Austrian psychotherapist Alfred Adler\u00a0may have died two years before the film release of\u00a0The Wizard of Oz<\/em>, but he probably would have\u00a0been a fan.<\/p>\n Adler famously counseled that in any human\u00a0endeavor we should follow our hearts \u2013 but we must also take our brains along with us. <\/em><\/p>\n L. Frank Baum\u2019s masterpiece drilled a little bit deeper and found courage, too, a critical element. All three harmoniously work their magic together \u2013 the heart leads while the mind counsels and courage finds a way.<\/p>\n This generation may have forgotten what it takes. It\u2019s all too easy to permit our hearts alone \u2013 our feelings \u2013 to guide us. In matters of religion, politics, and personal relationships, we more often abide by our heart while we turn aside the counsel of our head.<\/p>\n We may\u00a0well\u00a0know<\/em> better, but our feelings have permission to dominate. We act as if all of our\u00a0feelings are pure,\u00a0our hearts are innocent, and our desires always lead to truth. We need to believe that whatever\u00a0the heart\u00a0alone seeks\u00a0is necessarily\u00a0good<\/em>.<\/p>\n But none of this is true innocence, where guilt is absent and the soul is free of discord. No. It\u2019s naivet\u00e9. It\u2019s foolishness. And it\u2019s certainly not biblical.<\/p>\n We are called, as are the saints, to be clever, and brave, and prudent, and wise, as well as innocent. We are never called to stupidity.<\/p>\n We shouldn\u2019t check our brains at the Church door, and it is disastrous to do so when we\u00a0engage in public discourse or otherwise enter into the public square:<\/p>\n Remember, I am sending you out to be like sheep among wolves; you must be wary, then, as serpents, and yet innocent as doves.\u00a0 Do not put your trust in men\u00a0(Matthew 10:16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The seemingly paradoxical parable known as the Unjust Steward<\/em> sheds more light on the point (Luke 16:1-13):<\/p>\n A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said \u201cWhat is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.\u201d The steward said to himself \u201cWhat shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.\u201d He called in his master\u2019s debtors one by one. To the first he said \u201cHow much do you owe my master?\u201d He replied \u201cOne hundred measures of olive oil.\u201d He said to him \u201cHere is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And on he went. But isn\u2019t this embezzlement, theft and fraud? Yes \u2013 and yet, the master\u2019s reaction was not what we may have anticipated:<\/p>\n And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently<\/em>. \u201cFor the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Clever and prudent. The unjust steward was both. <\/em>He survived. And Christ approved \u2013 yet He\u00a0didn\u2019t deny the steward\u2019s dishonesty. There must be something more here for us to grasp.<\/p>\n Christ seems to be twice admonishing that it\u2019s not enough for our hearts alone to\u00a0guide us through this world. We must also be clever, and brave, and prudent, and wise. We are called to tap the God-given power of our minds, and be all the more willing to use it, just as the saints have done throughout the ages.*<\/p>\n We have to know and\u00a0understand our world\u00a0by seeing\u00a0what is, <\/em>not by what we\u00a0want it to be. Content to rely upon our feelings, we have allowed ourselves to grow lazy, and indulgent, and selfish. More often than not delusion trumps truth, naivet\u00e9 trumps innocence, and silence trumps action.<\/p>\n The brilliant and\u00a0rather blunt Rev. George W. Rutler, Pastor of St. Michael\u2019s Church in NYC and occasional EWTN program host, had this to say about the horrifying events now raging\u00a0throughout the Middle East (Weekly Column, September 14,2014<\/a>):<\/p>\n We are now engaged in a war, whether or not some politicians hesitate to call it that, and it must have priority over all other interests. The war is being fought by enemies of God, deluded by conceit\u00a0that they are fighting for God. This is so hard for an indulged and selfish culture to accept, inasmuch as it means acknowledging that good and evil exist, though many would prefer to ignore the latter. Christians are being martyred in the Middle East, and public officials still find it hard to mention that those who are being crucified, beheaded, and driven from their homes are suffering because they are Christians. The auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, Shlemon Warduni, said on Vatican radio: \u201cWe have to ask the world: Why are you silent? Why do not you speak out? Do human rights exist, or not? And if they exist, where are they?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n More:<\/p>\n As this suffering continues, many in the United States are willing to tolerate heresy and moral decadence in a vain attempt to \u201cget along\u201d with others. While Christians must \u201clove the sinner and hate the sin,\u201d there are an increasing number of people who are intimidated into enabling the sinner to advertise his sin . . . The holy martyrs in the Middle East honor the Church and atone for our degeneracy. Their bishops are willing to struggle and die with them. They must be amazed that bishops and people in other places have their priorities so wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We can all too easily dismiss and ignore the evil closing in on us because we would rather not believe that it actually exists. Our hearts compel us in one direction even as\u00a0our heads may sense the warning signals coming from another. Courage fails us.<\/p>\n We have chosen silence, inaction, and delusion instead of heeding the call to courage, prudence, and wisdom. Clearly, we\u2019re not in Oz. We\u2019re not even following the yellow brick road.<\/p>\n This story<\/a>\u00a0in particular \u2013 if the details prove\u00a0accurate \u2013 may well serve\u00a0as an ominous warning about\u00a0the unfortunate direction that\u00a0we are now rapidly heading.**<\/p>\n We seem to have heart in abundance. But these times call for\u00a0the wisdom and the courage of saints.<\/p>\n