Come and follow me

I recently engaged in an internet discussion with a very nice lady who has shown some rudimentary interest in the Catholic faith. I don't yet know enough about her, other than just a little about her personal faith background, to know how best I might help her in her faith journey or whether I am the one to help at all. The exchange has gotten me to thinking, however, of the importance of our lives acting as witnesses to call others to Jesus Christ, who would call all people to himself.

Pope Francis has said in a recent homily that without evangelization, the Church doesn't act as our Mother, but as "a babysitter." The Holy Father said that when we evangelize others “the Church becomes a mother church that produces children (and more) children, because we, the children of the Church, we carry that. But when we do not, the Church is not the mother, but the babysitter, that takes care of the baby – to put the baby to sleep. It is a Church dormant." Pope Francis called on all Catholics “to proclaim Christ, to carry the Church – this fruitful motherhood of the Church – forward." The Holy Father's call echos the very words of Jesus when he told the Apostles in Matthew 28:19-20:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

The Holy Father also pointed out that the very first believers in the book of Acts had only recently been baptized, but had the courage to go out and proclaim the Gospel to others. Certainly we aren't called to do any less than the first Christians. What we cannot do with any effectiveness is to be witnesses "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:9)” without our lives reflecting that which we proclaim and being the primary witness to the faith we profess.



My internet conversation with someone interested in our faith got me thinking seriously about how the words and actions that I use around others reflect on the faith that I profess with my lips. We are called to issue the same summons that Jesus did, to encourage others to follow him.

Are we really doing that?

A thank you for Benedict and a prayer for the conclave

Do you remember when you heard the news that Benedict XVI had been elected?





I was actually watching everything streaming over the internet on EWTN at the time. I remember feeling a sense of great joy when it was clear that the smoke was white and there would be a new pope. I was relieved that the conclave had been so short, because I thought a long conclave might lead to the secular media having a speculation field day in ways that go beyond the normal. I was then, as I am now, ready to embrace whoever was ultimately chosen, but I did have a favorite at the time-someone who I felt led by the Holy Spirit to pray for especially. His name was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and he was the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I was praying specifically for him-I had a feeling in the depth of my soul that he should be pope and that he would be pope.

When his name was announced I was ecstatic-I did not know whether to laugh or shout or cry with glee. I understood beyond the shadow of any doubt in my mind that God's will had been done that day, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit about the whole business, even though I was watching on a computer screen thousands of miles away from Rome. I still believe that today-Benedict has been a wonderful shepherd.

When I heard the news that he would abdicate the Chair of Peter this Thursday early in the morning on Monday, February 11th, I had the inevitable reaction of shock, sadness, and a degree of disappointment. I love the Holy Father. I love his writings, and I have a deep appreciation for what his work has meant for the Church over many, many years of faithful service. His theological opus has reached people of all faiths and has won many converts to the Church, most of whom never met him. Then I listened to and read his statement, and the words he has spoken about his decision since that day, and I believe that as the Holy Spirit brought him to the See of Peter, the Holy Spirit has let him know that the time is right for another to take his place.

This time around, there are two or three of the cardinals who I think might make a fine Pontiff, but now it is purely a matter of personal opinion on my part. I don't have the strong feeling and the leading from the Holy Spirit that I felt preceding the last conclave that one of the men ought to and would likely be elected, and Cardinal N. is that person-now I simply feel a need to pray for all of the cardinal-electors with some fervor.

One thing that seems to be occurring at a very unhealthy level is that there seems to be more media pressure and speculation than there was last time and-if some Catholic sources are to be believed-perhaps more than has ever been. The amount of speculative media frenzy has become so ridiculous that even the Vatican has openly condemned it as disgraceful. We are all entitled as Catholics to our own opinions of who we might like to see elected or not (that is human nature to a degree), but we all have to respect that not only is the conclave to be kept secret (and should forever be), but it is to be kept secret in order to preserve the integrity and the legitimacy of the papal election itself. Furthermore, whoever is elected deserves our respect, affection, support, and will have great need of our prayers.

As for Holy Father Benedict, I am thankful for his ministry, and I believe the Church and the cause of the Gospel are better served today because Joseph Ratzinger devoted his life to the service of the Church and we have been blessed to have him in the Chair of St. Peter. Let us pray for him as he prays for us.

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Let us also pray for the Cardinals who will vote in this upcoming conclave. I have a little prayer I came up with for them-it isn't much, just the thoughts of my heart, and I invite you to pray with me or to pray a prayer for them from your own heart.

Almighty Ever-living God, may your guiding hand and the power of your holy presence be among the Cardinal-electors, as they gather at the threshold of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to choose a new successor to fill the shoes of the Fisherman. May they be so disposed to choose a man after your own heart, who delights in your laws and meditates upon you day and night. 

Through the intercession of Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, may he pilot the barque of your Church through the stormy spiritual seas of our skeptical age, that we may reach in triumph the glory of your everlasting Kingdom.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Self-denial and solidarity in a place of abundance.

As part of our Lenten discipline, Nicole and I began a new diet on Ash Wednesday, something that we both know lots of people do for Lent. However, this plan is different in that it doesn't require us to starve (i.e. when I eat, I feel like I have eaten), but it does require us to eat better food, and by that I don't mean light this or fat free that, I mean better quality food. We're in the first phases now, which means that some things I'll be able to integrate into my diet later I can't yet have, even though if we keep to the plan after Lent (and we're going to) some of those things will be allowed again. The basic principle of the plan (there are variants and some are stricter than others) is that if something is a natural food, you may either eat it or you will be able to eat it eventually, but if something has been refined or processed in an unnatural way, or if it has had unnatural colors or preservatives added to it, it is forbidden. This requires some skill at label-reading and knowing what strange sounding ingredients are really some acceptable natural derivative and which are something artificial and forbidden.


Leading up to Lent, we eased our way into the plan by occasionally eating meals filled with foods that either would be allowed on the diet in the initial phases, or would be eventually allowed. (Refined sugar is totally prohibited at any time, so those of you who know of my love for cookies, I beg of you not to tempt me with them, especially since I have done well to avoid sugar thus far). We also went on a couple of good shopping trips to make sure that our fridge and pantry is filled with good food that we can eat. There isn't anything special about most of this food, but it is natural food. The biggest obvious "newfangled" foods we have to buy are salts that are rich in minerals (and thus have color), as opposed to the refined table salt we are all used to. This experience has led me to what may be a new kind of solidarity with the poor, and not because of food deprivation as you might expect.


