I remember the old teaching of my early years connecting sin to Hell. Our faith life was primarily about avoiding damnation. The great error of the early and mid-Twentieth Century turned God into the tyrannical hologram in the Wizard of Oz movie. Catholics did not hear of the love of God, but rather His judgement without love. When we talk about sin, it is disturbing that no one talks about that one—portraying God as anything but the Father Jesus taught him to be.

Let me give you an example: I taught religious education to public school students long before I even applied to the seminary. This was when my day job was working as a public affairs director of a local public radio station. I taught a middle school class about an hour per week and I greatly enjoyed it. The students learned what I understood about Church teaching and catechesis and it was far different than what I learned growing up.

One parish priest who did teach that old way of thinking walked into my eighth-grade religious education class one week, and taught my students the importance of praying the Act of Contrition prior to going to bed every night. “That way, if you have a mortal sin on your soul, you will not wake up in Hell.” He then dismissed my students for the week before I could even say anything. Of course, maybe I was too shocked to even speak.

He was obviously drawing on the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X:

59 Q. Is it well to make an act of contrition often?
A. It is well and most useful to make an act of contrition often, especially before going to sleep or when we know we have or fear we have fallen into mortal sin, in order to recover God's grace as soon as possible; and this practice will make it easier for us to obtain from God the grace of making a like act at time of our greatest need, that is, when in danger of death.

How can that portrayal of God NOT be a sin. Look at it carefully. All the effort to get to Heaven is on you. God will grant you Heaven if you have done enough to get there. You need be vigilant of the state of your soul and make sure you are always pleasing to God. If you feel you are not, then you are to follow the formula and pray that God MAY bestow his grace on you.

This kind of teaching is what changed Jesus’ death and resurrection into a special gift for only a certain group of people. The attitude leads to believing that few will be saved. It professes that Jesus did not die for all, in this teaching, he died for only the most vigilant of souls and you better be one of them. Most people will not be saved because they are not vigilant against mortal sin and never take steps just in case they had one on their soul. Lord knows they must have a multitude because we are all such grave sinners.

Jesus gave all he had that all may be saved. Who is not saved? The one like the narcissistic bad thief on the cross who rejects his grace to his dying breath. The good thief who repents out of his embrace of Christ is saved.

African Cardinal Robert Sarah cites Pope John Paul II in raising the problems of not having a balanced understanding of sin.

[S]ome are inclined to replace exaggerated attitudes of the past with other exaggerations: From seeing sin everywhere they pass to not recognizing it anywhere; from too much emphasis on the fear of eternal punishment they pass to preaching a love of God that excludes any punishment deserved by sin; from severity in trying to correct erroneous consciences they pass to a kind of respect for conscience which excludes the duty of telling the truth

(#18, RECONCILIATION AND PENANCE, Apostolic Exhortation of Pope St. John Paul II)

So, the issue is not preaching on sin but doing it correctly.

Our prelates are leaders in the Church but like all higher authorities, they are far from the front lines of the operation. The priest works with parishioners daily and deals with a more individualized pastoral care, those in higher positions of authority address the theology behind that pastoral care.

Whereas the Church will describe sin, citing categories of mortal and venial, the priest helps the penitent address his/her sin within the particular situation in life.

Being salt and light

Cardinal Sarah preaches against sin but also points out the effects of sin are not so much that an individual will end up in Hell; they are division and lack of peace in our world and in society. He explains that sin leads us into a moral relativism that embraces atheistic materialism. It makes us less wise in the divine truth and more a sign of division in our world.

This takes sin out of the individual realm of what will lead us to or away from Hell and makes it more an aspect of our existence. Those who embrace the ways of holiness will bring peace into their world, the more who do it, will bring greater peace. They will be agents of the Kingdom of God in service to neighbor.

Pope John Paul II, whose teaching Cardinal Sarah embraces, explained that Hell is that state of being of those who obstinately reject God’s mercy and love to their dying breath. It is not eternal the punishment for a sudden lapse of judgement or the compulsion of an addiction or even the fruits of lack of full maturity.

The truth about penance

Cardinal Sarah cites a pentitential attitude is not to “pay for my sins” so to speak which was a way of understanding penance prior to Vatican II but an attitude that opens us to grace that transforms our being to be more united to Christ. Therefore, a penitential attitude is about allowing God’s grace to transform us by opening ourselves more to Him. It is to divest of the habits that distract us from growing in communion with the Trinity personally and as humanity.

He also explains the idea that I work hard to turn from sin is not Catholic teaching:

To reject sin forcefully is a lifelong struggle, which we can sustain only with Christ’s strength and by placing all our trust in the merciful Jesus

Sarah, Robert Cardinal, Catechism of the Spiritual Life, p.137 Kindle version, EWTN publishing, Irondale, AL

For example, if you read anything by Cardinal Sarah, he exhorts us all to foster silence in our lives so that we can be more attuned to God. We develop a penitential attitude that leads us to seek not to beat our breasts everyday but to develop habits that open us to greater communion with God.

Turning from sin leads us to communion with God. That teaching is a far cry from the priority being to avoid Hell. Of course, we also learn that unlike in the Act of Contrition anecdote above, God is constantly sending his grace to further lead us from sin and to the child he creates us to be.

Cardinal Sarah teaches us to co-operate with God’s grace and the movement of the Holy Spirit, to allow God to transform us. We don’t fight not to commit mortal sin, we instead seek to be open to the channels of God’s grace in our lives by avoiding those sinful ways that close us up and turn us away from being charitable. Prayer is not rote devotions pleading not to go to Hell; prayer is to help us fulfill our vocation to be salt of the Earth and light of the world in communion with the creator.

We must cast away the attitude that mortal sin surrounds us, the devil is at our door and we must run to confession so that we do not end up in Hell if we get hit by a bus. Rather, to see the sacrament of confession as what it is, a channel of God’s grace to strengthen us to be agents of his charity and signs of his love for the world. It is to understand that sin acts like an obstacle to us being what God calls us to be and the Sacrament of Reconciliation strengthens us against those obstacles.

We then can see what the Eucharist clearly is, not a reward for being in a state of grace but that interaction where Our Lord gives everything He has to us and we offer every thing we are to Him. This leads us to more understand our role—to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, light to the world, salt of the Earth and to be agents of God’s love as we experience it in our own lives.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

I just finished listening to the podcast Dear Alana by Simon Kent Fung.

As a Catholic priest, I find the program heart breaking. For those who do not know, this is an account of the short life of a teenaged girl turned young adult deeply tied to her Catholic faith. She also discovered that she had what those in Catholic Church circles call same sex attraction. Her Catholic ties led her to desire a deep union with Jesus but also into conversion therapy to find a cure for her sexual desires.

At the age of twenty-four, in December of 2019, she committed suicide considering herself a failure and filled with shame. Her mother feels that her connection to the Church and especially to those pushing conversion therapy are at least partially responsible for her death.

Simon Kent Fung is also gay and also underwent conversion therapy to heal his sexual issues also to no avail.

Conversion therapy is not an official Church teaching

Conversion therapy is a psychological program teaching that homosexual desires are the result of various traumas in childhood, specifically due to a difficult or failed relationship with one’s same sex parent. It is not recognized by the Magisterium as a solution to homosexual desires, although, some (arch)dioceses use it in programs ministering to those in the LGBTQ community.

The official Catholic Church position found in the documents says nothing about requiring nor even giving a recommendation of conversion therapy or any therapy to change one’s sexual orientation. It does recommend psychological therapy. What the Church does say is that same sex attraction has an unknown etiology, that it is an objective disorder and that homosexual activity like all non-procreative sexual activity is gravely sinful. Obviously, these are not words anyone with same sex attraction may want to hear. However, there is nothing in Catholic documents that requires one to take steps to change sexual orientation.

Conversion therapy is based on a psychological solution. The implication is that all factors being equal, homosexuality is the result exclusively from environmental factors and family dynamics. Various studies found at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland seeking the etiology of homosexuality indicate a combination of factors may be involved. They range from fetal hormonal issues in combination with environmental issues as well. There may also be a genetic component but these are all in combination. One factor alone does not determine homosexuality. However, one conclusion in these studies is that homosexuality is not a choice. No known medical cure exists.

The call to chastity

All Catholics have a call to chastity including those in the LGBTQ community. The Church recommends certain steps to assist in that chastity and that includes Christ centered friendships.

St. Aelred of Riveaulx in his famous work, Spiritual Friendship, calls the highest form of relationship to be a Christ centered friendship that leads to a deep union with the other. This kind of friendship seems to be the optimal one including with sacramentally married couples. St John Henry Cardinal Newman and Ambrose St John appeared to have had that type of same sex friendship.

