Saturday, July 2, 2022
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Will you do what love does?
"He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them."
St. John's apocalyptic vision in the second reading, which comes from the very end of the Bible, should be one of profound consolation for the Church, and for those of us who make up the Body of Christ, which is the Church. If ever you are feeling down about the state of Christianity, I do recommend turning to the last page of the Bible, and there you will see that we do win in the end. As Catholics, this should be our confidence.
However, it is not just a reality for an eschatological future. The future reality when God will make His home with among His people, has already begun to take shape. Sure, we are not in the new heavens or the new earth yet - but whenever we make our spiritual home around the Tabernacle, where Jesus dwells, we should know that He has begun to fulfil this promise already.
Citing this passage from the Apocalypse, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:
[T]he church has an eschatological significance. To enter into the house of God, we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes passing from the world wounded by sin to the world of the new Life to which all men are called. The visible church is a symbol of the Father's house toward which the People of God is journeying and where the Father "will wipe every tear from their eyes." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1186)
Our churches are holy places, because it is here, par excellence, where the Risen Christ dwells upon earth among His people. And it is here that the Sacred Liturgy, the worship willed by God takes place. When we celebrate Mass we are not going through a service which we have invented - we are participating in a Liturgy which we have received from God, a Liturgy which is celebrated in union with the eternal Liturgy of heaven. Sure, it feels very earthly, very man-made sometimes; Liturgy is human because of our participation. However, it is also Divine because of God's participation, and it is therefore truly the place where heaven touches earth. This is why it matters that we come to Church on Sundays.
It was above all on "the first day of the week," Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians met "to break bread." From that time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental structure. It remains the center of the Church's life. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1343)
The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2177)
The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor.119 Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2181)
As many of you will have heard by now, the Bishops of England and Wales have decided that the situation with the Covid-19 pandemic has improved enough, now, that the ordinary obligation for Catholics to attend Mass on Sundays can safely be restored on Pentecost Sunday. I want to emphasise, that it remains the case that if anyone is avoiding crowds or meeting others because of serious concerns for their health, or for another serious reason, then the obligation to attend Mass is dispensed. They should, in this case find some other appropriate way to keep the Sabbath Holy. For those, however, who have returned to normal life, the Bishops are suggesting this is an important moment to resume normal Catholic practice, as well.
I want to point out something obvious, though. When we speak of the Bishop's restoring the Sunday obligation, what we are not talking about is them 'making people go to Mass.' The Bishops, in our free democracy, have absolutely no power whatsoever to force anyone to come to Mass. I, as one of your pastors, cannot make you come to Mass. In the end, we are as free after Pentecost Sunday as before. But how will we choose to use that freedom?
While the Church cannot force anyone to Church on Sunday, She does, nevertheless, have a duty to point out the reality of the spiritual situation. God, from the earliest days of the Church, asked His people to gather around Him on a Sunday. If I choose to put something else ahead of this, then logically, I am putting something else ahead of God's will. What is greater in my life than God? God is, by definition, the highest and greatest value that there is - if I am putting something else ahead of Him, then something has gone skew-whiff in my spiritual life.
Let me be clear, there are times when we are inhibited, against our wills, from attending Mass. We may be sick, or caring for someone who is sick; we may have tried to get to Mass, honestly, but failed due to circumstances beyond our control; or, we may have found ourselves bound by employment obligations which we cannot escape. In these situations, we are not making a free choice to disobey God. On the other hand, there may be times when, perhaps with some inconvenience, we could go to Mass, but choose not to.
Brothers and sisters, at times one gets the sense today that Christians expect following Christ to be easy and convenient. If this is you, please urgently read any one of the four Gospels.
As Paul and Barnabus put it to the people of Antioch:
‘We all have to experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God.’
Our forefathers, and indeed foremothers, in the faith willingly embraced Christianity, knowing that martyrdom was a really, quite likely consequence. If the worst we have to suffer is missing some Sunday hobbies or social activities, then we really should count ourselves fortunate, indeed. And, if we choose to put those things ahead of God, we need really to ask ourselves some searching questions about whether God is in the right place in our hearts and lives.
I honestly do not mean to sound flippant about this. I do appreciate and understand that there are very difficult family and personal circumstances for many Catholics today. However, if our Sunday practice is a little ropey, we do need to ask ourselves searching questions about whether my situation is one of genuine impossibility, or whether, with a little heroism, I might be able to love God that little bit more.
As a celibate priest I look on new mothers, rising several times a night to care for their babies, as a little bit heroic. However, whilst I'm sure many would appreciate the recognition, I'm equally sure that all would say that that is just what love does - it goes the extra mile. In a certain sense new mothers are obliged by law to care for their children - but that is not what gets them up at 3am; love does.
As the Bishops restore the obligation to go to Mass in this country at Pentecost, perhaps we need to hear God saying the Church in England and Wales - will you commit afresh to doing what love does, for me?
Saturday, May 7, 2022
I'm Catholic... but
"The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost."
It is possible to hear sound, without listening to it. It is possible to hear the sound-waves made by a person speaking, and yet afterwards but unable to say the meaning or words the person was trying to communicate. Listening - really taking in the meaning of words - requires effort.
The analogy that Jesus uses today relates to the pastoral - that is shepherding - context, with which his audience were presumably familiar; otherwise he would have used another analogy. In Jesus' day the shepherd would have been, quite frankly, rather intimate with his flock. There were not stable divisions of secure fields where shepherds left their sheep contained overnight, safe. The shepherd stayed with them pretty much all the time - think, Whilst Shepherds Watch Their Flock By Night. Not infrequently, of course, shepherds would come together, to trade, or simply for company and security in numbers and then the flocks would become somewhat mixed up. But they could not always stay like this, for there would not be enough pasture. The shepherds would often need to separate to find enough food for their own flock without competing with others. At this point, it seems, the sheep would - generally, at least - simply follow after the voice of their own shepherd. Such was the familiarity between them.
This is the analogy that Jesus uses for the calling of His faithful - for calling to Him those He will give eternal life.
