CCLXXII – Apologetical Skeleton Keys: No Man Exists In A Vacuum

This is a hard thing to describe so bear with me.

Fiction–cinema, written, television, performative, any fiction–gives us the impression that people can be all good minus this one attribute; or all bad minus this one attribute. There’s a presumption of innocence which is surprisingly charitable. True human nature, however, has connections between mind, body, and spirit which prevent one from being able to move without the others. Recognizing that a mans actions cannot be independent of his thoughts which cannot be independent of his spirit is this Skeleton Key.

Bishop Fulton Sheen was keenly gifted in detecting this. Bishop Sheen has a story where he was on a flight to a theological conference and the priest sitting next to him on the flight confessed–“Sometimes I have a hard time accepting the real presence of the Eucharist.” Bishop Sheen replied: “What color his her hair? The woman you are seeing.”

Bishop Sheen knew that our thoughts, words, and deeds are all interconnected. This was not an otherwise good priest having philosophical doubts–he was behaving badly and so believing badly.

So how is this a Skeleton Key?

Assimilating Truth is a very challenging thing to do. It takes humility to simultaneously acknowledge that you do not have all the answers and that you are willing to accept the answers as they are presented to you. That’s why you can’t just walk around saying “Jesus is God” and have people convert on the spot. Most people aren’t seeking, most people aren’t listening.

That is a separate problem, the nature of most people. But supposing the apologist has encountered someone who is a seeker, who is curious and wants to learn not just what are the things that you do but why do you do them, then you have an opportunity to preach the Gospel. The seeker will either reject it or accept it. If they reject it, they will either do so obstinately–“that’s dumb no way dude”–or inquisitively–“that doesn’t make sense to me”.

But in both cases of rejecting, there is usually some attachment to error that is blocking the path. Perhaps they have been taught that predestination is true since they were children and they are too attached to the belief to let go of it. Perhaps they are a serial fornicator curious about religion but not enough to stop fornicating. Perhaps they don’t like the thought that they owe a duty of worship to God and the thought makes them uncomfortable. It could be anything–but the point is, the apologist must recognize that it is not the doctrine in isolation which the seeker has a problem with; the seeker has a disconnect with the doctrine in some aspect of how they live, think, and/or pray.

This is also why it is very important to make sure the apologist is governing their lives with discipline according to the law of God. If the seeker believes the apologist isn’t practicing what they are preaching, neither of you will grow closer to Christ.

AMDG

(c) – All The World’s A Stage

It is difficult to explain free will. I thought of a metaphor that helped me to think about it.

There is a play. The director gave all the actors the script, and gave them instruction on how to perform the play. For the actors part, they can choose what they want to do when they are on stage, but if they want to perform well they have to follow the script. They can choose to perform well or to perform poorly but when the director comes back he will want to see the performance and the actors will want to impress.

Free Will is a gift. We can choose to perform, or choose not to. But we understand that the director won’t accept anything less than perfection. We have to choose to give our best.

AMDG

CCII – Quick Reflections on SEEK21

Seek21 was from February 4th through February 7th, and it was fantastic. I was worried it would be superficial and charismatic. It absolutely was charismatic, but it was also absolutely substantial. This was a union of the Charismatic faith with the meaty theology I personally have come to love.

I got to watch these speakers (in this order) and got something out of every one of them:

• Sr. Miriam James Heidland, SOLT – Made for More
• Bishop Robert Barron – The Most Important Question You’ll Ever Ask
• Dr. Edward Sri – What Wonderous Love is This: The Cross
• Imaculee Ilibagiza – A Life Transformed In Christ
• Dr. Jonathan Reyes – Responding to the Father’s Call as Sons
• Sr Bethany Madonna, S.V. – Responding to the Father’s Call as Daughters
• Chika Anyanwu – Sacred Tension
• Ken Ogorek – The Ideal Parish Leader
• Jennifer Fulwiler – Your Blue Flame: Do What Makes You Come Alive
• Hilary Draftz – Why Do I need the Church?
• Fr. Mike Shmitz – The Ultimate Invitation
• Francis Chan – The Last Command
• Curtis Martin – The Little Way

There are additional talks I haven’t watched yet but which I plan to soon:

• Scott Hahn – Eucharistic Amazement: the Bible and the Mass
• John Zimmer – Heroic Virtue
• Emily Wilson – Bravery, Service, and Humility
• Msgr. James Shea – The Healing of the Mind
• Damon Owens – The Joy To Be
• Fr. Augustino Torres, CFR – Catholicism and Colonialism

I thought I would be able to write about the talks within a couple days but they were dense with wisdom, information, and inspiration.

