Holy Person: The Biblical Sense

Last updated on: October 6, 2020 at 8:37 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

Believers were given the fantastic vocation at baptism to become a holy person—but what does that mean biblically? What a challenge 21st century Catholics receive reading the Synoptic Gospels, Paul, and “John.” How can we ever really be imitators of saints like Paul? We cannot really accomplish the works Jesus did, can we? How could we ever perform “greater works than these”? Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the God of Israel engages in two great activities Greek-speakers rendered as erga, or “works.” These... Read more

Trump Has Coronavirus

Last updated on: October 2, 2020 at 3:31 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

President Donald Trump has COVID-19. Trump Has Coronavirus. This virus doesn’t care about your status as POTUS or peasant. The best medical attention this world can provide is useless. It doesn’t matter if you are Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, or Xi Jinping, fellow dying inmates. If you are high risk and your health isn’t up to the novel Coronavirus, and you get infected, you’re dead. It’s as simple as nailing an old-style coffin. What to do, U.S. Catholics? Trump Has... Read more

Embarrassment Worldwide

Last updated on: September 30, 2020 at 3:25 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Embarrassment, my fellow Americans, is what it is. We are an international embarrassment. I’m not saying that last night was the most embarrassing this country has ever faced, but it’s somewhere on the count. And with four intolerable years of such nights under a miserable comedy of Donald Trump’s presidency, that says something. I’m raw tonight. Incensed. Worried. And praying. I should be, most of all, praying. But most of all, I’m embarrassed. And you ought to be as well,... Read more

Allegory-gone-wild Makes Scripture “Obvious”

Last updated on: September 28, 2020 at 6:25 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Allegory-gone-wild makes things in Scripture deceptively “obvious”. Since New Testament times, believers seem to be addicted to allegory. We Christians are like a big ol’ crack house for allegory. And like a crack house brings sickness and death and misery, so also has our allegory-gone-wild. It creates dangerous mirages where meaning seems obvious, and this has led to many tragic injustices. It continues to do so. Let me show you with a little help from Context Group scholar, Dr. Richard... Read more

Penance: What the Hell Are We Doing?

Last updated on: September 26, 2020 at 7:13 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Got a question for you. Jesus is disclosed in the sacraments, yes? Hope the Catholics said yes, as that is Church teaching. Perhaps a better question is—what kind of Jesus is revealed in the Sacraments? What kind of Jesus is communicated in Penance or Reconciliation? Recall a previous post where we discussed the intelligibility of the sacraments. Sacraments cause grace insofar as they signify it. Should they be unintelligible or rendered ineffective as signs, the result is they won’t be effective causes. For a sacrament... Read more

What Are the Moral Limits of Pacifism?

Last updated on: September 25, 2020 at 12:46 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

May God grant us insight to both discern the moral limits of pacifism and actively listen to one another in these dark days. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues with no end in sight, 200,000 people are dead. And our servant-leader, Donald Trump? He toys with refusing to leave office should he lose the 2020 election. His supporters? They may be willing to fight (and kill?) to support his ambitions. Among the supporters are Catholics, convinced they are fighting for... Read more

What Made John of Apocalypse a Prophet?

Last updated on: September 19, 2020 at 4:45 am By Fellow Dying Inmate

While it is tempting to see our dark trials written about in Revelation, John the prophet knew nothing and cared nothing for our times. Apocalypse is on the minds of many, many American Christians right now. Not the actual book called by that name or “Revelation” (singular, not plural). But what people popularly imagine it’s about. By that, I mean the capital “E” End. As at the end of everything, the end of the world type end. Things are... Read more

Who Is Worthy of the Eucharist?

Last updated on: September 16, 2020 at 7:14 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Who is worthy of inclusion at the Lord’s Table matters in times when Eucharist is more divisive than uniting. Was Saint Paul an obsessive Catholic? Was he worried that people at Corinth were becoming sick because they took Communion in a state of mortal sin (1 Corinthians 11:27-30)? The short answer is no. Don’t count me a member of the club that blindly thinks that once you become pope, that means you should, one day, be canonized. I will never... Read more

Stupidity In Catholics: Deadly

Last updated on: September 15, 2020 at 9:53 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

Catholic stupidity is deadlier than a host of evils. Last time, I wrote about the significance and intelligibility of sacraments. What do sacraments signify? What does a cruel Church signify? Here I pick up that thread by using the shortest distance between truth and a human being, a story. It tells of a personal experience where I allowed my own stupidity to reign in my faith-walk. This was one of many experiences that would help to eventually shake me out of... Read more

A Cruel Church Signifies What?

Last updated on: September 9, 2020 at 8:40 pm By Fellow Dying Inmate

What happens when the Church, as a sacrament, fails to do what it signifies? Sacraments signify and perform that which they signify. Generally speaking, a sacrament is any created reality imbued with the hidden presence of God. Therefore everything in the universe either can be or is a sacrament. And sacraments signify and do what they signify. Therefore sacraments are intelligible, more or less. Catholics often think that there are only seven sacraments. While that is how we officially count... Read more