Unearned Luck

Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority." -Acts 1:6-7 He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. -Ecclesiastes 3:11 This afternoon at Mass, Father began his homily on the need for patience with God by relating his recent frustrations trying to return from his three-day vacation in Colorado. In the end, he and his traveling companions drove seventeen hours to get home in time for him to say his Masses today. Traveling seventeen hours in a vehicle with three other people does require patience of a kind. The boon patience receives in this scenario is knowing that there will be no need for patience in seventeen ...

In the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. -Romans 4:17 If you wish to read this with the footnotes in place, please click:  Is God's Being Love?        Love is understood to be many things: an emotion, a feeling, an action. There are many kinds of love: philio , caritas , and Minne . Yet, in the Bible, love is action. “Rebekah loved Jacob,” and so helped Jacob obtain the birthright from the elderly Isaac. Mary Magdalene loved Jesus, and so she washed his feet and perfumed his head. Jesus Christ loves all mankind, and so He died on the cross to release mankind from its slavery to sin and death. St. John the Evangelist, however, states simply, “God is love.” Since God is simply subsistent being, St. John is stating that being is love, since the source of all being is love. To begin, being and subsistent being need defining. Being is tha...

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever. 1 John 2:15-17 Perspective is important. A perspective from which catechesis could be taught is that of God as our loving Father. The Ten Commandments, for example, are clearly moral proscriptions against specific thoughts, actions, mindsets, and understandings. Applicable to everyone everywhere and at all times, the Ten Commandments are the foundation of the Moral Law. Besides, you don't get much more direct and, arguably, negative than, "Thou shalt not..." And this is exactly how they are taught, too. So negative do catechists deem the Commandments' formulations, many at...

Photo by John Torcasio on Unsplash Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. -Hebrews 12:1-2 Overcoming sin and conforming our wills with God's Will is very, very difficult. We all know this. This is not news. What can we do? To be successful in overcoming our sins and conforming our wills, knowing our triggers is important. In other words, how are our lives usually going, when we most easily fall into sin? It's usually part of a pattern. We get sick of sinning like a fool. We resolve to change our lives and begin taking part in the sacramental life of the Church. We turn more often to prayer, es...

Photo by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. -1 Peter 5:8-10 The LORD said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nought?...touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face." -Job 1:7-11 St. Pe...

Photo by  Daniel von Appen  on  Unsplash For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.                      Romans 15:4-6 The problem of modernism , especially in light of the methodology employed in the Thomistic metaphysics employed in the Catholic Church, is modernism's representation of the internal experience of the individual as the foundation of reality, raising the practical sciences above the speculative sciences or doing away with the speculative sciences all together, denying anything other than the "knowable" as relevant for study, and claiming the material wor...

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.'” -1 Corinthians 1:25-31 It's late at night. I'm tired. It has been a rough week. I have never been more stressed in my life, than I am now. There are so many different concerns on my mind. Very little seems to be ...

Photo by Alina Miroshnichenko on Unsplash But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. -James 1:22-25 I finished reading Dennis Lehane's Gone Baby Gone this week. I wanted to compare it to the movie version, which my son had recommended to me a few months back. I was surprised by what I took to be the Catholic perspective of the movie, although others argue with me about that interpretation. From the opening quote of something Patrick Kenzie's pastor had said to him years previously to his deciding to watch Amanda, while her mother, Helene, resumes her old ways in the final scene of the movie, P...

  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...

God doesn't always make sense. Neither do I. I often wonder why I do some of the things I do. A friend of mine tells me that God guides me to do those things, because whatever I've done or said needed to be done or said. I'm not so sure. There are so, so, so many times, when God was nowhere near the decisions I have made. I have made some horrible decisions and they have hurt others so, so, so deeply. Now I'm scared to approach anyone. I don't trust myself anymore. I don't ever want to be that horribly selfish ever again, but can I keep the loneliness at bay or will I succumb and make other bad decisions in another vain attempt to cure my loneliness? It's almost easier to suffer with the loneliness than to risk hurting someone else. But then there is someone standing there who has never been there before and I don't know what to do. Confused and scared, there are just too many emotions and thoughts. They're overwhelming. Too many handicaps...

  "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...

After being assigned to the water rescue tactical house, the department required us new guys to attend a week-long water rescue course in Golden, CO. It was a lot of fun and the experience bonded us even more. One morning during that training we had to float downstream on our backs as part of learning how to navigate the river. We were taught to lie on our backs, feet first, and relax. At no time, were we to attempt standing up, as a foot could get trapped under a rock causing us to be pushed forward by the strong current and drowned. At one point in my cruise down the river, the current pushed me under water, which had happened frequently down that short course. This time, however, the current didn't allow me to surface. As the seconds ticked off an hour at a time, I mastered my fear and panic and just waited to feel the air on my face. The seconds ticked on and I was still under water. Nothing was happening, except I was drowning. Despite what the instructors had said, I started ...

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...

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,...