I have pages of notes so there is more to come on this.

AMDG

CLXXXI – Peasant Farmer

I am a peasant, and I have a peasants faith.

I have no literal farm, but I do tend a crop. Thinking of faith as a plant is not without precedent. Christ says if we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains. So my crop is my faith. Or rather, my faith is the land. It is planted weekly with the Eucharist, without which it lies fallow. It is weeded by Reconciliation without which the fruit would be choked. It is watered by prayer. And its fruit is harvested, among other ways, by acts of mercy.

I can fill my home with farm equipment, tools, and effects. If I don’t use them, how have I aided my fruit? I can read theologians and philosophers, but by doing so how can I help my faith to bear fruit? I can own spiritual effects that feel very good indeed to own, but if they do not lift my spirit to God, they will weigh me down.

And so: I don’t need a degree in philosophy to pray. I don’t need to be an expert at argumentation to receive the Eucharist. I don’t need to be a biblical scholar to seek Reconciliation.

I do believe, Lord: help my unbelief.

AMDG

CLI – The Peasant Faith

There are three kinds of people in the world, according to Fulton Sheen. Wise Men, Knaves, and Fools. Wise men mean to do good, and do it. Knaves mean to do ill, and do it. Fools mean to do good, and do ill.

But lets not mistake Wisdom to mean Intelligence. A student of agriculture can learn all the best ways to grow a crop, and on his first day visiting a farm, be surprised when the life-long farmer predicts from the smell of the wind that the weather is about to turn. Intelligence is the accumulation of data, Wisdom connects that data. Said another way, perhaps: Intelligence is from books, Wisdom is from experience.

Hambone and I talk about this all the time in the context of the Peasant Faith and the Theologian Faith. The Theologian is in a state of perpetual self-conversion. He reads all the philosophy, all the latest thinkers. He has an opinion on every encyclical, he has an opinion on the proper liturgies and prayers and rubrics. We contrast this against the Peasant Faith. The peasant says he believes and professes all that the Church teaches to be true–without knowing the whole corpus. He prays like his life depends on it (it does!), he lives according to the law of God because the Church says he must.

This is not to say Theologians are not, themselves, wise; nor is this to say that Peasants are not intelligent. But a Theologian, when he hears something from the Church, will ask first, and then (if he is satisfied) act. The Peasant will act first, and then (if he is curious) ask.

Living an authentic Catholic life is hard work. Doing anything well is hard work. There are a lot of voices out there that are encouraging you to second guess your Faith. You are probably a lot like me, in that we are lay-folk, we are not working in a formal capacity with the Church, and as such our theological musings serve only as a diversion for ourselves. That is all well and good, but we also must live our faith. There’s a minimum amount of knowledge required to get started with living our faith. Figure that out, and then live it to the best of your ability.

You don’t have to be smart to be wise, but you do have to mean to do good, and you do have to do it.

AMDG

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6/8/2022: This article has been turned into a podcast at my substack. Click here to listen!

LXXXI – Theology and Thermodynamics

Kristor, over at Orthosphere, has said before that actions have consequences that echo throughout all of creation. Everything you do changes reality from here to the far side of the universe.

A second item helped me grok what that meant more fully. There is a video making its rounds of three scientists discussing how Darwinian evolution is insufficient to explain the rise of new species, particularly the Cambrian explosion. One scientist explained how he doesn’t see how God plays a role in nature, with the world being as horrible as it is. The other responded by saying when he looks at the world, he sees a fallen world, a consequence of our fallen nature.

I was working on the next article in my Beginners Guide to Philosophy series, and a thought struck me.

Imagine our first parents, Adam and Eve. Their action was to eat of the forbidden fruit. The consequences of that action didn’t just affect them, give them the mark of original sin: It affected all of creation.

Sin is inherently disordered. The propensity of the universe to become more disordered is Entropy. Entropy is always increasing. That is another way of saying that nature tends to disorder. Or that nature is fallen.

Original Sin had a consequence across all of creation, that entropy will always increase.

AMDG