Dr. Scott Hahn | It Is Right and Just | Why the Future of Civilization Depends on True Religion

good evening good evening my name is dr hildebrandt it's a pleasure for me to introduce dr han um let's begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son of the holy spirit amen father we thank you for your many gifts to us we thank you above all right now for the gift of lent we ask your grace that we may make the best of this lent in preparing for the high holy mysteries that we will soon celebrate we thank you of course for the gift of saint joseph for his example for his fidelity for his fatherly care we thank you for dr han for the great ministry that you have performed through him we thank you for franciscan university for all of our students faculty and staff thank you for their fidelity we ask you to bless it to multiply it to send your spirit into our hearts and conform us to the image of your divine son all this we ask to the intercession of our blessed mother hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen in the name of the father and the son of the holy spirit amen it's easy to introduce someone who doesn't need an introduction i want to tell you maybe something you don't know you you could if you want to sit down with dr hans cv or his bio take you a little while to get through it dozens of books countless articles the work goes on and on and on so you can do that on your own time and you'll get a taste you'll get a taste tonight of of his command of the scriptures of the theological tradition of his uh ability to to speak powerfully and persuasively so you'll get all that i just want to tell you um something you may not know although you may dr han is is a wonderful colleague and um one of the most generous people i know i've been this is my 20th year at franciscan he's been here well before i have 31 years wow actually the first house i stayed in when i came to move here was dr han's house if you didn't know it by the number of people who come in and out of there you'd confuse it for a hotel or something just fantastically hospitable family very generous i didn't want that to be overlooked it's not a small thing it would be easy i think for him not to be generous but i'm grateful that he is and grateful that he's here with us and here for you would you join me in welcoming dr han [Applause] thank you dr hildebrand and thank you all for coming out what a lovely day the warmth the sunshine and the celebration of saint patrick this evening i want to present some material based upon my most recent book entitled it is right and just why the future of civilization depends on true religion as you have seen on the flyers throughout the campus but i also wanted to leave some time in the end for uh some questions and answers some discussion so uh with that in mind i'd like to begin by drawing from sacred scripture the great commission in particular if you have a bible turn with me to matthew 28 i see some of you reaching that's wonderful the parting words of our lord to the disciples as he prepared to ascend into heaven and to be enthroned in his sacred and glorified humanity at the right hand of the father are these jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you for lo i am with you always to the close of the age i'd like to allow this to serve as our point of departure because well it was his point of departure his departing words and i want to just reflect upon this briefly and allow it to serve as our foundation our lord is ready to ascend into heaven as the climax of the paschal mystery the memorial of his passion death resurrection and ascension into heaven and what does he say all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me just notice three things first of all he doesn't say all authority in heaven has been given to me that's true but what's more significant for our purposes this evening is that he says all authority in heaven and on earth and so there is no place not a single square inch of this planet that our lord doesn't point to and say that's mine there isn't a single person that jesus doesn't point to and say i've purchased you with my life blood but notice also that he doesn't say all authority in heaven and earth will be given to me at the end of time when i come back and the gloves come off and it's no more mr nice guy no he ascends into heaven to be the lord of lords the king of kings regardless of who won the last election or who will win the next one and so as americans who happen to be committed catholics we have a clear sense of what saint paul might describe as our own dual citizenship right he writes to the philippians in chapter 3 verse 20 and he says our citizenship is in heaven and the term that he uses in the greek polytuma is the technical term for citizenship particular commonwealth but he's not denying that the philippians also have a social role in philippi because of course they do and so just as some people i've known over the years are israeli citizens and american citizens so we have a citizenship that is in heaven and on earth and jesus authority encompasses all because it is a universal kingship but then it goes on we could ask so what what difference does it make that all authority in heaven earth has been given to you well therefore he says go and make disciples of all nations and once again a brief reflection upon what he says and what he doesn't say because he doesn't say go therefore and find individuals in every nation and turn them into disciples because that's certainly implied in what he says but what he does say is go therefore and make disciples of all nations and on the one hand the term for disciple is a strong one mates and these 11 know what that means because that's what they've been that's who they are not only for the last three years but for the rest of their lives it comes from monthano it's this word that means discipline study and you're not just having a professor with a midterm and a final you have a rabbi who is really quite a master in your own life forming you in almost a spiritual sense of fatherhood that's how the rabbis understood it so make disciples of what of all nations now when we hear that word nation we tend to think of the the gargantuan secular nation state like the u.s or other large countries the term in the greek there is ethne we recognize that because where it's that's where we get ethnicity so it is go therefore make disciples of all nations but particularly the communities because human beings are not just rational animals as individuals we're social and political animals were not just persons were also made in relation were interpersonal and rather striking it seems that he would then command these 11 on the basis of his universal authority in heaven and on earth to make disciples of all nations that's a rather tall order that's a a seemingly unreasonable ambition and yet before we give into despair or pessimism we ought to recognize that these words are coming from a man who had been tortured to death crucified buried and forgotten for a short time so he knows what it means to make a comeback he knows what it means for god to manifest strength and weakness for life to come where death seems so evident so make disciples of all nations is not saying to the disciples come on be optimistic i'm not personally an optimist my my bride of 41 years she is very optimistic but the virtue of hope is not the same as optimism so we don't look around and hope that our party wins the next election cycle i mean we might hope that for sure but ultimately our hope is not just a kind of political thing because as american catholics with dual citizenship obviously we do think and work and pray in terms of election cycles but as catholics we have to get with the rhythm of mother church and think in terms of generations centuries i mean it's important to to plant this false crop so that we've gotten something to eat through the cold winter but it's also important to remember to plant forests so that trees we might never see might be there growing bearing fruit in 40 50 60 years when my