Why the Culture Loves Islam and Despises Catholicism

Ever noticed how the government/media cow-tow to Islam and consistently bash and attack Christianity, especially Catholicism. Ever wonder why? Check this thought.

Basically in Gen 1-2 God presents Himself to Adam and Eve as a loving Father, who is to be trusted.

In Gen 3, Satan sets up God as a master who is in competition with man. ("He knows that when you eat of it you will be like him, knowing good and evil.")

Check these comparisons.

Gen 2
God = Loving Father
Adam = Son (Image and Likeness)
Law = Given for Happiness
Motive of Adam = Trust

Gen 3
God = Master
Adam = Slave
Law = Control and Power
Motive of Adam = Fear

So what does that have to do with the riots in the middle east and anti-Christian/Catholic bias?

Simple. Look at Gen 3, This is a summary of Islam. Islam means submission, submission to God who is a Master. Islam sees God as a Master who is to be served as a slave serves a Master.

The Media/Government/Culture sees God exactly the same way, as a Master who is trying to enslave them.

See, when a slave is enslaved to a Master they only have one of two choices:

1) Submission
2) Rebellion

So Muslims and the media/government/culture see God precisely the same way, they just take different actions against that same God; Submission vice Rebellion.

This is why the media/gov/culture will always cow-tow to Islam and attack Catholicism, because the fundamental world-view is the same, God is a Master.  While the fundamental world view of Catholicism is the Covenant Love that God desires to establish with His human creatures.  And He provides a law to those same human creatures to help them to remain in that Covenant Love, that Covenant Family.  This is much in the same way a human father provides a law for his children, for their benefit.    

Unfortunately, many so called Christians/Catholics see God the same way the culture and Muslims do, as a dictator who is attempting to enslave them.

Authentic Catholicism sees that God - Yahweh Elohim - is a loving Father who provides a law for our happiness. Our motive for our adherence to that same law is Trust in Him. That is just simply something that Muslims and the culture cannot accept. So they will always find comfort in each other.  Their shared worldview will always contradict the worldview of Catholicism. 

Nine Questions from Peter Kreeft

1.  Name the living person who has had the greatest impact on your life.

2.  Who are you?

3.  What is God like?

4.  What is the church?

5.  What is the church's gospel?

6.  What is truth?

7.  What is the meaning of life?

8.  What is death?

9.  What is the last commandment of the last apostle?

"It is Finished"...Unless It Isn't?

In the past week I got into a Facebook conversation where a person attempted to claim that Catholics do not believe that "Christ is sufficient for our salvation." Catholics believe you need things like Sacraments, Popes, Mary, etc, added to Christ in order to be saved. I asked him to provide any church documents which stated that Christ was not sufficient and as of yet, I have not received any. I'm not holding my breath.

When I asked him why the people on this person's Facebook wall believe that Catholics do not believe in the sufficiency of Christ, I was given this comment which I am paraphrasing since there were multiple variations of the same basic statement;

Because Christ said 'it is finished' from the cross. He didn't say you still need to do stuff he said, 'it is finished' and 'it is finished' means 'IT IS FINISHED.'

The all caps it is finished was not paraphrased. So what is the answer to this question?

Christ does say 'it is finished', but He doesn't say what 'it' is. To say that 'it' means salvation is an interpretation of the text. Christ didn't say 'salvation is finished' he said, 'it' is finished. We have to know what 'it' is. So what is 'it'?

We can know what 'it' is not. 'It' certainly is not salvation. Christ can’t be talking about Salvation from the cross because salvation is not yet possible. In 1 Cor 15 Paul says that if not for the Resurrection our faith would be in vain.

“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised…For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

So we are forced to draw two conclusions if we say that Salvation was sufficiently won when Christ said “it was finished.” Either Paul is a liar when he says that without the Resurrection we would still be in our sins or Christ is not referring to salvation when he says 'it'.

Since God is the primary author of Scripture and He can never tell a lie, it cannot be option #1. We are then forced, by logical necessity, to draw the conclusion that 'it' is not salvation, but something else.

So what then does “it” in the “it is finished” mean?

Night with a Dead Woman

The morning before my mother's surgery I stayed overnight in the hospital with her and she woke up about 5am or so. I didn't sleep well and I have the Catechism of the Catholic Church on my phone so I began to read it, asking God to help make me more knowledgeable of what His Church taught so that I could be able to make difficult decisions on her behalf if I had to. (I'm my mom's primary decision maker on end of life issues if she is no longer capable of doing so herself.) To say the least I could not sleep well. As I'm sitting there reading the Catechism on my phone mom startles me with her voice, "What are you doing?" I kind of smiled because here I am, three hours from her surgery and I'm reading about death and the dignity of the life of every human person.

I responded, "I'm reading from the Catechism." I always enjoy sharing the beauty of the Catholic faith with others so I immediately asked her if she wanted me to read it to her. Then I immediately realized reading to her what I was reading was probably not a good idea. "I assume you don't want me to read to you what I'm reading."

"What are you reading?" mom asked.

"I'm reading about what the church teaches about death," I answered.

"You're right, I don't want to hear about that," she replied back.

I believe it is important for lovers to have and keep secrets. And in a very real way my mom and I are lovers. The conversation we shared in the hours preceding her surgery is one that I'll cherish, pondering it in my heart, for life; and for death.

But I would like to share this. Oh that we should all be given a moment in which we are prepared to enter through the womb of this world (death) as we are about to experience our 'new birth' into the next. To have received Jesus sacramentally in the hours preceding our death, in the Sacraments of Reconciliation, the Anointing of the Sick, and most especially in the Sacrament of Himself, the Eucharist, is a treasure onto itself. Pray that we should all be so fortunate.

Small 't' tradition holds that St Joseph died in the arms of Jesus. This is why he is the patron saint of a 'Happy Death.' If my mom would have not made it through surgery on January 7th, 2012, she would have died in Christ' arms too; and no less real than Joseph did. Actually she would have experience Christ in a more profound and real way than St Joseph did. She would have died with Him really, truly, and substantially present, body, blood, soul, and Divinity, in a way that not even St Joseph could have ever experienced. Wow! What a testament to the loving God we serve. May His name forever be praised.

One of our reflections on this reality was that we agreed that we were so thankful to have been given the grace to live and die, knowing the fullness of Christianity, as revealed by God through His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. My comment to my mother was, "I don't know how one can go through these types of events in life without the fullness of Christ and His Church." My mother's beautifully weak, nodding head agreed.

My life's work, as is true for every Catholic Christian, is to help people learn what the Catholic Church teaches. It is up to each person to accept or reject that same Church. That acceptance has nothing to do with me. That is between them and their creator. It's all a matter of graceful cooperation. But I'm far better equipped to continue my mission of presenting this church accurately and faithfully because of this night spent with my mother. What it teaches I didn't invent, nor did any mere human man; a divine man did. And in the moments where faith is tested, there is great love, a few laughs, and many tears. Scripture says Jesus wept. And so do we. Scripture doesn't say why Jesus wept, but my lover and I know why we did. I slept in a hospital room to give something of myself to my mother and I got much more in return. That's grace. In our living and especially in our dying to ourselves, do we find ourselves. My mom helped me to find more of me. But I can only know myself in knowing Christ. Christ reveals myself to me by revealing what it truly means to be human. Mystery. And grace.

We have all eternity to rest. For now, there is work to do. My mother did make it through surgery and she's recovering very well. I guess she has more work to do. I do too. All of us Catholics do.