The state should protect the common good, and with it, human rights, including the rights of those who are not citizens of the state. Human rights are universal, meaning, they transcend borders. This was, in part, one of the ideas which the founders of the United States employed to justify their independence from Great Britain; they believed that their rights had be violated, and to protect them, they had to cut ties from England. While it is good to see... Read more
Selfishness encourages us to seek our own private gain at the expense of others. It will encourage us to do things for own immediate gratification, and, because we find some initial satisfaction when we attain that gratification, it might seem our actions are justified. However, whatever pleasure we receive will only be temporary, and once it is gone, we will find ourselves in a worse position than we were before we acted, for our selfishness will have had us become... Read more
God transcends all names, even the name of God. But, to deal with God, we give God many names, coming both from our experience with God and from revelation. They reflect the various activities of the one we call God; we must not confuse the names, and how we understand them, as being univocal with the way they are in the divine nature itself. Because of the way our minds work, as they seek to divide even things which are... Read more
Spiritual masters warn us that we will likely encounter all kinds of temptations throughout our temporal existence. We should not be surprised by them. We should not fall into despair when we experience them. We should know that they are trials which help build us up, and in this fashion, see them as a sign of hope, a sign that we have been given the opportunity to grow and become better. We do not have to give into temptation (and,... Read more
Christianity is a religion of mercy and grace, but such mercy and grace would be worthless if it were not also a religion of truth and justice. The truth matters. Justice matters. Mercy and grace only make sense if we recognize that satisfaction must be made for injustices. Neither would be needed if we are not to be held responsible for what we do, that is, for our sin. Both are necessary once we understand the harm we have done... Read more
Christ teaches that humanity is called to be one, to share with each other their hopes and fears, their triumphs and troubles (cf. Jn. 17:21). Sin has divided us up, warring against each other with hate, while Christ, overcoming sin, works to bring us back together and realize our essential unity in and through love. When we resist this, we resist Christ, and so fall back into the pattern of hate and sin. This is why, throughout our lives, we... Read more
Images of the saints, as well as of Christ, are not only permitted, but should be used as aids in our worship and as a way for us to experience the kingdom of God in our temporal existence. In a way, they can be said to be windows into heaven, as in and through them, we get a glimpse of glorified existence. The reason why they are acceptable is because of the incarnation. God became one of us. Because the... Read more
Christ does not give us the gift of himself in the eucharist so that by partaking of it, we reinforce our individualistic, selfish engagement of the world. He gives the eucharist so that through it, we can become better, that we open ourselves up beyond our individualistic barriers and embrace the world as true persons in Christ. To do this, we must overcome our selfishness, and the barriers we make between ourselves and everyone else. We must stop trying to... Read more
Christians are called to work for and promote peace, for Christ is the Prince of Peace (cf. Isa. 9:6). True peace is established in and through the elimination of every evil so that we can then find ourselves advancing towards the greatest good. This is why, as St. Albert the Great explained, it is established by Christ: “To the next, one must reply that peace consists in the removal of evil, and this is caused by the Passion. And there... Read more
St. Moses the Ethopian, once he escaped all forms of slavery which afflicted him, the first being that which was imposed upon him from outside himself, the second, the one which he imposed upon himself through giving in to inordinate desires, he was able to become one of the greatest, one of the most profound, monks of his era. He learned more than enough discipline through the harsh, abusive treatment which he received as a slave, but once he was... Read more
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