Norms of justice

In today's Office of Readings, we find this passage from Wisdom (expressing the rejection of God by the unrepentant):

But let our strength be our norm of justice;
for weakness proves itself useless.
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the Lord.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
because his life is not like other men's,
and different are his ways.

The just one in this passage is of course Jesus Christ; but since we belong to Him, what is said about Him should also be said in some sense about us. Our lives should be different enough from the lives of those who don't belong to Him to be noticed, to be a reproach - a positive witness to His love and truth, and an implicit invitation to conversion. If strength is the norm of justice for those who don't belong to Christ, how can it be the norm of justice for those of us who do? Of course, it isn't supposed to be. The whole paradox of the Cross, of the truth that "when I am weak, then I am strong," is supposed to be our norm.

I think this applies to our witness as families in a special way. To be weak as a family doesn't mean to be a doormat; it means to be humble in our submission to the demands of that vocation. As husbands, in particular, those of us who are or hope to become deacons are called to subordinate our own needs to those of our wife and children; and to the extent that is reasonably and prudently compatible with that priority, to subordinate our needs to those of our neighbor, also. In other words, we are to choose to love, to "prefer the good of the other, even to our own good." This is how we show that Christ is indeed our Lord; and that marriage is indeed a very special and fundamental form of service, not something that feeds and strengthens our baser appetites in "socially acceptable" ways.

When Joe asked us this past Saturday to consider the point of view of those who support the legality of SSM, I jumped on that idea -- the idea, I say, not the people who hold it -- as hard and as strong as I could. I hope it was clear from the discussion and what followed, that I did this, not because I don't want to consider the idea, but because I have considered it, and I know and believe that this idea requires precisely that rejection of God expounded in this passage of Wisdom. I grant that many, perhaps even most or all, of the people who support the legality of SSM do not see this implication, that they don't intend to reject God, and that their desire for justice is real. But nevertheless these ideas are incompatible with each other.

So, simply in respect of our vocation as husbands and fathers, not to mention our vocation as deacons, we cannot afford the confusion -- clear to the eyes of faith, if not to worldly eyes -- of mistaking our strength, our own idolatrous norm of justice, for God's will. It is always a mistake to believe that weakness proves itself useless, for this is fundamentally a rejection of the Cross. And our weakness here needs to be a daily, joyful commitment, in prayer and action, that "not my will, but Yours, be done."

The utility of Philosophy

Ignatius Insight interviews Stanley Grove, a Catholic Neo-Scholastic physicist at Wyoming Catholic College, about philosophy in general, and Hawkings' most recent book in particular. Two LOL quotes:

If medieval man was wrong to anchor his ontological significance to his perception of being at the center of the world, how much more foolish are the moderns who base their claims of human insignificance on our being nowhere in particular?

And,

Professor Hawking’s recent effusions are so wanting in insight that one suspects a mind coming undone.

The whole thing is worth a read.

Inquiry Night Schedule (updated)

Here is the schedule for Inquiry Nights this year:

Tuesday, Oct 12, 7:00 pm, St. Joseph's, Milford
Thursday, Oct 14, 7:00 pm, Cathedral, Sioux City
Tuesday, Oct 19, 6:30 pm, Holy Trinity, Fort Dodge (Corpus Christi center)
Tuesday, Oct 26, 7:00 pm, St. Lawrence, Carroll

Update: Holy Spirit parish's "family room" on the 26th, not at St. Lawrence.

My thanks to all the pastors who have agreed to host these inquiry meetings. Any of our current deacons, candidates, or aspirants, including wives, are also welcome to come to one or more of these meetings and help answer questions, talk about their own experience in formation and as a deacon (or wife), and so forth.

Most importantly, if you know good men who have expressed some interest in the diaconate, or who you think may be called to a diaconal vocation by God, give them the information and encourage them to attend one of these meetings. And as always, they can contact me at any time.

