Eat x 10 x 2 = ?

Audio file from Council 13112 April 2014 FGO, based on this written bit: Not Like Magua.

On the Examen

The dreadful scourge of Snow in South Carolina has created a local shortage of FGOs. Fortunately, Bro. Dan Grossano sent me another one of his:

 

Lecturer Talk 5 – On the Examen

Brothers, how did everyone do with the challenge from the last time?  [It was to attend the March for Life or at least pray and sacrifice on the anniversary for the building of the a culture of life].  Today we are going to return to the topic we reflected on two months ago.  If you remember my sequence of talks, I started out talking about what is the essence of the Gospel message and what does it mean to have a relationship with Christ, then I moved on to the importance of prayer and one way to pray with Scripture, next I spoke about Advent and last month about being pro-life.  I want to first of all reiterate the importance of prayer.  Brothers, you might be used to having the identifiers of being a Catholic as I go to Mass, I go to the Knights meeting, I serve as an usher, whatever, but as I spoke about in my first talk the essence of our faith is to be in an intimate, personal relationship with God that overflows to the love of our neighbor.  Now here is a question for all of you, how do we strength relationships?  (This is not a rhetorical question).  We spend time together.  We will be judged by our love first, not just our activities.  Prayer foster love, it is spending time with the one we should love.  If we say that we are Knights of Columbus and disciples of Christ we need to be spending time every day, in personal prayer.  Prayer needs to become an essential part of our day!  Also I want to introduce a concept that I am going to come back to again and again. 

This is the concept of intentional discipleship.  Our supreme chaplain, Archbishop William Lori put it very well: “To be an intentional disciple is to make an act of faith that is not merely notional but is rather an entrustment of our whole lives to Christ our God.  It is an act of faith that shapes one's whole existence because it leads again and again to an encounter with Christ” (“Chaplain’s Report” 2014 January, p. 2).  In other words rather than being one who is just someone who goes through the motions of their faith or is busy with Catholic activities, one needs to be consciously following Christ in the midst of the Church and being obedient to all Her teachings.  He also states "It has to do with closing the gap between the rich and beautiful teaching in Scripture, in tradition, in the liturgy - articulated in our day as never before - and the lived experience of so many Catholic Christians, which barely scratches the surface.  What is lacking is not only an adequate knowledge of these riches, but a conscious decision, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to follow Christ. . .” (“Chaplain’s Report” 2014 January, p. 2).  So while there is a crisis today of a lack of adequate understanding about our faith, in other words catechesis, there first is a crisis of evangelization, meaning people understanding the Gospel message and responding.  Again to put it simply this message is God desires a relationship with you, the relationship is ruined by my own sin, it is renewed by Christ’s life, death and resurrection and it requires a response in order “to trust Him and follow Him in a new way” (FOCUS October 2013).  Three questions to ask oneself about one’s own discipleship is “do I understand what it means to be in relationship with Christ,” “do I know the cost of discipleship” and “do I know and strive to practice the habits of being a disciple?”  If you recognize that you are not an intentional disciple, be not afraid!  The first step is recognizing in humility where you are at, desiring to intentionally follow Christ and asking for the grace to say “yes” in stepping forward to become an intentional disciple.  Then one needs to try to live, by God’s grace, the life where Christ is truly the center and Lord of your life.  One of the habits of being an intentional disciple is daily prayer.  Not just prayer when one feels like it, on Sunday or when one is in trouble.  It is a spiritual discipline that strengthens our ability to love God and our neighbor.  The fruit of prayer is a deeper hunger to know God, not just know about Him as well as joy and peace and who does not want those (Lee 21 January 2014)?  It is hard to get started just like getting into a regiment with exercising, but it gets easier over time.  The type of prayer that I want to introduce to you tonight is the prayer of Examen. 

It is not the same thing as an examination of conscience which we do before confession, but it is similar.  It is a method of prayer that comes from St. Ignatius of Loyola who is the founder of the Jesuits to become more aware of God’s presence in our lives and understand how to respond to His presence.  To make sure you are paying attention who do we know who is a famous Jesuit?  The Pope.  There are basically five steps to this prayer which I have included on the handout that I will be giving to you.  The first is to look back on your whole day or if you are doing it mid-day, half your day, with gratitude (Brotherhood of Hope 2005).  How often do you or I truly thank God for all the graces in our lives, or do we just take them for granted?  Also having a grateful heart leads to joy and being positive because we recognize our blessings and how these are all gifts that show the goodness of our Heavenly Father.  This prayer also allows us to be thankful for the ordinary such as last week I helped an acquaintance from our parish find a lawyer as he was facing drunk driving charges and through the Examen I was able to thank God that I was able to be Christ to someone who is at the margins of the Church.  The second step is to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help that He would help you to see what He wants you to see and would help to guide this time of prayer (Brotherhood of Hope 2005). 

