I haven’t been writing. I’ve needed time to sort some things out.
There are two things I know that I am. One is a Catholic. The other is an American. Like many others, these are the foundation of my being – the platform on which I have built my entire life.
As Matthew discusses in his gospel, I believe like the smart man, I have built my house on rock, which will sustain, rather than sand, which will fail.
Yet I worry, as it seems much of our world is sliding down the cliff into the ocean to be washed away. This problem seems to be rooted in our arrogant belief that we humans are able to set our own rules and guidelines for living.
This summer has seen some true storms battering against the foundations of lives built on Catholicism and America. Obviously there was the same-sex marriage Supreme Court decision. There have been three mass shootings in recent weeks, racial fights about a hundred-year-old plus flag, and of course, revelations about what Planned Parenthood really does with the bodies of aborted babies. Couple all that with ISIS, Christian persecution, sex-trafficking, Nuns being forced to pay for abortion, and there are fewer and fewer reasons to get out of bed in the morning.
Where did we lose our way? For generations, there have been both written and unwritten “rules” if you will, about how civilized society deals with such conflicts. They’ve been passed down by word of mouth. Written in our Bibles. Reiterated by popes and religious leaders. Some are included or implied on the Constitution of our great country. We should agree about more than we differ on at this late date.
If it’s not obvious to someone yet that ending another life is wrong, we’ve got problems. Yet in our cities, people die daily over drugs, debts, relationship problems, general arguments and just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our young women are sold a story of rainbows and unicorns on abortion, only to find they will live with unmentionable guilt the rest of their days. Others, ignoring natural law, question the gender God himself assigned them, daring to tell the almighty he made a “mistake.”
Society now believes morality is relative. That we make up our own rules for our lives. Let’s be honest here – most of us don’t have the mental, emotional and spiritual capacity to do that properly. We are selfish, power-hungry, and win-at-any-cost when it comes to what we want and think we deserve. Which, when it comes to being decent human beings, isn’t much.
I haven’t been writing much. Not that there isn’t much to discuss. I just don’t seem to have much to say about our obsession with rewriting rules we already know work and propel us towards liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Yet each day, the world gets worse instead of better. Because of us – humans. As if we’ve crossed over progression and started downhill to regression. Freedom is not about doing whatever you want when you want to do it. It’s about having the opportunity to do what is right when it needs doing. It’s about having a conscience that nags us, not a society that tells us WE decide what is right.
Until we get that through our heads, it would be nice if people stopped shooting one another, belittling one another and insisting wrong is right.
As For Our Home 