Homily - Respect Life Sunday

Here's the homily I preached at the Cathedral this weekend:

On this Respect Life Sunday, I invite you to consider how many ways the devil tempts us to devalue human life. We probably think first of truly grave evils, like abortion and euthanasia; and rightly so. These are diabolical things. The devil certainly uses fear or anger or despair as weapons to keep a mother from loving the new life in her womb. He uses greed or even misplaced compassion to prevent the terminally ill, and their families, from choosing to love the suffering Christ shares with them.

But the devil also works in more subtle ways. Every day, he tries to convince us that other goods, other divine gifts, are more valuable than a human life. If we think like this, that the ends justify the means, we won’t easily recognize some of our own sins. We will be unprofitable servants, unable to ask God to forgive our much smaller attacks on the dignity of life, such as taking God’s name in vain, cursing at the driver who cuts us off, or taking our loved ones for granted.

Since this is Respect Life Sunday, let’s think about this more deeply. First of all, let’s hold firmly to the truth that the divine gift of life is a fundamental good. Consider that God cannot give us any other good, even the greatest possible good of final salvation, unless He’s already given us life in this world. This is why we say that each human life is sacred. From the moment of conception, each person is unique and irreplaceable in God’s love, and in His plan of salvation.

But, if life itself were not a great gift, then it would be right to sacrifice precious lives for these other goods, both literally and metaphorically. Not only would the appalling crimes of abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research be justified. But also, in the same way, to justify the means is to justify many other crimes against human dignity. Respect for the sanctity of human life is slowly eroded, until eventually, it has no value at all. In the end, this diabolical lie always leads, not only to murder and slavery, but also to every kind of callous and hard-hearted contempt for others every day.

In our first reading, the prophet Habakkuk denounces these consequences – both the great and the small – as intolerable violence. This denunciation is God’s own word, which God gives to Habakkuk for Israel, and for the whole world. From the beginning, God wills life and hope together. Violence against human dignity therefore attacks not only life, but also hope.

But without hope, what becomes of our faith? If other gifts were more valuable than life, would God become man for us? If our lives were such paltry and contemptible things, would God be willing to die for us? The more we believe this lie, the less we can believe in the Incarnation or the Cross or the Resurrection. If we disregard the sanctity of life, we reject both hope and faith.

We heard the echo of this confusion in our responsorial psalm. Psalm 95 says, “Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness, when at Meriba and Massah they challenged me and provoked me, although they had seen all of my works.” The greatest of all God’s works in the Old Testament – namely, the Passover in Egypt, and the parting of the Red Sea – happened only three days before the Israelites reached Meriba. Only three days!! And already they were grumbling about what they had left behind.

But God responds to His people’s sins with generous grace. At Meriba, He gave Moses the miracle of using a piece of wood to freshen the salt water for them to drink. This foreshadows the Cross. At Massah, He first provided quail and manna. This foreshadows the Eucharist. He also brought forth water from solid rock. This foreshadows baptism. Every time we turn against God, He calls us back to hope and faith.

In the light of faith, no lie can hide. We know that life is good, even given the reality of sin and suffering. We know that life is a divine gift, and that we must treasure this gift by treating every human being with the same respect, regardless of their age, their productivity, or the functioning of their mind. From natural conception to natural death, God wills only our good, and provides all the good things of His creation to strengthen and nourish us. And spiritually, we know that God wills not the death of the sinner, and provides us in His Church every means of grace, and every opportunity to repent of our sins, so that we may receive the eternal life He wants to give us.

To have strong faith, then, means both to know and love Jesus Christ, and to live publicly according to His promises. We are still imperfect, still sinners in this life, but we come to this Holy Mass to become more perfect, to receive His healing. We want to give ourselves more fully to Christ, and to help satisfy His thirst for souls. We hope and believe in the power of grace to overcome our sins. We trust that following Jesus with living faith will make our lives, and the lives of others, more joyful. We believe enough to act for that longed-for perfection.

