By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Acts of terrorism and horrors brought with immediacy into our lives through the Internet and social networks make us seem surrounded as never before with life-threatening dangers. A smart phone in the Istanbul airport videos a terrorist blowing himself up — and minutes later the action is viewed around the world.
The overwhelming horror of the destruction of human life, an abomination in the sight of God, through excessive and constant overexposure can become as banal and sanitized as a recreational movie.
And living every day with scenes of violence and terrorism at the click of a button encourages a feeling of being unprotected and of free-floating uncertainty in daily life.
After the Istanbul airport incident I posted a survey on Twitter asking, “If you had a flight through Istanbul today would you get on it?” Out of more than 50 votes cast, roughly half of respondents replied “no.” The international cost of terror affects us right where we live, emotionally and economically.
This brings us to consider another potential horror for the human person: indifference in the face of sensory evil overload. If we become indifferent to evil of any kind we lose a grace, compromising us as if we had participated in evil ourselves. Our indifference can condemn us as lacking in the saving love of Christ and without His love we cannot be saved. We must protect our empathetic love of others through reverence and cherishing of every human life in thought, action, and word, one aspect of which is constant vigilance in the fight to stop legal abortions.
This latest moral outrage came soon after the Holy Father spoke somewhat spontaneously sharing his personal opinion that most marriages are null and that fornication can be a graced relationship. The Lord made clear in His teaching that His purpose in dying and rising is to enable us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He preached that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, those who observed the law most scrupulously in His day.
In light of this divine reassertion of the obligatory nature of divine law we answer with the Church that we presume in favor of every Catholic sacramental marriage. We must speak out against any fear-mongering or encouraging of moral indifference that may result on the part of married couples who may be tempted to think that their marriage vows are not morally binding.
On the occasion of his 65th anniversary of priestly Ordination in June, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI thanked Pope Francis with the statement that he “feels protected” by Pope Francis’ “goodness.” Pope Benedict always struck me as the most theologically precise guy in the room and therefore more likely to be the first to point out that it is only Christ Jesus who “protects” us. There is nothing greater than sin which can cast both body and soul into Gehenna, as Christ taught. For that reason there is nothing more protective than His grace which alone can save us from this most dire of fates.
Along with others I asked “From whom?” in response to Benedict’s obvious theological imprecision.
In reaction, one blogger launched into a conspiracy theory involving conjecture that Pope Benedict must be under some duress, resulting from the possibility that he did not willingly resign and is therefore still the real Pope.
I believe the truth must be somewhere in the middle. Pope Benedict, as must anybody, is expected to keep things positive in such a high-profile public forum. When you are asked to speak, you must have something to say. All of us desire to be good and to speak in goodness if we know and love Christ.
Everybody has some goodness, no matter how many misguided actions may sometimes result from one’s well-meaning intentions. Perhaps Benedict is asking us to recognize and affirm the human goodness of Pope Francis as a way forward in a time of great confusion and uncertainty.
Pope Benedict is as capable as anyone else of recognizing that no matter who is Pope and no matter how you may question or feel rankled by his personal style, we remain in the vessel of the Church together and must support one another as best we can in mutual love and prayer.
The proximity of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul which marked the passing of June reminds us of terror of another sort: that which the first Christians faced. This sort of threat was not viewed at a safe distance through the Internet on a smartphone, but encountered up close and personally with ultimate consequences. The apostles and first Popes did not have a vague sense of a potential threat, in fear of an indiscriminate bomb intended for nameless symbolic victims in a war against the West, but each faced a targeted and personal persecution.
And they stood fast in the face of ultimate terror. They gave their lives for the reason of the hatred of the faith and of Christ. Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded in what for them must have been a most fearful combat — the equal of any threat we might face today and under a mighty foe who wielded ultimate and unquestioned command over the whole of society.
There was no recourse for them, no appeal, and no possible hope of escape. Yet they won the crown of ultimate victory.
This is the good that we must seek no matter what the circumstances of our lives or the violent condition of the world. Whether it’s the Godlessness so prevalent today in Western rejection of God through euthanasia, “gender reassignment,” and same-sex marital simulation, or in the Middle East through Islamic jihad, both call for the same response.
We must seek the saving goodness of Jesus Christ which alone can save us through total personal and loving adherence to Him above every other thing. Faith and reason are the raw materials for grace.
We can always pray for the grace of dying peacefully in our own beds. If, however, divine will ordains something less prosaic, will faithfulness to Jesus be your first response?
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
+ + +
Join me on pilgrimage in Italy, September 1-9, 2016, to Rome for the canonization of Mother Teresa — Assisi, Florence, and Venice. Visit proximotravel.com on the web and type “Maryland” in Search and then click on “Father Kevin M. C.” to find and sign up for our group. Or email me at mcitl.blogspot.com for further info.
@MCITLFrAphorism
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress