The Assault on Families

Last Sunday was the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Jesus and Mary were without sin, but this isn’t what made their family holy.  Despite their purity of heart and soul, the holy family lived in poverty and was forced to flee for their lives from the murderous Herod.  Mary and Joseph were distraught with fear and anxiety when they lost the twelve year old Jesus on a trip to Jerusalem, and they suffered the anguish of Joseph’s death sometime before Jesus began His public ministry.  Jesus was no doubt taunted for not having married by the age of 30, and He was castigated by religious leaders of the very people He came to save, and Mary suffered the sight of her son’s brutal torture and death.   Being holy was no panacea from the struggles and trials of life.

What constituted the holiness of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph was their mutual belief and trust in God.  Mary trusted God, knowing that she would face recrimination.  Joseph trusted his dream-visits by an angel, and of course Jesus trusted God the Father, even though it meant His torture and death.  The fact that all three placed their trust in God is what made them a “holy family.”  We might think that holiness is reserved for a sainted few, or that it is only attainable by people who are able to avoid temptation and sin, but this is not the gospel message.  Paradoxically, sinners can be holy and establish a holy family of their own, simply by trusting in God and His mercy. 

To paraphrase Aristotle, the best of friends are those who share a common belief or love in some third entity.  Think about it, aren’t the friends you enjoy most, the ones who share your opinions and beliefs?  Sharing belief in God with your parents, spouse, and children is what makes a family holy.  And by holy, I don’t mean pious or scrupulous.  The very word holy derives its meaning from the same word as whole.  To be whole or wholesome is to be complete.  There is no greater sense of completeness than to find your soulmate and share life with them in all its fullness.  In the Genesis account of creation, God says “It is not good for man to be alone,” and so He created woman because alone, man was incomplete.  It is well-understood that women have distinctly positive impact on men in every regard.  The love of a woman reorders a man’s life and priorities, to a higher order, a more meaningful existence, one that can be life-giving and more fulfilling.  God had a purpose in creating us as men and women, complementary in every regard: biologically, emotionally, and perhaps even spiritually.  He also created men and women for a permanent, monogamous relationship, one in which children would be born into a loving, stable, and wholesome environment.  This is the very meaning and purpose of marriage, to create a family and a safe, secure atmosphere for the rearing and education of children by both father and mother.

[This has been universally understood and encouraged for millennia, until the last century and a half.  The nineteenth century saw the rise of atheism which posited that since there is no God and no afterlife, the greatest good in life is to attain the most happiness possible.  Atheist philosophers claimed that humans are essentially just highly evolved animals with the ability to reason, and there is no absolute good or evil, only happiness and unhappiness.  Therefore, if happiness is the greatest good, and there are no eternal consequences for our actions, we should pursue happiness at any cost.  The likes of Rousseau,(who abandoned all five of his sons to orphanages) and Nietzsche (who declared himself the anti-Christ before going insane), advanced this idea, which was taken up by Marx who politicized the greatest happiness could be achieved by creating a government in which everyone was equal.  To achieve this, Marx insisted that government should own all property and dictate rules to ensure equality among the working population.  This led to Lenin overthrowing the Czar and establishing the first Communist State in which religion was outlawed, and workers were shot for neglecting to follow rules, or simply for failing to show up for work, on holidays for instance. 

The twentieth century bought forward Darwin’s notion that humanity could be improved, just like livestock, through eugenics.  His second book, The Descent of Man, was all about how humanity was in decline because it allowed the weak and the poor to hang on.  Hitler carried this forth in the belief that the greatest good to mankind was to eliminate the weak, the feeble-minded, and those who were a drag on society, and we know where he went with that.  Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, another well-known racist, lobbied successfully for promoting eugenics, even getting it included in high school text books.  (This is what the infamous Scopes trial was really about, not the Hollywood version which demeaned Christianity).  In the meanwhile, Freud pronounced that every human was sexually repressed, an idea that was taken seriously by Margaret Mead who decried the plight of housewives, and advocated open marriages and the elimination of traditional Christian sexual morality.  Betty Friedan, the cofounder of both NARAL and NOW, wrote The Feminine Mystique,  insisting that women have the right to abortions and freedom from family responsibilities in order to pursue their fulfillment in the workplace.  Her greatest success was Roe v. Wade.   To round out this effort at redefining the role of the sex as the key to all happiness, Alfred Kinsey published his pseudo-scientific report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, claiming that nearly half of all men were homosexuals, based on his interviews of men serving time for sex crimes, and biased samples taken mostly from the underground gay community.  He concluded that any and all perversions of sex, including incest and pedophilia should be embraced in the interest of human happiness. ]

All of this may sound extreme, but is has blossomed into our twenty-first century notions of “gender-equality,” “marriage equality,” and most recently, “income equality.”  The defining purpose of marriage (establishing a family) has been set aside in favor of adult happiness, even if it means depriving children of one of their biological parents.  Not only is this the commonly accepted mantra of the media and progressives, it is being codified into administrative law.  Freedom to exercise our religious belief about the sanctity of marriage, and the intrinsic evil of abortion, is now considered “intolerant” or a “civil rights violation,” subject to fine and imprisonment.  Pro-life groups have been indicted on racketeering charges, florists and bakers have been fined for refusal to participate in gay weddings, and employers face immense fines if they refuse to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.  Our culture has bought into the lies and deceits of the atheist mindset and their anti-marriage, anti-family agenda.

