Salvation, Catholic Style

The New Testament is adamant that justification does not come through the Law of Moses. Baptism is our birth as sons and daughters “in the Son.” We start out as infants, but our Father has no intention of letting us remain infants for eternity (Ephesians 4:13; Hebrews 6:1). He looks forward, eagerly, to our growth and development. In the end we will be like Jesus – loving and pouring ourselves out to Him in the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:29). Faith propels us forward, moving us to not just listen to God’s word but to put it into practice (James 1:22-25). Catholics call this “sanctification” or the “ongoing process of justification” – recognizing birth and the subsequent process of growth as stages in one and the same Life.

Regardless of the terminology, the Apostle Paul has some important things to tell us about this process. First and foremost we have to get it through our heads that the actions we perform (you can call them deeds or works and they can be anything from time spent in prayer, to sharing our goods with less fortunate brothers and sisters, to caring for the sick or dying) are never ours alone – they are primarily the actions of Christ Jesus Himself. As Paul tells us in Philippians, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure,” or as the New American Bible translates it, “who begets in you any measure of desire or achievement” (2:12-23).

Jesus acting in us and through us is what we call the life of Grace.[1] All of His actions during His time on earth were expressions of Love for His Father, and as such they were performed in the Holy Spirit. When He acts in us the same is true; He is Loving the Father, in the Holy Spirit, through us (Galatians 2:20-21). We have already talked about how Jesus deepens our participation in His Life through the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. Talk about the greatest honor in the universe, we have been inserted into the Life of the God Who is Love!

In Jesus, by His Grace, we live in a way that pleases our Father.[2] And the Father, looking at us with eyes full of mercy and Love, regards these actions (or works, or deeds) as truly ours. But how can an action be simultaneously Jesus’ and ours? Let me offer an analogy.

Suppose you and your sister were standing at the top of a flight of steps when she lost her balance and began to fall. You reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back upright. In her gratefulness she planted a big kiss on your hand, saying, “I love this hand. Thanks for grabbing me.” Now that good deed took place because of the instrumentality of your hand; it extended toward her and grabbed onto her. The only way it could do that good deed though, was because it participated in your life and was under your direction. That action belonged totally to you – and totally to your hand, simultaneously.

And what I remind you of is that, as members of Jesus’ Body, we are His hands…and feet, mouth, etc., etc. The action originates in Jesus but is actualized in us, “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The idea to perform the work is Jesus’, the Love and Power to carry it out is the Holy Spirit pouring through us, but the action doesn’t take place without our “yes,” our cooperation. And God the Father is pleased by that cooperation – like any father looking at the work his child “helped” him accomplish (even though it required the father to exert more energy than had he just done it himself).

Not only does God the Father regard these works as ours and smile with pleasure, He goes even further and “rewards” us with progressively more of His Grace – until finally He places the crown of life on our heads.[3]

We “merit” this increase of Grace but not in the legal sense of God owing us a payment for our work. We merit in the same way a child who eats everything on his plate merits a second helping – the merit is founded on the Father’s Love for His children.[4] Such a progression can be seen in St. Paul’s journey. He could write to the Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. . .I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil.3:12,14); and then years later write to Timothy, “I am already on the point of being sacrificed…I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that Day” (2 Tim. 4:6-8). Paul had fully entered into Jesus’ offering to the Father. The refusal of our first parents to enter into the flow of Life going on within the Trinity, and the effects of that sin, are being undone even as you read this. It happened for Paul and it can for us too. If we enter fully into Jesus’ offering to the Father by both our obedience to God’s will and our perseverance through suffering, then we will also share in His resurrection (Philippians 2:8-9; 3:10).

We are meant to be branches living by the life of the Vine, parts of the Body of which Jesus is the Head. If our lives are not showing forth His Life, and progressively more so over the years, then there is a problem. “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. . .I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away” (John 15:4,1-2). 