children are grown when my grandchildren are grown so that they can have wood for building their homes for their furniture for the fireplace and all of the rest so it's quite a balancing act but ultimately what we recognize is that the virtue of hope is not a sociological phenomenon it's theological it's not to be confused with personality temperaments whether you're optimist pessimist idealist realist or whatever and so what jesus is calling for them to do is not just spread the faith but also to spread the hope the hope that jesus christ kingship extends to every square inch of this planet and to every single person on the planet make disciples of all nations on a natural level we probably know from philosophy that hope refers to a quest for a difficult future good the latin expression is bonum arjun futuram that is difficult because it's still arduous but it's a good but that it's still uncertain but we're talking about the object of christian hope which is not natural but supernatural it's not only difficult but humanly speaking it's impossible and so if all authority in heaven and earth has not been given to jesus yet then it's a fool's errand for us to go and try to make disciples of all nations on the other hand if he is the lord of lords and the king of kings back from the dead in order to communicate his life to all people then it's very reasonable for us to have this supernatural hope and that's why it's significant that the next phrase out of his mouth is baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit of course this is the first express statement of what we would call the doctrine of the trinity it's only being planted here by our lord as a seed in the souls of these apostles notice what comes first baptizing so what is the sacrament of baptism well we could discuss that for the rest of the evening but let us let it suffice to say this that sacraments are not primarily things that we do for god but things that god does for us to give us all that we need to make up for all that we lack and to enable us to become what we could never be on our own we can be good citizens in the land that we're raised in but we can't be citizens of heaven apart from holiness because apart from holiness we will not see god but the sacraments are what make sanctity possible not easy not automatic but possible and so the very fact that we are baptized in the name of the father indicates that god almighty god the father almighty is fathering us as his family but also baptized in the name of the son and so it is the family of the father but it's also the kingdom of the son whom the father hasn't thrown at his right hand or will do so in a matter of moments after this but it's also in the name of the holy spirit and so this power that is divine and not merely human is given to all of us it's poured out upon all flesh for us to hope for what would otherwise be humanly impossible i mean even apart from actuarial studies and statistics what are the chances that jesus is going to succeed in his mission when instead of going to rome and choosing the 12 most popular articulate savvy senators he goes to the backwaters of palestine up in galilee and chooses tax collectors and fishermen i mean the odds were already stacked against him but he almost heaps impossibility on those poor odds but it's all about the power of the father the son and the holy spirit and then he adds this teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you not just teaching them to observe that part of the natural moral law that they already happen to agree with but teaching them to observe whatsoever i have commanded you that just seems to be obviously unrealistic humanly speaking it's not merely unrealistic it's impossible and yet what we see in history is not only how this pagan empire of rome becomes what historians sometimes reluctantly described as christendom hardly a utopia but a sort of civilization of love if he could do it back then against all odds there's no reason to suppose that he can't do it again but it wasn't just in rome the armenians even before constantine received baptism became the first christian people the first christian ethnic in ethiopia soon followed and others too that we don't read about all that much in world history and so it frankly isn't impossible from god's perspective and so i think what we have to do is to take a step back and look at what our lord commanded us and realize this that this is non-negotiable the great commission represents their marching orders and ours also and so at one level we can honestly say to our lord are you serious there's not a chance in the world and yet at the deeper level of prayer and contemplation and realizing that the almighty god has revealed this omnipotent love in action embodied in jesus that's basically a paraphrase of how saint thomas aquinas described mercy the mercy of the gospel is not just divine pity poured out upon all of these weaklings what is god's mercy it is omnipotent love in action then and there here and now this is why i'm i think it's necessary for us as catholics living in america in this age of a pandemic in the aftermath of what looks to be a political misfortune and i'm not talking about one candidate versus another but just the social upheaval that followed all of the covet 19 pandemic and so what we have to do at this point in history is to recognize that this is not about us creating a theocracy in america it isn't about creating a theocracy anywhere because we're not out to create a theocracy god the father has already done that so this isn't really up to our political action committees it isn't up to our diocesan committees jesus says in john 18 verse 36 and following my kingship is not of this world if my kingship were of this world my servants would fight that i not be handed over but notice he doesn't say my kingdom is not in this world it's precisely because the origin of jesus kingdom is not roman imperial or coercive it's because it is divine and heavenly that it is extended to earth pilate's response so you are a king i've unmasked you you say that i am and for this i was born for this i have come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears my voice and pilates response famously is a question what is truth but it's not really a question it's a statement a cynical one by a typical politician typical back then in the roman empire but also today so it's the voice of compromise it's the voice of corruption collusion whatever you want to say popular vote imperial power this is the only real source of a kingdom it's the only basis on which you can call yourself a king unless it's not and so what we have on our side is not only christ but what we have on our side is objective reality and so the kingship of christ is not just a doctrine it isn't just wishful thinking it is a supernatural but metaphysical fact and so their marching orders back then are an essential part of ours today listen to what we find in the catechism quoting from paragraph 2105 the duty of offering god genuine worship concerns people both individually and socially this is the traditional catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and not just the religion in some generic sense and to the one church of christ and then it quotes numerous authorities and how does it happen by forming catholic political parties and armies no by constantly evangelizing people the church works toward enabling them to infuse the christian spirit into the mentality and mores laws and structures of the communities in which they live so it's not primarily at the federal level of national politics congress the house or the senate but rather the mentality and more's laws and structures of the communities in which they live we all know the phrase think globally act locally again like my bride who is the city councilman at large in the fair city of steubenville but listen to the conclusion from paragraph 2105 the social duty of christians is to respect and awaken in each person the love of the true and the good it requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the