Humanity has figured out many of nature’s laws, but we’ve never mastered God’s physics. We tend to generalize it to our understanding of Newton’s law that every human action should have an equal and opposite reaction from God’s side of the balance. For many, this illusion of balance gives them comfort. So do defined borders […]
Most secular humanists believe that human life lacks a cosmic meaning—and they are okay with that. In fact, they find it liberating. They embrace the void. It relieves them of worrying about an afterlife—and struggling with the faith to believe in it. A lack of faith in any kind of divine essence linked to human […]
The great irony of electronic media is how anti-social they have made us. Technology has taught us to isolate ourselves. Conflicts between “friends” that could once be resolved face-to-face over a cup of coffee now blow up into courtroom conflicts between strangers. Two examples made the news recently. James Damore, a Google software engineer, was […]
A church usher is like a hotel bellhop—without the tips. You really don’t notice us until you need us—or until we put a basket in front of your face for the parish’s weekly tip. But like a hotel bellhop, church ushers see their environment from a different perspective compared to the clientele. They see the […]
Some of our greatest masters of the arts were inscrutable. Their mystery is displayed in their works and by their lives. Such strange manners contributed to our fascination with their art. Salvador Dali, Picasso, Grandma Moses …all had mysterious ways about them that made their art appealing. Some suffered from debilitating infirmities, which they used […]
The Catholic Church has designated many saints as “doctors” of the church for their defense of our faith, but Jesus—the founder of this faith–set the standard for healing those whose faith was broken. The gospels are written by the interns whom Jesus took on his healing rounds. One of them—Matthew—started out as one of the […]
A recent documentary about comedy delivered a sad commentary on humanity. This CNN special, part of its History of Comedy series, introduces us to stand-up comedians—people who tend to crave love and affection. Many of them have been starved of it since childhood. Eventually they stumble on a rich source–by making people laugh. In preparation […]
This Sunday, as we celebrate Matthew’s account of the radiant transfiguration of Christ, we should also be aware of the apocalyptic subtext nearby. A few chapters later, Matthew has Jesus citing the prophet Daniel whose book also happens to provide Sunday’s first reading (Dn 7:9-10, 13-14). Together, Matthew and Daniel let us in on a […]
Some technologists are predicting that automation will displace human workers. It isn’t so much that machines are getting better than people, it’s that people aren’t finding and living their innate potential. It’s an attitude thing. Even employers of labor-intensive jobs say many prospective employees come into a job interview concerned more about the benefits they’ll […]
Adam and Eve were punished for trying to play God. Their sentence? Parenthood. In his wisdom, God designed for us this lifetime struggle to give us key insights into what it’s like to be God. It starts with birth. Newborn humans are puny and completely defenseless. Their survival depends on the parent’s love. Every nerve-twitching […]