What are We Afraid of?

I think we've all noticed it. Every year, starting sometime before Thanksgiving and lasting until all the gifts are open on December 25^th, we celebrate Christmas. It’s a time filled with music and shopping, baking and trying to find the ugliest of sweaters to wear. It’s an overall joyful time. Even amidst the consumerism, people are more generous, more joyful, and tend to finish out the year with a bang.

However, we also hear in nearly every homily how we need to be celebrating Advent more. We need to be preparing. We need to be treating this time as the "Little Lent" it is meant to be. Jesus is coming, and we need to prepare our hearts!

And it makes sense right? I mean, the Church seems to know what she’s doing. It makes sense to keep Christ in Christmas; I mean it started because of him. But we still have to shop and prepare. Family is coming! What’s the harm in going to the Christmas parties and wearing those terrible sweaters? There is a practical preparation that needs to happen as well!

So, as a result, we do a really good job of celebrating Christmas and a really poor job of celebrating Advent. Partially because Advent gets lost in the hustle. Partially because we don’t know exactly what it means to prepare our hearts. But I think there is another element that we don’t like to talk about.

To truly prepare for the Infant Christ scares us.

Now I don’t mean the porcelain Jesus you place in the manger or the baby that Mary is holding in the picture on the wall. I mean the living, breathing, crying, squirming, delicate, newborn Baby Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the baby who’s very birth split history. Here is the baby who knew exactly who he was before he could even talk. Here is the baby who, as he lays in your arms and looks into your eyes, knows who you are, and what you have done, and what he will do for you. Yet, despite how much bigger he is and how sinful we are, consents to trust himself to your care.

As we prepare for the Season of Christmas, don’t just think of Advent as some obligatory time of quiet before we can finally celebrate. It’s not just a season of pipe down. Advent, and the preparation it offers, is the period in which we ready our hearts to accept the gravity of Jesus’ birth. It’s a time to take a deep breath and calm our shaking hands so that we can hold him more securely. Advent allows us walk with the Holy Family to Bethlehem, sit in the cave, and await the Newborn King of Kings.

So, absolutely prepare for Christmas. Buy the gifts and bake the cookies. But also prepare by taking time to meditate on how big a moment the Nativity will truly be, and open your arms wide to our delicate and humble Lord.

Happy Advent

St Joseph, father of the Holy Family, Pray for us

God, Father of our Savior, bless us

Scientism: A Willing Ignorance

In 1884, Edwin A. Abbott wrote Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The book is set in a world inhabited by two-dimensional shapes that play roles within this two dimensional world. The shapes see and experience life in one dimension, much how we as 3D persons see the world as a two dimensions. The inhabitants of this world flatly deny (pun intended) that there can be a world that has more than two dimensions because, in their experience, they have never seen a 3D object, and nor can they because of their limited ability to see or measure. Therefore, they reject the idea that anything beyond flatland exists.

This is the case until a sphere passes through Flatland. The 2D shapes cannot take this sphere in fully, in fact they can only see him as different sizes circles as he literally passes through Flatland, transcending the binds of the two dimensions and experiencing his third. Not only that, but to further prove himself, the sphere takes a square up and out of flatland in order to give him a birds-eye view, and forever changing the square's outlook on reality. For a clearer summary, click here.

I want to take a moment to look at this book as a commentary on the phenomena of scientism that is rampant within our culture. Scientism is the philosophical, not scientific (more on that later), idea that, if something cannot be measured or observed by science, it cannot exist. This idea is subscribed to by everyone from leading atheists to your run-of-the-mill cultural devotee with a bone to pick against organized religion. Scientism-based thought generally come at the head of the atheistic apologetic, and is presented as being at odds with any notion of faith.

