Archive for the ‘Catholicism’ Category

Love’s Modernity

Friday, April 14th, 2006

Lately I’ve heard a number of people say that love is a choice. I think there is an error in this idea. Its easy to minimize what love is and say its merely a choice. Its so much more than that. Yes, its a choice. But there’s a power in love that is beyond most people’s apparent comprehension. Love is a very strong force in the universe. If we look at the Passion of Christ, as is appropriate for today, we see that love manifested itself for the salvific victory of mankind. If it weren’t for Christ’s ability to love us, not just to choose suffering, we would not have a mediator between God and man. We would still be in the same lot that our ancestors once were.

Love’s power is strong. For example, love gives us the ability to bond with the beloved and, in some, the manifestation results in a beautiful gift of foresight, wisdom, and strength. Personally I’ve experienced a unique gift of telepathy, if you will, with the people I’ve loved. Most have exhibited a similar gift. It seems people overlook this, or don’t see it in their lives (or minimize it as a coincidence). Minimizing love to a choice also makes it easy to say that love is selectable. It is not. We are called, as Christians (assuming you are one), to love one another as I have loved you. This is HUGE. Can you comprehend Christ’s love for us? Then you know what we are called to. Through Christ’s manifestation of love, we are able to not only comprehend His love for us, but also have been commanded to bring this same sacrificial, salvific love to others. Not just by spreading the gospel to those who don’t know Christ, but also in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners, comforting the sick, and humbly serving others. This means loving others MORE than we love ourselves. For selfish pride blinds our ability to love.

Eros love, the ‘choice,’ is much more than that. If we remove the feeling from our lives we have no life at all. Love brings about the transformation of the heart. To understand that each and every person, no matter how good or bad, is Christ allows us to open our hearts to every person we encounter in our lives. This has a profound impact on our daily lives. If we all lived as we ought, we would very well understand the paradox of love. But many do not. They simply get caught up in currents of modern life and don’t take the time to open themselves to the Holy Spirit and bring that love to others. Its sad. There’s so much disunity I’m seeing in the world right now. This disunity is not good. Whether its the huge angst over the illegal immigration in the United States, or the French youth protestation against the laws that govern employment, disunity is all around us. This is just another trick of the evil one to divide us and destroy our unity. Love is unity. Its unity of mind, unity of heart, unity of soul.

Unity in our age is dying. Is it because pride has blinded us and divided us into our ‘individuality’ that makes us all so darn special? Am I different simply because its the thing to be, not because I am really different? What’s wrong with being united? I prefer to be just like everyone else. In fact, everyone does. The problem comes in when everyone else’s standards are so sub-par that one must rise above the foolishness that exists. The world is dying, and so are we. One day you will die. It doesn’t matter what you do on earth, from a worldy perspective. You will die. Your deeds will be forgotten by men. But not by God. God will look at your deeds, and, if you’ve lead a good life, Christ will intercede before God’s judgement on your soul. This means that you need to lead a good life. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, but you must try to love others as Christ has loved us. If we were all so loving as to give our lives over to everyone we met, the world would be a better place. Perhaps one day we will reach this level.

Abortion Ban Passes House in South Dakota

Saturday, February 11th, 2006

An interesting story showed up on Drudge Report for only a few hours last night. I was fortunate enough to not have a life to see the headline and read the article.

The jist of it is that the South Dakota House has approved a bill to ban abortion in all cases, with an exception if the mother is dying. According to the story, this ‘loophole’ prevents Doctors from being prosecuted in these instances.

According to my roommate, this is how it was across the nation prior to Roe vs. Wade. So, this is probably a good sign. Of course, the bill still needs to go to the state Senate, so we shall see if it passes. Makes me think I should move to South Dakota because its so very progressive….

Hopefully this will be just the first of many to pass anti-abortion laws that look to the protection of the mother and the child, rather than just the mother’s rights to have an abortion. I think now would be a great time to pray for the people who are looking at these bills.

Losing Christ in the Holidays

Friday, December 30th, 2005

My cousin Theresa flew in Christmas eve from Alabama. I was lucky enough to be selected for airport pickup of her and her two daughters, as I am lucky enough to happen to be the closest family member to O’Hare.

After getting the kids buckled in the safety seats, and settling in for a short ride back to Bolingbrook, I started complaining about the lack of Christmas music [less 90.1 & 93.9] I had heard on the radio this year. Well… Terry, as she likes to be called, informed me that she went to a Kmart in Alabama and was looking to get a new Nativity Scene. She couldn’t find them and asked the store manager where the Nativity Scenes were. The store manager promptly responded saying that they were not allowed to sell Nativity Scenes.
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Morality of Money

Monday, October 17th, 2005

I was chatting with Matt today at Quincy’s, and asked him what his view on Currency Trading was, as Matt tends to have unique perspectives. He was definitely opposed to it and likened it to stealing. I was slightly surprised by his take on this. I then asked him what he thought of playing cards, specifically Texas Hold’em, and his view was different, depending on whether there were large sums of money involved versus small sums of money.

The question put forth is this: Is currency trading morally acceptable? Or is it more like Matt’s position, that of stealing? An economic purist might say that currency trading isn’t very good for society because it doesn’t produce any good or service [utility], and, in this regard is much like gambling.
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