Archives for November 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2012

A psalm of thanksgiving.
Shout joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
Know that the LORD is God,
he made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the flock he shepherds.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name;
good indeed is the LORD,
His mercy endures forever,
his faithfulness lasts through every generation.

Elsewhere: complacency

Elsewhere

Most of us have grown-up in homes and neighborhoods where the notion of this being a “Christian country” was assumed, even by non-Christians. In God we trust, one nation under God. Expressing Christian beliefs was nothing out of the ordinary, just a check with truth.

Those happier times are long gone. Far fewer people identify with Christianity and many of those who do are nominal, genuinely understanding little and practicing even less. Christianity for many has been replaced by being a “good person,” general “spirituality” and faith in political ideology. Even within that political focus people seem to more and more prioritize “what’s in it for me.” These changes have literally led us away from happier times.

Secularism has in many ways become the state religion and the state has become a theocracy in its enforcement. It is a jealous god, tolerating no other viewpoints. Expressing Christian beliefs now seems threatening to the emperor and those hateful, intolerant, bigots from the unenlightened middle ages must increasingly be dealt with by force. Complacency is no longer a luxury for faithful Catholics and other Christians.

Fr. Martin Tripole, SJ has written a thoughtful piece on exactly this point for the exceptional Catholic World Report:

It would come as a bit of a shock, I think, to many Catholics comfortable with current developments in our society, to hear the Pope speak of a clash between current values and Jesus’ teaching. It would come as an even greater shock for them to hear the remarks of Prof. Robert P. George of Princeton University, when he addressed the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, on May 13, 2014:

The days of socially acceptable Christianity are over. The days of comfortable Catholicism are past. It is no longer easy to be a faithful Christian, a good Catholic, an authentic witness to the truths of the Gospel. A price is demanded and must be paid. There are costs of discipleship – heavy costs, costs that are burdensome and painful to bear.

According to George, if one wants to be a good Catholic today, one must be “prepared to give public witness to the massively politically incorrect truths of the Gospel” regarding “Biblical and natural law beliefs”: about “the sanctity of human life in all stages and conditions,” about the “core social function of marriage” to “unite a man and woman as husband and wife to be mother and father to children born of their union.” To be sure, it is still possible to be “a comfortable Catholic” and “socially acceptable”; but to be a Catholic who professes openly fidelity to the teachings of the Gospel and Christ’s Church, one must be prepared “to take risks and make sacrifices,” “to make oneself a marked man or woman.” The “costs of discipleship” are high:

It is to expose oneself to scorn and reproach…   to place in jeopardy one’s security, one’s personal aspirations and ambitions, the peace and tranquility one enjoys, one’s standing in polite society. One may in consequence of one’s public witness be discriminated against and denied educational opportunities and the prestigious credentials they may offer; one may lose valuable opportunities for employment and professional advancement; one may be excluded from worldly recognition and honors of various sorts; one’s witness may even cost one treasured friendships. It may produce familial discord and even alienation from family members. Yes, there are costs of discipleship – heavy costs.

Read the entire piece: The Time for Complacent Catholicism is Over.

Elsewhere: choosing the priesthood

Elsewhere

CNN’s Lisa Ling produces specials called This is Life with Lisa Ling on a very wide variety of subjects. Last week they aired Called to the Collar (subtitled “He’s 26 and a Catholic priest”).

I found it very interesting. Not interesting in understanding the vocational call of the priesthood, but of how the secular (or at least non-Catholic) world sees our spiritual fathers. There are rough edges including awkwardly worded questions and a fascination on how anyone could choose celibacy (called the “ultimate sacrifice” – where do I begin…). The sex abuse scandal is repeatedly featured aspect, of course. While these things elevated my spidey sense a few levels, on reflection I concluded they were representative of questions a non-Catholic audience would have.

Yet, (surprisingly I must admit) this is NOT another priest or Catholic bashing exercise. Ling seems honestly interested, curious and even unexpectedly surprised at what she finds. It is a fair presentation (which I would not believe CNN capable on any genuinely Catholic topic).

Sure, it could be better. They make it seem like this diocese is an anomaly when in fact many similarly orthodox dioceses have strong vocations. Older priests, religious brothers and sisters along with deacons and so many amazing lay people are ignored. The real story is much bigger than that which is told. None-the-less, this is a good start.