Acting for that perfection means respecting the dignity and sanctity of every human life – not only on the most grievous and urgent issues of our day, but also on the daily sins of anger, spite, and contempt. When we succumb to temptation in little things, we make ourselves less trustworthy in great things. Therefore we seek forgiveness and conversion. We strive to respect life even in little ways, so that we can change the world’s more fundamental disrespect for life.

In the second reading, St. Paul tells us not to believe like cowards. He says, “Do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord…; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted His testimony to sinners and tax collectors. We don’t have to be perfect in order to stand with Him in defense of life and dignity. He takes us as we are, and He heals us with His grace.

But we do have to have courage. It takes courage, for example, to join 40 Days for Life, or Right to Life, or even in private to pray the Rosary for an end to abortion. It takes courage to refuse that extra dose of morphine, which might end a loved one’s suffering a few days before God wills it. It takes courage to unite our suffering with the suffering of Christ crucified. But it also takes courage to ask our neighbor for forgiveness when we’ve wronged them. It takes great courage to go to Confession, and ask God to forgive us.

Fidelity to the Gospel will cost us in this life. But listen to Moses and Habakkuk and Paul, and to all the saints, who say: “Christ has already paid that cost for us!” This is the strength of our faith. This is why we can hope, despite suffering and death, and even despite our own sins. This is why we have the courage to imagine a world without the intolerable violence of abortion or euthanasia; and the still greater courage to imagine ourselves without sin. “For what is seen is still distant, it will appear in the end and will not lie. If it delays, hope for it. What is coming is coming, and it will not be late.”

"I'm a Christian, kill me too!!"

In 258, when Bishop Cyprian was arrested and tried for being a Christian, his sentencing in the marketplace of the great city of Carthage was witnessed by many thousands of citizens, including no doubt many hundreds of his flock. (We have the court stenographer's record of the trial.) As the soldiers led him away in chains to be executed, dozens and dozens of Christians started chasing them down the road, shouting, "I'm a Christian, kill me too!!" In fear of what might happen if they killed so many, the soldiers beat them and chased them off before martyring the great bishop.

This is not only exemplary faith, of course, but also the fruit of how that faith was lived out. Christians at that time knew they faced the possibility of martyrdom, both literal and figurative. The world was overtly, violently hostile to Christ, far more so than today's anti-Christian sentiment. They were therefore taught in their catechesis and in sermons to prepare for it. They were taught that love for God, Christian virtue, meant being so attached already to what is promised for the next life, that persecution and struggle in this life cannot injure it. They took literally what St. Paul says, "What can separate us from the love of God?" Nothing, certainly, in this life!

The technical name for that attitude was detachment - Greek, "apotasso," Latin, "renuntiatio."

What do we renounce today? What part of the world are we sacrificing, knowingly, in order to belong to Christ?

My own participation in this year's 40 Days for Life campaign and kickoff has brought this question forcefully to mind this week. What is the depth of my love for these poor? Would I be there for those innocent little ones, if the police were ready to drag me off to a severe beating, imprisonment, exile, or even death? Would I still run after them and their mothers -- so often lied to, scared, and compelled by others into such a "choice" -- crying with more perfect charity, "I'm a Christian, kill me too!!" Can I have such love in my heart, even when our pro-life speech and witness is protected, not persecuted?

Few of us will ever have to answer that question in fact. But all of us should be preparing for it.

Homily - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, and Catechetical Sunday

I found this homily difficult to write, because the theme of Catechetical Sunday (marriage) doesn't really fit the readings. Still, it certainly wasn't as bad as this...

