outside of self and to humbly receive the grace and truth that is never ours to define or declare on our own. When we dabble in redefining reality itself, like what "marriage" or a "human person" are, our first parents' sin in the Garden of Eden reechoes throughout the world, and the wound, the rift between us and our Creator, opens even more. In the end, to pursue only "self" is to self-destruct. 

I pray deeply that we will have a profound change of heart. I pray for a miracle.

Lord Jesus, teach every single one of us to joyfully embrace the great gift of humility. Teach us how to lay down our weapons of pride, hate, anger, and jealousy at the foot of your cross once and for all. Finally, Lord, I beg you to fill our hearts and minds with the truth, for you yourself are that truth. You are the truth that enables us to finally be our true selves, the sons and daughters of God the Father whose sole purpose in this world is to bear your love and glory to all creation. Protect your children throughout the world, and be with us now more than ever. I ask this in the name of Our Lord Jesus, for "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

What does "natural" really mean?

"I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God."   (Ezekiel 36:25-28)

Did you catch that little part in the middle? For some reason it hit me this morning like never before:  "I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts."

Other translations render "natural hearts" as "hearts of flesh" but either way, this is an amazing statement to me. How often do we hear from others (ourselves for that matter) that this or that sin is "natural"? I think we throw the word around far too carelessly. From drug use to any kind of sexual behavior imaginable to even violence toward others, it's not uncommon to hear human actions declared to be permissible or even good because they are "natural."

But here's the question I think the reading above should lead us to consider: Is something automatically morally good just because it's "natural"? More to the point: What does "natural" really mean, anyway?

Usually, we seem to use the word to generically describe 1) anything that we find in nature (like marijuana) and its usage in a number of ways, and 2) just about any behavior that an animal exhibits. In this way of thinking, it would be just as natural for me to kill someone I have a disagreement with as it is for a dog to kill a groundhog. But for this to hold, we have to make some pretty broad and incorrect assumptions:

1. If something appears in nature (is "natural"), then I can use it however I want.
2. We are nothing more than animals, driven and even controlled by biological instinct.

Cuddle buddy or death wish?

There are some serious problems here. To the first point, just because something originates in "nature", it certainly does NOT follow that we can use it in any way we want. If you don't believe me, try replacing your washcloth with poison ivy. Or try cuddling with a rabid wolverine. Yes, poison ivy and wolverines are "natural." Playing around with them is not a good idea, though. Viruses and bacteria and UV rays are natural, too. So is marijuana, but does that mean that smoking it is morally neutral or even permissible? What is your criteria for answering that question?

"Natural" washcloth

To the second point, it's just simply not true that we are exactly the same as every other animal in the world. We are rational beings. We don't merely act on instinct, though we certainly share the instinctual drive of the animals. But human nature is different. It is not a set, permanent, unchanging fact of my being. As Dr. Peter Kreeft has pointed out, we are the only species in God's creation who can fail to achieve our nature. Trees are always and everywhere "treeish" and dogs are "doggie" and mountains are "mountainous." But we can truly be "inhuman."


This is because we alone among the animals operate on the moral spectrum. We don't just pick between neutral actions. We choose between good and evil. Our thoughts, words, and deeds have moral and eternal consequences, both for us and for everyone else in the world, for we are one human family. The Catholic principle of solidarity emphasizes this: we are all united and the choices I make either bring humanity up or down. Sin is not merely a mistake. Every sin, from the little white lie to grand theft auto to murder is an act of nature-mutilation. Everything we do makes us more human or less human. This is a tremendous responsibility, but it is also an unfathomable gift from the God who made us to bring His presence into creation at every moment.

So next time we're tempted to lower the bar even further, maybe we should tap the breaks and ask ourselves this question: "What does the One who designed me say I should do right now?" After all, who has more of a right to say what my "nature" really is than the one who made me?