In the midst of all this, Christian families are struggling to carry on.  The single most important thing any couple and family can do is share their faith with one another, and mutually put their trust in God.  The best example we have for this is Jesus, Mary and Joseph aka The Holy Family.  Faith gives us strength and courage to be counter-cultural in the face of a full-on assault against the family.  Couples who share a deep and abiding faith are far more likely to remain married, and to raise children who succeed in life because they have good role models from both parents.  Each of us is called to be holy, that is, faithful to the truth as revealed by God, not as defined by our eroding culture.  It is high time we speak out about our faith and insist that we be allowed to live it out in our daily lives, as prescribed in the U.S. Constitution.  Holiness is not confined to our worship service or our private beliefs, as our president insists when he speaks about “freedom to worship,” it is meant to be lived out in our everyday lives as witnesses to the Truth, and especially the Truth about marriage and families.

The Annunciation, Chaos Theory, and The Beatles

In this final Sunday before Christmas, we read and celebrate the Annunciation, and Mary’s acceptance of her role in salvation history.  Unlike Eve who disobeyed God and sought to assert her own will, Mary humbly accepts the will of God with complete confidence in His plan for her life.  She did this without hesitation, knowing full well that she would face reproach from her family, neighbors, and husband-to-be.  Despite all this, she had the utmost faith and hope in the word of God.  Her reply to the angel Gabriel was, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”  (Luke 1:37)

When I taught adults entering the Catholic Church (RCIA), I always looked forward to the lesson on Mary, and I ended the session by playing Paul McCartney’s “Let it Be.”  For me, the lyrics speak to the great wisdom of Mary.  “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, “Let it be… Let it be…”    Not only are these three words repeated over and over like a mantra, the album itself was titled “Let it be.”  Have a listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsQsOjaVUuA 

Mary lived in a time of oppression by pagan Rome and her people were exploited even by their Jewish overlord Herod, whose obsession with power was tyrannical.  In the midst of all this, Mary welcomed the Word of God into her heart, and her body became the vessel of the Incarnation.  Being human, Mary must have been terrified, not only by the appearance of the angel, but at prospect of her future as an unwed mother.  When Gabriel appeared to her, his first words were, “Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you,” (the words we repeat when we pray the Hail Mary).   Then he said, “Do not be afraid, for the Lord has found favor with you.”  Mary was FULL of grace, with no trace of sin, as witnessed by Gabriel.  This is the basis of our belief in her Immaculate Conception, born free of the scourge of Original Sin, brought on by Adam and Eve’s disobedience.  Free of sin, Mary was the perfect receptacle to receive God Himself upon His entry into the world, hence one of the titles given to her is “Ark of the New Covenant.”  She is also referred to as the “New Eve” in that she is the mother of Christ who makes us all a new creation.  There are many titles accorded to Mary over two millennia of Catholic history.  One of my favorites is “Queen of Peace.”  She is indeed our queen because she is the mother of our King, and she stands as the example of how we can experience peace, in the midst of a broken world, simply by accepting Christ into our hearts and even into our bodies, in the form of the Eucharist.

This past week I’ve been thinking about chaos theory.  In a nutshell, this is a multidisciplinary field of study, grounded in applied mathematics.  You may have heard of the butterfly effect, which is just one offshoot of chaos theory.  Scientists in biology, astronomy, economics, and sociology have come to realize that as things constantly change, there are distinct patterns that emerge, called fractals by the mathematicians.  However, outcomes are not predictable because when any kind of system becomes stressed to the point of self-destruction, something new and unexpected almost always emerges.  This has been found to be true in the case of meteorology, economics, and human history when societies cave in on themselves.  Evolutionary biologists know for example that when a species is about to go extinct, there is often an unexpected spurt of evolution that results in a new species.  This is quite different from Darwin’s belief in a slow, gradual evolutionary process.  One way to summarize chaos theory is that “necessity is the mother of invention.”  Just when it seems things couldn’t get any worse and a system is about to implode, something new and better emerges. 

We’ve seen this recur repeatedly in civilizational history, as recently as the 20^th century when Communism in Russia imploded and the USSR split up, bringing an end to the cold war.  In fact last month was the 25^th anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall, on almost the exact same date as the 50^th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council.   You might think this a mere coincidence, but it was the Vatican Council that produced a call to faith in action.  The principle document of the Council was Lumen Gentium which defined the Church as the People of God, born with God-given rights and freedom.  When St. John Paul II visited Communist Poland early in his pontificate, he emboldened Polish Catholics by the millions to cast off the oppression of Communism and in doing so, set in motion the beginning of the end of the Iron Curtain.   

I interpret this as an example of chaos theory.  The USSR had over-reached and was oppressing the rights of most of Eastern Europe.  Their economy was failing, their attempts to destroy all forms of religion had only created more angst among their people, and their citizens came to realize that a small number of Communist Party members were oppressing millions of people.  Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, the Pope, with support from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, brought about a peaceful revolution that resulted in new found freedom and democracy for millions of people.

Things seem to be going from bad to worse in our own country.  The president and many in congress have abandoned the Judeo-Christian morality that undergirds our society.  They have also begun to ignore our Constitution which was established to protect against the tyranny of any one branch of government asserting unilateral authority.   Congress and the president have not only racked up an almost insurmountable mountain of debt, they have also incurred hundreds of trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities with no plan for how to fix any of this.  In short, our system of government is approaching chaos.  There is any number of ways we can react to this:  with disdain and anger; with disgust and contempt; with resignation to the gradual decline of our once-great society; or paradoxically, with hope.  

