Puttin' on the Ritz

"Mommy, why are those men wearing dresses, but no other men wear dresses?" My friend Julie had that question put to her by her six-year-old, Kylie Jo, in reference to the clerical garb worn by priests and deacons. Julie threw the question my way, and cutting and pasting my response makes for an easy, yet fun, blog entry:

"Basically, those are the clothes that were worn by ancient Romans when they celebrated Mass. Just like we put on nice clothes to go to Mass, the priests and deacons put on nice clothes too - but clothes that were nice 1900 years ago. When we see those clothes, it reminds us that the priests and deacons of today are doing the same things as Jesus and His Apostles. Priests and deacons could celebrate Mass without them, but the clothes are a neat reminder that what we do at Mass is incredibly special. You might also want to explain that there ARE other men who wear dresses - and get on stage and sing Liza Minelli and Cher songs. And while what they're doing is 'special,' it's a very, VERY DIFFERENT kind of special. Nuff said."

Non-practicing Catholic?

"Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what little he has will be taken from him" (Matthew 13:12). I went to morning Mass with the kids (who knew you could make three trips to the bathroom in 30 minutes?), and heard the priest apply this Gospel reading to our efforts to live out our Faith. And it got me thinking about so many of the people who are dear to me, who describe themselves as "non-practicing" Catholics. They talk to God, but don't attend Mass to enter into the Eucharistic prayer. Their hearts have retained so much of the Church's moral teaching, but in some instances the Church's voice (which in all actuality is Christ's) has come to be considered just one among many - and often enough an outmoded, guilting voice.

If the Church is meant to be Jesus' Family here on earth though, then what does being non-practicing mean? What would a non-practicing member of a typical American family look like? She would have grown up in the house with her brothers and sisters, but now she's got her own apartment. Even though she's just a couple of miles down the road, the only time she visits with Dad is over the phone. She misses the Sunday dinner every weekend - except for maybe at Christmas and Easter time. She's a good girl, with a good heart; but some of the small things she says has me worried that she's starting to believe the cultural hype. And I wonder how long this satellite can stay in orbit.

If you're reading this, and have been away from the Church for awhile, please come back. "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what little he has will be taken away." That's not me, that's Jesus.

"Contraception? Oh, Come ON!"

That's the reaction I think most people have when they hear, yet again, that the Catholic Church opposes contraception. It seems like one of the stupidest positions you could take. I mean, the Catholic Church is the great enemy of abortion - and isn't contraception all about preventing the circumstances that lead to abortion?

Well lets start with what the Church means by "contraception." It is any act which intentional drives a wedge between the love-giving and life-giving aspects of sexual intercourse; it seeks to derail the natural procreative process with which God graced human nature. (This is a quantum leap from the legitimate method of postponing or avoiding additional pregnancies offered by natural family planning - a husband and wife using the latest medical information regarding the wife's fertile and infertile times to determine when intercourse will most likely result in conception.)

There seems to be this Western cultural amnesia that EVERY form of Christianity was morally opposed to contraception up until 1930 (not to mention non-Christians such as Gandhi and Sigmund Freud). That was the year that the Anglican Church decided that it was permissible in some cases, but emphatically warned against recourse to contraception because of "selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience." From there it was a snowball effect, one Christian body after another abandoning its historic position (Martin Luther had gone so far as to claim that contraception was, "far more atrocious than incest and adultery,"and John Calvin that it "kills the son, which could be expected, before he is born." WOW - have you ever heard a Catholic theologian take it that far?) By 1968, the Catholic Church stood alone; that was the year Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical Humanae Vitae, and reiterated this element of classic, orthodox Christianity - this truth engrained in the natural order. And he predicted that if the Truth was ignored, there would be dire consequences. (Sound kind of like Moses? the Old Testament prophets? Jesus? Paul?)

