God is Apolitical

This post is spurred on by the following picture, which a friend of mine posted on Facebook:

Not everything about this statement is false, but neither is all of it true.  Lets break thins down and look at each claim.

Bleeding heart: If you take “bleeding heart” as someone who has concern for others, then, yes, Jesus was a bleeding heart.  If you take it to mean that He was excessive in this regard, and did not place value on punishing the guilty, then, no, He was not a “bleeding heart”.  Of course, one may ask “Where did Jesus demand punishment for anyone?”  For starters, lets look at the second chapter of John:

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.  And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

Jesus chased the money-changers out of the temple with a whip.  Does this sound like a “bleeding heart”? Does this sound like someone who foils justice with excessive mercy? Do not misunderstand: Jesus is a merciful God.  But His mercy serves justice, it does not foil justice.

Long haired: This is actually right, all of the ancient images we have of Jesus show Him with long hair.  What this has to do with liberalism and conservatism, I have no idea.  I know conservatives with long hair, just as I know liberals with short hair.  But, whatever.

Peace-loving: Yes Jesus is the King of Peace, he even referred to peace makers as “blessed” (Matt 5:9).  So does this make Jesus a pacifist?  No.  Look at Matthew 10:34-39:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Granted, we are to “turn the other cheek” and we are to avoid violence, but Jesus seemed to have told us that the Way of the Cross will present a certain level of conflict.  Of course, it can also be argued that this is about spiritual conflict and not destruction of the evil in war.  What of the Revelation of St. John? That entire book, among other things, speaks of the final days before the New Creation, which includes the Son of Man leading an army of angels.  Doesn’t sound like a pacifist to me.

Anti-establishment: This claim is simply ridiculous.  In fact, in reference to the Pharisees, Jesus ordered obedience!   This is often overlooked, but it is in the Scriptures nonetheless (Matt. 23:2-3):

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.

Is this anti-establishment? Is commanding your followers to obey those in positions of authority anti-establishment?  This is not an isolated case.  We are told to pay our taxes (Matt 2:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25). Jesus is recognized as a person in authority, both by Jews (Matt. 7: 28-29) and pagans (Luke 7).  Any efforts to make Jesus a temporal ruler were rebuffed by the Lord. And even His last words before ascending into heaven were to explain that His kingdom was not of the world. If one is anti-establishment, their concern is almost wholly temporal, rather than eternal.

Liberal: There are absolutely no indications that Jesus supported a socialist or progressive agenda.  The corporal works of mercy are personal responsibilities, not government oversight.

Hippie freak: I am not sure what this even means, other than polemical nonsense.

With strange ideas:  This is actually true. Jesus did have counter-cultural ideas.  But at the same time, he never called for cultural revolution, and a great many liberal ideas are in direct opposition to the laws of God.

Now does all of this mean that Jesus is a political conservative?  Not by any stretch of the imagination.   Radicals on either end of the spectrum cannot be reconciled with God.  There are things that liberals do get right.  There are things conservatives get right.  There are also things both get wrong.  Conservatives tend to be to eager to employ the death penalty and go to war.  Liberals have taken on causes that are absolutely immoral.  Neither political persuasion has cornered the market on God and morality.

What Makes a Hero?

If I say the word “hero” what is it that comes to your mind?  Undoubtedly, for some people, the image that comes up is this fellow:

Or it might be this guy:

These images are thanks to our popular culture that seems to require that a hero is capable of things that average people, people like you and I, are incapable of.  What is unfortunate with the superhero is that people tend to equate powers with heroism. Though there are certain aspects of the comic-book hero that is admirable, the idea of a hero should not be limited to this kind of fictional character.  

Other people will have a different idea of hero altogether, one that is more grounded in reality.  For some, their image of hero is something more like this:

This image, the American soldier is also not without merit, though it does have its flaws as well.  The idea of someone dedicating themselves to something greater than themselves, and there exists a possibility of the sacrifice of life, is definitely admirable.  At the same time , the government is a human institution, which means it is susceptible to corruption, and the military, in the hands of a corrupt government, becomes a tool for enforcing tyranny. There are also enough examples of the misuse of power by our own military to prevent a soldier from being hero simple because he is a soldier.  The military has a great number of heroes, but there as with any other profession, there are also a number of scoundrels.  These same arguments also hold true for any other profession someone might name as a hero.  

In my mind, when I hear the word ‘hero”, this is what I think of:

Blessed Mother Theresa helped the poorest of the poor with no thought of reward or monetary gain.  She did it because it is what God led her to do.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest, gave his live is Auschwitz to save the life of a Jewish man with a family to care for.

St. Thomas More was executed for holding that no temporal ruler can take for himself what can only be granted by God, that is, the oversight of the pilgrim Church on Earth.

These last examples are the marks of true heroism: the willingness to do the right thing, even in the face of death.  Moreover, it is also the willingness to give up worldly success for the sake of the Eternal.  In addition, Mother Theresa, Maximilian Kolbe, and Thomas more were ordinary people that displayed extraordinary virtue.  This is something we are all capable of.  Think about what could be achieved for God if we would all embrace true heroism. The world would be a very different place.  My challenge with this blog is that each and every one of us ask God to reveal that heroic virtue that he has planned for us. Even the smallest change would be astounding.

The Sky is Falling

One trend I see among Evangelicals, and this was something I had bought into before I swam the Tiber, is an absolute obsession with the End.  I am not denying that Our Lord could return at any moment, but  to constantly seek after signs for the Lord’s return is not why God gave us the Scriptures.  In fact, what the Scriptures do tell us is that we will not know when He is to return.  It gets to the point where every war, every natural disaster, every major political figure, is assigned some significance in the end of the world.  Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been purported to be the Antichrist.  Any time there is some kind of skirmish, particularly when it involves Israel, the Evangelicals go ballistic (never mind the fact that the modern political state of Israel bears little in common with the Israel of eschatological  prophecy).  The point I am trying to make here is that when the end comes, it comes. There is nothing we can do to prevent it.  There is nothing we can do to make it happen faster. The time has been preordained by God, just as much as the timing of the Incarnation was preordained.  Instead of seeking after signs, our energies are much better spent in fulfilling our duties as laymen, that is, bring the message of salvation to the world by being a witness to Christ in the world.

Coming Back

It feels like I am returning to the Catholic Faith, even though I never truly left.  Let me explain.  I had taken a job that required me to work weekends, and the hours were such that I could not make it to neither Mass nor Confession.  Since mid-August, I had mad my Sunday obligation only once, and the only absolution I had received was from an Anointing of the Sick before surgery.  All this time, my personal devotion had slipped as well, without the graces provided by the Eucharist.  It follows that I fell into the same old sins that had plagued me before entering the Church in 2008.  Today I went to Confession, and tomorrow I am going to Mass, since the obstacle that had existed, my job, is no longer there.  (I will not get into the details as to why I lost that job, but I consider it a blessing to not have to work on the Lord’s Day).  But because of my virtually non-existent spiritual life over the past month or so, it truly does feel like I an “coming home.” Since my last Mass attendance, it was virtually impossible to tell the difference between my life and the life of a non-Christian.  Hardly befitting of one whom St. Peter described as belonging to “a holy nation, a royal priesthood.”  All I can say is that it feel good to be home.