Advancing the Kingdom

Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elevated to the Chair of Peter. He is an American, a one-time head of the Augustinian Order, and a missionary who spent twenty years ministering to the poor in Peru. Is it a surprise that he chose as his papal name Leo XIV, honoring the immediate predecessor of that title known for his commitment to social justice? I was reminded of our news pope’s quiet and apparently solid commitment to social justice while re-reading the work of another well-known American spiritual leader and theologian, who died sixteen years ago, Fr. Richard Neuhaus. In his book America Against Itself: Moral Vision and the Public Order Fr. Neuhaus underscores that civilization depends upon “obedience to the unenforceable”, such as virtue, honor, discernment, decency, compassion and hope. Although written thirty years ago, his book seems even more timely today. He, of course, associates these “unenforceables” with religion and…

The white smoke has arisen. A new pope has been elected. Around the world hope is reinforced. One would be hard pressed to gainsay the need for it in the native land of Pope Leo XIV. Conventional wisdom has it that the USA is ‘post-Christian’. It asserts that the surging godlessness of such ‘isms’ as nihilism, materialism, and relativism is greasing the already slippery slope of secularism and portends our irreversible descent into collapsed civic order.  It is easy to understand how such a gloomy prediction could develop. How easily so many of us forget – or never learned – that our founding fathers understood a vibrant republic rested on the foundation of a virtuous public who more or less share an awareness of a supreme Deity and more or less abide by the morality concomitant with such awareness.  Why are these ‘isms’ so toxic? Simply put, it is because…

“Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out”.  This was once a popular aphorism. Even so, while its popularity today is lost, its significance isn’t.  What brings this fact to mind is the rise of what is called ‘non-denominational Christianity’. What is non-denominational Christianity? Is it a closed-minded system developed to avoid the distinguishing and at times divisive tenets of various denominations? Or, is it an all-embracing, open-minded attitude where everything is believed in theory and therefore nothing is believed in fact?  Ironically, though it eschews links to actual denominations and, presumably, has no links among its own practitioners, non-denominationalism is attracting followers. Given the recent trends in society to ‘be religious’, perhaps this is not a surprising development. Shortly before the start of the new millennium, the now canonized John Paul II predicted a ‘new springtime’, a spiritual renewal. Such a renaissance appears to be upon us.…

Lately, the sudden preoccupation with pronouns has received much media coverage. Unfortunately, this attention has not been aroused by concern over that annoyingly ubiquitous grammatical violation ‘between you and I’, but rather it is due to the conflation of the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’.  Perhaps it is a consequence of a stunted education, but I always understood that ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are, respectively, biological and linguistic terms. There are two sexes (masculine and feminine) and three genders (the third being neuter). Has the synonymization of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ contributed to today’s notion of ‘gender fluidity’? Has it unleashed the cavalier and widespread misuse of pronouns where the masculine is used for the feminine and vice versa, and the plural for the singular, etc.? Let’s leave these questions to sociologists and grammarians. The discussion of pronouns does, however, give rise to another question, which might stir some fruitful reflection about philanthropy,…

A cross and a crucifix, Easter Sunday and Good Friday, pastors and priests: the parallel distinctions in each of these three dyads is worthy of reflection on this Holy Thursday, especially as they relate to the sacrament of Holy Orders. A cross is a crucifix without the corpus of Christ. Holy that it is, in popular sentiment it tends to symbolize the glory of the Resurrection and the promise of salvation. The crucifix, on the other hand, emphasizes the bloody self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ, an execution which led to the promise of our salvation. Likewise, in our Easter Sunday joy over the Resurrection we tend to forget the agonizing price paid by Jesus on Good Friday. A similar distinction is suggested by the comparative vocations of priests and pastors. While a pastor can be a priest and vice-versa, not all pastors are priests.  The role of a pastor is to…

Is the fact that this once popular phrase has fallen into disuse significant? The expression means stubbornly or recklessly determined, and its implication is a course of action destined for disastrous failure.  One might ask: “Are we hell-bent?” If so, it is sobering to be reminded that the definition of hell is distance -eventually eternal – from God. Becoming more and more confident in our ability to solve problems ourselves and to manage affairs without divine assistance is increasingly easy for us. Just as easily, this confidence can become hubris – the same human weakness to which scripture attributes the rise of our problematic existence. We begin to think that we do not need God, to deny his existence, or in the very least to consider his guidance superfluous. We believe we have a privileged understanding of reality, an understanding that dangerously flirts with the ancient heresy of Gnosticism. This…