Now, today's subject is owed to an article I just read by Christopher West over at the Catholic Exchange website (I'm there everyday), that demonstrates the connection between our culture's embrace of a contraceptive mindset and the explosion of "adultery, divorce, premarital sex, STD’s, out-of-wedlock births, abortion, fatherless children, homosexuality," etc . (Chris has some fantastic books out there - but I digress.) I just want to quote from his article, because I can't say it better myself; and I know Chris would want me to pass the info along:

"What’s the connection with contraception? While today’s societal chaos is certainly complex, the following demonstrates the 'inner logic' of contraception’s contribution. People are often tempted to do things they shouldn’t do. Deterrents within nature itself and within society help to curb these temptations and maintain order. For example, what would happen to the crime rate in a given society if jail terms suddenly ceased?

"Apply the same logic to sex. People throughout history have been tempted to commit adultery. It’s nothing new. However, one of the main deterrents from succumbing to the temptation has been the fear of pregnancy. What would happen if this natural deterrent were taken away? As history demonstrates, rates of adultery would skyrocket. What’s one of the main causes of divorce? Adultery. Apply the same logic to pre-marital sex. Such behavior has, indeed, skyrocketed. Premarital sex, as a kind of 'adultery in advance,' is also a prime indicator of future marital breakdown.

"It gets worse. Since no method of contraception is 100% effective, an increase in adultery and pre-marital sex will inevitably lead to an increase in 'unwanted pregnancies.' What’s next? So many people think contraception is the solution to the abortion problem. Take a deeper look and you’ll see that that’s like throwing gasoline on a fire to try to put it out. In the final analysis, there is only one reason we have abortion - because men and women are having sex without being “open to life.” If this mentality is at the root of abortion, contraception does nothing but foster and afford this mentality.

"Not everyone will resort to abortion of course. Some will choose adoption. Other mothers (most) will raise these children by themselves. Hence the number of children who grow up without a father (which has already been increased by the rise in divorce) will be compounded...

"What about homosexuality? Our culture is impotent to resist the 'gay agenda' because we have already accepted its basic premise with contraception — the reduction of sex to the exchange of pleasure. When openness to life is no longer an intrinsic part of the sexual equation, why does sexual behavior have to be with the opposite sex?" [End extended quotation from Chis West]

DUDE! All I can say after that is, "Contraception? Oh, COME ON! Can't you see where that has led us?"

The Truth is Out There

Providentially, my desire to address the issue of "moral relativity" coincides with the return of the X-Files to the big screen; and their slogan "The Truth is OUT THERE," captures my sentiments perfectly. You see, Truth, Reality, isn't something that we create within ourselves; it exists independently of us. Moral truth, the right or wrong of an action, exists independently of us. Classic example - the Nazi extermination of European Jews was wrong independent of the Nazis' recognition of the fact. No matter how justified a Nazi may have felt in his heart, no matter how much the Nazi party agreed within their own little "cultural niche," what they did was OBJECTIVELY wrong.

Now the Nazis are about the most extreme example I could give, but they establish the truth of what I'm saying beyond a shadow of a doubt: our only two choices are to agree that there is an objective moral order out there that says genocide is wrong, OR we have to say that the Nazis were justified in following their own moral compass and killing six million Jews. There is no third option. We're either human beings, or monsters. We're Mulder, or we're the Cigarette-Smoking-Man. Either Truth is out there, or anything goes.

And this need to choose doesn't hold for just the example of the Nazis; it's universally applicable: pedophelia, abortion, pre-marital sex, same-sex marriage, taking towels from hotel rooms, fudging income tax returns, polygamist compounds, etc., etc. No matter how attractive or convenient a behavior might be, or how strong an impulse we feel interiorly to engage in it, there is a standard outside of us that we are called to adhere to. The Truth is out there, and if we are to maintain our humanity, we have to seek it out and then live by it. And if we don't want to see our own culture further deteriorate, we have to help our loved ones come to this realization as well. "It's not right for me, but it might be for you; who am I to say?" is as great a threat to humanity as the Nazis were. They were an enemy we could galvanize against, but moral relativism slowly rots us from the inside out - and in the name of something as virtuous as tolerance.

