Pat Arensberg: Scripture and Tradition

“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other.  For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.”  Dei Verbum #9

God’s Word is one.  In fact it is a person, Christ Jesus.  This unique word is not just transmitted or communicated through Sacred Scripture.  In fact, if you think about it the Word was communicated to humanity long before any Scripture was written.  Obviously, the Word can be communicated other than through the written Scriptures.  And certainly after Jesus’ ascension to the Father there was no Scripture for quite a while.  Even after some of the books were written there was no consensus on which books should be considered inspired.  For an at least an entire generation the “gospel” was communicated through the preaching of the Apostles and their successors.  We call this Sacred Tradition.  As Catholics we believe that the Word has been and is communicated through these two vessels (Sripture and Tradition).

Scripture itself attests to this.  In 1 Thessalonians 2:15 Paul says, “Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.”  Paul understands that the Gospel he preached is authoritative and an authentic passing on of the Gospel.  At the end of John’s Gospel (21:25) he makes it very clear that what he wrote is not the entirety of the Gospel.

As we look at the history of the early Church we see many cases of people who misunderstood the written Word.  Arius, a priest from Alexandria at the end of the 3rd century, argued from Scripture that Jesus was super-human, but not equal to God the Father.  The early Church addressed this error by reflecting on the living message as handed on from the Apostles (and by looking at the whole of Scripture).    

The teaching authority left by Jesus to his Apostles and their successors (bishops) interprets the Word of God found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.  (And, of course by Sacred Tradition we are not referring to traditions that we have developed as Catholics, but rather the living transmission of the Word of God within the Church)

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Todd Sylvester: The Big Ones

My six year old was organizing the change in her tiny purse as we settled in the pew for Sunday Mass. I tried to help her to lessen the jingling noises. “Do you need help?” I asked.

“No thank you, Daddy,” she responded.

As she continued to take longer than my patience could handle, I asked again. “Are you sure you don’t need help counting?”
   
“I’m not counting,” she responded with that look of ‘Daddy, you’re so silly.’
  
“Then what are doing?” I asked.
   
“I’m getting all the BIG ONES- THOSE ARE THE ONES I GIVE TO GOD.”
   
I immediately asked myself if that was true in my life. Are my greatest treasures the ones I give to God? Are my greatest gifts the ones I give to God. Are the most important things to me, those things that I give to God. Or do I save the dull pennies for Him?
   
Let’s look again at our lives and be sure we are giving to God the ‘BIG ONES.’

About Todd Sylvester Todd Sylvester has worked in Church Ministry for almost 20 years. His love for Christ in the Eucharist is evident as he strives to lead his wife and ten children to the heavenly banquet. Todd is a writer, singer/songwriter, radio show host, teacher, and above all else, Lover of God. His child-like perspective is not only poignant, but helps reveal the reality of God in our everyday living.

Pat Arensberg: Personal God

“The human person: With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness…In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul.”  CCC #33


All of Aquinas’ proofs are good, but one other compelling argument for the existence of God can be found in our very nature as humans.  This argument is a bit like Aquinas’ proof from gradation, but much more personal.  We long for truth and beauty.  We seek moral goodness and nobility.  These sentiments are echoes of our eternal souls.  The presence of an eternal soul is, in a certain sense, a proof for God’s existence.  

However, I would like to add a bit of a caution with regards to trying to prove God’s existence:  You can’t.  We can demonstrate that it is reasonable to believe.  Our greatest way of knowing the God exists is to live in a loving relationship with him.  I know God exists because I have experienced his love.  In fact, isn’t it a bit insulting to spend a great deal of time trying to prove that God exists?  I mean, what do you think my wife’s reaction would be if I spent a great deal of time and energy trying to prove to myself that she exists?  To paraphrase Pope Benedict (by paraphrasing I don’t have to look up the exact quote!), much of the problem with modern relationships is our constant search for “proof” of the other’s love.  By seeking that proof we end up destroying the relationship.  We can do that with God too.