In today's modern society, it can increasingly feel like we live in a great swarm of different flocks coming together. Different religions, different political ideologies, different social identities. And, in quite a similar way, from that body, Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd calls to His own, knowing that His own will listen to His voice, recognise and follow as He leads them to pasture.
There are so many voices today in our society, calling out for followers, calling out for sheep. Our culture invites us to treat all the voices as equal, and go after the one that takes our fancy. However, for the authentic Christian there can be no choice, no mistake - he or she must follow after the voice of the Good Shepherd. And yet... those other voices can be tempting.
How often do we hear Catholics today say things like - 'I'm Catholic but... I don't believe XYZ' or 'I'm Catholic... but I think the Church should take the teaching about...'? It is hard to escape the reality that even within the Church, some have begun to see Christian teaching as simply one voice among many in the public square, from which they can choose their favourite.
And, yet, in doing so they are missing the voice of the Lord.
When He was establishing His Church, Jesus told those He was commissioning to go out in His name "he who hears you, hears me" (Luke 10.16; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 87). When the Church, drawing on the accumulated wisdom of the People of God down through the millennia, teaches authoritatively, it is not the Church we hear, but Jesus Christ, teaching anew in our day. And, as His voice rings out, He is drawing those who really belong to Him to follow Him to the pasture, which is eternal life.
I know it can be really hard, at times, to listen to teachings from priests and Bishops - even Popes - when their lives do not model what they are teaching. "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practise and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice." It is a sad and shocking thing that ministers of the Church are anything less than holy; but this is a Church made up of sinners - like you and me. And God has chosen to work with it, to make His truth known.
In the end, brothers and sisters, I wonder how many of those Catholics who struggle and compromise in following the voice of Christ as He teaches through the Church have actually really tuned in to listen to that teaching? How many Catholics in Western Europe who have chosen to live together before marriage, have actually sought to understand the beauty of the Church's teaching on chastity? How many Catholics in Africa, living in polygamous marriages, have really interiorised the profound image of Christ's love for the Church that true Christian marriage embodies? How many American Catholics, who may have embraced the death penalty, have really examined their consciences to see if they believe in Christian forgiveness? How many married couples embracing artificial birth control stopped to consider why the Church teaches what She teaches?
When I treat the accumulated wisdom of Judeo-Christian tradition as simply one voice among many in the background of my life to choose from, then I am not hearing it for what it is - the voice of the Good Shepherd. And I am allowing the voice of the Good Shepherd to be something which I hear, but to which I do not listen, or listen deeply.
Let that not be us, brothers and sisters. Let us rather be like sheep who hear the familiar voice, and listen to it attentively - and listening, even if it challenges us, follow His voice; for His is the only one that leads us to the pasture of eternal life.
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Friday, December 10, 2021
Catholic? Why don't you go to Confession?
Here's a genuine question for any practising Catholics out there - do you go to Confession? And if not, why not?
It is a well known from observation of Confessional queues in parishes that in recent generations there has been a steep decline in the practice of Confession; such that it must be concluded many Catholics regularly attending Mass are rarely, if ever, participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Given the centrality of Confession to the Catholic system of spirituality, this should be of great concern to anyone interested in the well-being of souls.
To that end, I would like to recruit the help of anyone interested in getting to the bottom of this problem: why are Catholics not going to confession?
Why Should I go to Confession? (Standard PDF)
Why Should I go to Confession (Printable PDF Booklet)
If you are a believing Catholic who has lapsed from going to Confession, can I encourage you to simply read it through - it will take you about 20 minutes? If, after having read it, you still decide that you are not going to make Confession a part of your life, can I encourage you to write to me at the address in the booklet, or leave a comment on this Blog, simply explaining your reasons why?
As a priest, the ministry of reconciling sinners to God is at the very heart of my raison d'être and if the faithful are not coming forward to access this important means of Grace, then I believe I have a responsibility to try and understand why.
Any who wants to get in touch is free to do so anonymously, and I promise neither to judge you, nor try and persuade you to change your mind. However, by sharing, you will be helping a priest of the Church to better fulfil his role in ministering to the People of God.
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
The state of the Church in a Picture
Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 18.18)
Lord, will only a few be saved? (Luke 13.23)
Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? (Mark 10.2)
Questions are good. Questions are the doorway to knowledge. Jesus was presented with many questions throughout his ministry. And He answered them. People presented Him with questions because they recognised that “[H]e taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7.29). When asked good and important questions Jesus gave people the authoritative answers so that they might order their lives, with confidence, upon the Truth. Truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true (Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ, cf. Adoro te devote).
The mission of the Catholic Church is, under the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to perpetuate the presence of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Through the Church, Jesus Christ has been becoming ever more present down through History. Every time a new tabernacle is erected, whenever or wherever a Sacrament is celebrated, when a Christian prays authentically, wherever the Liturgy is of offered, each time the community gathers, when a human heart is converted through mission, where the poor are loved in His name Jesus Christ becomes more present in the world. Jesus Christ did not leave us behind at His Ascension, He remains with us always (Matt. 28.20).
An important part of this, of course, is that He continues to teach us through the Church. Just as people in Jesus’ own time had many questions for Him, for which they needed answers; so too, in every age the disciples of Jesus Christ have needed the guidance of the master. Which is why it is such a disaster, when the Church fails to teach with clarity.
I travelled recently to San Sebastiàn in Spain for a break. I really commend it as a holiday destination. September is, apparently, the best month for weather and my experience bore this out. There is a superb town beach, which my friend and I enjoyed; however, there are also some wonderful cultural sites, including some lovely old Churches.
However, travelling to see ancient Churches these days can open one up to heartbreak. Above is a picture from outside, by the entrance, of the Basilica of Saint Mary of Coro. In this niche built into the wall, a really nebulous piece of modern artwork has been placed; I can only assume replacing a statue of a saint or a holy monument.
If a picture could sum up where it sometimes feels like we are in the Church today, then, for me, this might be it. Whereas a statue of a saint speaks to the world concretely of his or her life, witnesses to virtue, and the incarnation of Christian principles within a human person, what does this say? Rather than a holy image, this holey image speaks of gaps, uncertainty, confusion - what is is even? Furthermore, the fact that it is brilliant white, against the much more ancient stone of the Church walls highlights a discontinuity.
