Lent and Self Sacrifice

Lent begins the our walk with Christ towards the Crucifixion and resurrection. The season should be a time spent reflecting on what separates us from Christ. The common practice of 'giving something up' for Lent hints at this, as the things we love often take our minds away from the Lord. Yet many think Lent is a trial when it should actually help focus us on the Cross. Despite the blood shed on the Cross our focus often gets lost on the road to Easter. Why?

It should be obvious that Easter is about sacrifice. Our Lord reminds us of this when he tells the Apostles “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends “ (John 15:13), yet we often overlook this despite Catholic theology revolving around self sacrifice. Sacrifice is the foundation of marriage, lies at the root of subsidiarity and solidarity, and underscores our relationship with God. We are to die to ourselves in all things. What does this mean in Lent?

The First Commandment is to love God above all things. We are not to worship false gods. Seems simple right? Most people don't have an idol to Ganesh in their homes, nor do they carve images to worship as God as described in the Old Testament. Idolatry goes far beyond that. If you don't pray in lieu of doing something else then a good case can be made that you love that thing more than God. Did you skip Mass to watch the Super Bowl? If you did then you love football more than God. See how this works?

Sacrifice in our relationship with God means examining ourselves to see what it is that we do that separates us from God. This can include finally addressing sinful addictions like pornography, compulsive gambling, alcoholism, drug use or any number of issues. It can also mean looking at the technically non-sinful things we like and examining our relationship with those things. If our love for them is a barrier to our relationship with God then sacrifice is called for.

It's a nice thought, isn't it? On a certain level we understand that, given how many people give up Facebook, chocolate, coffee, or whatever small luxuries during Lent. I myself gave time: more time in prayer before a tabernacle or Eucharist. Yet the sense that I have is that we can all do something more fundamental. We can all live in the spirit of Lent.

Mother Teresa understood best that Lent is about love: "Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting." The Christian life is supposed to be about living as another Christ in the world. The spirit of Lent is to focus our lives in that image as we march towards Good Friday and Easter.

Love is the great command of the Lord. Love, or the lack thereof, defines our relationships with each other, with God, and with those whom Christ commanded us to minister to. Yet our love is so frequently disordered by an inward focus that it is impossible to fully love like Christ without reordering our lives and love through a total surrender to Christ. Living in the spirit of Lent requires a total surrender. My own Lenten sacrifice feels inadequate to the challenge. Does yours?

Standing in the Face of Evil

By now you've no doubt heard about the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Few figures in American politics today have earned as much revile as the late Justice, especially on the social issues that he openly and proudly used his faith convictions and strict Constitutionalism as his guide. Scalia was the kind of judge that didn't care what partisans thought of his decisions. He made enemies in both political parties frequently and didn't seem bothered by angry words hurled his way. Frequently I disagreed with his decisions, especially his support of Citizens United. But he was a man of principles, even if those principles didn't always agree with the fashions and political trends of the day.

When Osama Bin Laden died the political Left didn't celebrate other than the implications for President Obama's re-election. Some conservatives did but the sense was that a dark chapter in American history had come to an end. The response seemed measured.

I found out about Antonin Scalia's passing through my Facebook feed. Friends of mine were cheering for his death, including friends that I had until then held in high regard. The behavior can only be described a ghoulish, especially among many supposed Christians. The response to his death was the starkest reminder of why I thank Christ I became Catholic and left the religion of progressivism behind. It is an immoral system that enables the celebration of the death of those whom we disagree with because it is an absolutist political ideology that places the needs of the collective above everything else.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Progressives cheered when businesses were shuttered when those businesses stood on Christian principles and refused to participate in same sex 'marriages' even though Muslim businesses refused to do the same and were NEVER held accountable. Progressives have a particular hatred of Christianity above other religions, which says volumes about the source of its ideology. I am more convinced now than ever before that no Christian can be a progressive. To do so is to hold two contradictory positions.

The political implications cannot be ignored. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already implied that no nominee of President Obama's is going to move forward. I wonder about the case of the Little Sisters of the Poor, who have also implied that they will be forced to cease providing hospice care if they are forced to provide contraceptives against the religious convictions. These are the things progressives cheer: tyranny in support of the collective.

The darkness of my past political convictions are clear to me now. I'd like to think that I wouldn't have cheered for the death of Scalia but frankly I can't be sure. Now I am disgusted with many of my supposed friends and associates, with whom I doubt I can even look at without turning away. The passing of a human life should lead to a moment of silence. The standard used to be that even the political opponents of a public figure who died would sing their praises. Obviously those days are behind us now.

God help America.