Tomorrow we will begin to look at how God reveals himself.  This revelation is necessary since “man cannot possibly arrive at [some knowledge of God] by his own powers;”  CCC #50.  God reveals himself to us so that we may know and love him better.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Our God is Holy, Holy, Holy

BY DAVID O’BRIEN

God is holy. In fact, according to the bible, God is holy, holy, holy (Is 6, Rev 4). We repeat these scriptures every week at Sunday Mass when we pray the Sanctus.

To describe God as thrice holy is the biblical way of saying God is super holy, mega holy, muchisimo holy; that no one or no thing is as holy as God.

But precisely what is the holiness of God? Simply put, it is the description of the Lord’s otherness. God is not like anything else. Even humanity, made in the image and likeness of God, is far from being God.

The Lord himself says in Hosea 11:9-"For I am God and not a man, the Holy One present among you."

On a practical level, scripture invokes God’s holiness to distinguish the God of Israel from the false gods of other nations. Yahweh is not like the gods of Israel’s neighbors or the pagan idols of Egypt. God’s thoughts are different. God’s ways are different. God’s expectations of humanity are different.

In fact, God tells us: "You shall be holy; for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be my own." (Lv 20:26)

In other words, God’s people are meant to be holy, holy, holy-different, different, different--set apart, a city on a hill, a light to the nations. The people of God have been chosen to mirror God’s distinctive ways in the world through faithfulness to God’s unique plan.

Throughout the scriptures, the Lord teaches us what it means to be holy in every aspect of life.

We see this beginning with the covenant between God and Israel. After 400 years of suffering under the unjust systems of the Egyptians, God outlines in the covenant how Israel is to avoid repeating the sins of Egypt but rather structure their new nation in the Promised Land to reflect God’s design.

The covenant describes a society based on the holiness of God, a society where every person matters, political power is shared and economic resources are meant for all. In God’s society, the vulnerable have a right to special care, especially the widow, the orphan and the immigrant. (Ex 22:20-3; Dt 10:17-19; Zech 7:10)

The Fourth Commandment illustrates this radical call to be God’s holy (different) people. It states: "Keep holy the Sabbath day" (Ex 20:8-11; Dt 5:12-15). Most of us were taught that the Sabbath is a day for religious observance- Saturday for Jews, Sunday for Christians. But the Ten Commandments never mention that.

Instead, the Fourth commandment brings up the fact that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt (Dt 5). And how many days do slaves get off from work to rest? None! So God orders Israel to not be like Egypt, or the other nations that exploit people. They are to be holy, different, because God is holy. And God cares for all people, especially the weak and oppressed. Therefore, in Israel everyone gets a day off including the children, the resident aliens (immigrants), slaves and even the animals.

As disciples of Christ and children of the New Covenant, we are expected to reflect the attitudes and priorities of the Lord in our personal lives and our communal lives, in our political, economic and religious decisions. Our behavior and our choices should differ dramatically from the ways of the world.

To conform to society’s values, which are often subtle forms of idol worship, is to violate the holiness of God, in whose image we are created.

We do well, then, to consider the awesome and fearful duties that come with being sons and daughters of a holy God. If we dare stand before the Lord in all honesty, we might fall on our face and cry out with the prophet Isaiah: "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips". (Is 6:5)

About David O’Brien David O’Brien is the Associate Director of Religious Education for Lay Ministry for the Archdiocese of Mobile. His column, Everyday Faith, appears regularly in the archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Week. Email David at dobrien@mobilearchdiocese.org.

Abp. Dolan addresses "Jesus is all we need, not religion" nonsense

Archbishop Dolan writes in today's Catholic New York:

Jesus Christ and His Church are one.
Now, that’s a revealed truth that needs repeating today.
What we’ve got now, if the scholarly research is accurate—and I’m afraid it is—is a growing tendency to split Christ from His Church. More and more seem to be claiming such things as:
“Oh, I’ve got faith. I just don’t need the Church.”
“Faith is great; religion stinks.”
“I believe. I just don’t want to belong.”
“I got Jesus. Why bother with the Church?”
“I pray how and when I want. What’s the big deal about the Mass and Church on Sunday?”
St. Paul would take exception. So would Jesus.