The tabernacle had been replaced by a book. We presumed that this was an enthronement of the Word of God, the Bible, and I think that was probably what was meant. However, getting closer it looked a lot more like an altar missal. We could only presume that the parish had wanted to exult the Word of God, but had failed to find a suitably impressive print edition of the Bible, and so had opted for a traditional missal instead.
Being Catholic priests on holiday, we immediately set about looking for the tabernacle to venerate the Real Presence of Jesus Christ. Predictably we found Him off to the side, but enthroned upon the radiator system.
The questions the people put to Jesus Christ in His day were good questions deserving of answers. And so are the questions that people ask of Him, through His Church, today. Until we are prepared to give them those authoritative answers, in charity, and then incarnate them in the life of the Church, the crisis within Catholicism will continue.
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Are you listening to the call of the Lord?
Reflections for this Sunday's Liturgy
Some years ago, when I began my discernment for the priesthood, the vocations director I was working with at the time asked me to make sure I was reading some books about the priesthood. Being already something of a 'fan' of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, I turned straight away to reading his classic work The Priest is not his Own. When I told him, the vocations director said he thought the book was 'a little dated', yet nevertheless I persevered. In it, I read what I have come believe is the most important thing I ever read; I read about the Holy Hour.
For Archbishop Fulton Sheen the Holy Hour was a big deal. He encouraged every priest, seminarian and consecrated person to spend one hour a day in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and he described it as the 'hour of power', from which all the graces of ministry and consecration flow. I was deeply inspired by this advice - not least because it was so practical. He was not selling some skill to be attained, or asking me to experience something that he experienced, but which I might not. He was simply saying to spend an hour each day before the Lord, in silence. While he made some suggestions for how to spend the time - he was very keen that we should all meditate more on the Scriptures - in the end the most important thing was that we should spend the time.
Once I entered seminary - training for the priesthood - I took up his advice, and in nine years of formation, I am convinced it is the most important thing that I did. Seminary formation is not ideal. I wish I could say that the years living in that community were a seamless, joyful formation in wisdom, virtue and the love of God; but, that was not my experience. I experienced much good, but also my fair share of struggle and trial. There were some outstanding people involved in my training, but also some who were not. And, as with all periods of studying (again, in my experience), in priestly formation there exists the danger of growing in a sort of myopia, which can be counterproductive to virtue and holiness.
Yet, through all the ups and downs, dangers and turmoils of living for seven years alongside and in obedience to people with whom one probably would not have chosen to form community, the Holy Hour remained, for me, a constant and a bedrock; a daily encounter with the Lord. Over the door to our chapel was written the words magister adest et vocat te (the Master is here and is calling you. cf. John 11.28) and above the tabernacle were inscribed the words non vos me elegistis sed ego elegi vos (You did not choose me, I chose you. cf. John 15.16). In the chapel, each day, I would give space to the Lord to renew His call to me in accord with His choice; and by giving Him that space I was renewing my resolve to respond.
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What does Jesus say that the rich man must do in order to inherit eternal life? There's a pretty good chance that you are thinking - go and sell all he owns and then come follow. However, if you go back to the text you will see that that is not what he says.
‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’
In response to this important question, Jesus' answer is essentially to keep the commandments of God. The most basic call that every human being experiences in his or her conscience is to do good and avoid evil. The Commandments of God, handed down to us through the teachings of the Church clarify for us the good to be done and the evil to be avoided. However, this is known to everyone if they they search inside themselves, because the commands have been implanted within us by God.
Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart. (Catechism of the Catholic Church §2072)
Every human person has a basic call to live according to the commandments, or not; and their decision expresses something real about their desire for God, or not.
However, for the Christian, desiring a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Father, there should be a desire to go beyond this basic level of command. Rather than simply doing good, the question might be what good, specifically, do you desire of me, Lord? In which way of life, or, in which service, can I give myself more fully to you? If we have come to know God, it is only natural to want to place these questions before Him.
And it is in this context that the young man responds to Jesus.
‘Master, I have kept all these [Commandments] from my earliest days.’
Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
Some Christians are called to follow Christ in this radical way. Many do renounce all that they have embrace vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. However, others are called to serve God in the secular world and many are called to marriage and family life. Furthermore, within our states of life, God also extends certain invitations to serve him in many and various way; through teaching, proclaiming and sharing the faith, through serving the Church's mission and worship, or, through manifesting God' love for the poor in certain, definite ways.
Yet, without creating space in our lives to listen to God, how will we ever know that to which God is calling us? If we never ask, we will never find out.
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In a world that is so full of 'busyness', with so much work to be done and so much entertainment to consume the rest of our time, where do we set aside the quality time to be with God and listen to his call on our lives? Even when we are very busy, we find time to eat; but, do we find the space to feed the hunger of our souls?
As lay-people living full lives, I would never expect you to find an hour a day, nor necessarily to be able to be able to come and be in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament everyday. However, a man or woman seeking the heart of Jesus Christ should be giving Him some meaningful time, each day.
How much time will vary according to your circumstances. I would suggest being generous, but realistic. But, as a bare minimum, I would venture that 20 minutes is the place to start. 1/3 hour in a 24 hour day - surely that is not too much to ask for the God who made you, sustains you, and offers you the way to eternal life? And yet, it is enough time to be a sacrifice. It will not be easy, if you are not used to it, and it may take time, effort and perseverance to acquire the habit and routine. But, I promise you that it is worth it.
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I am quite, quite certain that I am a very different person, today, for that decision I made well-over ten years ago to make the Holy Hour a part of my life. I am equally certain that anything good in my priesthood, through the prayers of Our Lady, flows from that hour of power. We will never know what good might have happened in the life of that rich young man if he had followed Our Lord's invitation. Perhaps he later changed his mind, or perhaps not - and that is very sad.
However, sadder still, would be, if we, today, knowing Our Lord's goodness chose not to ask Him what good we should do. Let's not make that mistake; let's make a firm resolution to find meaningful space for Him in our lives each day. In a few years, you will not be the same - but I promise you, you will not regret it!
