We face the New Year without having yet caught our breath from the momentous events of the last. The underlying thought of every day, even if unexpressed, is the question of happiness. What will make me happy this year? The pursuit of happiness underlies all our decisions St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that happiness is the thing itself which we desire to attain. It includes the attainment and the use or enjoyment of the thing desired. Happiness is joy in possessing integrity at the core...
Down through the centuries, the Christmas narrative has been told and re-told, yet we never tire of it. Why not? First, because the story has no limit to its message of beauty, truth, and goodness. It is always inspirational. Second, each time we ourselves approach the story we have changed a little; we find something new in the gospel narrative, and there we find new graces to bolster our lives in Christ. This is why this mystery of the Nativity of the Lord has been the subject for artists...
The mystery of evil has struck again. This time in a lovely elementary school where all good things are taken for granted – safety, the wonder of learning, play time, the laughter of innocent children with their classmates and teachers. Suddenly, the beauty of it all, shattered and mutilated within minutes.
Last Friday’s massacre in Newtown, Conn. leaves a grief-stricken nation to gasp in horror, to ponder its inscrutable savagery, and to fall on its knees in prayer. Through sobbing...
You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives. So goes the saying. The Matthean gospel (1:1-17) lists the names of Jesus’ ancestors but does not go into detail about them.
During Advent, the Church places before the faithful a visual symbol, the Jesse Tree. The tree depicts the biblical Christ’s genealogy as a family tree that has its proximate origins in Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of David. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus came from the House of David, an...
Some years ago, the award-winning comic strip by Johnny Hart featured a piece about the mystery of the Incarnation, though it did not mention the phrase.
The cartoon was a whimsical commentary on modern man and woman. It is relevant today because the public commemoration of Christmas is challenged everywhere. It is after all, a legal holiday. The country has no problem honoring American presidents or Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet, protesters complain that their sensibilities are offended by...
As 2012 draws to a close, the new year of grace begins this Sunday with the season of Advent, the four weeks before the Christmas season. The year of grace assures God’s providential care ever present and active in our world. But God’s work must truly be our own, President Kennedy reminded us.
The Knock
One of the most famous paintings of Jesus shows him as the “Light of the World.” In the painting by W. Holman Hunt, Jesus stands outside a door that is surrounded by weeds,...
Some years ago, a professor of Philosophy 101 asked his students to evaluate the course at the end of the final exam. “Philosophy taught me absolutely nothing,” wrote a student, “except how to think.”
Beauty of the Mind
It’s easy to take the mind for granted. At an early age, children express themselves with subtle curiosity and with a keen sense of wonder. The word ‘why’ becomes fixed in their vocabulary. Animals are incapable of asking ‘why.’ A parrot can repeat words but...
Hurricane Sandy and a snow storm are testing the endurance of North Easterners who are coping with their aftermath. Not only neighbors but also relief workers from all over the country have given generously of themselves and by way of offering food, shelter, and clothing – all to help in the long recovery ahead of them.
Amid fear, anger, and frustration, the needy recipients have expressed heartfelt thanks to one and all. Such is the uncanny link between food, thanksgiving, and unselfish...
For the past few weekends, “Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly” on PBS has featured a mini-series entitled, “None of the Above: The Rise of the Religiously Unaffiliated.” The documentary report was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum in conjunction with PBS.
In the United States, one-third of adults under thirty have no religious affiliation. This includes one-in-ten adults over sixty-five. These numbers include former Catholics. The majority of the religiously unaffiliated...
At the time of his death in 2008, Avery Cardinal Dulles was considered
the first among American theologians. The search for truth led this
agnostic to the Catholic faith in his senior year at Harvard. After
serving as a naval officer, he became a Jesuit priest. Avery Dulles was
no liturgist, but as a complete theologian, he could boast
– but didn’t – of a refined sense of the arts, especially in regard to the liturgy.
Among
his prodigious writings, his short article, “The...