When God chose Israel he selected not a person but a people. Faith in God is communal by its very nature.

Like our Jewish neighbors, we Catholics have always believed that God chooses us and gives us the supernatural gift of faith. It’s not that we decide our faith. You bet, we freely decide how firmly and generously we will live out our faith, but we are “born into” a Church. Faith is a gift from God given us on the day of our baptism into His Church.

Just like we’re “born into” a natural family. We are a member of a human family. That family is often flawed and imperfect. In fact, there are times when we’re angry at it and might even drift away from family events. But, family membership is in our blood. 

Read Archbishop Dolan's entire column

Catechism 101: Review divine revelation

BY PAT ARENSBERG

Thank you so much for reading so far.  I thought I would use today’s blog to review and summarize the Catholic view of divine revelation.
The most important principles with regard to divine revelation are these:

1. God takes the initiative, not us
2. He does so because he loves us and longs to be as close to us as possible
3. We can know something about God through natural reason, but the knowledge is very limited, fallible and certainly impersonal.
4. God wanted more for us, so he introduced himself
5. Using natural reason, St. Thomas Aquinas demonstrated that God must exist in five ways (from motion, from efficient cause, from possibility and necessity, from gradation and finally from governance)

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Three Wiseguys' Roadmap From Christmas To Easter

BY FATHER JAMES J.M. REYNOLDS, STB, STL


Well, dear Academicians, the Christmas Season has come to its completion. The next highlight of the Church's Liturgical Year will be Ash Wednesday (which will come earlier this year, on February 22, 2012).


The Three Magi's liturgical visit with the Infant Christ, the Holy Virgin Mother, and holy Saint Joseph has come to its completion.  They are departing us to go home.  So, we wave goodbye to the Balthasar, Caspar, and Melchior, watching them return to their liturgical homelands until next Epiphany.
But, what's this?  I find that they have left you and me a"see you next year" gift!  They are an exceptionally wise and generous triumvirate, those three Magi!


Their gift to us is a roadmap: a set of directions for journeying successfully toward Easter and through the rest of this Liturgical Year! 




About Father Reynolds

Reverend Father James J.M. Reynolds, STL, serves as the chaplain of the Men of St. Joseph chapter, Diocese of Rockville Centre. He writes his own blog at www.catholicjediacademy.com.

Catechism 101: Aquinas - proof from governance

BY PAT ARENSBERG


“You spread out the heavens like a tent; you raised your palace upon the waters.  You make the clouds your chariot; you travel on the wings of the wind….You fixed the earth on its foundation, …”  -Psalm 104:2-5

Congratulations!  You made it to Aquinas’ fifth and final proof or demonstration that there must be a God.  This one may be the most intuitive of them all.

Aquinas argues that the complexity of the universe would not be possible unless there were some intelligent designer.  (Please do not confuse this with the modern rejection of the possibility of biological evolution that is often referred to as “Intelligent design”)

Think of it this way.  If you were walking down along a remote beach and you found a watch, would you assume that it was the product of random forces of nature, or would you immediately know that some intelligent being made it?  The complexity of the watch and the fact that it acts toward a specific purpose or end argues for a watchmaker.
 
We, and the universe for that matter, are so much more complex that a watch!  Think about the complex things your body is doing right this very second.  Your digestive tract is working on breakfast, you are filtering waste from the blood, you are respirating and oxygenating all of your cells, not to mention what your eyes and brain are doing.  Wow!  You are pretty cool and complex.
This proof does not mean to imply that God has made the universe and now is just letting it run like the watchmaker does.  That is called “deism” and we reject that idea.  Imagine a watchmaker who so loved his creation that he was willing to become a part of that watch!  This is our God.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Media Stupidity at The March For Life

BadCatholic has a great post on the stupidity of the media in its non-coverage of the March for Life. You can read it here.

