He taught them as one having authority. (Mark 1:22)

From of old, the Almighty promised that a voice would ring out which would carry the divine guarantee of truth. He made this promise to a people like us: a people seeking the Promised Land, needing to hearken to the divine voice in order to find our way.

What if no voice of truth guided us? What if the only source for truth was me myself?

That would be a sketchy situation. I would want to have one set of rules when I was in one mood, and a different set when I was in another. Hungry? One set of rules. Angry? A different set. Eyes fixed on a toy I want to play with? Another set. Life without the voice of God would leave a person fat, friendless, and maxed-out with credit-card debt.

Thank God, then, that He speaks to us. With authority. He speaks to us with the authority of the final judge, before Whom we will have to answer for everything done or left undone.

The question, then, is: How do we hear this Voice? Let’s take for granted that the best policy always involves obeying God. In any particular situation, how do we hear the command which we are to obey?

Let’s consider three possible answers to this question. All three answer it well. But all three also need some reflecting upon.

Answer #1. “How do I submit myself to the divine will? I just use common sense.” In other words, when I need to make a decision, I think the thing through as best I can; I avoid making decisions based on unchecked emotions; I consult with others who can give me good advice; and I generally wind up doing what your average Joe would do.

Solid. Except for one problem. Didn’t the Lord Jesus say that we Christians serve as salt for this earth and light for this world? Didn’t He promise heaven to people whom the world hates? Didn’t He declare that He had come to set fire to the earth, to set son against father and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law?

Common sense generally leads us true. Except when it forgets that we have an uncommon vocation. Except when the moment calls for Christian heroism. Except when something hangs in the balance which the world does not understand.

Which brings us to Answer #2. “How do I hearken to the voice of God? I obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit.”

When I am in a state of grace, the Holy Spirit acts directly on my soul. The infinite divine Love inspires me, filling me with preternatural insight, knowledge, and understanding, and with wise, pious, and brave actions.

The holy mystics have led lives of complete abandonment to the divine will, resting in the Spirit through even the most arduous and complicated undertakings. Did Mother Teresa act with organizational genius, building a multi-national operation from nothing? “I just did what my Jesus told me to do.”

Beautiful. But: If I do not possess the bottomless holiness of a Mother Teresa, then I hardly have the right to chalk up every whim and fancy that crosses my mind to the Holy Spirit of God. A very fine line separates “The Holy Spirit told me” from “I make up my own rules.”

How do we draw that all-important line? This brings us to Answer #3. “How do I hear the voice of God? I study the teaching of the Church.”

The Lord does not call everyone to the heights of mysticism. But all of us can know the teaching of the Church and follow it.

In Her teaching, the Church gives us the “common sense” of the saints. The Church teaches us the practical and the tried-and-true–not for getting a good value on a new car, but for getting ourselves to heaven.

In some areas, the teaching of the Church strikes the common man of today as admirably wise. In others, it strikes him as practically insane. But rising above the zeitgeist makes a noble life. Consistently obeying the Church’s teaching allows us to live in accord with the great democracy of the holy dead.

But: I could study the teaching of the Church from dawn to dusk; I could memorize the Catechism and all the encyclicals since Leo XIII—but if I don’t have any common sense, and if I don’t follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the teaching of the Church won’t do me any good. The teaching must be applied to my particular case. It doesn’t apply itself.

Okay. So someone asks how we obey God, and we have three good answers–that are only good when we can give all three.

Four more rules of thumb: 1. Nothing has worse consequences than committing a sin. 2. The Lord never leaves a person in a situation where virtuous action is impossible.

While we were marching up to the Supreme Court on Monday, the White House released a Roe v. Wade-anniversary statement, promising to “reduce the need for abortion.”

Someone dwells in the dark here. There is no need for abortion; never has been and never will be. God always provides everyone with a possible course of action which is upright and true.

3. Each of us must obey his conscience. 4. Double-check difficult cases with a knowledgeable advisor. You can always count on the discretion of your parish priest, unworthy as he may be.

The parable of the seed scattered on the ground would seem to present one distinctive element, namely the invisible power of growth which the seed possesses.

