7QT: love love edition, 5/15/15

So much for my resolution on Monday to write every day.  Onward to 7 Quick Takes!

1) This morning was the monthly men's group breakfast, and we started watching Fr. Robert Barron's "Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Lively Virtues" series.  The first deadly sin covered was pride, and its antithetical virtue is humility.  The content was great, as would be expected of Fr. Barron.  It pointed out to me how proud of a person I am, and how tough of a vice it is to fight.  That's kind of a proud thing to say, in the sense of false humility ("oh, I'm suuuuuch a sinner!"), but I really do mean it (which is what the falsely humble would also say, too, to insist how sincere their nothingness is).  Being selfish is incredibly easy, especially in this culture... 

2) ...nothing pointed that out to me more than a movie we watched tonight, "He's Just Not That Into You."  Whenever we first watched it, I remember enjoying it more than we did tonight.  Just about all the characters were selfish and shallow.  Love had more to do with the feeling of the moment and what was good for the self.  Only one couple out of the ensemble cast displayed some selfless aspects of love, and they finished the movie by committing to each other and promising never to get married.  Romantic, isn't it?

3) It stuck out to me for two reasons.  The first, I'm so thankful to be Catholic.  (false humility warning)  Life has meaning, and love doesn't have to fit into the inadequate definitions of a pagan movie.  Because as the good Fr. Barron taught us this morning, love is willing the good for the other.  And doing so leads to the second striking thing... 

4) ...love is a very difficult choice to make.  So many people inflict pain on themselves through bad choices.  One of the characters in the movie started an affair with a married man (at the suggestion of her friend), and it was a disaster.  The married man lost his wife and mistress due to his lying; the mistress ended up more confused and more wounded than before; the wife genuinely tried to make an effort to work on the marriage, but it was too late.  Relationships evolve over time, how could they not?  The essence stays the same (or hopefully should), but the particulars are bound to change.  

In front of St. Patrick's Cathedral (that the Anglicans really
should give back to the Catholics), on our honeymoon in Ireland

5) I looked through our wedding albums tonight after my beloved wife went to bed.  It reminded me of that fact that relationships evolve.  I remember what it was like when we first became a couple.  It was amazing and thrilling!  Those thrills didn't disappear, but were composed differently as time went on--one month, two, six, and so on--we started talking marriage.  Then we were engaged, and planning the wedding, and what a glorious day the wedding was!  We've been married over 4 years and have an adorable baby.  There's no way we can go back to what it was like when we'd only been dating two months... and I wouldn't want to.  Our love has taken root, grown, been pruned by suffering, and grown some more.  What we have is wonderful!  

6) In the movie, they had flip phones and Blackberries.  Flip phones!!!  Was 2009 really that long ago?

7) I'm always a take short.  Since the theme of the 7QT is love, I'd like to recommend Love Love Teriyaki in Salem (the one on Center St.).  Erin introduced me to it years ago and it's the best teriyaki I've ever had.  Now I'm hungry... 

For more quick takes, visit www.thisaintthelyceum.org!

Ascension Thursday

Another article up at the Cora Evans blog!

http://www.coraevans.com/blog/article/he-ascended-into-heaven-a-reflection-on-ascension-thursday

Taking my own Advice

Last year, I volunteered to be a chaperone/small group leader on the Confirmation retreat.  Most of the kids were sophomores, with some scattered freshmen and juniors.  I remember talking to one kid who was going through a tough time.  Among the things I told him was that whatever he were doing in their spiritual life, they needed more.  Praying already?  Pray more.  Reading Scripture?  More.  And so on, and so on.  God has more to give, and Jesus promised rest to those who came to Him (Matt 11:28).  Whether that was helpful or not, or if he only needed someone to listen, who knows? 

So in my struggle to maintain my spiritual life as a new parent, I’ve done a couple things.  We already went to Sunday Mass regularly.  I drink a lot more coffee, and I snack a lot more.  The pretense is that they help keep my energy up—in reality, I just like to eat.  I write articles about once a month for the Cora Evans blog, which I always enjoy.   

And yeah, that’s all.  I’d much rather give advice than take my own.

In an effort to take my own advice, I’m going to write everyday on this for a week.  Writing helps me process things, and it will inject a little more spirituality into my day.  We’ll see if my will or my procrastination wins out on this one…

That’s a long introduction to my topic of the day: the importance of good teachers in the faith.  I’ve been plodding my way through Pope Benedict’s second Jesus of Nazareth book.  He has a mixture of spiritual reflection, deep theological considerations, and commentary on biblical scholarship.  Out of everything, I appreciate the commentary on biblical scholarship the most. 

When I took scripture classes in seminary, just about every teacher I had taught strictly according to the historical-critical method.  Marcan priority and Q were treated as de facto facts rather than theories, and many of the events of the New Testament didn’t occur.  One article by a Dominican “scholar” looked at the Transfiguration and determined that it was only an expression of the early Christian community’s belief in the divinity of Jesus.  There was also the popular, idiotic, unsubstantiated-in-the-text, utter nonsense that Jesus didn’t multiply the loaves & fishes—He shared what He had, and in turn, the whole crowd shared what they had.  I find it incredibly irritating, since I heard that in a homily one Sunday.  Take a look at Jimmy Akin’s beatdown of that moronic hypothesis here. I find it really, really, ridiculously irritating.  Have I emphasized that enough?  Why don’t Catholics believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist anymore?  Hmmm….

All that to say: scholars of Sacred Scripture are hit and miss, and there’s a TON of garbage out there.  I’m very thankful for good teachers like Pope Benedict, who can sift through the crap.  He gives a fair shake to the tradition (small ‘t’) of the Church, which few scholars do, in my limited experience.  In the Nazareth books I see a valuable resource in getting a full take on biblical scholarship.  Not agenda-driven, and fair to all sides—especially fair to the deposit of faith. 

And consider the importance of the subject matter: this is the interpretation of the divine Word of God!  Interpreting it correctly or incorrectly has huge implications. 

Let us pray for good teachers!