Category Archives: Faith

Peace or Division?

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

It is the work of Satan to tear people apart. It is the work of Jesus to reconcile, and we have been entrusted with that work. “All this has been done by God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and not holding people’s transgressions against them, and he committed us to the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19”).

Here’s a twist: Jesus said, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three… (Luke 12:52-53).” But what about “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5:9)” and “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you (John 14:27).” What are we to make of this?

What about this? In this world torn by sin and division, the only road to peace and unity begins by uncovering the division. Where Jesus went, there was division between those who accepted His teaching and those rejected it, often fiercely. I suggest that Jesus did not create the division, but He revealed the division that was already in their hearts.

There are many dysfunctional families in which problems are not addressed, they are not talked about, and people pretend they don’t exist. Then they get worse. This is not peace.

Avoiding conflict does not make it go away, and when it festers, sometimes there is ablowup.

When surgeons heal, they must first cut. To be sure, they cut very carefully and precisely; they don’t just slice haphazardly. It is all directed toward healing, and they know how to do it. Furthermore, they try to cut as little as possible, while doing the most healing. Incisions for the same kind of surgery gotten smaller as medical science has advanced.

I’ve seen a lot of conversation in social media that seems like just slicing haphazardly: lots of insults, name calling, and attacking.

If I criticize someone in a way that makes them think, “this person hasn’t tried to understand my position, and what he says misses the point” then it’s guaranteed that I will not be able to persuade him. In fact, I’ve reinforced his belief by my unpersuasive argument.

Imagine someone out there who disagrees with me but is open to reason. What in my words has a chance of getting him to think a new thought, ask a new question, or see things from a different angle? How would my words sound to that person?

Recognize there is a disparity between how I hear myself and how others hear me. Being attentive to people’s reactions can give us a hint of what they heard, and how it might differ from what we intended to say. We will make mistakes. It is hard. It can be painful.

Of course, reading the Gospels makes it clear there is no way to be a disciple of Jesus without some pain. It’s easy to complain, to insult people, to call names, but seriously engaging is hard work. Consider, if you could reduce the friction in your car’s motor so

that it went twice as far on a gallon of gas and the parts took twice as long to wear out, what would that be worth? How much more valuable with the members of society.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Missing the Big Picture

2 Replies

Dear Folks,

When we try to have productive dialog, there are some principles that might be useful.

Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow” he says there are two kinds of thinking. One is faster and easier, but “knows nothing of logic or statistics” and has a tendency to believe that what we see is the whole picture. The other kind of thinking is slower and more work, so very often people don’t do it. It takes effort to think things through, to examine and question ideas critically. When I’m talking to someone, what kind of thinking am I using? What kind of thinking is the other person using? Both kinds of thinking are useful in their place, but it is useful to be aware.

Recognize that God sees everything (the whole picture) with direct apprehension. We do not. We, through our senses, collect bits of experience and weave them into a narrative. There is absolute truth, but our grip on it is limited. Two people can have very different narratives about the same situation and both be acting in good faith.

There are many people working very hard to feed us their narratives about how things are, and some people will hear the narrative, find it compelling, then accept it uncritically and never look back.

If you read “Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps” by Jennifer Garvey Berger (I’m currently listening to her “Simple Habits for Complex Times” and it is interesting), she describes one mindtrap as “The Simple Story.” We hear a simple narrative that seems compelling and decide that it explains everything, and we can miss complexity. Another mindtrap is “Agreement”. If everyone in our group agrees with an idea we tend decide that it’s enough and not to seek further perspective. There is an opposite in which whatever a certain person or group believes, we automatically believe the opposite. I saw someone talking about a politician (whose opponents really hated him) and this person suggested, “He should issue a statement in favor of air and watch his enemies suffocate themselves.” Nobody is always right (except God) and nobody is always wrong.

There is a dark triad: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, people who don’t care how they hurt you as they seek to get what they want. You can imagine the temptation to be quick to decide that anyone we disagree with is one of those, but that is lazy and unproductive. We need some really solid reason to write someone off like that. We also need to recog-

nize that having fruitful dialogue with people of other perspectives is more work than we are used to thinking.

In Matthew 10:14 (also Mark 6:11 and Luke 9:5) Jesus teaches that sometimes people will not

hear us, and we must “shake the dust” from our feet and move on. Jesus couldn’t reach everyone, and we are not going to do better than Jesus. Once again, it is important to beware of the

temptation to put people in that basket too quickly. This work is hard, harder than we tend to think, and if we give up too soon, we will make no progress but become more and more alienated.