There is a KindleTM version of The Better Part available here, at the very reasonable price of £6.52, or click on the picture for the print volumes.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
Jesus' Teaching on Marriage & Human Sexuality
Within the Jewish community of Jesus' day there were different schools of thought about marriage, and, in particular, about the vexed question of divorce. The two dominant schools were those of Rabbis Shammai and Hillel. Shammai took the view that a man needed a serious reason to issue his wife with a writ of divorce; whereas, Hillel said that any trivial reason - for example, if she burnt the dinner one evening - would suffice. It is worth noting, of course, that the rights were all in the hand of husband. The woman did not a say.
Given that this debate was happening, it is unsurprising that people wanted to put the question to Jesus. Jesus, by now establishing a reputation for being something of a radical, a man who ate with sinners and seemingly stretched the law of the Sabbath to breaking point, might well have been expected to give a fairly liberal answer concerning the law of divorce. What Jesus, in fact, comes up with is an answer even more conservative than Moses.
‘What did Moses command you?’ ‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’
The level of the surprise is evident from the fact that the disciples felt the need to clarify the matter when they were alone.
Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.’
If Jesus' answer seemed conservative to His first hearers, of His own day, then, in our time it will seem radically reactionary to the people of our day. Ours is an age where men and women seem to be finding ever more creative ways to live contrary to the chastity to which Jesus calls them through the Church. Yet, in the midst of it all, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Church must continue to faithfully hand on the teaching of Jesus Christ, namely that marriage is a sacrament, a holy and indissoluble bond between one man and one woman for life; and, that the only proper context for sexually intimacy is within such a bond between two people and open to the procreation of new life.
Whilst saying this, the Church continues to proclaim the compassion of Jesus Christ to those who are finding or who have found it hard to live out. Christianity is not easy, and it is not meant to be. Carrying the Cross may save our souls, but there are times when the Cross will be very heavy. All Christians should be there to journey with their brothers and sisters in difficulty, and the Church is always ready to minister God's mercy and forgiveness to those who need it.
However, there is nothing merciful about hiding the truth from people. And the truth is that when we engage in sexual activity outside of marriage it wounds us spiritually. The marital act expresses self-gift; the action itself expresses that I am giving myself to you completely. When we make that expression outside of the context of a relationship where we have definitively committed our lives to the service of the other person, then we are lying with our bodies.
The power of physical intimacy is a deep power of our soul, and when we use it wrongly it does real damage to our relationships with others and with God, which is why the Church teaches that if we have sinned in this way it is essential that we go to confession before returning to Holy Communion.
But some people still object - this teaching does not sound like the merciful teaching of Jesus, who always loved the people and reached out to the marginalised.
Doesn't it?
Well it depends on your standpoint.
If you were a first century Jewish woman, this teaching was extraordinary. Suddenly, you were no longer the property of your husband, to be put away if, for a serious or even trivial reason, you upset him. Here, for the first time in the debate, someone was thinking about female dignity. Christianity, today regarded by so many feminists as misogynistic, was, in its inception the beginning of rights for women, affirming in various places in the New Testament the equality of men and women before God.
And today? Who does a liberal attitude to relationship morality serve today?
Go and speak to people on the streets and you will find that the breakdown of a casual relationship is the most likely, immediate cause of their homelessness. Separation of a relationship is an expensive business, and often it is the children who lose out. According to the Joseph Rowntree foundation children of separated families have a higher probability of:
- being in poverty and poor housing;
- being poorer when they are adults;
- behavioural problems;
- performing less well in school;
- needing medical treatment;
- leaving school/home when young;
- becoming sexually active, pregnant, or a parent at an early age;
- depressive symptoms, high levels of smoking and drinking, and drug use during adolescence and adulthood.
This is absolutely not to pass judgement on anyone whose relationship has broken down. Every situation of relationship breakdown is utterly unique, and very often people find themselves trying to do their best in an impossible situation - if that's you, then the Church stands with you, and will do all that we can do to support you.
However, this is the context for Jesus' teaching on marriage. He knew that a culture which widely undermines marriage and treats relationships as transitory and recreational would have losers. Bad ideas have victims, and in this case the victims are usually the poorest. The poorer a child is, the more likely he or she is to grow up with one parent absent from the lives.
In the end, brothers and sisters, if Jesus' teaching today seems challenging to the world, then that sets you and me with a mission. That mission may, at times, mean explaining to others where Jesus is coming from in what He says about this. However, most of all, especially to those of you who are married to demonstrate and incarnate the beauty of Jesus' call to live marriage as an indissoluble sacrament, open to new life. Perhaps, only then, will the world have a chance to see.
Unmasking the Devil
I preached a homily, this week, for the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel & Raphael. Afterwards a parishioner requested a copy of the thoughts from the homily...
On 13th October 1884 the story is told that, after offering Mass, Pope Leo XIII had a vision. He apparently "turned paled and collapsed as though dead." He later shared that he had seen a vision of Satan boasting about his plan to destroy the Church.
According to Pope Leo XIII the Lord reminded him that his Church was imperishable. Satan then replied, “Grant me one century and more power of those who will serve me, and I will destroy it.” Our Lord granted him 100 years.
The Lord then revealed the events of the 20th century to Leo XIII. He saw wars, immorality, genocide and apostasy on a large scale. Immediately following this disturbing vision, he sat down and wrote the prayer to St. Michael. For decades it was prayed at Mass until the 1960’s. Like many of the Church’s spiritual defenses, it was discontinued in the second half of the 20th century. (The New (& the Old) Evangelization: The 100 year test, Joe Tremblay, Catholic News Agency)
The prayer to St. Michael is a beautiful prayer that the great Archangel, through the power of God, would defeat the work of Satan. There is a long version and well as the better known short version. As noted above, the shorter form was frequently, publicly recited before the liturgical reforms in the '60s, as part of the 'Leonine Prayers' said in the vernacular at the end of low Masses. Some have certainly seen a link between the removal of these prayers and the rise of destructive forces in the Church.