The parable has three moments in its drama:

1. The man appears, and sews the seed.

2. What seems like a long time passes in which the man does not appear. Instead, an invisible force brings about the slow growth of the corn.

3. The man appears again at just the right moment, sickle in hand, to harvest the ripe corn.

The parable presents an image of the Kingdom of God as it appears in history.

1. The King appeared on earth and deposited the power of salvation.

2. Ages pass in which the King does not visibly appear. But His invisible power operates; the Kingdom grows. As St. Paul put it, regarding his own ministry, “Neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God gives the increase.” (I Cor 3:7)

3. When everything has been completed, the King will appear before our eyes again, and the blade of His truth will separate good from evil. He and everything good will shine with glory.

The moral of the story, then, as I see it: Patience, trust.

God knows His business. Everything we need is right under our noses, in the perennial customs of the Holy Church. In due time, we will grow to ripe fullness.

Man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man. According to it, he will be judged. (Vatican Council II)

[Rated PG-13]

Lately I have read somewhat widely regarding the federal-government mandate requiring free contraceptives. Forgive me, but B.S. alarms are ringing in every corner of my poor, little mind.

According to what law does the federal government have the authority to require this? I ask this in earnest, as I am no scholar of the “health-care debate.” Does it pertain to the vigilance of the federal government to control American medicine? Of course we must have laws prohibiting abuses.

But, in fact, contraceptives do not qualify as medicine. Being able to have a baby = healthy, not sick. To go to a doctor and say, “Doctor, I want to have sex and not get pregnant”—this does not qualify as a medical request.

An honest doctor would have to reply to such a request with a laugh and then a fatherly/motherly admonition: “My child, allow me to recommend better ways for you to spend your time…” (e.g. reading, hikes, frequenting church, frisbee golf, etc.)

Using artificial contraception is immoral because of the following fact: It is beneath the dignity of any human being to waste time masturbating.

No question about this, I don’t think. Yes, there are worse things. But the point seems fairly clear: No one should masturbate. To masturbate is to demean oneself.

From this starting point, I believe we can easily grasp that the use of artificial contraception reduces something appearing to be sex to the level of masturbation. The pleasure and friendship involved in sex have solid footing only when the act proceeds according to its fundamental purpose. If the act has been transformed into an occasion for mutual masturbation, then any pleasure taken is selfish and any pretense of friendship is false and fleeting.

So, okay: Artificial contraceptives are not medicine; they are in fact implements used in immoral acts. Honest doctors, nurses, counselors, medical professionals, etc., refrain from having anything to do with artificial contraceptives.

The next question is: Do they do this out of specifically religious motives?

This question, I think, opens a very important door onto what we mean by “religion.”

If “religion” refers only to a distinct set of proposals regarding divine revelation (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, paganism), then the answer would be No. No authoritative teacher of Christianity, including the Pope, has ever claimed that God has revealed to the Church that using artificial contraceptives is immoral.

No. Christian teaching on this matter rests on a different meaning of the word “religious.”

A good person shuns artificial contraception because he/she holds as a principle this idea: A human being should only do things that are worthy of him- or herself.

This is a “religious” idea in a more elemental sense of the word, i.e.: Every human being stands before a higher Truth, and the Truth sees the individual person as the hero of the great adventure of a particular life. The higher Truth knows all, provides all, guides all. The hero’s job is to do good and avoid evil right now.

This is the “religious” idea upon which all meaningful living is based. Not just Catholic living.

Of course, Catholic living certainly is based on this foundation, and Christ has illuminated this idea in a way that resonates in every heart that knows Him. But the idea itself springs from all the lives that have been admired throughout history, including Socrates and countless other admirable non-Christians. Our actions matter, because we are human beings who can choose good and avoid evil in every instance.

Clearly, people who lay down rules like the HHS mandate offer a different explanation of the situation. The alternate version of the story removes the “religious” idea of human morality from consideration. In the alternate interpretation of the situation, there is no truth to guide us. Our desires guide us. Doctors must help people follow their desires without having to suffer consequences they don’t want, even if that involves putting unborn babies to death.

