Challenging Opinions Interview: Sticking Up for the Faith

William has relaunched his podcast and I feel honored that my 2016 interview was one he carried over. So I'm reposting this in case you're interested.

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Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.

I Peter 3:15

William Campbell invited me to chat with him at his podcast, Challenging Opinions. The podcast exists to "test all ideas, left and right, liberal and conservative, progressive and libertarian."

That idea in itself is pretty challenging but when I listened to sample episodes William was a fair and impartial interviewer, which is a rare quality these days.

I thought we were going to discuss my post Obedience: The Dirtiest Word in America so I was prepared to talk about being an American Catholic during the political season. I think that post was only what drew me to William's attention. We never actually discussed that topic, but wound up covering everything from faith in God to Catholic misdeeds to the future of the Church.

I was going completely off the cuff, which I think shows sometimes, but that in itself was fair. Shouldn't we be able to shed some light on faith and the Church when we're asked about it? It was a like a particularly invigorating workout and I really enjoyed talking with William.

Listen at Challenging Opinions or iTunes.

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The Reason for My Hope and Why I'm a Happy Catholic
This didn't come up in our fast-paced conversation, but I wanted to share it anyway. This quote perfectly echoes my feeling.

I have looked for happiness everywhere: in the elegant life of the salons, in the deafening noise of balls and parties, in accumulating money, in the excitement of gambling, in artistic glory, in friendship with famous people, in the pleasure of the senses. Now I have found happiness, I have an overflowing heart and I want to share it with you. … You say, “But I don’t believe in Jesus Christ.” I say to you, “Neither did I and that is why I was unhappy.

Hermann Cohen, letter to a friend

All my life I searched for Truth, wondering if there were such a thing. And I found it in Jesus.

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NOTE
On the documents I hadn't heard of, allegedly Vatican blueprints for methodically concealing sex crimes, the news articles had responses from both the Church and other experts which point out that they aren't a "smoking gun" and that "it's a church law that deals only with religious crimes and sins. And that the secrecy is meant to protect the faithful from scandal." All this proves is that there are two sides to any issue and that we can't make quick assumptions without very careful study.

A friend of mine is a canon lawyer. I've often heard him speak about how easy it is to misunderstand a law by only a looking at it through one frame, especially when it has been misused so that is the only lens we are using. Often these laws reflect long ago history and problems which were very different than the current issues.

Can such documents be misused? Absolutely. Was there a terrible sexual misconduct and a mistaken idea of protecting the Church implemented by moving predators around? No doubt. These are the sins we, the faithful, mourn and must keep from ever recurring.

But, it is equally a mistake to read our current mindset backwards into documents whose roots lie deep in the past. Jumping to conclusions about intention is as much of a mistake as ignoring victims to protect an institution.

Which is all a way of saying ... it's complicated.

Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life: "Are you ready to hit the reset button on your practice of the faith? Here it is."

A friend had a relative who’d just turned to God for the first time in the midst of a serious end-of-life crisis, but now what? How do you help someone who’s ignored God for a lifetime to even know how to pray? I recommended this book.

Starting with “Beginning to Pray” as the zero point, Julie walks the reader from I’ve-got-nothing all the way into the depths of the Christian life.

Jen Fitz has a lovely review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. Please do read the whole thing at the link.

A Spring in the Heart

A Spring in the Heart
taken by Remo Savisaar

Worth a Thousand Words: The Fantasy World

Column header from Stirring Science Stories, Feb. 1941
via SFFaudio

Coptic Priest: "To those who kill us. Thank you."

A MESSAGE TO THOSE WHO KILL US

Fr. Boules George, St. Mark, Cleopatra (Cairo, Egypt)

What will we say to them?

THANK YOU

The first thing we will say is “Thank you very, very much,” and you won’t believe us when we say it.

You know why we thank you? I’ll tell you. You won’t get it, but please believe us.

You gave us to die the same death as Christ–and this is the biggest honor we could have. Christ was crucified–and this is our faith. He died and was slaughtered–and this is our faith. You gave us, and you gave them to die.


[...]

WE LOVE YOU

The second part of the message we want to send to you is that we love you. And this, unfortunately, you won’t understand at all. Maybe you won’t believe us when we say we’re grateful. But this–you won’t even understand. Why won’t you understand it? Because this too is a teaching of our Christ. I want to explain to you about our Christ. I want to tell you about how wonderful He is.

There is much more and it is worth reading and reflection, especially on Holy Thursday.

Via Eve Tushnet.

As an additional note on martyrdom, the cause for beatification of Fr. Jacques Hamel, priest and martyr, has been officially opened.

What I'm Reading: A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer

When life gets serious, my reading gets light. As frequenters of these pages already know, for me that often means Georgette Heyer, the queen of the Regency romance novels. I've written about Heyer's novels in general so if you are rolling your eyes over romance novels, please do read it for a bit more explanation.

I've been struggling much more than usual this week over my Lenten penance. So many times I've stepped to the brink and then “So, could you not watch with me one hour?" comes to mind. And I turn away.