The Church’s call to holiness is not to a perfect way of life but to a deeper way of living and loving that goes well beyond the sexual. Only in Christ can one reach that level of union to which we are all called.

The pursuit of chastity which is part of the call to holiness is a life-long effort according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (cf paragraphs 2342-2343)

No one is perfect and Jesus accepts us anyway

It seems that Alana desperately wanted to please Jesus but fell into despair when she found herself confronting human weaknesses in her adolescent and young adult life. It was compounded by her struggle with same-sex attractions.

This highlights a real problem in some Catholic circles—a focus on a call to perfection, an illusion that everyone is living it but you and a belief that those who fail to be perfect end up in Hell. This is NOT what the Church teaches but some do teach it as if it is.

The thought of hell — and even less the improper use of biblical images — must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry “Abba, Father!”

Pope St. John Paul II Catechesis on Hell, audience 28 July 1999,

Even Paul struggled with his own sin:

For I do not do the good that I want to do. But instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. Romans 7:19 (CPDV)

I maintained for years that this is blasphemy against Jesus’ salvific act of crucifixion.

Paul struggles in 2 Corinthians 12 with another weakness. He understands God telling him he cannot be healed of this because this will keep him humble. Many describe this weakness as an illness, but I believe it was a sin. Paul describes it as an angel of Satan, I do not see that as an illness but a vicious temptation and maybe sin against which he struggled. From 2 Corinthians:

{12:7} And lest the greatness of the revelations should extol me, there was given to me a prodding in my flesh: an angel of Satan, who struck me repeatedly.
{12:8} Because of this, three times I petitioned the Lord that it might be taken away from me.
{12:9} And he said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you. For virtue is perfected in weakness.” And so, willingly shall I glory in my weaknesses, so that the virtue of Christ may live within me.
{12:10} Because of this, I am pleased in my infirmity: in reproaches, in difficulties, in persecutions, in distresses, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am powerful. (CPDV)

There are those in the Church who preach a form of Catholicism that is not what the Church teaches. Clearly, there are mortal sins and evil acts but what casts one into Hell is an obstinate refusal to repent of those sins not a recognition of one’s humanness while seeking intimacy with God.

The Church’s view of mercy

In fact, the Church has a teaching called levels of culpability. This understands that mortal sins are grave actions that one chooses freely with his or her full will. They cannot be caused by a compulsion, addiction, immaturity or any other influence that leads one to act less freely than their full will. The Church commands the pastoral minister to take all that into consideration when determining the culpability of an act.

Clearly, situations can occur which are very complex and obscure from a psychological viewpoint, and which influence the sinner's subjective imputability.

Pope St. John Paul II Veritatus Splendor #70

This will help the penitent understand whether they were more or even less culpable than they understood at the time of the act. Those who lead people to condemn themselves for committing a blanket definition of mortal sin reject that teaching.

This is especially true when the quest to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist is whittled down to whether someone has a mortal sin, leaving some in intense emotional agony of whether they should receive or should have received a gift so profound and good. Jesus clearly never intended our faith life to be so agonizing. The sacraments are not there to keep you out of Hell; they are there to strengthen you and heal you on your pilgrimage on Earth and in your service to Christ.

There is nothing in the universe stronger than the love of God and that includes the power of sin and weakness. It is disgusting that those who claim to be servants of the Catholic Church portray certain false teachings as legitimate. Conversion therapy is not mandated by the Catholic Church. We cannot perfect ourselves, it is God who does it. The Lord calls us, leads us and inspires us. The Holy Spirit leads us to prayer and opens us to God’s grace. That is Church teaching.

The person who suffers from what the Church calls same sex attraction should not fight against it to make themselves pleasing to God, but to bring those feelings into prayer that God will work through them for his own glory. This includes the reality that those attractions may never leave the person. That too is Church teaching.

The whole history of salvation is that God turns everything to his glory; to speak in terms that one must change in order to please God is an absurd manipulation of Church teaching. My favorite saying is: “The devil fears most the worst of all sinners on their knees in prayer.”

I write here often and maybe too often that those who push this focus on avoiding sin in order so that we do not go to Hell are doing a great disservice to their fellow Catholics and clearly misrepresenting God. Our mission is to offer ourselves to Christ and allow him to work through us and transform us despite being at best earthen vessels. (cf 2 Corinthians 4:7) He forms us anew constantly.

Our destination is to be united with Christ and we follow Him as He leads us to union with the Trinity.

Cardinal Robert Sarah in his Catechism of the Spiritual Life ( 2022; EWTN; Irondale, Alabama) explains that through our daily relationship with Christ, we learn over time what we need to leave behind that we might come closer to Him. That is through a lifetime walking with Christ that leads us closer to Him. It is a process that we entrust to Christ in his love and mercy. We don't offer ourselves to a tyrannical God who seeks to punish us for our imperfect existence.

God’s grace is always working in our lives to transform us daily and lead us to be more like him. We cannot do this on our own because only God, who is pure wisdom, can lead us. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We are not and we cannot find Him on our own. Any time we are trying to make ourselves good enough for Jesus we are doing exactly what does not work. We are trying to find our own way hoping to eventually meet up with Jesus.

True Catholic teaching

Dear Alana is a tragic story and one that also warns us against an aspect of Catholicism that is more Catholic but less merciful and loving than Christ calls us to be. Indeed, those who push this virtue without charity promote a type of Christianity creating clanging gongs and noisy cymbals such as themselves.

If I were to speak in the language of men, or of Angels, yet not have charity, I would be like a clanging bell or a crashing cymbal. (1 Cor 13:1 CPDV)

Back in the immediate aftermath of Vatican II, many angry with the changes claimed all kinds of teaching that contradicted what the Church actually teaches. The response many others said to them is just as important: “You cannot be more Catholic than the Catholic Church.”

The Church has good solid teaching on dealing with all kinds of realities in the lives of the faithful and it is the role of those who represent it to teach what the Church actually teaches and not what they want the Church to teach. There is always room for improvement through the deepening of Church doctrine, an idea that goes at least as far back as St. Augustine.

One of the lessons I use in confession when someone is struggling with any kind of sin or addiction or difficulty is: “Your greatest weakness is the key to holiness.” The focus on how wretched we are may be good for some hermit trying to pursue the ultimate form of holiness but that does not belong in the everyday life of good, albeit imperfect, Catholics seeking to know Christ.

We need to rejoice in the greatest of all gifts we have received that Jesus loved us so much that he gave all he had that we can be saved. Then we allow the Spirit to lead us down the rest of the path and let Him lead us to the trinity despite our imperfections, weaknesses, etc.

To those who are preaching their list of mortal sins that will lead people into Hell: Stop, just stop. The Catholic Church teaches that what leads us into Hell is refusal of God’s grace to our last breath.

He who dies in mortal sin, without repentance, locked in prideful rejection of God's love, excludes himself from the Kingdom of life. Pope Benedict XVI (Emphasis mine)

This description is hardly found in anyone who has any desire to seek Christ as did Alana, according to the podcast.

In the meantime, those who are struggling with their imperfections can bring them to prayer and the sacraments and trust in God’s love which transforms slowly but effectively. After all, isn’t that what St. Paul did, as well, in Romans?

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

There is an interesting teaching in today’s Gospel reading. We learn that Peter realizes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, through God revealing this to him. Jesus did not tell him, but Peter understood this to be a reality.

One of the great tensions between the Church and the world today is the source of knowledge. Although, there should be no tension, it is there from time to time. What is that source of knowledge? Human discovery and divine revelation. In theory they should go hand and hand but sometimes they clash.

Science is human discovery and we know we have yet plumbed the depths of what science can discover. Faith comes from Divine revelation which teach us what science cannot. We will never discover the levels of faiths to be comprehended.

We have a calling to understand both. Faith is about comprehending what is unseen and cannot be seen by our own abilities, science is about discovering that we which we can see.

We have a mission of disciples of Christ to represent that truths of faith in the world of science and bring them together as much as we can.

Science cannot disprove faith because the world we can see is a world of atoms and molecules. Faith as Jesus teaches us is about spirit. He explains in John asldfj that God is spirit.

So, we operate with knowledge to live as people of faith in a world of atoms and molecules. We have a mission to live in both worlds and be signs of them joining together.

When science and faith clash

When science gets it wrong, there can be a clash with faith and when faith gets it wrong we can have a clash with science. However, there should be no clash at all and nothing will disprove the other.