God Save the King!

How many times does an American actually get to say that? I mean it though. St. Louis has been taking a beating - Ford, Chrysler, Burke, and now Anheuser-Busch? If AB is bought out, just dam up the Mississippi, level the Arch, and move on to greener pastures my friends!

"Woman, behold, your son!"

Gazing down at her from the cross, gasping for air, Jesus spoke those words to His mother, shifting his gaze to the Apostle John. And to John, "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:26-27)

The most intense moments of Jesus' life, the culmination of His earthly life and mission, of our redemption - and He used a portion of those precious moments to establish a relationship between His mother and His disciples! It's true. As the Gospel goes on to tell us, "And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home" (John 19:27). That action is to be repeated by each of us. Why would I, why would the Catholic Church, make this claim, extending it from John to the entire Church? Well, because that's what John taught.

Both the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse, ultimately stem from that apostle; we can see this in the recurring themes: the Lamb of God, wedding feast, living water, the Woman (Jesus addressed Mary as "Woman" in John 2:4 as well as at the cross). Listen to the Book of Revelation: "And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars...she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne" (Revelation 12:1,5). A few verses later we are told of "the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus" (Rev.12:17). That's us my friends -as soon as we were fused to Jesus in baptism, we became children of His mother Mary! She beholds each of us in her Son Jesus!

And she loves us with a mother's heart, a heart that feels each of our pains, just as it felt every thorn that pressed into Jesus' head - she had been warned, gently prepared for this reality, through prophecy when Jesus was only an infant (Luke 2:35). She is thinking of us right now. What prayer do you need her to join you in bringing before Jesus? That's what the saints in heaven do you know (see Revelation 5:8). Listen to Jesus, speaking to each of us from the cross, "Behold, your mother!"

Rosary & Hostage Rescue

I kid you not. Fifteen hostages were just freed in the country of Columbia; and the hostages and President Alvaro Uribe, who directed the rescue operation, are all publically thanking the Lord for hearing the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercession on their behalf! Throughout their captivity the hostages invoked our Lady's prayers by praying the Rosary. Listen to this quote from the article I read:

Former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who was among those rescued and in the past had said she was a non-practicing Catholic, told reporters her rescue was a miracle of the Virgin Mary. “I am convinced this is a miracle of the Virgin Mary,” she said. “To me it is clear she has had a hand in all of this,” Betancourt said after six years in captivity.

Amazing. I love this quote from President Uribe, "[the rescue operation] was guided in every way by the light of the Holy Spirit, the protection of our Lord and the Virgin Mary.” Oh, and not a single shot was fired! May God continue to bring good things about for our Columbian brothers and sisters.

Right in Front of Me

I hadn't prayed my daily rosary yet, so at about 9 p.m. this past Saturday, I ran up to the perpetual adoration chapel on my street. For those who may be unfamiliar with "perpetual adoration," it simply means that the Eucharist is exposed there on the altar, 24 hours a day, and kept company by one or more members of the parish. The Eucharist is displayed in a monstrance (you can see the white Host in the middle), as in this picture.

As I began praying the rosary, I meditated on Jesus' resurrection, picturing Mary Magdalen there at His tomb and hearing Jesus call her name. And the truth bowled me over me once again - the Risen One is right in front of me! What looks like a wafer of bread is Jesus of Nazareth; it's really Him - Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. There I was, meditating on His resurrection right there in His very presence - not just a vague spiritual presence, but one that I could physically locate and gaze upon!

We can see this truth foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, and then proclaimed in the four Gospels, the letters of Paul, and the Apocalypse. If I was only allowed to point to one passage though, it would be Jesus' words in John's Gospel, "The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh...he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life...For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink" (John 6:51,54-55).

This is the reason I'm so excited to be just another Catholic - because at every Mass I kneel before, and then receive into me, the Lord of the Universe. I have the opportunity to renew our union again and again. Everytime the Eucharist is celebrated, time and space are folded; and we unite ourselves with Jesus' passage to the Father through His death, resurrection, and ascension!

