A Resolution For The New Year

I've come to believe that a person  filled with hate cannot think straight.

The political scene in our country tests the point.

Many contemporary partisan commentaries and news reports reflect a rancor  that ignores truth and cares nothing for civility.

Dishonesty and chicanery become tools for scoring political gain. The end justifies the means. Even perjury is an acceptable avenue in the arsenal of unscrupulous but determined politicians.

The so-called mainstream media have too often fanned the flames of emotion without giving due place to reason and the search for truth.

Civil War America experienced something akin to what we see and hear today: "The hoary-headed old tyrant whose presence now defiles the honored seat of  Washington has usurped powers which the constitution has conferred neither upon the President nor Congress, nor upon both together. He has declared war against the sovereign States of the South, in order to coerce them into subjection....Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God" (Editorial, Nashville Union and American, April 16, 1861).

Such rhetoric stirs the emotions but too often foregoes reason.

Wisdom and prudence suggest that allegations be researched, that commentators and politicians be vetted, that online stories be taken with the proverbial grain of salt --all in the interest of finding the truth.

It is easy to spew fighting words; it is hard to think things through.

There is something in the human spirit that seeks a cause, something to live for, something to promote. When a person finds that cause he can easily give in to an emotional response which makes him feel righteous and possessive of the higher ground. That feeling can relieve him of further search and assessment. it almost resolves into simple contradiction: "My mind is made up; don't bother me with the facts."

Jesus appealed to the better angels of our nature in what we call the "Beatitudes." He described the attitudes his followers should assume, and went so far as to say, "Everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment."

Clearly in the teaching of the Christ, hatred is the opposite of love. A hateful person cannot think and act like Christ, and even if many of our fellow countrymen are not Christian, those who are must put a check on hatred to help abet peace and justice in the culture and politics around us.

A resolution for the new year?

Good News Story

Too often these days news about the Catholic Church is dark and depressing, but I caught a glimpse of light and encouragement recently in an article in the Tennessee Register, the bi-weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Nashville.

Father Jim Sichko, who was named a Missionary of  Mercy by Pope Francis, came to the rescue of nearly 200 out-of-work miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, providing $20,000 for utility bills and other necessities. As Sichko put it, “I paid everything –electric, rent, etc.—but not cell-phones.”

The miners had worked for a mining company named Backjewel, which has filed for bankruptcy. The Tennessee Register added, “The company apparently all but absconded with money withdrawn from its employees’ paychecks for child support payments and 401 (k) contributions, but the workers said the money was never deposited in their accounts.”

Other news reports note that Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and the state’s Attorney General are opening an investigation because of complaints from miners who reported paychecks that ‘bounced” and missing payment for child support.

 Sichko, a priest of the Diocese of Lexington, is one of about 100 priests across the United States designated by Pope Francis as Missionaries of Mercy, a positive, concrete outreach prompted by the 2016 Year of Mercy.

Missionaries of Mercy are authorized to preach and hear confessions anywhere in the country, are allowed to forgive sins usually reserved to the pope, and have funds allocated to them to meet the material needs of people too.

When Sichko learned of the miners’ situation, he traveled to Harlan County and met with nearly 200 of them at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, compiled their information, asked what they most needed, and on his return to Lexington mailed them checks totaling $20,000.

“I would say that 99 per cent of them were not Catholic, and had not even set foot on Catholic property,” Sichko explained, “but these people have had their cars repossessed and their utilities shut off.”

In establishing the “Missionaries of Mercy” Pope Francis said, “We can’t run the risk of a penitent not perceiving the maternal love of the Church that welcomes and loves him.”

Father Sichko’s intervention at Harlan County is only one of the many responses he and other Missionaries of Mercy have made in fulfillment of the Pope’s plan and the Church’s mission. This story allows some of the light of the Gospel to shine in our world today –truly good news.

The Tennessee Register  is a good source for Catholic news not only about Nashville but in other parts of the world. Annual subscription for the bi-weekly is $29.00. Send check to Tennessee Register, 2800 McGavock Pike, Nashville TN 37214-1402., or call 615-783-0750. 

Web site: www.tennesseeregister.com

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Opposition to Pope Francis

It is well-known that some segments of the Catholic Church oppose Pope Francis and his vision of what the Church should be.  

Even some cardinals and bishops as well as lay persons have publicly challenged the pope’s openness to allow Catholics in certain circumstances who have divorced and remarried  to receive Holy Communion.

On other fronts some of the hierarchy and even some seminarians object to Pope Francis’ suggestion that clergy should reject clericalism, careerism, and elitism. They resent being told they should smell like the sheep.  Some Catholic  bookstores (even in seminaries) carry few if any books by or about Pope Francis.
They want him to go away.

The Argentine pope looks at the Church not only from the traditional European point of view but also from a South American perspective. His theology is influenced by writers whose names are well-known in Europe and America (Thomas Aquinas, Romano Guardini, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac) but also by others scarcely known in the United States or Europe (Amelia Lezcano Podetti, Alberto Methol Ferre, Guzman Carriquiry Lecour, Lucio Gera).

Massimo Faggioli, professor at the University of St. Thomas in St Paul (MN), writes that “Pope Francis appears to be motivated by a more historical and cultural vision, in line with the Latin American theology he comes from, and by a more spiritual than theological vision for the ministry of the Roman pontificate” (Pope Francis: Tradition in Transition, Paulist Press, 2015,  p.77).

Faggioli adds, “The shift of emphasis with Bergoglio, from the theological to the spiritual papacy, has some unknowns for the future structure of Catholicism” (ibid, p. 78).

Pope Francis is aware of both the task before him and the obstacles he faces. That may be the reason he continually makes the plea, “Pray for me.”

