Touch Me

by Lawrence Fox

The “children (were)  being brought to Jesus so that He might touch them.” (Mk. 10:13).

“Where in the Old Testament is there an example of multiple children being brought to a patriarch, holy man, prophet, or rabbi so that he might simply touch them?” The homilist’s question was insightful. Let’s consider the request “that He might touch them” and more specifically the action verb “to touch” as it relates to man’s desire to experience the

presence of God through the senses. 

"Now show me your glory.” Moses desired “to see” the face of God. The Lord answered, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Ex. 33:18 & 20) Man passionately wants to experience God with his whole nature. In fact we are told to love the LORD, our God,  with our whole heart and our whole soul and our whole strength. (Deut. 6:5) 

This is because man’s knowledge begins in and through the senses. Man  abstractly understands the “form” of things in nature without taking the actual material into his

mind. He sees a rock, recognises it, but the rock is not physically taken into man.  This is evidence of that man is a spiritual being. He has a rational soul.

Man’s experience of things outside himself begins with his senses. We are not  born with innate knowledge (as taught by the Platonists). We observe reality through the senses and see that nature over and over again pursues a destiny of perfection. This enables man to reason that he himself has a destination (perfection). But man’s desire for perfection is insatiable leading to the reasonable conclusion that man’s perfection is not rooted in the corporeal realm but in the cause of all being. This desire for the source of all being leads to the Person of Jesus Christ.  

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (1 Jn. 1:1)  So the Apostle John shows that faith in Jesus Christ builds upon the testimony of holy men and women who saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, ate with Him and “recognised Him in the breaking of the bread.” (Acts. 24:35) This is in keeping with man’s knowledge of reality beginning in the senses.

St. Thomas’ profession of faith “My Lord and my God” flows from a request to touch the wounds of Christ. “Then Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting
and believe.” (Jn. 20:27) Thomas’ desire to touch the wounds of Christ is a complementary movement of the heart as Moses’ desire to see the face of God. 

Thomas is looking for something tangible so as to see with the eyes of faith. He reasons to faith while other’s assent to faith without seeing. The intellect of both remain in the state of inquiry until the end is reached (i.e. the beatific vision). Moses on the other hand wants to see, so as to increase what is seen with the eyes of faith. Thomas saw the man once dead and now alive, and so he believed saying, “My Lord and My God.” His human senses enlightened his intellect which moved the will to make an act of Faith about that which “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard....” (John 20:28)  Let us not fault Thomas. All men desire to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell the things of God; which is why God became man and dwelt among men.

Now we look at touch in the Gospel of Mark. Mark exposes  the reality of the need to touch God. He uses the word “to touch” (hapsētai) four times within the Gospel. The first is to identify the reason people were bringing their children to Jesus. A person reading these words may sometimes miss what is being made obvious. Like Moses, the people of God want to see and touch the things of God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8) and again, “Phillip if you have seen me you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Why is there this rush to see and be touched by Jesus?

Mark, a couple of chapters earlier in the Gospel identifies people in the village of Bethsaida, “...as bringing forward and begging Jesus to touch a blind man.” (Mk. 8:22) This

pattern of touching is repeated again when Mark identifies a woman -- subject to bleeding for twelve years -- touching Jesus’ clothing, “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his

clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. (Mark 5:25-29)

When the authors of Sacred Scripture repeat a word, theme, or event, the reader is being called to attention. For Mark the expression “to touch” testifies to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ; God’s Word became flesh and blood and was therefore not a bodiless Gnostic demiurge. As Moses wanted to see the face of God, the people want their children to be touched by Jesus expressing ever so deeply that the flesh of Christ is a cause for belief, a means for healing, a source of consolation and sanctification, and an opportunity for man to worship God in Spirit and Truth (Jn. 4:24) “To you all flesh will come with its burden of sin; too heavy for us our offences but you wipe them away.” (Ps. 64 [65]) Jesus obliges man’s request since,  this desire between God and man “to touch” is rooted in our creation. 

