We live in a society where the answer to everything is only moments away. Whether it regards tweaking the visual settings on my blog, getting a new piece of software to integrate seamlessly into my studio setup, or finding the quickest route to Toledo, the internet answers any question I can throw at it.
So how is it acceptable to ask a question and not answer it?
What if this question can change the course of your entire life?
Such is the problem with many fallen-away Catholics in our culture. They'll come up with a few "objections" to the faith, and subsequently use them as an excuse to water-down or even stop practicing their religion.
These objections are usually far from legitimate concerns, and rather questions that people haven't taken the time to find an answer for yet. Some of the examples I hear most often:
"Why can't I just confess my sins to God? I don't think confession to a Priest is necessary."
"Why can't Priests marry? I don't think the Church is being fair."
"Why do I have to attend weekly Mass?"
Unfortunately the people who utter such questions tend to regard them as legitimate arguments, rather than intellectually lazy self-justification. Such questions are usually followed by a cynical or defiant facial expression, and the attempt to feel self-satisfied for being "modern" or "clever" enough to dupe the Church.
You haven't fooled anybody, friend. The beautiful Catholic answers -- spiritually full and intellectually satisfying -- are only a few clicks away. Just as easily as you can find the fastest route to Toledo, you can also find the fastest and fullest answer for your faith. It's all there, in unforgiving black and white.
Be it laziness or the fear of finding the right answer, you no longer have an excuse not to find the answer to your question.
Will God be willing to accept our lazy half-objections? In an age where the answer to everything is only a click away, will ignorance still be a tolerated excuse?
Monday, March 1, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Catechizing Culture through Ice Dancing?
I truly did not expect one of the most memorable moments of the 2010 Winter Olympics to come from Ice Dancing, yet the glory of the gold-medal winning performance is undeniable.
I had numerous reflections come out of my repeated watching of this performance, as I am not sure that I have seen a more truthful expression on the mass-media screen in many months. Here was an elegant meditation on love, on the beauty and truth and singularity of the male-female relationship, and of the epic journey of married life (which, incidentally, the music is legendarily claimed to have grown out of.) In a world where the very fabric of marriage is being absurdly challenged by relativistic thought and perversion passing for normality, such a stunning show of male-female complementarity only proves how viable the arts can be to catechize our confused culture.
The Catholic world should take note: truth must not only be proclaimed, but must be expressed. That is why God has given us the arts.
(Here is an older version of the same performance... hopefully the gold-medal winner will soon be available on youtube:)
My only disappointment is that -- after hours of banal music choices -- the announcers did not announce the title and composer of the piece with which Virtue-Moir skated to victory. The gutsy musical choice was that of the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony. I label it a "gutsy" choice because the music, slow moving as it is, demanded a thorough listening to be understood and conveyed. The ignorant listener might be bored by "slow" music, while Virtue-Moir expressed the intense energy embodied in Mahler's masterpiece.
Unfortunately the piece was edited to about half-length. Those curious in the entire meditation can listen to the following clip:
I also highly recommend the following DVD of Mahler's Fifth, with Daniel Barenboim leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-Barenboim-Chicago/dp/B00004UEE5/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1267295641&sr=1-2
Bravo to Virtue-Moir -- once again, we see how beatiful, tasteful, and edifying mass media could be. There is no reason that all of television should not have such depth.
I had numerous reflections come out of my repeated watching of this performance, as I am not sure that I have seen a more truthful expression on the mass-media screen in many months. Here was an elegant meditation on love, on the beauty and truth and singularity of the male-female relationship, and of the epic journey of married life (which, incidentally, the music is legendarily claimed to have grown out of.) In a world where the very fabric of marriage is being absurdly challenged by relativistic thought and perversion passing for normality, such a stunning show of male-female complementarity only proves how viable the arts can be to catechize our confused culture.
The Catholic world should take note: truth must not only be proclaimed, but must be expressed. That is why God has given us the arts.
(Here is an older version of the same performance... hopefully the gold-medal winner will soon be available on youtube:)
My only disappointment is that -- after hours of banal music choices -- the announcers did not announce the title and composer of the piece with which Virtue-Moir skated to victory. The gutsy musical choice was that of the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony. I label it a "gutsy" choice because the music, slow moving as it is, demanded a thorough listening to be understood and conveyed. The ignorant listener might be bored by "slow" music, while Virtue-Moir expressed the intense energy embodied in Mahler's masterpiece.
Unfortunately the piece was edited to about half-length. Those curious in the entire meditation can listen to the following clip:
I also highly recommend the following DVD of Mahler's Fifth, with Daniel Barenboim leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-Symphony-No-Barenboim-Chicago/dp/B00004UEE5/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1267295641&sr=1-2
Bravo to Virtue-Moir -- once again, we see how beatiful, tasteful, and edifying mass media could be. There is no reason that all of television should not have such depth.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Catholic Maestro
Here is a beautiful article from the NY Times, about the very Catholic conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/arts/music/21honeck.html?ref=arts
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
A New Blog, a New Beginning
It was last year during the Lenten season when I decided to give up blogging, seeking to reevaluate my writing style as well as my use of the digital medium.
Since then I have pursued other writing opportunities, all while keeping this blog in the back of my mind. Recently I decided to reestablish my blog under a new name. I have ported my favorite writings of old to this new format, hoping for a fresh start and a new creative outlet.
