Happy feast of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist

The Gospel reading for today came from the Gospel of Mark:

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday,
gave a banquet for his courtiers,
his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.
Herodias’ own daughter came in
and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,
“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
He even swore many things to her,
“I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
even to half of my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother,
“What shall I ask for?”
She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request,
“I want you to give me at once
on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was deeply distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders
to bring back his head.
He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
The girl in turn gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard about it,
they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

 

As I was on my way to work this morning I was praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.  I couldn't help but think of all the women in the Gospel, but especially our Lady. As I meditated on tthe Joyful Mysteries, I couldn't help but think about Herodias and her daughter. How they were politically so very powerful, and yet they turned their back on God, even to the point of killing John the Baptist. How very unlike the Blessed Virgin who gave God her ultimate, creation changing yes. She brought life to the world, where Herodias and her daughter only took life. She is the ultimate example of womanhood, where Herodias and her daughter seem more the ultimate example of misguided feminism. It was just a thought.

Gangs, frats, and life in Christ

Anyone following the news here in Wenatchee two weeks ago probably remembers the fire that killed two young boys ages 4 and 6. Upon investigation it was determined that the cause of the fire was gang related arson. While the loss of two young children is always a tragedy, the fact that it was gang related makes it doubly so. The people who lived in the house and were involved in gangs weren’t even home when the fire happened.  I am sure that in the wake of such a tragedy there are a lot of fingers being pointed at a lot of different people, most of whom could have done very little to actually prevent these deaths.  It has all made me spend some time pondering gang activity and the young people who choose to get involved in it. I firmly believe that most young people who get involved in gangs and gang related activity do so for very good reasons. They realize that deep within their soul is a longing to be something more than just another lone wolf facing the world. They feel that deep human need for companionship that is spelled out in the book of Genesis when God looked at Adam and said that “it is not good for man to be alone.” It is the same thing that draws thousands of college students every year to pledge their loyalty to a fraternity or a sorority and engage in behavior that is rarely distinguishable from that of a common street gang, namely drinking, doing drugs, sleeping around, and picking fights with rival groups on campus. The main difference is that when such behavior involves Hispanic or Black youth we call them gangs, claim we have a problem, and then send in the police to arrest people. When it is wealthy or middle class white kids we call it part of the growing up process, build them a house, ask the police to turn a blind eye and encourage our youth to join. While I realize that I am making some rather broad generalizations, I think my point is still valid. No matter what you choose to call it, the end result where the human soul seeks companionship and community in imitation of the Divine Trinity, yet falls for a destructive and cheap imitation offered by the Devil is still the same.   I firmly believe that the best method for countering such behavior begins in our own homes. Gang and fraternity life is merely a cheap knockoff of the domestic family. Young people frequently (but certainly not always) turn to gangs to fill up a space left by divorced parents, single parents, absent work-a-holic parents and a variety of other family problems.  For me it comes as no surprise that youth and gang related violence is on the rise around the world today (like in London) and that we seem powerless to stop it.  What we are seeing is the natural course of things when governments and societies actively seek to destroy natural family relationships by enacting laws that undermine parental authority or attempt to go against natural law by redefining marriage and what it means to be a family. It doesn’t matter how many people support such ridiculousness, it remains ridiculous and destructive and ultimately we want to reject it.  Something is missing deep within our souls and we desire it by our very nature. We crave solid family relationships and friendships, firmly rooted in Christ and his Church.  Whether we realize it or not, we all just want to be loved unconditionally. People turn to gangs and frats because there they can get away with deviant behavior and no one looks at it twice.  They want to suspend all reason and let their passions run away with them  because it feels good, so it must be right. No one is going to judge them and tell them that they were wrong for sleeping with their girlfriend/boyfriend or doing drugs, or getting drunk. In fact this hedonistic behavior is encouraged and promoted as the best way to live llife. For us the challenge is how do we respond to their behavior?  We can just hope that a judge somewhere throws the book at them (if they are breaking the law), or that their destructive lifestyle  brings them nothing but pain; but is that what Christ would have us do? I believe that even someone who burns down a house on two little kids can truly be sorry for what they have done and find forgiveness in the eyes of God.  We are called to challenge them to be the men and women that God has created them to be not out of a judgmental attitude (as many of them suppose) but rather out of love. The kind of sacrificial and self-giving love that deep down they are really searching for. It is not something that can just be talked about, it is something that must be lived by all of us.  This is extremely challenging in our modern culture (and probably all other cultures throughout history) because there is always someone else telling us that there is an easier way to love than the Cross.  The Devil is constantly helping science to come up with new ways for humanity to seek pleasure and turn a blind eye to the consequences. Only when our society learns that love is about the other and not about ourselves will we see the end of fraternities and gangs and the destruction they bring. Instead we will see them as they are meant to be, groups like the Knights of Columbus, Catholic Daughters, and the household system at Franciscan University and Ave Maria. Brotherhoods of men (or sisterhoods of women) gathered together in Christ to serve his people and make the world a better place.