Catechism 101: Aquinas - proof from gradation

“From Zion God shines forth, perfect in beauty.”  -Psalm 50:2

Thanks for reading these brief blogs.  You know the plan is to expose you to virtually the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church over about a one year period.  Just 5 minutes a day of this reading will get you there!

We are looking at St. Thomas Aquinas’ demonstrations from natural reason that there must be a God.  We arrive today at his fourth demonstration from “Gradation.”  He notices that we speak of things as being more or less beautiful and more or less true and more or less good.  He then argues that for this to be the case there must be such a thing as goodness, beauty and truth.  He argues that the being who contains all of these qualities in their fullness we call God (or perhaps the being who is goodness, beauty and truth).  This warrants some reflection and should bring up a question too.

If you follow Aquinas you might be wondering if this proof unwittingly proves that there are two gods (one good, true and beautiful and one bad, false and ugly).  Remember that evil is not so much a thing as the absence of good.  Evil is actually less real than good;  just like darkness is not really a thing by itself since it is just the absence of light.  In fact when you get darkness and light together you don’t get anything but light.  Light dispels the darkness.  Evil is not evil per se, it is the absence of good.

So one of the things that blows my mind is that, strictly speaking, God does not love me.  God IS love with me.  Love is not something God does; it is something he is.  This means he can never stop loving.  It also means that anytime I love God is somehow present there.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Catechism 101: Aquinas - proof from possibility and necessity

BY PAT ARENSBERG

“But,” said Moses to God, “when I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”  God replied, “I am who am.”  Then he added, “…I AM sent me to you.”  Exodus 3:14

As we continue to look for ways, using natural reason alone, to arrive at the conclusion that God exists we not turn our attention to St. Thomas Aquinas’ third demonstration, “From possibility and necessity.”  This is likely the most difficult for me to explain in this brief format, so I would like to begin with the conclusion.  Aquinas arrives at the conclusion (again using natural reason) that there must be a being whose existence is not just possible, but in fact necessary.  That being is God.

You see we all have an existence that is possible but not necessary (so does everything in the universe).  We know it is possible for us to exist because we do, and we know that it is not necessary for us to exist because there was a time when we did not.  Everything in the universe is in the same existential boat, namely having an existence that is possible but not necessary.  Aquinas argues that there must be something that has a necessary existence otherwise the universe would not be here.  He says that everything would have fallen into the state of non-existence at the same time and that state would have continued forever.

This is probably my least favorite demonstration in terms of its power to convince, but it is my favorite in terms of insights into God.  He revealed himself as “I am Who am.”  In essence he told Moses 2,700 years before Aquinas, “I am existence; I am the one who must exist.”  I think that is kind of cool.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Catechism 101: Aquinas - proof from efficient cause - what's that mean?

BY PAT ARENSBERG


“Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him.  These are also called proofs for the existence of God…”  CCC #31

We are looking at St. Thomas Aquinas’ proofs (or demonstrations might be a better label) for the existence of God.  Friday, we saw his first proof from motion.  The demonstration that we will look at today shares some of the same logic but is based on what “efficient cause.”

Aquinas notes that things exist (profound, right?).  He further notices that everything that does exist is caused by something else (he actually notices that most things have many “secondary causes” for their existence, but one cause is the central or “efficient cause”).  He then observes that as he looks back for the ultimate cause of existence he cannot go back forever (can’t regress infinitely).  Eventually, we must posit a being who caused itself to be (an uncaused cause).  This being we call God.