While I make no comment on the spiritual link here, I think it is unarguable that the roots of the current crisis in the Church can be found in the tumultuous movements emerging out of the 1960s.
- This was the era of the sexual revolution, when a definitive break took place between the society's conception of the place and purpose of sexuality in the human experience, and that which has consistently been taught and understood within the Christian Church. 'Free love' replaced the idea, in many minds, that sexual intercourse belongs only within marriage (between one man & one woman).
- It was also in this decade that a momentous event in the life of the Catholic Church took place: the Second Vatican Council. This Council, known commonly at Vatican II, ushered in a significant number of changes - most notably for lay Catholics, the reform of the liturgy, with most of its parts being said in the vernacular language of the people, rather than Latin. It must be observed, however, that in many places changes were introduced that went beyond what the Bishops had agreed on at Vatican II. Proponents of the changes appealed to the so called "Spirit of Vatican II", as indeed certain people in the Church do today.
- An important mention must also be made of the episode around Humanae Vitae, which Pope Paul VI issued in 1968. There had been much speculation in the '60s, in light of the sexual revolution and the Spirit of Vatican II, that the Catholic Church might be about to change its teaching on artificial birth control or contraception. Humanae Vitae brought this to an end, when Paul VI reaffirmed this teaching definitively, and essentially said that the Pope would have no power to change this. Many in the Church, however, encouraged by the spirit of change, simply rebelled against this teaching - in spite of the fact that it came from the Church, safeguarded in her teaching by the Holy Spirit.
In many ways the great winner from what happened here is the Devil, who loves to divide. We see today great division in the Church, and it is deeply, deeply saddening; and, more seriously, it is having a devastating effect on the Church's mission to bring others to Christ. It is horrendously unedifying to see Bishops publicly, and often not terribly politely, correcting one another in the Catholic media; and, increasingly, all events in the life of the Church are being seen as a struggle between polarised liberals and conservatives. The fact that the struggle is usually portrayed as being about either sexual morality or the Liturgy shows us that the damage done in this period was immense.
In 1972, Pope Paul VI preached in a homily "“the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God from some fissure”. There is doubt, uncertainty, problems, anxiety, dissatisfaction, confrontation. One no longer trusts the Church; one trusts the first profane prophet who comes to speak to us from some newspaper or from some social movement to chase him and ask him if he has the formula of true life."
Dealing with the Devil
Now, how does one fight against the Devil. The beginning of dealing with the devil is to unmask him. He is, in the end, a coward, and he can only work in the darkness. When the light of Truth is shone upon him, he runs away. How do we do this?
- To begin we must recognise the problem. As our culture focusses increasingly on issues of identity, what is subtly occurring is that we are becoming more attentive to what divides us. Polarisation has led many people to quite enjoy defining themselves in opposition to others, even within the Church. We need to see that division is of the Devil - Jesus does not want this.
- Having seen the division, we need to reject it, acknowledging that there is more to unite us, than to divide. Please God, as men and women seeking the will of God in His Church, our union of faith and sacrament must be genuinely understood to unite us far more than the issues that divide us.
- That said, the issues division are real. These issues must be humbly explored in the light of revealed truth. Those who may disagree with us, or oppose us, in the Church may have real and genuine questions. There needs to be an authentic, charitable and humble submission of everyone's questions to the light of revelation found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
In the end, the defeat of the devil will yield blessing for the Church, if it becomes a means for her renewed commitment to the teaching of Jesus Christ, handed down in Her midst.
Facing the Devil in our own lives
We should be careful never to fall into the trap of looking for demons around every corner in our lives. When sin or darkness begins to take hold of us, the world or the flesh are as likely, as not, the source of the problem. However, sometimes things do happen, for which something a little more supernatural might be an explanation. When division between myself and someone else pops us out of nowhere; where a darkness or sadness grabs me, out of which no ordinary human means seems to shake me - dividing me from myself; or, perhaps where something has caused me to mistrust or be divided from Christ's body, the Church.
If we see something in our lives that hints of the Devil's activity, then we too should unmask him. Name the problem for what it is. In naming devilish division, we cause him to lose his power. We should then, instead, look for the unity, and look for it in the light of the truth. If necessary, do not be afraid to seek help. The devil - again, working in darkness - is terrified when we open the secrets of our hearts, because it brings light to a situation.
As Christians, we should never be afraid of fallen angels. In Jesus Christ we have the victory over all the powers of darkness. However, we need to live that victory in our lives, and bring the power that Christ promises to the forefront of our lives.
St. Michael the Archangel... pray for us.
Saturday, September 25, 2021
The Seriousness of Sin and the Greatest Miracle
Reflection for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 26th Sept. '21.
The opening collect of today's Mass makes, what to many, would seem an extraordinary claim:
O God, who manifest your almighty power, above all by pardoning and showing mercy.
We are perhaps so used to the idea of God performing great miracles in the Bible - parting the Red Sea, raising the dead, healing all kinds of disease and sickness, rising from the dead - that we can forget that the greatest miracle he performs, is what he does on a daily basis throughout the world, forgiving sinners of their wrongdoing.
Partly, of course, this is because we are living in an age which has entirely forgotten the importance, or the seriousness of sin. St. Catherine of Genoa puts it this way:
[T]he sweet God loves with a pure love the creature that He has created, and has a hatred for nothing but sin, which is more opposed to Him than can be thought or imagined.
Sin is so utterly opposed to the goodness of God that it requires an extraordinary action of His power to be able to forgive us and stay in relationship with us. The fact that He does it, gives us a fresh sense of the meaning of the words: God is love.
It is important, however, that we do try and interiorise the significance of that fact. For, if we do not, then what we will end up doing is, in our minds, taking away from the fulness of the glory of God. That is to say, if we regard sin as nothing so serious, then we must, of necessity, not regard God's holiness as anything so great, either. God's 'otherness', his utter-goodness, means that He can, by nature, have nothing to do with sin. But, if we carry on as if sin is no big thing for Him, then we must understand Him to be reasonably at home with sin, and perhaps not that holy, not that 'utter' in His goodness.