This is what the Epistle of James means when it says, “You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:24,26). James was not teaching that we can earn initial justification (the gifts of faith and baptism); no, we have been made God’s children purely by His favor. What I am convinced he was teaching, and the Catholic Church continues to bear witness to, is the reality that justification is not only our unmerited incorporation into Jesus’ Sonship; justification is also the process of His lifestyle becoming ours. It is a process that has to be continued. Jesus didn’t pour Himself out to the Father just interiorly, or spiritually, one time at the beginning of His Life. He gave Himself in His flesh and blood, His words, thoughts and actions continually; and as parts of His Body, motivated and empowered by His Grace, we are called to do the same![5]
 

Speaking of the last day, the Lord was very specific about the criteria we will be judged on. Jesus will welcome the just with a word of thanks for their untold kindnesses to Him - kindnesses He received in lieu of His connection to all of humanity. He went on to describe how He will tell the wicked, those condemned to “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” to leave His sight - they had neglected and rejected Him (Matt.25:41). They in turn will ask, “Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee?”(Matt.25:44). Jesus will answer, “As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me” (Matthew 25:45). Jesus did not even mention our mental or verbal confessions of faith; by themselves they are inadequate. He wants our confession made in our flesh and bone, living as He lived; to do otherwise is to reject the Life He died to give us.

---

[1]For direction to several verses in the next two footnotes I owe thanks to Robert Sungenis’s How Can I Get to Heaven? The Bible’s Teaching on Salvation Made Easy to Understand, (Santa Barbara, California: Queenship Publishing Company, 1998).

Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me”

2 Peter 1:3-4, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness …he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.

1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.”

Romans 12:6, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.”

Ephesians 4:7, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

See Ephesians 1:11-12 in next footnote as well.

[2]Hebrews 13:20-21, “Now may the God of peace. . .equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.”

Ephesians 1:11-12, “In [Jesus], according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.”

Philippians 1:9-11, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God”

2 Corinthians 5:9-10, “So whether we are at home [in the body] or away, we make it our aim to please him.   For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.”

Romans 12:1, “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Philippians 4:18, “I have received. . .the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.”

1 Timothy 2:1,3, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men. . .this is good and it is acceptable to God our Savior”

Colossians 3:20, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

1 John 3:21-22, “Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

[3] 2 Peter 1:3,5-8,10-11, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. . .make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ…Therefore, my brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

We see the Mystery of our cooperation with God’s Grace in Jesus’ “parable of the talents”also: A man went on a journey and entrusted differing sums of money to three of his servants. The first servant, receiving five talents (about five thousand dollars), invests them and makes five more. The second servant did likewise with the two talents he was given. The third servant, however, buried the one talent he had been entrusted with for fear of losing it. When the man returned to settle accounts he was enraged with servant #3,

“You wicked and slothful servant!. . .You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. [I’ll take the talent from you] and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 25:26-29).

[4] Hahn, Scott, Hail Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God (San Francisco: Doubleday, 2001), pp.133-134.

[5] Galatians 5:4-6 “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law [of Moses]; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.”

Can People Actually Go To Hell? "Hellz Yeah"

Sorry, but once the title was in my head I couldn't take a pass.  

During my first year in college, I volunteered to help with youth ministry to teens at the local parish.  I remember one of our first meetings when we just fielded any questions on the teens minds.  One of them was of course whether or not we still believed in hell.  One of the adults and the priest working with us jumped in with the statement, "The Church teaches that because people have free will, they have the ability to choose to live apart from God; and to do so eternally is the suffering we call Hell.  But the Church has never made a statement that it knew someone has 'gone to' Hell.  It is possible that all people make an act of repentance at that millisecond before death and are reconciled with God.  Hell could be empty."  I had not heard that theory of Hell potentially being empty; but I have in the years since, and more frequently as the years pass.

It could just be me, but doesn't it seem like most people no longer consider Hell a real possibility?  I notice, for instance, how when someone dies, we seem to immediately blurt out how the deceased "is in a better place," meaning heaven.  We seem to leap over the fact that our earthly lives will be judged and that God is going to ratify the decisions we have made to live in union with Him or apart from Him.

