A Lie of Omission

I have three email accounts and all three are a junk mail nightmare. I know why, too. I shop online, I read books and periodicals online, I watch television and movies online, I pay bills online, I blog, etc. All that exposure to the World Wide Web, you're bound to get some unsolicited emails.

Like the one I got this morning from a group called Catholics For Equality.

The bad feeling welled up about 2 seconds after the site loaded. It wasn't so much their agenda as the manner in which they twist Catholic teaching to mislead the public and advance their agenda that made my stomach churn. Here's an example. They list on their Website five "freedoms" to which the LGBT community is entitled: to work, to serve, to become American, to create family, and to marry. They provide a number of quotations to support their overall position.

One of their quotations comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them 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 from their condition. (CCC, 2358)

It's no wonder recent polls show that a large number of Catholics support gay marriage. If this is what groups such as this tell Catholics that the Church teaches about homosexuality, then really, why is gay marriage such a big deal?

The problem is that they don't provide the entire teaching. In the Catechism, here's what appears before the aforementioned quotation:

Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. (CCC, 2357)

...and here's what appears after:

Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection. (CCC, 2259)

All of this appears in a larger section under a heading titled "The Vocation To Chastity". (Funny, Catholics for Equality used "The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article 6, The Sixth Commandment" as their little byline, but conveniently left off this heading, as well as the subheading "Chastity and Homosexuality") This entire section of the Catechism on the virtue chastity teaches about human integrity, self-mastery and the dignity with which all humans are created equally. So is it equality that Catholics For Equality is after; or is this group really trying to get some kind of preferential treatment?

Consider that of the five "freedoms" they've listed, two are diametrically opposed to the complete Catholic teaching on homosexuality. As Catholics, if we find ourselves in disagreement with the Church's teaching (which is the truth of Christ, by the way), then we prayerfully consider where we are going wrong by examining Her teachings and honestly looking at ourselves in Her light. We do not simply omit that which we find inconvenient. Truth is eternal and not subject to public opinion, and a lie of omission is a lie nonetheless.

The following video expresses the very heart of why Catholics really need to start earnestly learning their faith--NOW.



This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

Fortitude

It conquers fear; contains recklessness; checks imprudence. It is the difference between evangelizing and proselytizing, and that blithering on for 25 minutes to an unfortunately captive audience is not an example of the former. It's what stops us from letting our emotions and desires lead us into an ill-conceived, hasty action that could cause embarrassment, anger, irritation or resentment in others.  It's not just having conviction; it's having the guts to act on our convictions AND the wisdom to act on them rightly.

It's what Michael Voris talks about in today's episode of The Vortex.



This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

No, It's Not A Dirty Word!

"Terrible are the wiles and stratagems the devil uses to hinder people from realizing their weakness and detecting his snares."

-St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle

It's been ripped from wedding vows. It's been side-stepped by Christian leaders. It's been subjected to creative interpretation by Christians everywhere. It’s a concept deemed so offensive or harmful by modern thinkers that parents no longer demand it of their children. It's a word that clashes with 21st century relativistic sensibilities. It has been disparaged, disregarded, denounced, dodged, denied and discarded as archaic, irrelevant to our temporal existence and unimportant to our spiritual health.

This is a concept over which the Church has never stuttered, and is discussed extensively in Sacred Scripture; yet still, even some of the most apparently devout Christians will find themselves sidestepping it. What on earth could this contemptible concept be?

It's ... It's ...

…OBEDIENCE.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ever since Adam and Eve were duped into eating the forbidden fruit, obedience has been our greatest obstruction. I know it's mine, and Christians who are honest with themselves admit that it's theirs as well.  Disobedience is what causes our separation from God.  Isn't sin quite simply disobedience to the divine law?  It will keep us from achieving union with God in this life, and could jeopardize our salvation in the next.

We read the following in Lumen Gentium: “The laity should, as all Christians, promptly accept in Christian obedience decisions of their spiritual shepherds, since they are representatives of Christ as well as teachers and rulers in the Church." (#37)

Obedience, after all, is a choice—it’s a choice based in love of God and love of neighbor over the love of the self. What is love of God and love of neighbor again? Christ tells us in the Gospel of John: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jn 15:13.

We can only truly obey when we die to the self.  Obedience isn’t subject to our scrutiny, interpretation, rationalization or personal preference. We aren't given an option to determine for ourselves any part of what we will or won't obey. We are given an instruction, and we follow it in its entirety, laying down our lives for our friends as commanded by Christ with a humble, loving heart.

