Being Present

The following anecdote from Alton Lee (with Dynamic Catholic) is a great example of being present to another:

A few years ago, I got a collect call from a jail. The lady calling said her name was Laura, and I had never met her before in my life. When she realized it was the wrong person, she halfheartedly asked me if I would bail her out.  Now, it would have been really easy for me to hang up, but I felt the Holy Spirit prompting, and instead asked her to tell me about her life. Over the next few weeks I would get these five-minute collect phone calls from Laura where I would learn about her life.

One day that I was praying about Laura, trying to discern if I should bail her out or not, she called me while I was praying, and I agreed to bail her out for $720. I never met Laura in real life, but I could tell that her life changed in a genuine way. She moved in with her sister, reconnected with her daughter, and she wrote this lovely note to my wife and I thanking us for bailing her out.  In the letter, she said, “That $720 cash was priceless. You've given me my life back. I was so lost and now I'm found.”

In Christ, Ken.

He or She?

"If God Is Gender-Fluid, Why Not Call Her a ‘She’?" is the title of an online article by Elizabeth Childs Kelly in Medium.

Following is the comment I posted in reply:

If you are of no particular religious persuasion, you can certainly refer to whatever you imagine as god in whatever way you wish. If professing to be Christian, not so. It is not a matter of God’s gender — as spirit, God has no gender and thus is not a matter of being both or even being “transgender” [as Kelly suggests].

However, Christians have God’s own revelation of himself as male, i.e. Father. (Though He can be spoken of as having qualities considered by humans to be masculine or feminine.) Per C. S Lewis: “…Christians think that God himself has taught us how to speak of him. To say that it does not matter is to say either that all the masculine imagery is not inspired, is merely human in origin, or else that, though inspired, it is quite arbitrary and unessential. And this is surely intolerable: or, if tolerable, it is an argument… against Christianity.” 

And there is this thought from Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI): “Christianity is not a philosophical speculation; it is not a construction of our mind. Christianity is not ‘our’ work; it is a Revelation; it is a message that has been consigned to us, and we have no right to reconstruct it as we like or choose. Consequently, we are not authorized to change the Our Father into an Our Mother: the symbolism employed by Jesus is irreversible; it is based on the same Man-God relationship he came to reveal to us.”

In Christ, Ken.

"Too Many Rules!"

“The Catholic Church has too many rules!”

Really?

The Church has a billion members, the large majority of whom belong to its Latin rite. The main legislation governing the Latin rite is the Code of Canon Law, which is one volume that runs a little over 500 pages in a standard English edition.

By comparison, the United States has around 300 million citizens. According to CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter, the current U.S. Federal Tax code is 73,954 pages long.

Most laws the Catholic Church has deal with situations a lay person only rarely encounters. Such situations happen so infrequently that ordinary Catholics are not expected to know the details of the laws dealing with them. They can be briefed if and when the situations arise (e.g., what to do for confirmation, a once-in-a-lifetime experience).

There is a total of 71 rules for major league baseball, not counting definitions, exceptions, and clarifications which are very much a part of the Ruleset.  The Little League Baseball Rulebook has 111 rules. 

There are comparatively few rules an ordinary Catholic is expected to know: the Ten Commandments and the five precepts of the Church (CCC 2041-43). And how to prepare for the sacraments they regularly receive (primarily confession and the Eucharist). This doesn’t include everything a Catholic should know, but it does indicate the relative number of the rules that apply to a lay person’s experience.

Major league baseball games average a little over two hours. Little league games will generally go about an hour and fifteen minutes.  The “game of life” – to which Catholic rules apply averages somewhat longer.

In Christ, Ken.

Compliance? Or Surrender?

From a recent post by Matthew Kelly:

“I've done a lot of work over the past twenty years or so in addiction recovery centers... Very often these people are compliant. They do everything they need to do so that, at the end of the twenty-one days or the fourteen days or the thirty days, the judge will let them out. They're compliant, but they're unlikely to really deal with their addiction. Because in order to really deal with addiction, we have to go way beyond compliance to surrender.  The people who successfully recover from addiction, the people who successfully and sustainably deal with addiction in their lives… surrender.”

Matthew then suggests that, similarly, as Catholics, we can be compliant. Going to church on Sunday, giving generously, helping the poor, helping those in need, but it may be just compliance. Instead, he counsels, God is calling me to surrender; to discern what God is inviting me to do; to say “yes” to his invitation to go deeper in my relationship with him.

In Christ, Ken.

That a human being’s life begins at conception isn’t religious dogma. It’s scientific fact.

Three facts about tell us human life begins at conception: The unborn child:

1.   Takes in nutrients and grows via cellular reproduction.

2.   Is the offspring of human parents and has human DNA.

3.   Is a human organism like you or me whereas sperm, egg, and body cells are merely human tissue and do not have any rights.

You, me, infants, and the unborn are all human organisms because we all have an intrinsic capacity to develop as organisms - a capacity that mere body cells don’t have.

In Christ, Ken.

Relativism Rebuttals II

Relativism is defined as any doctrine which denies the existence of absolute values.  Following are some more self-refuting relativist notions and how you might respond:

 "It’s arrogant to say your religion is true."

•      If this belief of yours is true, aren’t you being arrogant to say so?

      "Your being judgmental and bigoted when you say that what someone is doing is wrong."

•      If true, why are you telling me what I’m doing is wrong?

      “You’re being intolerant for not accepting someone’s belief as equally true.

•      Why are you intolerant of my belief that I don’t have to accept someone’s belief as equally true?

 In Christ, Ken.

[Taken from a presentation by Karlo Broussard]

Relativism Rebuttals

Relativism is defined as any doctrine which denies the existence of absolute values.  Following are some self-refuting relativist notions and how you might respond:

·      “There is no absolute truth.” 

o  Is this statement absolutely true?

·      “Everything we believe is culturally conditioned.” 

o  Is this belief of yours culturally conditioned?

·      “We should accept everyone’s beliefs and opinions as equally valid.”

o  Even my belief that we shouldn’t accept everyone’s belief as equal and valid?

·      “Don’t tell other people how to live – just love one another.”

          o  By this statement aren’t you telling me how to live?

 In Christ, Ken.

[Taken from a presentation by Karlo Broussard]