All of this means that having good dialogue with other people is going to be hard work, patient work, frustrating work. The question is: are we willing to do that for the sake of a better world?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Peace I Give You

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

If we want a more peaceful world, first and foremost, get to know Jesus better. Building a better world always starts with falling more deeply in love with Jesus. Knowing His teaching is, of course, wonderful, and we can all benefit from studying those more. However, getting to know Him personally, spending time with Him, and, in the words of Pope Benedict, “Let Him be your best friend” will make all the difference. Some will object and point to the evils done by church people. I would suggest that this happens when the church people imitate the world rather than trust the teaching of Jesus. When we trust worldly power over the power of the cross, bad things happen. In the words of William Bennet (in his book “America: the Last Best Hope”) “the problem was too little Catholicism, not too much.” Also, it is church people who often developed the ideas that would oppose evils that had not been questioned before. It has been said that Christians did not invent slavery but invented the notion that slavery was wrong. I’m not a historian, but I think a case could be made that is true of many of our best moral principles. I think the best bet is to trust Jesus. Jesus has turned many villains into saints.

This will lead to a different kind of combat. We have a natural desire to make a mark on the wo rld and when we feel helpless, it is like pressure building up in us that needs to get out. It is very tempting then to use violence because it seems like a quick way to get results. I had a rage-filled, adversarial relationship with the universe for many years, and I understand this deeply. If it is not channeled properly, it explodes, and we see the results.

Christians have different weapons for combating evil (Ephesians 6:10-17). I focus on telling the Gospel story, working together as community, worshipping God, and helping people in need. With these weapons, we can transform the world, not as quickly, but much more profoundly, and with longer lasting effects (eternal!!!). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power greater than any imagined superpower (take that, Iron Man). If that is where we should channel our frustration and our energy, we will have a more peaceful world. Of course, we Christians know that we cannot become good people just by studying goodness and trying hard (though that is essential). The power of sin is too strong in our hearts. It is in our relationship with Jesus that by His power we are transformed, gradually made into what we were always meant to be. Many Christians throughout the centuries have demonstrated that they can receive mistreatment, persecution, and suffering of many kinds and respond with love. Only if we can respond to evil with love can the world ever become a better place.

And the better job we do of that, the more other people can see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is worth exploring.

One thing that I think should be obvious: what we have been doing hasn’t been getting us there. What if each one of us considered seriously how we could up our game in this area. If we want a better world and more people loving Jesus, are we willing to try something new to make it happen?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Peacemaking

Leave a reply

Dear folks,

Here are some continuing thoughts about how to make the world a more peaceful place.

Intellectual humility: Don’t be too quick to be too certain that we see the whole picture. What if there is more to the story? I learned this the hard way: experiences of feeling very certain and finding out I was very wrong. Things can seem obvious and still be wrong. This will make me more reluctant to go too far to get my agenda.

Humility of Agency: Not be so certain that we are the solution, such that we decide we can violate boundaries rather than fail. If we try honorably and fail, someone might launch a successful attempt from the ashes our failure. Remember that actions done with good intentions may have bad consequences. Sometimes we even cause the opposite of what we intend. This goes with Moral Humility: Not being so certain that we will always do the right thing, lest we trust ourselves with too much power (Think of why Gandalf refused to take the one ring: “I would intend to

use it for good…”). When boundaries, accountability, checks and balances on us get in the way of what we want to do it is frustrating, but not necessarily bad.

People like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Robespierre all apparently thought they were fixing things and would make a paradise on earth, and so they thought they could take some serious moral shortcuts to do so. They made hell on earth and brought

untold suffering. We must fight monsters without becoming monsters. (I found if you search for images of “Peacemaker” you get a comic book villain who seeks to bring peace by using extreme violence.) As Jesus said, we must be “clever as serpents and innocent as doves (Matt 10:16).” We must work toward a better world but always remember that we are not the savior (We have a Savior).

Seeing the big picture. I can be okay with losing today so that I could win tomorrow. If I think in terms of years, decades, or even centuries, I can be content to work bit by bit for a better world, and a temporary loss is not a catastrophe. This would give me less temptation to drastic, violent action.

Support Law enforcement. Of course, hold bad actors accountable, but when one is accused, that officer should get the same due process and presumption of innocence that we would want for ourselves if we were accused of a terrible crime.

Those who do their jobs deserve our support and gratitude for the tremendous sacrifices they make for our sake. Let us send clear, consistent messages that we value and admire obeying the law and respecting law enforcement officers, and believe in holding criminals accountable.