I submit that something akin to chaos theory will bring about a change in the direction of our country.  Perhaps it will be an awakening by the masses to the tragic consequences of the progressive agenda, or maybe the emergence of another leader like Ronald Reagan who will restore our national pride and self-respect.  It might be the rise of new technology that makes us energy-independent, or conquers disease and puts our economy and national budget back on a more solid footing.  Or it could be some combination of all three. 

Like Mary, we must choose how to go forward.  If we accept and embrace the Word of God and receive Him into our hearts and bodies, we are sure to find peace of soul, despite what’s going on around us.  Being saved from our own sinfulness is to find favor with God, and experience peace beyond understanding.   Or like Eve, we can attempt to control things ourselves, which is what created the mess the world’s in now.  The choice is yours:  “Let it be…”  Or “Let me.”

Reason to Rejoice, Despite Our Political Mess?

As always, the third Sunday in Advent is designated as Gaudete Sunday, taking a pause from the more somber preparations of the season with a reminder to be joyful and rejoice at the prospect of the coming of the Lord.  The first reading from Isaiah opens with,

“The LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God.”  (Isaiah 61:1-2)

Frankly, I am sorely in need of some glad tidings.  This past week, our national legislators approved a massive budget that funds President Obama’s unlawful breach of his constitutional authority.  Worse yet, they added budget earmarks from both sides of the aisle for pet financial projects, swelling the budget to over a trillion dollars, despite federal revenues falling far short of that amount.  I’m frustrated that all this is happening in a lame duck congress, but with the collaboration of politicians who ran political campaigns on the promise of NOT doing this.  From my point of view, all three branches of our federal government are broken and getting worse, and both political parties are to blame.

Fortunately, my personal happiness is not dependent on the government, and neither are my God-given rights, which lately the government has been attempting to usurp. One of my Advent readings this year includes daily excerpts from Bishop Fulton Sheen and in today’s selection the good bishop cited Arnold Toynbee who wrote about three would-be saviors: “the savior who believes in automatic progress; the savior with the sword who cannot sheathe it when he has cut his way to the throne; and the savior who tries to save the world with philosophical sayings.  None of these, says Toynbee, can bring salvation.  The only one who can save civilization is The Savior who saves us from our sins.  Pointing to Christ he says, “There is the Savior.””  (Bishop Sheen - Thoughts for Daily Living)

Now this is something to rejoice about!  Given humanity’s inclinations toward selfish endeavors, we will never have “peace on earth” brought about by political movements, government entities, dictators or monarchs.  But we can find peace in the knowledge that this troubled world is nothing more than a short stop on our eternal journey; or as I like to think of it, a gestational period before we are born to eternal life.  At the risk of repeating what I wrote last week, when the Angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, they proclaimed, “Peace to men, on whom God’s favor rests.”  This has also been interpreted as peace to men who fear the Lord.  This notion of fearing the Lord is commonly misunderstood in our modern minds.  To fear the Lord, is not to fear God’s punishment, but rather, fearing that we might not live our lives in ways that are favorable to the Lord.  The prophet Sirach cites fear of the lord as the beginning of wisdom, and says that those who fear the lord will be happy in end, even in death.

When Jesus departed from His apostles, He left them with this short, if mysterious comment, “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.” (John 14:27)  I’ve never quite understood this phrase, but perhaps it was a promise of offering “God’s favor” on those committed to living out fear of the Lord which is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Fearing the Lord means trying to avoid sin, and sin is defined this way in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”  (CCC 1849)

We live in a sinful world, meaning that we all say and do things that are “offenses against reason and truth.”  We violate our conscience and rationalize such offenses in the name of personal happiness or freedom, when in reality we are destroying happiness and enslaving ourselves to our passions.  Our political leaders violate reason when they run up massive debts, and they violate truth when they legalize abortion and more recently, euthanasia.  Now we even have government regulations that demand people violate their “right conscience” or be fined and labeled as intolerant and a violator of civil rights.  

The catechism’s definition of sin is well worth remembering.  Many of us who are conservative are disgusted by what is happening to our culture, led by politicians whose “failure in genuine love for God and neighbor” is “injuring human solidarity.”  We are in the process of unraveling civilization which made its greatest progress when it was adhering to Judeo-Christian morality as the gold standard for our national ethics.

In the midst of these disappointments, there is still reason to rejoice because despite our personal and national sinfulness, we have a savior, one who is no politician, not an academic, nor a philosopher.  We have Jesus Christ, the very Son of God who, amazingly, loves us despite our sinfulness and saves us from ourselves.  To know Him, love Him and serve Him, is to find peace of soul, despite what’s going on around us.  Remembering today’s reading from Isaiah, although we may be brokenhearted at what’s going on around us, these are “glad tidings” because the day of vindication by our God is nearer than we think.

Seeking Peace Amidst a Broken World

As we progress through Advent, it is hard to ignore all the problems raging in the world.  ISIS is still on the move, torturing and killing Christians and Moslems who fall under their control; Boko Haram is running rampant in Nigeria, killing 320 people in the last few days, including the bombing of two Christian churches; protesters disrupt traffic and commerce over their outrage at the decision of the grand juries in Ferguson and New York.  Our president in the meanwhile does scant little to address these atrocities.  Sadly, the news of the world is shaped by political interests, and is often less than truthful for having been spun to favor one point of view or another.  We have a president who took an oath of office to uphold the constitution and the laws of the United States, but repeatedly violates his oath by refusing to enforce the laws he doesn’t like, or changing laws without bothering to consult Congress.  He fuels the fires of racial hatred and indignation by weighing in on racially charged incidents before the facts are revealed, and he questions the judicial system when he dislikes their decisions, without benefit of hearing the testimony or facts they considered, further emboldening racial agitators.  Let’s face it, the world is a mess and trending even worse. 

