To be a hero: From Hercules to John Wayne, can we measure up?

I have always been a huge fan of ancient mythology. From the Greeks and the Romans to the Norse, mythology is fascinating, fun, and sometimes deeply tragic. By its very nature it is filled with heroes, world changing battles and love stories.  I am especially fond of some of the heroes. Mythological heroes represent  the very best of man’s nature, played out on a grand scale and with universe altering consequences.  On a smaller scale it is similar to the heroes of American Mythology, the cowboys.  From Hercules to John Wayne, however, the question that was always on my mind growing up was, “how can I be a hero?”  I don’t think this is an unusual for people to ask of themselves, especially young men. Even more, I think it is an important question. I think it represents that part of each of us deep down that seeks something great. As St. Augustine once said, “my heart is restless oh Lord until it rests in you.”  But what does it mean for our hearts to rest in God and how does that relate to a desire for greatness?  For me St. Augustine’s words are a constant reminder that my heart cannot be truly satisfied with anything that I will encounter in this world. I have to go beyond my humanity and dive into the supernatural realm. This is exactly what Sacraments of the Catholic Church invite us to do in a very real way.  When we receive the Eucharist our very souls are purified of our venial sins and our bodies are nourished by receiving the flesh of God. Mere contact with the supernatural, however, is not what makes one a hero. In fact most super heroes rise up when they are needed to fight a super villain. As Uncle Ben told us in Spider Man, “with great power comes great responsibility” and everyone chooses to accept that responsibility. A hero needs more than super powers, he needs character.  A real hero needs to be someone who is truly good, or at least striving towards that end.  This last week we celebrated the Feast of All Saints, or All Saints Day.  If it were left to me (which it isn’t) I think I would rename it The Feast of Heroes.  A feast dedicated to those who truly lived out a life of heroic virtue and fought titanic supernatural battles within their own souls, and continue to fight them on behalf of us.  The Saints are both our role models and our fellow prayer warriors. As St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower) taught us in her Little Way, all we need to do is little things, but do them with great love.    You don’t have to be famous to be a Saint or a hero. To be a true hero all we have to do is stand in the love of Christ and be who He calls us to be, Holy.  Holiness is not boring, it is heroic.

The Idea of Beauty

As I gaze out through my office window early in the morning I love to watch the leaves change; and if I can get outside even better. For me morning is the best time. The sun peeks up over the hills and shines across the mighty Columbia  river and I can smell a hint of wood smoke in the air as someone takes the chill off a morning that dipped below freezing sometime during the night. There is frost on the grass that adds a bluish white to the fall morning’s palate of reds, greens, yellows, oranges and browns. When I look out at such a world I can’t help pause in wonder at the beauty that God has wrought for us, his creation. Over a hot cup of tea or coffee it makes me ponder at just exactly what it means to be beautiful. Is true beauty (as the saying goes) in the eye of the beholder, or is it something greater? Is it merely a physical quality (a synonym for pretty) or does it bear some sort of transcendental quality that invites us to contemplate a higher reality?  If it does invite us to contemplate a higher reality, what does that even mean?  I do not think we can limit beauty to merely a synonym for pretty, for if that were the case it would sound ridiculous to say that listening to a symphony by Beethoven sounded “pretty”, or watching an amazing play in sports was a “pretty” moment?  You really can’t. Yet we can say that both of these, along with the sunrise on a frosty fall morning are beautiful.  True beauty is something that goes beyond merely physical good looks. When I think about the truly beautiful things in my life, the idea of beauty does not match up to words like “pretty.”  Instead the word beauty is, in many ways, more synonymous with words like mystical, magical, and supernatural. When I think of beauty I think of something that goes beyond the average and ordinary. It is something that pushes creation to a new limit and reveals some hidden characteristic of the divine architect. Something is truly beautiful only in as much as it draws us to a higher reality and more perfectly the divine. This is why some paintings, no matter how pretty they may be, cannot be truly beautiful. When an artist paints a picture (for example) that profanes the sacred, no matter how well it is painted it will never be truly beautiful because it is a lie. It takes the sacred, (which is beautiful because it reflects the beauty of the God) and presents it in a way that is intended to degrade it. This is why for hundreds of years the Catholic Church has been on the forefront of promoting art. Artists like Michelangelo had a deep faith, which is what helped them to create beautiful frescos and statues for the Church. So next time you see a beautiful sunrise, or look out over the valley from the top of a mountain and feel like it somehow reflects the majesty, beauty and goodness of God, it does.  More importantly it isn’t an accident.