I certainly hope that all of the deceased reach heaven, but the words of Jesus and millennia of Christian "feeling" force me to hold my tongue.  (My "default position" is purgatory.)  When I receive news of someone's death I pray, "Lord, please cleanse them of all sin and take them to Yourself in heaven." If the person was publicly living at odds with Jesus' teaching in some way, I don't despair for his or her salvation but instead pray, "Lord, You are the Master of Time.  I pray now that in those seconds before death, your child was given the grace to reconcile with You.  Please take him/her to Yourself in Heaven."

Let me be clear:  I am not condemning anyone, but our Faith recognizes that there are actions, objectively speaking, that are so serious that if we knowingly engage in them, constitute a rejection of God and force His Life from our souls.  Jews and Christians have always called these actions sins - mortal, or deadly sins.  Listen to St. Paul in the New Testament, "do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived : Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor.6:9-10).  Can ignorance of the seriousness of these sins or addiction mitigate the damage to souls?  Yes, but what human being has the power to "read" another's soul and knows that to be the case?  All we are told definitively is that these actions are deadly.  We always have reason to hope for another's salvation, and should never give into despair; but it is equally wrong to presume upon another's salvation - as well as our own!  Hell - the agonizing, eternal separation of a disembodied soul from God - is a real and ever-present possibility for all of us.  It is a consequence of free will.

When we are unaware of harmful outcomes, we are less guarded in our actions, like the child who runs its hand over every surface in the kitchen - hot stove included.  Or perhaps we are aware that bad things sometimes happen to people who do "such and such," but I won't be one of them - like the man who does tricks on his motorcycle as he rides down the highway.  (Yes, we actually had a group of riders gather to do that in St. Louis two weekends back.  And there was an accident - huh, who could have foreseen that?)  Good parents educate their children about the dangers of hot surfaces, and good friends tell you that motorcycle stunts on a highway constitute an insufferably stupid risk.  A good God and loving human beings speak up about what actions lead to an eternity of misery.

Saying that we "believe" in Jesus, intellectually accept that He was God come in the flesh, is not the same as living in union with Him.  "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder ... Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do" (James 2:19, 17-18).  Jesus told a parable about the make-up of His Church and judgment:  

The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son ... [The king] said to his servants, "The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.  So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find." So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, "How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?" The man was speechless.

Then the king told the attendants, "Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." For many are invited, but few are chosen."  (Mt.22:2,8-14)

The Book of Revelation also speaks of this wedding feast, telling us that Christ's people are dressed in "fine linen, bright and clean," representing "the righteous acts of the saints" (Rev.19:8). You can ask any husband and wife and they will tell you that authentic union is more than speaking the words, "I love you;"it is lived out in their flesh and bone, day after day.  Consider this episode from the gospels:

Someone asked Jesus, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ (Lk.13:23-25)

Similar words were recorded in Matthew, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Mt.7:13-14).

In the past century the existence of Hell and of it being a possible end for us was reconfirmed in the private revelations at Fatima.  (The Church has approved the apparitions at Fatima, meaning that there is nothing in them contrary to the Faith received from Christ and the Apostles.)  Visionary Lucia Santos reported:

[The Blessed Mother] opened Her hands once more, as she had done the two previous months. The rays appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves ...  We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”

We are to love God with the heart of Mary, a heart that treasures Jesus above all, saying and living, "Be it done unto me according to thy word."

So, is there a Hell?  Yes.  Are there human beings experiencing it right now?  It is true that the Church has not made a definitive, dogmatic statement identifying any individual as suffering Hell; but the collected weight of Scripture, Tradition, and the sense of the faithful throughout time is "yes," there are souls experiencing that pain - and that if we die separated from God by unrepentant sin, that pain will be ours.  In 1988, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote the book Dare We Hope "That All Men May Be Saved"? He answered in the affirmative, that we may dare to hope.  It is amazing how quickly we seem to have moved from daring to hope to the downright conviction that all are.

Let me end with a sobering thought from C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce:  “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'thy will be done.' All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell."

"Jesus Had a Wife !?" Duh, that's what we've been saying for 2,000 years!