Let us take some examples: The Bible teaches God created the Earth in six days. Pope Benedict XVI taught that the account in Genesis is there to teach us whom we are, it is not a mechanistic account of the creation of the world. There are some who are what are called young Earth creationists—people who essentially discount the scientific accounts of the creation of world and only embrace the biblical accounts. That is faith clashing with science to make a statement that does not mesh with faith and science it is a wrong opinion.

The creation account in the Bible creates static human beings. In fact, Adam and Eve in Genesis would be exactly like us. However, that does not match science and it does not match the Biblical accounts later on. However, when we bridge the two, we see faith and science lead us to understand human reality that is more in union with the reality we understand. Certain forms of evolution are Biblical. Human reality is not static it is dynamic.

Catholics called to live both

We as Catholics direct our lives through a combination of human knowledge and revealed knowledge and we work together to live as people who testify to Christ.

It is essential that are open to both human knowledge and divinely revealed knowledge and not reject one for the other.

Our truth is a combination of both and when we live both we become strong witnesses to the God in whom we believe in a world seeking the truth on all levels.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

I am a United States Navy Veteran and, although I was a Sonar Technician, I am certainly trained in the use of firearms. Long a veteran of military service, I as a Catholic priest do not own any such weapon at all. I do not have an F.I.D. card, nor have I or will I apply for one. I believe in the Second Amendment but I often point out that it means citizens have a right to bear arms, not a requirement. I refuse to own a gun for the same reason Abraham Lincoln refused to carry one: He know he’d use it. After all, isn’t that the point of owning any kind of weapon.

Other priests would disagree with my position as I know and have known some priests who owned them and one who carried one regularly, licensed and concealed. However, I am not them, I am me. Therefore, for me, the recent picture appearing on the internet of celebrity exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger holding what I understand is a Sig MCX Spear, a deadly firearm, while standing in the sanctuary of a church or chapel in front of a marble altar with tabernacle, I find to be confusing. It is one thing to own a gun, another one to display it in such a sacred place with the church sanctuary as backdrop.

Protestors aware of the situation

Many years ago, I met with a group of men and women outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. They were the weekly protestors speaking out on behalf of victims of sex abuse. They obviously held great animosity against the Archdiocese of Boston. Surrounding them was the ever-present media, I simply went to speak to them pastorally and was the first who did, needless to say, my superiors were none to happy.

While I was there, in front of the cameras, someone pushed a small cardboard sign into my hand and told me that if I cared, I would hold the sign. I had no idea what it said, as I only saw the back. This is an old tactic in photography. With cameras present, someone quickly gives a person a sign to hold with a message on one side the person can see, unaware on the other side is a message promoting what the sign giver wants the holder to promote. I realized, I just put myself in a compromising position. On the other side of that piece of cardboard could be any message and I would be photographed holding as if I endorsed it.

What sign did these protestors give me to hold at that moment? ”God is Love”. I never forgot that gesture. They could have set me up but they did not. Yet, they held great animosity against the Church. They respected the situation and acted accordingly.

Fr. Chad Ripperger was recently recorded and photographed holding a deadly firearm in front of a sanctuary and tabernacle. In a video of the incident, he accepts the weapon and then at the giver's request, podcaster Sean Ryan, he begins his prayer before the program. He says awesome, as the weapon is presented. Catholic theologians teach: “Only God is awesome.”

According to Mike Lewis at Wherepeteris.com apparently, Fr. Ripperger stated in an interview with John-Henry Westen that the chapel is not blessed. I say, that is irrelevant. It happens in front of sacred, albeit unblessed, holy objects.

Catholics and weaponry have a history

During the 1980’s there was a battle between members of the Catholic community here in the United States and the Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman. The Navy was about to commission a submarine capable of carrying nuclear warhead missiles as the USS Corpus Christi. The Catholics said no because they were not going to tolerate a weapon of mass destruction named after the Body of Christ. Lehman insisted that would happen. Eventually, President Reagan solved the problem by naming the submarine, the City of Corpus Christi.

Forty years later, we have a lethal weapon displayed by a priest in full cassock in front of an altar and tabernacle. No one who remembers that dispute can remain silent at this picture.

I do not believe that Fr. Chad Ripperger is a veteran, so he might not be aware that military chaplains and medics may not carry firearms in battle by international law. They have to be guarded by a soldier. My own uncle, when a Navy chaplain, had to give the last rites to one marine guarding him who was planning to return home from Vietnam the next day.

St Paul teaches true spiritual warfare

St. Paul in Ephesians 6:10ff gives the ultimate teaching on spiritual warfare and explained what weapons must be used as shield, helmet and swords, none of them are a Sig MCX Spear or any form of firearm. Indeed, the weapon to be used is the word of God, which by the way, I just did. Designated diocesan exorcists tell me one of the most powerful weapons against the demonic, besides obviously avoiding doorways to them through occult practices, is the prologue of John. Another, which is more powerful than exorcism, is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. However, you rarely hear these teachings from celebrity exorcists, if you hear them at all.

Many people hang on every word that comes from Fr. Chad Ripperger’s mouth and that raises concerns.

In a recent post on the Catholicism subreddit, a redditor opened a thread on Ripperger’s (the poster misspelled the priests name to Rippenger) teaching that most people go to Hell according to the saints.

The idea that most people go to Hell is not magisterial teaching. However, many people believe it is.

As a Catholic priest, ordained over thirty three years, I will say even though a priest’s sacraments are valid, Fr. Chad included, obviously, only his teachings grounded in Scripture and Magisterial documents are valid. All other teachings, including in Fr. Chad’s case those that he gleens from demons, no one is required to accept.

I will also add that some videos ascribed to him are actually AI presentations that may not be his teaching and may not have his permission to use his likeness, although they are created to sound like him. This also adds to the confusion and indicates that a statement by the Archdiocese of Denver may be in order.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

There is a powerful aspect to today’s Gospel story. Here we see the Phoenician woman asking Jesus to heal her daughter and he says no in a rather rude way. She responds unphased by his rude response and he grants her the miraculous healing she requested. What can we take from this.

Jesus makes it clear to her, he is not here for her type of people because he only came for the Jews. He does that in order to discern her faith. Jesus is not going to give her a healing if she sees him as nothing more than a healer who happens to be Jewish. By pushing back, she affirms her faith in Him and through him the Father. In other words, she turns from her own gods and recognizes his authority as God. It is then that he heals her daughter.

Jesus came to preach the truth and the truth will set us free. He is ensuring that the woman understands that he is the truth and not a snake-oil salesman whose snake oil actually works.

A lesson for today

However, there is another lesson to be applied here. You are living proof of the fulfillment of the main prophesy of the Old Testament prophets. That Jews and Gentiles will worship the God of the Jews. Previously, the Jews were the doorway to encounter God. Pope Pius XII explained that when Jesus died on the Cross, the Jewish law died with him. Therefore, we understand that when he resurrected, the Jewish law did not resurrect with him. At that moment, we went from being under the Jewish law to being under the teachings of the Gospel.

This was a shock to the whole world of both Judaism and Christianity and we can see it play out in the Acts of the Apostles.

A new moment has arisen in our Church and like the old one from Jesus’ death and resurrection, it is controversial as well. It is in the process of synodality.

Synod of Synodality

Many people do not understand it but it is relatively simple. Our Baptism makes us active participants in the mission of the Church and it also gives us a voice in developing a deeper understanding of Church teaching.

This means that like the woman in the Gospel, we all must have a relationship with Jesus not only out of obligation but out of the nature of our being. We all must realize that God is dwelling within us and to be rooted in that God in our lives through prayer and action.

Cardinal Robert Sarah talks about the importance of recognizing and communicating with the Holy Spirit within us at Baptism. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit as he speaks with us which is why he strongly emphasizes silence in prayer. We need to listen and discern with others how the Lord is speaking with us.

This is controversial because many reject this idea seeking to follow an ossified and inaccurate form of Church teaching. Yet, the synodal process is actually putting together the teaching of the Church in an understanding that it is not ossified. It never changes but it deepens and we learn of it more when we do not use the past understandings of our teaching as set in stone but we take the foundation and find what is deeper on it.

Taken the example scientifically, we always understood the existence of the sun. That has never changed but our understanding of the sun changes everyday.

We always understand the Jesus is the way, the truth and the life but the meaning of that word we understand every day through our prayer and our action.

This is why our prime motive is not to focus on morality but to do as Cardinal Robert Sarah teaches in his Catechism of Spirituality to be deeply in touch with God daily in silent prayer and then act on that experience in our daily lives as we discover this more deeply. We plumb the depths of this discovery every day individually, as family and as parish community. This leads us to live our lives by a higher standard than just morality but in as agents of the love and mercy of God.

