Catholic Faith and Reflections

I was thinking today about two disturbing trends in our world, i.e., the rise of secularism with the concomitant rise in religious fundamentalism. The two seem so unrelated, at least at first glance, but the more I think about it, the more it seems true that one gives rise to the other.

I’m not going to call one the chicken and the other the egg. I don’t know if there is a precendential relationship in time. What seems evident though is the concurrent rise of both of these errors.

Maybe it would be advantageous for all the tried and true secularists, who adhere to a philosophy rooted in phenomenology and subjectivity, to consider that they are fueling the fire of fundamentalism. I suspect they wouldn’t accept that consideration, but I encourage them nonetheless to open their minds some to the possibility.

Likewise, all those fiery fundamentalists (for whom black is always black and white is always white and whose god seems to be dogma rather than the rule of loving law) may do themselves a favor by wondering if they accomplish little other than instill fear and dread in those who listen to them.

Isn’t it true that Jesus was neither a secularist nor a fundamentalist? He railed against both, and died living out love. He knew the presence of sin and the wrongness of relativism. He died at the hands of the secularists of his time, the Romans. He had some very hard words for the fundamentalists of his faith.

Jesus was a religious man in the real sense of that term. Jesus was the Divine Son who revealed to us the truth of human nature and society.

I ran across this inspiring story of a younger Roman mother who essentially gave her life for her unborn child. May God reward her abundantly for her self-less love!

Click on this link to read the article form the Catholic News Agency.

Emotional goodbye for young Italian mother who died for unborn child :: Catholic News Agency (CNA).

I’d like to thank a brother deacon, Dc. Scott Dodge from Salt Lake City, Utah, for a thoughtful post (http://scottdodge.blogspot.com) on vocation “with a diaconal twist.” He reflects on something all of us married deacons live each and every day, that is, being both deacon and husband/father. Another brother deacon from St. Paul/Minneapolis, Dc. Joe Michalak, once led the local diaconate community in a day of reflection that included this topic. Dc. Michalak spoke of the need to “integrate” the two vocations; Dc. Dodge uses the word, “supervening” to describe the relationship of diaconate with marriage. In case any of my readers think this is just theology talking, I would assure you it is much more. It is a lived reality that we seek to conceptualize in a way that brings about life in its fullness.

Topic two… I find myself increasingly impatient with what I call “muddy thinking.” I see it all over the place, be it in politics, in clinical practice, in ethics, in business and economics, etc. etc. Where has critical thinking gone? Does anyone take the time to truly sit down, whatever your field of expertise, and consider how other areas of human knowledge inform us? In other words what does what we know in philosophy, biology, social science, theology, psychology and history have to say about whatever it is we are pondering? I see this a lot in clinical practice; a rejection of broad areas of human knowledge with a narrow focus on one’s particular area of study. I wonder sometimes if the ability to think broadly, and thus humanly and liberally, is in serious decline.

Topic three: Happy Father’s Day and day late to all dads out there! Hope yesterday was peaceful and rewarding.

Topic four: I haven’t posted on current events in the Church recently….. you know, the uproar over the meetings between the umbrella group of women religious and the Vatican, and the tensions between the schismatic Society of St. Pius X and Pope Benedict’s effort to reconcile them to the Church. Seems to me reconciliation is pretty difficult unless those who have strayed sincerely ask for reconciliation. Let us pray for it, nonetheless.

Topic five: I am looking forward to a more “normal” week this week. The two weeks prior were unusual ones for reasons I will not detail. God works in unusual ways.

God bless all of you!