Thus, in a very real way, the hatred that we manifest for sin in our lives is a reflection of reverence, the worship that we have for God. That is to say, if I have a deep reverence for God, then my concern over my sins will be likewise deepened.
If we were unsure over how seriously we should take sin in our lives, the Gospel makes it really plain.
[I]f your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.’
Our Lord's language here is firm, but it is because He - being God - can see the seriousness of human sin. Seeing it, He is urging us to take the means necessary, against it.
His words are not, obviously, directing us to mutilate ourselves - that would be a sin in itself. Our Lord is using the Rabbinical language of hyperbole to make a point. If your hand were causing you to sin, then you should cut it off; but, your hand isn't causing you to sin - it is your mind & heart where you choose what to do with your hand that caused you to sin. The problem is in your mind & heart, and it is there that the radical action needs to be taken.
This brings us back to the opening prayer.
O God, who manifest your almighty power, above all by pardoning and showing mercy; bestow your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Who are those hastening to [God's] promises? Well, it needs to be understood in conjunction with the earlier clause - it is those receiving God's pardon and mercy. And who are they?
Well, if forgiving and showing mercy are the greatest manifestations of God's power, then the Confession box really is the room of miracles, par excellence. It is there, more than anywhere, that God's forgiveness is imparted. And it is there that radical action is taken to convert mind and heart. If your heart is causing you to sin, then the answer is to cut it open before Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and let Him there do His work of healing.
It is an extraordinary miracle of God's power, that you and I can, in spite of our sins, be heirs to the treasures of heaven. What a tragedy, if even knowing that, we do not hasten towards that promise, today.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
When the Light for a Christian is the planet, and not Jesus Christ, something has gone wrong.
The BBC Sunday programme is rarely a place for hard-hitting analysis of topics of serious religious import. The programme, invariably, discusses its matter through a secular, liberal lens, and highlights various examples of religious people who seem to have adapted the demands of their faith in such a way as to fit in comfortably with the views of the progressive bien pensant. Treat it as such, and it provides a rather wonderful window on the way in which its editorial team would like all religious people to conduct themselves.
However, even I double-took, this week, hearing the interview with the Episcopalian Bishop Mark Strange. In the course of his interview, in which he was talking about how to encourage the government to make more climate change commitments in advance of COP26, he began using increasingly religious language, culminating in this extraordinary statement:
Coming from a professed Christian, this seems to me to be an extraordinary statement. That his light in darkness would be anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ demonstrates that something has gone spiritually out of kilter - and this points us to a spiritual danger in the climate movement.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognises the Christian imperative of caring for God's creation.
Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human beings and their environment. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §339)
As such, Catholics do have a moral duty to consider their role in adding to environmental damage through global warming. However, at the same time we need to recognise that this is a home made for us by God - it is not ours, we are mere stewards - and it is a temporary reality. As Jesus Himself tells us "[h]eaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Matthew 24.35, Mark 13.31, Luke 21.33). St Paul was conscious that as Christians "we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4.18).
If our concern for the environment leads us to begin to find in it the source of human salvation, then we have gone wrong. For us, there is only one light in the darkness and it is Jesus Christ; and the salvation which He promises us is not to be found in this world.
Perhaps some key questions to examine the Christian nature of my environmental concern/activism are these:
Am I acting in response to the call of Jesus Christ? Is it causing me to grow in love of Him? Do I find in it a response to the call to deny myself, take up my Cross and follow Him? Am I acting out of concern for the poor? Are my actions, or those which I support, in accord with true justice and the moral law? Do they amount to loving my neighbour as myself? Am I looking to the future with hope? Do I see my work here as pointing towards heaven?
If the answers to the above questions are 'yes', then your climate activism is probably in a good, Christian place, and I would suggest it is likely nurturing your spiritual life. However, perhaps some of the dangers to look out for are:
- Climate activism which becomes angry or resentful towards others.
- Aggression in promoting my view.
- Hypocritical activism which demands big changes in societal lifestyles, before being willing to change my own.
- Adopting anti-life solutions to the climate, such as limiting birth through abortion, contraception or sterilisation.
- Adopting unjust attitudes to the legitimate desire of poorer nations to improve their people's lifestyles, even at the expense of climate targets.
In the end, there have been very few examples in history of human beings, en masse, coming together and putting aside vested interests for the sake of a greater good. My suspicion is that it is unlikely to occur now, either; and that we will have to accept the consequences of that failure. Welcome to the experience of living among fallen humanity.
However, for the Christian, even that bleak assessment should not be a cause for panic, less still an excuse for sin. We know - or we ought to - that God is in control of human history; and in that assurance, we are certain we will always have light in any darkness - it is Jesus Christ.
The full interview with the Most Rev. Mark Strange is available here, beginning at 1:40. The title image is used under a Creative Commons Licence, available here.
Saturday, September 4, 2021
The deafness the Lord really desires to heal
Some years ago, when I was teaching a confirmation programme, I found myself doing a catch-up session for a couple of boys who could not attend one of the classes. These two both went to a very upmarket, public school, and so I was unsurprised when I found the address and was welcome into a really large, and well-appointed home to meet with the two Confirmandi. I was there to teach them about sin, but also about God's love - how God loves every person, completely and unconditionally. I was making this point when one of the boys asked how it can be that God loves everyone when there are so many poor people in the world?
The question was meant really genuinely and not loaded with any ill-will. However, it was a real eye-opener for me that even 2,000 years after the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, and in a part of the world where Christianity has saturated our cultural inheritance, there is still, deeply embedded, the idea that wealth and fortune can be a primary sign of God's love and approval. I, of course, went on to explain that our Christian faith tells us just the opposite; that Jesus taught us "[b]lessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God" (Luke 6.20). Pope Francis, indeed quoting Pope Benedict, puts it this way:
"Today and always, “the poor are the privileged recipients of the Gospel”, and the fact that it is freely preached to them is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor." (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 48)
In the same document, this time quoting St. John Paul II, Pope Francis adds:
"God shows the poor “his first mercy”. This divine preference has consequences for the faith life of all Christians, since we are called to have “this mind… which was in Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:5)." (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 198)
Yet, if God's preferential option for the poor seems obvious when we look to the Scriptures and the words of the Popes, perhaps when we look at the ordering of our society, even the society of the Church, the young man's question does not look quite so out-of-place. What efforts do we see among Christians to manifest God's priority for those of low degree?