We all are in this mission together and we all have different roles in it. It begins by being rooted in prayer, that is absolutely essential and to live as the Holy Spirit is guiding us.

So, notice the woman demonstrates this when Jesus rejects her prayer but she brings her concerns right back to him. He then answers her prayer. We all have a mission to do this on our own behalf and on behalf of others. Bring it all to prayer and live guided by the Holy Spirit through the Church and through our prayer.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

This is an interesting time to be in the Church and one that has many traditional Catholics and their online supporters and influencers upset. The Church is deepening her teaching and that upsets and confuses those who do not want to see change. They do not understand change.

In the final report of Synodal Group 9, we see wording that makes those same people trepidatious. They understand Church teaching to be like a monolith that does not change and, therefore, they don’t understand that the foundation of it remains as solid as rock but it becomes deeper over the centuries. So the basics will always be true but our understanding will deepen because our existence is changing every day.

If we go back to the Sixteenth Century, we will find that our world is radically different now than it was then but certain things remain the same. The Sun always rises every morning in the East and sets every night in the West, that never changed. Our understanding of the Sun changed radically from then and before to now. The Council of Trent teaches that the Sun and Moon move around the Earth and not the other way around.

By the words heaven and earth must be understood all things which heaven and earth contain; for, besides the heavens, which the Prophet called the work of his fingers,x he also added the brilliancy of the sun, and the beauty of the moon, and the other stars; and, that they may be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,y he so ordered the orbs of heaven in a certain and constant course, that nothing varies more than their continual revolution, yet nothing is more certain than that variety.

x Ps. 8:3.

y Gen. 1:14.

Catholic Church. (1852). The Catechism of the Council of Trent (T. A. Buckley, Trans.; p. 27). George Routledge and Co.

We know now that is not true but we also know that this is the same Sun and Moon that affect our world today in the same way as they did millennia ago.

As one who works in the medical field as a chaplain, I am fascinated that the whole idea of washing hands before seeing a patient is relatively new. It began in the 19th Century, prior to that it was unknown. Germs did not change; infection did not change but how we understand them did.

The Synod of Synodality is not looking to change the foundation of our teachings but how they are understood in the current time, accurately, which is what is upsetting to many people. They do not want to see change.

Reading the document, which I am in the process of doing now, I can see a change in the orientation of teaching. However, it is not something unknown to Church life. The Church recognizes that the Holy Spirit works as He will but that two paths are common for the third person of the Trinity. They are a bottom up approach and a top down approach. These work together.

Together these two paths show us the workings of the spirit through the lived experienced of every day life. This is the origin of the bottom up approach. How are people living their faith in every day life throughout the world in light of what the Church teaches. Those teachings drawn from these times, often filter up to the magisterium and there they are studied, discussed and defined. This leads to the top down approach. The magisterium promulgates these teachings it defined and they are received and lived by the faithful in the parishes. Both approaches happen every day.

Both the Synod of Synodality and Study Group 9 are listening to the bottom up approach of the Holy Spirit and addressing it for future considering in the top down path of teaching.

So, for example the document says the following:

[T]he experience of the synodal Church demands that we listen to one another, opening ourselves to “welcome every person and all people.” Particular attention must be paid to those “who are most vulnerable, or those who are ‘out of the game’ or ‘outside the box,’ with a view to gathering their unique experiences (including those who are sick, people in poverty, those who are civilly divorced and remarried, people with same-sex attractions, people facing discrimination, victims of abuse and injustice, etc.).” This corresponds to an anthropological approach whose fundamental characteristics can be summarised as follows6: every person is a singularity, whose wholeness and uniqueness is constituted in relation to the other, to society and to culture, according to a profile that is both temporal and narrative.7 It is within all these relationships that each person decides for themselves in their original and foundational relationship with God, whether they are aware of it or not.

Those who follow a top down approach will say that we need not listen to these people because they are not members of the Church in good standing, which is incorrect. The Synod says, indeed we must listen to these people because the Holy Spirit is calling them through their baptism regardless of their current life situation.

This presents a clash between the two foci and it usually splits along traditional lines. The traditionalist will say we must not listen to them until they repent or regularize their situation and the non-traditionalist will say that we must listen to these people for God is calling them too.

Those who know me know that I stand with the latter group but this does not mean to abandon Catholic teaching but to see it at a new level. This requires good periods of silent prayer listening to what God says to us every day and being open to what God is saying to the Church collectively and through the hierarchy.

It does not mean to cast aside the teaching but to let go of the apprehension of disobeying God by not following the letter of the law. Instead ask the Lord to help us understand the call of the Spirit in new situations which we might have feared in previous years.

Let us take a look from the Gospels. Jesus contradicted the rigid pharisees when they demanded an obedience to the letter of the law. He explained that this makes humanity slave to the law as if humanity was made for the law. However, the law was made for humanity, so the law had to be understood and practiced in daily life within the context of human reality. This idea was too much of a challenge for the pharisees. They remained in their comfort zone and rejected Jesus’ call to leave it and to follow the way of the spirit.

This is what is happening in the Church today through the Synod of Synodality.

Following the Spirit’s lead

The Spirit calls us to trust where the Lord is leading us and to discern the His call by using ancient teaching as a guide. The Synod of Synodality calls us to leave behind a rigid obedience to the law and to embrace the path which may be at times scary.

This is a powerful time for us to stop and open ourselves to the Spirit’s lead. We must not fear being led astray, for He will not do that. He may challenge us in our understanding to go deeper. We may need to adjust our way of living the Catholic faith to make it more attenuated to the truth and less rooted in using the general rule as the only one to follow.

How does someone in an irregular marriage situation seek the same Jesus who calls them regardless? The traditional response is they are forbidden from responding to that call until they regularize their marriage situation. What if that is not possible? Then they may and should go to Mass but the general response is they cannot receive the Eucharist. What is the Holy Spirit calling us to do in those situations?

How about those who are in poverty and struggling so hard to survive or to leave poverty that they have little time to pray. Maybe they are not welcome at a parish because of being homeless and looked upon as the dregs of society. The Holy Spirit calls us to change this.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

Today’s first reading is one many use on retreats to talk about how one hears the voice of God. However, I would like to focus on a different take on this passage that we can focus on all the time.

God looks at us in ways that are beyond our understanding. We may feel we failed at some important task but we discover that whether we succeeded for failed, God is still there for us because he looks at us as his children.

In today’s first reading, we are looking at Elijah at one of the lowest points of his life and it follows his most famous success. So let’s look at what happens.

What is the backstory?

The King of Israel, Ahab married Jezebel, who is the queen of that nation. Jezebel is the most evil woman in the Bible. She is also a Philistine, which is a pagan culture. She promotes and has prophets of the pagan deity Ba’al. Elijah has a showdown with these prophets because they are worshipping Ba’al in the land reserved for the God of Abraham. It is a gross violation of his authority. Elijah wins the showdown, which is a story for another time, and orders the execution of the prophets of Ba’al.

This obviously angers Jezebel and in her anger she promises that he will be dead by the same time the following day. Elijah panics and runs. He keeps on running until he can finally run no more. He stops along the side of the road and tells God to take his life because he is no better than his ancestors. He has judged himself unworthy to continue as prophet. However, God sees him differently. An angel appears and leads him to the cave where we pick up the story. The angel says that God will speak to Elijah then.

This passage we hear today, is of Elijah in that cave. There he discerns the voice of the Lord, not in the great powerful acts of nature but in the gentle wind. The Lord communicates to Elijah his continued confidence in him and sends him back to do his work.

Where we see failure, God sees success

It is an important lesson because God judges our daily realities in his ways not in ours. Times when we may feel we failed, the Lord may see us completely different and still recognizes us as his children whom he loves and supports.

Mother Theresa said, it does not matter whether we succeed for fail but that we remail faithful. God addresses our results, we leave the results up to him.

This is why our prayer is so essential as we see in Elijah. He thought of himself a failure but he continued his relationship with God. God blessed the fruits of his work even though he lost confidence in himself.

I had an interesting question this week on YouTube. A listener to my podcast was surprised to discover that I don’t like the Baltimore Catechism. For the record, I don’t. He then asked me if I was also against the Catechism of the Council of Trent and I said that I was not against it at all, explaining the point. The Baltimore Catechism is a poor compendium of the Catechism of the Council of Trent. the current Vatican II Catechism has Trent in its foundation. I also mentioned how the Baltimore Catechism gives prayer a short shrift.