Yep, the mainstream media is all abuzz about a 4th century papyrus (that's right, 3 centuries after Jesus).  It is the size of a business card and has a few partial sentences on it, one of which reads, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife ...'"  Reporters chime in with great insights such as "The New Testament is silent on Jesus' marital status," and "This may indicate that there was debate within early Christianity as to whether or not He was married."

Alright folks, here's the skinny:  Jesus was a celibate, as was the Apostle Paul (1 Cor.7:7,38)!  And Jesus told his apostles, "There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs [celibates] for the kingdom of heaven.  He who is able to receive this, let him receive it" (Mt.19:12).

And here's the rest of the story:  The New Testament is filled with statements that Jesus is married - TO THE CHURCH.  The Old Testament frequently uses the image of Israel being God's Bride (often an unfaithful one).  As Messiah and God-Incarnate, the New Testament uses the same imagery for Jesus' relationship to Israel and the Church she blossomed into:  John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Bridegroom, Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding banquet that a king threw for his son, Paul wrote of the Church as the Bride of Christ in several places, and the Book of Revelation reveals the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Jesus) and His Bride (the Church) as the culmination of history!

Jesus' ordained priests share in His special spousal relationship with His Bride.  They are simultaneously members of her, as well as special conduits through which Jesus ministers to and purifies her.  No wonder the Church echoes Jesus in calling priests to practice celibacy at the natural level - they're totally consumed with service to their Bride at the supernatural level!

Oh, and the other goofy thing connected to this "huge story" :  Another phrase on the papyrus reads, "She will be able to be my disciple."  ABC News reported, "It could have implications for women’s roles in the church, as it would mean Jesus had a female disciple."  Seriously, has no one in your news room even bothered to open the New Testament?  Never mind Priscilla, who partnered with the Apostle Paul from time-to-time, or countless other prominent women mentioned in Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles.  Never mind the female disciples who acted as the first messengers of the Resurrection, or who stood faithfully beneath Christ's cross when all of the male disciples but John fled.  (And don't even bother yourself with the role of the Blessed Mother!)  Three verses in the Gospel of Luke are enough to show how ridiculous ABC News is:  "[Jesus] went through cities and villages ... and the Twelve were with him, and also some women ... Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others" (Lk.8:1-3).

For the life of me, I don't know why this papyrus is a story!

Abortion is the Taking of a Life, Not an Extraction of Cells

A couple of thoughts on what constitutes Life:

First thought:  Lets say that the Mars Rover, Curiosity, sent back data to NASA indicating the existence of single-cell lifeforms on Mars.  The entire world would be abuzz, "We're not alone in the universe!"  It would be considered one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time.  Images of those single cells would be magnified and broadcast to every television screen on our planet, "Life!  Alien life!"  You know I'm not exaggerating.

Aren't you dumbfounded when you contrast that with the double-speak surrounding unborn children?  
"I can't say for sure when life begins; that's above my pay-grade."
"It's a mass of cells, not a child."

Bull.  The picture at left is 3-D ultrasound at 12-weeks gestation. That's a human being.  It was a human life when it was only one cell!  That cannot be debated:  1) it is a living cell (as alive as any bacteria or protozoa on Earth, and more alive than any imaginary cell on Mars), and 2) analysis of its DNA will tell you it's human.  A fertilized egg, a zygote, is a human life, a human being at his or her earliest stage of development. That's not religious extremism, that's science.

Second thought:  When I spray Lysol in my bathroom, I do it to kill bacteria, one-celled organisms.  I don't try and  sugarcoat it, or play word games.  When I hit that single-celled organism with poison, I am killing a living thing.  Again, that cannot be debated.

So lets put the pieces together:  whether we are talking about a zygote, or an embryo at 30-weeks gestation, we're talking about a human life; and an abortion ends it. Abortion ends a human life.  The deliberate taking of a human life is called murder.  We can call ourselves "pro-choice," and manipulate the language so as to delude ourselves; but the cold, hard truth is that we allow unborn children to be murdered in this country.  It is a horrendous violation of human rights.  If we do not acknowledge that and the corresponding need to halt it, then we are the most pitiable of nations.