The Lion King and human nature

For those of you who missed it, this past week marked the rerelease of the Lion King onto blu-ray and DVD. Since it was a piece of my childhood that I hold dear to my heart (even though most of you who are in high school weren’t even born when it was in theaters) I ran down and picked up a copy that included the original motion picture soundtrack so I could share all the joy with my sons.  When we got home and popped the disc into the blu-ray player, my first thought was wow, this looks beautiful in high definition. It was like stepping back into my family’s living room 17 years ago. Then I started to notice some things that I had never noticed before. The movie wasn’t just about the good lions and the bad lions, it was about order and disorder. While I had always known that Mufasa and Simba had represented good, I never made the connection to a natural order, at least beyond the whole Circle of Life song at the beginning.  It struck me that maybe there was something deeper that could be gleaned from this particular children’s movie beyond just a battle between good and evil. I think that in many ways the Lion King actually goes into what good and evil are really all about. On the side of good you don’t just have a bunch of happy feelings and people (or lions) just doing whatever they want. In fact, this irresponsible attitude is corrected by Mufasa, the king, several times. Leadership and power have responsibilities, and those responsibilities are rooted in nature itself, or natural law. When natural law is followed and protected society can thrive. When natural law is violated, society begins to unravel. Scar (the villain and King Mufasa’s younger brother) is set up as an almost idealistic example of someone who goes against natural law. He wants to be king, like his older brother, but without any of the responsibilities or the hard work. He also chooses to hang out with the hyenas, his natural enemies in the movies, and the enemies of natural law and order. In his quest for happiness he tries to be something that God never meant him to be. Scar murders his brother and then he and the hyenas take over, but take is all they do. They refuse to respect the natural order of the world, so their fertile chunk of Africa soon becomes a desolate waste devoid of food and life. What Scar thought would bring him happiness ultimately made him miserable and led to his downfall. Throughout the movie I could see the Catholic Church as the defender of the natural law and order in the created world and sin as our enemy. Sin works to corrupt nature and tries to destroy it from the inside out. When we adopt personal philosophies like hakuna matata (no worries) and turn our backs on our responsibilities as Catholics, our society will crumble. We can only truly be happy by embracing God’s plan for our lives and living for Him.  All in all I think I enjoyed watching the Lion King almost as much as an adult as I did as a kid. I certainly think I learned a lot more from it. It continues to show that we can learn a lot through movies if we actually take the time to look beyond flashy explosions and amazing CGI effects.

5 reasons to stay with your Catholic youth group

Since the school year is now in full swing I know that I am not the only youth minister in the valley starting up their programs and vying for the attention of every middle and high school that regularly attends my church, and even a few that don’t. There are lots of youth group programs out there and I will be honest, many of them are more fun than mine. However, here are 5 things you won’t find anywhere else and they are all reasons you should ditch out on any non-Catholic programs that you may be contemplating making a commitment to. So, without any more jibber jabber on my part, here we go.

1.       The Bible. When we break out the Bible at youth group, we break out the WHOLE Bible, not an edited down version from 1500’s. An often overlooked fact is that without the Catholic Church there wouldn’t even be a Bible. Not only did we write all the books in the New Testament, it was Catholic councils that prayed about and decided (with the guidance of the Holy Spirit) which books the New Testament should include.  These were the same councils that decided that the Bible should include the entire Septuagint (the Greek translation of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures). It wasn’t until the 1500’s that anyone figured that the Bible needed to be changed and started to thin out the ranks of Old Testament Cannon (and tried to thin the New Testament as well). If you are not using a Catholic edition of the Bible, chances are you are missing 7 sacred books inspired by the Holy Spirit and designed for your sanctification.

2.         Apostolic Authority. When Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter (which means rock) and told him that he was going to build His Church on him, we take Him at His word. He gave Peter the keys to the kingdom and the power to bind and loose sin. If someone asks you where the Catholic Church gets the authority to put together the Bible, this is it. It didn’t end with the Bible either.  The teaching authority of the Church is called the magesterium and it still exists today. As Catholics we are not solely dependent on the Bible to know the mind and will of God. When the Catholic Church speaks in matters of faith and morals, she speaks on behalf of the Almighty. This authority does not extend to the age old question of whether bacon or sausage goes better with your eggs in the morning. If it did it would be bacon.

3.       One word, Eucharist! No matter where I go or what I do this one takes the cake in many ways. While many of our Protestant brothers and sister have some type of last supper  memorial service, none of them have the real deal of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Think about it, you get to EAT JESUS! You get to take the flesh of God into your body as food. Your stomach then breaks it down and transfers it to every living cell in your body. How much more intimate can you be with the savior of the universe?