As the title implies, this blog will focus on aspects of public faith and culture, as well as what it means to hold and continually develop a Catholic aesthetic. I dedicate this blog to Our Lady of Czestochowa, who has ever guided my steps and remained in my field of vision.
Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
How to deal with the Progressive Monster:A Profile in Courage.
To my friends in the silent majority: you need not be afraid. Watching Gianna Jessen -- the survivor of a saline abortion -- stare down a room of liberal Australian policy-makers and deliver the unapologetic truth has struck a deep chord within me, and I hope and pray it has affected you as well. (I am including the clips below, for those who have not watched them yet.)
How cowardly we can be, blanching as lunatics dismantle Western society before our very eyes! How utterly ineffectual in offering -- or even bothering to learn -- the very simple answers to the so-called "big" questions which pro(re)gressives hurl our way.
Sure, the heat can be intense when the lefties get riled at us: after all, they believe that they are fighting for equality and righteousness and freedom. It can be especially fiery on social-networking sites dominated by young people. After all, modern relativistic liberalism (a far cry from the positive works of classical liberalism) is an intellectual disease which runs especially deep in the young, while thankfully only being chronic in rare cases. Still, the abuse is never pleasant. There is real and frightening anger there, as happens whenever a lost person comes to the terrifying precipice of truth. Simply witness the recent tirade of Perez Hilton against Miss California; the vitriol was beyond telling (and far from rare in such extremist circles.)
Yet we have merely to open our eyes to perceive the truth of such matters. In my time, my friends and I have taken serious heat and criticism for being a pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-religious kinds of people.
In others words, we've endured abuse because we don't believe that a modern culture should be able to dismember babies or burn them alive simply out of convenience. We've endured scandal because we believe that marriage is sacred and that sex is not trivial. We've been called foolish because we can't believe in the utterly mathematical improbability that all of existence is somehow a random occurrence. And we've been called bigots because we believe that truth is an absolute, rather than a simple matter of opinion. In other words, we've endured pain for believing in the very tenets which built Western society and made it great.
Seen from such higher ground, these fierce criticisms lose most of their power. The roaring masses become about as frightening as a lost flock of sheep, bleating in their confusion.
Just look at Ms. Jessen, smirking confidently at them all. If there is fear there, I don't see it. In her unapologetic witness to her own pain -- and her unflinching witness to truth -- she becomes a mirror for all of our broken society to gaze painfully into. She is the reflection of our brokenness, and the vision of a better way forward. Look at Miss California, accepting the violent tirade of Mr. "Hilton" like a patient mother enduring the temper-tantrum of a small child. In the end, he is no more threatening than that.
Be it nicely or with fire, we must not hesitate to speak the truth and defend the defenseless. Keeping our silence, we may serve our own peace, but we do not serve the world in the way which is expected of us. Just listen to Ms. Jessen's appeal to the men in our world, and you have my thoughts on the matter.
How cowardly we can be, blanching as lunatics dismantle Western society before our very eyes! How utterly ineffectual in offering -- or even bothering to learn -- the very simple answers to the so-called "big" questions which pro(re)gressives hurl our way.
Sure, the heat can be intense when the lefties get riled at us: after all, they believe that they are fighting for equality and righteousness and freedom. It can be especially fiery on social-networking sites dominated by young people. After all, modern relativistic liberalism (a far cry from the positive works of classical liberalism) is an intellectual disease which runs especially deep in the young, while thankfully only being chronic in rare cases. Still, the abuse is never pleasant. There is real and frightening anger there, as happens whenever a lost person comes to the terrifying precipice of truth. Simply witness the recent tirade of Perez Hilton against Miss California; the vitriol was beyond telling (and far from rare in such extremist circles.)
Yet we have merely to open our eyes to perceive the truth of such matters. In my time, my friends and I have taken serious heat and criticism for being a pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-religious kinds of people.
In others words, we've endured abuse because we don't believe that a modern culture should be able to dismember babies or burn them alive simply out of convenience. We've endured scandal because we believe that marriage is sacred and that sex is not trivial. We've been called foolish because we can't believe in the utterly mathematical improbability that all of existence is somehow a random occurrence. And we've been called bigots because we believe that truth is an absolute, rather than a simple matter of opinion. In other words, we've endured pain for believing in the very tenets which built Western society and made it great.
Seen from such higher ground, these fierce criticisms lose most of their power. The roaring masses become about as frightening as a lost flock of sheep, bleating in their confusion.
Just look at Ms. Jessen, smirking confidently at them all. If there is fear there, I don't see it. In her unapologetic witness to her own pain -- and her unflinching witness to truth -- she becomes a mirror for all of our broken society to gaze painfully into. She is the reflection of our brokenness, and the vision of a better way forward. Look at Miss California, accepting the violent tirade of Mr. "Hilton" like a patient mother enduring the temper-tantrum of a small child. In the end, he is no more threatening than that.
Be it nicely or with fire, we must not hesitate to speak the truth and defend the defenseless. Keeping our silence, we may serve our own peace, but we do not serve the world in the way which is expected of us. Just listen to Ms. Jessen's appeal to the men in our world, and you have my thoughts on the matter.
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