In the Old Testament, God Touches Man. Jeremiah the prophet writes, “Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.’” (Jer. 1: 9) Jeremiah receives his prophetic vocation as a result of being touched by the hand of God. God speaking through Jeremiah tells the people of Judah that He will establish with them a new covenant, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah...”(Jer. 31:31-34) When Jeremiah spoke these words, the house of Israel was removed from the Holy Land by the Assyrians (721 BC) and the house of Judah was soon be taken into captivity by the Babylonian Empire (597 - 581 BC). Israel’s and Judah’s restoration would be a miraculous manifestation. God’s new covenant with humanity including  the restoration of Israel and Judah would be manifested miraculously with the touch of God’s hands, “And Jesus took bread (with his sacred hands), gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you...” (Lk.22:19-22) To be touched by Jesus is to partake in God’s presence and holiness; this is true even for the most simple things in nature. 

In Old Testament, the profane is made sacred by touching the sacred. The laws and ordinances of Moses incorporated numerous instructions on ritual cleanliness and uncleanliness -- again what could be touched and not touched. (Leviticus 5:2-3, 12:4, 22:4-6) Sacred Scripture reveals that vessels dedicated for worship and which touched the altar of sacrifice were made holy, ”For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy.” (Num. 4:15, Ex. 29:37) 

Peter identified Jesus as God’s Holy One, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn. 6:69) Paul describes the people of God as earthen vessels who received a tremendous and precious blessing from God. (2 Cor. 4.7) Paul has in mind the image from the Old Testament in which things touched to sacred things become sacred things. Being touched by God and the things of God bring about healing, forgiveness, blessing, and sacredness. For example in the Book of Kings, there is the story about some Israelites

burying a man and when suddenly seeing a band of raiders they throw the man's dead body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. (2 Kings 13:21) Elisha it should be remembered received a double portion of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies all things. In fact, Elisha’s body was so anointed with the Holy Spirit that even his dead bones healed. But the touching of holy things not only brings healing; it brings forgiveness.

In the Old Testament, forgiveness and blessing are conveyed by touch. The Prophet Isaiah’s lips were touched by a flaming ember taken from the altar in heaven and he was made clean, “With it the (Seraphim) touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah. 6:7) The prophet Daniel -- while in exile in Babylon with his people -- received a vision of the Son of Man coming to him and touching his lips, “And behold, one who resembled a Son of Man was touching my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke...” (Dan. 10:16) Who is this Son of Man which places a word within the mouth of Daniel? 

Jesus who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8 ) is that Son of Man who touches the lips of Daniel the Prophet.  Here in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is the Son of Man who is now extending his hands so as to touch the children in the land of Judah. Jesus continually identified Himself in the Gospels as the Son of Man. (Matt. 8:20; Mk. 2:10, 14:21; Lk. 7:34; Jn. 1:51) 

Jesus is something greater than the Prophet Ezekiel who is constantly identified by the Lord God as “son of man.” The High Priest Caiphas demands that Jesus identify Himself to the Sanhedrin, “Are You the Christ, the Son

Event that occurred 66 A.D. recorded by Jewish historians.
A heavenly army was seen coming against Jerusalem
at the beginning of the siege by Rome that would end
in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

of the Blessed One?” Jesus replies, “I am,” adding, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “Why do we need any more witnesses? 

Being touched by the holy things of God imparts a blessing upon a person seeking the face of God. It should be noted all three Synoptic Gospels recount the story of the woman, who suffered with bleeding for twelve years, as being miraculously healed by simply “touching” the tassels of Jesus’ garment. The

sacred authors write, “She came up behind him and touched the edge (tassels) of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.” (Lk. 8:44, Mt.9:20)

The people of Judah bring their children to Jesus so that He might touch them; so that the children may become sanctified and prophetic like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Daniel. The people of Judah bring their children to Jesus so that He might touch them so that they would able to look upon the face of God, like the blind man in Bethsaida and be made clean like the haemorrhaging woman. The people bring their children to Jesus (the son of Man) so that they -- as earthen vessels -- may be made holy and sanctified to live as vessels upon God’s Holy Altar. 

In response to the faith of the people, Jesus blesses their children, repeating something which happened earlier in His life as an infant when He Himself was touched by created man. 

Luke writes in the Gospel, “When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him (Jesus as an infant) to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” (Lk. 2:12)  They are immediately met by the holy man Simeon, who is identified as righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit leads him to Mary and Joseph bringing the infant Jesus into the temple. Simeon takes the infant (brephē) Jesus into his arms and

praises God.  Some thirty years later, things are turned around. Jesus as the Messiah is greater than the righteous Simeon because in Jesus is the fullness of consolation. Luke by identifying the word infant (brephē) reverses the infancy narrative. This time people are coming down from Jerusalem and presenting their children and infants (brephē) to Jesus Christ (of Nazareth). Like with Simeon, the Holy Spirit now draws people with their infants to Jesus who takes the infants into His arms. Jesus who was identified by Simeon as being the cause of men rising and falling in Israel — seeing the movement of the Holy Spirit — now touches the infants so they may rise and not fall; He has become a father to the children of Judah. One of Jesus’ prophetic names is Everlasting Father. He is the Father of All Nations. 