catholic and apostolic church christians are called to be the light of the world thus the church shows forth the kingship of christ over all creation and in particular over human societies and it goes on to talk about the dignity of the person the nature of the person and how you cannot force people through coercion to act against their convictions and so it really does come back again and again to evangelization or to what pope saint john paul called this the new evangelization so there you have it what i'd like to propose though is what the catechism is saying here is really sanctified common sense people might read that and say these are fighting words and i would differ i would say that what you find in paragraph 2105 and everywhere else these aren't fighting words these are words of truth this is an appeal to human freedom this is a message of love this is a declaration that the whole human race is a family that god is fathering through his son by sharing the holy spirit and again this isn't just religious rhetoric this is the reality that we profess in the creed and so it also represents our direction now let's take a look for a moment at the notion of religion because that's the subtitle of my book why the future of civilization depends on true religion and that word is misunderstood it's it connotes a variety of things i begin by talking about how marx declares religion to be the opium of the masses but these days even people who call themselves believers will describe themselves as spiritual but not religious because religion is reducible to these different temporal institutional denominational structures that seem to come and go that seem to divide so that after a little more than 500 years since the protestant reformation there are close to 50 000 denominations all formed by men and women who sincerely believe that they were interpreting the word of god more accurately than those who came before you can be sincere and still be sincerely wrong but religion is something much more than just that institutional man-made thing that we associate with denominations or perhaps as i used to with the catholic church as the biggest and the oldest and most corrupt denomination what we need to understand is that religion has an archaeology it has an ancestry it has a history when you go back to the first century with the coming of christ you discover that the term religio in the latin was understood widely as something that was not just religious the way we think of it so in plato and aristotle but not just the greeks but also the romans in cicero especially but also in seneca religion was understood to be something not just personal and private but social and public quite different than way the way we think today for modern secularists religion is socially irrelevant to modern justice and law it even poses a threat to our national life and if religion is dragged out into the public square it is downright dangerous whereas if you read aristotle's commentary on the athenian constitution he defends the reasonableness of public orders of public sacrifice in order to reinforce the oaths of office sworn by all of the rulers not just in athens but everywhere else cicero takes it up a notch he identifies religion as a virtue well what are virtues well virtues are habits but virtues are to the soul what muscles are to the body as you develop your muscles you're able to lift more and do more more easily and frequently and likewise the virtues are to the soul what muscles are to the body so that you can do more and more good for more and more people more and more easily and frequently but what form of virtue is religion for cicero it's the highest form of justice which just happens to be the chief virtue of all there are dozens and dozens of virtues humility there's magnanimity there is thrift and honesty they're generally reducible to the four cardinal virtues which i suspect many of you are aware of you know there's joseph peeper's book that does a good job of describing the four cardinal virtues and of course the first is prudence but then you also have fortitude and temperance but the chief virtue of the four is justice and we understand justice and antiquity the same we understand it today in the catechism justice is giving to others what is their due now what's easy to understand about justice is what we call commutative justice that is you go to the grocery store and you pay for your groceries before you leave that's transactional that's commercial that's commutative there's a higher form that is in some ways more subtle more controversial and that is distributive justice or what some people call social justice it has to do with equity or with fairness or how to care for those who are around us in great need widows orphans the infirm and so on but also how to support the common good of the social order by paying taxes before april 16th and so on and that is distributive justice but the ancients apart from the old and new testaments understood that there are other debts that we owe that we can't strictly repay these forms of justice are transcendent for example your parents you can't pay them back by giving them life and food clothing shelter and nurture and all of the things that our parents gave us despite their flaws we owe them big time but strictly speaking it's irreparable you can't give them back what they gave you so what do you do as a form of justice rendered to them you honor your father and mother the latin word for that was pietas where we get the term piety confucian ethics are based entirely upon pietas that is recognizing that if we are family in an extended sense then piety goes forth in terms of a justice that we hardly ever even think about but that's not all there's another form of justice that we owe to the palace to the city-state to the ethnic to the community and that is what we would call patriotism it's from patria this form of justice is giving back to the society the things that we owe them in forms of tax and honor and also being willing to to serve in the military but even for cicero who was not devout he recognized through the natural moral law through his own natural reason in the natural order that there is this form of justice known as religio which exceeds what we owe our country our parents and other people in our society and the person at the checkout counter at kroger's we owe god and god alone religio reverence and what is that it's the act of sacrifice so when we hear lift up your hearts and we lift them up to the lord and then we hear let us give thanks to the lord our god and then we say it is right and just dignity justin est these are not just lines that we're lifting from the liturgy and parroting you know for book titles or for talks and that sort of thing it is truly right and just our duty and our salvation not just mine not just yours but ours not just as persons privately in prayer but publicly the social expression of the social order cries out to give thanks and praise to god because if it's right and just to do so then do the math we can infer that it would be wrong and unjust not to which is exactly paul's point in romans 1 verses 18 19 and 20 that it's perverse not to acknowledge god or to give him thanks and praise this is not a misdemeanor it's a felony it's not just a sin it's a crime it's not just a defect in a person it's also a profound defect in a society indeed it is our duty and our salvation to give him thanks always and everywhere and why because god is god and as god he is what a cosmic egotist something of a universal egomaniac i'm god you're not worship me give me thanks give me praise no he gets nothing from the worship we offer him so why command it if it isn't for his sake he commands it for our sake because when we give him thanks and praise and we realize it is our duty it is our salvation it is our dignity and it is a virtue that in a certain sense well saint thomas aquinas puts it so well in question 81 in the secunda secunda he says that religio and he's drawing from cicero and also augustine who drew from cicero religio