Looks a lot like yesterday’s and I think both can be boiled down into modern language something like this.  “Well, ok so where did all that stuff that banged in the big bang come from?”  The point is that scientific explanation is great and valuable but will always have a hole at “the beginning.”  Science studies matter, and it cannot, but definition, define how matter was created out of nothing by a spiritual being.  Eventually science hits a wall.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Matthew Kelly: "You Are Not Too Old"

Catechism 101: Aquinas and the first demonstration

BY PAT ARENSBERG

1-20-12
“I answer that the existence of God can be [demonstrated] in five ways.”  -St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica First Part, Question 2 Article #3

God respects our freedom and never compels us to belief in him.  Nonetheless, there are powerful demonstrations of his existence.  St. Thomas Aquinas, the preeminent 12 century theologian and Doctor of the Church, articulated five proofs, or demonstrations for the existence of God.  I will describe each of these over the next few days.  They are not proofs in the sense that they will compel belief; that would violate our freedom and make love impossible.

His first proof is “From Motion.”  Aquinas argues that everything in the universe is in motion (or has moved from potentially existing to actually existing).  He further notes that nothing moves (from potency to actuality or moves physically) without being moved by something else that is already in motion or actualized.  As we trace back searching for the ultimate cause of motion we realize that we can’t go backwards forever (we cannot regress infinitely).  Eventually we must posit a being (we must admit that there is a being) who moved and became actual without being moved on by anything else (an unmoved mover).  This being is what or who we call God.
Remember, that Aquinas believes in a personal God who is our Father and became Incarnate, but at this point he is simply trying to prove that there is a God.  He is not, in this section, trying to explain who God is beyond that.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

Allen Hunt: Wear at tie. Try it.

BY ALLEN HUNT

My most memorable moment of 2011 may well have come on the day I spent in a metro Atlanta traffic court - with my daughter (but that's another story). When I say a day, I mean the whole day. Hundreds of people. Courtrooms were too small to hold the offenders so people were lined up around the outside of the building for hours in the hot sun just to get in - to face justice. I try to make it a habit not to visit traffic court very often, and now I remember why!

Two important lessons emerged for me in this experience:

1) Wearing a coat and tie makes a difference. In the crowd, I counted three men (myself included thanks to my dad's lessons installed early in my life) wearing a coat and tie. It never ceases to amaze me how differently you are treated when you are dressed nicely. Multiple people asked me throughout the day if I was an attorney (answer = NO!). But the sheriff's deputies looked far more kindly on those of us in suits than on those who needed to be asked to take their ball caps off. Same trick works at the bank and at the airport too. Wear a tie. Try it.

2) Patience and humility do not come easily. These two virtues are not my strengths. But a few hours in line, in the sun, and in a courtroom can be your friend. Our judicial system is a great leveler - traffic court reminds you that we are all created equal (and miserable) in the eyes of lady justice and her authorities. I do not particularly like to be taught patience and humility. But I have to admit, they are good for the soul.

About Allen Hunt Allen Hunt is a former Senior Pastor of an evangelical mega-church. He became Catholic in 2008 and now partners with Matthew Kelly to serve as the Vice-President for Strategy and Content at the Dynamic Catholic Institute. Allen is a speaker, writer, and radio host on News Talk WSB in Atlanta. He is the author of Confessions of a Mega-Church Pastor: How I Discovered the Hidden Treasures of the Catholic Church.

Catechism 101: Revelation respects human freedom

BY PAT ARENSBERG

“Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit.  But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act.”  -CCC 154

God gently reveals himself to humanity and we are invited to respond.  People who choose to believe that there is no God will often argue, more or less, “If there is a God why does he not make himself more manifest?  Why doesn’t he show himself more?”  To this I would answer, “Well, what exactly do you want?  Do you want him to become a man and walk the earth?  Do you want him to speak to some people directly?  What exactly do you want?”  It seems to me that God has made himself very manifest, and yet we are not content.  If he “came on stronger” there would still be people who would reject him and reject the very idea that he exists.  The only way for God to remove all of the objections to his existence is to make himself so manifest that we would have no choice but to accept him.  God respects us too much to do that to us.  

If we are not free to reject him, then we are also not free to accept him.  In other words, we would not be able to love him.  We would be slaves, but not sons and daughters.  Our God wants more for us.  He longs to be our Father and invites us into a filial relationship.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.

O'Brien: Is this what we’re supposed to be doing?