Preparing our pantry and home as we need to in order that we might eat right and eat well is not an easy task, but it isn't because the foods we need are not available-they are. Rather, it is because good food is expensive. We have seen a marked increase in our grocery bill, and were it not for the fact that we raise goats and chickens and have access to clean meat and will have fresh milk (from which to make our own cheese, yogurt, and even sometimes butter) in the middle spring, I don't know if we could even afford to do this the way it should be done. America is one of the few countries in the world where obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and related illnesses are especially problems among the very poor, and that is especially the case in Appalachia. Many of our poor are well-fed, but they are truly malnourished. It has struck me during the process of preparing for this new lifestyle change that a big reason for that may be that the food that is the cheapest, that which the very poor can afford may fill their bellies in this country, but that food is killing them-filled as it is with additives, preservatives, and artificial things to make it "go further," so that it is cheaper to make and process and can yield the most profit, and cheaper for the consumer to afford.

We truly live in a land of great plenty and abundance, and as such it seems so wrong that the worst food that can be consumed is often the cheapest, meaning that those without means who are just trying to get by will be inclined to eat what they can most afford, rather than the best quality food which is more expensive. The poor aren't the only ones with that problem of course, since a lot of us have bought things to eat without really knowing what is in them. However, what I think to be most disturbing is the amount of good quality nutritious food that is thrown away in our country every day. I'm not talking about the leftovers we might leave on our dinner plates, I'm talking about the perfectly edible food that grocery stores, restaurants, food service providers, and other entities throw away every day, and they do this while there are people who can barely find the money to buy food, and while there are children in America who go to bed hungry.


In no way to I propose that we should regulate food prices in law-the Soviet Union tried that and it was a bitter failure, and our farmers and ranchers are entitled to make a good living for the hard work of their hands. What I have come to believe is that we have perverted the free-market system by divorcing it from the underlying principles of Christianity that built Western culture and ultimately insured that freedom of agriculture and commerce. We have become a society where the making of profit or the having of things is more important than the keeping of morals or the protection of principle, and that extends to all aspects of our daily life-including how we feed ourselves and feed the poor.


Jesus said "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me...Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?'...And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’" (cf. Matt. 25:35-40)

Ash Wednesday

Today we will hear those words "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return." They are the words God said to Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. When all that he had was so suddenly taken from him, Job said "naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (cf. Job 1:20)

The beginning of 2013 has certainly been a rocky start for Nicole and myself. We experienced some unexpected car trouble that kept me away from a formation workshop-the first such formation-related event I have ever missed, and I hope the last. We then experienced a series of unexpected minor calamities, none of which would be a very big deal by themselves, but which, happening all at once, had the effect of depleting the bank account unexpectedly. Then my grandmother passed away, although we knew it was coming. At the end of this past week, a cousin of Nicole's had his life brought to an end at a youthful age. Last night at RCIA, I learned that not only was a dear friend who is part of our RCIA team having chest pains, but that he was told by his doctor to go immediately to hospital.  The early weeks of this Year of Our Lord 2013 have shown us how fragile and delicate our lives are.

We are blessed to serve a God of second chances, and Lent is all about second chances. It is a season of conversion and repentance and penance on the one hand, and renewal and refreshment and new life (as we know we move toward Easter and the Lord's Resurrection). However, Lent is also a reminder to us that taking advantage of God's mercy is our choice, and we only have one life to do it in.  That, coincidentally, is why you see the clock on the left sidebar of this blog. Yes, you will be able to tell the time by . More importantly, however, it is my hope that it will serve as a reminder that God's me for us in this world is finite-each of us has one life to do our part for the Kingdom of God.

Some will hear the words today "turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." We are called to a life of fidelity to God, and today is a reminder that no matter what we might have done, Christ is ready to receive us in love all over again.

A reflection on diakonia via Law and Order

Nicole and I made the choice some time ago that we would not have cable television in our home, largely due to the fact that we got tired of having to pay for channels upon channels worth of spiritual, physical, social, and intellectual poison to come into our home just so that Nicole could watch her favorite cooking programs on the Food Network and I could watch football and baseball on ESPN. The internet allows us to acquire news just as we would with cable TV, and we can watch many of the same programs we like free via the internet. Most importantly of all, to me, is that we resist the temptation to spend all of our free time watching television when we can pray, read, cook, or otherwise enjoy one another's company. Indeed, I find that on most days I wouldn't have much time to watch television in the normal sense anyway. If I want to watch a football game, for example, I know the fire chief doesn't care if I go down to the fire hall to watch that game, and doing so usually means I have a chance to get some other work done aside from just watching sports.

We do have a few favorite television programs we watch via the internet by wiring the computer to the TV so that we can view them when we have the time to do so, as opposed to when they normally come on television. A favorite of Nicole's are the various incarnations of the Law and Order series. Since she happened to have the day off today,  earlier I watched an episode with her of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit which got us both talking and caused me some reflection. The basic plot was that a priest was returning to his "old neighborhood" at Christmastime, and the show began with the priest accepting a homemade Christmas card from a little girl, who turned out to be a young parishioner at a parish where this priest used to be assigned. All of a sudden, a group of boys comes up and bashes the window of the priest's car in and begins to beat the priest. Father is rescued by a homeless man who turns out to be on probation, and since few saw the initial attack, the first part of the episode is spent clearing the name of the homeless man since, when Father came to he confirmed that the man was not his assailant, as other witnesses had alleged, but had rescued him. As the plot evolved, it became clear that the person who was doing the beating was the brother of a girl that the priest had allegedly molested over a decade prior, and in order to formally clear the aforementioned homeless man, the priest was going to have to confirm in court that the homeless man didn't beat him, but that this young man did, and that he knew the young man-and of course it was going to come out how he knew him.

The episode ends with a priest who had been beaten nearly to death being the bad guy, the child molester, the pervert.

We would deceive ourselves not to admit openly that the Church has done its fair share to earn its "bad reputation" in this regard. For years, we know that there were bishops who covered for those who abused children. Often this was based on bad psychological or other advice, but it happened nonetheless. Further, in the Diocese of Knoxville we know the pain of having a very real sexual abuse victim come and call out his abuser, as well he should have. Thankfully, Bishop Stika wasted no time in removing that priest from ministry as soon as the truth was confirmed by the abuser himself.


Near the end of that Law and Order episode, Nicole looked at me and said "somehow, I knew it was going to go in a direction like this." I said "just once, I wish Hollywood would portray the priesthood in a positive light."

As we have known the shock and pain in the Diocese of Knoxville of how sexual abuse can corrupt ministry and do harm to children as well as the Church that seems irreparable, we've also known of at least one member of the clergy-a deacon-who was wrongly accused and who was cleared. I personally know of a religious priest who ministered in another diocese, and who I have known for many years now, who was also falsely accused of sexual abuse and was exonerated. Unfortunately, when this priest was exonerated, the news didn't make the front pages like an allegation of abuse would do...the false allegation will follow him for the rest of his life.