4.       Original Christians. If you have ever tried to keep track of what denomination believes what in Christianity, just give it up. Everybody is a break off from Catholicism from one point in history or another.  While many churches have excellent preachers, I don’t think that Jesus waited until the 1970’s to unfold the “real Christianity” to mankind.  Not only that, but the Catholic Church has never changed a single Doctrine of the faith. 0. None. If you want to believe what the early Christians believed and learn about it in youth group, this is the place.

5.       Liturgy.  Worship of God is way more than just singing David Crowder Band or Chris Tomlin songs for an hour (or even Matt Maher). The Sunday Mass especially is, without a doubt, the most amazing event you are going to attend in a given week. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. It is a brief recap of salvation history and it ends with us being transported back in time to participate at the original last supper with Jesus and the twelve.  We are there at the table, and we are there at the Cross. We don’t just remember it, we quite literally live it. I get goose bumps just thinking about it. More than a few Protestants have converted to Catholicism because they wanted to worship in the same way the first and second century Christians did. The Mass is not a new thing and now we are getting a new translation so our spoken language will be truer to the ancient Latin. texts How cool is that?

Now I could have gone more in depth into these 5 reasons, but this is a brief over view for you.  If you walk away from the Catholic Church to find go sing Chris Tomlin songs for an hour and think that is all there is to worship, you are mistaken. In spite of all the flaws we experience as Catholics, we must remember that those flaws are human in origin, and no human is perfect. Only the Catholic Church is perfect because she is a divine institution, not a man made one. All the Jonny-come-lately versions of Christianity are going to let you down in the long run because at some point they sacrificed a part of what Christ gave us, and they don’t even know it. So hold on to your Catholic youth group, and hold on to Christ, because He is already holding on to you.

Updating our views on sexuality

Before one can update one’s beliefs on human sexuality, one must first understand where we are from. This is not about homosexuality, it is about contraception specifically the pill. Many people who consider themselves good Catholics have no idea about what the Church’s official stance is on the Pill, and are therefore are unable to ask for an update. The stance is this, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2370

“every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible  is intrinsically evil” 

So there we go. The Church says that contraception in general is a sin, and a big one at that. However, if we are going to update our views on the Pill, we need to move beyond just the Catechism. We need to actually look at the Pill in real life.  The Pill came about during the sexual revolution to set women free from the blessings of motherhood, and it has preformed just as admirably as promised. As we update our views on sexuality it is good for us to remember that before artificial contraception came on the scene the divorce rate was well below 15% and up until the 1930’s all Christian denominations agreed that it was sinful. The divorce rate has since skyrocketed to above 50% (with many couples just forgoing marriage altogether) and the Catholics are one of the only holdouts left. Incidentally, the divorce rate for couples who use NFP (Natural Family Planning) is around 5%, give or take.  Why? What is it that makes all the difference? I can only speak from my own experience here and give the 2 reasons that my wife and I have chosen NFP. The first is that I find the Pill insulting to men. Sure, it objectifies women, but what about men? I see the Pill as an excuse to treat men like nothing more than animals. I could not bear to keep my wife drugged up just so I could have sex with her whenever I wanted without ever having to stop and think about the repercussions it might have on my family. In fact the whole idea of keeping someone on drugs so you can have sex sounds like the plot from a bad horror movie. NFP is extremely accurate (when done correctly) on predicting fertility in women, and so if we are not ready for the next mini Chase, we simply stop at the snuggle line. I am not a dog. I do not like society telling me that I am a dog and completely unable to control my sex drive.  The Pill is an insult to an authentic manhood.  The second reason we don’t let the Pill into our house is the fact that it causes cancer. That’s right CANCER!!!  As in it will do its best to kill you. Ladies, did you know that you are 4 times more likely to get breast cancer if you are on the Pill than those who aren’t?  Since 1 in 8 women in this country get breast cancer, I want to do my best to protect my wife from these rather gloomy odds. As a loving husband I don’t see how there is any way I can reasonably allow my wife to take a drug that makes her 4 times as likely to get a life threatening disease, just because we want to have more sex.   Many people who disagree with the Church’s condemnation of birth control are unaware of these facts. They make it sound like the Catholic Church hates sex or marriage. These statistics seem to show quite the opposite. God loves marriage and He loves us. He loves us so much that He doesn’t want to see us experience the heartache of divorce or the pain of cancer. He loves us enough to challenge men to be men and not beasts. In the end, God loves us enough to ask us to update our beliefs on sex and marriage to be more like His. Do we love Him enough in return to listen?

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.