You know how prayer is intensely important in all my teachings and in today’s first reading, although Elijah believed he failed, he still prayed.

I discovered this quote from the Catechism of the Council of Trent as I did my research:

The necessity of prayer must be taught, a duty not only recommended by way of counsel, but also enforced by peremptory command, as Christ our Lord declares in these words: We ought always to pray.

Catechism of the Council of Trent Part IV, Question 1, Chapter 2

When things go right, pray. when things go wrong pray and do not assume that God considers that you failed when you feel something went against your plans. Trust that God continues his mission in your life and continue in your prayer.

Fr. Tom DiLorenzo used to teach that the greatest tool of the devil is discouragement. When you feel you failed and are ready to give up. God sees both our successes and failures differently and we can trust this.

Elijah looked at himself as a total failure. God saw things differently and restored his strength and his confidence. Our prayer helps us to continue serving God and to allow him to judge our results by his standards and not by our own.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

Imagine this scenario: there is a great storm and wind is blowing at hurricane strength. You discover water falling from the room onto your bed because a tile has just blown off your roof. Now you know you have to go get a bucket and move your bed to prevent further damage by this flowing water. You are afraid you might lose the whole roof. A tree outside falls and lands inches from your house and you hope just to weather the storm. At that point, someone comes to you who also lives in the house and tells you that God loves you. At that point would you care?

Obviously, you are intensely distracted but that is part of the message. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. God’s love is constant and it is unconditional. That is according to Pope Benedict in Spe Salvi. Further, that message is the most important message you can receive and so many do not know it.

Pope Benedict XVI taught:

The human being needs unconditional love. He needs the certainty which makes him say: “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38- 39). If this absolute love exists, with its absolute certainty, then—only then—is man “redeemed”, whatever should happen to him in his particular circumstances. This is what it means to say: Jesus Christ has “redeemed” us. Through him we have become certain of God, a God who is not a remote “first cause” of the world, because his only-begotten Son has become man and of him everyone can say: “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).—Pope Benedict XVI Spe Salvi #26

The most important message

There is no other message in this world as important as the fact that God loves you. That love is a powerful force and it is a constant. What changes is our understanding of it. Our whole world is built on an understanding of conditional love. If you fit a certain mold, then you are loveable and if you don’t you are not loveable.

That teaching is destructive because it creates a whole group of unloveable people and those who feel unloved or unloveable become more unloveable. They become hardened against the world and turn angry and bitter. The person who can stand in the love of God who the power to do God’s work and to transform the hardest of evil humans because love is that powerful a force. This is why a focus on doing the right thing without a grounding in God's love is so dangerous. It teaches good behavior without love and that leads to legalism, the belief of the pharisees.

St Paul makes the case

St. Paul today writing to the Romans makes this statement to a world that could not understand it without Christ. Do you think the Romans understand the concept of unconditional love, especially from their gods. Probably not. So, St. Paul is making a statement that is revolutionary for its time and for ours. There is nothing that will separate you from the love of God. You can separate yourself from loving God but even then He will not stop loving you.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that our mission is to please God and we please God by loving human beings. However, it is not totally on us. It is a team effort, we see that clearly in the scriptures, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. We learn to love when we encounter the most difficult and demanding. Those are the people that drive us to prayer because they can be difficult and demanding.

The two extremes

Remember also that we fall between two extremes all the time. When we choose to love, then we act accordingly and there is no law against what we do. When we reject love then we are subject to the human and divine laws and they force obedience at the expense of retribution. The Catechism also teaches that through prayer we co-operate with God’s grace for the human race. So we must be people of prayer, real prayer so that we may act in union with God’s will.

Those who do not understand this respond to God conditionally. They speak of those who are not deserving of God’s love. I read a comment this week from someone who complained about the Vatican II Church teaching that all humans beings have dignity. Wow, complaining about this teaching and calling them a good Catholic. Wow! He needs some serious catechism. However, where does the Church get that teaching—right here in this passage among others.

People whom we can believe as humans do not deserve God’s love, we discover that yes God even loves them because God is love, which St. Paul also teaches. So we must act accordingly.

This week there was a disturbing photo distributed on the internet of a celebrity exorcist holding a deadly firearm in front of the sanctuary of a Catholic Church and a tabernacle. Obviously, it was concerning but some people took that as permission to act accordingly. That attitude comes from a false understanding that God’s love is conditional on people’s behavior and, therefore, so should we display conditional love.

However, we have a mandate by our baptism to love all and we can only do that if we are serious about prayer in our lives. This is why I get irritated when people speak of morality. Morality is important but you can live a moral life and not a loving one. Many people do. God calls us to understand his love for all so that we too can act lovingly and when we do that, we act in true morality which is actually a higher standard than traditional morality. That is because we act on God’s love.

So, St. Paul tells us that God’s love is constant and nothing can separate us from it. We have a mission to be people of prayer so that we can experience that love, experience it, share it and live it in Christ.

Then we learn that no matter how strong that hurricane is, its power is still less than understanding that God’s love is constant and unconditional in our lives.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

You can read the above post from Fr. Paul Fliss, of the Sheboygan Catholic Parishes in Wisconsin. As you can see, he allowed the Latin Mass to continue, however, he emphasizes the Pope Paul VI Mass also known as the Vatican II Mass. (Novus Ordo is a pejorative).

According to Fr. Fliss, the point of the Pope Paul VI Mass is to help Catholics deepen their faith through actively participating in the liturgy which leads them to minister and to serve others as baptized Catholics.

He explains this is a deeper faith than one can find in the Pope John XXIII Mass of 1962. In that Mass, the priest says prayers privately, the Mass is in Latin, which at one time was the vernacular and the people focused, as he says, on private devotions collectively.

You can imagine this led to a great backlash on social media. Among the comments is the usual clown Mass claim—as in [Novus Ordo] Masses are at times are clown Masses. For those who do not know, a clown mass is a Mass where the celebrant and the Mass servers and ministers such as lectors dress as clowns. I have been a Catholic for most of my 68 years in several states and countries and I never in my life actually saw a clown Mass.

One prominent Catholic blogger said I supported clown masses because he misunderstood my statement that I support clowns going to Mass. In Florida, there is a parish where many circus performers attend Mass as they live there especially in the off season. So, they are clowns, not in their “uniform” who go to Mass but that does not make it a clown mass.

Two different cultures

The Pope John XXIII Mass has a culture commonly seen in social media in which Catholics listen to priests speak to them about sin and Hell. Parishioners take that as Catholic teaching. Many believe mortal sins are common, few are saved and missing Mass once can end someone in Hell for all eternity, if they got hit by a bus. I suspect that is more part of the American culture surrounding extraordinary form.

This is not Catholic teaching and never was. However, many understand it to be what the Church actually teaches and many priests preach it as if it is actual Church teaching. Clearly there are mortal sins, the term has its origin in the 1John.

All that is iniquity is sin. But there is a sin unto death. (1 John5:16 CPDV)

For the record St. John does not define what that sin is. What I would guess it is an obstinate attitude of rejecting God’s grace unto death, which is also backed up by Catholic teaching.

All over Catholic social media, you can read or hear of sins that will cast you into Hell. This is especially true in traditionalist accounts. There are no sins that casts you into Hell. What causes someone to go to Hell is an obstinate refusal to repent to your dying breath. So, obviously, there are sins that are gravely serious but it is not the sin that condemns you to Hell. It is the refusal to repent because you love the sin more than God, that is idolatry.

Besides reading the Catechism on Hell, you can not do much better than reading Pope St. John Paul II’s catechism on it from July 1999. The previous week, he preached on Heaven and the week after he preached on Purgatory. All three are excellent teachings, obviously.

If you understand what Jesus did in order for you to be saved, how does that idea that it takes little for one to be condemned to Hell make sense? I would venture to guess this is more common now in Extraordinary Form communities, especially in the United States than it was in the 1800’s. Of course, you can also find it in some Pope Paul VI Mass communities. In either case, it is important to learn what the Church actually teaches instead what Fr. X or Dr Y or University B teaches.

I can speak as one who gives the Sacrament of the Sick and Last Rites regularly as part of ministry to two hospitals. God’s mercy is always reaching out to bring salvation to all who seek it.

Remember, part of the Last Rites is the Apostolic Pardon, usually given to those patients whose death is imminent. Special note: do not let anyone deny the priest from giving you the Last Rites if it is your will to receive them.