We have gone from one extreme to the other as a Church and as a society. Decades ago, we often put members of the clergy on an unrealistic and other-worldly pedestal, exalting them as somehow holier or better than the people they serve. Now, the bad apples have ruined the barrel, as it were, and we have gone to the other extreme-the clergy are mocked, scorned, portrayed as perverts or worse in the popular media. Many, if not the majority, of people who consume today's American popular media aren't Catholic. They don't know, as we do, that not only are most clergy not abusers of children but that when the scale of the sexual abuse scandal in the Church became known, so many holy clergy were absolutely horrified. 


What has become clear to me, though, is that Jesus' warning about those who proclaim his message being persecuted for the sake of his Name seems to be something that could be very real in America in the near future. I'm not under any illusion that life as a deacon will be a cup of good Irish Breakfast tea. I have often told my brother Aspirants (as well as Deacon Tim) that one of my favorite Scripture passages is Philippians 2:6:11, which is the normal canticle for First Vespers of Sunday "he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave (diakonia)." I sometimes may write here of the trials-the headaches, really-of formation...but that is a real part of the formation process. I have to learn how to empty myself, and take the form of diakonia.


UPDATE 11:50 pm: Nicole pointed out to me that the very end of that Law and Order episode I was talking about took place while I was letting the dogs out and that I didn't see the very end. Turns out the priest who was beaten was not the molestor-that person was the Monsignor he worked with and the beaten priest was the Monsignor's confessor. The little girl who gave the beaten priest a Christmas card was, it turns out, the man's daughter as the result of an affair. The latter priest was visiting and taking an interest in a little girl that he knew (but she did not know) to be his daughter.

Knowing that, I have to be fair to the show's producers in making this correction, and the sense of responsibility the priest felt for his daughter does give the end story some redeeming value. However, I still think the storyline reflects poorly on the priesthood, and I still think it a shame that there are so few shows that portray the priesthood positively. Remember Father Dowling Mysteries?  Just my thoughts...I do have to wonder, are there men out there that would respond to a call to priesthood if it were not for the extremely negative stigma now attached to it?

Prayer and spirituality

As I write this, I'm at our January formation weekend, and the focus for this weekend is prayer and spirituality. Our instructor and spiritual guide for the weekend is Father Michael Cummins, who also happens to be our diocesan vocations director. Those of you who are from Johnson City or who may have attended East Tennessee State University might be familiar with Father Michael, because he is also the campus minister at the Catholic Center at ETSU, and he has a big challenge-as he told us "I'm a staff of one."

I have a special place in my heart for campus ministry, because I was baptized as an adult in a campus ministry setting, and I know that Catholic campus ministries can be an island of spiritual serenity in a sea of secular doubt and social disorder on our campuses today. One of the things thus far which impresses me about Father Michael is that he has such a deep and abiding spirit of humility about his ministry. I have gotten to the point where I daily pray for an increase in humility, because it is something that I always struggle with. Thinking you are being more humble is one thing, but when I see the humility and the spirit of peace with which Father Michael teaches and carries out his ministry, I know that I still have some way to go in that department. In observing Father Michael, I see that this is a spirit that I want to further cultivate in my own life and ministry in the days, weeks, and months ahead, and I would ask for prayers from all reading this for a great increase in humility in service.


One of the things we've talked about thus far are the positives and negatives in the Church and society today, and how these various factors impact our prayer and spirituality. I've talked about the negatives quite a lot on this blog in recent weeks, but there are also lots of good things happening in the Church that can aid our prayer and spiritual life. One of these is that the development of new media communication, with all of its inherent social baggage, can also be a tremendous aid in the spread of the Gospel and in aiding the faith of people who are already living lives of faith in Jesus Christ, but they need resources made available to them in order to better apply that faith to their prayer life and to daily work and life in the world. New media makes this kind of ministry much more available to people who need it. In thinking about this, I am reminded that I started this blog to be a ministry, even though it admittedly also acts as a vehicle for me to journal a bit about my own formation and spiritual development. If you are blessed by what you find here, how can this blog better serve you?

The Feast of Stephen

It is no accident that the feast of the very first martyr for the faith falls on the day after we begin to celebrate the Lord's birth. For deacons-and for those of us who are Aspirants to the deaconate-it is a most significant feast because it celebrates the martyrdom of one of the first deacons-Stephen-who was stoned to death for preaching in Jesus' name.

Stephen was not afraid to meet death for the sake of the Holy Name, and the freedom to preach in Jesus' name. We live in a country where we have enjoyed that freedom for many decades and, by and large, been able to take it for granted. In other parts of the world, especially in places like the Khartoum region of Sudan, or in parts of Nigeria, or in Indonesia, or North Korea, churches are burned, Christians  are hunted down, many are forced underground, a great many are killed for the sake of Jesus' name. We read the account of Stephen's stoning-it is the first reading at Mass today, and the lengthier reading of the account can be found in the Office of Readings for today-and we laud the great martyrdom and heroism of Stephen and we might speak of his willingness to give everything for Christ, even his very life. The reality, though, is that we are called to the same spirit of sacrifice for the sake of Christ-even unto our life. We may never have to give our life, as Stephen did, but it is a legitimate question: Are we willing to, because Jesus himself said we might have to (cf. Matthew 24:9-10). On most days of the year, the Church commemorates a saint who died that day, and very often is this notation next to that person's name "____, martyr." The word martyr means "witness."

Stephen was a great witness for the faith in its earliest days. His witness causes me to ponder...am I a great witness, how can I be a better witness?

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Nicole got me the most awesome Christmas present. It was the New Testament of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. The notes and commentaries in it are extensive and excellent-they are written by Dr. Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch. I find myself reading some passage of scripture and then getting some insight from the notes that then causes me to cross reference some other passage where I will then find more information. My only problem with it seems to be that I spend so much time buried in it that I have to remind myself to finish the assigned reading for formation this coming month!

Nativity of the Lord

When I celebrate Vespers in about two and a half hours from now, it will be the First Vespers of Christmas. Some parishes in our diocese and around the country will have their first Christmas Masses about a half an hour from the time I am writing this-some parishes around the Eastern part of the country have already had that first Christmas Mass. Most of us will go to Mass tonight for the traditional Mass at night on Christmas-I'm still getting used to this whole idea of having Midnight Mass at 10pm, even though it has become the new standard in many places for some years now. Yes, I know it is designed to insure that we can get to bed at a decent hour, and that nowadays even the Pope celebrates the Christmas Liturgy at 10pm-but I'm a traditionalist at heart. I think we've lost something-however small and insignificant-by moving the Liturgy heretofore known as the Midnight Mass to a time when no part of it is likely to be occurring at or near the Midnight hour. However, many years from now we are all likely to be used to the new custom and might find a Mass at Midnight very strange indeed.