However, scientism is a philosophy that does not hold up under any kind of scrutiny. First of all, scientism is not scientific. The basis of science is to investigate and uncover that which has NOT been discovered. To say that all that exists is only what can be measured scientifically is to state one of two things. Either (a) you are basing life on the assumption that we currently fully understand and can measure all forces of nature and movements within the word, or (b) you are open to the idea that reality literally shifts every time a new discovery or theory is made. Under the former assumption, theoretical scientists simply become nerds with an imagination, and under the latter assumption, you are looking at reality itself as something that is inherently unstable, awaiting the next observation to further shift 'truth' into something else.

The second problem with scientism is that fact that it is a self-defeating proposition. To one that would say to me "all that is real is measurable and observable", I would respond by asking, "is that idea measurable and observable?" By that I mean, can you scientifically prove to me that all forces in the world are measurable and observable? Can you prove the content of that statement through the scientific method (developed by a catholic) and prove you hypothesis correct? The answer is an unadulterated "No Freaking Way!" To believe so is to contradict yourself, your purpose, and proves to me that you're simply a Dawkins fanboy with too much time to kill.

If this is you, you are terrible...

Finally, scientism does not leave room for the idea that there is something beyond our experience. Much like the inhabitants of Flatland, subscribers to scientism assume that our experience is the pinnacle of what can be known, and that our instruments for measurement are capable of measuring all that is. But if we cannot scientifically and empirically prove beyond any doubt that the basis of scientism is true, then room must be left for faith in something beyond what our 3D perspective can behold.

Honestly, I think the rejection of faith comes from our western fear of losing control. If we can measure every part of reality, we can then control and monitor every part of reality. However, if reality goes beyond what we can know with our senses, and if there is something that inhabits a world beyond our simple three dimensions, passing through yet transcending the reality we can know by observation, then it must be (a) more powerful than us, (b) beyond our control, and (c) know us better than we can know ourselves, just as we know the ins and outs of a character we draw or a shape we see.

We must allow ourselves, like the square in the story, to be lifted above what we know in order to see reality as it is, and to take in the idea that there is something more. The square did not experience the full length, width, and height of the three dimensional world, but he knew it was there. He could apply that knowledge back into his more limited reality and allow it to help shape him (more puns!). my encouragement is to ask yourself the question, "what if there are things we cannot measure?", and allow faith in something beyond the arrogant western view of self. Only then can we begin to grasp true reality.

St. Joseph, pray for us

God, Father in heaven, bless us.

Not Just About Babies Anymore...

Contraception and abortion seem to be of the go to objections by the Church about today's culture. Red flags go up when people talk about people talk about putting off or forgoing pregnancy, and the openness to life preached by Mother Church is often met with confusion, hostility, and outright anger. Why does the Church want to tell me how to act in the privacy of my own home? Why can't I make decisions for myself? What does God have to do with anything that happens in my bedroom? What seems to baffle people even more is why, when there's not even a conception through contraception, that "those Catholics" are still up in arms. The whole experience seems to come back to one pithy and standoffish comment-

"It's my life. I control what happens to it."

Who could be against this FACE!

And so, the central issue is revealed. People aren't against life, per say. I would go as far as to say that very few people are actually anti-life. People, simply put, are against losing control. The contraceptive mentality, so pervasive throughout western culture, is not just interested in whether or not babies are born. In fact, in the ongoing argument over contraception and abortion, it is the issues of control and personal autonomy that rear their heads much more often than questions of life. Women want to control their bodies. The Church is trying to control my life. I shouldn't be burdened with a child if I don't want one. Don't try to limit my freedom.

And so we see that the contraceptive mentality goes far beyond life issues. In the western world, people are afraid of not being able to be their own master and not being able to shape their lives the way they see fit. This is why we have cafeteria Christians who pick and choose the doctrines that they feel cater to their own sense of morality. This is why we have mothers and fathers that neglect or abandon their families because their spouse, children, or life don't look how they thought they would. This why we have spouses that are unfaithful to their loved ones when they get bored or aren't as attracted to the other as they once were. This is why suicide in the western world is so high. It's not simply that people are miserable on their own. It's that their lives aren't what they hoped they'd be. (Still think is has to do with misery? Then tell me how Haiti has a suicide rate of near zero.)