The third step is understanding where we pick out a few important parts of our day and truly reflect on what was happening or not happening in our hearts (Ivany n.d.).  An example could be getting drunk.  Why did you get drunk?  What thoughts were going on in your head that lead you down that road?  Was their emptiness in your life?  Did you fall into peer pressure?  These thoughts which lead to sin fall under St. Ignatius’ concept of spiritual desolations when for example we have desire for base things (lust, overeating, overdrinking, foul humor), slothfulness, dryness, sadness, separation from God or thoughts that lead away from God (Ignatius, 317 as cited in Brotherhood of Hope 2005).  When we gets these thoughts or feelings we need to reject them right away and cling to God’s personal love for us even when we might not feel it.  The Examen is not just about what we did wrong, but also where did we see God speaking to us through other people, events, places?  Through this prayer we are able to receive the lessons that the Lord desires to teach us through the ordinary events of our day (Ivany 18 February 2012).  Also harkening back to the concept of intentional discipleship, one sign of being an intentional disciple is through starting to see how Christ is working in one’s daily life and how He is inviting one to move in a direction (i.e. die to oneself more, get more involved at the parish, trust God more).  Otherwise we have this dichotomy between we go to church on Sunday and then the rest of the week we live our life without reference to Christ. 

Through our day we might sense spiritual consolations that the Lord has given us such as increased love for God, hope, charity towards others, sorrow for sin, interior joy, movement towards God, peace and a sense of hopeful purpose (Ignatius 316 as cited in Brotherhood of Hope 2005).  We need to receive these consolations with thanksgiving, acknowledge that they are gifts from Him and ask that the Lord might continue to allow us to continue to witness to Him no matter what the circumstance (Brotherhood of Hope 2005).  For example last week, I could see through the fact that almost every day the plans I had put forth got ruined, I sensed that the Lord was teaching me to be detached from my plans.  By God’s grace, even though my plans were constantly being changed, I was able to be at peace with that, which is a spiritual consolation, something that leads me towards God.  The final step is action.  If we see that we messed up we need to relive this situation again from the perspective of God’s love where the emptiness that we may have felt is filled with His love.  Then the next time we face a similar situation we will have acted it out again in our mind (Ivany 18 February 2012).  Overtime we will come to see patterns in our behavior and ways that the Lord might be speaking to us(Brotherhood of Hope 2005). 

In closing brothers, I know that I am challenging you each time I speak to think, pray and act differently which you are probably not used to.  I am doing this because I care for you as my brothers in Christ and want to challenge you to not be complacent or stagnant rather continue to move forward to being the saint that the Lord desires you to be.  I want to be like your spiritual coach that needs to push the players to help them grow.  I want to issue you three challenges:

-one is to try out this form of prayer at least once a week over the next month, may be more if you find it fruitful

-second is to invite you to the upcoming Communion breakfast on March 2 sponsored by the Bergen Federation with the coadjutor Archbisho Bernard Hebda.  He is the coadjutor meaning that he helps out the current archbishop, Myers, and eventually will succeed him.

-third is to invite you to the men’s conference.  It is the day of our St. Patrick’s Day dance, but it will be over before it begins.  I understand if you are already dedicated to helping set that up and can’t come, but wanted to propose it as an option.  I know that when I went two years ago I thought it was wonderful.  It is an opportunity more deeply encounter Christ, be with other men of faith and learn more about our faith.  Vivat Jesus!

Works Cited

FOCUS. (October 2013). “Fruits of Fall Outreach: Stories from FOCUS Campuses.”  Retrieved

from http://www.focus.org/news-for-you/october-2013/fruits-of-fall-outreach.html

 

Brotherhood of Hope. (2005). “Prayer of Examen.”

 

Ivany, M. (n.d.) “Handout on the Examen.”

 

Ivany, M. (18 February 2012).  “iPray Conference: Father Mark Ivany.”  Retrieved from

http://youtu.be/o0-kCdHErvE  

 

Lee, N. (21 January 2014). “On the Joy of the Gospel.” Delivered at The George Washington

University Newman Center, Washington, D.C.

