Seldom will you come upon a topic, whether of great weight or little consequence, that will engender universal and complete agreement. Paradoxically, the one and only subject upon which there may be near total agreement is that disagreement can and will be expressed by someone on virtually anything and everything.
Saint Paul wrote, “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”[1] Several centuries later Saint Augustine wrote in a similar vein that “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”[2] Throughout history there have been and continue to be many things which we can neither see nor verify nor prove yet we accept such things because to do otherwise would make no sense.
Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman wrote a marvelous prayer of acceptance and devotion to his creator which ought to serve as a model for any and all of us to follow. In it he acknowledges and affirms that God created each of us for a unique purpose:
God knows me and calls me by my name.…
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission—I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
In a letter to the Ephesians written circa 400 AD, Saint Jerome wrote “Noli equi dentes inspicere donate” (Never inspect the teeth of a given horse), a proverb which has since changed into its current form: “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Although the proverb’s form has changed over time its meaning remains essentially the same: when you are the recipient of a gift, be always grateful that the giver cared enough to freely give something to you and don’t assess its value by wishing for something more.
Prevailing scientific thought holds that when time began the entire mass of the universe was compressed into a point smaller than a single atom, that is to say time and the universe were created in a singular event, commonly called the Big Bang. Difficult as it may be to understand, let alone to comprehend, the entire universe, its physical laws, and even time itself were created out of nothing and no time.
There is an old nursery rhyme that goes “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me “[1] which feels extraordinarily appropriate given recent events and personal observation. Originally intended to persuade children to ignore name-calling and other hurtful taunts, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-natured, its persuasive effectiveness is certainly suspect to say the least. Likewise, it would seem, is the efficacy of the command enjoined by Christ to “love your neighbor as yourself.”[2]
An attractive young woman, wearing a summery white dress and crowned with a tiara of flowers, was interviewed at a recent Earth Day event and her comments, couched in well-meaning platitudes on the importance of caring for the environment, were mind-boggling in the extreme. Her answer to how to heal the earth was to rid it of all fossil fuels. When challenged to provide an alternative means of transportation sans fossil fuels she brightly stated, “We have legs, don’t we?” Asked which represented the greatest global threat: terrorism or climate change, her immediate and confident response was “climate change”. When apprised that far more people have been killed by terrorism she stated with eye-opening candor and insouciant honesty, “That may be true but I’m really not a people person.”
There is an almost surreal quality to the pablum complaint heard in recent days, first voiced as “black lives matter,” only to subsequently be summarily transformed to garner broader appeal as “all lives matter.” What is of consequence here is not the verisimilitude of such a glib declaration but much more importantly the contradictory attitude of those who have so loudly and stridently voiced it.
I wonder how often we really perform a good examination of conscience, considering how we live our lives and our relationship with God. Is God central to your life or have you set him aside? Do you do what makes you happy or what God wants you to do?
A few years ago I had the opportunity to watch the 2003 film Maria Goretti which tells the story of a 12-year old Italian girl who was brutally stabbed to death for refusing to submit to the sexual advances of a family friend. On her death bed she forgave her attacker, a young man who later repented and asked for and received forgiveness from her mother. He became a lay brother in a monastery and in 1950 attended, along with her mother, Maria’s canonization. One of the youngest saints, she is called the patron saint of the young.