But this begs the question, whats so wrong with me being my on master? It's the American Dream after all! We are told from a young age that we can make our lives into anything we want them to be, and we try our hardest to do so. Success equals happiness, and this is made evident by the number of rich and successful actors, athletes, politicians, and musicians that have no problems and do no wrong because they control their own lives. 

Oh, wait, that's not the case at all! Recreational drug use is nearly equal across the socioeconomic stratum. Rich and successful people still cheat on their spouses and leave their families. Athletes and musicians still get arrested for drugs, violence, and all other manner of irresponsible and dangerous behavior. Suicide rate is highest among the wealthy. So it would seem that personal autonomy is not the way that people are achieving happiness or fulfillment.

So, whats the problem with a contraceptive mentality in which you do whatever it takes to form your life, relationships, faith, and work around your desires? The problem is that you make yourself your own god! Freedom has been misunderstood as license. Instead of trying to make ourselves available to goodness and right, we are placing our own wants and desires on a pedestal for worship.

You see, it's not enough to say that the contraceptive culture in which we live today simply offends the command not to kill, or that it can simply be rejected on the biological or human level. To truly encompass the entire problem of contraception and the contraceptive mindset, we have to see it as the worship of ourselves and our desires, and the rejection of God as creator and ruler. Within the contraceptive mindset, God is just there to make you feel good and give you the things you ask for. In a certain sense, contraception turns God into a vending machine.

Pop in a dollar, out pops a blessing

So what do we do to truly escape the contraceptive culture? How do we rise above self gratification and find true fulfillment? How do we truly open ourselves up to the fullness of life, not just in the womb, but throughout the span of a lifetime? We have to follow Jesus to the cross. In order to be lifted up, we need to lower ourselves. In order to fulfill our truest desires, we need to become a servant of others. In order to truly become sons and daughters of the living Father, we have to elevate him at a just place of authority in our lives, and from there we can find our true meaning and happiness.

We have to pray to move beyond what is easy or self gratifying. We have to put the needs of others before our own We have to overcome self-service with self-giving love for others. In a word, we need to overcome the culture of death and the fallacy of a contraceptive life by relinquishing our need for control. Only then can we begin to find some peace.

St Joseph, pray for us.

Father in Heaven, bless us.

Tragic Misappropriation

I think we all want to think of ourselves as smart, don't we? It's not that we just want to hold a conversation or gain the admiration of other people. While all of that is nice, and even useful or pleasant, humanity seeks knowledge in an effort to grasp that which is bigger than ourselves. We seek to wrap our minds around complex realities that fascinate and amaze us, not simply because we want to amuse or educate ourselves, but because central to our personhood is an orientation to the greater, more transcendent, elements of life which go beyond our simple senses and lead us to the conclusion that we cannot be made for a limited time or space.

The very fact that we can see and conceptualize something beyond what we see and feel separates us from the rest of the created world. No matter how smart your dog may be, or how many signs you teach Koko the gorilla, they will never be able have faith or hope in anything because they have no sense of it. They are merely mortal creation, bound to the limits of their sensory world.

Sad right? NO! This is order! This is natural hierarchy! This is the nature of all creation pointing to us and past us as we stand on the pinnacle of what can be held, and look beyond us to a world that can only be known by revelation and meditation. It can be pondered and expounded upon, and our knowledge of it can be transposed by those gifted by God with the depth of intellect needed to pare such transcendent realities into something that can be understood and studied.

It is with these minds pondering all manner of science and philosophy that we come to understand who we are and how we were made, both physically and spiritually, and we gain an understanding of how we are to relate to one another and how we are to relate to that singular infinite greatness that stands above us and reaches out to us. This is how we come to study philosophy, theology, sociology, history, biology, and all other manner of sciences that are meant to pull our experiential and spiritual knowledge together and bring us into greater awe and devotion to the one who made it all.