The prophet Amos rebukes those who lie and cheat in the marketplace. But, more than their lying and cheating, his real target is their attitude about God. They say, “When will the new moon be over…, that we may sell our grain, and the Sabbath, that we may display the wheat?” For these people, God’s law is important, but less important than their money and their greed. They’re going through the motions of obeying God’s law, but they don’t love God. This is why they are impatient for the Sabbath to end, so they can get back to doing their important business!
This attitude, this kind of sin, is all too familiar. Our society approves and rewards such sinners as being “more tolerant.” They show up at the Temple, but they do not let their faith affect how they act in the “real world.” The way such people behave in the marketplace, is also how they conduct their politics, and their family life -- and even their worship. This is not tolerance, but idolatry: they treat God as only one good among many, and God’s law as only one rule among many.
Too many people still think such an attitude is acceptable and practical, since it’s merely what everyone else is doing. But for God, and for faith, it is not nearly good enough. The prophet Amos cries out with God’s righteous anger against being treated so lightly.
Jesus tells us that we “cannot serve two masters.” God is not one good among many. He is the only good. If we want or need other goods than God, it is only so that these created goods can bring us closer to Him. And God’s law is not one rule among many. It is our only rule. If we follow other laws, it is only because these too have their source in God’s law. We cannot love both God and the world.
Jesus tells us that, if we are not trustworthy in small things, we cannot expect to be trusted with great things. The sacrament of marriage is one of those “great things” for which we hope to be trusted. And because this vocation is so important, the devil works very hard to keep husbands and wives from being trustworthy with the small, daily aspects of married life.
How do those who are called to married life prove trustworthy in little things, each and every day? How do we let our faith affect our family, so as to be worthy of God’s trust with the great thing, our sanctification through married life?
The Church clearly teaches the minimum, the letter of God’s law for marriage. Adultery, fornication, contraception, pornography -- these are all grave moral evils. At a minimum, don’t do them. Let me say that again: chastity is the least we can do for God. The devil tries to convince us that chastity is too hard for us. He whispers that we have a right to be unchaste, at least in our thoughts and desires, if not with our actual bodies. But God says that chastity, even in our thoughts and desires, is not too hard for us to live up to. And He gives us the grace to do so.
But this “least,” Amos has said, is not enough. We must do more than just the minimum.
Our shared spiritual life in the home is a critical part of that “more.” The devil wants your marriage to fail, because its success is part of what gets you to Heaven. Therefore prayer is crucial to a healthy marriage. Husbands and wives strengthen their marriage when they pray together. Parents both teach and testify to their faith when they teach their children to pray. Meals together, without distractions like television or computers, form us humanly and socially; and they become spiritually intimate with family prayer. Even perfectly ordinary and common moments, like getting into or out of your car, can be simple and effective times to pray, and can build in us the habit of praying constantly.
Sharing prayer in these ways is not hard, but it does take commitment. There are always going to be interruptions of our prayer time, and temptations not to pray. Don’t give up. Keep praying. No matter what we may be doing physically, like mowing the grass or folding laundry, we can always recite an Our Father or a Hail Mary mentally.
Another major portion of doing more than the minimum is healing our attitude. Our mutual obedience to each other and to God should be willing, and prompt, and cheerful. A husband’s gratitude to his wife, for example, might be expressed by not complaining about her to his buddies. Likewise, a wife’s humility might mean not nagging her husband.
Our prompt and cheerful mutual obedience also entails a prompt and cheerful readiness to forgive. No matter how good our marriage or family life might be, all of us will sometimes need both to ask for and to offer forgiveness. A healthy attitude and an active prayer life will make both the asking, and the giving, easier.
How we live in the home is how we will live in the world. If our faith permeates every part of our family life, it will also shape our conduct in worship of God, and in the marketplace, and in politics. Only the healthy and active faith nourished in the home will survive the trials of the world and the hatred of the devil.
Finally, today we mark Catechetical Sunday. Every parent is a catechist, and we pray that all parents will have the courage and grace to pass on their living faith to their children. But also, volunteering to be a catechist in the Church requires very deep faith, and can even represent heroic courage. It is a further gift of time, patience, and faith. Every Church catechist makes sacrifices to help other families pass on the flame of our faith. You also show us how to serve God alone, with faith and love. As we mark Catechetical Sunday today, I offer special thanks and prayers to all the members of our parish who live out their faith in this way.

