TOLLERANCE - BUT ONLY A CERTAIN AMOUNT AND ONLY ON THE TOPICS THAT I CHOOSE

Here’s an interesting statistic for you:  Approximately 300 persons per year are killed in the state of California in hit and run accidents.  That means most days a Californian will kill another Californian with his car and then drive away to avoid responsibility.  Yesterday on NPR an official of the state said (and this is an approximate quote since I was driving and unable to write down what I heard) that this is a horrible situation – near four times the national average – and that “a cultural change must take place.”  His concern is California’s lack of concern for accidents in which human lives are effected.  You cannot simply hit a human being with your car and then drive away.

 

But I thought, “Why not?”  Is change what California really wants?  Are they prepared to do what would be required in order to effect a “cultural change?”  Or do they have exactly what they want?

 

Consider this about the Golden State:  They are on the verge of allowing physician assisted suicide.  They are a death penalty state.  Abortion rights are vigorously upheld.  The state self-funded embryonic stem cell research.  And these are just some of the issues that over a period of time teach a people that when life inconveniences you, you may do away with it. 

 

If you teach a rectory dog to bark whenever someone rings the doorbell, you can’t expect him not to do so on the occasion that this time it is the bishop that is ringing the bell.  In a similar way, when you teach a body of people that when your life might be change in a way that you don’t like you have a right to ask for death, you can’t expect that people to keep such a belief in tight little boxes.  Why is it Okay to kill a child in the womb that will take away my college career or Okay to allow grandma to do away with herself before she eats up my time or inheritance, but it is not Okay from me walk away from an accident (after all, it was only an accident right?) since it will simply eat up my time, attention, and resources and not really solve anything?

 

So California, are you really ready for a “cultural change?”  My prayers are with you.

TRUST ME - THIS IS A KILLER

Yes . . . It’s a guilty pleasure . . .

 

I will admit that I watch “Dexter.”  For those unfamiliar with this show: it is the story of a mass murderer trying to live a normal life – except for those pesky murders.

 

For those familiar with the show: Don’t worry.  I will not be giving anything away.  I’m only on season three. 

 

Now, let me say from the start that much of the show is reprehensible.  That is the great thing about Netflicks: the “ff” button.  I do not recommend the show.  That being said if one pays attention carefully (at least in the three seasons that I have seen) they do grapple with lots of hot button issues concerning life, love, the role of faith, the dignity (or lack thereof) of the human person and so forth.  I rarely agree with the title character no matter how sympathetic they try to make him with swelling music, kind words, and someone saying to him, “This is the right thing.”

 

Dexter supposedly is unable to have feelings; particularly complicated feelings such as love.  He works hard then trying to figure what to do to express love to those close to him and make them feel love.  It is a radical decision for the other with little consolation to himself.  Inside his head he is saying, “This is all fake.  If they only knew I don’t know a thing about love.”  From a spiritual standpoint he is in the deepest throws of love.  If he acted lovingly toward those for whom he had great feelings of love, big whoop.  As Scriptures says, “even the pagans do the same.”  But he overcomes his deficit to love mightily.  His is probably the purest love in the show. 

 

Well, except for those murders.

 

That is the part of the show that peaks my interested.  The producers go through great lengths to make Dexter a lovable character.  And he had a code by which he lives; he will only kill those who kill and have escaped responsibility for their murders and who will most likely kill again.  So if you would become friends with Dexter, you most likely would never experience the dark side of him that “needs” to kill.  You would only know this great guy.

 

Think of that for a moment.  Allow Dexter to not be safely on the other side of the screen.  Suppose he was a true friend of yours and you know about his propensity for snuffing out life.  Could you be his friend and allow him to live his life as he allows you to live yours?  Though a bit odd and maybe a tich distant, he is thoughtful, friendly, pleasant, helpful, and fiercely loyal.  And really, he only takes the life of those many would say “deserve to die.”  Some would day that he is making the world a better place.

 

But he is in your living room having a beer with you and you can sense that you about to have a severe disagreement about something.  Though he says he would never turn his butchery on you, do you completely trust him?  Can you?  Would you not have some fear that the line that separates the “worthies” from the “worthless” might slip – maybe even for just a moment – and in a moment of passion you would become a victim instead of one of the protected class?

 

I submit that this is a wonderful analogy for our modern state which Pope Benedict calls a throw away culture.  The list grows of people we can discard – that are on the wrong side of the line.  This week was a story that there are more people on death row in Ohio than in a long time.  There is physician assisted suicides, euthanasia, abortion, and now we are on the verge of federal mandates forcing churches to be direct agents in actions they believe to be violations of human dignity.  There are questions about how we treat the poor, the insane, the refugee, the addict, the ignorant, the disenfranchised, and even the criminal. 

 

For every person added to this list of undeserving of life, the line that separates each of us from the undesirables creeps up.  It may seem a far distance away, but it is only an accident, a false accusation, or change in government away.  Many priests talk about the future and wonder if we will now end up in jail some day for teaching something that has been a part of our core beliefs for 2,000 years.

 

It’s the Dexter effect.

 

And it makes me wonder.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES

Jack Francis passed away and was buried from St. Sebastian this past week.  He barely took a breath of earth’s air before passing on to the next world.  There was scarce time for water to be poured over his head and the Trinity invoked.  A short life by our standards to be sure.  One that had yet to be started if we measure life by successive birthdays.