The young priests featured aspect do a wonderful job presenting their calling. Their bishop (Most Rev. Earl Boyea) answers the sex abuse question quite well. Although it is 1 hour show length (less commercials weighing in at 42+ minutes), you will enjoy the video. For another review and a text summary, see Patti Murphy Dohn’s piece at Catholic Review.

Francis: style, substance, execution

Francis Style Substance Execution

I have written very little about Pope Francis since he was elected to the See of Peter 18 months ago. I, like so many others, have been and remain somewhat confused. There are already so many things written about him, what he has said, what he has done and what he is trying to do. There should be little to add – except, that so much of what has been said is so terribly contradictory.

How to make sense of it all? I propose, gentle reader, that it may be helpful to understand the Holy Father in a framework of three areas: style, substance and execution.

Style

Obviously enough, every pope has a different personal style. These are very different men with different backgrounds, education, experience and focus. Recent popes in particular have also been from different cultures and native languages. Except for a very small handful during the Middle Ages (less than 10 “bad popes” – out of 266), the Church has been blessed by extraordinary, but of course imperfect, men.

I do not believe for a second that Pope Francis is more humble, or cares more about the poor, or wants to center the Church on Christ even one iota greater than his predecessors. When I read anything that suggests that, I know it is not only completely wrong, but incredibly insulting to previous popes and thus the Church herself. I understand how some people, particularly the media, twists things in this way to further their own agenda.

That said, I believe that the Holy Spirit may have given us Pope Francis as the pope we need at this time. His style is suited well to highlighting what I believe are two areas in which we collectively need to rededicate ourselves.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Pope Francis asks us to look outward, renewing and reinvigorating our mission. He wants our message to be one of peace and joy in Christ, which is sometimes lost when we lead with rules, liturgy and the like. The Holy Father is right! We are well advised to keep this foremost in our evangelism efforts.

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

The second area in which Pope Francis wishes to strengthen is our commitment to the poor. That is, the second part of the Greatest Commandment: “love your neighbor.” In our relatively comfortable lives, the needs of the poor can seem distant. The Holy Father reminds us that the poor are always with us and of our responsibility to these brothers and sisters.

The Holy Father’s “messaging” centers around these two areas. We do well to listen, reflect and act accordingly.

Substance

Pope Francis describes himself as a “loyal son of the Church.” Put another way, the pope is a faithful Catholic. Duh.

There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that the pope will change doctrine. This will (eventually) come as a shock to the politicized media, to some non-Catholics and to poorly catechized Catholics.

Even if Pope Francis wanted to change doctrine, which he certainly does not (and would be heretical), he could not. Nor is he free to play games with it like keeping certain doctrines “technically on the books” but diminished and ignored in practice. These are revealed truths from God (ref: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”). The Church protects the truth, does not “evolve” it, and exists to change the world, not be changed by it.

Execution

Unless you believe there is a brilliant, intricate, long-term plan to which virtually the whole world has not caught on — then you would have to concede that there have been serious problems in this area!

The Holy Father has often spoken vaguely leaving us confused with what he is trying to say. Knowing he is a faithful (orthodox) Catholic, we put a meaning on the words such that they are consistent with doctrine and 2,000 years of Magisterial teaching. The media and heterodox Catholics assign a completely different, often opposite meaning. It seems that the pope has a policy never to clarify what he meant. Confusion reigns.

Another problem area is some in his “inner circle” who claim to be speaking for him, often with alarming pronouncements. This too seems to be tolerated without any objection from the Holy Father or requiring any retraction. Confusion reigns.

Another area is seemingly intractable systemic problems, such as the string of translation “errors” and unapproved, highly slanted information releases. These lapses always tilt toward the heterodox, seem to continue unabated and…   confusion reigns.

Finally, there is the issue of discipline. Those proposing and promoting heterodoxy, from all appearances (which admittedly could be misleading) are usually tolerated. Those affirming orthodoxy appear to often be unjustly disciplined (again, appearances could be wrong). Cardinal Burke’s reassignment may be one such example. The extremely severe treatment of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate may be another. There are plenty of other examples. How much Pope Francis is involved in these matters or how much he defers to that inner circle is unknown. The result is chilling however to many faithful Catholics.

The Future

A tremendous amount of good can come from Pope Francis’ pontificate. Fallen away Catholics and non-Catholics could be brought home. The mission of the Church to save souls could be fulfilled to the highest degree possible.

