The great Robert Taft, commenting upon the spirituality of the East, explained that a major component of it is the realization of tradition through liturgical worship: “An attachment to tradition, to the ways handed down from time immemorial by their fathers in the faith, is evident in every aspect of church life in the East, but above all in worship.”[1] While this could be used to suggest that the East tends to be conservative in liturgy, this must not imply... Read more
When Peter asked about how many times he should forgive any offense he received from others, Jesus replied with the symbolic “seventy times seven” before telling the story of a king who settled his accounts: Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him... Read more
Reading Tolkien’s stories, it is easy to pick up the fact that the various races of Middle Earth often stood in competition with each other, causing various forms of racial tension and notions of racial supremacy to emerge.[1] Some readers, following this line of thought, try to use Tolkien as a prop for their own racism. They see that claims of superiority prove that there should be some races, some groups, which are seen as superior to others, who, then,... Read more
Perhaps one of the greatest contributions of Paul to Christian theology is his proclamation that Christians should be free from all extreme legalistic expectations. What is good is important, but there are many ways of acting upon the good, some being better than others. Christian liberty allows the exploration of those various goods so long as they remain good and honorable. What is best will not be achieved, indeed, cannot be achieved, by all, and various virtues, which are worthy... Read more
Early Christian moral teaching consistently warned Christians against the evils of avarice, understanding it was not only about the love of money, but the insatiable desire for possessions: He [Abba Isidore of Pelusia] also said, ‘The desire for possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety; it drives the soul which it controls to the heights of evil. Therefore let us drive it away vigorously from the beginning. For once it has become master it cannot be overcome.’[1] As the... Read more
As photos reveal the deplorable state of migrants crammed into cells, as more and more migrants end up dead as they try to escape the horrors of the lands from which they come, and as exposes reveal the fundamental lack of moral character behind the majority of those charged with the border patrol, a common response, if not the most common response, to these tragedies by Trump supporters is to blame the victims of these abuses for not “obeying the... Read more
Jesus came to fulfill the law. “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18 RSV). What he taught, what he expected from his disciples, flowed out of the law and the prophets. Nonetheless, some might... Read more
Humans, called to be stewards of creation, are not meant to be parasites taking over and destroying anything and everything around them for the sake of their own inordinate pleasures; rather, they are meant to embrace creation, to integrate with it, to form symbiotic relationships with the various forms of life which they find in it. Different forms of life have their own values which must always be considered when humans interact with them. Each form of life must be... Read more
In dealing with the current crisis of the church, when we see many people lose faith and leave the church, some think that the solution is to promote more catechesis and apologetics. They think the problem is that people do not have a sufficient understanding of what the church teaches, and so if someone would explain to those who have fallen away from the faith the church’s doctrines, they would swiftly return to the fold. Not only is this a... Read more
Working together, Sts. Peter and Paul built up the church and set up the foundation of the See of Rome. But it was not an easy task. St. Peter struggled to understand what faith in Christ really meant, to see its universality, to see how it transcended his Jewish background. Peter was a man of faith, a man of devotion, but also a man who made many mistakes. And yet, like many great men, he was willing to learn from... Read more
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