The letter of St. James, in our second reading, takes aim at Christians who fail to treat the poor with the dignity they deserve:
Now suppose a man comes into your synagogue, beautifully dressed and with a gold ring on, and at the same time a poor man comes in, in shabby clothes, and you take notice of the well-dressed man, and say, ‘Come this way to the best seats’; then you tell the poor man, ‘Stand over there’ or ‘You can sit on the floor by my foot-rest.’ Can’t you see that you have used two different standards in your mind, and turned yourselves into judges, and corrupt judges at that? (James 2.2-4)
The fact that St. James is writing this is important because he must have been responding to something which was a real problem in the Church. The New Testament writers were not seeking to address imaginary, hypothetical problems in their letters. Rather, they were responding to and correcting the challenges and the problems that they saw. This suggests that this introduction of a distinction between the well-dressed wealthy and the dirty, smelly poor was something which St. James had seen.
And is it not something we see in our world today? I would like to think that if a scruffy, 'gentleman of the road' turned up in our Church today; we'd all be competing to welcome him, as Christ; wanting to sit near him and speak to him after Mass... but I am not certain of it. And how would it be if a homeless person turned up at our work or our place of business?
These are provocative questions, and they are not looking for easy answers - the problems of poverty, particularly extreme poverty, are nothing, if not complex. But, as Christians, we cannot simply look away because it is hard.
Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who are poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him. (James 2.5)
It may be tempting to think that the solution is to find some sort of programme, or put together some sort of plan, to help people less well off than ourselves. However, that would be imprudent. In the Church there to too much 'go-go' and not enough 'come-come' (cf. Fulton Sheen). My intention, here, is not to drive people into activity, but to encourage thought and reflection. The extent to which we have come to have a care for the poor is a kind of test, which can show me how much I am listening to the Word; how much I have interiorised the teaching of Jesus.
In the Gospel, we read of Jesus' cure of a deaf man. There are people today who wonder why Jesus does not do those kinds of healings in our time. Are there not people with incurable deafness today, who are in as much need of a miracle as that man? And there are others who say that if they saw such miracles, then they would believe in Jesus.
But, the question is would they really? We saw a couple of weeks ago, how after having seen many of His miracles, the people walked away from Jesus when they found His teaching not to their liking. Miracles do not necessarily make people attentive to Jesus' Word.
The reality is that miracles do still happen - but they happen far more frequently in parts of the world where people are materially destitute and rich in faith - where they are open to the Word of God. And this is the fundamental answer to my young man's question. The real blessing, the real manifestation of God's love and preference is found in souls that are open to His Word. For this is real wealth - to be in possession of the eternal riches that come from knowing Jesus Christ, personally.
How familiar are you with Jesus' Word? What place do the Scriptures have in your life, and in mine? Are we attentive to His voice, or, are we afflicted with spiritual deafness?
If I had a pound for every time I have been told, even by Christians, that Jesus thinks something flat contrary to what He says in the Gospel, I would be a very wealthy priest. And I can only conclude that the Christians who say such things are unfamiliar with the New Testament; that they have not sufficiently allowed themselves to hear the Word of God; that their hearts have remained deaf to the voice of Jesus Christ.
We are so privileged, today, that the Scriptures are available in so many different forms: books in every language, audiobooks, ebooks, braille. We really do have no excuse for not knowing the living Word of God, and if we are serious about following Christ we need to make it a daily part of our experience. For, what happens when we do, is that it begins to go down deep inside us. His Word sinks down into our subconscious and becomes within us a fountain of spiritual wisdom. It changes us, heals us of our spiritual deafness and stimulates us to spiritual growth.
- We begin to see sin as Jesus sees it - a destructive force, sapping our inner life.
- The desire within us to love God grows.
- Our hunger for the sacraments increases, as we can see more clearly our need for God.
- And finally, our love for the poor begins to show through, as we become sensitive to the place that they have in His heart.
In the words of St. Josemaria Escriva:
How I wish your bearing and conversation were such that, on seeing or hearing you, people would say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ. (The Way, #2)
Would that that be true of you and me, brothers and sisters; then truly we could say that Jesus has done miracles again in our day - for ears of the spiritually deaf then have become unsealed, and the dumb begun to speak.
[Image: Christ healing a deaf and dumb man, Domenico Maggiotto (Italian, 1713–1794)]
Saturday, August 28, 2021
What is going on in your heart? Probably more than you think
Spiritual reflections on Sunday Reading: Video Homily to Follow
What's going on in your heart?
I hope that as you read this, the answer to that question is that, through electronic stimuli, the muscle in your chest a contracting rhythmically to push blood around your arterial system. If that is not the answer, then you will not be reading this for much longer. However, reading that question, I suspect that is not where your mind immediately went.
In pastoral work, in the Confessional, but, perhaps, most especially in spiritual direction this is a question which I quite often put to people. Where is your heart? What's going on in your heart? Will you open up your heart? And when I do so, I almost always get an answer about how the person feels.
This is not wrong, and often it is what I want to know. Yet, it is important to remember that our hearts contain more than our feelings - at least Biblically speaking.
The Bible uses the word 'heart' countless times, and yet it is never referring to the internal organ which keeps us alive physically. It is always used to refer to that non-material part of ourselves - the centre of our inmost being. Whilst today, we locate the heart as the centre of our feelings and emotions, for the Biblical authors the heart was also the seat for many of the powers which we today attribute to the brain. Specifically, the heart was the centre of knowing, the centre of man's moral consciousness and the place of the will - his power of choosing.
Feeling, Knowing, Choosing & Sensing Moral Reality
So, what's going on in your heart?
The answer to this question, really, must be much deeper than how do I feel. Amidst the swirl of human feelings, what are the truths that I know and hold onto? And in what choices do those feelings and that knowledge manifest themselves? In action that are in accord with my consciousness of moral reality or not? These are the kinds of questions that are really implied, when asking what's going on in your heart?
