Unearned Luck

     In his conversation with Jonathon Pageau, Jordan Peterson identified the apparent lack of faith of Catholics, as represented in their behavior, as a significant obstacle to his accepting Catholicism and giving over his life to the faith. You aren't sufficiently transformed for me to believe, that you believe in God or that you believe the story you're telling me. The way you live isn't sufficient testament to the truth. Christians don't manifest the transformation of attitude, that would enable the outside observer to easily conclude that they believe.      Dr. Peterson's response is an indictment of the Church's ability to evangelize today. Yes, one could argue the illegitimacy of judging the veracity of a proposition by the behavior of its adherents or one could fall back on the divine/human aspects of the Church and explain how the sinful actions of the sinners within the Church do not corrupt the truths of the faith or one could refer to Christ's i...

     One of the most fascinating aspects of art is found in its ability to teach or reveal truth. Art, though, speaks its own language and ignorance of the language leaves the depth of the art, its true beauty, ignored and overlooked. The faith of the Catholic Church can be viewed similarly. Without knowing the language in which the Church expresses God's revelation of Himself, then what should be a vibrant, life-altering faith is reduced to a shopping list of doctrines and dogmas viewed once and quickly forgotten.      As with art, education is the key to understanding the language in which the Church speaks and the Church's worldview. In the Church, this education is known as catechesis. In the United States, catechesis started as the memorization of specific answers to specific questions, which served Catholics well within their Catholic neighborhoods and their Catholic parishes, but failed them once they got out into the larger world and they began to f...