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And

Everlasting Father 

 he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) In the Old Testament, the father of the family blessed his children, giving especially his firstborn son the blessing of inheritance. In Christ Jesus, everyone becomes an adopted first-born child of the Father. Jesus identifies his disciples as “children” in the Gospel of John. (Jn 21:5) The placement of hands by the patriarchs upon their children was an outward sign of paternal authority and the bestowing of earthly blessings. Jesus placing his hands upon the children and infants was fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah which identified the Messiah as the Everlasting Father, "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants--from this time on and forever," says the LORD.” (Is. 59:21) It is Jesus who gives to every generation the promise, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (Jn 14:3) Jesus blessing the children in the land of Judah points to Psalm 147 which states, “O praise the Lord Jerusalem! Sion praise your God! He has strengthened the bars of your gates, He has blessed the children within you...” Jesus’ touch is sacramental. We partake in the things of God by touch. 

When the apostles saw the people bring the children to be touched by Jesus, they attempted to mitigate the situation. Jesus was not pleased with their behavior and said, “Let the little ones come to me; the Kingdom of God was made for such little ones.” Jesus told Nicodemus that a man could not enter the Kingdom of God unless he was born from above. Jesus by His words and

deeds enables the Church to understand that the gift of the Holy Spirit as received in Baptism belongs to believers and their children and infants.

Jesus command his apostles, to “Baptize all nations...” and on Pentecost, Peter tells the people that the gift of the Holy Spirit is for them and their children,“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise belongs to you and to your children and to all who are far off, to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.” (Acts 2:39) Each child baptized by the Church fulfills the prophecy about the name of Jesus, “Father of the world to come.” 

Moses commands the people of Israel to “Love the LORD your God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength.” 

Man’s knowledge of God begins with the senses and in the fullness of time God became flesh to so that all God’s children might be touched by Him.

Truth or Consequences?

A Dark Churning Blindness Engulfed Humanity. It was called Nominalism

by Susan Fox

“‘What is Truth?’ said jesting (Pontius) Pilate. And then would not stay for an answer.” Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) based on John 18:38

So let’s do a post-mortem on Truth.

Let’s find its grave and dig it up.

Its final burial occurred sometime during the Renaissance, the so-called age of “Enlightenment,” when a well-meaning group of humanists despised and eliminated the principle of ontological truth — simply that “all that exists is true,” according to Josef Pieper, Neo-Thomist author of Living the Truth.

We wring our hands and pray for our countries, but we don’t realise that the end of modern civilisation began in the heads of our ancestors when “objective reality” came to mean: whatever the majority believes is true (consensualism or positivism); whatever technology will allow (materialism); whatever can be measured or falsified in an experiment (positivism); whatever can be experienced in your senses (empiricism); or whatever you subjectively decide it is (relativism, nihilism). 

Knock, knock: “Is truth a property of reality?”

Who’s There? Jakob Thomasius (1622-1684): “No, truth does not reside in reality but in the mind that perceives reality.” I love this one. Atheists on Twitter like it too. I always ask them to close their eyes, believe their desk is not in front of them and walk through it! Keep trying.

Matter speaks! “I am hard and impassible.” There is a Mind in which matter is an Idea. That’s why it exists. That’s why you can’t walk through it. That’s why your dog instinctively walks around it. But that’s so 5th century B.C. (old-fashioned) Ask presocratic Greek philosopher Parmenides of Elea, who argued that reality is a unified and unchanging singular entity. “What is” is. Period. 

“All existing things, namely, all real objects outside the soul, possess something intrinsic that allows us to call them true,” observed St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (1225-1274). And from his thinking, Neo-Thomist Josef Pieper (1904-1997) explains further that inasmuch as a thing has being, it has truth.

“To be or not to be, that is the question!” exclaimed Hamlet, but real being, which is true, conforms to the knowing mind and is not to be at all unless it is known. Only an Infinite Mind can know at once the totality of all existing things. “And this means that the primordial forms of all things reside in the creative mind of God, that the intrinsic forms of all things are nothing else but God’s knowledge somehow imprinted in those things,” Pieper wrote.

