Zacchaeus, even if he tried to be an ethical tax collector, still was a tax collector, and he made his money, his wealth, on the backs of others. Tax collecting was much different in ancient Rome than it is today, as tax collectors were given a percentage of the money they collected as their pray. He was not as bad as they could come. He wanted to think good of himself. He knew tax collecting was important, even if the... Read more
The Republicans, especially those in the House, seem hell-bent to destroy the common good (and so, create evil in its wake). They plan to use whatever power they have to grab after more power for themselves, making sure less and less people can effectively oppose them and their policies. They are nihilistic, which is why they are willing to destroy the United States if they do not get what they want. They have no interest in helping others, though they... Read more
We are not to follow Jesus, and use Jesus, for the sake of personal gain or profit, that is, we are not to turn the Christian faith into a mere business opportunity. Sadly, it seems, this has been a problem for a long time. People see an opportunity to profit off of the faith of others. This is why we can see St. Antony the Great write against this tendency in his letters, such as when he said: “But those... Read more
Martin Luther King Jr. understood that the civil rights movement needed to bring all of the people of the United States together. He knew that it needed people from all walks of life, every corner of society, if it were to be successful. He also knew that those who gained the most from systematic injustices would not want things to change, and so they would not only resisting joining in with his work, they would do everything they could to... Read more
We can hope that we everyone will be saved because our God is a living God, one who has come into the world to save all humanity (and, indeed, all creation). And yet, while Scripture is clear that God works for the salvation of all, this does not mean we to do nothing ourselves. We know that our work, however imperfect it is, can be taken in by God and used by God as a means by which God’s grace... Read more
The mythic stories recorded in Genesis, however one interprets or reads them in regards to history, should still be used to teach Christians many lessons such as the idea that humanity is called to take care of and protect the earth. Humanity was given stewardship over the earth, not so that they can exploit it and use it for their every whim, but to preserve it, protecting those living on it from needless harm. If they fail that, that is,... Read more
As a society, we encourage people not only to be prideful, but also to be narcissistic, so that they think all they need to do is live their lives fulfilling their every whim, even if it comes at the expense of the common good. Most of us have learned that lesson well. We try to make ourselves the center of the universe, subjecting everything to us as if our will, our desires, was absolute. We not only think we know... Read more
Christian personalism is founded upon and engages what is learned from the teaching of the Trinity. As the name suggests, personalism engages the category of the person. Fundamental to its presentation is the belief that a person does not exist outside of a relationship with other persons. This is true, not only in humanity, but in the divinity. The eternal relations of the three persons of the Trinity confirm that God is not some impersonal divine force. Christian personalism, seeing... Read more
The mystical body of Christ, the church of Christ, subsists in the institutional Catholic church. This means that the Catholic church continues to bring and reveal the presence of Christ to the world. Yet it also means that Christ’s presence does not have to be seem as limited to the institutional church, that it can, at least in theory, subsist in other institutions or groups of people. This reality is something which is difficult to grasp, and for that reason,... Read more
One famous heresy, popular especially at the inception of the Christian faith, is that of Adoptionism. It taught that Jesus was made the adopted Son of God the Father. Because the implications of that teaching, and the time in which Jesus was said to become adopted by God (such as at his baptism, resurrection, or his ascension), there were various different forms of the heresy, but that does not mean they did not hold enough in common for them to... Read more
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