The Passion of the Lord
To behold the Cross and to behold the truth are acts which can only be accomplished with the virtue of courage. The pusillanimous need not apply.
The Themes of Holy Thursday
The Holy Eucharist, the ministerial priesthood, and fraternal charity are intimately bound together in the mystery of Holy Thursday.
The Left and Its Problems with Language
God makes clear in Genesis that naming things accurately is an integral part of His creative act. We cannot have a beautiful and breathtaking creation if it is divinely misnamed. Misnaming creation is to introduce deception into what is inherently good.
Canceling Public Prayer
Cancel culture has now moved to the time-honored tradition of prayer in public, declaring invocations and benedictions as unconstitutional attempts to “advance religious doctrine.”
Where Cultural and Moral Relativism Intersect
What is the relationship between cultural relativism and moral relativism? In trying to answer this question, we find some remarkable issues converging. If we ignore these convergences, we will miss opportunities to improve upon the moral tenor of our personal lives and the moral character of our society at the same time. Allan Bloom opens … Read more
Declining Sacramental Life of the Church an Alarming Trend
Where are you headed? This is not just a question the cabbie asks when you get into his car in a big city somewhere in America. It is also a question we ask ourselves as Catholics. With Lent in progress, we know the answer: We are headed to Easter and we get there by following the … Read more
The Truth (of Christ) Will Set You Free
We mark anniversaries of events so as not to forget. We do this as a country all the time—we mark, for instance, the anniversary of our independence on July 4th every year. We do it because we consider the Fourth of July to be the birth of our freedom. Naturally, then, we turn to the founding … Read more
The Consequences of Losing Catholic Culture
One of the best essayists writing today is Joseph Epstein, the long-time faculty member in the English Department of Northwestern University and the former Editor-in-Chief of The American Scholar. Over the years, Epstein’s work has appeared in numerous places—sometimes with a select readership and sometimes with a more general readership. Epstein’s essay comparing the Chicago … Read more
Amoris Laetitia in Light of Theology of the Body
Pontificates are hard things to peg. When they begin, we can never be sure how they are going to turn out. In 1978, a Polish cardinal who had been an active participant at the Second Vatican Council was elected the 263rd Successor of Saint Peter. He was following an Italian (Albino Luciani) who had died just … Read more
Holding Moral Theory Accountable
The death earlier this year of Germain Grisez, the eminent Catholic moral theologian, made me think of the last time I saw something bearing his name in the media. To the best of my recollection, it was an Open Letter addressed to Pope Francis that he and the distinguished legal theorist John Finnis wrote on … Read more
The Best Preachers are Signs of Contradiction
In late June of this year, I had occasion to concelebrate a newly ordained priest’s First Mass. Following a well-established custom, this newly ordained priest had asked an older, more seasoned priest to preach the homily. Since we had already passed Pentecost, Most Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi—three consecutive Solemnities with rich and suggestive texts … Read more
Good Friday Reveals the True Revolutionary on Calvary
Every year, we are fortunate to hear two accounts in church of the Passion during Holy Week—the first one on Palm Sunday and the second one on Good Friday. The latter account is always from Saint John’s Gospel. On Palm Sunday, we rotate among the Synoptic Gospels according to Cycles A, B, and C. This … Read more
The Goodness of Good Friday
The goodness of Good Friday is not supremely evident until Easter Sunday. By that, I mean there is no way we can call a crucifixion good unless and until it is surpassed. And surpassed it is! The Resurrection does not remove Calvary from history. No, what it does is show that evil and sin would … Read more
Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper: A Sermon
Once again, our faith has brought us here to mark what Jesus did on that first Holy Thursday. We solemnly remember that night in the upper room when Christ instituted the Eucharist and the sacramental priesthood, and commanded us to love one another in humble acts of service. Tonight, I would like to reflect with … Read more