It is God’s creating Mind, knowing reality, that brings the objective order into being. It almost seems to work according to laws that a Master Programer wrote. Take a look at the recently published  book, “Theistic Evolution: a Scientific,

Philosophical and Theological Critique.” Featuring two dozen highly credentialed scientists, philosophers, and theologians from Europe and North America, this study provides the most comprehensive critique of evolutionary creation yet produced and it gives hard scientific evidence for Intelligent Design. 

Research Scientists Ann Gauger, Ola Hössjer and Colin Reeves argue that chimpanzees, which have 95% genetic similarity with humans, do not necessarily share common ancestry with men.

They argue for a unique origin of man based on the fossil record, genetic differences, the amount of time required to accumulate the necessary adaptations, and evidence from population genetics that we might have come from two first parents. They suggest species share genetic similarities because they have the same Intelligent Designer, who used similar design in different species to perform similar functions.

“It is stated as fact that things look like they evolved by natural processes. But things do not look like they evolved. (In molecular biology, there are) many good reasons to believe things were designed…There are also many examples from the design of larger-scale structures like the eye or a bird’s wing; even the complementary and interlocking nature of the biosphere all give evidence of design. In fact, biologists are continually told that they must remember that things only look designed— they really aren’t,” wrote Dr. Gauger, senior research scientist at Biologic Institute in Seattle.

In what way can this research contribute to a deeper understanding of human nature? Pieper brings us the answer. Reality can only be objective in relation to me if the human soul possesses the ability to potentially know the totality of all things, an ability placed in us by an Intelligent Designer, who Himself brought all things into being by thinking about them.

“The human soul is that entity without which we cannot conceive of truth as a property of existing things. Reality as such — and so everything that has being — can only claim truth (objectivity) if in turn the subjectivity of the knowing mind is seen as facing the totality of all that is.” wrote Pieper. Man is a spiritual creature so amazing that he can know potentially all existing things. And that's why reality does not exist only in my mind, but outside of myself. And I was designed that way -- made in the image of the Intelligent Designer.

A crocus pushes out of the cold ground in spring. It recognises what it can touch — dirt, moisture, warmth -- even snow. It has an intrinsic existence -- the ability to relate to its environment.

Wow, weeds are very successful at relating to their environment! I met Francis, our gardener, the other day. He was disgusted, holding in his arms long verdant strings of something he called “chicken guts” in German. 

The rock sits there. It is dumb. It is without intrinsic existence. But even lifeless things are alive in the mind of God.

The spider in my apartment races around the floor. Until he is sitting in an established web, which he created in a corner of the room, he does not feel comfortable. He knows the slightest movement of another being brushing his web.

My cat may go outside and explore its immediate environment, but she is unlikely to book a plane ticket to Arizona. Such an idea would never enter her head, and when she made that trip she hid under the airplane seat quietly. She was very frightened.

“The higher form of intrinsic existence, the more developed becomes the relatedness with reality…The higher potency of the soul the more comprehensive is the sphere of objects toward which it is ordered,” Pieper said, noting that the world of the plant does not go beyond what it touches. The insect or animal reaches as far as its own sensory perception will allow it.

The world of the spirit-endowed person, the “I,” spans the totality of all that exists. I can make plans, book a plane ticket to Austria, and go to school in a foreign country. Or

The "I," the spirit endowed person

alternately I can build a space ship and visit the moon. I can see a stone, and know it without pulling it physically into myself. Knowing a stone, moving to Austria, flying to the moon requires spiritual work. “The world of the spirit is the universe of being.” Pieper concluded.

In the words of anthropologist Max Scheler (1874-1928) “Such a spiritual being is .. not tied to a particular environment but rather… oriented to the world.”

Man has neither fur to keep him warm, nor claws to protect him. Unlike other species, he must receive care from his parents for many years after he is born in order to survive. But he has hands that allow him to fashion tools for any purpose using his own creative imagination. And having the cognitive power to reach universal essences, which are invisible to the senses, he has access to the whole universe. “Because the spiritual soul can grasp universal essences, it possesses a potential into infinity.” St. Thomas Aquinas speaks from the Middle Ages.

Reality is the foundation of ethics. Ethics is to choose the good which is in accord with reality. You have a chocolate brownie. Let’s taste it. Do you stick it in your eye?