Fill ourselves with stories of people who solved problems and accomplished great things without resorting to violence. Sometimes physical force is necessary, especially in war, law enforcement, or self-defense, but let us emphasize our admiration for those who do great things through other means and let us aspire to imitate them.

Tim Scott just released the book “One Nation Always Under God” and it is full of such stories. If there were more people like those depicted in the book, and if we as a society aspired to be like them, perhaps that would help people focus their energies more peacefully (reading the lives of the saints doesn’t hurt either).

Next, the most important part.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Immigration Conversation

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
There has been a lot of conversation about immigration and how to deal with immigrants. There has been a lot of criticism, but I’m not seeing things move toward a solution. It’s very easy to attack what others are doing and easy to repeat general principles, but harder to come up with practical solutions that others can criticize. I think if we really want to make the situation better, we would focus on some basic questions:
1. How many people should we let move into the country? (and if the answer is, “as many as want to, even if it’s a billion,” then it is only fair to say that out loud, and then deal with how do we plan to absorb so many people). People dedicated to helping others generally learn to be able to help long term, there must be some boundaries, trying to be generous but recognizing our limitations.
2. If we believe in any limits, how do we prioritize who gets in and how doesn’t?
3. How do we vet them/screen them (especially to screen out terrorists, drug dealers, violent criminals, human traffickers and the like)?
4. How do we care for them while they are going through the process?
5. How do we encourage people to come in according to our laws and discourage people from breaking our immigration laws?
6. How do we deal with those who have violated these laws (wanting to be humane but wanting to disincentivize law breaking).
I think if we start with these questions, we can move the conversation in a more productive direction. I think we should avoid accusing others, but serious ask ourselves, “Am I really interested in improving the situation, or do I just want to attack people I don’t like?” Working together, I think we can accomplish a lot.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim 

Holy Week and the Gift of Self

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
Now, we begin Holy Week.
The essence of the Gospel is the gift of self. During Holy Week we recall two events of infinite power: the Last Supper and the Cross.
In the Last Supper Jesus gives Himself sacramentally, and on the Cross Jesus gives Himself in practice.
Consider a couple getting married. In the wedding celebration, they give themselves to each other sacramentally, and in their living out married life, they give themselves to each other in practice. In the sacramental celebration, the couple consecrates their future together, infusing it with God’s grace so that it will have sacred meaning. Without the sacrament, there is just a couple of people living together. Without the intention of living out their marriage in practice, the wedding is just a party.
When the bread and wine are presented, the priest places them on the altar saying, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you, fruit of the earth and work of human hands. It will become for us the bread of life.” And “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we offer you, fruit of the vine and work of human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.” This is a symbol of what we have done with what God has given us. When the basket is brought forward, it is a symbol of all that we give to God from what he has given to us, and includes the donations online, donations of time and talent, and anything else we give. (Diocesan best practices call for bringing forward an empty basket because occasionally people have gotten sticky fingers. It does not destroy the symbolic value). In doing this, we place ourselves on the altar to be consecrated along with the bread and wine. We become ever more the Body of Christ, a body offered forever to the Father, incorporated into the one sacrifice offered once for all but eternally effective.
On Palm Sunday, we read the passion from the Gospel of the year, this year being Luke. He emphasizes the mercy Jesus shows even in His agony. Holy Thursday we read the washing of the feet at the Last Supper. This emphasizes that Eucharist is bound to service. The authenticity of our praying the Mass is inextricable from our dedication to giving ourselves in service to others. On Good Friday, we read the passion from the Gospel of John. This Gospel emphasizes that Jesus gave Himself freely, every step of the way. He is in charge from beginning to end. When we hear how completely, lovingly, compassionately, and freely Jesus gave Himself, let us consider how He calls us to give ourselves as gift. That sets our course for the rest of the year.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Life Where There Was Only Death

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
Today, the fifth Sunday of Lent, where there was once only death, there is now life.
Those reading the cycle C readings will hear the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 