However, what happens when God is ignored? What happens when the gift of intellect is given yet misdirected. What happens when the hierarchy of nature is disregarded, or worse, what if those gifted and eloquent minds take the pointing of nature to indicate finality and climax in the human person, and a philosophical glass ceiling is placed on the investigation of who we are?

Neichze: Thinking as crazy as his mustache

In a western world where we do not want for anything material, and are slowly ridding ourselves of any true connection or relationship of self-giving love, we are leaving our minds and hearts open and able to hit the limits of sensual experience and turn back inward upon ourselves. All of a sudden, the wants and desires of our hearts and minds, the only things that remain even partially transcendent, become gods of our making that demand worship.

All of a sudden, those minds who were gifted to grasp and verbalize the transcendent mysteries are given the place of priest and prophet within the secular religion, and they are tasked to look at the disorder of life and explain it away. Whether we are talking of sexual immorality, loss of identity, or simply the habitual sin experienced and perpetrated by countless souls on a daily basis, the task of the thinker is to make it okay.

So, as a result, we have theories and philosophies that could fill thousands of volumes. However, all lead to the same end: Everything is moral, and every new depravity can be chalked up to social phenomena or societal evolution. All this because the God and Father if all, who made all thing to point beyond humanity to a place that fulfills all desire, is removed, and all that was made to point to eternity become an ends in themselves. Philosophical and social scientific thought is done for its own sake, leaving us with a culture that continually practices a form of intellectual masturbation.


And who are the casualties of such a system? Simply put, the students. Those disciples of the secular prophets who are subject day after day to the thought of other lost souls cannot help but to drown in what they are served. The result are artists and thinkers who spit out the same misguided ideas of humanity and our "purpose" under the guise of free thought and enlightenment. All the while, they dig deeper and deeper inward upon their own hearts and minds, trying to find meaning that remains behind them, beyond that glass ceiling and into eternity.

At the end of the day, we cannot look at our world without first understanding and realizing that there is a loving Creator who built all things in order to bring us closer to him. He is not doing so to achieve some sort of vain glory. On the contrary, he has laid the path before us to walk into eternity. He has come down, incarnate, to bridge the gaps and set us free from the ropes of relativism and sin that bind us to our senses. We must take a step beyond what we see and know, and allow ourselves to be caught up into a person that is ever ancient, yet ever new.

Saint Joseph, pray for us
Father, God in heaven, bless us

Boys Will Be Boys...

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about gun violence. The tragedy in Aurora, CO, and the most recent incident in Newtown, CT have left people reeling and have resulted in everything from a call for a stricter set of rules on gun ownership to more widespread access to public mental health care. All of these are legitimate points of view, and this issue must be handled with care in order to protect our children, our freedoms, and indeed, our country.

This post is not meant to address gun control or mental health. I am not calling for stricter or looser gun control, nor am I supporting either side of the gun issue. What I hope to point out is a disturbing trend that I think is being overlooked by many experts, and goes beyond the simple issue of who can or cannot buy a gun. I think that the violence that we are seeing is a symptom of a more fundamental issue that we in the western world are afraid to address.

The fact is that in every major incident of violence in the last ten years, at least every one that has been widely publicized, the perpetrators have been young males in their late teens to mid-twenties. This is a significant statistic given that, according to mentalhealth.org, when it comes to mental illness, even violent mental illness, women are diagnosed and treated almost twice as frequently as men (29% percent as opposed to 17%).

This would suggest that there is another factor that supersedes mental illness that pushes these men to violence. And lets be honest, there is no shortage of disadvantages presented to boys and young men in today's society.  Over 40% of American children have parents who are divorced, and 20-25% of those kids show signs of not dealing well with the change. Of single parents with kids under 18, 85% are single mothers with children who do not have regular contact with their fathers, and 45% of those women were never married in the first place. Considering these statistics as well as the fact that boys are more likely to be physically and/or sexually abused, we start to see a frightening picture of the context in which our boys are growing up.

