Unearned Luck

Photo by Tom Roberts on Unsplash Masks are how we protect ourselves or so someone said a long time ago. We wear masks, so others won't come to know the person we perceive ourselves to be. "I don't want you to discover the monster I truly am, so I will pretend to be a jewel around you." That's how it often goes, right? Social media is a great place to observe this. No one ever posts who they really are. The vast majority post who they would like to be. A few post the monsters they believe themselves to be. All of them want someone else to acknowledge the illusion as reality. For example, a Catholic on Twitter tweeted a list of the saints to whom he prays at the end of each rosary he prays and that was it. He didn't ask for feedback or a response of any kind. Why? How are his personal prayer habits relevant to me? Doesn't this seem to violate Christ's injunction to close the door of your room, when you pray ( Matthew 5:5-6 )? Was he trying...

  I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.    -St. John 17:26 A friend and I were talking about living the Christian life and I used the term "radical Christianity," then corrected myself. "Radical Christianity" is a term I've heard many, many times used to describe the lives of people like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Theresa of Calcutta. What hit me in our conversation was that we were talking about the kinds of life every Christian should be living, so there shouldn't be any "radical Christianity." We should all be living a radical life, but radical only because we are daring to live it as authentic Christians, true followers of Christ. St. Francis and St. Theresa were living their lives in response to the call of Christ. They were doing exactly what God had called them to do. We are no different, though, perhaps, not called to live the charisms to...

Eric Mok on Unsplash   "Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'"    -St. John 20:19b Yesterday's post was about avoiding the trap of fearing the devil. The more we know Jesus and the more we love Him as both Our Lord and Our Brother, we lose our fear and have an easier time living out the lives to which God is calling us. As with any relationship we have in our lives, the more time we spend with the special people in our lives, the more we know about them and the more deeply and the more intensely we love them. Many couples set aside date nights for just this purpose. The same is true with our relationship with Jesus. We have to spend time with Him alone. The most personal way to spend time with Jesus is by visiting Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Just go to your parish church and sit before the Tabernacle or the Monstrance, if it is a perpetual adoration chapel. Start talking to Jesus as you would talk to your best friend. Then s...

  "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."    -St. Matthew 10:28 One night, as young teenagers, a friend and I watched a horror movie involving something to do with the devil possessing one of the protagonists of the film. That movie terrified me, but the dreams I had later that night terrified me more. Upon awaking the next morning, I knew that I didn't want to ever be possessed. What the movie had presented coupled with my profound ignorance of parts of my own faith and an irrational fear led me to an incredibly stupid and dangerous conclusion. I figured that to get into heaven, while avoiding any from the devil, I would be just a little bad. I had taken the devil's bait and I was never just a little bad. Have you ever done something similar? Christ teaches us that we are not to be afraid of Him nor of His Gospel. The fear that God and His angels inspire in the Sacred...

Kurt Wallander, an inspector with the Ystad Police Department, is the protagonist in a series of crime novels written by Swedish novelist, Henning Mankell. Nine of the novels were dramatized and presented on the BBC in 2008, 2010, and 2012. Starring Kenneth Branaugh as Wallander, the BBC production, according to critics, did a very good job of presenting the novels and Branaugh did an equally good job of portraying the police inspector. Wallander, tortured by the evils and horrors that confront him in his job, has become detached, depressed, and cynical. In the first story in the BBC series, his wife has already left him and found another man. His daughter seems to have little respect for him and is not at all sympathetic with the sorrow he feels in losing his wife. Having no faith of any kind, trusting no one, and unable to form any friendships, Wallander's only solution to the pain, confusion, and frustration in his life is to spend every night drinking until he passes out, the...

Why do you call me "Lord, Lord," and not do what I tell you?     -St. Luke 6:46 Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?"  And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you evil doers."  -St. Matthew 7:21-23 The manner in which Our Lord ends his statement is chilling or should be.  Here Christ is telling us that even the doing of great works in His Name does not warrant eternal life with Him.  It's more than that, too.  People who consider themselves to be His faithful followers and who are performing great works in His Name, Our Lord is calling evil doers. I cast out demons in your name.  I never knew you, evil doer. I prophesy in your name.  I never knew you,...

On May 30, 2012, Mr. Roger Ebert posted a review  of the movie " For Greater Glory ," a post that is less a review of the movie and more a view into Mr. Ebert's own prejudices.  In the review, Mr. Ebert confesses knowing nothing about the Cristeros War  fought in Mexico from 1926 to 1929.  Asking a "close Mexican-American friend, well-informed in Mexican history," but who was totally ignorant of the Cristeros War, was the extent of Mr. Ebert's background research.  Perhaps, Mr. Ebert could not find his Wikipedia bookmark.  Mr. Ebert's ignorance of the history of the Cristeros War, the history of the Catholic Church in Mexico and of Catholicism and his prejudice against the Catholic Church makes an intelligent review of the movie impossible, yet he soldiered on. Mr. Ebert begins his review of the movie by misrepresenting the history he doesn't know in the very first sentence.  The Cristeros War was not a war that "Mexico fought over the freedom...