It is with this understanding of the human heart that we can begin to make sense of Jesus' contention with the scribes and pharisees of Jerusalem.
Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. For it is from within, from men's hearts that evil intentions emerge. (Mark 7.14-15)
We may feel all sorts of things in our hearts, some good and some bad. However, the greatest expression of our hearts is found in what comes out? Having felt evil, what are the truths that I hold onto? How to I express that in my choices? When I feel like doing or saying or thinking something wrong, I nevertheless have the knowledge that that is only a feeling; and, having felt it I can choose to act in accordance with what my conscience tells me is right, or not. And it works the other way round, too. I may feel all sorts of great impulses to goodness - but knowing that they are good, I still have to choose to put them into effect... or not.
Examining our Hearts
As human beings, and especially as Christians, we need to be in touch with our hearts; but, as we have discovered, that means more than simply knowing how I am feeling. We need to look at what is coming out of our hearts, because, as Jesus tells us, that expresses what is going on inside.
Our Lord Himself gives us some warning signs that things might be going wrong: "fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’" (Mark 7.21-23)
However, in our Old Testament and New Testament readings, we are given a guide as to the fruits of a good heart. Firstly, Moses tells the people of Israel in Deuteronomy:
[K]eep the commandments of the Lord your God just as I lay them down for you. Keep them, observe them, and they will demonstrate to the peoples your wisdom and understanding. (Deuteronomy 4.6)
The heart being the seat of knowledge - ie. wisdom & understanding - expresses the goodness of its knowledge of God by choosing to keep His commandments. As St. John will later put it, this is the ultimate test of whether we have love for God in our hearts:
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. (1 John 5.2-3)
In the New Testament readings St. James offers another guide as to the fruit for which to look, emerging from our hearts:
Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world. (James 1.27)
By looking out for the dangers - the sins - of which Jesus warns us, and by looking for growth in the good signs - attentiveness to God's commandments and caring for the poor and vulnerable - we can get a good picture of where are hearts are. And we should be aware of our hearts, because, in a real way, they are the most important part of ourselves.
Don't Panic, Heart Transplants are Possible
Please God, you are looking at your heart and finding it full of love for Him. If so, thank Him. Even that love is a gift of His grace.
If, however, after having a good look, things aren't as great as you'd hoped - don't panic. With God's help, there is always great hope. There is indeed the possibility of a heart transplant - it's called Conversion of Heart.
If you find that there is sin in heart that you need confess - go to confession and receive God's mercy. It is the sacrament of conversion and it brings about conversion of heart. We may need to go again and again, but each time, we convert a little more.
And once we have converted from our sin, then is the time to grow; to grow in our faithfulness to God and in our love of our neighbour, for love of Him. As St. John Henry Newman puts it:
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
While we live on this earth, as Christians we should always be looking to God, asking Him where we need to grow, next. What new challenge or calling does He have for me? Where can I give myself more to His service? Which part of my heart does he want to change and enlarge now?
When we have the bravery to invite God into our hearts - not just our feelings, but allowing Him to shape what we know, our vision of the moral universe and the choices that we make within it - then we are giving Him the room He needs to unite our hearts with His own. And when we allow Him to do this, then our hearts will begin to beat to His rhythm; and you just know that that is a heartbeat that will go on, forever.
(Photo: Photography is in my heart, Nina Matthews from Sydney, Australia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)
Friday, August 27, 2021
The Moral Questions the Climate Change Lobby are afraid to ask
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The amusing admission this week that Dr. Gail Bradbrook drives a highly polluting, diesel engine car would, in a more thoughtful world, be a moment for those engaging in climate activism to pause and reflect a little more deeply on precisely what the goals of their movement are. This would be surely the least the general public could reasonably ask of them, before they embark on a renewed campaign to disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, I assume from past experience, the moment will be left to pass by.
Bradbrook's defence was that she cannot afford an electric car, and that she needed to drive her children to various sports fixtures, for which the public transport does not exist. The Telegraph noted that in the past she was also criticised for flying 11,000 to Costa Rica, justified, apparently, by the need to seek medical care unavailable in the U.K.
The problem underlying Dr. Bradbrook's defence, and the kind of environmental reforms for which many campaigners are looking, is that they assume the we can reach 'net-zero' without drastic changes to the western lifestyle. However, that is simply unrealistic, unless we understand the 'net-zero' target in a quite a facile way.
We all know that the world's resources are consumed in a vastly disproportionate way. According to Friends of the Earth, the average European consumes more than 4 times that of an average African, and an average American or Australian as much as 10 times more. Even if these figures can be debated, it comports with a reality we can all recognise, the the West consumes more than it fair share of what the earth has to offer.
The goal of reducing U.K. emissions to at least 100% below 1990 levels does not include emission associated with U.K. consumption. This means that, inevitably, in the future our lifestyles will be buttressed by the benefit of carbon emissions released in other countries to provide us with goods and services. The batteries in our electric cars will continue to depend on minerals dragged out of the ground in other places, where governments and industry may be unable or unwilling to find green ways of conducting energy intensive mining.
It is not unreasonable for the very great many people caught in poverty in poor countries to desire some of the comfort enjoyed by wealthier countries. Yet, it is inconceivable that the world can justify everyone living the lifestyle of a British or an American person; and it is dubious whether we can make it genuinely carbon neutral, even for ourselves. Does this mean that climate concern means we plan to leave the poorest in the world with their rather terrible, but very environmentally friendly, lot in life?
I hope not.
Which means, it seems to me, that we need to begin to ask the questions about what are the radical changes to the way in which we need to make in order to simplify the modern lifestyle expectations, in order to reduce our impact on the planet? This may mean not expecting to be able to make all the journeys to which we have become used - ferrying teenagers to every sporting activity they desire, just as an example. I suspect it will rule out travelling half-way across the world, for medical treatment that a tiny fraction of the world's population could ever afford. It will certainly involve genuine sacrifice and facing an absence of easy answers.
When climate activists begin to ask these sorts of questions, however, I'll begin to get really interested.
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