 

Yet he lived!  He had a name!  He was loved!  The kingdom of heaven swelled with his tender soul added to saints of heaven.  He shall spend the rest of eternity praising God and intercessing for those of us who will have to wait years/decades before we are able to enjoy the vision he now enjoys.

 

I thought of Jack before he was born though I did not know his name.  I think of all mothers with their children in their womb coming up in the Communion line.  What a blessed place to be for that child.  To live within the tabernacle of the Lord as his mother received Communion and he shares the same resting place as His Lord and God.

 

His life is tragic only to us.   We are terribly sad that we did not have the opportunity to enjoy watching him grow and learn the way we grow and learn.  But really, he is so far beyond us now in wisdom and knowledge for He is before all Truth, all Love, all Goodness, all Beauty.

 

Certainly we can never be happy about the situation no matter what joy we imagine young Jack may be experiencing.  But our sadness, our disappointment is not without hope.  Jack was already gift, for we feel the loss and out tears tell of how valued the gift was.  And though we may not experience the gift to the extent we wished, we look on with the words of Charles Dickens:

 

“Oh! it is hard to take to heart the lesson that such deaths will
teach, but let no man reject it, for it is one that all must learn,
and is a mighty, universal Truth. When Death strikes down the
innocent and young, for every fragile form from which he lets the
panting spirit free, a hundred virtues rise, in shapes of mercy,
charity, and love, to walk the world, and bless it. Of every tear
that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is
born, some gentler nature comes. In the Destroyer's steps there
spring up bright creations that defy his power, and his dark path
becomes a way of light to Heaven.”

THE SKY IS *YAWN* FALLING

When YK2 was all the rage I was an MC for the First Night Celebration in downtown Akron. At midnight they shoot off fireworks to mark the start of the New Year and my cousin and I stood in the Polsky’s Parking Deck both for the grand view and a quick escape. The place was absolutely packed even though it was frigid outside. One young man on the road below us was practically stripped though it was obvious he was also rather chemically protected against feeling the cold. Apparently if the machines of the world decided to rebel against us at the stroke of midnight for not enabling them to count higher than 1999 he wanted to go out in a black haze.

The countdown began to the New Year and possible end of the world. A jet soared across the night sky. The blue lights of televisions and computer screens lit up various windows of the Mayflower apartment building nearby. The crowd yelled out, “10! 9! 8!” The excitement level was particularly tense this year. It was YK2 – people had bought provisions, purchased crank radios, and had plans in case the country went wild with looters. “3! 2! 1!” Fireworks lit up the sky. The plane didn’t fall. The blue monitors kept flickering away, and the lamp posts didn’t rip themselves up from the ground and start attacking us. I turned to my cousin and said, “Well THAT was disappointing.”

So I suppose you heard once again that the world is coming to an end. Apparently the Aztec calendar is coming to its completion which marks the end of life as we know it. I apologize for yawning at the prospect. I am tired of gearing up for the end of the world every couple of years. Of course it could happen. It might happen before you read the end of this sentence. Or this sentence fragment. Or this one. If you are still reading, chances are the end of the world has not taken place. Now, you could have fretted until you reached the end of each sentence worrying that the world might end. But would you be living if you were in constant fear that the world might end there? Or here?

And to be quite truthful, as Christians we should not worry. The world is going to end for us whether it is actually the earth shaking us off or we get hit by a bus. The point is we are ready. Whatever. End or don’t end. We should neither fear death nor refuse to live. We are ready in any event and if we are here we have work to do – so BRING LIFE ON!

IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS

This post is being written specifically for those who think they do not need to read it. It concerns a certain body of knowledge that many people do not find it necessary to know at the present and figure that when the time comes, there will be plenty of knowledgeable people and handy resources to help them through. Such is not the case.

Most likely one day you find yourself in need of this information. Life will be going on somewhat normally and all of a sudden people will be looking to you to make a decision. If you are lucky you will have a few days to decide. If you are not, you will have someone standing in front of you looking at the second hand of his watch and saying, “We need a decision.”

The body of knowledge is bioethics. Or more specifically Catholic bioethics. At the very moment you need the information the most, chances are you will not have ready access to it. Not everybody thinks like you do and not everybody has the same intentions that you do. Some people are simply avoiding lawsuits. Some people are making money. Some people are very sincere but have different values from you. Some people do not care. Nobody is as invested in the relationship in which you are asked to make a decision as you.

At this point you do not want to just call a priest and ask, “What should I do?” You want to know “whys” and options and true teachings of Christ not something easily grasped in desperate moments. You want to be able to say to others who are emotionally involved, “This is why our decision is alright,” not just, “Father said so.”

We also do not have a bioethics “hot line” though that would be very cool. As we have less and less priests, they are less and less available to be able to sit by a phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week just in case they are needed at the hospital. It is sad but nonetheless a fact. Far too many “chaplains” at hospitals, nursing homes, and even many hospices do not get extensive training in care for Catholics. For many it is just a section in a workbook that they turn to and it may very well be that they are not very invested so as to be able to enlighten you and know fine points.

Until this situation is corrected it is time to arm yourselves with knowledge.