I tend to think that Mother Teresa of Calcutta saw things more clearly than the vast, vast majority of us.  Listen to how she broke it down:

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

"Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."

"Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion ... if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

If your eyes have been closed, then it is time to open them.  This is the most pressing issue in American society today - one million of our children each year are put to death through abortion!  As the November elections draw near, we must all search our souls.  Whatever we think about the economy, student loans, entitlements, foreign policy, etc., we have to come to grips with the fact that casting a vote for a politician who does not wish to legally restrict abortion will make us complicit in his/her crimes.  We can debate every other point under the sun, but to say that a mother should have the legal right to end the life of her child has no justification - not scientific, philosophical, moral, or religious. It is always an intrinsically evil act. 

Will there be people who still seek abortions and those who perform them?  Yes, just as there are people who commit murder, rape, and every other infraction in our criminal code.  The fact that they are illegal keeps those acts from occurring more often ... and their being illegal is a show of moral sanity.

Something Smells "Fishy" ...

... and the bad news is, it's us!  Jesus said, "the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad" (Mt.13:47-48).

Yes, Jesus' Kingdom here on earth, the Church, contains people doing deeds both good and bad - we are saints, hypocrites, and the whole continuum in between.  For some reason it shocks us, even though Jesus said it would be that way "until the close of the age," when "the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire" (Mt.13:49-50). When we're betrayed by a shepherd or fellow Christian, we're tempted to pull back from the Church entirely.  We have to fight that urge.  We can't allow the scent of sin to rob us of the much more powerful "aroma of Christ" (2 Cor.2:15).

Gabbing with My Boy about the Prophets

Two weeks ago I shared how my eleven year-old son and I were beginning to study Matthew's Gospel.  Last night we read the beginning of chapter three, where Matthew sketches the life and ministry of John the Baptist.  My son was of course fascinated with John.  Seriously, what is there for an eleven year old boy not to love?  Living off the land, clothed in camel hair, eating locusts!  The guy is awesome.  For slightly deeper commentary we turned to Dr. Edward Sri's Mystery of the Kingdom, where we read about the significance of John baptizing in the River Jordan - the river that parted to allow Joshua and the Israelites into the Promised Land, where Elijah was assumed into heaven and Elisha succeeded him as prophet, and in whose waters Naaman the Syrian was healed of his leprosy.  We talked about how Elijah was supposed to return to prepare the people for the "day of the Lord," read the prophecy in Malachi, and then how Jesus identified John the Baptist as the prophesied Elijah.  

But it was Naaman who most caught my son's attention "I want to know more about Naaman's leprosy.  Were his nose or fingers rotting off?"  I went ahead and flipped to 2 Kings and read him the full account.  (Truth told, he may have been let down by the stark details; I'm sure I deflated him with the tidbit about "leprosy" being a catch-all term for skin conditions at that time.)  As we read the account, he was wowed nonetheless at the power God displayed through Elisha.  Then we had to go back and look at how Elijah passed his ministry on to Elisha - another awesome story.  It was a blast.  And we were able to make a connection to the litany of saints we pray each morning on the drive to school.  "You're discovering what incredible men the prophets were.  That's why they're in our morning prayers - 'Elijah, John the Baptist, and all the prophets - pray for us!'"

"I'm Pro-CHOICE, not Pro-Abortion" - Why It Doesn't Work Out That Way

You have undoubtedly heard that statement, perhaps you've even made it.  I feel it is inaccurate, and I believe I can best show why by reflecting on our nation's history.

Slavery was practiced in the United States of America for almost a century before it was overturned.  Abolitionist called for it to be outlawed, while a larger number felt it was distasteful, but had to be tolerated. (The Constitution had certainly made no move to outlaw it!) They personally did not hold slaves, but it was a legal practice and they would not join the fight to overcome it.  How do we judge them in hindsight?  In their willingness to tolerate slavery, were they not in fact perpetuating it?  Today we say, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"  Instead of calling themselves "Pro-Choice" on the issue of slavery, they wrapped themselves in the mantle of "States' Rights."  Such a person could have said, "I'm not personally for owning slaves - I find it appalling; but I'm not going to tell a person in a Southern State that he doesn't have the right to do so.  He has that right under the law!"  In truth, there was no functional difference between being for "States' Rights" on slavery and being Pro-Slavery; both resulted in one person being able to own another.  (Note: There are of course legitimate rights of states, just as their are legitimate areas in which to exercise choice; in both the cases of slavery and abortion it is the morality, and resultant legality, of the practices to which I object.)

