Every so often, someone asks, “Do Christians, Muslims, and Jews worship the same God”? If we pay attention, we will find many of them do this, not as an inquiry, but rather as a rhetorical question. They think the answer is obviously no. They state that the Christian belief in the Trinity means Christians do not share God in common with Muslims or Jews because neither Muslims nor Jews accept the teaching of the Trinity. Likewise, because Christians believe in... Read more
God desires that everyone should be saved (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4). Balthasar suggests this is one of the many reasons why we can and should hope that all will be saved even if such hope transcends our knowledge. In and though the incarnation, in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus. God works to bring to fruition that desire. The taint of sin is removed from creation so that it can be handed over to the Father. All of... Read more
Anger often gets the best of us, making us act rashly, without thinking about what we are doing. It should not be surprising that, as a result of our anger, we often end up hurting ourselves more than anyone else. This is not to say we should never get angry, nor that anger can never be put to good use. There are times when anger is justified and what is done out of such anger, if it is also done... Read more
One of the more interesting and perhaps one of the most important titles Jesus uses for himself is that of the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn. 10:11). His audience would have understood that Jesus took on a title which tradition had given to God. The Psalms established the relationship between us and God as that of sheep with a shepherd, so that when we go astray, God would guide and direct us to safety: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall... Read more
Theology, no matter how sophisticated it is, no matter how transcendent the thinking behind it is, remains written by us, conforming to our limited human capacity to engage the absolute truth. What we are able to comprehend is finite; what lays beyond our comprehension is infinite. While we can apprehend the truth, we do so in a limited fashion; what we declare can only be relative representations and pointers to the absolute truth. Paul understood this. He knew that he... Read more
President Biden opposes the death penalty. But he doesn’t want to act unilaterally, like a dictator, that is, he doesn’t want to act like Trump. This is why he hasn’t written an executive order putting an end to federal executions; he thinks it would be better if Congress passed laws which would put an end to federal executions. That way, it would be much more difficult for some future president to do what Trump and his Attorney General did, not... Read more
Calumny is a grave sin. Everyone deserves to be treated with charity. No one should have their reputation unjustly destroyed. Everyone has their foibles, their particular character defects, and it would be easy for us to use them to destroy someone’s reputation. All that we need to do in order to hurt someone else’s good name is to exaggerate their character flaws, making those blemishes appear prominent while ignoring all their good qualities, for this will easily make them appear... Read more
Christianity is a religion of forgiveness. Mercy and grace are offered to people so that they do not have to suffer the full consequences of their actions. This means, we are set free from a purely legalistic interpretation of life, one which views the world as a closed system, and every action must have an opposite and equal reaction. Grace opens up the system, so that the consequences of one’s actions do not have to be equal to the action... Read more
Jesus warned us not to be slaves to mammon. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon “(Mat. 6:24 RSV). By making wealth the absolute good, avarice has us relativize and turn away from all other goods if they do not help us attain riches for ourselves. Mammon leads us to despise God... Read more
Refugees deserve to be honored and respected, given protections so that they do not suffer or become penalized due to their status. Due to the circumstances they have found themselves in, they often have to disregard the rule of law in order to survive. Just as those who have to steal food in order to survive are not culpable for theft, refugees who have to disregard border laws in order to find safety should not be held responsible for breaking... Read more
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