Ouch, no the purpose of the eye is to see, not to taste! Stick it in your mouth. Yum. Putting a chocolate brownie in your eye is not in accord with reality. It is in fact an injustice to the eye. Those who wish to know and do the good must turn their gaze on the objective world of being, Pieper says, not upon their own or arbitrary ideas and models, not upon values, not on your own conscience. Do not try to invent new ways of tasting food! Gender ideology basically ignores these rules. By choosing to self identify by a different sex, individuals try to erase reality -- their own identity.

Strangely, the ability to know reality allows us to act virtuously. “Virtue is the seal of the cognitive power impressed upon the will.” (St. Thomas Aquinas) “The fundamental law of man is to act according to reason,” Pieper wrote. But if a man is not oriented to objective reality, his conscience does not have the tools necessary to judge moral good.

So when people in the Renaissance despised the principle of ontological truth (a transcendental property of all that is, involving the orientation of every being toward another being)  man’s ability to see and judge the moral act largely evaporated.

A dark churning blindness arose and engulfed humanity. It was nominalism, the basis of all the ism’s I mentioned earlier, truth based on empiricism, relativism, positivism, and materialism. It is the doctrine that universals or general ideas are mere names without any corresponding reality. Only particular objects exist. I can say this person is more like me than a donkey, so I will call him a man. But the Idea of man, the form of man does not exist in the Mind of God or anywhere. Nominalism makes you stupid. That's Pieper's conclusion.

By living only in particulars, testing truth by whether it can be measured or made falsifiable, man never asks the question “What is the meaning of life?”

Enter radical freedom with no restraints. Create your own reality! “There is no such thing as human nature!” exclaimed French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Believing his ancestors made up God, Sartre decided arbitrarily to erase Him from existence. This had rather tragic consequences because man was nothing — unless he made something of himself. Not surprisingly objective reality also disappeared. Sartre argued that man existed, but he stripped him of his essence made by God:

“We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees himself as not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself. Thus, there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it.” Sartre said in a lecture given in 1946. No surprise,  I found his quote on a Marxist website.

Pope Benedict XVI weighed in on the matter: “Sartre regards the freedom of man as his damnation…What is exciting about this proposition is that the separation of freedom and truth is carried through quite radically here: there is no truth. Freedom is without direction or measure,” 

the pope spoke enthusiastically in his landmark book on Truth and Tolerance. “Yet this complete absence of truth, the complete absence of any kind of moral or metaphysical restraint, the absolute anarchic freedom of man constituted by his self-determination, is revealed, for anyone who tries to live it out, not as the most sublime exaltation of existence, but as a life of nothingness, as absolute emptiness, as the definition of damnation.”

Being freed from truth, Sartre does not live freely, on the contrary his meaningless life is a form of slavery. Even worse he has encouraged others to live in slavery. One can see the ugly footprints of his thinking in the lives of countless woman who have suffered an abortion in the name of “choice.” Choice, isn’t that freedom?

Many times women’s mental health is imperilled by abortion. One woman showed me pictures of the fruit of her abortion, a beaker of blood. “See,” she said, “It’s not a human being.” She did not realise that she would look the same — albeit a larger volume — if she was all chopped up. Her loss of objectivity actually endangered her mind.

“The idealist ethics of the last century has largely forgotten and denied the determination of morality by reality,” Pieper wrote in his conclusion, “But ethical realism receives very significant corroboration from the fact that modern

psychology, beginning from an entirely different starting point, and influenced especially by the discoveries of psychiatry, emphatically declares that objectivity is one of the most important prerequisites of psychic health.”

Goodbye Aristotelian law of non-contradiction — one truth cannot contradict another. Hospitals today are fighting with the best technology available to save the life of one pre-born child, while down the hall another pre-born child is deliberately drowned in a bucket. Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) said that without the principle of non-contradiction, rational discussion would be impossible for we could not distinguish between a human being or a rabbit. 

That day has arrived.

Goodbye Ethics. “Is” and “ought” have suffered a divorce. Mrs. Right and Mr. Wrong are sitting in diapers in the nursing home. Yes, we mourn the loss of religion. But at least empiricism will fix my refrigerator! I comfortably have all the conveniences of modern life. Nevertheless, the real rot in our civilisation is our reason, which is supposed to rule our conscience according to truth.

