The Dignity of Man

In his address to the United Nations, Pope Francis reminded the collective nations of a simple fact - all men are created in the image and likeness of Christ. Every man, woman, and child that shares this earth has the same essential dignity.

Despite the unprecedented level of connectivity and communication ushered in by technological advances, we maintain an attitude of what His Holiness called "exclusiveness." Far too often, we do not look beyond our borders, our families, and most importantly, our selves. It is far too easy to reduce the seven billion members of humanity to just that: a number.

Catholics should not look upon the world as a hodgepodge of separate nations, of individual interests, or of statistics. Sure, you might feel bad if you hear that just short of a billion people worldwide face hunger and starvation. But what do you do with that feeling? The sentiment is not enough. It might reflect well on your moral sensibilities if you can conjure up feelings of sympathy for the millions of displaced refugees around the world, but it does not make you a good person. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or so the adage goes.

We are Catholics. The word "catholic" means universal. We are a part of the Universal Church. The truth in which we place our faith is not limited to any hemisphere of the globe. It is not limited to any culture. It is not limited to any tongue. Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites, were the first people chosen by God. When the Son of God became man, our inheritance was no longer of flesh and blood, but of the spirit.

Leaders and followers alike, do not fall into error! Do not forget that all men were created equally by God. There is no essential difference between an American billionaire and a Syrian refugee. Both have the same dignity as children of God.

Now what does this dignity mean? It means that all men are entitled to the same, basic rights. As the Declaration of Independence puts it, "unalienable rights." When speaking before the United Nations, Pope Francis put forth the three L's of human dignity: lodging, labor, and land. These three things are needed to give men quality of life. In addition to those three, His Holiness added to the necessities of life education, and religious freedom, freedom of conscience.

Men are not numbers. They are not a statistic. Refugees from regional conflicts are not a problem, they are people. The starving are not simply mouths. The homeless are not simply buckets to catch thrown loose change. Issues involving humans cannot simply be solved by throwing money at them.

What this world needs is a new host of Catholics who understand the dignity of each and every human life. We must protect that life from the womb to the grave. We must not stop fighting. We cannot allow children to be murdered in the womb. We cannot allow the elderly to be discarded when they are of no use. We cannot allow people to starve, to live in ignorance, to lack the basic necessities of a human life.

As always, Jesus did not leave us bereft of instruction. Matthew 25:37-40:

        "Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

When we see another man, we should not see the tone of their skin, their religion, their clothing, their wallet, or their language. We should instead see the face of God.

Especially in this age of darkness, when true doctrine is mocked and when faith is reduced to a fantasy, the faithful must act as the body of Christ. The Church must be the hands and feet of God, wherever He is needed. And He is needed everywhere: from the streets of Chicago to the slums of Mexico city, from the boardrooms of New York to the villages of Mongolia.

Every man was born as a reflection of the goodness of God.

No man can survive without God.

Deus Volt!

The Narrow Path

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14

There is a famous joke involving a tourist in England. He finds a native and asks "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" The inevitable and unexpected response is "practice, practice, and practice." 

The point is that it is very difficult to get into Carnegie Hall, at least in one sense. You cannot simply pick up an instrument and pluck a few strings for a few weeks or even a few months in order to perform in Carnegie Hall. You cannot buy a ticket to get in. The only way to Carnegie Hall is years and years of practice, of sacrifice.

Interestingly enough, there is a parallel to Heaven here. There is no easy way to gain eternal life. Now, notice that I say "gain" instead of "earn." The distinction is monumental. We, all by our little old mortal selves, cannot earn our way to Heaven. There is no deed so great, no life so perfect (excepting Jesus and Mary of course) that would make us perfect enough to enter into Heaven of our own accord. Heaven, just like grace, is a gift. Heaven, just like grace, can be rejected. The consequences of rejection remain the same: spiritual death and Hell.

But make no mistake. Though we cannot earn our way into Heaven, there is still a Hell, and it is very real. Despite the grace that has been given to us by God, despite His love, innumerable souls decide to reject His plan in favor of their own. In doing so, they reject His eternity. We are not privy to the will of God. We do not known how He decides which souls enter into Heaven. All we know is what Jesus has told us.