In the midst of all this, Christians are trying to prepare themselves spiritually for the coming of the Lord, but peace on earth seems to be retreating further and further away.  It is increasingly difficult to be at peace with so much bad news bombarding us day in and day out.  One option is to shut out the world, ignore the news, cloister ourselves, and simply pray for peace.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with this and of course prayer is more powerful than simply trying to shout down those who disagree with you.  The opposite response might be to combat the bad news with criticism and harsh condemnation, but that only seems to deepen the chasm of angst between opposing factions already polarized against each other.  A third option would be to find a balance between these two approaches, one that is well-informed and seeks to find solutions to the problems rather than simply condemning the action or inaction of others. 

I wonder if our current day predicament isn’t much different from what the Jews faced at the time of Jesus birth?  Romans had conquered most of the Western world and the Caesars declared themselves gods, running roughshod over the peoples they had defeated.  Even the Jewish leaders, operating under the auspices of Rome’s approval, brutalized the Jews.  High priests extorted tributes from their own people who at times were forced to borrow money they could not repay, in order to make the required temple offerings, then sent to debtors’ prison when they defaulted.  Herod mercilessly killed his own sons to retain power, then slaughtered innocent children in an attempt to root out a potential Messiah.  In the midst of this hostile environment, God sent a prophet in the form of John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus.  Then of course Jesus entered the world as a helpless child.  But what John and Jesus both had on their side was the Truth.  They unwaveringly spoke the Truth, even though it landed John in prison and cost him his head.  Jesus revealed His mission to Pontius Pilot when He said, “The reason I was born, the reason why I came into the world, is to testify to the Truth.  Anyone committed to the Truth hears my voice.”  (John 18:37)

Despite His short life and ignominious death, Jesus succeeded in changing the world.  He conquered sin, not with words or with might, but with love.  So great is His love that He conquers the very worst thing that can happen to anyone: death itself.  Jesus gave His followers, and gives us even now, hope when everything seems hopeless.  The good proclaimed by Jesus is that love conquers even the worst evil, and the kingdom of God is a kingdom of Love that supersedes even the worst things happening in the world.   We know this because the world is transitory, and Love is eternal.  We now know we are destined for eternal life, and we know this because Jesus Himself rose from the dead and promises us eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

When the angels proclaimed the birth of Jesus, they sang: “Glory to God in high heaven, peace on earth to men on whom His favor rests,” sometimes translated as “Peace on earth to men of good will.” (Luke 2:14)  If we are seeking peace in our lives and in the world, we must begin by becoming people of good will, people on whom God’s favor rests.  If we are committed to the Truth, we must listen for the voice of Jesus, as He explained to Pilot.  Rather than merely wishing all the bad things happening in the world would simply go away, and instead of reducing ourselves to tactics that server to polarize people, we might instead seek the Truth by listening to the voice of Jesus.  There is plenty to hear from Him in scripture: parables about Our Father’s love, the beatitudes, and His calling out the money changers and hypocrites among the Pharisees and Scribes for example.  But perhaps the most telling of all is His forgiveness of the sins of tax collectors, adulterers, all manner of sinners, and His acceptance of God’s will, even though it meant His torture and death for the salvation of mankind.  In short, Jesus’ voice and His life teach us to love one another because when we do so, we are as close as we can be to God Himself whose spirit resides in every human being.

The Second Letter of Peter, read today, reminds us that the earth is passing away and a new heaven and a new earth awaits us, one in which Love is King:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar
and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.

Since everything is to be dissolved in this way,
what sort of persons ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace. (2 Peter 3: 11-14)

This is the good news we’re waiting for in Advent, the coming of God’s Kingdom where Truth reigns and Love conquers all evil and including death.  Let’s not be afraid to witness to this in the face of a broken and hurting world.  This is after all, a recipe for hope and for peace.

Advent and "Do-it-Yourself Morality"

A new liturgical year begins as always with four weeks of Advent.  During this time we are encouraged to prepare ourselves not only to commemorate the birth of our Savior, but for the fourfold ways in which Christ comes to us:

1. The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus, a helpless infant;
2. The coming of Christ into our hearts;
3. The saving act of Jesus’ death and resurrection; and finally,
4. The Second coming of Jesus at the end of time. 

We will read extensively from the Book of Isaiah during Advent, beginning Sunday with this important reminder: “We are sinful, all of us have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.”  It is precisely when we think we have it all together that we are in the greatest danger of losing our soul.  In her wisdom, the Church sets aside this time of year to help us reflect on our need for salvation, and a closer relationship with God which is only possible because God Himself has reached out to us and became man.

As evidence of our brokenness, consider the direction in which our culture is trending as it adopts a “do-it-yourself morality.”  Throughout the entire history of Western civilization, cultural heroes were always those who did the right thing, for the right reasons.  Role models were always people who did good, even under dire circumstances, and the “good” they sought was defined by some external ideal that everyone understood and agreed upon.  The definition of “good” was something everyone clung to because it was based on commonly held belief in a moral code.  Not so today.  When Friedrich Nietzsche wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he proclaimed the death of God and the coming of a new kind of inner-directed hero who was his own god.  He predicted the coming of Ubermensch or Supermen who would transcend social and cultural norms, casting aside religion, philosophy, and moral constraints by using their creative genius to move beyond what society thought of as objective or absolute truth.