Now, people commit immoral acts all the time, including Catholics. No one can lay down a rule that will eliminate bad actions from the world. But the question at hand is not: Will sinful people use rubbers? The question at hand is: Shouldn’t the practice of medicine presume that the patient is a human being with a free will who can choose good over evil?

Medicine, and every exercise of professional care, must begin with respect for the moral significance of every human action. If my patient sins, that is a shame, and I will help him or her to deal with the consequences in a good way. But if my patient sins because I led him or her to sin, then I am to blame, and I have no right to bear the mantle of Hippocrates.

…On the other hand, does it make sense for us Catholics to object to the federal-government rule requiring free contraceptives on the grounds that it violates our consciences and the First-Amendment guarantee of religious freedom?

I can’t see how this argument makes sense. To be quite frank, this argument strikes me as colossally lame. The business at hand is not to plead for special exemptions from nonsensical rules. Rather, the duty we have is: Explaining with patience and clarity why it is immoral for anyone to have anything to do with artificial contraception; enduring with kindness and mercy all insults that proceed from minds enslaved by lust, fear, insecurity, despair; suffering whatever consequences one must suffer for refusing to act against the truth.

We Catholics do not have a collective conscience. We each have our own individual consciences, which we owe it to ourselves to educate and follow. Anyone involved in the use of artificial contraception should make a choice and quit it now.

May it please the Hand of Providence to spare each of us from impoverishment, calumny, or imprisonment because we won’t have anything to do with artificial contraceptives. But if impoverishment, calumny, or imprisonment come—so be it. That’s what acting according to conscience entails. To God be the glory.

Conversion on the Way to Damascus by Caravaggio

On Sunday we read about the Lord Jesus calling the first fishers of men—Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Today we read about Christ calling the Apostle Paul.

Something has changed between these two calling episodes. The Lord’s location has changed. When He called the first Apostles, Christ was still on earth. By the time He called St. Paul, the Lord had ascended to heaven.

Same act of calling, different location. The Lord will not stop summoning His champions, His co-workers, His friends—He will not stop calling until time ends.

St. Paul’s experience teaches us to stand ready for the invitation as it comes now, in the age of the Church.

Christ reigns above, invisible–for now–to our eyes. His Church on earth represents Him; Her works, Her teachings, and Her rules keep us close enough to Christ so that we can hear His voice. He speaks. Usually He speaks in such a way that only our quiet, deeply interior ears can hear.

He spoke to St. Paul in the very center of that pious, zealous Jew’s soul. The voice moved Saul to a new kind of religious obedience: the obedience of love.

God loves me. He loves me, myself, the person that I am—forgiving me all my evils. And He wills to use me as a means of communicating that love.

Yes. Of course I will co-operate. Yes, of course I will respond to love with love. What else could I do? The interior voice of Christ from heaven has awoken within me a me that I never even knew I had.

…the Year of the Dragon: March for Life.

We will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life. When freedom is used to dominate the weak, we will stand up and reaffirm the demands of justice and social love.

–Pope John Paul II, on the Mall in Washington, October 7, 1979

…Might try to stop in Chinatown for a Tsingtao. The March might only be a half-mile stroll these days. But still it’s good to fortify yourself.

If you find yourself on Seventh Street, N.W. (during the interminable Rally, which I cannot bear to stand around for), look for the tall goofy priest.

During this Week of Prayer, let us ask the Lord to strengthen the faith of all Christians, to change our hearts and to enable us to bear united witness to the Gospel.

What do we Catholics believe about the unity of the Church?

1. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Son of God—the Way, the Truth, and the Life, risen from the dead, ascended into heaven—we believe that He rules as the sole Head and King of the Church and of the universe.

2. We believe that every man, woman, or child who has been baptized in water and in the name of the Blessed Trinity is a Christian, a member of the Church.

We generally give to the clergy the office of baptizing people. But, when you get down to it, everyone possesses the competence to baptize.

Water + the words = Holy Baptism = a Christian.

3. We Catholics believe that the written Word of God bears witness to the truth in such a way that the Bible must be our constant study and rule of life. God Himself speaks to us when we read or listen to the Bible. At the same time, we must study the sacred books for what they are, namely the work of human beings written in particular circumstances at particular times.