is the virtue of virtues the latin phrase the vertus vertudum it's not just his favorite virtue it's the highest it's the only one that can make us holy it's the only one that could coordinate all of the other virtues think of assembling you know an orchestra all of these virtuosos all of these master musicians and you could even give them the same score to follow but it's going to be cacophonous if they're just kind of on their own doing their thing when they feel like it and so what do you need a conductor and what is the conductor it is god through the virtue of religion that is enabling us to coordinate all of the different virtuous acts that we perform through the day individually personally externally but also especially internally in our heart through prayer but at the same time it's external as well as internal it is public as well as private but it's social it's not just personal it's interpersonal so when he calls religion the virtue of virtues vertuz vertutum indicates that there's only one form of justice and that happens to be the highest that is going to be able to coordinate integrate unify all of the things that we do all of the things that we are all of the people we meet and so when my co-author and i brendan mcginley outlined the book we had a lot of fun looking at the fact that religion in general was recognized by the ancients as being essential to civilization just as a truth as a historical fact as an empirical observation but even more that the catholic faith as the one true religion has this potential this capacity to form civilizations like no religion has ever exhibited and so religion forms societies is what we discuss in chapter five and then how secular societies are not non-religious rather there's a kind of counterfeit religion known as secularism liberalism and so liberal societies are necessarily secular but secularism is a counterfeit religion but it is something that the ancient prophets in israel would have called idolatrous because idolatry is what happens when you take what is absolute and you relativize it and you take what is relative and you absolutize it so when pope benedict spoke of the dictatorship of relativism it isn't just a throwaway line it's a penetration into the very mystery of how this anti-religious attitude can in effect supplant religion from its public role and then create one that has these ill effects so another chapter civilization requires true religion chapter 12 true religion integrates individual lives chapter 13 true religion gives form to families 14 true religion brings unity to society and the final chapter is why the future of civilization depends on true religion we have been called as catholics to embrace a religion that has this unique civilization forming power a potential that exceeds all other religions in history but you know what that isn't what it's for what is it for to make saints and so what the catholic religion exists primarily for is to turn what bread and wine into christ's body blood soul and divinity well yeah but that isn't the goal that's not the endgame that's the means to the end the real goal is to transform sinners like me into saints and so if we live in a christian civilization the common good is going to be advanced by the true religion because well what is the common good to make it easier for more people to do good and to share it together but jesus says what seek first the kingdom of heaven and these things will be added to you what things well things like catholic culture things like christian society but these things are added they are not sought as ends in themselves i quote pope benedict who was speaking to the french academy in 2008 he speaks of the christians of the early church did not regard their missionary proclamation as propaganda designed to enlarge their particular group or make them more prosperous or powerful no the proclamation was the god of all peoples the one true god who revealed himself in the history of israel and ultimately in his son to the whole human race and so he's addressing mostly secular academicians in the french academy and he's addressing this question how is it that european civilization emerged first and foremost he says it must be frankly admitted straight away that it was not the intention of the monks who formed the monasteries to create a culture or even to preserve a culture from the past their motivation was more basic their goal was damn to seek god and his kingdom and then those things were added christian civilization christendom what precedes the modern secular nation states that we now call europe these monks were searching for god they wanted to go from the inessential to the essential kind of like the language we learned last year during covet what is essential and what is non-essential worship it is right and just our duty and our salvation and when we live out that virtue of religion these things may be added or other things like persecution i honestly believe that these truths are self-evident in a way that the declaration of independence the american constitution have never been i have no purpose no desire to criticize our founding documents i just want to propose that what we're talking about here really is just a series of truths that add up to sanctified common sense so why is this not more commonly understood well i share a story and uh you know i don't know where you're from but i'm from nearby i grew up in pittsburgh you know i can get to the airport in less than 25 minutes i can get to my old house in about 45 minutes and it's kind of nice because i've always been a pirates fan and a steeler fan so i get to take my kids to the games and all of that as we have for the last 30 plus years back in the 70s when the steel industry collapsed it was the steelers winning those super bowls that made us not the city of economic depression and unemployment but what we nicknamed ourselves as the city of champions four super bowls and i mean we were pittsburgh and we won the first one way back in the early 70s against the minnesota vikings who were a force to be reckoned with especially their running their defensive end jim marshall jim marshall was the defensive end and he played for the vikings for more consecutive starts more consecutive games from the early 60s into the 80s he holds over 20 nfl records but curiously he has yet to be inducted into the nfl hall of fame and why probably because of what happened on october 25th 1964 they were playing the 49ers and the running back for san francisco was billy kilmer and he fumbled the ball and jim marshall famously scooped it up and ran it back all the way to the end zone and to celebrate he tossed the ball promptly giving the 49ers a safety because he ran to the wrong end zone it became known overnight as the wrong way run and so when you mention jim marshall to any nfl fans it's the first thing that comes to mind and probably the last thing that will have to be cleared away for him to end up in the hall of fame it happened once before in the 1929 rose bowl and jim didn't know that until the next day a telegram came from roy regals was simply welcome to the club it happened to me in 29. coach norm van brocklin sent him a message jim what you did was the most interesting thing in the game today but you know what jim marshall was not betraying his teammates he was not acting out in some athletic treason because when he scooped the ball up and rang the wrong way he didn't know it was the wrong way he sincerely believed that what he was doing was going to score points for his team not theirs and what i'd like to i'd like to propose is this that in on the football field of our lives we're always trying to move forward in whatever ways we think will advance our advance us to the goal and if the goal is god who is the very source of truth goodness beauty and order then if it even if we get sacked or tackled for a loss at least we're still pointed in the right direction so many people are sincerely running for office running for their candidates and yet running in ways that are like the wrong way and