The gate to eternal life is a "narrow" one. As pessimistic as it sounds, there are "many" souls who reject the narrow road and plant their feet on the "wide road" that "leads to destruction."

How often do we forget this? In a world that likes to ignore both Heaven and Hell, we are told that we can live as we please. The lie of relativism tells us that there is no true way to live, only the way that seems right to us. In days such as these, the other road must be very wide in deed.

This is the danger of tolerance. For false love of image and of acceptance, we allow people to live in sin. We allow people to walk that "wide road" to Hell. This is not judgement. Who among you would allow a blind man to walk straight off a cliff, simply because you do not want to presume to show him the right way for fear of offending his sensibilities?

Jesus did not say "many is the way to Heaven, just do what you would like, and I will give you eternal life just so long as you offend no one." There is but one way to Heaven. That is the way of God.

It is hard to walk the narrow path these days. Everyone will shout that you are going the wrong way, that you are an idiot for choosing such a difficult path. All the while, they are blind to the quicksand that they themselves trod so assuredly.

Know that the road is hard. The gate is painfully narrow. There are brambles on this road. There are thorns that will cut and hurt and bleed you. There are stretches of mud that seem impassable. There will be days on this road when you will want to turn around. You will want to return to the illusory safety of the wider and easier road. The road that is far less lonely.

Remember that you do not tread this road alone. There have been saints who have walked this road. They have left us maps for the path. Look to the lives of the Saints. Read their words of encouragement and instruction. They know what it means to walk this road that seems ever narrower.

Remember what lies at the end of this road. We do not strive towards fame, wealth, or any earthly gain. All those will perish like dust in the wind. We walk to Heaven, the eternal reward. We were made for eternity, not this world of shadows.

The narrow road is hard. The reward, however, is very much worth it.

Deus Volt!

Mere Spirituality

Spirituality is not religion.

In our convenient age of five-step formulae and "there's an app for that" mentality, it should come as no surprise that we often look for similar shortcuts when it comes to practicing religion. Previous generations had at least the decorum to be either hot or cold when it came to religion. You either believed in God or you did not. Simple. There were no impious half-measures.


Not so today, not so. We have created a blasphemous assortment of half-prayers and religious "feelings." This Frankenstein's monster goes by many names: New Age philosophy, astrology, pantheism. It is most commonly addressed as "spirituality." The basic message is simple. Get rid of all that doctrine, tradition, and rules, and replace it with emotional experiences that will somehow coalesce into the achievement of some esoteric plane of existence, nirvana, enlightenment, etc....

Spirituality is the essence of our times. No responsibility, no rules, no tradition, and no God. Spirituality is far more dangerous than atheism. It is, in itself, a kind of cocktail mix of agnosticism and religion. It removes God from the equation. All of the religious feelings sans a Supreme Being. This is a dangerous, spiritual arsenic. It is a devilish trick. There is nothing wrong with spiritual feelings in themselves. In fact, they are very good. Such feelings often mean that the Holy Spirit is moving within our hearts. These feelings are intended to bring us closer to God.

Spirituality takes these feelings and disguises them, disguises them, and perverts them. It is a subtle lie unlike the outright rejection of atheism. Atheism is a desert. Spirituality is a poisoned well. The combination is deadly. St. Augustine wrote that "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." The heart cannot survive on atheism alone, on shadows. It needs spiritual substance. And instead of the true fruits of the true Church, a modern soul is deceived and taken in by the sweet-tasting but ultimately empty.

This is the strategy of evil. Starve the soul with atheism. Create a culture immersed with the death of the spirit, Nietzsche's nihilistic message, "God is dead." Eventually, the soul will reject the lies it has been fed. It will OD on sand and dirt. That is where spirituality comes in. When the soul has emptied itself with darkness, it looks for something more. The answer of the world is spirituality. An empty "religion" based only on emotion and fantasy, on feelings and sensations.

Always remember that God cannot be replaced. There is nothing that can replace the need for God in our souls, no matter the amount of garbage we swallow. Our hearts will be forever "restless" until they find God.


Deus Vult!