Posted on 09/17/2012 7:20:11 AM PDT by marshmallow
A priest I know does a lot of spiritual direction. Two of the men he was helping died suddenly this past year, one of a heart attack and one of a stroke. In both cases they were relatively young men and quite successful. In both cases they watched Fox News. And in both cases they had gotten into the nightly habit of shouting at President Obama whenever he came on the TV. In both cases, the wives believed – and they still believe – that politics killed their husbands.
Now that’s a true story. And it’s a good place to begin our time together today. Henri de Lubac, the great Jesuit theologian, once said that if heretics no longer horrify us, it’s not because we have more charity in our hearts. (i) We just find it a lot more satisfying to despise our political opponents. We’ve transferred our passion to politics.
My theme today is living the Catholic faith in public life, including our political life. But in talking about it, I need to make a few preliminary points.
Here’s my first point. It’s very simple. We’re mortal. We’re going to die.
American culture spends a huge amount of energy ignoring death, delaying it and distracting us from thinking about it. But our time in this world is very limited; science can’t fix the problem; and there’s no government bailout program. Life is precious. Time matters. So does the way we use it. And as all of the great saints understood, thinking a little about our death can have a wonderfully medicinal effect on human behavior.
The reason is obvious. If we believe in an afterlife where we’re held accountable for our actions, then that belief has very practical implications for our choices in this world. Obviously, some people don’t....
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Because a person's passion follows what he thinks is important. Those Fox News watching husbands understood the full frontal assault on liberty and decency underway in this country from the left and, like me, are mortified that it's gone mainstream enough to produce THAT president.
>>We’ve transferred our passion to politics.
Yes, “we” have. That’s why Liberation Theology and Social Gospel has infected our churches as a cancer and why many priests and pastors preach from the pulpit that Christ would approve of communism and that its ok to confiscate a worker’s wealth, at gunpoint if necessary, to redistribute it to the lazy because “that’s what Christ would do.”
We shout at the TV in part because our Christianity prevents us from taking up arms and doing what should be done to restore the Republic. Liberal theologians should be happy that we are shouting at the TV instead of shouting at them in church.
My wife can’t help shouting when the jug eared fool comes on TV. She was even reluctant to watch the 2016 movie because she so despises listening to him speak or seeing his face. I am not a shouter, I’m a doer, and I’m trying hard to get my wife to channel her anger by volunteering for the Romney campaign and local candidates she likes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.