A slave was not recognized as a citizen with rights of his or her own.  They were regarded as chattle, property, that their master had rights over.  That was what the Supreme Court reaffirmed in Dred Scott v. Sanford.  Scott, an escaped slave, was not a citizen but property and had to be returned to his master.  The Court ignored the question of whether as a human being he had inalienable rights that made mute an owner's claim to his property.  The legal injustice was not redressed until the passage of the Thirteenth Fourteenth Amendments.

The same occurred in Roe v. Wade.  The Court made no ruling on whether or not the child in the womb was or was not a human being.  The Court upheld a woman's right to privacy in decisions between her and her doctor - the decision to procure an abortion falling under that right to privacy.  (Even then however, it was not understood to be an unlimited right for she and her doctor to perform any procedure whatsoever; there are limits.)  But the question of the child's humanity, and this new humanity's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have never been addressed!  And 53 million children have been legally terminated in our nation as a result.  A person may insist on being called  "Pro-Choice" instead of "Pro-Abortion" but there is no functional difference between the terms.  By calling for the continued legality of a woman choosing to abort her child, even if personally opposed the "Pro-Choice" person is in favor of maintaining a mother's legal right to end the life of her unborn child.  

If "States' Rights" was a fiction allowing the continuation of slavery, then so is "Pro-Choice" in the matter of abortion.  Ultimately, evil is evil.  Saying that people have a right to choose evil is no reason for it to be enshrined in our nation's laws.

When life takes that "wrong" turn ...

Every person reading this, at one time or another, has had some very specific way he or she believed they were meant to serve God ... only to find out that they were mistaken.  It may have been a career you felt sure you were called to, or some great ministry idea that never took off.  Life went on and perhaps you later found yourself carrying out the work you felt called to in a different setting or as part of some other role you took on.  Whatever it was, that experience of discovering you were mistaken on the specifics  is disappointing as well as bewildering.  I've sure been there and, so too I believe, has our Blessed Mother.  

Ivanov Alexander Andreevich's The Annunciation (1850)

If we read Luke's account of the Annunciation carefully, Mary asks what should strike us as a strange question.  A little background first:  Jewish marriage was a two-step process - 1) the legal-binding of the couple, and then after about a year; 2) the wife left her family and settled into married life in the home of her husband.  Mary and Joseph had already passed through step one when Gabriel appeared to her (Lk.1:27) with the announcement "you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus" (1:31).  At that point, Mary, an already legally married woman, asks a strange question?  "How will this be, since I do not know man?" (1:34)

Huh?  A married woman still in the dark about the "birds and the bees"?  The Bible has other accounts of angels announcing the birth of children, but none of them record the mother needing a lesson in the facts of life.  I don't think Mary did either, and I'm not alone.  A long line of biblical interpreters have understood Mary's question as revealing a decision on her part - a vow to God - to remain a virgin, even after she went to live with Joseph.  If that was the case then her question to the angel makes sense.  "I have consecrated my virginity to the Lord, I have made my life a virginal offering to him.  How can I conceive a child?"

Gabriel's response is one of my favorite verses in the whole of Scripture, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called the Son of God" (Lk.1:35).  Only God could conceive of a way of serving Him in which physical virginity and physical motherhood can exist side-by-side.  It wasn't the way Mary had conceived of in serving Him.  She had heard the call to consecrated virginity, never imagining that there could be a subsequent call to Motherhood!  How could she imagine something like that?  Naturally speaking it makes no sense!  But God is above nature.