I hope and pray that wherever you are, you've had a Blessed and a prayerful Advent, one to prepare you in a joyful spirit for celebrating the Lord's coming. It is a busy time, yes. It can be a time when it is very hard to reflect on the reason for celebration and festivity.


Remember that Mary and Joseph couldn't find a room at the inn for the Christ Child, and as the Holy Father has pointed out this evening in his Christmas homily, in a very real way we fail to make room for Christ when we find time for all of the other concerns and cares of this world, but fail to make time for God. God loved us so much that he sent his only-begotten Son into the world to live as one of us, and to be tempted, suffer, and to die. Yet, on the very day we commemorate this reality, many are so concerned with merriment, food, drink, gift getting and gift giving that they won't even darken the door of a church today. Still others may "go through the motions" of Christian worship on this Feast of the Nativity, but forget entirely those who have nothing to eat, let alone gifts or goodies. In this way, we also fail to leave room for Christ in the inn of our hearts.


This is not to say that our celebration, merry-making, gift exchanges, and joyful intake of food and spirits shouldn't happen-I'll enjoy those same things today, and I would encourage all of you to do the same. If the birth of the Messiah isn't a reason to get happy, I don't know what is! But we should have a joy that is worth sharing with others, especially those who have many reasons in their life not to be joyful. First and foremost, Christ has come for them, to proclaim liberty to captives of all kinds, and proclaim the "year of the Lord's favor."


Finally-and this one is for you Catholics (as well as those from other liturgical traditions)-we need to be careful that we do not let our Christmas celebrations end after tonight and tomorrow. When we engage in this kind of behavior, we have not only allowed for the Protestantization of our Christmas observance, we have done far worse, we're giving in to the secular spirit of this age. Christmas does not end at Midnight on December 25th/26th. The Christmas season really ends on January 13th, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Christmas is also celebrated as an Octave-an eight-day feast, from December 25th until January 1 (the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God). Why we've gotten it into our heads that we need to do everything that has to do with Christmas in a day and a half I have no clue, but this may be one reason why some folks aren't ever able to fully enjoy Christmas, they feel like they've got to hurry and rush around to see everyone, do everything, and give all gifts and participate in all appropriate celebrating by the end of the day December 25th-that's not Christmas as it is supposed to be celebrated! If you want to do Christmas right, try spreading your celebrations out to take in as much of the season of Christmas as you possibly can-you'll really feel like you've had a Merry Christmas!


Now as you celebrate tonight-and I hope all week-read afresh the reason for that festivity.

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Luke 2:1-19:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirin'i-us was governor of Syria.  And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. 

 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.  And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."

And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.  And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. 

The choices people make

The question comes all the time from honest people, but especially after a terrible tragedy like the school mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut yesterday, is this: "How can a just and a loving God allow for such a terrible thing to happen?" If you are a family member of one of the slain children or adults, you might ask: "How could God let this happen to my baby?"


It would be disingenuous to say that there is an easy answer to these questions, because their isn't, but Scripture does give us an incredible piece of insight into God's way of dealing with human nature in giving us the free will choice between right and wrong (Deuteronomy 30:15-20):

"See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess."

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." 

This passage is a warning by the Lord (which the Deuteronomist tells us was given though Moses) to the children of Israel to obey his commandments or face the harsh consequences of their own disobedience. God was warning the Israelites not that he was going to "kill them off" if they went their own way, but that they would bring about their own destruction in view of their own bad choices. What this important Old Testament passage is telling us today is something similar but far more simple-God has given humanity the free will to choose right and wrong, good and evil. God has shown us what good is, having done so sending his Son, the Word Incarnate into the world. Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem humanity, but he didn't come to force anyone to follow him or force people to do good or right. That choice is ours alone, and the choice we make has consequences.


Knowing this helps us understand that people have the power to make choices, even the most terrible choices. We believe that people will be held to account for their choice to rebel against the laws of God and his command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We believe that God loves the humanity that he created so much that he sent his Son into the world-the second person of the Trinity and the Incarnate Word-to redeem us from our own sins, our decision to make choices that lead to what the Scripture passage above calls "death and evil," to give us the ability through the redemption of the Cross to reclaim for ourselves the side of "life and good." It is this desire on the part of God from the very beginning to be reconciled with mankind which he made in his image and likeness that is what Advent and Christmas (and, for that matter, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter) are really all about.

In Newtown, Connecticut yesterday, for reasons we do not know and have no power or authority to judge, a young man chose death and evil over life and good. As public figures on all sides begin a disgraceful attempt to politicize the massacre, virtually no one is blaming the root cause that brings about all such violence in our age: A Culture of Death in Western society which not only says that the unborn and the aged and the infirm and the helpless have only the value that we as individuals assign to them, but one which glorifies violence, demeans and objectifies the human person, and perverts liberty itself. Our present culture is saturated with the glorification of sin and the public promotion and encouragement-and even promotion by the state-of the worst forms of social and human depravity, and we wonder how someone could get it into their mind to do such a thing.


When society chooses "death and evil," it is telling individuals that death and evil and all of the sins that go with them are also an acceptable personal choice. We will not see peace in our culture until we begin to choose life and good anew.


Pray for the families and the people of Newtown, Connecticut.


Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual Light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the Faithful Departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Worshiping at the altar of materialism

Today is what has become known in modern colloquial usage as "Black Friday," the day after the Thanksgiving holiday when the American Christmas shopping season is supposed to officially begin. When I was growing up, stores might open a few hours early today-6AM was a popular opening time-and have sales that are only good today. It has traditionally been called "Black" Friday because if a store or business was behind in its margins for the year, today was traditionally the day its proprietors could look to as a day that brought enough intake to insure that on December 31st, that business would not end the year in deficit, or "in the red," but in profit or at least even-in "the black."


We have gone well beyond the original intent of today-a day to get in a few seasonal Christmas deals-and instead today has become a holiday in its own right-one that celebrates neither giving thanks nor the joy of the coming Prince of Peace, but instead pays homage to the real god of modern American society-materialism. The god of our things, and our ability to have more things and buy more things than our neighbor. Not only is today a day of honor for our God of the Material, but it is often a day where we as a culture spend our time and energy perpetually breaking the tenth and final commandment-thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. Not only do we worship at the altar of the deity of materialism on this day, we insult the God of All Creation even further by breaking His Holy Law in a perpetual and cultural fashion.