😎

, and those reading the cycle A readings will hear the raising of Lazarus (John 11). Both are about bringing life where there is only death. Sin brings death, and Jesus brings eternal life. The woman caught in adultery was facing certain death as a result of her own sin. Jesus saves her and challenges her to “go and sin no more.” Jesus tells Martha He is the resurrection, and it is not just in the future.
We see in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” And in John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
When we talk about knowing Jesus, we remember that in the Bible knowing is a more powerful thing than having a tidbit of knowledge. It is a matter of having a lifegiving relationship. Consider these texts:
Genesis 4:1 “Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore a son Cain…”
Psalm 1:6 “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 95:10 “For forty years I abhorred that generation, and I said, ‘Their heart goes astray; this people does not know my ways.’” Matthew 25:12 “But the master will say, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’”
To understand “know” as “have a life-giving relationship with” these texts make sense.
To have a life-giving relationship with Jesus is to give ourselves in love as He gave Himself in love. John 15:13 “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
To love is to live for someone beyond ourselves, that puts the focus outside of ourselves. The word “ecstasy” literally means “to stand outside.” The more focused we are on good beyond ourselves, the more we are living the love of God. Our lives are no longer about
us, but about Him. Whatever else happens, that is abundant life (John 10:10).
To live for our own desires is to close in on ourselves, to be dying. Our desires will not satisfy us permanently, and the fight against mortality is always lost if we live according to the wisdom of the world.
When we have a life-giving relationship with God and are living for eternity, we are already living eternal life. The joy that comes with our relationship with Jesus and being about something greater than the world is just the tiniest taste of the reality of heaven.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Weaving Together Our Picture of Reality

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

We all take in bits of information and weave them into a story that makes sense to us. Sometimes we can take the same set of information and come up with different narratives, and that

can make all the difference. I notice Democrats and Republicans can look at the same event and come up with wildly different narratives about what happened. It would be funny if it weren’t so serious.

At some of the Masses this Sunday, we are doing the cycle C readings, including the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Where we are doing scrutinies, we are using the cycle A readings with

the story of the man born blind (John 9). I suggest it would be a good exercise to look at those stories and ask, at each point what narrative is each character believing about what is happening?

Stepping back, there are different narratives about fundamental reality.

One is the atheist materialist view. The universe is self-existing, though it seems to be made entirely of contingent beings. The ultimate reality is impersonal, and personhood and consciousness are blips in the interplay of matter and energy. Love, in this view, is just a byproduct of the drive for chromosomes to replicate themselves. Moral right and wrong do not exist, and the only value is making me feel good. When I die, I will cease to exist, and it will not matter what I believed or what I did.

The Christian view is that the ultimate reality is love in the deepest sense. The Father is eternally giving Himself in love to the Son, who is eternally receiving and returning that love to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the love that passes between them. God is not one contingent being among many, but Being Himself, the source of all being. Love is by nature fruitful, and so God, though not needing anyone or anything, created the universe out of pure love. We were made to receive and give ourselves in love, and hence are made in the image and likeness of God. There is goodness, which is what serves giving ourselves in love, and there is evil, which is counterfeiting giving ourselves in love or refusing the invite all together. The things of the world pass away, but that which is love lasts forever.

One might object that that many atheists do much good and many Christians are less than moral. This, I suggest, is because we do not always act consistently with our professed beliefs.

There is one more narrative that I find interesting, and that is the Boltzmann brain theory. Ludwig Boltzmann was a physicist, who proposed that if a universe produced a self-aware brain, it

was more likely to produce one brain that hallucinated experiences than produce many brains that have real experiences. That means I am the only one who really exists, and you are all a figment of my imagination. There was once a Dilbert comic strip about this. I reject this theory, fun though it is, because it makes life trivial, and goes against my deep sense that life, the universe and everything have deep meaning. I reject the atheist, materialist view for similar reasons. We have a deep sense that personhood, consciousness, and love mean more than blips in the motion of matter and energy as the mindless universe unfolds. That’s my story and I’m

sticking to it.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Wake Up Call!