Between that and the Triduum beginning tomorrow, I think you could say I'm in a serious mood. Time for Heyer! Though, to be fair, this is a bit more serious Heyer than many.

A Civil Contract 
by Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer wrote two types of romance novels. One type was lighter, often verging on farce or containing large doses of adventure, such as Faro's Daughter or The Talisman Ring. The other type was more serious such as These Old Shades or this book, A Civil Contract.

We hear a lot in romances about couples who married for money but they tend to be couples on the periphery of the main action. In this book, Heyer took the bold action of making a distinctly unromantic match the main story. Adam Deveril must marry money or lose the family estate. Jenny Chawleigh's father is vulgar but rich and wants to boost his daughter into society. Complicating matters is the fact that Adam has been in love for some time with their one mutual acquaintance, Jenny's friend Julia who is everything that Jenny is not — cultured, sensitive, and beautiful. Jenny is painfully shy, direct, and plain.

Overall, this is a look at marriage and how one makes one's life work when our plans for the future are torn away from us. I remember when I was a college student, first discovering Heyer, this was one of my least favorite books. Now, with much time behind me and a 33-year marriage, it is one of my favorites.

Will Duquette's review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life

I'm here to tell you that there isn't any deadwood. If you're interested in learning to pray, or to pray "better", which is to say if you want to draw closer to Jesus Christ, this is an ideal book to spend time with.

Will Duquette's very nice review - go read the whole thing! Thanks Will!

The Curt Jester's Review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life

She has a Chestertonian ability to see things afresh and to illustrate that freshness to you. There is gratitude and wonder in her reflections that inspire me to want to imitate that viewpoint more consistently.

Jeff saw something in my book that I certainly wasn't aware of ... but am highly complimented to read in his review. I was especially pleased when Jeff told me he was using my book as intended, as a daily devotional. That makes his thoughtful remarks even more meaningful to me. Thank you Jeff!

Praying for our Egyptian brothers and sisters

These Palm Sunday church bombings  hit me hard. It's hard not to become inured to a lot of the violence that is epidemic these days. I can deplore it, and do, but not feel it.

Maybe it's because we went to Palm Sunday mass yesterday evening, beginning the holiest week of the year. I felt that ... and when I read about these attacks on these Christians it was as if my own family had been attacked. As indeed it has. We are all one body in Christ.

Let us pray for these victims, who are hated only because they follow our Lord Jesus. Let us pray for the attackers, that their hard hearts may soften and their blind eyes will be opened.

May God have mercy upon us all.

Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life - Now Available on Amazon!

Order it here!

This book is the fruit of my own personal search to grow closer to Jesus. It is perfect for launching into the Easter season or as a gift.

Don't miss the book that made Elizabeth Scalia say, "I love this book. It’s like taking your Happy Catholic book and making all those quotes spiritually useful!"

To see an excerpt go to Niggle Publishing.

I'll be running samples here in the days to come.

What Lenten Penance Has Shown Me

When The Anchoress was failing at her Lenten penance, she shifted gears ... and found herself right back in the same place.

Slightly chagrined, I made an adjustment back to the most basic of basics: fasting. Without thinking much about it, I said, “Okay, no snacks. I won’t eat between meals.”

If you had asked me before this how much snacking I did, I would tell you, “Nuthin’ much . . . I can’t understand why I am having so much trouble losing weight.” But since beginning this fast, I’ve learned how often I would, out of boredom or tension, not hunger, open the fridge and look inside or thoughtlessly grab a cookie. Confronting the difficulty of holding to this simple fast, I have been forced to think about motivation, and anxiety; tension vs. comfort, what it means to self-medicate, and why I feel the need to do so.

And that has caused me to think about what I am “treating” with the eating. The “eat” comes down to the same thing, actually, as my reluctance to “meet-and-greet”

Read it all here at Alateia.

It's funny how it works when you give stuff up. Suddenly you understand just what it means in your life. I gave up listening to spoken word audio (podcasts, audiobooks) and discovered that they soothed me through my day. Without them I was twitchy, irritable, and I began eating more. Snacks, desserts, seconds. Hah! Welcome to panacea #2.

That realization has been hard but good. I am still fighting the good fight, now against both food and audio. I now know more about myself - things I wouldn't have without the fast. And I have been turning to Jesus more and more, asking for the grace I need. Leaning on him has been a great, good result of my internal struggle.

Getting my head in the game for the end of Lent, I've been reading through various meditations on the Way of the Cross at the Vatican website. Cardinal Ratzinger in 2005, Pope John Paul II in 2003. Great stuff is there. And it gets me back to the basics.

So when I read this reflection on when Jesus is nailed to the cross, it stuck with me in my internal struggles.

Let us halt before this image of pain, before the suffering Son of God. Let us look upon him at times of presumptuousness and pleasure, in order to learn to respect limits and to see the superficiality of all merely material goods. Let us look upon him at times of trial and tribulation, and realize that it is then that we are closest to God. Let us try to see his face in the people we might look down upon. [W]e stand before the condemned Lord, who did not use his power to come down from the Cross, but endured its suffering to the end ...

PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, you let yourself be nailed to the Cross, accepting the terrible cruelty of this suffering, the destruction of your body and your dignity. You allowed yourself to be nailed fast; you did not try to escape or to lessen your suffering. May we never flee from what we are called to do. Help us to remain faithful to you. Help us to unmask the false freedom which would distance us from you. Help us to accept your “binding” freedom, and, “bound” fast to you, to discover true freedom.

I begin struggling and then (with God's grace) I remember "may I never flee ... may I discover true freedom." And my struggles ease.

Genesis Notes: Burial and Bargaining

GENESIS 23
When Sarah dies we see Abraham arranging the funeral by buying her final resting place. This takes us back to customs of an earlier age and different culture as the Life Application Study Bible points out.

Burial of Sarah (engraving by Gustave Doré from the 1865 La Sainte Bible)

BURIAL
In Abraham's day, death and burial were steeped in ritual and traditions. Failing to honor a dead person demonstrated the greatest possible lack of respect. An improper burial was the equivalent of a curse. Mourning was an essential part of the death ritual. Friends and relatives let out loud cries for the whole neighborhood to hear. Because there were no funeral homes or undertakers, these same friends and relatives helped prepare the body for burial, which usually took place on the same day because of the warm climate.

BARGAINING
The polite interchange between Abraham and Ephron was typical of bargaining at that time. Ephron graciously offered to give his land to Abraham at no charge; Abraham insisted on paying for it; Ephron politely mentioned the price but said, in effect, that it wasn't important; Abraham paid the 400 shekels of silver. Both men knew what was going on as they went through the bargaining process. If Abraham had accepted the land as a gift when it was offered, he would have insulted Ephron, who then would have rescinded his offer. Many Middle Eastern shopkeepers still follow this ritual with customers.

Four hundred shekels of silver was a high price for the piece of property Abraham bought. The Hittites weren't thrilled about foreigners buying their property, so Abraham had little bargaining leverage ... The custom of the day was to ask double the fair market value of the land, fully expecting the buyer to offer half the stated price.

All quoted material is from Life Application Study Bible." This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: Girl with a Book

Pietro Rotari, Girl with a Book
via Arts and Everyday Living

Lagniappe: The roaring wave of fear that swept through the greatest city in the world

So you understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through the greatest city in the world just as Monday was dawning--the stream of flight rising swiftly to a torrent, lashing in a foaming tumult round the railway stations, banked up into a horrible struggle about the shipping in the Thames, and hurrying by every available channel northward and eastward. By ten o'clock the police organisation, and by midday even the railway organisations, were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in that swift liquefaction of the social body.

H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

One of the things that's hitting me this time through the book is just what a talented writer Wells was, not only in his plots but in his craft. Who among us having gotten caught up in a modern exodus from an oncoming disaster has not experienced just what he describes? Albeit without the thoughtful appreciation and imagery of the above.

Worth a Thousand Words: Mute Swan

Mute Swan
taken by Remo Savisaar

Well Said: Jesus is the "very imprint" of the Father

Healy here comments upon Hebrews 1:3 which tells us that "Christ is "the very imprint of [God's] being."

The word for "very imprint" in Greek is charakter, which refers to the impression that a stamp or seal makes on a soft surface. In the ancient world coins were made by stamping hot metal with a die on which a portrait had been engraved; the coin would bear the exact impression (charakter) of the die. The Son, then, is the exact representation of the Father. To see Jesus is to see exactly what God is like (see John 14:9; Col 1:15). In the fullest sense of the term, Jesus has the "character" of his Father.

Mary Healy, Hebrews (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)

Worth a Thousand Words: Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman (c.1520). Quentin Metsys
via Books and Art

What I like about this is that she's looking out of the portrait at something in our world. That amuses me. And that she stopped reading her devotional to do it. That is just like me. Easily distracted.

Well Said: God speaking

The theme of God speaking will run like a thread through Hebrews. When introducing biblical quotations, instead of saying "it is written," Hebrews will invariably use phrases like "God says" or "he has promised." Scripture is not confined to the dusty pages of ancient manuscripts; it is a living and active word through which God continues to speak, addressing his people personally her and now (see 3:7, 4:12).

Mary Healy, Hebrews (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)

Worth a Thousand Words: Sink at the Old Mill Inn

Sink at the Old Mill Inn
by Belinda Del Pesco

Well Said: Changed from within

Hebrews affirms that by Christ's passion those who share in him have been changed from within (10:22), radically and permanently. This means that the Christian life does not consist in acquiring a holiness we do not have, but rather in appropriating and more deeply living the holiness we have already been given (10:10). So we are invited to a relationship with God that is filled with confident hope and free from the burden of guilt and sin. Our whole life is qualified to be a priestly life, in which all our actions and sufferings are offered as "a sacrifice of praise" that is pleasing to God (13:15-16).

Mary Healy, Hebrews (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)