Safe Haven

I said more than a year ago that I would not support the Republican nominee if that nominee is Donald Trump. I said it would mean there is nothing good in the party of Lincoln. I reaffirm that today. And no boogeyman of Hillary Clinton will dissuade me. The things that are problematic about her are true of most Democrats, globally speaking. I don't care that much, or better said, I don't like to be told when to be angry, and with whom. My life experience now is among minorities, the poor, and the disabled. Trump is the opposite of solidarity with those people. I want to live in an America where those people still matter. Your bank account doesn't make you a winner or loser, your character does. It's true that "conservative" could mean many different things, from many different vantage points. I do absolutely know it doesn't mean this. What good is it, if a man gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? I won't. Not today, not ever.

I saw two of my favorite priests today. One has endured the great suffering of an unimaginable calumny, and the other is a noted spiritual director, barely older than me. The first man never let me forget the love of God, in those tough days of the second year of being reconciled to the Church. He asked me if I was still praying for him, and it was a true John the Baptist moment. The second is terribly fond of me, and I would be tempted to dismiss that, but he's so holy that I have to question whether he knows something I don't. He talked during the homily about seeing with the eyes of Jesus. It lifts me to consider that he's on to something. Christ has something special for each of us, no matter how much we hate ourselves. I could almost hear the Father's laughter, as he led me to the Sacrament of Penance yesterday. Let His love swallow up your unworthiness. Our sin is no less real, but grace lets us see the depth of mercy. And the bottom will not be reached.

When you receive mercy, you partake in this. There is no substitute. Yet part of the reason the sacraments are efficacious by the very fact of being performed is that we are not always conscious of being flooded with consolations. You really wouldn't want a sacrament to depend on how you felt about it, or about yourself in relation to God. One basic objection to the whole sacramental economy is that one could argue that God has accomplished everything in Christ in such a way that insisting that a sacrament as a sacred sign is necessary for salvation denies the reality of what God does. This objection makes sense to me. In that case, though, it makes more sense to argue that we don't need sacred signs at all. Practically, they can only serve as word-pictures for teaching things about God's deeds, and a person could meditate on those deeds without the signs at all, and most certainly so, with the great gift of the Scriptures. But is it true? Did God actually do things thi...

I was at the Audrey Assad concert/revival meeting in my town this past Friday, and Audrey sang: "You delight in showing mercy/And mercy triumphs over judgment." This prompted a friend to turn to me and ask, "Does it really?" And all I could say was, "yes." It's right there in the book of James, chapter 2, verse 13 . I thought it prudent, rather than doubt the rather frank preaching of countless saints, to explore the possibility that we do not understand mercy, if its triumph is understood in contrast with justice. Indeed, I think that St. James understands judgment there as synonymous with justice. Justice is an obligation. Judgment falls at the failure to uphold what is due in justice. Mercy ameliorates the consequences due to sin. That is, one interesting aspect of mercy is that it acknowledges that sin has taken place. Sin exists. Mercy cannot exist if the real possibility of sin does not exist. Therefore, any indulgence or forbearance that den...

I witnessed the marriage of my friends yesterday, according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. I have no other comment on that in particular, except to say that I remain less familiar and comfortable with that Form than I'd like to be. A very good man I met invited me to attend that parish more regularly, but I have a special bond with the Cathedral. [If your bond is so special, why don't you register there?--ed.] Why don't you finish RCIA? [Touche.--ed.] As I sat there among many of the most faithful Catholic families in my city, I had the sense of being the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. One day, I will be Tony to someone's Maria. On the other hand, holiness has but one end, so I do belong. As with many things in life, the spiritual life is not about where you start, but where you finish. I think the biggest thing that would stick out to you if you were a random postmodern person off the street is how serious we were. You may have rolled your...