this especially manifests itself in terms of justice we can render to others what is their do but if we think that this is strictly secular and that the sacred has no role in the marketplace of ideas or in the socio-political realm of the public square we might pass a lie detector test because of how sincere we are but we are sincerely wrong profoundly wrong and we're going to score points for the opponent and so when it comes to formally formulating our understanding our beliefs about truth and justice it isn't enough to go with the party platform on the right or the left with cnn or with fox there's only one source or authority for our moral understanding that is divine and infallible and so before we follow our conscience which we must do we have to form our conscience which we frequently don't do and so if we form our conscience according to the word of god in scripture and in tradition the magisterium is going to give us that kind of guidance so that we're always running in the right way even if we get sacked or thrown for a loss we're going to be pointing ourselves and other persons that we are with toward god towards the goal towards true justice famously back in the 50s richard weaver wrote a book that i read and reread was highly influential it was simply entitled ideas have consequences and he's not only talking about true ideas having beneficial consequences but also false ideas perhaps you've seen catherine schultz ted talk it only goes about 20 minutes or so she asked this group how does it feel to be wrong and that people respond it's awkward it's embarrassing oh it's humiliating and then she says no you're wrong like what no i didn't ask how does it feel when you find out you're wrong but how does it feel when you're wrong you know it feels the same way as what you're feeling when you're right because when you're wrong you don't know you're wrong it's only when you find out that you're wrong that it's awkward that it's embarrassing that it's humiliating and so people don't like to find out that they're wrong people don't want to be wrong and so they don't want to hear that they're wrong but the fact is jim's teammates owed him an explanation next time run towards our goal and again that isn't rocket science that isn't like technical high theology that's sanctified common sense that should be there for all catholics so why isn't it something else i'd like to draw from in the book is uh another episode that happened in my own life experience or at least i read about this what happened on august 23rd 1973 in sweden these two bank robbers jan eric and clark barricaded themselves and ended up taking four hostages for five days while they negotiated with the authorities negotiations finally broke down and so with the prime minister of sweden's initiative tear gas they stormed it they took away these two robbers and they released these four hostages who had been there tormented for five days what nobody expected is what happened next because in the interviews in the press and then in the trial proceedings in the courtroom these four hostages began to criticize and rebuke the authorities for not giving them the money not providing a helicopter and they defended their captors throughout the entire trial that's how the phrase the stockholm syndrome entered the english vocabulary because what psychologists had not recognized or studied up until then is how people who are held hostage tend to unconsciously internalize the values of their captors just as a coping mechanism and so now we recognize that stockholm syndrome isn't just for bank robbers and their hostages it's applied in a variety of ways because as catholic americans who love our country and are grateful and proud of so much of the good we're also aware that at times we feel like we're in exile that we're captive and so understandably almost naturally we internalize the secularized values of our country just to cope on the job in a secular school in the workplace in the public square in social discourse and in public debate when it comes to politics and that's understandable but what we have to recognize is that this leads many catholics to run the wrong way to think the wrong way to do so sincerely because they don't want to find out they're wrong because they don't want to find out that this is just nothing more than a coping mechanism but we can see this when we talk to ordinary americans who happen to be christian or even catholic and perhaps even orthodox faithful zealous there's an allergic reaction that we've developed to the idea of sanctifying the temporal order unquote straight from vatican ii gaudi mitspez and apostolicum apostolic and actual tatum i almost forgot the name of the the one decree on the laity the lady are called upon to sanctify the temporal order notice that word it's not sanitize it it's not re-naturalize it it's sanctified it's to make it holy to consecrate it to the lord well that's impossible that's imprudent that's inappropriate and most certainly that's illiberal all of these words kind of combine to say banish the thought it's illicit but the idea that holiness is just for individuals and that worship is just a voluntary thing that belongs to churches as voluntary associations basically illustrates the disintegrating logic of a spiritual stockholm syndrome to think that it's not right or just but wrong and unjust to impose a religion upon our fellow americans that's not what we're doing it isn't our religion it's the reality of a world that has been subjected to the king of kings we're not imposing it but believe you me god the father is because if the salvation of the human race came at the cost of his only beloved son then the spurn that is no small wrong and so what i would suggest by way of sort of wrap up here it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for you and me to want to become saints to sanctify ourselves i want to become a saint but i don't care about my spouse she's on her own that's absurd i want it for me i want it for her i want it for us because it's a sacrament we call holy matrimony and it is how we become holy and i'd like to say after 41 years i had no idea until i got married to kimberly that you could enjoy a friendship as fulfilling as this one i never saw it growing up i couldn't even imagine it nobody has brought me happiness and fulfillment like my bride of 41 years but i can also say nobody has brought me more frustration and irritation than her and she could say the same thing double or triple about me especially the irritation part so i mean spouses are united in something more than a contract something even more than a covenant it is a sacrament and it isn't some kind of generic thing it's a very specific and concrete person a saint jose maria said you're not called to the sacrament of marriage you're called to kimberly i'm paraphrasing she is the chisel in the hand of the divine sculptor who applies his hammer to me the marble the granite the hardness in order to somehow make me into something i can't make myself and that is a saint and to use me in her life as well but that's where we draw the line i want holiness for me and my spouse but our kids they're on their own that thought would never occur to us as parents we wanted for our kids but not the neighbor's kids no i want it for our neighborhood as well but is that where i draw the line leibel the neighborhood where we've lived for now 31 years no i wanted for the whole town of steubenville that's why i encouraged kimberly to go to a holy hour and pray about running for office she came back and she said i think you're right and i immediately regretted it you know she was a republican in a democrat town running up against the incumbent who was a native son of this fair city who declared publicly he said this is going to be a landslide little did he know who he was up against after she knocked on over 7 000 doors and introduced herself to every residence in steubenville because there only are about 7 000 doors it was a landslide and she won and she did it again for her second term and it was kind of cool