For several years before the pandemic I moderated an adult education course on the Catholic novel. It was a wonderful experience for me and apparently for many of those who attended the course. I cannot recall the number of years I offered the course. Perhaps more than 15 years.
I have been so impressed by Father Robert Imbelli’s essay in the November, 2021 issue of Commonweal, that I have been discussing it with friends, both priests and lay people.
Can Christians so influence contemporary society that the experience of Christians and even the experience of those who claim to be nonbelievers becomes Christianized? Is such a goal just wishful thinking, just a pleasant dream but a dream not rooted in reality?
I have been thinking about last week’s column that was devoted to the idea that the actions that a person performs reveal the identity of that person and also help to form and shape the identity of the person acting. The deeper the action, the deeper the effect. A vow has tremendous power to influence the lie of the person who makes the vow.
Often while discussing love and hate in philosophy classes at St. John’s University, I try to provoke a discussion by posing questions about what hating does to the person hating and what loving does to the person loving.
Because of some reading I have been doing lately, I have been thinking of the influence that contemporary American culture may be having on me and others.
Shortly after reading a review of N.T. Wright’s new book, “Broken Symbols: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World” (New York: HarperOne, 2021, pp. 128, $27.00), I knew I had to get a copy.
What a great blessing Holy Week is. That we celebrate it every year is a special grace.
If there is one thought that has been going through my mind during the last six weeks as I have been writing this series, it is the very important vocation each person has to participate in God’s sanctification of the world. We do not redeem people. Jesus did that through his life, death, and resurrection and is now lovingly present to everyone. However, we can share in Christ’s redemptive presence.
I am amazed that even today many people believe that science and theology contradict one another. I am also amazed at the number of people who believe that to know some reality in the best and most profound way is to know it scientifically. To know a reality scientifically is wonderful but it is also wonderful to know a reality philosophically, theologically, or poetically.