Television and movies are rampant with protagonists who live by a personal code of their own devising. Some of the most popular TV shows lately feature central characters who live by their own personal code of behavior which is likely to include murder and mayhem to achieve their ends.  This genre may have begun with The Godfather, but is now commonplace in prime time TV.  The main characters in series like 24, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Dexter, and How to Commit Murder, (to name just a few) are all living by a moral code of their own making which justifies all manner of evil to achieve their ends.

Programming like this sets a tone, and over time defines our culture, and desensitizes us to brutality, murder, lust, and a host of other vices.  In the real world, people like Hillary Clinton say things like, “Some of the best theologians I’ve ever met have been five year olds.” (It Takes a Village).  What she and many others are saying, is that morality is no longer a question of applying reason to nature and using our conscience to determine what is moral, but rather, “if it feels right, just do it.”  When Barack Obama was asked by a minister to define sin, he confidently replied, “Sin is just being out of alignment with my values.”   If that’s the case, then we are all gods, and doing god’s will as long as we are true to ourselves.

Advent is a season for reflecting on the direction of our lives, a time for introspection, and a time to seek a deeper relationship with God who is reaching out to us in so many ways.  As the days grow shorter and darkness more pervasive, we seek the Light of the World, hence all the candles and decorative lights.  We decorate our homes with reminders of the nativity because we need Christ in our lives.  We need His forgiveness and guidance to remind us that we are better than our cultural icons.  As Christians, we are called to be counter-cultural and proclaim that there IS objective Truth. If  we fail to seek and uphold the Truth as revealed by God, we will fall into the trap of deception that entices us to believe we ourselves are gods, making up our own truth and moral code.  If we truly seek peace in our lives, we need a closer relationship with God, with His Truth, and what better way to close out a year and begin a new one, than to participate in spiritual exercises that draw us into closer relationship with The Truth that sets us free, free from the slavery of sin and the chaos of do-it-yourself morality.

 

Human vs. Divine Kings

Last week and all of next week, the first daily scripture readings are from the Book of Revelation.  The liturgical year winds down with numerous references to end times and the last judgment.  Much has been written about the fantastic apocalyptic images in Revelations.  I like to think of it as staged drama and over-the-top exaggerated caricatures with dream-like qualities.  St. John uses these images and dramatic effects to make the point that Jesus (depicted as a Lamb) is the Son of God, our King, and that our salvation depends on Him alone.  In Revelation, God not only defeats Satan, He conquers death itself.  Next Saturday, the last day of the liturgical year ends with a reading from the last chapter of the bible: “Blessed is the one who keeps the prophetic message of this book.”  (Rev 22:7) 

Scripture calls us to consider the fact that our lives here on earth will come to an end, and now is the time for us to prepare for eternity.  The last Sunday of the liturgical year celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King, and the first reading from Ezekiel begins with God saying, “I myself will look after and tend my sheep.”  (Ez 34:11)  Initially, the Jews had no earthly king, only prophets and the law to guide them.  It was only when the people complained and demanded an earthly king, that the prophet Samuel chose Saul to be the first king of the Israelites.  The problem is that right from the start, the earthly kings fell far short in many respects.  Their human faults led them to commit sins of pride, lust, greed, and more. 

God alone is perfect, and His Kingship is not based on power, but on Love and mercy.  When Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand, He did not mean that God would rule by force, as human kings do.  God’s kingdom is not a faraway realm only attainable in death; it encompasses all time and space, and is accessible even now simply by entering into a loving relationship with God.  It is Jesus who makes this relationship possible, because through His sacrifice He has revealed the nature of God Our Father, and makes Him accessible through Jesus Himself.

In teaching us to pray the Our Father, Jesus taught us to invoke the kingdom of God every time we say, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…”   Kingdoms and leaders of the earth rise and fall, but the kingdom of God will never pass away or be destroyed, because they are rooted in the infinite and eternal Love of God.  When we enter into this Kingdom through Jesus, our eyes are opened to the beauty of creation and the dignity of human life which has been created in the image of God.  But when our eyes are deprived of this vision, the world is a darker, more foreboding place.  When we lack a relationship with God, we rely on ourselves or on human rulers and leaders, and we are bound to be disappointed.  Like Saul, David, and so many kings of history, human sinfulness seeps into their actions and their leadership is tainted.  Not so with God and Jesus.  They alone possess the Love that created the universe and the ultimate Truth about the meaning and purpose of life.

The folly of human leadership is in full view these days, but many are blinded to the errors that seem so obvious to people whose perspective includes the kingdom of God.  Here are just a few examples:

Can a nation flourish when it kills its’ own children?  The Culture of Death is in high gear in California where last summer the Department of Managed Health Care passed an edict that requires every insurance plan to pay for surgical abortions.  That’s right, not just contraceptives and the morning after pill, but surgical abortions!   There are no exceptions allowed, even churches and religious organizations must comply.  This is a direct violation of federal law under the Weldon Amendment, but federal law does not contain provisions for enforcement at the state level.  Here’s an instance where a bureaucrat wrote administrative law without the oversight of the legislature, and it is being carried out by the state government in firm control of the Democrats.  Republicans have drafted a bill called the “Abortion Non-Discrimination Act,” to enforce the Weldon Amendment, but it won’t get through the US Senate until there’s a Republican majority.