because she is fulfilling a kind of role not as a mayor but as a kind of matriarch who helps others build bridges between the blacks the whites the protestants the catholics the secularists and those who have religion of one sort or another that is our role and it is to sanitize the city but it's also to sanctify the temple order because i want it for her our kids our neighborhood our city but ultimately only our city no other city in the state of ohio no that's not an option we want it for our state but not the other 49 we wanted for all 50 states of our nation but only our nation america first know christ first we want to make disciples of all nations why is it that stating the obvious now sounds like hate speech or unnecessarily stirring up controversy when in fact what we're talking about is what it means to be disciples of christ and to long to make disciples of all nations so i would say this before we move into q and a that what we have here is what we find in second chronicles 7 verse 14 when the son of david was anointed crowned as king and enthroned as the king of israel and as the temple he built was consecrated he shares the word of the lord with the people of god in second chronicles 7 14 he says if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways i will hear them from heaven i will forgive their sins and i will heal their land and the same thing is true for today now i have a confession i i will admit that i'm actually a pretty big fan of ronald reagan who was the president in the 80s when we were first married especially when i found out that he got his mother's family bible to swear the oath of office in his first term but he deliberately he intentionally opened the bible for the first time a president ever did that and put his hand on second chronicles 7 14. that his mom had made him memorize if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways all of the above then i will hear from heaven i will forgive their sins and i will heal their land and we can take away this conclusion that god wants to heal our land more than we want him to that's just a fact that follows from our faith professing that he is a father almighty now you might say well that was for israel in the old testament because that was established as a theocracy but we sing psalm 33 verse 12 blessed is the nation whose god is the lord that isn't less true in the new now that christ is the king of kings that's more true but is it reasonable is it realistic well ultimately to kind of paraphrase alfred lord tennyson in the charge of the light brigade you know into the dark valley we go but ours is not the reason why ours is but to do or die and so what we want to be is not founders of a theocracy but those who recognize that we have a christocracy and it's cosmic it's universal it just is we're not imposing our morality upon anybody god the father is proposing the gospel to everybody not as hate speech not as fighting words but as a message of love that seems too good to be true but this is who we are as sons and daughters of god so this is what we do as faithful disciples who long to be fruitful apostles to make as many people saints as we can but really we're not doing that to them just as we're not doing it for ourselves that's why the priority of baptism is so important to see that before we're teaching them to observe whatsoever christ has commanded we are submitting ourselves to a power that comes from outside of ourselves to give us what we need to make up for all that we lack in order for us as sinners to become saints this is who we are as catholics this is why we're on the planet and as to whether it's going to succeed or not i suspect that back then shortly before the ascension the prospects of making disciples of the roman empire didn't look bleak it was completely and horrendously impossible and yet through the blood of the martyrs becoming the seed of the church and through the faithful witness of individuals spouses families leaders it happened and it can happen again in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit almighty god our father in heaven we thank you for the privilege of being your sons and daughters and in the name of jesus we ask you now to pour out the holy spirit upon us to illuminate our minds with the light of your word to convert us once again to the truth of the gospel to give to us the honesty and the humility to recognize and to admit that we've often run in the wrong way we've often internalized the wrong beliefs of a captive culture lord god we are in exile until we get home to heaven and see your face and yet what is so problematic what is so troubling is that we no longer realize that we are in exile we feel so at home here and so in the name of jesus and for the sake of his kingship we ask for the holy spirit to be poured out upon us especially as we round out this lenten journey this pilgrimage to the paschal mystery we have to believe that in asking you abba father we're asking something of you that you want as well perhaps much more than we do and so we ask you to hear us as we pray that family prayer that jesus taught us saying our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen saint patrick pray for us in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen well thank you for your time thank you for your attention but let's just open it up for a few minutes to any questions that you might have so i've answered all yes i'll repeat your question so tommy you're a graduate from last year okay but dom chotard he's been reading the soul of the apostles by dom chotard which you ought to read at least once every 10 years i think i've done my fourth round through it's just amazing okay so how is my presentation related to the message of dom chotard and the soul of the apostolate and by the way i really would emphasize this book it is a classic and sainted popes have also recommended it one of the things that he warns against as you know is activism and curiously as a frenchman he also associates the danger of activism with this phenomenon known as americanism if you remember that portion and he's quoting from testimony by pope leo the 13th who warns against this american ethos that we've got to be active politically socially spiritually when in fact we also need to be contemplative you know you can't always exhale you better inhale you better draw in the breath of god's spirit through prayer through study through contemplation then you supernaturalize what would otherwise be merely natural activism and at the time of course you also had in leo's in pope leo the 13th document testem benevolencia the warning of this distinguishing the sacred and the secular for the purpose of not just distinguishing to unite but to separate and to oppose and so while we speak of the separation of church and state the us constitution doesn't you know it's a letter from jefferson to someone in new england and it's become the iron law you know we don't have any established religion although the states did maryland for example and others too but i think what we ought to recognize from that is that prayer is where the virtue of religion has to begin and end and daily prayer discipline prayer but not just road prayers even though the rosary is my absolute favorite prayer but the kind of prayer that is known as mental prayer conversational prayer where you let your lord you let our lord into your heart but you also sometimes let your lord have it you know the only book of the bible that the church prays 24 7 is the psalter as we all know and out of 150 psalms roughly 42 of those psalms are what scholars label psalms of complaint or psalms of lament and so prayer ought to be the place where it begins where we complain to god now you might be sitting there piously thinking i would never do that you know who am i to complain to the creator and the lord of the universe well no israel didn't complain to the lord they complained about the lord that's called murmuring or grumbling for 40 years that's all they did in the wilderness but the psalmist realizes that you don't complain