Early this morning, I went with Nicole to Kohl's-she had been given a valuable coupon that helped her purchase some new clothing for her work at really rock-bottom prices, but since it was only good for today, she had to go early this morning just after midnight since she had to work on Friday itself. People were lined up outside the stores of the local mall like the needy at a soup kitchen-only these people didn't look like they needed much of anything, nor did many of them look like they couldn't afford to wait another few days to go shopping-especially sine most of the good sales aren't really going away after today. Some people could have done what my own mother used to do when I was growing up-she did most of her Christmas shopping through the summer months, so that by the time the rush came, she didn't have to visit the stores much.


I observed people coming and going-I didn't want to go in with Nicole and have to fight the crowd, and I think Nicole regretted it later. While I waited in the car, observing people behaving as though they had gone in and returned from some visitation with the divine, I had occasion to listen to the radio, and I happened upon Raymond Arroyo talking about his experience observing people waiting on this materialistic madness to begin. In addition to hosting The World Over on EWTN, Arroyo also occasionally sits in on a secular radio talk show that I happen to enjoy. I heard him talk about how he had passed by a local Target store on Thanksgiving morning and saw people camped out there, setting up what amounted to tent cities, waiting on the holiday sales to begin so that they could get in on some mythical deal. How many of those folks were running up credit they couldn't afford and will have to pay down later in the name of a deal today? Something seems terribly wrong with occupying places in line or in some overnight camp-out in front of a store when there are people who sleep out in front of malls and stores and on public benches and parks because they have nowhere else to sleep, while some of us camp out in front of Target or Belk or Walmart or Kohl's for our day of worship to the deus de materiali. With Black Friday rapidly becoming Black Thursday, Thanksgiving is becoming not a day for thanks to God, but just another shopping day, and Christmas is now just a day to eat and open presents so that we can all go to the store the next day for the big sale. The Christ Child? Who is that? What deal is this that's at the mall, the clearance rack is keeping? The Sale of Sales, good business brings, while customers' line is winding. This, This is Cash our King, while cashiers watch and  registers cling, haste, haste, to bring it laud, the jingle, the sound of profit.

Materialism has been the ultimate source of every wicked and evil ideology that has been formed in the mind of man, and it is the notion that only greater things can make us happy. Materialism brought us fascism, because only the State controlling the business you own can insure fairness-and while we're at it we'll go after those nasty Jews and other pesky people because they have more than us. Materialism gave us socialism and its child communism, because no one is allowed to earn more than their neighbor and if they have more it is always wrong, and it must be rectified-forcibly if necessary. Nevermind that we will kill all incentive to work or to achieve, and therefore to bless others as we have been blessed. Materialism also gives us a kind of crass capitalism that cares little for the individual or the dignity of the human person and only about the bottom line. Materialism is also the root of the sort of neo-socialism that we are seeing today that discourages thrift, because we want what we want now, even if someone else should pay for it.


None of this is to say that there is an inherent wrong in going Christmas shopping-there isn't. But our celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas have become about the creature more than the Creator, and we have made them more about the god of our making than the God who created us and who is using these special days as yet another way to call us all to Himself. When we prepare to give gifts to others, do we do it in the spirit of bringing Christ to others, or is it simply about the gifts-the things which, as St. Paul says, "passeth away?" (cf. I Corinthans 7:31)

Dying to self

Nicole and I returned this past weekend from our Diocese of Knoxville retreat for Deaconate Aspirants greatly blessed and spiritually refreshed, even if we found ourselves physically quite tired by the end of the weekend. Nicole greatly enjoyed the retreat, as she and I haven't been on a full weekend retreat since we were married. The closest we had come was a Knights of Columbus day of reflection we both happened to attend shortly after our wedding. Robert Feduccia-who we will be seeing plenty more of over the next four years because he'll be giving the Aspirants instruction on several topics-gave a wonderful retreat. His talk on the Holy Eucharist, in which he declared that we should "leave our troubles at the altar  with Jesus" reminding us that the element of bread is but wheat and water and that we are like wheat ourselves. In the Eucharist becoming the Body and Blood of Christ, we see again Christ sharing in our humanity and ourselves getting "a share in the divinity of Christ" as the priest or deacon intones at every Mass.


One reality that I am being compelled to confront is the fact that if the Lord allows me to approach candidacy and ordination, I will have little choice but to significantly curtail my level of political involvement in the community. Those of you who know me well know that this presents a certain personal challenge because my degree is in political science and I have had at least some level of involvement in party politics for most of my adult life. Indeed, I write three op-ed columns, but the most popular one continues to be my op-ed Examiner column on State politics. The proceeds from that column help me to pay for some of the extemporaneous expenses involved in the process of deaconate formation. Yet, after listening closely to the bishop's words in his talk to Aspirant retreatants, it is clear to me that I may not be able to continue writing that column if I am ordained-His Excellency made it quite clear that while our choice of political support is our own, that public support of individual candidates while serving in ordained ministry may not be something that he wishes to see his deacons do. To people who are used to being involved in the political world, that can seem somewhat harsh, but there may be a larger reason for it. As any Catholic knows, the Church is under what I would call an increased threat of persecution, and not only because of the HHS mandate, but because of the increased secularization of Western culture. Where politics are concerned, the Church is in a critical position to impact society through issue-based advocacy on those matters where the people of God ought to take a keen interest, but the support by the Church of particular candidates in a public way isn't desirable because there is simply no candidate for high office that fully embraces the teachings of the Church. It is true that there may be a candidate that is more acceptable than another from a Catholic perspective, but the laity govern the civil sphere and it is up to them to make informed choices when voting based on Catholic teaching. This places a double responsibility on the clergy, however, to inform the laity of Catholic moral and social teaching, because failure to do so in the past has (as Cardinal Dolan of New York so adequately put it some weeks ago) led the Church to the current situation in which we find ourselves.

As a deacon, I will not any longer be a member of the laity, and therein lies the rub that a great many people may not understand. Being a deacon is a ministry of service for the Church, however small that ministry might happen to be. All deacons are ordained, which means that they have received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. As members of the clergy, deacons share with priests and bishops (who are also deacons by virtue of their own ordinations-no priest or bishop in the world is not first and always a deacon) a life of service to the faithful. Even though permanent deacons have a secular life or a secular calling, being a deacon is not what a man does, as his job, profession, or livelihood-it is who he is, a servant of the people of God first and foremost, and an agent to them of Christ's Church. The laity are called to oversee the civil power, but the ordained are called to oversee the ecclesiastical order.