Man — male and female wearing genderless pant suits carrying iPads — has become a mindless barbarian with a nonexistent compass for truth living under the “dictatorship of accidentals.” We have become cave men carrying — not a club, but a nuclear bomb. Craving absolute freedom, we have lost all freedom to Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Big Welfare Government, the U.S. Supreme Court, Government Elites, Gender Ideology and the court of popular opinion. How ugly the face of modern man, who was once nobly made in God’s image.

“The chance occurrence of a majority becomes an absolute,” gently railed Pope Benedict XVI. Think about it! The state of Oregon passes an “equality” law that makes it illegal for a bakery to refuse to make a “same-sex” wedding cake. A Christian couple, refusing to bake the cake, are fined $135,000, their bank accounts seized and they lose their livelihood. This is the tyranny of accidentals!

“For there is still such a thing as something absolute, beyond which there is no appeal. We have been handed over to the rule of positivism and of the erection of what is accidental, what can indeed be manipulated, into an absolute value. When man is shut out of the truth, he can only be dominated by what is accidental and arbitrary. That is why it is, not (Christian) “fundamentalism,” but a duty of humanity to protect man from the dictatorship of what is accidental and to restore to him his dignity, which consists precisely in the fact that no human institution can ultimately dominate him, because he is open to the truth.” Pope Benedict wrote.

But we are not open to truth. The prejudice against Christian bakers, photographers and wedding hall owners becomes common thinking in society. People on Twitter will fight to the death to defend the “gay” couple mistreated by the “evil” Christian baker. Look what happened on the issue of abortion! The baby in the womb is just a blob of cells, a beaker of blood left over from an abortion. Goodbye freedom linked to Truth. This is the dictatorship we live under today — positivism founded by Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen (1881-1973).

“Truth is replaced by the decision of the majority, he (Kelsen) says, precisely because there can be no truth, in the sense of a binding and generally accessible entity for man.. Culture is set against Truth.. This relativism, which is nowadays to be found, as a basic attitude of enlightened people, penetrating far into the realm of theology, is the most profound difficulty of our age.” Pope Benedict XVI declared.

However, while legislators elected by voters may still rule in some places, in the United States, six people in black robes created a non-existent right to same sex “marriage” on June 26, 2015.

Now we see the vile consequences of abandoning truth and leaving it up to science and majorities to decide it. Truth completely escapes us. And so does freedom.

“The idea of natural law is today viewed as a specifically Catholic doctrine, not worth bringing into the discussion in a non-Catholic environment,” Pope Benedict told the German Bundestag in Berlin on Sep 22, 2011. This came about because of “the idea that an unbridgeable gulf exists between ‘is’ and ‘ought.’” The positivist understanding of nature has come to be universally accepted, he said. In the words of Hans Kelsen, Nature is “an aggregate of objective data linked together in terms of cause and effect.” Hence “no ethical indication of any kind can be derived from it,” the pope explained.

"Virtue, ladies and gentlemen, the word virtue is dead,” said Paul Valéry, French poet (1871-1945). Let the “party” begin.

A positivist conception of nature and reason is purely functional and incapable of producing any bridge to ethics and law, Benedict told the Bundestag. “Anything that is not verifiable or falsifiable, according to this understanding, does not belong to the realm of reason strictly understood. Hence ethics and religion must be assigned to the subjective field.” Think Peter Pan, Tinker Bell… pixie dust.

Pope Saint John Paul II attempted to extricate modern man’s reason out of the mud of modernism in his 1998 Encyclical Letter Faith and Reason:

“Freedom is not realised in decisions made against God. For how could it be an exercise of true freedom to refuse to be open to the very reality which enables our self realisation? Men and women can accomplish no more important act in their lives than the act of faith; it is here that freedom reaches the certainty of truth and chooses to live in that truth,” the pope wrote. 

Starting in the Renaissance, countless human thinkers removed the concept of truth as “all that exists” to whatever people think without seeing the consequences. Their busy little brooms ushered God, human nature and reality out into the dustbin of history. Without truth, without God, without transcendence, man lost his freedom.

“The truth of Christian revelation, found in Jesus of Nazareth, enables all men and women to embrace the ‘mystery’ of their own life. As absolute truth, it summons human beings to be open to the transcendent (not subject to the limitations of the material universe), whilst respecting both their autonomy as creatures and their freedom," Pope Saint John Paul II wrote. 