Alternately, a lot of bad could result if doctrine, while left “technically” unchanged, is diminished, reworded, reinterpreted or otherwise skirted to give heterodoxy a place in the Church. Scandal, by definition, does not save souls but leads them away from Christ. Only truth sets one free.

Frankly, it is unclear to me which path we are on. We must continue to pray for Pope Francis, his intentions and his leadership. May he one day be known as Pope St. Francis the Great!


UPDATE: A recent piece in the Catholic Herald by William Oddie quotes Cardinal Francis George expressing a similar perspective. See The Pope really needs to answer Cardinal George’s questions.

A Well Formed Conscience

A Well Formed Conscience

Guest contributor:   Ed Trego

“Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

Humans are amazing creations. We are capable of becoming accustomed to most anything. If we live in a noisy environment, we learn to block out the noise and get on with our lives. If we have minor aches and pains, we are able to get used to the discomfort and continue to live our lives. Even in extreme cases of deprivation or pain, humans will somehow grow used to the discomfort and live with it. If you doubt that, read some of the firsthand accounts of the survivors of Hitler’s death camps. Talk to the survivors of Stalin’s purges in Russia. Those who have survived being held as prisoners of war in any number of wars will convince you that humans have an incredible desire and determination to survive.

We will learn to tolerate much pain and suffering over time. We will live a life that we would have thought impossible before we were forced to live it or die. We will adapt.

We have all experienced this at some time in our own lives, sometimes in some very minor ways, sometimes in much more serious ways. I tried once to learn to play the guitar. One of the first things I learned is that chording a guitar makes your fingers sore. But after a while, you get used to it, develop callouses, and the hurt goes away. The body has adjusted to the new activity. Others have adapted to very serious life changes yet, by the grace of God, accept them and move on with their lives.

Our conscience is much the same. It can be changed for the good or bad by the choices we make in our lives. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is free will. It allows us to make our own decisions and determine our own fate. It is a marvelous, loving gift. However, along with the ability to make our own decisions comes the ability to make wrong decisions. We have a long history of making the wrong decisions. God gave us another wonderful gift that is absolutely required if we are to use the gift of free will wisely. That gift is our conscience.

I think of the human conscience as a means provided by God to allow us to regulate our free will. Have you ever said or done something and immediately knew it was wrong? That’s your conscience trying to help you guide your free will. The same is also true when you do something good and immediately get positive feedback from deep inside. I’m not talking about pride in ourselves or our action, but of a deep-seated knowledge that what we just did was a good thing. This, again, is the conscience providing encouragement for our good choices.

Our conscience, like our free will, is up to us to use wisely. If we choose to ignore it, the conscience can weaken. We can push it out of our lives to the point that we no longer have the aid of our conscience to help us make the right choices and recognize the wrong ones. A poorly formed conscience allows Satan to more easily convince us that the wrong he wishes us to do isn’t really wrong at all, just a silly rule made up by someone who really has no right trying to tell us what we should or shouldn’t do. After all, God wouldn’t have given us free will if He intended for us to let others tell us right from wrong. That’s our freedom to choose, we won’t give it up for some silly societal or religious rule.

There is an old adage about how to boil a frog. If you drop a frog in boiling water it will desperately try to jump out. However, if you place the frog in room temperature water it will settle in and not try to escape. Even as the heat is turned up the frog will remain in the water as long as the heat isn’t increased too quickly. Eventually, the frog will reach the point of being boiled in water, but it will have grown accustomed to the moderate increase in discomfort and will not become aware of the danger until it is too late.

The human conscience operates in a very similar way. That little white lie wasn’t so bad, so the next one will be easier. Skipping Mass on a Holy Day didn’t seem so terrible, so the next time we don’t go to Mass it’s a bit easier. The so-called minor sins aren’t even noticed anymore, and the more serious ones become small in our estimation. What perhaps began as simple forgetfulness becomes habitual. Satan is a master at convincing us that our small failings aren’t important. We just need to worry about the big ones. Of course, the bigger ones get easier the more frequently we commit the supposedly insignificant sins. All of a sudden we’ve gone from missing Mass on a Holy Day to not going to Mass but a few times a year or maybe not at all. We have progressed from that small white lie to become an habitual liar who is trusted by no one.