It is with that realization that I have come to understand that my political involvement will be quite limited as a deacon. If I, by God's grace, should be ordained, then I may not write a political column as I do now, and I certainly won't have the level of political involvement that I have had in the past...that prospect does not bother me. I understand that for me, the choice is between the service of God and His Church or the advancement of my own self-interest.


The deaconate is-at its very heart-about dying to self.

Thoughts on the call to obedience

It is an unfortunate reality that we live in a skeptical age that is skeptical of God and of His Holy Church. Indeed, even though nearly 90% of Americans say that they believe in a Higher Power, nearly half of those people don't attend Church regularly. Some surveys have suggested that among the younger generation, the number of people skeptical or even in denial of the existence of God is much higher, and certainly the devil-may-care attitude reflected in modern popular culture reflects what Walter Cardinal Kasper has called "cultural atheism." In other words, our culture behaves as though God does not exist whether we say to ourselves or to others that He exists or does not.

Many people are rationalizing that because the Church has been rocked in the past decade by the priest sex abuse scandal and other singular abuses, that the Church somehow does not have the authority to command obedience to morality in the name of Jesus Christ. Truth does not change merely because some of those who have proclaimed it in the past have fallen into sin. It does not change even if the whole of those who have proclaimed it give themselves over to sin and the wiles of the devil. If such faulty theological logic had any merit, the Church would never have survived the first week after Our Lord was crucified. After all, with the exception of the Apostle St. John, all of the original 12 abandoned Jesus, one even openly denied him and did so three times. Yet it was the weak one who denied Christ three times who was chosen to lead the Church after Our Lord ascended to the Father. One of the remaining Eleven after our Lord rose again even refused to believe, yet Christ allowed that one to see as well as believe, he didn't reject him or tell him that he had no authority. Christ instead breathed the Holy Spirit on these imperfect men and told them to go forth and proclaim the Good News. Christ promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church, but He certainly never promised that the Church would be composed of perfect people or that some of its leaders would not ever fall into serious sin or scandal themselves.

Catholic readers will recall, I am sure, the case of Father John Corapi, who stood accused of having an affair with a woman who worked with him, and was even accused (not, apparently, without some cause) of having multiple affairs with multiple women. Corapi left the priesthood, at first saying that without doing so, he would be unable to prove his innocence in a legitimate fashion. His religious community said that he was not fit for public ministry, but they didn't ever say "Father Corapi isn't welcome to return." Indeed, he was invited to come live in community with the rest of priests and brothers of his religious order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT). It was when he openly refused to obey this order which was given in accordance with his religious vow to obey those placed in religious authority over him that SOLT said that Father Corapi was "unfit for public ministry" as a priest.

Many good Catholics were and remain rightly scandalized by the case of Father Corapi. This is because so many people were brought into a deeper relationship with Christ and with Our Blessed Mother through Father Corapi's powerful witness, teaching, and preaching, and two of those people included Nicole and myself. We didn't just watch Father Corapi's programs on EWTN, in 2005, we attended a day of reflection with Father Corapi in Kentucky. I was deeply moved by his powerful witness of fidelity to the Church and his own conversion story. He was keenly aware of his own past, however-he returned to the Faith from a world of drug addiction, worldliness, pleasure, and, to hear his own description, the worst forms of sin and vice imaginable in our modern secularist culture, and he said "if you ever pick up a newspaper and read that Father John Corapi was found dead in a crack house somewhere, it might very well be the truth, because the devil is always at work, and don't you think the devil doesn't know my addictions and weaknesses." I remembered Father Corapi saying this, but it didn't make his decision to leave the priesthood sting any less. His disobedience to and disregard for the authority of the very Church which he had preached for 20 years
that the rest of us should obey spoke volumes about the unfortunate path that he seemed to have chosen.

Since that time, Corapi seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Indeed, many people who used to follow the work of his former ministry now have no idea what has happened to him. Like some of them, I too pray that he has come to obedience and that he has repented, returning to his religious community. Wherever he is, if he has not repented, I pray that he does so.

However, Corapi's apparent lack of repentance and his scandalous behavior do not negate the work of the Holy Spirit or lessen the power of the truths he was previously teaching, for we all have concupiscence. The decision by many folks to declare the entire Church corrupt based on the public actions of some smacks as much of a desire to find an excuse not to obey the Church as it does of any genuine personal scandal someone might feel about the actions of many priests and others in the Church who, like Father Corapi, fell into serious sin and shame. The reality is that we live in a culture that does not like obedience, especially if the power commanding our obedience is ultimately of Divine origin, which the Church is. The reality is that many Catholics want to call themselves Catholic but not bear the mark-and sometimes bear the cross-of obedience to the authority of the Church upon earth.

As an Aspirant who feels called to the deaconate, I have willingly placed myself within the Church's Divine authority in a very direct way. Those who are in formation for a vocation to the deaconate, the priesthood, or the religious life do this knowing that none of us are perfect, and that even our bishop is not perfect, but that, through the authority of the Church, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he may tell us when and where, or even whether ever we may minister to others in the Church's name. My willingness to obey the Church is reflected not only in my developing call to the deaconate, but in an understanding that while the Church, including her leaders, are imperfect human beings, her authority comes from Christ, who gave her all power in Heaven and on Earth. All of us who are Catholics, whether laypeople or ordained, are called to accept the Church's teaching authority on faith and morals-she is mater et magister.

Those who know to do so and refuse to remind me of of the famous verse of scripture describing the errant children of Israel who refuse to accept Divine authority in Judges 21:25: 

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Church History (Holy Thursday)

It has been awhile-over a month, since I have posted to this blog, and for that I apologize to those off you who are taking the time to read it. I've had a busy month, however, and with Holy Week (Holy Thursday) now having arrived, I think it prudent to share a little bit about what our formation weekend in March was like.

I was very much concerned when class began on Friday evening after we had originally been told that we might have a pop quiz, because Bishop Martino (by his own admission) talks quickly, but this isn't only a matter of habit-I think in his mind he had a good reason to move at a relatively brisk pace through the material. Not only was he being recorded, but he was also merciful enough to us to present us with two very good outlines-one for this past month and one for our session upcoming-of the material we would be covering. Deacon Tim Elliott, our Director of Deacons, told me not to worry about a pop quiz, but to listen to Bishop Martino...for this, I was much relieved.