God, conscience, and the president

Have you ever stopped to think about just what, exactly, your conscience is all about? We hear the word “conscience” and we have been told by parents, priests, and even Jiminy Cricket  about how important it is to follow. But why? Why is it important to follow our conscience and what are we supposed to do if we can’t?  The Catechism tells us that ”Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, in in the process of performing, or has already completed.  In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law.”  Or as a friend of mine put it, our conscience is a gift from God to help us know right from wrong, and we are obliged to follow it. The clincher is that we also have a responsibility to make sure that our consciences are properly formed and truly does know right from wrong.  If we think it is ok to sin, then we have some work to do with our conscience to bring it up to speed.  This might include talking to a priest or doing some reading (I recommend the Catechism of the Catholic Church) so we understand not only what our Catholic faith teaches us, but also why. Everything we believe as Catholics is firmly rooted in 2000 years of unchanging teachings traceable all the way back to Jesus and the 12 apostles.  Forming your conscience may also involve a lot of humility. If we open up the Catechism and find out that we disagree with the Church on an issue like contraception, it can be very challenging to admit that we are wrong. We need the humility to admit that even though we don’t understand, we have to do things God’s way if we want to be happy, not our way. I am sure it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Gideon, who reduced his army from over 30,000 men down to 300 before he attacked the armies of Midian, but he did what God commanded and was victorious.  Joshua probably didn’t understand exactly what God was up to when he told him to march around the walls of Jericho for 7 days without attacking, but he did it anyway and the walls came a tumblin’ down.  We need to put our faith in God and follow His commands with humility, even when we don’t understand why. The whole reason I wanted to explain the idea of conscience is because, as I said earlier, we are required to follow it. No one should ever ask you to go against a properly formed conscience and to do so would be to ask you to turn your back on what you know to be truly right and wrong. It would be to ask you to betray your God and spit in the face of all that is good and holy. This is why our country has laws that protect the consciences of its citizens.  Not everyone believes exactly the same thing, but nobody should be required to violate their conscience because of someone else’s convenience. For example, no one can form a doctor who is pro-life to perform an abortion.  Even most people who are pro-abortion realize that it is wrong to force someone to go against their conscience. At least until last week. Last week our government decided that they would begin to require all health insurance companies to provide contraception (even the kind that induce an abortion and sterilization) free of charge.  This is especially distressful to us as Catholics because we believe all contraception to be intrinsically evil.  The new standard for conscience is to force all your employees to be of the desired religion (like Catholic) AND the religious group can only serve other members of their religious group (like other Catholics). In other words, if you are a good Catholic employer and don’t provide contraception for your employees, you will now be forced to fire most of the non-Catholics, and stop helping anyone who isn’t Catholic. Or you can just shut your doors.  While this may not seem like a big deal at the parish level, think about all the Catholic hospitals and doctors in our country, the groups like Catholic family and child services, all the food banks and homeless shelters run by parishes and religious orders. The government is willfully trying to force them to turn their back on God and their faith. Then question is, what are you doing about it?


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