Let's take a look at an example. A person who considers himself to be deeply Christian is given a task by his superior, who reviews the project, offers critique and asks for specific corrections.  If he were to be obedient, he would take the critique to heart and, out of love for his superior inspired by his love of Christ, would make the corrections as asked. Rather than submitting to the authority over him, however, he instead questions his superior and determines for himself those elements of the task which he desires to correct.

Through this one act of disobedience, this person has placed his own love of self over his love of neighbor, and in turn over his love of Christ. Additionally, what is the reaction of the superior?  Anger, aggrivation, frustration, all which will further deteriorate the relationship. It's a chain reaction that has been discussed by the doctors of the Church for centuries. St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue says it best:  "self-love, which destroys charity and affection towards the neighbor, is the principle and foundation of every evil."  It's why obedience to our spiritual shepherds is unconditional (note the lack of any qualification in the quote from Lumen Gentium).

Obedience doesn’t just refer to the clergy or religious, either. Parents, teachers and those appointed leaders of various ministries and apostolates also deserve our full, loving obedience, as they serve in the role of "spiritual shepherd" for many of us as well.  Love of Christ, and his command to love our neighbor, demands it. “Let them follow the example of Christ,” continues Lumen Gentium, “who by His obedience even unto death, opened to all men the blessed way of the liberty of the children of God. Nor should they omit to pray for those placed over them, for they keep watch as having to render an account of their souls, so that they may do this with joy and not with grief.”

May we all selflessly, humbly live in obedience to the Lord AND to His Church. 

Act of Love

O Lord God, I love you above all things
and I love my neighbor for your sake
because you are the highest, infinite and perfect
good, worthy of all my love.
In this love I intend to live and die.
Amen.

Relatively

There is no question where the Church stands on the sanctity of human life. Mother Church continues to stand firm that life begins at conception, and that every human being has a right to that life until his or her natural death.


I, for one, am never surprised when our elected officials misquote, misrepresent or malign Church teaching regarding life issues. I wasn't surprised when presidential candidate John McCain on one hand stated that he was pro-life, yet bragged about approving two of the most pro-choice justices we have on the bench during his tenure as US Senator. I wasn't surprised when Nancy Pelosi misquoted St. Augustine and misrepresented Church teaching on human conception last year. I wasn't surprised when Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins ignored an explicit request by his Bishops and awarded President Obama with an honorary degree. I am not surprised by my US Representative Tim Ryan's statement which outright insults anyone who accepts Catholic teaching on contraception.


I am not surprised because I never underestimate the desire for power among the human race. The issues surrounding birth control and abortion are the kinds of issues that our elected officials use to achieve that power. Let's face it, our society needs birth control and abortion because we think we need it, and as long as we are focused on these issues themselves, we will remain blind to a much more important fact: contraception and abortion are symptoms of a much, much greater problem. That greater problem is RELATIVISM.


Pope Benedict XVI said in a homily delivered just before he was elected Pope: "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires." Relativism opposes Church teaching at the most elementary level, declaring that there is no absolute truth, and that we all have the ability to determine what is right and wrong for us. Our wants determine our needs.


Kind of like the serpant told Eve, huh?


As Christians, we know full well that there is such a thing as absolute truth, and it comes from the Lord Himself. We are created in Gods image, and as such, we aren't a mass of flesh governed by our desires. We have dominion over all creation, including over ourselves. We have the ability to control our desires, and we have the capacity to love one another enough to not want merely to use each other to fulfill a bodily function. At the heart of the abortion and contraception controversy is the expendability of others (even the unborn) in the quest to achieve fulfillment of our wants, which even give us the right to deny human existence.

In the face of this absolute truth, there is no possible argument that can stand for something like contraception. Arguing a "need" for birth control becomes moot when the relativistic mentality regarding human sexuality is squashed by conversion.

I think, however, the widespread acceptance of relativism goes much further beyond just the issues. I stated previously that abortion and birth control are issues used by politicians to achieve an end. Consider this: who will step in and govern humanity when human beings, more and more wrapped up in a relativist lifestyle which fully services their own individual desires eventually at the expense of others, have lost the capacity to truly govern themselves?

Chastity

She told him no. She told him it was a sin. She told him she'd rather die than submit to him. It was July 5, 1902 when Maria Goretti, sewing alone, was approached and threatened by Alessandro Serenelli. When he failed, he first choked her, and then stabbed her 14 times. She died the next day. Maria was an 11-year-old girl.

Maria Goretti was chaste to the very end of her life. She was declared a martyr because she died for her faith in Christ--that following Christ meant not sinning, and that death is preferable to letting someone use her body.