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,
There was an article in March 4, 2025 “Crisis” magazine, “Catholics are Rapidly Losing Ground.” (Scan QR code to read) It gives nasty, nasty statistics on how we are losing members, such as, “for every 100 people who join the Catholic Church, 840 leave. So when you rejoice seeing folks become Catholic at Easter (which you should), remember that more than 8 people have left by the back door for each one who’s come in the front. No other religion has nearly as bad of a join/leave ratio.”
If this is not a wakeup call, what would a wakeup call look like?
I suggest there is one basic cause: Catholics have believed that the Catholic faith is much less than what it is. For example, Brant Pitre’s book “The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ” tells of being in a Catholic college and being taught things about the Bible that undermined its credibility and almost cost him his faith. However, he still (thanks be to God) continued, and when he was studying for his doctorate, he learned that those theories lacked evidence and were just being passed around uncritically. He found there was more basis for trusting the Gospels than he had been led to believe. Our Catholic faith is greater than we think it is.
It will not help to complain about what someone else (the Pope, the bishops, etc.) should be doing or should have done. Correct or not, that won’t move us forward. During this Lent, I challenge everyone to ask God, “How are you calling me to respond to this moment in history?” and then pray for the grace to answer the call.
The early Church started with a tiny group of people, almost no resources, and surrounded by a fiercely hostile culture. They grew like a grease fire. The mightiest empire in the world was helpless to stop them. According to my reading of Acts of the Apostles (a great book), they basically did four things: They told the Gospel story. They worked together as community. They worshipped God. They helped people in need. Does anyone believe we have no room to grow in any of these areas? Can we each ask: How can I learn more about the Christian story? How can I learn better to articulate
it? There are so many resources, everyone can do something.
How can I help connect the faith community? How can I better invite and welcome strangers, and how can I better connect with my fellow parishioners? How can I be better at reconciling conflict in our midst (this alone, I suggest, would greatly enhance the strength of the faith community)?
How can I better worship God? How can I broaden my prayer life? How can I discover that the Mass is so much more than I was taught, and I can worship so much more deeply than I realized?
How can I better help those in need?
If we answer this moment (I think things will get worse before it gets better) the Church can get much better. We serve a mighty, mighty God, who calls us to greatness.
Blessed Lent,
Fr. Jim 

Battle of All Time

Leave a reply

Dear Folks,

The First Sunday of Lent we deal with Jesus in the desert getting tempted. It is worth noting that our first reading is about offering one’s gift to God. Let’s look at temptation as interfering with our giving ourselves to God as gift.

The first temptation, “If you are the Son of God command these stones become bread.” He was so hungry. It would have been so easy. No one would have known. The test was being able to say no to basic appetites. If we can’t say no to our appetites, they will rule us. Think of His ministry. How many times would He have been hungry, thirsty, tired, or stressed? Being completely faithful to His

mission, His gift to the Father would mean saying no to those desires. If, every time I feel a bit hungry I immediately grab something to eat. If, every time I eat, to keep eating until I’m full, how do I know this desire doesn’t rule me? Why would I expect that I would be able to refuse my stomach? If I can’t say no to it, what is really my god? Did Jesus experience sexual temptation? Our faith tells us He was fully human, so how could we believe He did not? That would certainly have interfered with the course He was on. Of course, there is meant to be great joy in giving oneself as gift in a full, free, faithful, and fruitful relationship. Things like pornography and hookup culture are ways of seeking the thrill without giving ourselves as gift. How much destruction has the pursuit of these appetites caused in our world? How this Lent should I practice saying no to my appetites?

“I shall give you all this power and glory…if you worship me.” Matthew’s Gospel makes this the last temptation, and I figure that it is to emphasize it because of his emphasis on right worship and Jesus as Davidic King. Luke puts it second. But imagine simply being handed over power and glory without having to work or suffer for it. This is the temptation to have power without giving the gift. Jesus would work incredibly hard and suffer incredibly much so that He could transform people and the world by the power of the Pascal mystery. Imagine Him just saying “Scribes and Pharisees, you’ve done a bad job. I’m putting you in prison.” That would have been so much easier than what He dealt with, but it would have only made superficial change. As a pastor, I know that anything I do with just my formal authority is going to be superficial and can be undone just as easily. If I’m going to make profound and lasting change, It requires informal authority, which cannot be given, only earned. It requires more work, enduring more frustration, and being more patient. I long ago learned that if we want to do good, we will need to work harder than we thought for longer than we expected to achieve less than we hoped. The prize belongs to those who do not then give up. We see those who try to force change by coercion. That does not require them giving themselves as gift. We are called to make change with service, witness and sacrifice. We see in our Gospels that is what Jesus did, and he had to face much frustration, and it required everything from Him. How might we give ourselves as gift for the work of the Kingdom.

“Throw yourself down from here” (the parapet of the temple). Luke portrays this as the final temptation, emphasizing that Jesus was facing the full pain of the human condition. The desire to be protected from harm is primal, and Jesus knew He was going to have to face horrific suffering. How do we avoid pain? Do we shy away from painful conversations that we need to face? Do we use drugs or alcohol to numb ourselves? Do we keep ourselves distracted to hide from the pain in our hearts? Do we refuse to leave our comfort zones for the sake of doing God’s work? How might we be called to face things we don’t want to face, but need to?

Have a fruitful Lent,

Fr. Jim