Benedict XVI

To know him is to love him. How can I not get behind a shepherd like this? If there was a bratwurst in that other hand, I would move to Rome.

Oh yeah, he's also a terrific preacher/teacher. Have you read his Jesus of Nazareth yet? Treat yourself; it immediately went into my Top Five. Incredible insights and scholarship, but in language accessible to all.

Why am I Getting in Shape? T.A.

That's right, Thomas Aquinas. I've meant to write this post since I started blogging and just never seemed to get to it. I started reading Aquinas just before Easter though, and he inspired me to get up on that exercise horse again - and stay with it for over three months now. What did Thomas remind me of? Hylomorphism.

Aquinas borrowed Aristotle's description of human nature, a composite of body and spirit. It's not that we are souls in bodies; we are souls and bodies. (Why else will Jesus reunite our souls and bodies when He comes again? The souls in Heaven, even though united to God, are still "incomplete" - still not the finished product God has planned!) And hylomorphism is a tremendously biblical idea, running throughout the Hebrew Scripture, or Old Testament.

When we concentrate on our "spiritual lives," deepening our prayer and overcoming sins, it can be really easy to forget that we are our body. God expects us to take care of our whole person, not just half. And Aquinas is right there with modern medicine, speaking of the mind and body's influence on each other; health or illness in one impacts the other. It's one of those things that we realize, but we like to push to the side: it hurts to work out, and I want another plate of pizza. But our bodies show forth our spirits; and my spirit - big on gluttony and laziness and low on the virtues of temperance and fortitude - has been causing a bloated body. And that bloated body doesn't want to be outside playing in the yard with the kids, or doing much of anything really.

So I started walking two miles on my lunch hour, and then a couple of weeks back, cutting out seconds at mealtime, and now weight lifting (high intensity training will get results and only take 20 min. out of my week). Most importantly though, I pray. I've had so many false starts in my life that I'm keenly aware of my need for God's help to make virtue grow in my soul. I feel a little closer to Jesus the carpenter too, to the Jesus who walked back and forth over Palestine.

During this journey, quite by "accident," I came across a book by Dr. Kevin Vost, just written in 2007, which addresses aerobic exercise, weight lifting, and diet, showing the correlation between the thought of Thomas Aquinas and modern sports physiology! Now don't you more conservative folks out there be shocked by the cover - I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Of Dung and Divinization

Yes, that is cow dung - a nice, juicy pile. It's my symbol for all of the difficulties we deal with, from ourselves and others. I don't know anyone who likes feces, who would want to decorate their homes with it; but it's choice fertilizer. And as such, we can't do without it: it feeds the crops, which feed us and the livestock (that also, by the way, feeds us). I was reading a relfection in The Imitation of Christ when my mind turned to this topic:

We should regard contradictions as the trials by which God would prove and purify our love. If all persons had the consideration for us which our self-love desires, and which it often induces us to believe we deserve, we would entertain only a natural regard for our neighbor...a species of gratitude purely human...But God would have us everywhere meet with and suffer contradictions, disappointments, and opposition to our designs, from those with whom we live, that we might love them solely for His sake, and because He so ordained.

Happy the soul which tribulation tries, and temptation purifies, as gold is tried and purified in the fire! It thus becomes worthy of acceptance with God, for IT IS AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART!

The intra- and interpersonal trials we face are a continual invitation to hit our knees and ask God to enflame us with a Divine Love for others, to Love because we are of Love. We have "been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable" (1 Peter 1:23), "and made partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). That's right - we fragile human beings are called to complete immersion and cooperation in Jesus' Life with the Father and world. United to Jesus, the Holy Spirit flows through us in acts of love. That's what the Church has called divinization, deification, or theosis. And the conflicts we experience call us to show forth this Divine Love, to live a life that reaches beyond this world, even as it is firmly anchored in this world. That dung we're dealing with - it's meant to be fertilizer.

