Government should work for the common good. Politics should be about establishing the best policies which help establish the common good. Those in positions of authority should realize their call is one of service for the people. When they hold power, it should not be for their own sake, but for the sake of others. Thus, if a politicians interferes with the political process so as to gain power for themselves and ignore the common good, they should be removed... Read more
St. Hildegard of Bingen, even in her lifetime, was looked upon with amazement for her knowledge and wisdom, as well as her prophetic insight which gave her the kind of authority rarely held by women until the modern age. Nonetheless, she was a woman, and as a woman, she often had to fight for her rights as she often found herself in conflict with various ecclesial and secular authorities. As a woman, she was expected to be obedient to all... Read more
Jesus told us not to be afraid. We should not look out to the world in fear; we should not be overly worried about those who unjustly threaten to do us some harm if we don’t follow them in their wicked ways, because, though we might indeed suffer, they are limited in what they can do to us and eventually their power will come to an end But he also told us to fear the one who can destroy our... Read more
God truly works in mysterious ways, shocking us out of our complacency. Often, what God does is counterintuitive, and yet the effectiveness of God’s work reveals that what we thought to be folly is actually wisdom. Once we realize we have been so wrong in regards our expectations, we learn to reconsider everything, especially ourselves, so that we put aside all that we thought we knew in order to be awakened to the greater truth which is revealed to us... Read more
Conspiracy theories develop when people do not want to believe some inconvenient truth. They want to find an alternative truth which they can hold onto which does not inconvenience them. This often leads to the search for a scapegoat, finding someone to blame for a particular crisis, so that instead of doing what needs to be done in order to deal with the crisis itself, society is encouraged to attack the scapegoats. Since this does not deal with the crisis,... Read more
Good does not need evil, but evil needs the good, for goodness is ontologically connected to being itself. What exists, in its existence, is good. Evil thrives on the good; it uses and abuses the good, distorting and corrupting it, so that as evil feeds on the good, it weakens and lessens it. If evil were not stopped, it would prove to be self-destructive, for it would destroy the good through its corruption, and once the good was destroyed, evil... Read more
Paul, showing his knowledge and understanding of the teachings of Jesus and how they related to his Jewish heritage, implores us to love our neighbor. He tells us that when we do so, we fulfill the law: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are... Read more
God, by nature, is simple. God has no parts. Likewise, God, by nature, is incomprehensible to us. We can never comprehend the divine nature. Any attempt to do so will come up empty. Due to the simplicity of God, we can’t divide the divine nature up into lesser parts in order to comprehend them. For if we could do so, that would mean God is composite, composed of parts, and not simple. This is why anything which we comprehend about... Read more
Dante’s Divine Comedy presents to the modern reader a cosmology which is radically different from our own. Many people today read it as a work of fiction, and consider the cosmology itself to be a construct created by Dante himself. They say we should not read it theologically, as if it indicated anything about Christian notions of the afterlife. While there is, to be sure, an element of truth to that caveat, it is also true that he took on... Read more
We must be careful in the way we interpret particular weather events. Particular events, in and of themselves, do not present to us general data concerning climate. Climate change is general and universal, while particular events often represent specific variables that include effects from climate change, but are not limited by them. If it is extremely warm one day, it might be connected to global warming, but it doesn’t have to be. If it is extremely cold another day, such... Read more
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