Marco Politi, author of Pope Francis Among The Wolves (Columbia University Press, 2014) recalls a You Tube skit which shows Francis plodding along with a refrigerator on his shoulders, a gift for a poor widow. As he walks along he asks his two secretaries who accompany him (but offering no assistance with the heavy load), “What door do we deliver it?” One answers, “Number 1321, Your Holiness.” And Francis asks, “Where are we now?” only to hear, “Number 23, Your Holiness.”

As he trudges along under his heavy burden, a number of others, including two cardinals, stop him and ask for photos and blessings, but none of them lends a hand. Finally he arrives at the widow’s house only to hear her refuse the gift because it is the wrong color! “It could have been worse,” Francis murmurs as he sets off homeward.

Changing metaphors, I recall  an old saying that “it’s hard to remember that you came to drain the swamp when you’re up to your hips in alligators.”

Many of the cardinals who elected him to succeed Pope Benedict XVI chose Cardinal Bergoglio with the hope that he would reform the Curia, the Church’s bureaucracy, and  rid the Church of the alligators.

He may well be up to his hips in opposition but it is a fair assessment that he has not forgotten why he came to the swamp. For that reason his many supporters continue to  pray for him!

It Is Hard To Be Honest

It’s hard to be honest.

When I was teaching high school I was sometimes challenged by a student who rejected what I was saying, often defending her resistance with, “Well, I’m entitled to my own opinion!”  My rejoinder, “No, you’re not, at least not until you’ve taken steps to form it properly. You are not entitled until you opine.”

An opinion is the result of thinking. It’s not a feeling or a prejudice or what I would like to be true. An opinion is the result of an honest search for the truth. It requires effort. It means using both one’s intellect and will in a quest for accuracy, verity, honesty. And God knows, it’s hard to be honest.

That honesty is rare may be assumed by noting that of all the United States presidents only Washington and Lincoln are characterized by or remembered for their honesty. Washington’s “I cannot tell a lie” story may be apocryphal but it does affirm history’s respect for a man who is honest.

And in his biography of Lincoln, William Herndon, his law partner, concluded, “In the grand review of his peculiar characteristics, nothing creates such an impressive effect as his love of the truth. It looms up over everything else. His life is proof of the assertion that he never yielded in his fundamental conception of truth to any man for any end” (p. 487).

Dedication to truth and honesty seems to be intimately related to humility. What irony that Shakespeare’s Polonius, the rather officious, garrulous counselor to King Claudius, should advise his own son, “This above all, --to thine ownself  be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man” (Hamlet I, 3).

It is humility, being down-to-earth, that promotes an honest assessment of oneself. The sincere recognition that we are not perfect, that we may err, even sin, is healthy. Failure to acknowledge weakness often leads to defense-oriented behavior, those mechanisms we use to prop up our pride and defend our ego.

Instead of an honest admission to self, we may resort to rationalization (searching for reasons to justify a decision or an act), projection (blaming others), compensation (downplaying our weaknesses and focusing on our strengths), denial of reality (refusal to face facts), and other commonly used defense mechanisms.

Those in the Judaeo-Christian tradition are expected to be truthful.

It’s odd that Old Testament Hebrew does not have an exact word for true or truth but conveys the idea with the word emeth which can be rendered stability, firmness, reliability, faithfulness.  Bible scholar Father John McKenzie explains the Hebrew mentality, “The true is not merely an object of intellectual assent, but something which demands a personal commitment. In a sense one can be said to choose or accept the truth rather than assent to it. The lie on the contrary is not solidly real, and therefore not dependable.”  Truth is an objective reality to be embraced.

The New Testament Greek uses alētheia for truth, from an adjective meaning “unconcealed, manifest.” John uses this term in 8:31-32, “Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him ‘If you remain in my word, you will truly (alēthōs) be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth (alētheia)  will set you free.” The freedom he offers removes the constraints of a misguided life, clarifying life’s purpose and meaning.

If religion supports the search for and embrace of truth and honesty, so does an analysis of what makes a human homo sapiens, thinking man. Humanity is characterized by two spiritual powers: intellect and will. With the intellect we know; with the will we choose. By nature the intellect is oriented  toward truth, and the will is oriented toward good. Such natural orientation, however, does not preclude telling lies and doing evil. Humans are so free that they can violate their own integrity and work against their very selves.

The God-given orientation to truth and good is not a pass. A human being must search out truth and discern what is good. It is often a struggle, weighing contradictory options, overcoming thoughtless emotional responses, confronting weakness, and wrestling with the defense mechanisms we can resort to when the ego is challenged.

An opinion is not what one feels nor what one wishes to be the truth. An opinion is the result of responsibly seeking truth.

Many of our religious and political clashes are the result of the failure to pursue the truth. It is easier to hold on to past persuasions/convictions or party lines than to dare an authentic search for truth and good. A great deal of what passes for “opinion” on radio/TV talk shows is not opinion but prejudice. Many of the experts have not responsibly searched for the truth. Failure to opine leads to fake news.

Our searches may not always lead to common answers, but opinions without the search are irresponsible. Pope Francis urges us to accept the challenge of the intersection of opposite (not contradictory) opinions. He believes such an effort is the only way to arrive at truth and unity.

Early on the Church had to wrestle with whether Jesus was divine or human. The failure of some Christians to bring the opposites together led to heresies. The truth did not deny Jesus’ divinity or humanity; it lay instead in the awesome mystery of  “God-made-man.”

The prophet Micah (cf 8:6) told the people that there were three things Yahweh wanted from them: to do what is right, to love what is good, and to walk humbly in His presence. These three responses to life are the supreme qualities of a life well-lived.

Opinions require work; it’s hard to be honest.