The Symmetry of Penance

Do our failings ever "just go away," just disappear, without our ever having to address them?

On the night before Jesus died, as He was being interrogated by the high priest, Peter was outside in the courtyard, warming himself at a charcoal fire with the high priest's servants and officers. That charcoal fire was the setting for Peter's three denials (Jn.18:17-18, 25-27).

It was no coincidence then when Jesus, after His resurrection, invited Peter around another charcoal fire, and asked him three times whether he loved Him (Jn.21:9-17). Cruel on Jesus' part? No, He loved Peter. He had already forgiven him for his denials. This was part of Peter's healing from his sin - a penance.

Penance is meant to undo the damage of ours sin. The scene of Peter's denial is recreated, and his professions of love put in place of the denials; there is symmetry. In our own lives we rarely see it as perfectly as in Peter's, but it is a reality; and if we try to avoid it we are hindering our own progress. Think about it: which of our problems really "just go away?" Isn't there always a need to turn and confront them? Don't we have to deal with our failings and make amends before we can truly move on? God has forgiven us, but there is still a need to deal with the consequences of our sins.

Weekend Reading

Peter said [to the man crippled from birth], "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and walked. (Acts of the Apostles 3:6-8)

Atrophied, shriveled legs grown and strengthened because of Peter's faith that the Lord had given him a word to speak? What do I have to give? What is it that the Holy Spirit has given me that I am giving away? What am I holding back? I'm serious; I really want to know. I'm asking God. The former gives me reasons to be thankful to Him, and the latter expectation for the future.

Farewell to "The Big Show"

Just heard that Archbishop Raymond Burke is leaving the Archdiocese of St. Louis for the Vatican. Upon reflection, I realized that he is the Church's equivalent to the ECW wrestler, The Big Show. Few delivereth the smack-down with the frequency of the Archbishop. He took tough stands, knowing he would be hated for it. That's guts.

Fessing Up

I just went to Confession this morning. From 9 to 10 a.m., my pastor and I talked. No, "talked" doesn't begin to capture it: In the presence of Jesus, I let it all hang out - all of my garbage, my struggles - and my pastor reflected back to me what he "heard the Holy Spirit addressing" in my life. Those were his words, his description of "spiritual direction" (very cool).

Have you been to Confession lately? It had been a number of months for me. (Oh, you haven't been in a year? 20 years? More? You're not going to shock God, and you aren't going to shock the priest either; they'll be grateful you're there!) This was the ministry that Jesus entrusted to the Apostles and their successors on the night of His Resurrection, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23). It's all about our healing. That's what the Apostle James taught the Church:

"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him...the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." (James 5:14-16)

So GO - God has a gift that He wants you to come claim. Find the hope and healing you need. It's not a "magical" fix, but the strength that comes from knowing we are loved and supported no matter how we have fallen in the past. God Himself is present and He longs to give us the strength to do better than we have, to live past our failings.

Hard to Imagine the Afterlife?

I know. St. Paul had the same problem though, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:10). Right now our knowledge of God is conceptual, we use analogies from this created world to speak of the Totally Other: “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face…[we] shall understand fully, even as we have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). Don’t take this “darkness of faith” too hard though –we’ve all been through it before; and it turned out great.

None of us remember our first 40-or-so weeks, but they were lived in complete darkness. Our entire world was that wet, increasingly-cramped space inside our mom's womb. And we couldn’t even begin to imagine that there was this entire world, entire planet, awaiting us outside. We lived beneath our mother’s heart, exposed to its constant rhythm, and yet we had never seen her face! We had grown to recognize her voice, but we hadn’t developed to the point of understanding any of her words. And birth – talk about TRAUMA! All of that amniotic fluid we’ve been swimming in, gone in an instant; our heads compacted and squeezed through the birth canal; the light; the cold; that humiliating slap on the ass! But we finally entered the real world, finally got that chance to see mom face-to-face, to eat through our mouths instead of our belly buttons, and a million other experiences that we’re impossible to conceive of from the darkness of the womb.