 

On Building a Culture of Life

Y'all welcome Bro. Dan Grossano, Lector at Council 4524, St. Joseph's Parish, East Rutherford, NJ, Archdiocese of Newark. Here's his first FGO for us.

 

 

On Building a Culture of Life

     

      A week from tomorrow we commemorate the 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion on demand.  We have reached over 56 million abortions since that fateful decision in 1973 (O’Bannon 12 January 2014).  56 million . . .  To help understand this huge number, if you add up the population of the 25 cities in the U.S. with the greatest populations you total only around 36 million (Grant 23 July 2010).  Let that sink in.  Image they were all wiped out tomorrow.  We are not only missing millions of our brothers and sisters, but it has left a path of destruction in its wake.  It has caused untold suffering to women, men and families.  It has caused us to construct a society where the most vulnerable among us are not protected, what Blessed John Paul II called the culture of death.  Sadly, the most dangerous place now for a person on earth is his mother’s womb which should truly be the safest. 

Let me mention from the outset that I am not here to talk politics, but rather to speak about this issue from a moral perspective.  Also seeing the huge statistics, may be one of you brothers in this room encouraged a wife, girlfriend to have an abortion or did not discourage a family member from having an abortion.  I not here to condemn, but to let you know that the Church is here to forgive and help you in the process of healing.  I would invite you to have the courage to mention this the next time you go to confession as well as look into Rachel’s Vineyard which is specifically a healing retreat for men and women who are post-abortive. 

      So now in the face of such gross evil on a scale of which the world has never encountered, especially such calculated evil, how do we respond?  First of all, we should not hate those who support abortion (9 March 2010 CNA/EWTN News).  We need to remember that they are held captive by the enemy of our salvation Satan and that as St. Paul reminds us that our war is not against “. . .flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 RSV-CE).  This means that we need to fight with spiritual weapons – prayer and fasting.  When dialoging about life use tact to avoid personal attacks, using terms that could attack people outright such as abortion mills or pro-abortion, if someone makes a claim he needs to back it up himself and pray for the person asking that the Holy Spirit would open their heart (Benderas 9 October 2010).  Keep in mind that the Lord will remember and make fruitful even the simple acts that we do to build up a true culture of life whether that be praying in front of an abortion clinic, authentically loving your friend in a time of great struggle, talking to a person who is homeless or standing up to defend life among your peers (9 March 2010 CNA/EWTN News).  While we recognize the seriousness of this spiritual battle, we also need to have a sense of joy in the hope that the Lord is with us and has won the definitive victory over sin including abortion (9 March 2010 CNA/EWTN News & 1 Corinthians 15:25-27). 

How we live our lives should exude a pro-life spirituality.  Do we see or attempt to see each person as created in the image of God and having an inestimable dignity?  Do we try to see Jesus in His distressing disguise of the poor as Blessed Mother Teresa encouraged us whether that is in the unborn, the homeless, the immigrant or the elderly?  Or do we judge people depending on their abilities or lack of abilities?  Pope Francis, in a meeting on Monday with member of his diplomatic core of ambassadors condemned “‘the throwaway culture.’”  He stated:

Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as “unnecessary”. For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day; children being used as soldiers, abused and killed in armed conflicts; and children being bought and sold in that terrible form of modern slavery which is human trafficking, which is a crime against humanity (Francis 13 January 2014).

The philosophy behind abortion says that one is a burden that needs to be eliminated while the philosophy of life upholds that it is not about what one can or can not do, but who one is that matters. 

At the root of the culture of death is a lack of understanding of the human person, sex and chastity and the widespread use of contraception especially the birth control pill which can be an abortifacient, but that is a topic for a whole other talk.  I want to go over some current challenges to life:

·         Euthanasia: the direct killing of an innocent person who is suffering or feels that their life is worthless.

-We are not masters over our life (Chacon &Burnham 2008 p. 19).

-Contrary to the Hippocratic oath

-People worry about being a burden to others (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 18)

-They should be able to receive proper pain management even if it hastens death or the person loses consciousness (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 19-20)

-Suffering has a redemptive value through the cross of Christ

-Ordinary (well established and beneficial, could depend on age) is required v. extraordinary (expensive, experimental) means of treatment is not required (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 20).

-When death is close at hand, one can avoid treatment which will prolong the seemingly inevitable.  The person should receive adequate warmth, food, water and hygiene (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 20). 

