Fides Et Ratio

In my philosophy degree, the first caution given to us was that of "double-ignorance." Its a type of ignorance that we remain unaware of. Today Christ reveals to us that He cannot cure this type of ignorance, when it results from our owns sin. We must come to a place where we allow him to teach us, even through people we never thought could.

Today in our local community of Stratford and St. Mary's we celebrate the solemnity of St. Joseph, one of the patron's of our three Churches.

God offers us Hope so that we can endure the dark times of life. He offers this to the Apostles as they go up the mountain with Him, and see His glorified nature to be finally revealed after the Crucifixion. We need to treasure these moments when we get tunnel vision with life's difficulties.

At the root of all temptation is a lie about our Heavenly Father. It is meant to instill within us a fear that leads to prideful decisions. During Lent we must uproot these lies with Jesus at our side who counteracts each temptation by speaking the Truth about His Father.

Every Lent, in Stratford area, an Ecumenical gathering of various Christian traditions come together to share a meal and have a guest speaker offer a reflection. I was asked to kick things off on Ash Wednesday, and here is the talk I gave. I might mention St. Thomas Aquinas, of course ;)

As the Church hears its call to be holy, we rise to the occasion to evangelize. A holy community is not insular but seeks to bring others closer to Christ - it seeks to draw others to the source of all that is Holy: God Himself.

Autonomy in its etymology means "self-law" or a type of self-regulation. In our culture it carries with it the connotation of defining for ourselves right from wrong through our own personal freedom. Yet this is not real freedom as a Christian understands it. Rather its pride, and its rooted in an enslavement to fear.

As a logical consequence to the sin of pride Envy enters because of our self-centred centrality. Envy is frustrated when others take the centre stage, because then we are displaced from our own centrality. Wrath then follows envy so that we can eliminate the competition.

Sometimes our reflections on the Seven Deadly Sins are somewhat superficial and only understood from an external show. In reality, the sins try to pass themselves off as something good. So here I try to briefly examine them according St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante.

Often there has been a debate between words and deeds, and which is the most important. Some argue that deeds prove one to be authentic. Others argue that words make the faith explicit. In reality, both fall short if a person isn't a witness, and doing and saying Catholic things doesn't ensure that one is a witness.

In all our discussion on evangelization, it seems odd that a stress on the Evangelical Counsels is seemingly omitted from our preaching. And while it is omitted, we also note that in some places, such living witnesses are absent too. Let's revitalize this vocation, as it is pivotal in Evangelization.

The Church is called to Go UP to God, IN to ourselves for reform, and OUT into the world to express the Gospel. But division gets in the way of this mission. Thus today, as we "check in with ourselves" we might ask ourselves what a Church in Crisis can Change.

I recorded the lesson I offered to our RCIA class on the Eucharist. This is an important one!!

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that there are two reasons for a lack of fruitfulness in the reception of grace: sin & error. When we approach to the Eucharist, and receive Him into our body and soul, is this immense ministry really bearing fruit in our lives? If not, lets examine some errors and sins that might be preventing such grace from being rooted securely in our lives.

Sometimes what we ask of God is actually an idol to replace him. Today in our first reading we hear that the Jews are asking God for a King, and this is seen by God as a rejection of Himself as their King. Our Gospel, however, demonstrates the opposite - with 4 men lifting a paralyzed man to the Real King.

Preaching the Gospel with the right Spirit is incredibly important. In our Gospel from Tuesday, January 14th, we heard about a demon who was silenced from speaking, even though he proclaimed the truth about Christ. But there is a deeper problem: when the truth is proclaimed in the wrong spirit, it leads to distortions of the whole truth of the gospel, and twists and malforms it according to other's envy and pride.

Our Baptism is of rather huge significance. In it we will find a spring of peace, in knowing God irrevocably calls us to be his children.

The Incarnation teaches us something important about God's perception of creation: it is good. Since God became one of us, this reveals that we are "very good."