Turns out that was just the warm-up; we’re still in utero, and the REAL world awaiting us "outside" remains inconceivable. We’re going to get the chance to enter it though; and just like before, we don’t have a clue when. This time around though, we get to participate in our own growth process. Each "yes" to God allows our spiritual "organs" to develop a bit more. If we haven't come to full term when the moment of birth arrives though, God has a top-notch NICU experience planned for us (the Church calls it purgatory; 1 Cor.3:10-15). Listen to the Apostle John:

"Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)

St. Francis of Assisi was right on, "It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Jack Black at my Grocery Store!

Well, he had that Jack Black physique (not that I'm knocking Jack's bod - notice I haven't provided a picture of myself here). The kids and I were sitting in the car, motor running, waiting for my wife to grab two items. And out of Shop'N'Save's front door came Jack Black, escorted by a security guard! The security guard (SG from here on) was pushing him from behind, when Jack spun around and began to shove back. SG grabbed him by the wrist and said something; Jack felt the need to strike him. (I'm sure it was called for, but I still thought it was pretty awesome that I already had the car running.) So SG went for pepper spray - yowza! Jack wasn't deterred; he swung again. SG had him by the t-shirt at this point, but Jack wriggled out of it pretty quickly. (Are you getting this kids? This isn't that play wrestling like in Nacho Libre.) SG pepper sprayed him a second time! Jack broke free and, I kid you not, sprinted like Carl Lewis toward an eight foot fence and EFFORTLESSLY cleared it. (If this is any preview of the 2008 Olympics, the U.S. is going to kick ass.) Twenty seconds after this all occured my wife exited the front of the store, oblivious to what had just happened.

The moral of the story? Don't waste time in the grocery store - you never know what you're missing in the parking lot.

The Disappointment that is OPUS DEI

I'm about a quarter of the way through John Allen's Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Allen is the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter as well as a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR, and the book comes highly recommend - which is why I am so crushed.

Opus Dei employs no assassins - NONE, albino or otherwise! All I'm hearing is this rhetoric about our whole lives (work, family, play, study, entertainment, formal prayer) forming a unity, all of it being an opportunity to unite ourselves with God. That's all fine...eerily familiar (New Testament?) I'm too crushed to even dwell on that though. So much promise...

Cinderella and...the Devil!

I was laying in front of the t.v., watching Cinderella (shut up) with my daughter, when I heard our heroine address the household cat as, "Lucifer." I know, I know - the name of the Devil! Or is it? (That's right, I am convinced that there is a Devil; but if you're looking for the skinny on why you're going to have to wait until I get a larger piece I've written online; I can't reinvent that wheel.)

I started scanning my memory for different Scriptural mentions of Satan (a name which means adversary), or the Devil (deceiver), but I couldn't recall anyplace where this fallen angel was actually referred to by the name Lucifer. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) use the term Beelzebul, but again, that is a title meaning "lord of the flies" (death). So when did Christians start referring to the Devil by the name Lucifer, and more importantly, why?

Well, a couple of minutes of research in the Catholic Encyclopedia (online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09410a.htm) told me that lucifer is simply Latin for "brilliant light." It was applied to the Devil because of St. Jerome's Latin translation (about 400 A.D.) of Isaiah 14:12-15:

How are you fallen from heaven, O Day Star [Lucifer], son of Dawn!
How are you cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; above the stars
of God. I will set my throne on high...I will make myself like the
Most High."
But you were brought down to Sheol, to the depth of the Pit.

In the context of Isaiah, these words are addressed to the King of Babylon who would answer to the Lord for his proud behavior and crimes against the nations. Christians have seen the words as being applicable to the Devil as well though - the "power behind the throne" of Babylon you could say. (As an aside, this same principle has been employed when reading the prophet Ezekiel's words to the King of Tyre, "You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering...You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you...so I cast you as a profane thing from the mount of God." Ezekiel 28:12-16)

Long story short, Lucifer is not the Devil's proper name. It's a title, just like the other terms used to identify this fallen angel. Given that, I think it was a great name for Cinderella's cat; and my daughter and I were both glad when that thing bought it in the end.