to someone unless you believe they care you don't complain to someone unless you believe they care and they might be able to do something about it so over 40 of the psalms that we pray are psalms of complaint perhaps the most famous one of them is psalm 22 which begins my god my god why hast thou forsaken me because that's how we felt the psalmist and our lord that's how we feel and it begins with this cry of dereliction this honest sincere and transparent cry of the heart and then the credit corps ends up with a note of triumph and thanksgiving and gladness because once again god has delivered us and so that's where i think the soul of the apostle has to begin it is right and just to give him thanks and praise we thank him for what he's done we praise him for who he is but then supplication we beg him for the supplies that we need to get through this day which is a battlefield and until we get home it's always going to remain a battlefield not a playground but a battleground so prayer is to the soul what breath is to the body and so we asphyxiate when we just succumb to activism political or religious activism and i just gave a talk last week on spiritual direction and then i forgot my spiritual direction and so talking about the danger of activism does not prevent you from succumbing to it exhibit a you know but our lord reminds me so many times scott i want to sanctify you more much more than i want to use you to sanctify other people and he reminds me of that so often because he keeps forgetting that he told me that no it's because i keep forgetting that he told me that and so i would say of the many many books that i've done for spiritual reading the soul of the apostolate might be the gold standard but i think it also might be the single most helpful book that we have for these times covet the political upheavals as well the fact that the filibuster may be ended you know by the time by this time tomorrow i hope you're not keeping up as much as i do because i keep up probably more than i should any other thoughts any other questions yes viva cristo rey i said viva christo rey um a uh um great question thank you father and we pray for mexico like we pray for ireland and especially on the feast of saint patrick's because when he lit the paschal flame he dispelled the druid the druidical darkness and began that long slow and wonderful process of the conversion of ireland and yet it's following mexico only catching up and overtaking them in their own secularization this is what john paul was calling for in the new evangelization and he explains the new evangelization as re-evangelizing the de-christianized because it's a wake-up call to recognize that long before john paul became pope and saint there was a new devangelization which was de-christianizing these christian lands that had been not only a majority of catholic in their population but also an extensive influence of the catholic faith in the social order and it's too long and involved to go into this but i would say that the new evangelization can become more than ecclesiastical rhetoric only if we get back to the basics whether we're actives contemplatives or in the mixed in in the middle you know as saint thomas aquinas would say the balance is the contemplatives higher and holier look at mary versus martha and yet the act of life is necessary we're not all arms and legs we're not all fingers and toes we're different members of the body and so the holy spirit will coordinate us all in different ways to function in a unified way but i would say if anything points me in the direction that i would point you and that is eucharistic amazement that is you know what we all share as catholics are what we ought to share is eucharistic devotion devotion to our lord and the blessed sacrament especially after covet caused the lockdown where we were shut out of our churches not just for lent but holy we can be on all the way to pentecost here in our diocese i remember my daughter and i were talking on the phone and she said i have never realized until this lockdown how much i took the holy eucharist for granted the holy sacrifice of the mask now that we can't go or we have to watch through live streaming which dad just isn't the same i'm so glad you're not a protestant anymore you know tv services you know but then she went on to say that she finds herself hungering for holy communion like she never did as an adult before this and hopefully that and i told her i hope that you are echoing the hearts of millions of catholics but in any case you are blessing your father in a way that you might never fully understand eucharistic amazement is what john paul spoke of in ecclesia de eucharistia 2003 his last encyclical and i think it's just again it's not just reasonable it's theological you know that uh we're devoted to our lord in the blessed sacrament but we ought to stand back and almost necessarily de-familiarize ourselves with what we've grown up with what we've taken for granted in order to return to that and refamiliarize ourselves you know especially for me because lord willing on may 21 our son jeremiah will be ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of steubenville and for all of his life up until now i have been his breadwinner you know bringing home the bacon making the money and providing for all of the food and stuff and now my son is going to become in the supernatural order my father he's going to be able to say the same words i could speak but with a different effect he's going to be able to turn bread and wine into the body blood soul and affinity of christ i mean my little boy who's now slightly taller but he's a mortal man and he's going to be able to transform earthly matter into the creator and the redeemer of the universe it's amazing how unamazed we are at the eucharist it is not cultivating eucharistic amazement by conjuring up warm fuzzy feelings and amping up our religious rhetoric so that we we sound like overzealous converts even 35 years after i became one no this is reality this is reality therapy in a way that dr william glasser never could imagine this is the only thing that is going to get us through the dark times it's darker and it's worse than anybody i know expected but the good news is far greater and more glorious than any of us appreciate so when the darkness spreads and gets darker and deeper we gotta just be looking for more light switches because the sacred mysteries that constitute the creed and our faith as catholics are infinitely better than the bad news is immeasurably more horrendous than we expected and so we basically follow our lord with the joy of the gospel we rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice because i have to hear paul say it again and again because i don't find it coming to me naturally but in the process we let the chips fall where they may christ is the lord of lords he's the lord of history and so he knows that he has a sufficient power to get america mexico and ireland out of this if only we do what solomon said if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven and i will heal their land but in the meantime we're not to kind of prognosticate or assess what is the likelihood we are to become saints and try to make as many others holy as well and in the process i think what we'll discover is that a little goes a long way like a pebble send out ripples in a pond so living a life that is growing in sanctity this is the point this world is not primarily designed to create a new christendom although the catholic faith has that power more than any other religion it's here to form saints you know and so one writer describes the world as a saint-making machine and if we see it in those terms we realize it isn't malfunctioning you know it's working rather well if we allow it to because it's much easier to be good when it will advance your secular desires now we need to purify our motives but in the process i think we can also hold up a light and show people that what you say you want is justice truth this is it in spades and so you know i you know i get