But even all of these factors do not fully account for the fact that all the major school violence incidents have been perpetrated by young men. There remains one major detail that is overlooked more than any other. In our post-modern pharmacological society WE ARE NOT LETTING OUR BOYS BE BOYS.  In fact, we're trying to turn our boys into girls.

Now, before you get on my case about somehow being sexist, think about it.  All the behaviors that young boys exhibit that distinguish them from their female classmates are being forcibly suppressed. Whether it be rougher play, tactile exploration, louder volumes, higher levels of energy, or even playing with trucks and guns over dolls and princesses, we are taking healthy behavior and telling our young boys that its wrong.

Don't believe me? Let's look at the facts. As of 2010, 52 million children aged 3-17 were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 12% of all of boys in the United States were diagnosed similarly. Most if not all of these were prescribed Ritalin. We're also prescribing antidepressants to boys as early as preschool nearly 400% more frequently than just a few years ago. Not to mention the myriad of other drugs such as Aderol being used by adolescents to focus, as well as the increasing amounts of human growth hormone (HGH) in the water and our meat. This heavy drug influx has been connected to rising rates of suicide among teens and young adults as well as deepening depression throughout life.

So answer me this: Is there really a problem with all of these children, or are we simply finding a problem just because we have looked for one? I don't think these boys are disordered. I think they are just being boys.

We have also seen a trend among parents today who are trying to change the behavior of their children through negative reinforcement of what they call "gendered behavior". All of this is in the attempt to stop our children from being "forced" into gender roles in our society, but it runs the risk of doing away with any gender identity at all. This is not a good thing, and it does not work in the long run.

Take, for example, the story of David Reimer, who was raised as a girl after a botched circumcision. His parents followed the ideas of sociologist, Dr John Money, who thought that nurture was more powerful than nature, and that boys could be raised as girls if the parents so chose. He was wrong. David, raised Brenda, still thought, acted, played, and reasoned as a boy, despite the use of sex hormones and sex reassignment surgery.  He did eventually began to live as a man of his own volition, but tragically committed suicide at the age of 38. As it turned out, the majority of Dr Money's subjects who underwent the same process ended their lives as well.

Now, I admit, this is an extreme example, but there are still parents who encourage their little boys to dress as girls and to do more feminine things, and when the other children at school notice, they are taken aside and told that they need to be comfortable with this choice.

Only genderless person I've ever seen... Just sayin'

Now here is where I may make my sociology professors angry. I'm here to say that this way of living and raising your children is ill-conceived. Boys are boys. Period. Their masculinity, however juvenile, is not simply some external characteristic that can be changed willy-nilly. Nor is it some state of mind that can be adjusted with the right mix of drugs and negative reinforcement. Their gender is not socially constructed. In fact, the fact that they are genetically XY penetrates every aspect of their being, from their brain chemistry and how rough they play, to how they relate with others and what kinds of things they will eventually come to enjoy or despise.

So, instead of trying to intervene and stopping our children from identifying or acting out who they are as young boys, we actually make a concerted effort to invest in our children and actually show them what it means to be a real man. I would be willing to bet that those poor souls who took the live of others or their own lives in acts of gun violence in Connecticut or Colorado didn't have the kind of positive support from male role models that they needed. Maybe they were mentally unbalanced, but how were they helped? Were they encouraged and told that they were cared about, or were they simply given drugs with no other type of support? We can't simply blame teachers or cruel classmates. Nor can we look at young boys who are acting out as being diseased. We need positive male role models who will man up and teach their children what it is to be a man and deal with their problems.

Away with this pablum of a gender neutral society. Show what it is to be a man in service to others. Show what it is to develop virtue not only towards others, but in relation to oneself. Encourage other men to invest in people and help them to grow. It doesn't matter if they are your own age or if they are a child. Take the time to develop your own masculinity by helping someone else develop theirs. We can only speculate, but I bet those gunmen would have benefited from such a simple act of love. Hopefully we can take steps toward preventing such acts in the future.

St Joseph, model of manliness, pray for us
God in Heaven, bless us

...And We're back!

