I think one of the gravest misuses of God’s name in American culture is the widespread habit of using it trivially to express excitement, astonishment or incredulity. All these are a sign that one lacks a deep, loving respect for the Tripersonal God.
Archives for June 2018
If You Are Angry With Your Brother Or Sister, You Will Be Liable To Judgment
In our gospel today, Jesus gives an authoritative teaching on fulfillment of the law by condemning anger held in the human heart. Anger, malicious thoughts, hatred, desire for vengeance, these things flow from a person’s interior, from his heart. What is the healing solution?
What Is The Unforgivable Sin?
It’s not uncommon to find people who worry that they’ve blasphemed against the Holy Spirit and committed the “unforgivable sin,” making God’s mercy inaccessible and hell a certainty. What did Jesus mean by saying in Mark’s gospel that whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven?
The Greatest Commandment: Love God and Neighbor
We draw not only our strength to love from our love of God but the fullness of human life is made possible only by loving God above all else for his sake. Love then flows outward, as an abundant well-spring, to others. So powerful becomes this force of love that the Christian can even love those who hate him. His love of Christ empowers him to love and pray even for his enemies.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ: The Eucharist is the Life-Blood of the Christian
The Eucharist is often referred to as the “source and summit of the Church.” In receiving this “sacrament of sacraments,” our Savior comes not simply to meet us but into us, fills us with himself, and sanctifies us with his own supernatural, divine life in order to transform us into his likeness. In consuming the Eucharist, “the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 47).