A focus on strong personal and liturgical prayer

The Pope Paul VI Mass teaches Catholics to be more familiar with scripture and to build on strong personal and liturgical prayer. Our true goal in either Mass is to eliminate obedience out of fear of Hell and embrace living out of love for God and loving neighbor after all, that is what fulfills the law. We can also focus on understanding God’s love for us as we seek to deepen our love for Him.

One way this happens is through the change in reading cycles. The Sunday cycle of readings in the Pope John XXIII Mass lasts only one year—52 Sundays and the additional holydays. In the Pope Paul VI Mass there is a three year cycle of readings. Daily Masses have a two-year cycle in the Pope Paul VI Mass and one in the Pope John XXIII. This is because the Pope Paul VI Mass emphasizes the Word of God AND the Eucharist. Whereas the main emphasis in the Pope John XXIII Mass is specifically the Eucharist. The readings are proclaimed in Latin. The Gospel is proclaimed in English only after it is proclaimed in Latin, as I remember from the pre-Vatican II days.

The reason for these rubrics is obvious; many were illiterate in the Sixteenth Century and so the visual was more important than the written word as the Eucharist was better understood for its presence without a recourse to words. Stained glass windows taught the faith to the illiterate who could meditate upon and appreciate their message.

Neither Mass should lead one to deepen their faith more or less than the other but the culture surrounding the Latin Mass can be one of obedience, fear and a loss of sense of what Jesus did for us at the behest of the Father.

As one man told me from the generation born between the two world wars, “We didn’t learn this God is love stuff, we learned that God was to be feared.” Later the same man indicated he believed in reincarnation because one could not possibly be good enough to get to Heaven in one lifetime. This is a whole complete misunderstanding of the Catholic message.

The Pope John XXIII Mass includes a sermon by the priest and the Pope Paul VI Mass includes a homily. What is the difference? A sermon is a talk during a Mass focusing on a religious or moral topic, it can have no relation to the readings whatsoever. A homily focuses on a teaching based on scripture at the Mass or even the prayers. So, a priest can use the sermon to teach anything on scripture or morality, etc., at the Pope John XXIII Mass. The priest or deacon should use the homily to teach on faith and morality rooted in the scriptures or prayers at that Mass. If you read my homilies posted here, you will notice I do that exactly. By the way, I research my homilies every week using Verbum (not a paid endorsement) which is great Catholic software from Logos to do great research for writing a homily.

Many will claim that the Pope John XXIII Mass is the one we should use because it is the ancient Mass that all Catholics celebrated since the time of the apostles. That is actually not true. That Mass built on the liturgies over the centuries was formalized to ensure that variations common at the time were removed and the uniform Mass in Latin was the standard. The reason was in response to the confusion created by the Protestant Reformation. So, the focus was on helping people to understand what the Church actually teaches and to strengthen the faithful in light of the surrounding actions by Martin Luther’s followers, et. al.

Our call is to love God and neighbor

Let us take an example: If you listen to many traditional Catholics, you will learn that the worst of all sins are sins of the flesh. However, St. Jean Vianney taught that among the worst of all sins is detraction which is speaking ill of another, even if it is true. The internet traffics in detraction but rarely is that sin mentioned today in Catholic circles. This would make cyberbullying one of the worst of all sins, yet, how many on social media practice cyberbullying. Even more so, how many priests preach against it. In Massachusetts, it is a crime and if cyberbullying leads to grave actions such as suicide, it is a felony. In other states it is not even a crime, even if it leads to the suicide of the cyberbullied which it has in some cases. However, it is still a grave sin regardless of outcome.

Fr. Fliss highlights that the two liturgical traditions come from two different cultures and two different views of Catholic teaching, tradition, salvation, sin and God’s mercy.

He is resolving the current rift by strengthening the ordinary form and de-emphasizing the extra-ordinary form. That is the most practical solution at this time, at least until both cultures and get on the same page.

However, those who want to have a more reverent liturgy and only go to the Pope John XXIII Mass take their voice for a better liturgy away. In fact, building strong liturgies with the Pope Paul VI Mass has been requested from the Vatican for sixty years. If the deeper participation of the Ordinary Form mixes with the more focus on reverence of the Extraordinary Form, you may see something that brings more unity between the two sides and builds a more reverent Mass.

In my last parish, I was asked to have guitars at Mass by the older people who attend. I love them, however, I knew that was more from my generation and not what Catholics wanted to have today, so I said no and we continued with more traditional music. I even brought in chanting the responses including the Our Father and the people chanted their parts in the responses which sounds wonderful. This is taking the desire of those who prefer the Pope John XXIII Mass reverence and bringing it to the Pope Paul VI Mass.

So, those who are upset by Fr. Fliss’ column may serve the Church better by asking, how can we bring what we love in the Pope John XXIII Mass into the celebration of the Pope Paul VI Mass, after all that is the ordinary form.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

One message that one can often hear in Church is that it is important for us to follow Christ otherwise we will end up in Hell. What kind of message is that? It is commonly taught in some circles and I often deal with people who live in terror of going to Hell and question whether or not they are receiving communion worthily. That is a horrible message some people receive on why and how to be Catholic. It is also not Church teaching.

Today, we can look at Jesus’ parable of the Pearl of Great Price and the treasure buried in a field. In both cases, the main character of the parable does all he can to pursue ownership of the pearl or the field. Why? Because nothing he has is of any equal value to the pearl or the field including the value of all he owns.

This is what Jesus says is the reason each character buys the field or the pearl. It is a worthy investment. Obviously, the point of the message is to look upon eternal life in Heaven the same way and do all you can to pursue it.

What is the Kingdom of God?

The Church teaches that one enters the Kingdom of God when he or she becomes a disciple of Christ. This means that one becomes a disciple and grows in the knowledge of that which is the kingdom through discipleship. So how does one enter the Kingdom? Follow Christ. St Teresa of Avila explains that our journey leads us deeper and deeper into the Kingdom.

Jesus tells us in the Sermon of the Mount that when we follow Christ, we become a light to those around us. Our following Christ fills us with a deeper wisdom and allows us to live our lives rooted in that wisdom. Which leads others to a deeper truth as well.

What is that deeper truth. St. Paul teaches that the reality around us is transitory. The treasures of eternal life, which are rooted in peace and justice, are unseen to us now. Salvation is partially that all that is unseen becomes visible. Currently, it is beyond our current imagination, it is treasures we cannot even conceive. Our role is to understand that we are living in a world where there is the seen and unseen. We are to understand the properties of the unseen as we navigate what which is seen.

If we take all of that and throw it away only to be replaced by nothing more than a fear of Hell; we realize we completely miss the message of the Gospel.

Listen to what the Church actually teaches about Heaven and Hell

Let us talk about Hell for a moment. How does one go there? Well, there are some who will teach that certain sins will lead you into Hell. That is not Church teaching. The Church teaches that God’s grace is always calling us to Heaven which is to be transformed in our being to be in the presence of God. So, those who go to Hell remain obstinate in their refusal of God’s grace and mercy to the end of their lives. This means that there is no sin that leads anyone to Hell, it is rather an obstinate refusal of the love and mercy of God. Anyone who teaches you otherwise is not teaching you what the Church actually says.

However, at our Baptism, we received the call to be agents of God’s kingdom, to literally hear God’s word and live it through our lives. When we do that, we grow in wisdom of the kingdom and we help others to understand and pursue the kingdom as well. That leads us to eternal life which is to be transformed into everything God creates us to be.

Meanwhile, that which is outside the kingdom in the world has a natural process towards decay, the Church teaches. The greatest of all treasure is the eternal riches in the Kingdom of God. Jesus asks us what we will do to pursue it. He explains that nothing is as great as that promise. It takes us out of the natural process of decay and leads us to the supernatural process of being transformed in Christ in the Kingdom of God.

Focus on the promise not the threat

This is what Christ promises us and unfortunately, all of that ended up being cast aside for the teaching that we better do what Christ says or we will end up in eternal damnation. Last time I checked that was extortion.

Christ did all he did so that we could be saved and come to the fullness of What God calls us to be. He did not do all of that just so that we don’t end up in Hell because there is no promise there except not ending up in Hell.

St. Alphonsus Liguori summed up the answer to who is saved and who is not in one simple act. Those who pray are saved and those who don’t are not. Why? because those who pray, will also pray for the gift of salvation and God will grant it to them.

There are many in the Church who will teach a message of fear and trepidation, but Christ called us to understand the gift he has given us and to do all we can to open it, trusting it will be beyond our dreams. However, we cannot understand it if we believe that we are not worthy of the gift or we turn our focus away from Christ and turn it towards a fear of Hell. This is not what Christ wants of us. He wants us to be part of the Kingdom of God and we do that by simply being his disciples.

