Skip to main content

Reality Bites

The biggest temptation for any person is to live a lie; we all have moments where we just say, "Sod it all, I don't care." I'm the weakest person I know; my file on "sins of weakness" (as opposed to malice) is the biggest one they have, I'm sure. You might be able to say the same.

But I had a firm decision yesterday; I'm not going to deny reality to make myself happy; I'm not going to deny it to make others happy. People do this all the time. Getting along is easier than speaking hard truth. You might have to say, "Mental illness is real, and you need to face it," or "Abortion is murder," or any number of things. Not wanting to rock the boat could be an exercise of prudence, or a failure of fortitude, and it's not always easy to discern.

But if you let people continue in horribly unhealthy or immoral patterns for years at great cost to yourself without doing anything at all to change it, it's probably the latter. It's never too late to change it, but today could be the day.

People can get so deep in evil, they call it good, and call good evil. There's no direct helping that can or should be done. Just prayer. I was reminded that I might lose my cool, but if I can still pray, and with a pure heart, thinking of nothing but that person happy before God in Heaven, I have not truly been stained by anger or bitterness. For others, that reckoning has become a call to conversion, and we pray that God will not hold our unforgiveness against us.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Thoughts On The Harrison Butker Commencement Speech

Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that. Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does. Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point. Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Alyse

 Today, you’re 35. Or at least you would be, in this place. You probably know this, but we’re OK. Not great, but OK. We know you wouldn’t want us moping around and weeping all the time. We try not to. Actually, I guess part of the problem is that you didn’t know how much we loved you. And that you didn’t know how to love yourself. I hope you have gotten to Love by now. Not a place, but fills everything in every way. I’m not Him, but he probably said, “Dear daughter/sister, you have been terribly hard on yourself. Rest now, and be at peace.” Anyway, teaching is going well, and I tell the kids all about you. They all say you are pretty. I usually can keep the boys from saying something gross for a few seconds. Mom and I are going to the game tonight. And like 6 more times, before I go back to South Carolina. I have seen Nicky twice, but I myself haven’t seen your younger kids. Bob took pictures of the day we said goodbye, and we did a family picture at the Abbey. I literally almost a...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Friend I Once Had, And The Dogmatic Principle

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p...
Post a Comment
Read more