Can poverty be cured by raising taxes on professional athletes, Hollywood stars, and Fortune 500 CEOs?  You might think so if you listen to Janet Yellen and Hillary Clinton.  Yellen, the new Fed chair, keeps talking about income redistribution as if it’s the government’s job to distribute income.  At a recent speech, Hillary Clinton said, “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.  You know, that old theory: trickle-down economics.”  What planet is she from?  If everybody works for the government, who will pay the taxes to fund their wages?  Where was Hillary when Ronald Reagan dumped Keynesian economics and cut personal and business taxes substantially, resulting the creation of millions of new jobs and ultimately MORE federal tax revenue?  Reaganomics, as it came to be called, was based on the sound economic theory of Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate economist who helped Reagan overcome the high unemployment and inflation inherited from Jimmy Carter. 

Will amnesty for 5 million illegal aliens help solve our immigration crisis?  Or will millions more people cross our borders illegally in hopes of cashing in on the American dream?  The DREAM Act seems to have been the impetus for tens of thousands of children to be sent across our border illegally, at great risk to their safety.  If we do this without first securing the border, won’t we be inviting another wave of illegal immigration?  And why are the unions silent about this infusion of cheap, non-union labor?  Maybe they think they’ll be able to recruit them into unions, or perhaps just increase the number of people voting Democrat.  Recent studies show rampant voter fraud in states without voter ID requirements, and found that 80% of the illegal aliens who voted went Democrat.  In Minnesota, it was enough to secure re-election for Al Franken.   

Should the Federal Government micro-manage the mortgage business?  The Dodd-Frank banking laws created a burgeoning bureaucracy that now governs mortgage loans.  In their wisdom, they’ve removed the element of risk from banks making loans, so that all defaults will be assumed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Apparently one housing crisis wasn’t enough.

These are just a few instances of the failure of human leadership when it is motivated by the desire to retain power and seems to be blind to Truth.  There are many more examples to be found in the labyrinth of federal and state administrative law.   While we are constrained to live and work in this flawed world, it’s a bit easier to take knowing that it will all pass away and our real citizenship is in the kingdom of God, even now.  

Our Greatest Gift: Sexuality

Last Friday’s first scripture reading for the daily liturgy was from the second letter of John and it contained this little gem:  “Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.”  (2 John 9)  In the deeply polarized politics of our time, on one side we have people who are proud to consider themself “progressive,” in the sense that they believe it is necessary for government to assert control over nearly every aspect of society, ostensibly because people cannot manage their lives effectively without government oversight.  Liberal, or progressive thought, is also associated with an emphasis on individual happiness and freedom, and views religion as imposing unnecessary restrictions and burdens on the pursuit of personal happiness.   On the other side, conservatives hold more traditional views about marriage and family, and consider the growing burden of government regulation as an impediment to economic growth.

Jumping ahead to Sunday’s liturgy, the first reading from Proverbs described the value of wife who “fears the Lord” and is a blessing to her husband and family.  Psalm 128 also addresses the benefits of marriage and family, describing the man blessed who fears the Lord, his wife as a fruitful vine, and his children like olive plants around his table.  In other words, the blessings of marriage and family are the product of walking with the Lord.  The gospel parable about a man who entrusts his servants with talents, also describes the benefit of using those talents for good, rather than burying them in the ground.  The message is clear: God has entrusted us with many gifts and it us up to us to put them to good use.  In that vein, I contend that the greatest gift God has entrusted us with is our sexuality.  Our fertility also represents the great responsibility we have for procreation and the continuation of human life on earth.  What greater joy and fulfillment could there be than to join with our spouse and share in God’s plan for creating new life?   Anyone who has held their newborn child for the first time, understands this tremendous fulfillment and responsibility.

The very nature of our bodies, and the biological truths about our sexuality, is that it takes a man and a woman to create new life.  Sex is inextricably linked to our fertility and procreation, but when we separate sex from fertility, all hell breaks loose.  Even the atheist Sigmund Freud knew this would spell trouble for society.  Nevertheless, the “progressive” point of view these days is that sex should be an entitlement, completely separated from the responsibility for child bearing.  Anyone who says otherwise is accused of waging a war on women.  And if sex for the sake of pleasure is the goal, any and all forms of sexual expression are considered a civil right.  Hence the growing belief that sexual expression in all forms is “normal” and anyone who says otherwise is considered intolerant, some would say, “on the wrong side of history.”  Progressive activists have made several attempts in the courts to establish the right to contraception and abortion as “civil rights.”  And of course the Affordable Care Act now makes it a legal requirement that every employer must offer these coverages.  In fact, just last week the Pro-Life group Priests for Life, lost their appeal in court and will now face heavy fines for refusing to pay for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

But herein lies the problem: Our society is no longer “progressing,” it’s coming apart at the seams.  Poverty levels have never been higher in the US, despite record spending on welfare entitlements; crime is rampant; and education is in decline.  Sociologists are now pointing to the breakdown of the family as the root cause of these problems.  Even atheist and agnostic sociologists are concluding that the lack of having both a mother and a father raising children as a traditional family, leads to poverty, poor educational outcomes, and crime.  (I’ve cited the fact in earlier blogs about the very high percentage of male inmates who grew up without a father in the household)  And what is causing this breakdown in family structure?  Inarguably, it is sex outside of marriage.  Young men who want sex without commitment or responsibility are disinclined to marry if sex is readily available.  Young women who can collect more welfare income if single, are discouraged from marriage.  A review of the book Broken Bonds: What Family Fragmentation Means for America’s Future, put it this way:

“The social capital created by traditional families is what undergirds the rest of our society.  Sociologists and economists now understand that when this social capital is diminished, it causes all sorts of other problems.  The crisis of the welfare state, wage stagnation, income inequality, unemployment, the prison-industrial complex—all of these can be traced to the breakdown of the family.”