When it comes to how people interpret the Bible, we Catholics don’t call our brother- and sister-Christians ‘liberals’ or ‘fundamentalists,’ because neither of these terms really does anything to help people understand each other.

4. We Catholics believe that Christ gave everything essential in our religion to His Apostles, and they, in turn, gave everything to the first generation of Christians. Ever since then, the entire sacred patrimony has been handed down from one generation to the next.

Considering what the Lord gave us, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church shines gloriously, perfect in every respect. At the same time, considered as a human institution, the Church is nothing other than a hospital for sinners, constantly in need of reform and renewal.

5. We believe that, given the way human societies work, the Lord Jesus knew that His chosen band would need a leader, so He chose St. Peter for this office. The office has been filled ever since. The current occupant is Benedict XVI. The Pope governs Christ’s Church on earth.

6. We Catholics believe that we have a duty to stand up for truth and justice, for the right to life, for fairness in everything. We believe that we owe it to ourselves to help the poor. In all these enterprises we gladly co-operate with everyone who seeks to fulfill the same Christian duties, be they Catholic or not.

7. We believe that our Lord made marriage a sacrament and an unbreakable bond. We believe that the marriage of two baptized Christians is a sacrament. We know that some of our separated brethren don’t even teach that marriage is a sacrament, but nonetheless our faith binds us to regard any marriage of two baptized Christians as a sacrament. We believe that the Church, and the Church alone, has the authority to declare null any particular marriage vows, taken by any Christian man and woman.

8. We Catholics love the saints in heaven. We love our Lady, and we constantly beg her help. We worship only the Triune God.

We worship all the Persons of the Trinity. We worship everything that is personally united with the eternal Son. We worship, therefore, His Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

9. Christ instituted the Mass at the Last Supper. He made His Apostles the first priests of the New Covenant. Ever since then, the sacred priesthood has been handed down by the laying on of hands.

We believe that only a duly ordained priest can celebrate Christ’s Holy Eucharist. We believe that Catholic and Orthodox priests are duly ordained. We believe that the Protestant clergy are not. That said, we believe that whenever two or three Christians gather together, the Lord is there in the midst of them.

We do not take communion at non-Catholic services, and we do not invite non-Catholics to take Holy Communion at Mass. That said, we rejoice whenever we pray with anybody and whenever anybody prays with us. We have nothing but respect for every man’s Christian faith. False pretenses of unity do not serve the cause of Christ. But, of course, neither do pride or disrespect.

…Please God we get there, will we find a big coffee hour in heaven, with Protestants holding heavenly Styrofoam cups right next to us? Maybe. Only God knows the answer to such questions. I, for one, would like to ask Him if we could have a Tina Turner concert in heaven. But I know better than to expect an answer at this point.

We Catholics concern ourselves with our getting to heaven. The Lord has given us the means of getting there; He has given us every reason to hope for it.

One of the means we have of getting to heaven is: Loving Protestant and Orthodox Christians as our brothers and sisters.

You’ve probably seen this charming Silverado ad. I must say that when I saw it, a little bell rang.

“Other than Sunday Mass, what do priests do?”

“I, ah…”

–Not the same stuff as in the ad. No candle-lit date nights. And I don’t mean to be grandiose here. The priesthood hardly involves a thrill a minute.

But hopefully you get the idea: the story is a little too complicated to tell.

An adventure, to be sure. The Lord may be calling you to jump in His sacerdotal Silverado, young man. Give it a thought.

In the end, only two paths lay open to us, brothers and sisters. On the one hand, humble submission to God Who is greater than we are. On the other, jealousy.

Saul had been made king by a higher authority. Young David sought nothing but to protect the reign. God gave David prodigious gifts, which he put to the service of the people. Saul, who never knew how to submit to the true divine king, saw in David only a threat. Just like Lucifer had seen in Christ only a threat.

David had no regal designs. He loved to play the lyre. Saul’s jealousy was ill-founded and led only to his own destruction.

Christ, of course, had no choice but to have regal designs—but what designs! He reigns from a cross, His Heart pierced, His Body mortally wounded.