Readers may recognize ‘saecula saeculorum’ as the final words in the Latin version of the prayer ‘Glory be to the Father’. The English translation of this phrase is ‘world without end’, a reference to eternity. Ironically, ‘saecula saeculorum’ shares its etymological root with our modern word ‘secular’. The Latin word ‘saeculum’ means ‘current age’. The former draws our attention to the hereafter and has a sacred implication. The latter focuses our attention on the here and now and – one might posit – has a distinctly non-sacred implication. Consider the word ‘secularization’.  Irony aside, the sacred and the secular are not necessarily at odds with each other. Indeed, for those who seek it, the sacred can be found within the secular. In fact, this understanding is fundamental to religiously oriented philanthropy – certainly Catholic philanthropy. How so? In the Catholic perspective, the current age (the ‘saecula’ in ‘saecula saeculorum’) is…

Today thousands around our nation will receive the sign of the cross traced in ashes on their foreheads and hear some equivalent to that ancient Ash Wednesday admonition: “Remember, man, that thou are dust and unto dust thou shalt return”. In our increasingly secularized society, one wonders how these words might be interpreted by non-believers who upon hearing them and  – ignorant of the Easter hope they presage – regard them as confirmation of the meaninglessness of existence. It is often observed that we Americans, and even many of us so-called Christians, have lost our sense of the transcendent. Our spiritual antennae have been dulled. We are less and less capable of experiencing the numinous and are oblivious to beauty in all its manifestations.  Surely, a result of this cultural amnesia is our unawareness of – even rejection of – the reality of eternal life. Vaguely mindful of the traditional…

Are Catholics Christian? This question has often been posed by those poorly informed about the history of the Church. Such ignorance has not been uncommon in the past. Suffice it to say that since the followers of Christ were first called ‘Christians’ in Antioch two millennia ago, Catholics – followers of Christ – have been identified as Christians. But, perhaps the question merits reconsideration. One could argue that the definition of ‘Christian’ has been so attenuated that Catholicism no longer qualifies. For many today, the adjective ‘Christian’ is no longer spelled with the upper case ‘C’. To be ‘Christian’ with a capital ‘C’ is too limiting, too defining. Better to be ‘christian’ with a lower case ‘c’, a less defining and therefore less demanding descriptor. One needn’t look far to see that for many soi-disant Christians their religion is what they choose it to be. For them, to be Christian…

Since the mysticism of Jerusalem, the philosophy of Athens, and the governance of Rome joined forces two millennia ago western civilization as we know it has developed and continues to do so throughout the world. Though with occasional setbacks and reversals, its progress has been forward in terms of the  expansion of the material, moral and intellectual welfare of the world’s denizens. We, the heirs of this heritage, believe the path for this progress is and has been the will of Providence. If we follow this path – and we are at liberty not to – we will attain the fulfillment intended for us at the time of our creation. This comes as no surprise. We are creatures of a Creator who since the beginning of time has held us in a covenantal relationship whereby, if we cooperate, we will be restored to the eternal home for which we were…

Yesterday, throughout the hours marking the inauguration of our forty-seventh president, the blessings of the Almighty were extensively and repeatedly invoked. Those attending the ceremonies, indeed the viewership around the globe, were undoubtedly – at least momentarily –  struck by the manifestation of the religious fervor which seemed to grip our national leaders. While the sincerity of their prayers is not to be questioned, one may wonder what sentiments or expectations passed through their hearts and minds as they uttered and responded to them.  We Americans are sensitive to the faith, or lack of faith, others may have. We would consider it bad form, if not outright offense, to pass judgment on how others pray, or don’t pray. To the extent that we have one, our shared religion is what’s referred to as a civic religion, the limited tenets of which have generally to do with belief in a deity…

Even now, two millennia after that first Pentecost, the Great Commission of our Lord recorded in Matthew’s Gospel –‘Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations’ – continues to unfold. It is a fruitful exercise to reflect on the challenges Jesus’ disciples faced soon after the birth of the Church and the subsequent acceptance and rejection they experienced to their announcement of the Good News. Would it be fair, however, to say that today the ignorance and unbelief his disciples encounter is of a different kind?. Global communications being as they are, one would be hard pressed to deny that while universal conversion has not yet occurred, at least the awareness of the Christian faith is universal.  The difference today is not ignorance per se. Rather it is a distorted understanding, or lack of interest, or outright rejection of the faith. That distorted understanding exists should not surprise us. Not…