Chastity isn't just "practicing abstinence". Let me back up for a second. One of the errors of modern thought (which isn't so modern, considering the number of virgin martyrs besides Maria Goretti venerated by the Chruch over the last two millennia) is that we should be free to use our bodies to satisfy our drives and desires. Such a terrible misuse of our bodies has led to a vast array of social ills throughout history (a discussion far too off this topic to get into right now); but society at large isn't the only victim.

Such a view of the human body also creates a great chasm within the self. The body is not supposed to be at the service of the will; it's at the service of God: "In the divine image he created them." Gn 1:27 It's the human will which is out of synch, and usurps the body for its own. I believe that on a very simple level, Maria Goretti understood this. Living a chaste life means understanding that our bodies are created for God's purpose. As such, we should have the highest respect for our own bodies.

"Young people, look at Maria Goretti, don’t be tempted by the tempting atmosphere of our permissive society, which declares, everything is possible. Look to Maria Goretti, love, live, defend your chastity." (Pope John Paul II, September 1, 1979) It's good advice for adults, too.

To really understand the human body and it's place in our faith, read The Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II.

O Lord, It's Hard To Be Humble...

"I'll take a water with lemon, but wait, can you wash the lemon?"

"Ok, I know exactly what I want. It's between a chocolate chip cookie and a peanut butter cookie."

"Wait. Come back to me. I still don't know what I want."

"Can you bring my salad with my dinner instead of before?"

"I'll take my salad before. And can you add some shredded chicken on top of it? Your chicken salad has too much stuff in it for me."

The eight of us were quite a handful for our young waitress (she did great, by the way). Between our crazy requests and two of us doing our best impersonation of Munchkinland's Lollipop Guild representatives from the Wizard of Oz, I'm surprised she didn't lose her mind.

"Who has more fun than us?"

Not many. We'd just come from a Cursillo planning meeting (email me if you want to know more about Cursillo), and we were pretty pumped up. Working for the Lord has that effect on me--on all of us. We are business when we have to be business, but once the meeting is over, we spend the next hour or so telling stories, regurgitating movie lines, poking fun at each other's strange ordering habits (wash the lemon???), and laughing, laughing, laughing.

We felt many eyes on us as we carried on, especially when we stopped to join hands and pray as our food came. Silently in our hearts we prayed for each of them--that in their hearts they get to know the joy of the Lord the way we do.

That's not to say that we don't but heads once in a while. When people are passionate about their beliefs, they will defend them--loudly, and sometimes mercilessly. And in an organization that is as tightly knit as ours, feelings get trampled. It happens because we are human, and susceptible to the effects sin. The human factor is both the greatest strength and the greatest liability of ministry.

Letting go of these hurts, especially at the hands of people we consider family, is much more than necessary. It's what Christ commands us: "As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." (Jn 13:34) Notice Jesus didn't say, "but wait until you've gotten over your feelings." Pulling our loved ones close to us once again, AFTER we are hurt, is a requirement of discipleship...and "requirement" doesn't quite cover it. It takes something that every one of us at that table the other night work very hard to maintain in our lives: Humility.

Just last night, my good friend Laurie said to a group of us something very profound. She said that being humble doesn't mean "thinking less of yourself"; it means "being freed from thinking of yourself at all". Christ's perfect humility is what enabled Him to carry that cross. Christ's perfect humility is what enabled Him to say, "Father, forgive them." Its why God Himself bent down and did the most menial of things-washed His Apostles' feet. It's why He returned to the ones who ran, hid, even deined knowing him, in order to continue what He started in them.

Sadly, humility isn't really recognized in this culture as a virtue. It's the reason that I believe the concept of Love has been so grossly distorted. We have been conditioned to believe that "Love" is a feeling we get, and something of which we are a worthy object. If a person is giving me what I want and making me feel a certain way, then I love them.

This phrase is etched in our society's vocabulary, and it doesn't even make sense! We love. We are a lover. We are loved. Do we even recognize that LOVE is a VERB? Verbs are actions WE do. I love someone when I am the one giving; when I am the one doing. Since we have no idea as a society what love really is, "loving one another" is a concept slipping into obscurity.

But not among that group around the dinner table the other night. We have been through a lot together, and have seen from bad to the worst in each other. We have even been hurt at one point or another by each other, whether directly or indirectly; intentionally or unintentionally. Don't get me wrong, we feel the pain, and as sinning human beings sometimes just can't get past ourselves right away. But as we continue to practice humility, we are able to let all of that go. That was the source of our joy--knowing that it's in the act of forgiving that we get past our feelings and truly love one another as the Lord intends.