 Simply stated, to destroy the family is to destroy culture.  The sexual revolution has led to too many children for several generations being raised without fathers.  Those children do not learn how to manage their lives well, and the cycle perpetuates itself.  The Catholic Church has maintained for generations that sex outside marriage is wrong and leads to all sorts of problems, but our progressive culture and the ready availability of contraceptives and abortion have clouded people’s intellects and weakened their wills. 

The secular world is just beginning to catch on to what the Church has known and taught forever: that sex outside of marriage leads to unhappiness, and works against the well-being of society and specifically children who are raised without one parent or the other.   In his Theology of the Body, St. John Paul II lays out the case for the beauty and gift of our sexuality, explaining the importance of chastity, modesty, and taking responsibility for our sexuality in ways that lead to greater intimacy and intense joy in marriage.  This is a beautiful, meaningful message that too few people are hearing, and if they did, they would understand the great gift we have been given in our fertility and in marriage.  This is the message our Church is hoping to share more fully with the world.  It is part of the New Evangelization already underway, and it is the topic discussed in great detail at the recent Bishop’s Synod.   

Now is the time to turn away from the false promises of progressivism, and recognize that God has given us our most valuable and potent gift, in the form of our sexuality and the complementarity of men and women.  If we hoard this gift and use it only for personal pleasure, we will be severely disappointed at the end of our life, like the servant who wasted his talents.  However, if we revere and respect this gift, and use it wisely, we will learn to love sacrificially and be rewarded with the incomparable fruits of our love, as expressed in the lives of our families.

The Mystery of Our Existence

All of Sunday’s scripture readings make reference to the Temple of God.  In Ezekiel the water flowing from the temple gives life to the world.  In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he admonishes them, “Do you not know that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”  (1 Cor 3:16)  In the gospel, Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple and when questioned, He replies: “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” 

In ancient Israel the temple was the center of life and culture, from which the Jews drew their identity as the chosen people of God.  But of course the building itself was only stone and mortar, subject to desecration and destruction, in short, it was transitory.   When Jesus referred to Himself as a Temple, and Paul told the Corinthians their bodies were Temples of God, they were referring to a spiritual reality and the mystery of our human existence.  We are more than mere flesh and bone, we are children of God who is infinite, and we have been created in His image.  Before exploring what this means, I must digress in order to make my case.

Last week I ran across an article about a Christian watchdog group that confronted Ohio State University for flagrantly teaching that Christians are less intelligent than atheists.  In a quiz for a Psychology 1100 class, the correct answer to one of the multiple choice questions was that atheists have a higher IQ than Christians.  The prevailing liberal bias is that Christians are intellectually inferior, as evidenced by their antiquated belief in the spiritual realm.  Pop culture atheists such as Richard Dawkins point to the Catholic Church’s supposed rejection of science and free thought.  In reality, modern science owes its origins to observant Catholic scientists.  This coming week on November 15^th the Church commemorates the feast day of St. Albert the Great, the 13^th century Dominican priest who set the stage for exploring all forms of science, logic, astronomy, economics, politics and metaphysics.  St. Albert is the patron saint of scientists and all researchers of the natural sciences, based on his own significant contributions.  Other notable Catholic scientists included:

·        Nicholas Copernicus, the priest who proved that the earth and other planets rotate around the sun

·        Father Roger Bacon, who is considered the father of the modern scientific method

·        Blessed Raymond Llull who invented the first analog computer 

·        Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and physicist who is known as the “father of modern hydrostatics”  

·        Gregor Mendel, the 19^th century monk who was the first to prove the founding principles of genetics

·        Fr. Georges Lemaitre who first posited the “big bang theory”

Even our current pope, Francis, is a chemist who taught at the university level.   The point is that the Church staunchly believes that there is no conflict at all between science and religion.  The Church still operates two major observatories, and sponsors important international annual seminars on adult stem cell research.  Louis Pasteur said, “Science brings men nearer to God.  The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the Creator’s work.”  In his recent book, Chance or Purpose, Archbishop Schonborn wrote, “Belief in God as the Creator is not an obstacle to science.”  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

“There can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason.  Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny Himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.  Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God… for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.”  (CCC 159)

Now for a bit of speculative thought of my own:  Modern particle physics states that at the sub-atomic level, all matter is comprised of tiny packets of energy.  At the sub-atomic level, our bodies are, at their core, bundles of energy.  According to Genesis, all of creation came into existence at the Word of God.  When God said, “Let there be…” existence came into being.  Before the Big Bang, was there only energy?  And if so, was that primordial energy God Himself?  Did He create all matter, and all that exists by converting some of His own energy into matter?  This might explain why we are drawn inexorably to God. The energy that forms the atoms in our bodies contains that primordial energy, making us quite literally Temples of God.  