Why call it "Just a Catholic"?

Because that's what I am, just a Catholic, just one of the hundreds of millions. I don't hold a Master's Degree in Theology, although once upon a timie I took a couple of classes toward one. I'm not formally connected to any religious order or renewal movement (nor do I feel called to one) within the Church, although I have been influenced by many. Since I was 13 years old though, my life has been animated by Jesus of Nazareth; and ever so steadily He unfolded the beauty of Catholicism to me. And thus I find myself, a day-in and day-out Catholic going to work and struggling to be a decent husband and father. That's what God has called me to; that's what my Father wants from me. God, give me the Grace to give it to You.

"I Kissed A Girl (and I Liked It)"

So I was sitting at a stoplight the other day - windows down, radio way up, cruising through the pre-sets. Finally...fantastic beat, enjoyable female voice; I proceeded to jam. Wait, what was that? Como say, "What?"

"I kissed a girl and I liked it

The taste of her cherry chapstick

I kissed a girl just to try it

I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong

It felt so right...

Us girls we are so magical

Soft skin, red lips, so kissable

Hard to resist so touchable

Too good to deny it

Ain't no big deal, it's innocent"

A little research on YouTube later that night told me the song was from Katy Perry's album, Just One of the Boys.

Now I'm right there with Katy - to a point. I too have kissed girls, and really, really liked it. But I'm a dude, and Katy, as you can see, is an attractive, young lady. I think it's a mistake for her to be kissing girls, experimentally or in any other way.

You probably knew I was going to say that though - I mean, the blog is "Just a Catholic"; and it's common knowledge that, at least historically, Christians have believed homosexual behavior to be a sexual sin. The crazy thing is though, even though I "tow the party line," I don't consider myself a homophobe, bigoted jackass, or "hater." And if you'll give me a moment or two I'll explain why:

First, just because we human beings have the ability to do something, it doesn't mean we should. That goes for everything from the use of nuclear weapons, to girls kissing girls, to purchasing a Kenny G album. Seriously, all of us agree that there are some actions human beings shouldn't perform - murder immediately comes to mind as a universal. I can't think of a culture that celebrates theft, treason, betrayal, or slander either. Now I'm not trying to equate homosexual activity with the malevolent sentiments accompanying any of those activities; I simply want to remind you that objecting to certain behaviors is a trait common to all of us.

I'll continue by saying that each of us have struggles, and some much more than others, with strong impulses and inclinations. During my day job I work with young people who have autism and other developmental disorders. I see some strong sensory needs and some very startling attempts to have them met- tactile input sought through slapping your teacher or oral-motor sensation through licking your neighbor's corduroy pants. The overwhelming urge is there; the child didn't choose it, and he/she shouldn't be looked down upon for it. At the same time, however, those are behaviors not deemed acceptable, and we look for ways to help the child meet his/her needs in a different way. Myself, I have seen some of the people I love most struggle with clinical depression. I've seen them not want to get out of bed, to dread living through the next day; and yet, despite those incredibly strong emotions they had the conviction that they had go on, that their lives were a gift from God and that however bleak it appeared, they didn't have the right to end them. And thank God they didn't!

So coming at the issue of homosexuality, or any issue for that matter, as a Christian, I begin with the conviction that we have a Father in Heaven with loving, and specific, desires for His children. We can recognize many of these desires by looking at the moral norms common across the entire globe, engraved upon our hearts you could say. There are a number of moral issues however, where God's will seems murky to us - and many of these seem to cluster around how we express ourselves sexually. I don't think we should be surprised by this - the intensely physical and emotional nature of the act is intoxicating; it's very easy to become confused, to begin following our own impulses and inclinations instead of God's.

