"Her wisdom lies in seeing the world as God sees it," he added, saying that the Church reminds humanity of essential truths about the human person.
The Church knows and teaches that human nature does not change, he explained.
"Man is a creature of animated carbon, but every life also has a higher purpose," even amidst its imperfections and shortcomings, he stated. "We're put in the world to seek the truth. We thirst for it. We can't be happy without it."
He noted that modern American discourse has lost both a respect for wisdom and the humility necessary to appreciate man's relationship with the truth, leading to troubling cultural trends for the Church and those who still seek to live according to its wisdom.
"It took less than thirty years for abortion to go from a crime against humanity at Nuremberg to a constitutional right," he observed, adding that it has "taken even less time for disordered sexuality" to be enshrined in law "and to redirect the course of our culture."
"People unwise enough to accept a slogan like 'marriage equality' without challenging its honesty and examining its massive implications, are people capable of doing things even more foolish. And even more damaging."
"If we think we have some kind of safe haven from these events in America's tradition of religious freedom, we should probably think again," Archbishop Chaput warned, pointing to the "coercive" language surrounding the HHS mandate and its requirement that many employers violate their deeply-held religious beliefs by providing insurance coverage of contraception and similar products.
"It's a monument to ideological pride and belligerence," the archbishop said of these cultural shifts.
These circumstances challenge modern Christians, who must reject the world's understanding and choose instead to "live our faith with courage and zeal, endurance and hope, and to begin every new day by grounding our hearts and our actions in the wisdom of the Church," he stressed.
He warned, however, that this choice to submit to the Church's wisdom over the world's ideologies comes at the price of one's own life for thousands of Christians each year.
"Life consists in choosing one or the other. It's a choice we can't avoid," the archbishop confirmed, "and each of us faces that choice right here, today, now."
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"The wisdom which the Church offers the world is for the humble, not the proud, and it's the only wisdom that counts: the path to salvation."
"The true, the right, and the lasting meet in a Man," Archbishop Chaput reminded listeners. "Our task is to follow him, no matter what the cost, and to lead others to do the same."
In doing so, the witness of our lives is critical, he said. "Nothing is more compelling than a good man, or a good woman, in an evil time."
Adelaide Mena was the DC Correspondent for Catholic News Agency until 2017 and is a 2012 graduate of Princeton University.