Paris Attacks
I'm about to go offer Mass for the 150+ victims of the Paris terror attack that has been claimed by ISIS. The last time France has seen this much violence (besides abortion) was the French Revolution. How unbelievably insensitive, then, of President Obama to quote the three key words of the French Revolution as the common source of resistance against terrorism: "We are reminded in this time of tragedy that the bonds of liberté, egalité, fraternité are not just the values French people share, but we share."—President Obama, 13 November 2015 So, if it's true that the last time France saw this many murders was the French Revolution, then why has Obama quoted the three suspiciously-delightful red herrings of 18th century terrorism, namely, liberté, egalité, and fraternité? Any cursory look at history reveals that the French Revolution's main goal was to kill as many practicing [...]
Should We Sell Vatican Art for the Poor?
This actually isn't a debate coming out of Rome these days (thankfully) but I write about it because most of you have heard this question from some family member or a person on a plane at one point. Should we sell Vatican Art for the Poor? Of course, my answer is "No," but I want to give you some new answers for your friends. 1) The first great commandment comes before the second great commandment. Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."—Matthew 22:37-39. For the Christian and Jew, any debate must be framed within the universal call of worshipping God before helping people. Both are [...]
Colbert vs. Mother Teresa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5weP79J7bM In this short video, Stephen Colbert (comedian-turned-theologian) says “Faith ultimately can’t be argued; faith has to be felt." Let's cut through his poor philosophy and consider reality: 1) Feelings are often no different from biochemical pleasures. God uses feelings in all stages of prayer, but it is not central to the substance of the soul where the Blessed Trinity resides. If faith must be "felt" as Colbert said, then where does that leave Mother Teresa who couldn't feel anything for 60 years of prayer? But false-positives abound, too: If I drink an enormous Chemex hipster coffee and feel like a saint who could take on the world, did I just "feel" an increase in my faith? Of course not. That is because there is some correlation between good spiritual “feelings" and the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and norephinephrine. That's why we called coffee in [...]
All Souls Day and Syria
I have no intention of making this blog page a news source (much less a newsletter of personal prayer intentions) but I thought that today, All Souls, would be an important day to highlight the civil war in Syria. Today, I write a very short post to simply beg for your prayers on the behalf of 250,000 who have died. St. Thomas Aquinas said that the greatest work we can do on earth is to pray for the dead, as I blogged about here. It is good to visit the cemeteries and to pray for the repose of the souls of our loved ones, but our family is bigger than that; we can let the internet create a one-world order of evil or we can let the internet unite a one-world family by baptism and charity. Right now, your family [...]
Repost: The Greatest Work
All Souls Day and all of November is the month to pray for the dead, so I decided to run my first "re-post" on this very topic. (Don't worry. I have a new blog post coming out Friday called "Stephen Colbert vs. Mother Teresa," and also don't miss my recent commentary on New York Times' Ross Douthat.) Every Christian is called to do the "Works of Mercy," upon which our final judgment will be based, as seen in Matthew 25: The Final Judgment “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but [...]
How Long Is Eternity?
Welcome to Virginia Beach, home of America's friendliest people and worst drivers. (Well, that's my assessment, but it's a great place to be, all things considered.) This is a military area known as the "Redneck Riviera." The entire metropolitan area is a waterland of fresh and salty rivers containing about ten 100,000-person-cities collectively known as Tidewater or Hampton Roads. It's home to the Atlantic Fleet of the Navy, countless other military bases and real-life heroes they make movies about (literally.) But not every soldier comes back home to Hampton Roads... So, where do all the dead soldiers and normal civilians go? 100% of them ultimately go to heaven or hell. Do they all go to heaven? No. "Small is the gate and narrow the road" that leads to heaven, said Jesus. This isn't a scary post, but to show you how long heaven and hell last, I'm going to try to fit eternity into [...]
Marriage Prep and “Annulments”
The basics of annulments can teach us a lot about the beauty of marriage. The first thing to realize about an annulment is that it is not a Catholic divorce. The starting point for why divorce does not exist in the Catholic Church is simple: Jesus said: But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. ’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. ’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.—Mark 10:6-9. No man (not even a priest or bishop or the Pope) can break up what God has put together at a sacramental marriage since an unbreakable bond of love was formed at the words of the altar and at the consummation of the bed. [...]
Battle of Lepanto
Today is the 444th year after the battle of Lepanto, the most important naval battle in history. Without it, Muslim Turks would have taken over Italy in 1571. Because of the Mother of God's role in this naval battle, Pope St. Pius V asked that every first Sunday in October be thenceforth remembered and honored as the Feast of the Holy Rosary. The full story of the naval battle is at Catholic Answers, but this homily ties in the current battle in the Church, and the victory that will come through the Rosary:
Incarnation Meditation
“One will be sent in the flesh,” thundered the most beautiful Trinity to the angels and all the courts of heaven eons ago. In perfect harmony they rejoiced. But later, they wondered if anyone but a lowly archangel like Raphael (still more glorious than a burning star) could dare condescend again to take flesh as Raphael did for Tobit. Their best guess for the new assignment was Gabriel. God said “Gabriel will go…but in spirit as preparation. One much higher than he will become flesh.” “But how?” the angels wondered, “A cherubim's eyes would melt the trees and mountains. No human warrior's body could even instantaneously hold the power of a seraphim. Who will go in the flesh?” And they intuited through each other like laser beams, seared and alit by the thought of leaving the splendor of heaven [...]
Silent Before Me
Here's a song I wrote in seminary about the Passion of Jesus Christ. Lyrics here You’re in the garden, thinking of me. Blood falls like water, so I could be free. Taken in the night, for the sins of my flesh. Those were my chains, Lord, on your chest. Jesus….You love me more…than I could imagine I adore…Your Sacred Heart…silent before me. Stretched a the pole with blood in your eyes. Skin torn to pieces so that I might rise...Whips start smashing, what do you see? Your mother and me Lord, looking to thee... Jesus….You love me more…than I could imagine I adore…Your Sacred Heart…silent before me. ‘Forgive them Father,’ you say from the cross. Naked and helpless, since I was lost. I’ll live forever, cuz you bore it for me. Yet you thirst for my love, Lord, so [...]