He is above nature, and He is above you and me.  When life takes a "wrong" turn and our plans to serve God seem in shambles, take a step back.  It's possible that you heard incorrectly, but it's also quite possible that the Lord has only revealed a small portion of the larger work He intends for you.  Rest assured, nothing is wasted.  Even the sins committed against us have been woven into God's plan (Gen.5:20; Rom.8:28).  Take your Mother's hand, throw yourself into your Father's arms, and be at peace.  ("Hail Mary ..., Our Father ...)

Oct.13th - Come On And Get Here Already!

I was honored, humbled, and excited by the Diocese of Springfield's invitation to speak at their Respect Life Mass and Rosary Walk.  (I was very struck by the date too and its connection to Fatima.)  If you're in central Illinois, or the St. Louis area, I hope you'll join us.  Want a sneak peek of the talk? "The prayer of Jesus makes Christian prayer an efficacious petition.  He is its model, he prays in us and with us ... the heart of the Son seeks only what pleases the Father ... " (CCC 2740).

The 2012 Democratic Platform

Direct quotes.  Extremely important passages for Christians to consider, hot off the presses:

Protecting A Woman’s Right to Choose. The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right. Abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor, and her clergy; there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way. We also recognize that health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. We strongly and unequivocally support a woman’s decision to have a child by providing affordable health care and ensuring the availability of and access to programs that help women during pregnancy and after the birth of a child, including caring adoption programs ...

Freedom to Marry. We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples. We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.

We oppose discriminatory federal and state constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny equal protection of the laws to committed same-sex couples who seek the same respect and responsibilities as other married couples. We support the full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act. 

Wow, so states that have passed amendments, reiterating the historic definition of the marriage relationship, have acted in a "discriminatory" manner?  I wonder what that says about the Christian Faith, which has defined marriage in the same way as those states for 2,000 years, or Judaism which did so for some 1,800 years prior to that. (I notice how they "support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer their sacraments ... " but that just seems to be a polite nod to those backward, discriminatory religious people.)

You know, people can object to various elements in the Republican platform.  (As an independent, I have no qualms doing so.)  Christians can honestly debate size of government, budgets, economic plans, student loans, etc., etc.  What we cannot do is cast a vote for a candidate who opposes God's Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," a candidate who opposes "any and all efforts to weaken or undermine" the killing of one million unborn children every year through abortion.  There is no other issue or cluster of issues that outweighs abortion!  It is an intrinsically evil act, a mortal sin, an absolute deal-breaker.  

I am no fan of Mitt Romney, but I am unaware of any point in his party's platform that directly contradicts one of the Commandments, or that refers to the understanding of marriage shared by Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists as "discriminatory."

Does this have some bearing on why the suggestion to reinstate "Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel"  and an acknowledgment of "GOD"  into the Democratic Platform was met with boos and required three votes?   You can see it for yourself (click here):

Baptized with the Spirit and Fire

Praying the Rosary and meditating on Jesus' Baptism by John took a different turn this morning. My attention became focused on John's reaction to Jesus. "I need to be baptized by you" (Mt.3:14). Now, of course John recognized Jesus' superior holiness, but there is something else we ought to recognize: Part of John's preaching was how the Messiah would offer a baptism superior to his.   John had told the crowds, "I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Mt.3:11).

The baptism offered by Jesus, the Sacrament of Baptism, changes us in the deepest parts of our humanity.  We are given sanctifying grace, meaning that are damaged souls are repaired and renewed as the Holy Spirit rushes in and takes up residence in them.  We still retain however inclinations toward old patterns of behavior that need to be undone - "burned away" you could say, and that is an ongoing process, one that God wants us to take part in.  It can hurt.  On some rare occasions God may seem like an old-fashioned doctor using a piece of white-hot iron to cauterize a wound and prevent further infection!  It takes faith to recognize God as a Father, Who always has our eternal best-interests at heart.

“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord

or lose heart when reproved by him;

for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;

he scourges every son he acknowledges.”

Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards.  Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not [then] submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed. (Heb.12:5-12)

I rather like the way C.S. Lewis paraphrased this in Mere Christianity.  I do not have my copy in front of me but if memory serves, he wrote,  "God loves us now, just as we are; but He loves us too much to allow us to remain the way we are!"