So, meditate on the parable during the week and think of what it is that Christ promises you and understand that if you seek the Kingdom of God, you will find it.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says one sentence, five thousand people walk away. He does nothing to stop them. In fact, the next part of the drama is asking the apostles if they are leaving too. Peter responds with the reason why they stay. Jesus alone has the words to eternal life.

I read much consternation on the web over the SSPX schism. Why? They put conditions on their staying connected to the Church Christ founded. Any time any one put conditions on following Jesus, He refused them and moved on. We can believe it’s tragic they left, but it is on them.

Why do I write that way? Jeffrey Mead writes on his Substack of a group of teens beating up an old man. He asks where is the city and state leadership. I want to ask where is the Church?

What will we say at the judgement seat of God

Using an old homily form used in the older days, let me say this: “And when you stand before the judgement seat of God and Our Lord asks you, why you did not spread the message more and do more to lead people away from the road to perdition such as those young teens obviously on their way to lose their souls? You will say, “I was fighting for my church the way I wanted it.”

Many Catholics suffer terribly from fear of Hell because they missed a Mass seven weeks ago and fear they committed mortal sin. Every week they go through unnecessary trepidation wondering whether they received communion worthily. If they did not, then again, they live in fear they are their way to Hell. What kind of message of salvation do we believe if that is the fruit of our teaching? Meanwhile, who is speaking of sin, condemnation and repentance to those who commit such violent sins as those teenagers beating up the old man.

A wayward message that turns a blind eye against those teens and leaves good Catholic fearing for their salvation comes from a bourgeois Church. It is a Church protected from the world of the poor, the sinful and the suffering.

More is needed besides police

If this kind of crime is happening, then more is needed than simply more police. Like all the benefits in an Amazon or Netflix subscription users do not know about, Catholics have powerful tools at their disposal to fight such battles, they don't know about.

I remember a while ago, I crossed swords with a lawyer whose name I mentioned in a homily. He was not happy. I reminded him in our conversation that just because we didn't work for the other guy, does not mean we too are not in the ‘souls business’. My homily was one tool in the battle against “the other guy.”

Some say we need more police. Maybe, but we also we need more active Catholics getting involved in teaching the deeper truths to those who need to hear them. We need to live our faith in ways that draw teens such as those off the path of their violence and onto the path of life. We don't need practicing Catholics living in terror of going to Hell for simply being human. Nor do we need to care about the SSPX. Jesus did not try to bring back the five thousand who walked away. Neither do we need to wring any hands for those who did the same. There are too many souls at stake. We need to take our role seriously as the light of the world and the salt of the Earth and preach the Gospel how we live.

I can promise you that most of those young teenagers when they are separated from that group are not as bad as they are when they are with the group. One or two are the instigators and the rest go along. However, if there is no one to draw the rest away from the instigators, they are lost.

A police chief of a local Chelsea which had a high crime rate taught the people that many of those getting involved in crime are not hard heads. They can be changed. He said to church and social leaders to deal with those who are not hard heads and he will deal with the hard heads.

God’s grace

Actually, if they get arrested and end up in jail, that may be a grace but only if there is some action to change their way of thinking. Otherwise, they risk getting out of jail and continuing the same action. Then their souls are in even greater peril.

No one can help them if Catholics spend their energy on which language we speak at Mass and which way the priest faces. Over and over, I see these Catholic influencers pushing the Latin Mass and talk about the Hell bound over some human action. Recently one complained that in all his years he heard no homilies on Hell or sexual morality. Has he heard or read anything on the need too take action to bring people to know Christ, to teach people to develop a prayer life and to turn towards a deep relationship with Christ. Sexual sins are not the only ones. Beating up an old man is clearly a sin that will lead people to Hell. How many people speak of those issues?

We need to be a more active Church especially during these times when our politics are so divided. We don't need to fight the government, but we do need to intervene properly by living the Gospel. That includes an active prayer life which we bring to our daily life and work to live it.

The front lines of the Church

Some will say that it is the role of the priests and the bishops to get involved. Many sisters, nuns and brothers take up that role regularly along with the laity. Priests can assist too. Bishops? Not so much. They are too busy with administration and far from the world around them. Just like any company executive, they are far from the ground floor of their organization. The laity, religious and yes, the priests who assist them can address these issues. More the laity because the dioceses want priests to keep away from risky situations for fear of lawsuits.

If our parishioners are wringing their hands over whether they receive communion worthily when they have committed simple human faults then something is wrong with the Church message. We know it will be a good message when people realize that beating up on an old man or any person has serious consequences some of which are unspeakable. Others reach out because they realize the issue here is not safety, it is the mission to save souls, a mission the Church needs to get back to completing. She also needs to stop fighting over the those who consider the Latin Mass to be the sole route to eternal life. It is not.

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

Did you know that one of Jesus’ disciples was what we would call today, a terrorist? It is true. One of the apostles named Simon was a member of the Zealot party. These were strong activists for the sovereignty of the nation of Judah and worked to free that nation from Roman occupation. They were known for carrying a dagger under their clothes and would approach Roman officials and secretly stab them and kill them. We have no idea if Simon actually engaged in that activity but he was part of the party who did. One of Jesus’ first miracles many say was to get Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector, to eat together without one killing the other. Matthew obviously not only worked for the Romans but many Jews considered him a traitor including those who were not zealot party members.

I am sure others knowing Simon’s background and discovering that Jesus was not to free Judah from Roman occupation would not see Judas Iscariot as the ultimate traitor. I am sure today they would say, “We did not have Judas on our bingo card. Our money was on Simon the Zealot.”

Today, Jesus tells the story of the weeds and the wheat. Notice that the one who determines who must be cast out are the harvesters not the current workers in the field. So, it is with us. Our role is not to decide who should or should not be a part of our community, unless of course there is a safety issue. Our role is to seek to live the Gospel and encourage others to do the same. It is God who makes the final determination and not us.

Bad people go to Mass seeking on how to be good

The Church teaches that there are good and evil members of the Church and there is little we can do about this. You have if there is someone here who may have a history that you don’t know.

I had the experience of kicking CNN out of one of our Masses. This was during the abuse crisis in the early oughts and I was celebrating the Spanish language Mass. A CNN news crew walked into to the back of the chapel ready to take some b-roll. I could see them, the parishioners could not. So I asked the parishioners in Spanish if they wanted CNN to remain. The parishioners gave a resounding no and I told the news crew they had to leave. They stayed. After a few minutes, I stopped Mass again and told them that we had community leadership here, and the community told them to go. They left.

The following day, I called the Boston producer of CNN and told them you never walk into a Church with a TV camera. She agreed and apologized. You may have people in a parish who have a painful history, they are turning to Christ and seek to live a new direction in union with Christ. In any given parish you have the pillars of the Church and you have the person who is so grateful to be in the parish because he seeks a new life after getting out of prison, or suffering a great loss or hitting bottom with a terrible vice and realize they needed to change their lives. They don’t want to do this on an international media platform.

Who determines which is the weed and which is the wheat

Who makes the determination of the which is the weed and which is the wheat. It is done at the harvest and by the harvesters. So, whose role is it to decide who belongs here and who does not. It is not ours.

This is why it is not our role to decide who should or should not be part of the Church because we will have other criteria and the Lord says that only he is able to make that determination.

If some group leaves on their own because they chose to reject the authority of the Church, that is their choice. That is what the SSPX did.

Maybe a good exercise is to ask the question, if it was up to you whom would you allow to attend Mass. Now again, we do have to make it clear, anyone who proposes a danger to other parishioners would have to be an exception. However, besides that whom would you allow and whom would you welcome? Would you be correct?

Many times, we see online these Catholic influencers decide that certain people should not be at Mass, should not receive communion, should be told to go elsewhere because in 1211 some council said X,Y an Z. They do not have a right to do that. How many divorced men and women believe they cannot receive communion? I meet them from time to time, that is not Church teaching.

Mass is for sinners

Many years ago, I was on vacation in Mexico and a tour guide invited me to the Isle of Women in Cancun. Obviously, I have no interest in going because of what I do for a living. He kept asking and asking and finally I had to tell him what I do for a living. What followed was about five hundred “forgive me father”s in Spanish.

He then explained to me his difficulties in life. I asked him if he went to church. He explained he could not because he was such a terrible sinner. I explained that church is for sinners, after all we declare that at the beginning of Mass.

Many people will tell me they cannot go to church because if they do the roof will cave in. I give them a special invitation explaining that we could use the insurance money.

It is God who makes the final determination of who is in the weeds and who is in the wheat.