Since I am admittedly a history nerd, I enjoyed the material greatly, and I just ate up getting a hold of new material that I hadn't previously been familiar with before (and getting a new spin on some things that I already knew. The most impressive and enjoyable thing about the entire weekends, however, was Bishop Martino himself. I was pleased to be able to sit near him (as were the rest of the fellas in the front row) during one of our breaks when His Excellency shared some of his experiences in ministry with us, including his belief-one that I share-that we need to do a better job keeping the interest of catechumens and potential candidates, as we often lose them in waiting for RCIA to begin as much as we might after the process is over. Of course the Obama Administration's ungodly HHS mandate on Catholic institutions was also a matter of discussion, with Bishop Martino saying that he believes we could be entering a time of persecution, or at least a time when it won't be a very popular thing to be a faithful Catholic.

The thing that most exuded from the way His Excellency carries himself is what I would call holiness in humility. He seems grateful that the Holy Spirit chose him for the ministry that he has, he blesses others by the exercise of that ministry, and is a good example of how someone who has been gifted with Holy Orders should be gift to others-in retirement, he is ministering to us in imparting knowledge as well as wisdom to us.

I really look forward to our next session with His Excellency this coming weekend.

I am praying for all of you who read, and all of my Brother Aspirants as I pray the Liturgy of the Hours each day. May you have a Blessed Paschal Triduum.

The Holy Trinity

Firstly, I want to apologize to those of you who have become regular readers of this weblog (that number is still admittedly small but growing) that I have not posted since the New Year. I have had an extremely busy week, and it had been my intent to post something this past Friday before leaving for deaconate formation, and it didn't quite work out as I had wanted-I just ran out of time. That's something that seems to be epidemic lately, and no, that isn't a complaint, it is just the way things are.

Our formation weekend was packed with material, and my mind is still somewhat on sensory overload from all that we learned. What's more, we have a seven page paper, give a few here and there, that will be due in about a month and a half in which we have to choose a topic where we can prove a theological idea from the writings of the Church Fathers as well as from the ideas of a more modern biblical scholar...oh, and next month, we will have our first exam. It has been a long time since I have had to take an exam, so I am a bit nervous about it. Nevertheless, the material we talked about this weekend was so important that I see the need to be tested on it. Robert Feduccia, currently of Oregon Catholic Press (Spirit and Song) and formerly the youth coordinator and vocation director at St. Meinrad Archabbey (to which I am pledged as an Oblate of St. Benedict) was our instructor for the weekend. The topic was the Holy Trinity-something that I learned more about this past weekend than I ever knew before, and in the name of brevity and because I am exhausted, I can't really give a typical overview in one post as I have done in the past, so I'll have to break some of the finer points into multiple posts.

We discussed the arguments of the atheists and secularists, which are quite pervasive, and as Robert pointed out, even though so many of our people in this country claim to believe in God, so few by comparison act on that belief. At least we are better off than Europe, which has surrendered itself completely over to an unabashed secularism and unbelief. However, if we do not change the tone of the culture and take our place at the forefront of the debate over the increasing secularization of our country, we will soon be headed in the same direction, as the statistics bear out that the millennial generation is inherently unchurched and seems inclined to be so.

The Blessed Trinity has been the matter of dispute within Christendom precisely because it is difficult to explain to anyone the idea that we only worship one God, but that God consists of Three Divine and Distinct Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Further, Christ was begotten, not made, and was born of the Father before all ages (there was never a time when He was not). Christ is of one substance with the Father (consubstantial) and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son-the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. These Persons are not types of God and they are not mere modes of the one God, but are Persons distinct and divine, but exist as one God, as hypostasis-real and distinct Divine Persons in an undivided Unity of God. If that sounds confusing to you, it was to Arius, which is why he came up with the idea that Christ was an intermediary to God, had no human soul, and was not equal to the Father (and therefore not Divine). Arius' ideas weren't far-fetched, which is why they were widely accepted-they were an easy way to explain a complex theological question. The difficulty is that Arius and his followers ultimately denied that Jesus Christ is God, and it was that dangerous notion-that Jesus Christ is not fully Divine and of one substance with God the Father-that led to the Church's ultimate adoption of the Nicene Creed as the profession of faith of Christians.

Is the Trinity hard to understand in our human terms? Sure it is. We literally profess to believe in one God (Deutoronomy 6:4-9), but we say that the one God consists of three separate and distinct Divine Persons who are still of one substance and who act as One in a Unity of Love which existed before all ages. Christ, as the Divine Word, is the second Divine Person of this Godhead (John 1:1-4). It isn't easy to put one's arms around this idea, so it is easier to say, as Arius did, that Christ could not possibly be Divine.

Who said the Faith of the Church was meant to be easy?

Nativity Thoughts

Christmas Eve usually puts me in an interesting predicament because I can't keep a secret from Nicole. She already knows what she is getting for Christmas, largely because I can't ever go to the store without her to begin with. She got exactly what she asked for (some horseshoeing tools in order to shoe her own horses rather than hire a farrier to do it, which is a major expense that we can't really afford). Nicole loves horses, which is normally a very expensive hobby, and one that I certainly wouldn't be able to finance, except that we've been blessed in this way by the right people seeming to cross our path who share Nicole's love for these beautiful animals. One horse was free, the other was cheap (as in very inexpensive). What is even more remarkable is that these "giveaway" horses both come from good bloodlines, and those people who really know horses can tell this. Nicole found a place to board her horses-the home of a very nice lady whose lone horse needs companionship in the pasture (horses are herd animals). Hence, board also costs us very little compared to what people normally pay. Because of all these things, I feel blessed that Nicole is able to own, ride, and take care of two fine horses at so little cost to us-largely because the Lord blessed us (and specifically her) with meeting the right people who shared her passion for things equine and could help her keep a foot in the horse world.

How all of that relates to Christmas is that Nicole's Christmas requests in recent years  almost always relate to horses and horse-related things. It is impossible for me to hide a Christmas present from her-she almost always knows what she is getting, and this year is no exception-she asked for shoeing tools and she will get them. Me, on the other hand-I have no idea what I am getting, and she has the secret well-hidden-something she seems able to do with great success every year. I have gotten to a place in my life where I rarely ask for much in the way of gifts at Christmastime, because I am thankful for the things that I have, and there always seems to be so little that I actually need, and I thank the Lord for that.

It is entirely too easy-and I know that many people say this every year so that it becomes almost cliche-to become caught up in the material aspects of this time of the year. Indeed, we know that our society has become so obsessed with both the material and the commercial aspects of what we have come to call the "holiday season" that people bring out the Christmas decorations and the carols and the associated bon vivant at Thanksgiving weekend and sometimes before. There is no preparation of heart and mind for Christmas, so that when Christmas does come, people have a meal, open presents, and then quickly in their minds move on to other things the next day. When I wished a Merry Christmas to a friend of mind last year on December 27th, he wondered why..."Christmas is over," he said. It is not over at that time, of course, it has just begun.