The Church teaches that every human body has inherent dignity and commands respect.  This is because we are God’s children and every human being is beloved by God, Our Father.  Do not mistake my musings for pantheism.  I don't contend that we are gods, or even the embodiment of God, but in a mystical sense we owe our existence to God.   We are drawn to God not only because we come from Him, but because our existence does not begin and end with our birth and death, but rather, we have been created for eternal life.  None of this can be proven scientifically, but nevertheless, we believe it to be true because we inherently know that love exists, and that love transcends time and space. 

The Spirit of God does dwell in us.  This ennobles us, inspires us, and is perhaps the reason why we are drawn to beauty in nature, in music, and in art that transcends our ordinary existence.  After all, music is the vibration of energy, and light consists of packets of energy that makes life itself possible.  When God spoke, energy exploded into matter, including the very atoms that make up our human bodies.  Yet we know we are more than just trillions of atoms, we resonate with the Spirit of God because we come from Him and we instinctively know that we will return to Him.  This does not make us naïve or less intelligent than atheists.  We never deny the truth because all Truth is from God, and draws us closer to Him.  What distinguishes us from non-believers is that we have come to know and believe in the spiritual realm from which we have all been created, and for which we are destined to return. We know this because we are loved and capable of love, despite the fact that love cannot be measured scientifically, nor studied in a lab.  Love is the only thing we experience which is unbounded by time and space.  It is another dimension of our being, which is not limited to our three dimensional existence.  Love is a hint of our spiritual self which we cannot fully fathom until we are released from this world and experience the fullness of God’s infinite love.  

Death, Dying, and Civilization As We Know It

This weekend marked the celebration of All Saints and All Souls Days, following Halloween (Hallowed Eve) on the Friday before.  Scripture readings for Saturday and Sunday boldly proclaim the hope we share because of our faith.  Here are just a few excerpts from the past two days:

·        “I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race,   people and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb…” (Rev 7:4) 

·        “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:3)

·        “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”  (Matt 5:2) 

·        “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.  They seemed in the view of the foolish to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction.  But they are in peace.  For… their hope is full of immortality; “ (Wisdom 3:1-3) 

·        “Brothers and sisters, Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:5) 

·        “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.  For if we have grown into union with him through a death like His, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.  If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”  (Romans 6:4-5,7)

The message here, repeated over and over, is that death is not the end of our lives, but only the beginning of our eternal life in the loving Presence of God.  This is why we celebrate the saints and all those who have gone before us in life.  We believe that they are still very much alive, living an existence no longer constrained by the limits of time and space.  This is the message of the gospel; this is the promise of salvation; this is our eternal destiny, if only we believe and abide in the love of Christ Jesus. This is the culture of life, the culture that believes in the absolute dignity of every human life, not just because of our human bodies, but because each of us is a spiritual being who happens to be living in a human body for the time being.

Ironically, the secular culture, the culture of death, seems lately to be enamored with the idea of life after death, but in a dark and foreboding way.  Instead of depicting life after death as marked by a release from the pains and suffering endured in our humanity, it portrays life after death as painful and tormented, as in the form of zombies, vampires, or werewolves who are murderous and demonic.  Could it be that fascination with these perversions of life after death are a byproduct of the mindset that refuses to respect human dignity; one that views inconvenient babies as disposable, and fails to see value in the lives of the elderly if their quality of life is judged to be unacceptable?   Ezekiel Emmanuel, the principle architect of the Obamacare legislation, recently commented that he does not want to live past 75, and that the elderly should not have access to expensive life-extending medical treatment.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in a recent magazine interview, explained Roe v. Wade in terms of population control, “particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” Those are her exact words.  Did she mean minorities; or the poor in general?  She went on to state that not enough resources were being spent on abortions for the poor.  In her view, we don’t kill enough babies, notwithstanding the dire consequences of our declining birth rates on tax revenue and the economy at large.

Is this the way our society and culture is trending?  Are we becoming a people devoid of hope?  In the run up to this week’s mid-term election, Nancy Pelosi screeched that if the Republicans win a majority in the Senate, “It will be the end of civilization as we know it.”  By that did she mean the culture of death?  Is she worried that all the liberal and progressive advances made by Democrats in the past 6 years will be unraveled?  Might the Republicans stop our government from giving $600 million a year to Planned Parenthood, and billions more through the abortions funded by Obamacare insurance plans whose premiums are paid in part with government subsidies?  Might the evil Republicans actually do something to curb our deficit spending?

Despite all the angst over this election, I doubt much will change.  Even if the Republicans have an overwhelming victory, our lame duck president will veto any efforts to unravel Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank banking debacle, or the run-away EPA.  President Obama and his cabinet minions will still be writing administrative laws further obfuscating healthcare, banking, environmental issues, and of course, immigration.  There’s probably little the Republicans can do to slow down this train wreck that Nancy Pelosi seems to think is the pinnacle of civilization.

As depressing as all this may sound, the bottom line is that it all matters very little in the long run, the long run being eternal life.  Shakespeare, who many think was a closet Catholic, put it this way:  “This life, which has been the tomb of his virtue and his honor, is but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5)  Life on this earth is no more than a trifle in time, compared to timeless infinity.  The deepest longings of the human heart cannot be satisfied here on earth.  No matter what we have, or how much of it we are able to grasp, we always want more.  What will satisfy our longing?  Simply put: Everything.  We are spiritual beings, children of God, with desires rooted in the Infinity that is God, and therefore nothing finite will ever satisfy us.   Only in death will we find what we desire most dearly: Infinite Love, in which we already participate, but only in our currently limited capacity.   More on that next week…