BY DAVID O'BRIEN

Ok, so I go to work, come home, go to work, come home. Drive the kids to practice for the Christmas play. Kiss my wife as she rushes out to the next thing. Catch her words as she flies down the driveway. Evidently, there is a list for me on the kitchen counter.

The dishes are still in the sink from this morning. Before we know it, the time has come to pick up the kids. A late dinner, a little homework, carry the baby while my wife punches out a priority email and then we are into the bedtime routine.

Even after the kids are down, three hours of work lie before us. We hope to be in bed by midnight.

The thing that bothers me is that I know it all starts again tomorrow. In fact, the weeks, months and years are blurring together these days, obscured by the onslaught of daily tasks that never get conquered but instead seem to breed somewhere in the back room of our house.

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were on our honeymoon, the world lie before us and we were dreaming about all the great things we could accomplish together? Now, married with four children, a mortgage, leaky faucets, a house begging for a paint job, stacks of administrative work piled up on my desk, I wonder: "Is this what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives?"

Already, we see the window closing as we reach our forties. Where did our youth go? The years are flying by so fast. Did we miss something along the way?

My sisters are farther down the road than us. They have children in high school and college. When we talk, they are asking the same questions. We commiserate in our shared search for answers and meaning in the midst of the daily doings of family life.

This morning I awoke at 3:00 a.m. My daughter’s baptism is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. The list of to-do’s is racing through my mind, disturbing my sleep. I try to calm my thoughts, breathing deeply, fi xing my focus on the Lord, offering my little girl into His loving arms. I feel the tightness in my hands recede and I slide into a half conscious state, somewhere between distraction, peaceful slumber and meditation.

My mind recounts the story my wife told me earlier in the week. She is holding our baby girl who is playing Jesus in a live Nativity scene in front of our church. A man approaches my wife. Not a parishioner, he appears shy, awkwardly slow and a little bit off. She is cautious at first but notices the innocence in his eyes. He asks her in all sincerity: "Can I see the baby Jesus?" She watches in awe as his face beams with profound joy, staring at the holy child, our daughter.

At the baptism, I look around at the room full of friends, parents, grandparents, godparents, children, children, children and a baby dressed in a white gown. The dress is made of fabric given to us by a women we know who lives on a garbage dump outside of Mexico City. She presented us with the material as a gift for sponsoring her daughter, who died of multiple sclerosis. Somehow, I imagine her questions about the meaning of life are different than mine. For her, all of life is a gift and she is grateful, even on a garbage dump, even though her daughter died. I pray that her spirit characterizes our family in the years ahead.

On the baptismal font sits the bowl that carried the Eucharistic bread at our wedding. A friend made it for us as a wedding gift. It has been the basin for the baptisms of each of our children.

The priest prays over us that we would be good parents to our daughter and help her know the Lord’s love for her. Surrounded by God’s grace, we feel more like lottery winners at that moment than the overwrought couple we thought we were a week ago.

At the little reception in the parish hall, my wife’s mother and brother sing "O Holy Night" followed by a trio of spiritual songs performed by my older kids, songs they learned at all those play rehearsals I drove them to night after night. They sit on a table and belt out in full voice: "I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold." My sisters wipe the tears from their eyes and smile at me.

I’m not sure what I thought we were supposed to be doing with our lives but when I pay attention to what we are doing, I’m tempted to say these ordinary, mundane, every day, monotonous demanding elements of family life might just be holy.

I doubt the history books and the New York Times will seek to immortalize 99.9% of our lives. But God is paying attention and I’m starting to think God is doing something extraordinary, even if we are too distracted, busy and preoccupied to notice most of the time.

About David O’Brien David O’Brien is the Associate Director of Religious Education for Lay Ministry for the Archdiocese of Mobile. His column, Everyday Faith, appears regularly in the archdiocesan newspaper, the Catholic Week. Email David at dobrien@mobilearchdiocese.org.

Martignoni: The Catholic Church killed millions? Is that true?