So Lucifer’s jealousy, too, was ill-founded. His own dreams of a kingdom were fulfilled—but what a kingdom! The realm of darkness, ignorance, and senseless pain where no one serves the good God.

Let’s choose humble submission, brothers and sisters. Let’s give God glory for the great gifts he has chosen to give others. May God be praised for all the people who are smarter, better-looking, and more talented than we are!

Our job is humbly to serve the Master of all, to do the best with what we’ve got.

Let’s choose this, because the alternative is nothing but a ceaseless competition that we can’t win. When we give God the glory, we find ourselves on the winning team. Better to be a bench-warmer on a winning team than a superstar in hell.

According to ancient tradition, on this day in AD 44, St. Peter completed his journey from the Near East and arrived in Rome.

Also according to ancient tradition, a week from today will mark the 1,978th anniversary of the day when Saul of Tarsus, en route to Damascus, heard Christ speaking from heaven.

The Holy Apostles bequeathed to us the Christian faith in its entirety. They bequeathed to us the New Testament and the essential and unchangeable usages of our religion.

The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ confesses the faith we have received from our heroic patrons, Peter and Paul and all the other Apostles. Among them, they founded countless local churches in every corner of the Roman Empire. Christianity became a far-flung, international enterprise.

Every word of the New Testament, though, bears witness to the tireless efforts of the Apostles to keep all the local communities united in the one Church.

We could even say that the New Testament itself serves as the first witness to the perennial quest for Christian unity. The documents were written to unite in the truth those who were divided by great distance, lack of knowledge, or misunderstanding.

So: Between these anniversaries of Peter’s arrival in Rome on the 18th of January and Paul’s conversion on the 25th, we pray especially for the unity of the Church.

We pray that we might have the humility, the insight, the courage, and the faith we need to heal the divisions that inevitably arise in the sinful course of human history.

I think the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity probably calls for a little talk on what we Catholics believe about the unity of the Church. I will try to provide something like that on Sunday.

In the meantime, let’s pray that all of us baptized into Christ might love the Lord and each other enough to live in the truth and help each other in every possible way.

In my book, ain’t no co-inky-dink that Dr. MLK, Jr. Day and March for Life Day always occur within the week.

Here we present a couple from the archive in honor of the champion of justice:

1. St. Paul and Dr. King (2009)

2. Wedding at Cana and Dr. King (2010)

…Hopefully you will forgive me for taking so long to fulfill a promise I made a number of moons ago, namely to explain why—speaking of Moors—Othello both a) occupies an altogether different place from Verdi’s Otello, and b) shines forth as the greatest of Shakespeare’s oeuvre.

I have not forgotten! Just a couple thoughts…

1. Othello possesses practically perfect dramatic unity. No character speaks a single word which does not cohere with the movement of the play.

(Even Roderigo serving as Iago’s ridiculous dupe actually opens up its own vista on the central mystery. Roderigo will do anything, no matter how craven, because he is possessed with love for something he idolizes.)

Of course, Hamlet, too, moves forward without a single detour—as does “The Empire Strikes Back,” for that matter.

2. In Otello, no star shines brighter than Desdemona’s purity, and no pit gapes blacker than Othello’s jealousy. Verdi paints no horizon higher than Desdemona.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, gives us human characters. One can measure Shakespeare’s Desdemona against something greater.

When Lodovico arrives in Cyprus, Shakespeare’s Desdemona admires his physique. Innocent enough, to be sure. But such a girlish humanity lies outside the range of Verdi’s Desdemona’s personality.

In eloping with the Moor, Desdemona has indeed betrayed her noble and loving father. In the play’s Act-I action (which goes missing from the opera), the father warns the Moor,

Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father, and may thee.

Verdi’s Otello acts as an irrational demon. Shakespeare’s Othello, on the other hand, has this one credible reason to doubt his wife’s faith.

3. Othello teaches what may be the greatest lesson of them all:

When we behold others, what we actually see mostly comes from inside ourselves. To see others truly, we must have nothing but truth inside ourselves.

Who has so much? “Judge not,” therefore.