Ash Wednesday, Lent, and the Rosary

As we begin this Lenten journey into the desert it is worth noting that today, Ash Wednesday, also is the Glorious Mysteries on the holy Rosary. Our Lenten journey begins on the day we pray for what we journey through the a desert of fasting for: the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. There is nothing more appropriate than to start Lent praying the Rosary as it reminds us what we journey towards, namely the Resurrection. This is pretty elementary for a lot of Catholics but it bears exploring.

The first mystery is the Resurrection. After three days of mourning Christ unexpectedly returns from the dead. Our journey through Lent is of course a reflection on the Passion but it is also a journey towards our own rebirth in Christ by sacrificing what separates us from Him or by sacrificing inconsequential things that we love so that we may unite our loss and discomfort to His suffering. Our journey through Lent is first and foremost about loving Christ more and renewing our love for Him.

The second mystery is the Ascension. How do we ascend into heaven? Prayer and fasting. Through praying more and fasting we unite our minds, hearts, and souls with God. Our prayers should always be in thanksgiving, especially in Lent. Our journey towards Easter should be a time of reflection and thanks for the things that God has given us, including the crosses God saw fit for us to carry.

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is the birth of the Church. Lest we forget, not long after Easter we celebrate the beginning of the revolution that Christ launched through Peter, Paul, and the Apostles. Our Lenten journey has a purpose beyond our own sanctification. We are to be salt and light in the world, bringing the light of Christ to others. Lent should be motivating us to evangelize those we love and to bring Christ to the darkest corners of society. In short, Lent should be about building up our courage to bring a world spiraling into madness the only antidote that can save it: the Gospel.

The fourth and fifth mysteries are for Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary. She can lead us to Christ if we let her. She and the saints constantly pray for our salvation and for the spread of the Gospel. Yet many Catholics feel uncomfortable praying the Rosary, probably because much of the west has been influenced by heretical Protestant ideas. If you aren't in the habit of praying the Rosary daily, try it daily during Lent. I guarantee that you will be enriched spiritually by the experience.

Finally, Lent should be a time of joy. Our Lord returns in 43 days! Easter is the biggest festival in the Church, and for good reason! We celebrate the triumph of life over death! In today's Gospel Jesus tells us not to let our sufferings from fasting show on our faces. Fasting can unite us to Christ, which itself is an occasion for joy. Let joy rule this season so that when Easter arrives we can enter into a season of Eucharistic ecstasy.  

NARAL Goes Crazy

Onviously his wife is reading him some of NARAL's tweets.

If you watched the Super Bowl you might have noticed a funny commercial for Doritos featuring a baby in the womb. The commercial was the typical cute and funny ad the chip company runs during the game every year, with one twist that has left many people either smiling or inhumanly angry: it featured an unborn baby being depicted as a baby and not as a clump of cells. Brace yourselves for the pro-abortion whining.

NARAL Pro-Choice America tweeted rage against Doritos depicting an unborn baby as being alive. In fact, the reaction of the pro-abortion special interest group was to go full Social Justice Warrior and point out every thought-control-denying microaggression that 'triggered' their feelings. Abortion activists took to Twitter to express their outrage that unborn babies dared be depicted as actual babies.

The hashtag #notbuyingit was employed by NARAL to kick off their bizarre Tweet-fest, which included gems like “#NotBuyingIt - that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless & moms as uptight. #SB50.” Note the use of a telling euphemism: 'humanizing fetuses,' which seems like a redundancy to anyone who hasn't fully embraced the doublethink required to support abortion to the extent NARAL advocates do.

Keep in mind that these are the same people who fight against laws requiring mothers to be shown ultrasounds of their babies before having an abortion. Calling them 'forced ultrasounds,' NARAL rejects showing women pictures of their baby because they know fully well that once people realize that a fetus is in fact a human baby they will side with life the vast majority of the time. NARAL cites the liberty, saying that in America we shouldn't make anyone go through a forced medical procedure against their will, while at the same time advocating that others be forced to pay for medical procedures against theirs.

The real reason NARAL went full SJW on this and other ads is because NARAL and their advocates know fully well that if people see that an unborn baby is in fact human they will turn against abortion. Ironically, when fighting against 'forced ultrasounds' NARAL believes a woman should only have the information she wants when having an abortion, which is fascinating given that abortions are medicallydangerous procedures . Doctors are required to tell patients of the risks of other procedures but not abortion. It's almost as if the abortion industry doesn't care about the health of women.

The real agenda of these groups became clear when NARAL Tweeted that fans watching the game should use birth control. Is voluntary parenting something NARAL is against? Or are they so elitist that they think football fans shouldn't breed? It's probably that every pregnancy is seen as a potential service sale, and every pregnant woman seen as a likely client. It's ghoulish but should we expect less of a group that lobbies for legalizing late term abortions?