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...

Photo by  Fynn schmidt  on  Unsplash Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. -Matthew 11:28:30 What goes through your mind, when you read these words from Our Lord? Do you think, “Light?! Easy?! There is nothing light and easy about Christianity”? Do your thoughts then wander to all of the rules and regulations? All of the fasts and penances? All of the guilt and Ten Commandments? Do you begin to complain about Christ calling you to die to yourself, become a new man, be poor in spirit, meek, humble, sacrificing and merciful and think, “I don’t have time for all of that. I’m living a different life in a different time.” Don’t be surprised. You’re in the majority. It’s so much easier to do nothing, while feeding ourselves a steady diet of excuses, justificat...

  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...