3 September - Pope Saint Gregory the Great

On loving God in the active life – wisdom from Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Before he was chosen as Pope, Saint Gregory was a monk (under the Rule of Saint Benedict), and a deacon (yea, go deacons!!). He had a monastic contemplative life, based around his monastic schedule – Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, meditative prayer, and silence of tongue, mind, and opinion. When he became Pope, he complained bitterly about the loss of this schedule and this spiritual routine. He feared greatly the damage this lack of contemplation could do to him, and through him to the souls in his care.

But in the course of his pontificate, Saint Gregory came to understand another path of contemplative prayer, suitable for those in the active life. Here in very schematic form are the six steps he sketches out on this path.

1. The pursuit of natural virtue in one’s duties in the world. The four cardinal virtues – prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance – are part of the natural law, and we know about them, and what makes them good, from our ordinary experience in this world. No one in the active life can deny that to pursue these virtues is a good thing in itself. Those who strive for these virtues are “better” people, and they are more admired and respected, in general. The more systematic and self-disciplined the pursuit of these virtues, the more admirable the person.

2. Humility. Saint Benedict says that humility is the root of all virtue, and the self-disciplined pursuit of even natural virtues tends to humility. But humility creates in us the capacity to love the other more than one loves oneself. Humility perfects natural virtue, and, if we’re looking in that direction, leads us to Christ.

3. Obedience. Obedience is another fruit of growing in natural virtue. “Obedience” here doesn’t mean taking orders from someone else; it means choosing to put the good of someone else reasonably high in our priorities. For example, husbands and wives practice this obedience to each other daily, when they choose to do household chores out of love. Employees practice this obedience when they choose honesty rather than lying or stealing from their employer. And so forth. In a larger sense, what we’re doing when we obey in this way is choosing the good more effectively. We’re submitting ourselves more wholeheartedly to the demands of that vision of the good, through the practice of natural virtue perfected in humility. Already at this level there is a degree of joy which draws us further along this active path. As the saying goes, "Virtue is its own reward."

4. Unity and peace, then, are the practical fruit of natural virtue, humility, and obedience in one’s state in life. It is the lack or the imperfection of virtue that separates us from each other, and that breaks our peace with each other, for example in anger. But, looked at from the other direction, unity and peace are also the means of encountering the true unity and true peace of the Mystical Body of Christ. That is, natural unity and peace are the historical expression of supernatural unity and peace in Christ. So again, natural virtue leads us to Christ. The more our growth in virtue orients us to the good of others, the harder it is to maintain a vision of the good separate from the good which is Christ.

5. In the Church, the submission of one’s judgment to the reign of Christ is purified. The fruit of unity and peace in the Church, the mystical Body, is an encounter with Christ the Head. We therefore begin to apply the humility and obedience to the Church, also. We come to love God’s providential will in the Church. We submit ourselves more and more to her wisdom in doctrine; we look more and more to her moral guidance in daily matters; we find increasing happiness in fulfilling her precepts. The joy of loving Christ, and of loving like Christ, begins to make our attraction to merely created goods less compelling.

6. Loving the Church, we can finally envision love for God Himself as perfect Love. We find, in the depths of our most basic motive for meeting our duties in the active life, the eye of our heart gazing upon God’s divinity. To put it simply, we live the divine praises.


The attractive object of contemplation for those in the active life -- what draws our attention and our attraction out of the created order and toward God -- is, then, the providential will of God. By learning to love the will of God, starting at the most general level of natural virtue and working “up” to the most personal level of my vocation and what God wills me to do, right now, today, in order to serve in that vocation, we come to love God Himself – which is, of course, what we are created and baptized for.

I stress that following this path doesn’t happen automatically. We still sin. Even without sinning, we choose contradictory and retrograde goods every day. God doesn’t deprive us of the good of our will. We must choose to love him, at every moment. But what this path showed to Saint Gregory was that he need not regret leaving the monastery. It is possible to be a perfect imitator of the perfect love of Christ, even in the midst of active life in the world – in the world, that is, but not of the world. This path, finally, is one of interior conversion -- a different path of interior conversion than the monastic vocation, but that’s precisely why we who aren’t monks need it.