A friend asked to hear the story of how I came to Jesus.  I replied briefly in an e-mail and I think I messed up a story I told.  I should never do more than one thing at a time. I don't know that my story is a matter of coming to Jesus.  I've always known that Jesus has been with me.  We used to have long conversations, when I was growing up about how things were and nothing ever changed.  I went to a Catholic grade school and had a fairly typical experience there.  We were a small class with the usual cliques and issues that exist among a small group of very different children who are together for three-fourths of every year for eight straight years. Our pastor for those eight years, Fr. Noll, was an eccentric man given to distraction and preoccupation, but he was a very good man and priest.  One of my classmates and I had similar builds, but very different names.  For eight straight years, though, Fr. Noll called me, "Alex" and called Alex,...

I can't remember now how long after my separation this conversation occurred, but it was within the first year.  A dear friend and I were talking one evening about all that was happening with me, when he stated he had no idea how I was doing it.  I asked him what he meant and he said, "I would have been an alcoholic or a drug addict or I would have committed suicide by now.  I don't know how you're going through all of this the way you are."  At the time, I didn't know either and I did not have a good answer for him then. This past Saturday, another dear friend of mine and I were talking about what has been going on in our lives since the last time we spoke.  We are both facing what seem to be insurmountable obstacles and a quantity and type of suffering that only seems to worsen.  We have issues with our children, employment, betrayals, lies, isolation, struggles with the enormous weight of our own weaknesses and sins.  When each of us had given onl...

I'm in the middle of writing a book on evangelization or it might end up being a tri-fold brochure.  I don't know.  In talking with and observing people, it's fairly clear that evangelization is not very well understood and, maybe, defining some terms might help.  Please remember that I am and have been a Catholic in Indianapolis, IN my entire life and, being all I know, I speak from this perspective. Apologetics is answering questions, clearing up misconceptions and countering objections.  It's focus is ensuring that the Catholic faith is accurately represented in the dialogue taking place within our society.  Contrary to some of what I have seen, apologetics is not a sledge hammer.  It is an act of love and should be conducted lovingly.  That is with the heart: sympathy, empathy, understanding, patience.  You know, 1 Corinthians 13. Catechesis is educating those who want to know.  Most people associate this with the Rite of Christian In...

Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin."                                                                                                             - St. John 8:34 Recently, some man, a self-proclaimed activist named Daniel Savage, recently attacked the Bible as "bullshit" in front of an audience of high school students.  Then, Daniel savaged those students who left in a courageous exercise of the same constitutional rights for which he claims to be an activist.  The sweet irony in the story is that Daniel Savage, this administration's choice to lead the campaign against bullying, bullied Christian students in an address designed to highlight the e...

"The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world."    - St. John 1:9 (RSV-CE) "Erat lux vera, quae illuminat omnem hominem, veniens in mundum."    - St. John 1:9 (New Vulgate) The Word, the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus enlightens every man. This is the reason we Christians must evangelize without ceasing. This is why we Christians must work at reconciling our broken relationships with those who are closest to us without ceasing, even if our attempts are limited to praying for the other person in the quiet of our rooms. This is why we Christians must ask for and grant forgiveness without ceasing. Jesus, the true light, enlightens every man. Wow.

The following was related to me by a friend.  His story made me think very seriously about what an ass I have been in very similar situations. "If we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth...If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us....If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us."    -1 John 1:6a, 8, 10 At dinner the other night a friend of mine told me about a date he had had a while back with a very intelligent, very successful woman.  He said that they had had a few, very good conversations before the time they actually went out.  Everything prior to the date seemed to suggest that they would have a very good time together. Their date finally arrived.  Both of them confessed to nervousness and excitement.  She had brought a bottle of wine for them to share, since they had some time to kill before heading to the...

Before we describe as paranoia the thoughtful consideration of the possibility that there will not be a general election in November, we should take an educated look around the world today and throughout history and come to understand how people have thought that the drastic changes quietly overtaking them were only others' paranoia.  Most in Weimar Germany never believed that the funny little man and his pitiful group of losers would ever be a leader let alone lead them into a world war which would destroy their families, neighbors, friends and lives and would leave a lasting sorrowful legacy for their nation.  Few believed that a book written by a couple of pissed off intellectuals would result in almost 100 years of organized, government-sponsored terror, murder and poverty like the world has never seen in two of the oldest countries on the planet during a century that historians and popes have called the bloodiest in history.  Calling a sensitivity to the lessons of...