-This attitude about a person having a poor quality of life or being a burden is similar to the logic of Hitler and Stalin.  Anything seemingly could become poor quality of life.  We should use technology to help the dying rather than hasten death.  All life should be seen as sacred.  The dignity of the human person is key to the teaching of the Church in its teaching on social issues (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 21). 

·         Therapeutic v. selective gene manipulation

-Therapeutic is to help prevent cancer and other diseases while selective gene manipulation is trying to give human beings certain physical characteristics.  It is morally permissible to fix genetic problems, but “. . .may not genetically design people with pre-selected qualities” (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 33).  Human beings are ends in themselves and should not be prized because of their characteristics.  Parents should not design their children to meet their needs (Chacon &Burnham 2008, p. 33). 

      Conversion of hearts and not just getting power in the government is the end of the pro-life movement.  This conversion of hearts will lead to the renewal of culture which eventually by God’s grace allows us to have a culture which embraces rather than rejects life (Gilbert 11 February 2009).  I want to posit that to build a culture of life requires a collective conversion of heart and not just for those who support abortion.  Consider these sobering words from Msgr. Charles Pope, a priest from the Archdiocese of Washington and a popular blogger:

It is this nation, collectively that is guilty. It is those who have sought abortion, those who perform them, those who pressure women to have them, those who vote to uphold this evil as a “right.” It is those who remain silent and those who vote for those who uphold this grave evil, or downplay its horrific reality. It is those who fail to provide reasonable alternatives and resources for women in crisis. It is those who live unchastely and fail to reproach those in their family members who live that way.  Yes, to a large extent few of us can fail to escape the fact that we have contributed to, even indulged in an unchaste, unjust and unholy culture that leads to the death of millions every year. Abortion results largely from unchastity and the refusal of Americans, collectively to accept the consequences of our sin. (20 January 2013)

So it is not only those who actively promote the culture of death who require conversion, but also our lack of living chastity and having the humility to own up to our sin.  The building of a culture of life starts with me and as well as you. 

Works Cited

Benderas, A.  (9 October 2010).  “5 tips for Pro-Life conversation.” Live Action Blog. 

     Retrieved from http://liveaction.org/blog/5-tips-for-pro-life-conversation/

Chacon, F. & Burnham, J. (2008).  Beginning Apologetics 5: How to Answer Tough Moral

Questions: Abortion, Contraception, Euthanasia, Test-Tube Babies, Cloning & Sexual Ethics.  Farmington, NM: San Juan Catholic Seminars:. 

CNA/EWTN News. (9 March 2010). “Archbishop Chaput suggests ‘Dos and Don’ts’ for pro-

life advocates.”  Retrieved from http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/

Francis. (13 January 2014). “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Members of the

Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See.”  Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/speeches/2014/january/documents/papa-francesco_20140113_corpo-diplomatico_en.html

Gilbert, K. (10 February 2009).  “Archbishop Chaput Warns Ireland against Compromising   

    with ‘Pluralism’ and ‘Abortion Reduction Strategies.’”  Retrieved from  

    http://www.lifesitenews.com/

Grant, J.C. (23 July 2010).  “Largest U.S. Cities: Population Size (2012).”  Retrieved

    from http://voices.yahoo.com/largest-us-cities-population-size-2012-

    6453656.html

O’Bannon, R. (12 January 2014). “56,662,169 Abortions in America Since Roe vs. Wade in

1973.” Retrieved from http://www.lifenews.com/2014/01/12/56662169-abortions-in-america-since-roe-vs-wade-in-1973/

Pope, C. (20 January 2013). “Light and Darkness: Some thoughts on this Presidential  

     Inauguration Rooted in another Inauguration in 1865.” Archdiocese of Washington Blog.

     Retrieved from http://blog.adw.org/2013/01/light-and-darkenss-some-thoughts-on-this-

     presidential-inauguration-rooted-in-another-inauguration-in-1865/

 

Christ, Truly Present

February 2014 FGO by Bro. Jason Rhoad

One of the documents from the Second Vatican Council is named Sacrosanctum Concilium, The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. While there is much to be learned from entire document, for this month’s discussion, I am only going to focus on one small aspect of it, paragraph seven. In that one small section, we get a very key catechesis on the liturgy. There we are reminded of the four ways Jesus Christ is present at each and every mass.