This is one of the reasons we Christians believe God spoke to the world through the prophets of Israel, even going so far as to become one of us. He came to cut through the confusion that arises from our impulses and inclinations, whatever their root - genetic, environmental, psychological, social, etc. - and make clear His intentions for us. He spoke with compassion for our condition, compassion for our struggles; but He did not mitigate the Truth. Part of that truth is that homosexual behavior is wrong. Those struggling with same-sex attraction are not helped when we Christians adopt an attitude of, "It's not right for me, but who am I to say for you?" In the midst of depression my loved ones wouldn't have been helped by my saying "Intentionally ending my life isn't right for me, but who am I to say for you?" No, their lives were preserved because of a truth, a conviction, that transcended their psychological bent (and genetic predisposition to depression, in many cases).

When Jesus told His disciples, "Judge not, lest you be judged" (Matthew 7:1), He wasn't telling them to withhold judgment as to whether a behavior was right or wrong in God's eyes. That ignores the entire rest of the Sermon on the Mount (three chapters in length); that type of interpretation is a complete betrayal of the context. Jesus' very next words were, "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged...You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt.7:2-5). In other words, if you want to see our Father's will spread through this earth, you have to begin by letting His Truth transform you; only then can you bring it to your brothers and sisters out of a desire for their well-being, instead of from some false sense of moral superiority.

And what is this Truth that we Christians should bring to our brothers and sisters struggling with same-sex attraction? We find it in those first pages of Genesis, in the creation stories God delivered to the world through Israel:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." So God created man in his own image...male and female He created them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen.1:26-28).
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed (Gen.2:24-25).

The one God (Who is a plurality of Father, Son, and Spirit) created the sexual union of man and woman - a oneness that brings forth a new, third life - to mirror His own inner Life! Human sexual love reflects the Trinity; it is an integral part of the claim that humanity is in God's image! And this inner life of God consists in a love that is freely given, eternally faithful, and overflows with Life. As it is in Heaven, so should it be on earth; that is God's intention for us. So if you're a Christian walking around with the idea that "sex is dirty," drop it. That wasn't the teaching of the Old Testament, of Jesus, or His Church. If you got that idea from a minister or a devout family member, you've been misled.

But homosexual acts do not have a place in God's plan. The male and female complementarity is completely absent, as is the possibility for new life, a child, to emerge from the union. God's plan has been written into our biological makeup; reproduction is possible only through the union of male and female gametes.

If one wants to come at the matter from an evolutionary standpoint, I think one has to recognize that homosexual sex is aberrant. Natural selection favors those traits which aid an organism to survive and pass those traits onto offspring. In nature's book sex is solely about reproduction; impulses and urges are simply a means to an end. Homosexual sex has quite an enemy in natural selection!

Homosexual acts are in conflict then with God's intention for us, both as reflected in biology and special revelation (through Judaism and Christianity). Up until 1973, the American Psychiatric Association recognized homosexual attraction as a disorder. Our brothers and sisters struggling with same-sex attraction, no matter its origin (whether it be genetic, environmental, etc.), are experiencing a struggle that the majority of us do not. The 1994, Catechism of the Catholic Church expressed it well:

They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's cross the difficulties they may encounter
in their condition.

These brothers and sisters need Truth, not saccharine -coated crap that "I'm o.k., and you're o.k." No, we are all members of a fallen race. I need God's grace, and His people's help and encouragement, to keep moving forward under my own crosses, and people facing same-sex attraction need those same supports to move forward in life despite the sexual impulses and temptations they face. For our culture, and especially the Christians within it, to say otherwise is a betrayal of our call to speak the truth in love.

Let me point you toward some groups helping those with same-sex
attraction:

Courage Community http://couragerc.net/

National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality http://narth.com/

And Katy Perry my friend, I like your sound; but out of love I'm telling you that I disagree with your lyrics. Will you give what I've written a little thought? Please? Alright, I'm taking your silence as a maybe. God bless.