I seem to do this a lot. I post regularly for the duration of a series of action-packed posts, and then I forget that this little community exists. It's not that I have nothing to say. It's certainly not that I have no thoughts or haven't got anything of substance to share. I simply forget. For that I apologize and hope that we can keep strolling along.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving (last night)! I hope you all had a wonderful night and are slowly recovering from your wine and turkey stupors.

 I wanted to comment on an odd phenomenon that I noticed as I sat on my couch this past Wednesday, allowing myself to forget about the responsibilities of life and class for awhile. I was sitting there, beginning the 24 hour Turkey-Fast, and I turned on the television. I was supremely enjoying this particular episode of The Big Bang Theory, when a series of commercials came on about Black Friday.

One in particular caught my eye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxCBmZFROBw

Now that we've both watched it, lets set aside the annoying in-your-face-ness of the whole add in order to penetrate to the deeper problems. First and foremost, apparently our material culture has just done away completely with the facade of giving and selflessness that the hliday season brings. What this commercial expresses to me is the idea that giving is simply an obligation that can be offset (thank goodness!)  by the opportunity to buy for oneself. Check out the line at the 13 second mark on the video. The song says, "Check out the price of this new flat-screen. I'll buy it for Phil, but it's also for me". Giving is being represented as a practice of self-serving. What this spot is telling us is that the holiday season is not simply a time to give. That's just something you HAVE to do. What you REALLY want is to buy for yourself. You just need the opportunity. Thank goodness for Black Friday!

The second problem with this spot is a little more difficult to spot, but troubling nonetheless. If you look at the time that the sale starts, you will see that the sale starts at 9pm Thursday, and Target is not the only one. Walmart started their sale at 8pm, and a bunch of stores, including Old Navy and Best Buy, started their sals at midnight. And what's the problem, you may ask. The sales start after dinner, so what's the harm of extending Black Friday into Thanksgiving night. Well, let's think for a second. If people really only get the best deals if they line up for hours, and if these lines really start forming 12 or more hours in advance, then the question must be asked: What about Thanksgiving?

For a moment, let's set aside the fact that celebration of the Christmas Season is still more than a month away. Let's even put aside the fact that Advent, the period of waiting for the Nativity at Christmas doesn't begin until December 2nd. Let's look past every other issue to the fact that our own level of cultural materialism is at such a height that Black Friday, the Olympics of Capitalism, has begun to encroach upon the one day a year that we set aside in order to give thanks for what we have. The opportunity that we all take to spend with our families and thank God for the blessings in our lives is being pushed aside so that we can all go out and BUY! The irony is daunting. If you need a second to take a breath, please, join me...

...Good, now that we're back, I feel the need to clarify. I am not condemning  those who buy for themselves, nor am I casting judgement on those who put on or attend sales on Thanksgiving night. I am simply pointing out a frightening cultural phenomenon that needs highlighting.

In fact, I have a solution to propose. As late as this post comes, I suggest saving the Black Friday shopping for after midnight. Don't leave your house until it's actually Friday morning! If you want to stay up all night, that's your business, but I urge you, forego the door-busters and spend time with your families. It doesn't matter whether you are a married man, a teenager, or simply and adult child. The fact is, we need our families, and opportunities to spend time together as a family unit are becoming more and more rare. Cherish the time.

I also suggest only buying a handful of things for yourself. I do not condemn you in any way for wanting to get things for yourself, the deals are crazy! But i beg you, take the opportunity to actually buy gifts for your loved ones. The deals and goods are being served to you on a silver platter. Use them to help you grow in generosity. Trust me. It's a good thing.

My prayer is that we can all begin to extricate ourselves from this culture of materialism. We need to understand that none of these things are evil on their face, but that they have the potential to overcome the positive times in our lives if we let them. Most of all, let's all remember that we are supposed to be self-giving in love, and that Christ is our model and our goal. may God bless us this holiday season

Joseph, model of manhood, pray for us!
God, Father in heaven, bless us!