June 2019

The Church Fathers (those great bishops and theologians of the first five hundred years of Christianity) are a special target of feminist rage, and it must be admitted that these early Church thinkers are certainly not well known for their support for women’s liberation.

The famous “Sermon on the Mount” (Matt 5-7) is best known for its beautiful spiritual and moral teachings. Indeed, it would be hard to beat a sermon that had the Beatitudes, the Our Father, and the command to love your enemy all packed into one!

Christ executed His first miracle because someone requested it. But this someone is not just anyone—it is His mother. It is precisely because Mary is Christ’s mother, the source of His presence in the world, that she has the authority to request a miracle that would lead her Son to His Passion.

The first time I visited the Jordan River—the place where John the Baptist began his ministry—I couldn’t help but think that this prophet could have chosen a much better place to launch his career of preparing the Jewish people for the Messiah.

Contemporary critics of the Church, particularly those who classify themselves as feminist theologians, believe the hierarchical structure of all-male priestly authority is an inherently unjust system and sinful in its exclusion of women from positions of power. Their attack is based upon a secular view of authority as a quantifiable force, exercised visibly and publicly by persons who hold a special position or office.

We often hear expressions like “the post-Christian era” to describe the time in which we live. It is not a bad phrase provided we realize that every step in rejecting a Christian teaching keeps that very teaching before our eyes. Just as Christianity preserved many pagan practices, a “post-Christian era” will retain many Christian customs and ideas without acknowledging their Christian origins. They will usually be disguised under different names or explanations.

Most pop-culture celebrities are not only post-Christian but their lives are often what philosophers call “narrative wrecks.” The narrative or story of their life contains so many twists and contradictions that their personal integrity has been shattered. They often employ an entourage of “minders,” including life coaches, to advise them on how to conduct their professional and private affairs.

The point of revelation in the Catholic sense is that the world itself exists as an arena in which individual persons, each with a proper name, in their dealings with one another, in whatever time or place, work out their salvation. Salvation does not mean the preservation of at least some men down the ages in this world. Sooner or later, the race of men on this planet will cease.

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