“Christian revelation is the true lodestar of men and women as they strive to make their way amid the pressures of an immanentist habit of mind and the constrictions of a technocratic logic,” the Pope continued. “It is the ultimate possibility offered by God for the human being to know in all its fullness the seminal plan of love which began with creation. To those wishing to know the truth, if they can look beyond themselves and their own concerns, there is given the possibility of taking full and harmonious possession of their lives, precisely by following the path of truth.”

German newspaper commentator Jan Ross (Die Zeit) agreed with the pope. The loss of theology and metaphysics (philosophy dealing with being, knowing and identity) has made thought “not just more free, but also more narrow,” adding that some people are “rendered stupid by lack of faith.”

“Reason, in turning away from the ultimate questions, has rendered itself indifferent and boring, has resigned its competence where the keys to life are concerned: good and evil, death and immortality.” Ross wrote, adding that the voice of Pope John Paul II defending faith and reason, “has given courage to many people and to entire nations and has sounded hard and piercingly in many people’s ears and has even aroused hatred; but when it falls silent, that will be a moment of frightful silence.”

Benedict finishes that thought: “And indeed, if no one talks about God and man, about sin and grace, about death and

True humanity will fall silent

eternal life, any more, then all the shouting and all the noise there is will only be a vain attempt to deceive ourselves” while the voice of true humanity falls silent.

For me the tragedy is watching people deceive themselves so thoroughly. I often take time to speak to atheists on Twitter who see my Catholic tweets and want to argue with me.

The first thing they say is “Prove the existence of God.” I always say, “no,” because there is no way to prove the existence of God to materialists using empiricism. How do you prove the existence of a spiritual being using data that is measurable in an experiment?

I always assumed they were deliberately “setting me up” with this question. So one time I mentioned that. I was shocked. The atheist I was speaking to honestly believed because no one could prove the existence of God using empiricism, God didn't exist. She didn’t realise she had shut out the real world by her own philosophy and therefore could not find the truth.

Pope Benedict calls it the world’s windowless concrete bunker:

Artificial Life in a Windowless Concrete Bunker

“In its self-proclaimed exclusivity, the positivist reason which recognises nothing beyond mere functionality resembles a concrete bunker with no windows, in which we ourselves  provide lighting and atmospheric conditions, being no longer willing to obtain either from God’s wide world,” he told the German Bundestag in 2011. “And yet we cannot hide from ourselves the fact that even in this artificial world, we are still covertly drawing upon God’s raw materials, which we refashion into our own products.”

Christians can actually find consolation in the material world. Knowing that everything came from the “Eye” of God, one can find a connection to God holding a piece of wood. Remember the Mind of God Who thought of it, and in thinking of it, brought it into being. Praise God for its beauty, its texture and its shape. “Do not wander far and wide but return into yourself. Deep within man there dwells the truth,” St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430 A.D.)

With respect to Truth, modern man -- without Christianity --  appears to have buried himself in the realm of consequences. He now sees "same sex" marriage and abortion as an issue of justice. Children misled by this line of thinking, become adults, and then leave the Catholic Church because it condemns both.  They are trapped. They have been raised in a windowless concrete bunker. “The windows must be flung open again, we must see the wide world, the sky and the earth once more and learn to make proper use of all this,” Pope Benedict pleaded.

There's more on the same topic! Heat the World with the Warmth of Virtue, The Splendour of Right Teaching The Catholic Church Cares Deeply about Principled Philosophy

Bibliography 

Pieper, Josef. Living the Truth. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989.

Pieper, Josef. An Anthology. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1981.

DeLong. Jeremy C. ”Parmenides of Elea.” Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

http://www.iep.utm.edu/parmenid/

Satre, Jean-Paul. “Existentialism is Humanism.” Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre. Meridian Publishing Co., 1989.https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm

Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions. Translated by Henry Taylor. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004.

Johnson, Ben.“Oregon judge fines Christian bakers $135,000 for refusing to bake a gay wedding cake.” LifeSiteNews (April 27, 2015) https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/oregon-judge-fines-christian-bakers-135000-for-refusing-to-bake-a-gay-weddi

Pope Benedict XVI. “The Listening Heart: Reflections on the Foundations of Law.” Address before the German Bundestag, (Sept. 21, 2011) https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2011/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110922_reichstag-berlin.html

Pope John Paul II. Fides Et Ratio. Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1998.

Ann Gauger, Ola Hössjer, and Colin Reeves. Theistic Evolution: a Scientific, Philosophical and Theological Critique. Crossway Publishers, 2017.See bios of authors below. 