We still have traces-albeit ever smaller ones-of what Christmas is really about within our culture, but Americans have lost (and many never had) the idea that Christmas is a season, and not a single day that we get excited about for a month (this comes from the Puritan heritage within this country-we do not have a true tradition of Christmas as Americans, it wasn't even an official holiday until the 1880's). That season does not end on December 25th, it begins on the 25th, and actually begins tonight at vigils for Christmas. Many people do not prepare themselves for Christmas by truly celebrating and living Advent before we get to the point of tonight. We need Advent because of what exactly it is we are preparing to celebrate and commemorate. We need time to reconcile in our minds how what we commemorate reconciles-or is radically opposed to-our materialistic culture of today.

We have our romantic notions of nativity scenes and singing Away In A Manger and Silent Night, but do we know of that which we sing? We are celebrating that God was made incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that He was made man, and that He came to us born in a cave used to house dirty farm animals and was laid in a feeding trough used for cattle, and donkeys, and other animals. He came into this world with nothing...nothing. Not as a child of privilege or wealth or power, but as a child born poor amid a backdrop that would make the modern conditions of the poor in our own country look like a vacation in the Hamptons. God chose to manifest himself to the human race as a child born in some of the lowliest possible means that humanity could afford. He came, in his own words (Luke 4:18-21):

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." 

That reality-that Christ came to proclaim liberty to captives, preach the gospel to the poor, and give sight to the blind-both literally and, most importantly, spiritually, is what we celebrate at Christmas, and it is the real reason Christmas is-and should be-such a big deal. It's a whole lot more important than a man in a red suit saying "ho-ho-ho."

A tale of two lives

This past week has been a week of high-profile deaths. John Patrick Cardinal Foley, who was the former chief of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and who had a passion for communicating the Gospel to others, died December 11th, and his Mass of Christian Burial was this past week. Most of us knew Cardinal Foley as the "Voice of Christmas" who provided the English language commentary and translation of the Midnight Mass from St. Peter's Basilica every year (he did the same for the Easter Mass from St. Peter's Square) on television to a global audience. For many people, their annual encounter with the Eucharistic Lord on their local NBC station on Christmas Eve was the only time they saw Jesus (and we do mean they saw Jesus in seeing his Body and Blood under the appearance of bread and wine) on television or anywhere else. Cardinal Foley sometimes gently reminded people that the Lord was truly present.

                                      Cardinal John Patrick Foley

For many of the world-wide audience who would listen to Cardinal Foley's voice, he was the only exposure they ever had to the Catholic faith. Doubtless for some, he was their first exposure to it, and although I certainly did not know or think of it at the time, he was probably my first exposure to Catholicism and to what a Mass looked and sounded like. He spent his life finding ways to spread the Gospel of Christ through modern media and social communications. Many souls were surely reached for the Church and for Christ through his tireless ministry in the media.

Someone else passed away this past week who often used the media for very different ends than did Cardinal Foley. Christopher Hitchens was a man of immense intellectual gifts and was a great writer, commentator, and orator. I very often disagreed with Hitchens, but I had a great admiration for his intelligence and wit, and would read, watch, and listen to him often just to get a dose of it. Hitchens had one major problem, however: He hated God, Christ, Christianity, and the Church. He certainly spent an inordinate amount of time attempting (without much success) to defame Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

                                         Christopher Hitchens

Hitchens' brother Peter is a Christian and a social conservative, as well as a gifted award-winning journalist and writer (he literally became the Christian counterweight to Christopher whether he intended to or not). Christopher Hitchens' official position was that God did not exist, but his speeches, media appearances, and writings belied another reality in his head: That he knew God existed, and was just mad at God. When talking about issues of the Divine, his tone often moved from the satirical to the very angry.Indeed, when I think of the kind of atheism marked by anger at God described by Cardinal Kasper in our assigned reading for next month, The God of Jesus Christ, I can't help but think of Christopher Hitchens. He has crossed my mind several times while reading The God of Jesus Christ.

I have met few so-called atheists who, after my encounters with them, did not leave me feeling as though they actually DO believe in God/Higher Power/Divine Presence, but they refuse to admit this because the reality is that they are angry at God-usually for a multiplicity of things that can be chalked up as a direct or an indirect result of human fault, sinfulness, or frailty. (i.e. "Why would a loving God allow so much death in the world/war/destruction/my relative(s) or friend(s) to live or die in such a horrible way/name that social problem").

Christopher Hitchens was a master of this tired old argument. Indeed, he was one of the best at it that I know of, primarily due to his humor and wit. However, Hitchens left me on several occasions after listening to him with the distinct impression that his resistance to God was based less on an internalized conviction that God did not exist, and more on an internalized anger with the Almighty, usually stemming from the fact that the world didn't work the way he thought it ought to and this was all God's fault.

An example of this was his debate over religion with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair last year, in which Christopher Hitchens referred to the laws and dictates of God as a "kind of Divine North Korea" because God lays down the consequences of disobedience. The reality is that Hitchens seemed to live a life of rebellion. He did not want to obey God, so he appears to have literally "looked God in the face" as it were, and in his rebellious spirit he said "I do not want obey you, and I do not respect you, so I am going to say that you do not exist, and I am going to preach that to the world."

Even so, the very reason that I hope, nay, pray, that Christopher Hitchens somehow found faith in the last moments of his life is that for all of his vitriole and hatred for the things and the people of God, he was a man of so many gifts. I trust in and believe that the mercy of God is unfathomable and boundless, and extends even to those who have spent their whole lives denying Him, if they, even in but an instant, acknowledge Him and accept His Divine Mercy.

Judging Christopher Hitchens' soul is not my place, but that responsibility belongs to God. This isn't to say that no atheist exists with an internalized belief of conscience that says there is no God-I've met at least one for whom I believe that was actually the case. For those people, they are in for quite a surprise one day. For those like Hitchens, who appear to choose to deny God out of anger or spite or rebellion-I think they know, somewhere within themselves, that they will give answer for all of those years of rebellious denial of Truth.

Christopher Hitchens' life is a reminder to all of us of the words of the first verse of the 12th Chapter of Ecclesiastes:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them."

What a difference in lives. One of these men spent his life using the modern media to spread the Gospel, while the other very often used those same media to try and undermine it.

I pray for them both, and while we can reasonably deduce that Cardinal Foley died in the peace of Christ that he spread to so many others, I pray that somehow Christopher Hitchens was able to recognize that peace and find it as well.