BY JOHN MARTIGNONI

Question:
My brother, who left the Church several years ago, has recently started accusing the Catholic Church of genocide because of what the Church did during the Inquisition.  He said the Church killed millions of people during the Inquisition.  Is that true?

Answer:
I have had people say to me that the Catholic Church killed as many as 63 million people during the Inquisition.  The problem is, the entire population of Europe at any given time during the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Inquisition was the most active, is estimated to have been around 30-35 million people.  So, did the Inquisition kill the entire population of Europe twice over?  I don’t think so.   

There are many myths about the Inquisition, particularly the Spanish Inquisition, that got started with some very good Protestant propaganda written in the late 16th century when things between Catholics and Protestants were not very pleasant, to say the least, and relations between Protestant England and Catholic Spain were rather hostile.  Unfortunately, those myths have been perpetuated for hundreds of years down to our day and age, so that the average person, including many Catholics, swallow them hook, line, and sinker.  

Now, I don’t want to whitewash what occurred during the Inquisition, since in any such endeavor that involves human beings there will be mistakes made, sins committed, and evils perpetrated, but I do want to set some of the facts straight so that the Inquisition can be properly judged within its historical context.

Not too long ago, I believe it was in the 90’s, the Vatican released literally thousands of records pertaining to Inquisition cases that had never before been studied by scholars.  Those historical documents have changed the view of many in regards to the Inquisition.  For example, when most people think of the Inquisition, they think of torture and executions.  The Vatican records, however, which are the actual records of the court cases that were made at the time, show that torture was very seldom used.  Compared with the frequency of torture in the civil courts of those centuries, the Inquisition courts were a few hundred years ahead of their time.  

Over the approximately 450 year history of the Inquisition, in several different countries, it is now estimated that somewhere around 5000 people who went through Inquisition courts wound up being executed by the civil authorities.  A much lower number than most people have in their minds when they think of the Inquisition, and certainly not 63 million.  One might say, “Fine, but 5000 people killed for heresy is 5000 too many.”  Indeed, but you need to take into account the times they were in.  Heresy was not just a religious crime, it was usually a crime against the state as well, and that was true throughout Europe – Catholic and Protestant Europe.  Just think of all the Catholic martyrs there were in England, for example.  Heresy and treason were pretty much considered one and the same crime.  

Also, the Inquisition courts were superior to the civil courts of the time in terms of the burden of proof that was required to convict and in terms of the legal representation that was given to the accused.  The prisons of the Inquisition were also far more humane than the prisons of the secular authorities.  Scholars have found instances of prisoners in secular criminal courts blaspheming in order to get into the Inquisition prison.  

Again, all of this is not to say that there were no wrongs done during the Inquisition, but rather to make sure the history of the Inquisition is accurate and is considered in its proper context.  Were people put to death for heresy in the Inquisition courts?  Yes.  But, in England at the time, you could be put to death for things such as damaging the shrubbery in a common garden.  In France you could be disemboweled for sheep stealing.  And, in all of those countries, and even in our country today, you could be put to death for treason which, as I’ve already mentioned, was what heresy was often viewed as.  

Also, it needs to be mentioned, that the Inquisition courts, in the Catholic countries where they operated, quite often prevented a number of “witches” from being burned at the stake.  There was no such restraint in the Protestant countries of the time.  

Finally, one needs to consider that over a period of 450 years, in medieval Europe, approximately 5000 people who were tried in Inquisition courts received the death penalty.  Over a period of 38 years, since the Roe v. Wade court case, in the modern day United States of America, approximately 50 million people, who were never given a trial, have received the death penalty.  Who should be judging whom?

About John Martignoni John Martignoni is the Director of Evangelization for the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama and also the President of the Bible Christian Society. John's column, Apologetics 101, appears regularly in the diocesan newspaper, the One Voice.  If you have a question about the Catholic Faith, please send an email to: jmartignoni@bhmdiocese.org.  And check out John's free audio and written apologetics materials at: www.biblechristiansociety.com.