back to the question about prayer and activism you know that is up to our lord what to do with our work but if we really are seeking first the kingdom these things will be added perhaps not as fast as we want or as extensively as we desire but i i do think that we're going to end up realizing that god is still writing straight with our crooked lines and that he is you know where sin abounds grace abounds all the more you know this is where aquinas gets the notion of the super abundance you know our debt through christ was paid in full but what christ gave the father infinitely exceeds our debt so felix culpa will hear hopefully in the easter vigil exile tet once again and we'll realize oh happy fault that we keep falling as god's people but we keep falling upwards because of god's mercy his mercy isn't just a safety net it's more like a a supernatural trampoline that causes us to bounce back higher than from whence we fell and that's the story of my life i think it's the story of our countries as well that god is going to reveal the light of the gospel only when we've tried darkness as much as we want any other thoughts any other comments or questions yes there are times um aren't we all yeah okay so i think everybody could hear but i think what you're asking about are the two forms of love that jesus refers to the greatest command is to love the lord your god all of your heart mind soul and strength but then love your neighbor as yourself on these two hangs all of the law and the prophets so the idea of transcendent justice being religion and yet at the same time the commutative and the distributive forms of justice that we owe to our fellow humans you know in in in a way this is feeling like a tug of war you know especially when it comes to communion on the hand or on the tongue or wearing a mask or not and believe me i am not about to wade into those waters you know i have my beliefs but i recognize that these are not my capital b beliefs that's the creed these are my own personal opinions and i waver a whole lot from month to month and so i want to extend the benefit of the doubt and a line of credit to every catholic or every american when it comes to any of this stuff but i i do think you put your finger on something that i agree with 200 percent and that is how there isn't really a tension but a balance that needs to be struck in terms of how do we love the lord our god will all of our heart mind soul and strength and after all jesus is only quoting deuteronomy 6 verse 5 and likewise when he says love your neighbor as yourself he's quoting leviticus 19 18. and so there are 613 commandments according to the count of the rabbis but they're not all created equal those two are created more equal than all of the others but it's interesting because of what saint augustine does with that to love the lord your god all of your heart mind soul and strength means what to prefer him to yourself not because you know he gets anything out of it but because we get everything out of it and so what is the one thing that proves that we really don't just say it but we mean it when we say i love you with all of my heart mind soul and strength it's sacrifice most especially the holy sacrifice of the mass but any other little sacrifices that we make but the second commandment that is like it love your neighbor as yourself augustine clarifies and others too you love your neighbor as yourself for the love of god so you don't just treat your neighbor the way your neighbor wants you to treat him or her you treat your neighbor the way god wants you to treat her or him and i think that's the the way in which this is meant to be coordinated so we don't feel like the rope in a tug of war love of god love of neighbor you know this certainty of faith versus this tolerance of secularism what we've got to do is find winsome ways to share the joy of the gospel through friendship and at the same time be willing to take a stand even if it's misperceived as hate speech and to suffer the consequences for it like the lord of lords did but i do think at the end of the day joy first friendship second and the love of god and the love of neighbor but always and only for the love of god so that we're giving to the neighbors that we have not only what they want but especially what god wants for them that will come through us and so i not only you know tia muay kai soy what is this between you and me i mean whether you receive on the hand or i receive on the tongue you know i think that the idea of love of god and the love of neighbor for the love of god is the way in which we see the light that we've got to follow every every every day all right i wanted to just mention that tonight just for you this book is on sale for almost 40 percent it is right and just normally goes i think for 24 dollars it's available for 15 tonight out in the uh the hallway i also wanted to mention another book that is written by a dear friend that we were privileged to publish at the saint paul center it's entitled a church in crisis pathways forward by dr ralph martin who was here last year to speak and it's an amazing book and so if you are tempted to give in the discouragement i would recommend this book you know it faces the facts of the confusion in the world as well as in the church but it does it in a very practical and supernatural way we got we are so grateful and privileged to have published another book of his called the fulfillment of all desire which is i think the masterpiece on prayer on saint john of the cross teresa of avila teresa lazu and the doctors of the spiritual life these two books are such a kind of one-two combination this is also available tonight for 15 and a book written by a dear friend of mine dr ken howe unlike me he has two doctorates he put together a reader daily meditations on the eucharist which is entitled mystery of the altar and i'm using this as spiritual reading every morning and you read from the fathers and the doctors and the saints and the mystics and all kinds of people who've written for the last 2000 years and talk about reinvigorating eucharistic amazement i also wanted to mention another book that we just published last month by a dear friend and colleague dr john bergsma has written this little book jesus and the old testament roots of the priesthood which is also available for that discount this evening and finally we don't have copies of this book but i wanted to mention another book that it is right and just builds upon entitled the first society the sacrament of matrimony and the restoration of the social order i've given a talk based upon that book it's been about three or four years but i wanted to also recommend this because for the majority of our students when they graduate matrimony is the sacramental vocation for you and so to recognize in advance that you can prepare yourself just like you know our grandkids do for first confession for first holy communion there really is a sense in which you can prepare yourselves now to enter into the sacrament of matrimony and set into motion the practical graces of ordinary life that might bring about extraordinary change in your home you're not just your family but the neighborhood as well and i just remember there's another book out there that came out right after kova did a year ago i wrote it's called hope to die the christian meaning of death and the resurrection of the body which all of those will be available for a discount so anyway i just want to say in conclusion a thousand thanks for joining me on such a beautiful evening where you know you could have been outside i'm not going to say get a life because we had a lot of fun at least i hope you did i suspect that i had more fun than all of you put together but god bless you and i will stick around if you want to have any follow-up or personal questions and that kind of thing steve anything that's it thanks again it's a wrap you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 59,541

Keywords:

Id: Oldg3VNSFHI

Length: 83min 52sec (5032 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021