Daily Thought

We Can't Abandon Ship When The Storms Come “You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds…. What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can.”    St. Thomas More

How Does The Church Survive? Question:  In the course of two thousand years of Christian history, the Church has divided time and again. In the meantime, there are around three hundred distinguishable Protestant, Orthodox, or other churches. There are way over a thousand Baptist groups in the United States. Over against these there is still the Roman Catholic Church with the pope at her head, which claims to be the only true Church. She remains at any rate, and despite every crisis, indeed the most universal, historically significant, and successful Church in the world, with more members today than at any time in her history. Answer from Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)  I think that in the spirit of Vatican II we ought not to see that as a triumph for our prowess as Catholics and ought not to make much of the institutional and numerical strength we continue to enjoy. If we were to reckon that as our achievement and as our right, then we would step outside the rol...

Seeking Jesus It is the Presence of Christ which makes us members of Christ: “neither shall they say, Lo here! and Lo there! for the kingdom of God is within us.” Others marvel; others try to analyze what it is which does the work; they imagine all manner of human causes, because they cannot see, and do not feel, and will not believe the inward influence; and they impute to some caprice or waywardness of mind, or to the force of novelty, or to some mysterious insidious persuasive, or to some concealed enemy, or to some dark and subtle plotting, and they view with alarm, and they fain would baffle, what is really the keen, vivid, constraining glance of Christ’s countenance. “The Lord turned and looked upon Peter”; and “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so also is the Presence of the Son of man.” It is come, it is gone, it has done its work, its abiding work, before men see it. And what took place in the first years of His Kingdom, when it wa...

Powerful Reflection On Marriage & Family In contemporary culture, we often see an excessive exaltation of the freedom of the individual as an autonomous subject, as if we were self-created and self-sufficient, apart from our relationship with others and our responsibilities in their regard. Attempts are being made to organize the life of society on the basis of subjective and ephemeral desires alone, with no reference to objective, prior truths such as the dignity of each human being and his inalienable rights and duties, which every social group is called to serve. The Church does not cease to remind us that true human freedom derives from our having been created in God’s image and likeness. Christian education is consequently an education in freedom and for freedom. “We do not do good as slaves, who are not free to act otherwise, bur we do it because we are personally responsible for the world; because we love truth and goodness, because we love God himself and therefore hi...

What Makes a False Prophet? A false prophet is not one who predicts false things, but one whose guiding principle is not the true, one who has an ear more to the world than to God, who fondles the spirit of the age whether it is embodied in the "princes", the "influential" or the "mass". He takes up the cause of generous ideas just when these are beginning to rot; he enters the field of action just at the moment when such engagement promises more advantages than dangers. He does not always do what is evil, but his activity is, at the very least, full of vanity. This often discourages the person who can glimpse the impending disaster from agreeing with him. And he always conspires against the true prophets.  from Paradoxes of Faith by Henri de Lubac p. 168

Jesus Our Divine Physician  Lectio Matthew 8:1–4 Meditatio “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” I open the sacred text today and step into it, knowing that this story of salvation is also my story. It’s easy to immediately get caught up in today’s reading. I begin by watching Jesus as he comes down the mountain. I join the ranks of the great crowds following him, and keep my eyes and heart open. An outcast approaches Jesus—a leper. The crowd draws back in fear of the disease. I hear the man with leprosy simply say “if you wish, you can.…” It would be such an ordinary request if it weren’t a healing that he wanted! For Jesus though, it is a simple matter. “I will do it,” and it’s done, just like that. The leper is cured immediately, so great is Jesus’ power to heal. I dwell on the leper’s words, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” This phrase is so powerful, packed with so much confidence. “If you wish” presupposes that the one making the request beli...

Preaching & Opposition  One who preaches to the people the word of faith is not saying things that are likely to please them, but must expect to meet with opposition. Jesus did not promise upholstered chairs or Cabinet posts, but only his Baptism and his chalice. In saying that, we have identified the two fundamental sacraments, Baptism and Holy Eucharist, as the essence of his gift to humanity. But we have also made clear what it means to receive Baptism and Holy Eucharist: being ready to suffer for the truth and for love. The Pope knows this. That is why, in an address to the American bishops, he alluded to the words of Saint Paul: “Brothers in Christ, when we preach the truth in love, we must expect to be criticized, for we cannot please everyone. But we do, nevertheless, have a genuine contribution to make to the salvation of everyone. For that reason, we are humbly convinced that God is with us in our service to the truth and that he ‘does not give us the spirit of c...