Given recent poll numbers concerning how many Catholics actually attend mass regularly, and how many of those that either don’t know or don’t believe in the real presence of Christ at mass, part of the new evangelization has to be focused on helping baptized Catholics understand just what a true treasure the holy sacrifice of the mass is. St. Padre Pio once said, “If we only knew how God regards this sacrifice, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass.” Paragraph 11 of CSL teaches that the full, conscious, and active participation by all the people at mass is the pastoral aim to be considered before all else. In other words, the most important thing is that we the faithful understand what the mass is, what is going on, and what our participation should be. So in that spirit, let’s take a look at one aspect of the mass that should capture our awe, Christ’s presence.

CSL 7 teaches us that there are actually four ways that Christ is present in the liturgy. First, he is present in the person of his minister, “the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross.” The Church teaches us that the priest acts in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. Christ is present then through the ministry of the priest. The priest participates in the priesthood of Christ, the true high priest. So when the priest performs the priestly functions during the liturgy, such as administering the sacraments, it is Christ who administers the sacraments.

Second, Christ is present in the sacraments themselves, most notably in the holy Eucharist. Christ is present in all the sacraments as each of them were instituted by Him in order communicate to us the grace that they signify. To receive a sacrament is to receive the grace of Christ. But the way we receive Him par excellence, the way that Christ’s presence trumps all other ways in which He is present to us, is in the holy Eucharist. When the priest consecrates the bread and wine, those ordinary elements which are condensed symbols representing the entire lives of all the faithful, become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The CCC tells us that Christ is really, truly, and substantially present. The smallest fragment of the host and the smallest drop of the precious blood contain the whole Jesus, so when we receive under either species, we receive the full Christ.

The third way Jesus is present at mass is in His word, since it is He Himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in the Church. In John 1:1 we read that in the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We then read that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the logos, the eternal Word of God. Every word in the Bible can be condensed into one word, Jesus. St. John of the Cross said, “In the eternal silences of the Trinity, God only spoke a single word, the Eternal Word. He has nothing more to say.”

Finally, CSL 7 tells us that Jesus is present when the Church prays and sings, for He has promised “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Mt. 18:20). Through this, Jesus shows us the importance of gathering together as a community to worship. While it is true that we can experience Jesus anywhere and in many different ways, He specifically tells us that if we gather together in His name, He is truly there with us.

CSL 7 sums it up this way: “From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the Priest and of his Body, which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.”

The document goes on to tell us how the earthly liturgy is a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy. The mass is truly heaven on earth. As one of the Eucharistic prayers tells us, God’s angel takes the sacrifice from the altar and brings it to the altar in heaven. We are entering into the once for all sacrifice of Jesus. We are at the foot of the cross. Through the earthly symbols of bread and wine, we are to offer ourselves, in union with Christ’s offering, to God the father. So we join our sacrifice to His, which accomplished the redemption of the entire world. Because of this, an infinite amount of grace is available at every single mass. The more we open ourselves to this grace, the more we cultivate our relationship with God and dispose ourselves to what God has ready and willing for us to experience, the more our capacity for the divine life increases. Let’s remind our brothers and sisters of this most awesome and sublime reality the next time we hear someone say “I don’t get anything out of the mass.”

New Evangelizin'

Audio of Council 13112's January FGO. Similar to this blogpost.

Right or Wrong

January 2014 FGO by Bro. Jason Rhoad

I have given ample space over the past couple of years to the “faith” side of “faith and morals”. I have discussed Marian doctrines, the mass, the sacraments, Papal infallibility, etc. and have attempted to explain why we believe what we do concerning these topics, ultimately tying it all back in to the teaching authority of the Church. But there is another side to the authority of the Church that I have not spent much time on in the past. So I figured we’d start the New Year off with a quick lesson on the role of the Church concerning matters of morality. Given recent events in popular culture and the fact that we as a society seem to be heading farther and farther down the path of moral relativism, now is as good of a time as any.