Fortunately, we have the ability to reform and strengthen our conscience to again help us in choosing right from wrong. Think of your conscience as you would your physical strength. If you exercise it, it will increase. If you ignore it or misuse it, it will decrease. We have the ability to train our conscience just as we can train our muscles. By beginning with small steps we can progress to accomplish great things in both our physical strength and the right formation of our conscience. A few extra push-ups or sit-ups can be the beginning of getting in shape physically. If we recognize the benefit, we are more likely to continue and to increase the training regimen. Eventually, we will be much healthier and our bodies will serve us much better.

Our conscience can operate the same way. Noticing the supposedly minor sins in ourselves and trying to avoid them will accomplish much the same thing with respect to our spiritual life. We will begin to recognize those wrongs that we had ignored and by working to eliminate them we will improve our relationship with God. If we pay attention to the small things, we can develop a ,strong, well-formed conscience that will help us make the big decisions as well as the small. As we can train our conscience to better recognize sin we begin realize that any sin is harmful to our spiritual well-being. By doing so, we will live a life in which our morality and our relationship with God grows stronger and stronger. However, just as with a physical training program, if we let our regimen fade away, we will also be more likely to commit sin. We need a well-formed conscience that will help us seek and understand the will of God. Without it, we can never hope to overcome the temptations of Satan.

One of Satan’s greatest successes is convincing us that we really aren’t bad. We really don’t sin “that much”. Surely God won’t hold us to account for such a minor error. We humans are very adept at minimizing our concept of the sins we commit and the adversary loves it. We draw a line in the sand and vow not to cross that line. We will tolerate sinfulness and immorality to a certain level, and try to convince ourselves that we are doing pretty well. After all, no one is perfect. We go so far as to train our conscience in this wrong-headed manner, allowing us to better ignore the negative feelings associated with evil. Any lessening of our sensitivity to evil is dangerous and results in an ever-growing acceptance of sin and immorality at a greater and greater level. Similar to the frog, we find ourselves in boiling water and unable to do anything about it until it’s too late.

Is it possible for us to kill our own conscience? Can we weaken it to the point that we can no longer distinguish between right or wrong? Do we grow so accustomed to sin that we no longer recognize our own sinfulness or the sinfulness of others”

I believe the answer to all of these questions is yes. We can become so accustomed to evil and sin that we have difficulty even realizing that they still exist. We can weaken our conscience to the point that we can no longer see right and wrong. We can no longer effectively choose between the two. We allow so many “little” sins to become a part of our daily lives that we no longer recognize them as sins. When that happens, more serious sins become smaller in our estimation until they too are no longer looked upon as sinfulness. We can literally kill our conscience.

In our world today, maintaining a well-formed conscience can be a difficult task. There are so many temptations placed before us. Everywhere we look there is the opportunity to sin. Even our friends and family, at times, encourage us to sin. How are we to maintain the correct relationship with God in a world that seems to have pushed God away”

As Christians we must be different than the world at large. Though we must live in this world, we are citizens in the kingdom of God and we must live our lives according to that relationship. If you were to journey to a city similar to Sodom and Gomorrah, you would have two choices before you. You could either become like them and join in the sinfulness and abhorrent behavior common to that city or choose to continue your relationship with God and either leave the city or strive to change the wrongs being committed.

Are there cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah in our world today? Yes there are. There are number of areas of the world and in the United States that are very near the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, some have probably surpassed that level of debauchery and continue to grow more evil.

If we are to be part of God’s family, we must strengthen our conscience and rely upon it to guide us in our daily lives. Sin destroys our relationship with God. Just as we destroy our relationships with those we love when we do wrong against them, our spiritual relationship with God can also be destroyed by the sins we commit. It’s important to understand that we are the sole source for this loss. God will never turn from us, we turn from Him. He will always be there to accept and forgive us. “Come now, let us reason together says the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18).

As humans it is in our nature to seek a relationship with God. We were created to seek God and develop a family relationship with Him as our Father. In his autobiography, “Confessions”, St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” God desires that we have a strong, loving, family relationship with Him. He sent His only son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to allow a pathway for fallen man to return to the family of God. He’s there, waiting for us to realize the love He has for us. We need only to turn to God, repent of our sins and ask His help. He will provide all that is needed to reach our goal of eternal life with Him. A strong, well-formed conscience is vital to establishing and maintaining that kind of a relationship with our God.

“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet him that joyfully works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways.” (Isaiah 64:4-5)

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)


The above meditation is a chapter from Ed’s new eBook “The Narrow Gate”.

Available now for only $1.99 on Amazon,

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