Ann K.Gauger is director of science communication at the Discovery Institute, and senior research scientist at Biologic Institute in Seattle. She received her PhD from the University of Washington and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard. Her research at Biologic Institute has been on both protein evolution and human origins. As director of science communication, she communicates evidence for intelligent design to the wider public. Her scientific work has been published in Nature, Development, Journal of Biological Chemistry, BIO-Complexity, among others, and she coauthored the book Science and Human Origins.

Ola Hössjer received a PhD in mathematical statistics from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 1991. Appointed a professor of mathematical statistics at Lund University in 2000, he has held the same position at Stockholm University since 2002. His research focuses on developing statistical theory and probability theory for various applications, in particular population genetics, epidemiology, and insurance mathematics. He has authored around eighty peer-reviewed articles and has supervised thirteen PhD students. His theoretical research is mostly in robust and nonparametric statistics, whereas the applied research includes methods of gene localization (linkage and association analysis), and the study of short-term microevolutionary dynamics of populations. In 2009 he was awarded the Gustafsson Prize in Mathematics.

Colin R.Reeves holds a PhD from Coventry University in the UK, where he was professor of operational research. He is a chartered statistician, and his research interests focus on the mathematical and statistical foundations of evolutionary algorithms, on which he has published extensively. His book Genetic Algorithms: A Guide to GA Theory (with Jonathan Rowe) was the first systematic treatment of evolutionary algorithm theory. Recently retired as professor emeritus, he continues to be active in research, consultancy, and conference speaking.

Stay Alert! The Lord is Coming.

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

First Sunday in Advent, Dec 3, 2017

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

Today -- the first week of Advent -- we focus on our need to prepare for the coming of Our Lord. In fact, it is urgent we stay waiting in joyful hope for the message of today’s Gospel (Mark 13: 33-37) 

"Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come," Jesus says in Mark's Gospel. At this moment, He is nearing the end of His life. Soon the betrayer will sell Our Lord for 30 pieces of silver. Soon a woman will lavish  costly perfume on Him to prepare for His death. Soon Our Lord will cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” But now, with only hours until these last things will take place in Jesus’ life, Our Lord speaks to His disciples,   “Be alert!”

We learn today we must be spiritually prepared. We do not know when the Lord of the house is coming. Whether Our Lord comes in our lifetime or at our last breath, stay awake.

We received a similar heads up just a few weeks ago  when we heard the parable about five foolish virgins, who were not prepared for the coming of their master.

My brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel passage is a serious wake-up call. What if our Lord were to come today? Would He find us watching in joy and expectation out of a life oriented toward prayer and righteous living? Or would he find us asleep?

Our society does not act like Our Lord is returning. They are keeping watch for other things.  A recent study of one pornographic site has revealed that it had over 90 billion video views and 44,000 visitors every minute of every day during the year 2016. Not only that, but, according to surveys, almost 80% of American men between the ages of 18 and 30 admit to watching porn regularly. Half of older men also confess to regular porn viewing.

In the times of Noah, people were not paying attention. They were focused on the things of the world. They  were eating, drinking, and marrying up until the day Noah entered  the ark. Then the floods came. Even today, there are many worldly vices waiting to distract us from the narrow road. And it is a very narrow road.  

Seek conversion now. Seek conversion every day of your life. Wait in expectation with the Mother of Jesus.

For example, this  is the 100-year anniversary of the apparitions of our Lady of Fatima, Portugal. These messages were given to us

to “be watchful and alert.” Let be safe from the harm the devil wishes to inflict upon our souls.

Devotion to the Blessed Mother helps us prepare for the Lord. She teaches us to pray the Rosary and make sacrifices. It is through our continued devotion to God through prayer and sacrifice that we will grow in our relationship with God so that He will keep us firm to the end, "irreproachable on the day of Our Lord Jesus Christ,"  as Saint Paul encourages us in 1 Cor 1:3-9. 

The Holy Mass is where Jesus is made truly present under the appearance of bread and wine. Let us therefore attend Mass regularly and never turn aside from this gift of grace. This brings us fellowship with God in His Son Jesus Christ. Let us also go to confession frequently, and avoid the near occasion of sin because the devil is prowling around looking for souls to devour.

My brothers and sisters, as we begin this Holy season of Advent, let us reflect on our lives. Are you living the teachings of the Church? Are you prepared to meet Christ? Our lives our short, and this world is ending soon. Therefore, we need to keep watch! May God keep our minds and hearts focused on what truly matters. Amen.