The question here is this: How do we know right from wrong? Some things may seem obvious to us. For instance, most would agree that it is wrong to murder someone in cold blood. (Notice I say most, as it is practically impossible to reach universal agreement on just about anything). But many things are not quite so obvious. Is it wrong to invest in a mutual fund that owns stock in companies that provide funding to the abortion industry? Is it wrong to stay in a hotel that offers adult movies as part of their television service (try to find one that doesn’t these days). There is a much larger discussion to be had here concerning formal vs. material cooperation with evil and immediate vs. remote material cooperation, etc., but while important, I don’t have the time or space to get too deep into that in this piece. Instead we’ll have to keep it a little more general. The point is these situations and others like them, raise many questions that we need to be prepared to answer. Not so much in a debate, but in our own Christian walk, trying to live each day doing the things God wants us to do and avoiding the things He wants us to avoid. So what does the Church teach concerning the morality of particular actions (or inactions)? How’s this for an answer: It depends. The fact of the matter is that the Church hasn’t, and really can’t, tell us what is right and wrong in every conceivable situation. Of course on the big things like abortion, euthanasia, etc. the Church does weigh in on specific issues, but often times in our walk, things seem to be much grayer. Therefore, the Church gives us some general guidelines to help us out. A good rule of thumb (and this is not from the CCC, just some good parenting from my Dad that stuck with me all these years) is if you have to wonder whether or not something is right or not, it’s probably not. In more formal language though, the rightness or wrongness of an action depends on both the ends and the means. Now this is counter cultural. We’ve all heard such sayings as “the ends justify the means”, or “all’s well that ends well”. What the Church teaches us is that in order for an act to be considered just or moral, both the ends and the means must be good, not just one or the other. Here is an example. St. Rose parish needs renovations that will cost $1 million dollars. Parishioner John Doe embezzles $1 million from his company and donates it to the parish. Well the end is good, but the means was not. Therefore the action is immoral. Or perhaps a more practical example. It may be possible to research and maybe even find cures for diseases by creating and destroying human embryos to harvest their stem cells (though there is no evidence for it, but for the sake of argument), therefore killing the embryo in the process. Even if a cure for some disease was found, we can’t justify the creation of life for the purpose of killing it, even if killing it might help someone else. The end cannot justify the means. The bottom line is that we can never do evil in order to do good. But even that has a caveat. There is something known as the principle of double effect. If our primary intent is good, but a secondary effect is that something bad will happen, it can still be morally justifiable because our intention is to do good. For instance, if during a pregnancy, it is discovered that the mother has uterine cancer, she can have surgery to treat that condition. A secondary effect of that surgery may be that the baby is lost. In a situation like that, the surgery is morally justifiable because the primary effect is to treat the cancer. It is not the direct, intentional, willing termination of the pregnancy.

It is easy to see how this can get a little complicated. That tends to lead to another common error that people make in regards to morality. You may have heard this one. “It is a matter of conscience.” While technically true, what people often mean is that they intend to openly defy the teaching of the Church concerning this or that issue of morality because they have to “follow their conscience” instead. It is true that we are obligated to follow our conscience. Our conscience is given to us by God to help us discern right from wrong. But what people often leave out is our responsibility to form our conscience rightly. A well-formed conscience will never lead us to do something immoral. So the key then is to form our consciences correctly. The way we do that is by listening to the teaching authority of the Church. That is what this comes down to. Our humble recognition that we do not have all the answers. That life gets complicated and messy. That we are blinded by sin. So thanks be to God that we don’t have to rely on our own subjective feelings about things. We can have confidence that God has given us the Church, with His promise of protection from error, to help to guide us in the moral and spiritual life. The same way we can know that Christ is present in the Holy Eucharist, we can know that contraception is grave matter, because the Church teaches us so. Furthermore, without the Church to guide us, to layout the principles for us, it would be hard for us when new things pop up that couldn’t have even been imagined centuries ago. Things like human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, etc. would be up for grabs morally speaking. But by applying the Church’s teaching on the respect and dignity of all human life, we can come to know that these things are not morally justifiable. Without that compass, it is up to each individual to decide for themselves, the very definition of relativism.

The world increasingly tells us that there is no such thing as objective truth. What might be wrong for you, is right for someone else. Therefore we should live and let live, not judge or condemn, etc. While it might not be surprising to encounter this in the secular world, it is alarming when we see it inside Christianity. There are denominations out there that refuse to condemn abortion or same sex marriage. Even inside the Catholic Church, we have many Catholics who seem to think it is okay to pick and choose which moral teachings we like and pay no attention to the ones we don’t. If we’re honest, most of us are probably guilty of this in some form or another. It is part of our fallen human condition I suppose. But as we set sail in 2014, let us resolve to do a better job of not falling into that trap and instead humbly follow Jesus and his Church. In the words of St. John the Baptist, let us decrease so that Christ may increase.

Die Schutzmantel Madonna

Audio of the FGO at the December 12 Business Meeting of Council 13112.

Audio material is drawn from this post; and this one.