Monthly Archives: January 2021

Jesus has Authority Over Evil

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Dear Folks,
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ first miracle is casting out an unclean spirit. He had just been
in the desert facing temptation by Satan, then He started preaching, called the first disciples,
and now this. It was the first blow in a battle that would culminate on the cross. He did not
come merely to fight this evil or that evil, but evil itself. Ultimately, our enemy is not
people who do evil, but evil itself. How much the devil is personally involved and how
much is just human sinfulness is not a question to spend time with (too much interest in the
devil is a bad idea: he is the greatest of all seducers).
There is no doubt there is much evil in our society today, and that we are broken into
factions that are getting farther apart, more hostile and more suspicious of each other as
time grows on. How can we fight this evil? How can we bring healing? How can people
who disagree have constructive and fruitful dialog? I have some thoughts.
Our greatest weapon against evil is our relationship with God (Ephesians 6:10-17). If we
want a better world, the first step is to fall more deeply in love with God.
It is very human to believe that what seems obviously true to me is obvious to everyone
else, if they will only admit it. Until we recognize (and keep reminding ourselves) that
intelligent people of good will can see things differently from us, we cannot have good
dialog, and we will tend to get louder and angrier instead of increasing understanding.
It is easier to see faults in others than in ourselves (Matthew 7:1-5). This is an unconscious
thumb on the scale. If we do not remember that and compensate for it, we will keep talking
past each other. When we call out the faults of people on our side more energetically than
the those on the other side, it will be a great step forward for dialog and healing. Also, we
are not called to judge the state of their souls but call out bad ideas and bad
behaviors. Arguments that support our point of view seem stronger. Arguments against
our point of view seem weaker. This is another unconscious thumb on the scale. We can
have better dialog if we keep it in mind.
It is easy to look back on atrocities committed in the past and say with hindsight we would
not have participated; we would have resisted. Oh really? We have the advantage of
knowing what we know and being raised by and surrounded by people who support our
point of view. How do we know that if that were different, we would not be different? Dr.
Philip Zimbardo was involved in the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which they simulated a
prison setting and observed people’s behavior. Many behaved quite differently from how
they expected. Dr. Zimbardo came to Aquinas College and talked while I was there. I
remember his final comment was that the more people thought they were immune to being
influenced, the more easily they were influenced, and the more concerned they were of
being influenced, the better they could resist. Humility is called for.
I strongly recommend the book “Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save
America From the Culture of Contempt” by Arthur C. Brooks. He reminds us that dialog
with people who disagree with us is a gift. It helps improve our ideas and sharpen our
perspective. I know I have failed many times: I have spent most of my life picking up bad
habits. I suspect I’m not alone. If we work together, we can do great things.
Part 2 Next week.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

The Power of the Word

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Dear Folks,
Pope Francis has designated today as Sunday of the Word of God. Until I die, I never want
to miss a chance to encourage people (especially Catholics) to get to know the Bible better.
It is such a wonderful, powerful treasure, and so easily accessible, that we can all reap great
benefits.
I have spent many, many hours reading Marvel comic books, and I enjoyed the movies.
They have constructed a pretty elaborate universe, and there is much to learn about
it. However, there is only so much depth there to explore. A part of me was a bit surprised
people kept making movies after “Endgame.” It’s like, “What more is there to do?” The
Bible has infinite depth, and there will always be more there. The more deeply you go, the
more you discover new riches and the more it beckons you forward. The sayings and
stories speak to the meaning of our lives and can touch us in ways we do not expect. A
thousand lifetimes would not be enough to drink in that richness.
We must remember it is not just about learning information, but about encountering God
personally. When we love someone, we want to be with them as well as learn more about
them. For a deep relationship, we must spend time together. This is a way to spend time
with our Beloved God, so we can grow to love Him more.
Many Catholics (and I suspect some other Christians as well) see the Bible the way people
saw the North American continent before the journey of Lewis and Clark). It need not be
that way. We have more resources now than ever before. Fr. Mike Schmitz is doing “The
Bible in a Year.” He is a great teacher, and I have heard good things about this program
(I’m sure he won’t mind if you start later than January 1). The Great Adventure Bible
Series, also called The Bible Timeline, is a wonderful program. It helps people understand
the plotline of the Bible from creation to the last judgment and how all the stories connect
into one big story of salvation. These are things that can help people go from being like
foreign tourists in the Bible to being at home in the Bible.
The seventh and eighth graders at St. Charles school have memorized the names of all 73
books of the Bible. This makes me very happy. This will help them learn more about the
Bible for the rest of their lives. What we memorize, we always have with us.
I would challenge everyone: never let twenty-four hours go by without you encountering
some Scripture. Some have a study program. Some a prayer schedule. Some read the daily
Mass readings (that will get you a lot of the Bible). If you do not connect to any of those, I
would suggest reading a bit of one of the Gospels every single day. A little bit every day is
better than a big bunch one of these days. If you do that, it will become a part of you, and
Jesus will be more on your mind. Imagine if everyone did that.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Behold the Lamb of God

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Dear Folks,
This is Sanctity of Life Sunday.
The biggest life issue now is, of course, the killing of unborn children. This stands out for
three reasons:

  1. The huge number of victims, tens of millions, many times that of any genocide that I
    know of.
  2. It is direct killing of the innocent. That is different in kind from capital punishment,
    from killing in a just war, or from the indirect killing that accompanies many activities
    (driving carelessly is wrong, and has resulted in deaths, but it is not the same as directly
    intending to kill).
  3. Proponents have set apart a group they classify as untermenchen (a term used in
    Germany in the early 20
    th century, it referred to humans they consider lesser, and therefore
    not as entitled to protection). This has been done in the past to Native Americans, to Jews,
    to African Americans, and other groups. It is a tool used for the greatest human atrocities.
    Some have even referred to unborn children as “non-living fetal tissue.” Where is the
    science behind that?
    That said, it is essential that we not neglect other areas where the sanctity of life needs to be
    affirmed. Many see the lives of the elderly, the disabled and the infirm to be of less value,
    and advocate for euthanasia. We must recognize that their lives are precious, and not only
    protect them from being killed, but make sure they are not marginalized or forgotten.
    We have a constant need to care for the hungry, the homeless, and those trapped in
    poverty. There is room to disagree about how, but no room to say that it is not our
    problem.
    We must do something about human trafficking. I don’t know what, but we must do
    something.
    The Catholic Church has long accepted capital punishment as a proper tool of law
    enforcement, but, starting with Pope Saint John Paul II and continuing with Pope Francis,
    there has been a movement away. There is a strong body of thought that suggests it does not
    help deter crime, and with proper incarceration, it would not be necessary to protect
    people. I suggest we can be a better society if we hold precious even the lives of vicious
    murderers. That said, I have a very hard time being patient with those who say it is
    contradictory to oppose abortion and favor capital punishment. How come I never hear
    people saying that if we favor incarcerating criminals, we must therefore favor the
    legalization of kidnapping? Honestly.
    I recently listened to Daniel Goleman’s book Social Intelligence. He speaks of the
    “thingification” of other people, in which they are considered not in terms of their dignity,
    their needs, their thoughts or their feelings, but only how they affect us. They are seen not
    as people, but as things, as objects. Celeste Headlee in her excellent book We Need to Talk:
    How to Have Conversations that Matter, mentions that studies show that empathy is on the
    decline. It is easy to figure that the widespread use of social media rather than personal
    contact makes things worse. The enormous use of pornography has to be a huge factor. I
    see a lot of conversation showing contempt for people who disagree. That can’t help. How
    do we build empathy in our society?
    Final thought: “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could
    do only a little.” -Edmund Burke
    Blessings,
    Fr. Jim

The Baptism Changes Everything

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Dear Folks,

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. If I understand correctly, the Feast of
Epiphany used to mark the coming of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the miracle at
Cana, and that marked the end of the Christmas season. It was apparently decided that the
Baptism needed its own feast, and this marks the end of the Christmas season, so tomorrow
we begin good old Ordinary Time.
When Jesus was baptized, He was not, of course, repenting of sin. He was sanctifying
baptism and it will be by the power of His pascal mystery that Christians will be born again
in baptism. It begins His saving work: His life as a manual laborer is over, and now He is
beginning the journey that leads to the Cross. He will refer to His death as a baptism (Mark
10:38; Luke 12:50) (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #536).
John 3:5 says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without
being born of water and Spirit.” The Church has always understood this to refer to baptism.
Baptism has never been treated as a detail, and it is not an option or a matter of
preference. In Jesus’ final commissioning of His disciples at the end of the Gospels of
Matthew and Mark, Jesus’ very concise instructions include baptizing as a core part of the
work (Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:16).
This leads to a question: what about those who are sincere but were not baptized. What
about children who died before baptism? This led to a theological theory called
limbo. Although the Baltimore catechism taught limbo as if it were a fact, limbo has never
been the official teaching of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict finally laid it to rest and
said it is not a part of the Catholic faith. We now understand John 3:5 to be a mandate on
us but not a restriction on God. The God we have gotten to know in the New Testament is
not about keeping people out of heaven because of something they couldn’t control of have
not been properly taught. Unfortunately, in the meantime, many Catholics have come to see
getting sacraments as the ultimate end of the faith (sometimes literally the end, when they
drop out after getting confirmed because they are “done”). They have come to see the
practice of the faith as a pale shadow of what it is meant to be. The great danger is of people
being sacramentalized but not evangelized. They have helped convince a lot of other people
that Catholicism is superficial, mechanical and legalistic. Seeing the fruits of this is one of
the most heart-breaking things about being a priest.
How should we look at sacraments? St. Paul sees baptism as something we must live out.
“What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not!
How can we who died to sin yet live in it? Or are you unaware that we who were baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through
baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we might live in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4).”
Our belonging to Jesus is meant to make all the difference. It is as drastic as dying. It is
meant to be the controlling, defining reality in our lives, by which all other things find their
meaning. We hand God our lives and invite Him to do whatever He chooses with us,
holding nothing back. Our faith and our response to God is, of course, imperfect, but if our
faith is real, our goal is nothing less than being completely His. Peter Kreeft’s book Jesus
Shock gets deep into this.
A question for 2021 is, “How are we living our baptism?”
Blessings,
Fr. Jim