We supply the field, and granted, safety is a different issue. Outside of safety, it is not our role to police who comes to Church and who does not, as long as their focus is on seeking Christ.

Fr. Robert J Carr is the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, MA

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

I explained before that I love the movie Interstellar. I used in Confirmation classes when I was working in parishes. The reason is simple. The movie is a dramatization of Einstein's theory of relativity. It explains realities of the laws of physics, that one hundred years ago would be completely unknown, all in a story form.

The key factor in the movie is time. Earthly time moves at a different speed than those characters who are in various places in space. Why it is so important in religious education is that the movie is showing us that what we perceive around us is not fully correct. There are other forces at work through time and gravity that change what we felt was unchangeable and show us something that we thought was a constant to be variable.

If you are familiar with Einstein's theories, to sum them up in a sentence does not do them justice. Time varies depending on speed and other factors. Someone off the planet going one speed experiences time differently than someone on the planet. So, if people go to Mars, it will be interesting to understand how they are affected. Maybe they won't be, maybe they will. However, it is important to realize our universe is bigger than our ability to comprehend it.

Paul speaking 2000 years ago

Now, two thousand years ago, St. Paul gave us a similar understanding. Basically, what he is saying is that we are not created beings living in a created world, but we are being created and the world around us is being created as well.

Think of this, which was true. Many believed the Roman Empire was eternal but Peter and Paul when they were in prison Rome knew that Rome's existence was finite. There would come a time that the Roman Empire would cease to exist and all the glory of Rome would be gone. I do not know if the Romans understood this in the time of Peter and Paul but we understand it now. They too understood it.

We live in a universe that is in the midst of its process of creation and we too are part of that process. This is why we see good things around us but bad things as well. This is all part of the process of God's creation. This is why there is suffering and pain in the midst of joy and happiness. Paul is teaching us that this process is one of redemption. He calls us to choose to be part of that which is the fullness of creation in God. It is happening around us. Trust in the process but know that we are part of it and keep your eyes on Christ.

Once we understand this, then we see the world around us differently. We understand the universe is not redeemed, it is being redeemed. It is not complete, it is being completed and we are all in that process.

We see the results but not the process

If you were to go to the Grand Canyon when the Colorado River started flowing, you would see nothing more than a river flowing on the Earth. Millenia later, we see that whole Grand Canyon formed slowly and the see the fruit of it today. It is still being created but it is a virtually invisible process. We can see the results but not the process.

Paul is remind us of the same in what is around us. We as a human race are witnessing the process of God's creation around us and the apostle is teaching us to believe in it and know that is happening and trust in it. He calls us to be a part of it but reminds us that we trust in it happening but we cannot see it.

We are in the midst of the 250th Anniversary of our country. The founding fathers had no idea what this country would look like at this time. They had no idea of what the world would look like or even the what society would look like. However, here it is. We are in the midst of a world they could not even imagine at their time. However, it is here now.

St. Paul knew that humanity is in the process of creation. He probably did not understand what it would look like but he told us to trust the process.

Jesus comes at the fullness of time twice

One of the most fascinating verses in the Bible is one where we learn that Jesus came at the fullness of time. This means he came, when humanity had developed to the point that he could come. If he came too early no one would understand. There was an evolutionary process that had to happen from creation to Moses, from Moses to Jesus before Jesus could come. The Bible teaches us that the evolutionary process continues and it will culminate in the return of Jesus at the next level of time. You are I are witnesses to that truth and that is our role. Which means we have a witness not to a moral code or to a religion but to a creative process that continues around us. This is why what we do is important and St. Paul explains that to us.

Sometimes, we can get disappointed, frustrated, doubtful and more. However, when we stop and realize God is creating our world still, we can understand that we just cannot see what is happening but it is happening and trust in God's work on it. This is why our daily prayer is essential because it helps us understand more than the eye can see. Testifying to that truth is the role we received at our Baptism.

Fr. Robert J Carr is chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

The Act of Contrition I learned and use to this day is something, I admit, I feel is not adequate. Of Course, as a priest, I can always write my own but I guess because of habit, I do not. Maybe that has to change.

What is wrong with the Act of Contrition?

Well, first off, let us understand what an Act of Contrition is. It is a rote prayer that expresses to God our contrition for sinful acts we have confessed as part of the rite that forms the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We also promise to amend our lives and not to commit that sin again. Many times, we may fall into that sin again but at least we committed not to at that time we prayed the prayer in confession.

In reality, I believe, with Pope Francis, that when a penitent enters a confessional, he or she, by definition, already demonstrated everything that is in the prayer of the Act of Contrition. However, the Church wants also a verbal, prayerful act completed, at least in the United States. Often, when I hear penitents from other countries and ask them to say their Act of Contrition, they have no idea what I am talking about, so I lead them to make one.

What is wrong with the one I learned? Is it really reflecting our relationship with God?

Let me demonstrate.

This is the Act of Contrition, I first learned in the second grade and I use today.

Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee,

for I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell but most of all I offend you my God who art all good and deserving of all my love.

I firmly resolve with the help of your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. amen.

Ok let us look at what is wrong with it.

The purpose of the Act of Contrition is to make it clear that you have contrition for your sins which is the minimum requirement for your forgiveness. Contrition does not mean you are sorry you committed the sin; you may have enjoyed the sin greatly. It means you are sorry that this sin may have hurt your relationship with God. For that reason, regardless of whether you enjoyed the sin or not, you do not want to commit it again.

The first line is fine. By the way, as you can see, I learned it in old English in the second grade:

Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee.

I am expressing my sorrow for committing a sin that may have damaged my relationship with God.

For I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell.

Here is where it goes off the rails. Actually, it is accurate for the Act of Contrition is the minimum standard of contrition. Being sorry for your sins because you do not want to go to Hell, is adequate but just barely.

It is like a husband saying to his spouse, he is sorry for having offended her because she will never make him, his favorite desert again. There is no focus on the damage to the relationship there. I am sorry that because of my sin, I might go to Hell. That is also a simplistic understanding of the Church teaching on our final destination. In fact, it is inaccurate.

Our sin does not send us to Hell; it may harden our heart and turn us against God. We then become obstinate until we at the end of our lives reject God’s grace. That is what the Church teaches. However, that is a focus on relationship. We never want to turn against God’s offer of friendship. So, we want to avoid sin so that we continue to be channels of God’s grace to others as we serve God in a father child relationship or friend to friend relationship. We never want to embrace another way of life that leads us to reject God. That is far more profound than just fearing Hell or the loss of Heaven which, as I said above, is the minimum standard for contrition. This is also why prayer is so important. Our penitence is not about behavior but relationship, so the focus is strengthening our relationship. Behavior may weaken it but if we focus on behavior and totally ignore the call to relationship, we turn our whole experience with God into a moral code. Catholicism is not a moral code, it is a relationship with the Triune God.

but most of all I offend you my God who art all good and deserving of all my love.

Ok, this line is fine. We will let that one go.

I firmly resolve with the help of your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. amen.

This line works as well. I like this because it emphasizes the help with God’s grace. We then with that help, confess sins and seek to amend our lives. This reflects the other side of relationship, God reaching out to us. His grace helps us to draw closer to Him.

Other forms say things I disagree with even more.

This is from the USCCB web page. Maybe the bishops need to look this one over and make some changes.

O my God,
I am heartily sorry for having offended you,
and I detest all my sins because of your just punishments,
but most of all because they offend you, my God,
who are all good and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace,
to sin no more
and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

Notice “punishments” for sins. This obviously leads people to focus on Hell but not on what sins will lead one there. Remember, Hell is an obstinate choice made to one’s dying breath. Sins do not send us to Hell; rejecting God’s grace and refusing that which leads us to repent is what leads us to Hell. As I have said in my podcast, that is actually hard to do.

However, my concern about this version is towards the end.

I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace to sin no more.

I was hearing confessions of a fifth-grade class and one of the students came out with those words. I immediately asked how he was going to do that. The Bible itself says that the just man sins seven times daily. (Prov 24:16).

This version is one I reject completely. Scripture makes it clear that one cannot live a life and not commit sin due to our human weakness. An ancient teaching on the difference between saints and sinners is saints fall but they get up again. Sinners fall and remain fallen. This teaching does not fit the concept of resolving to never sin again. Spiritual leaders explain that as we draw closer to Christ, we learn of sins that we had not even been aware of as sinful previously. We also become stronger in trying to overcome habits that lead us away from God. Again, this is why prayer is so important. So the idea that one resolves to sin no more is not accurate or practical.

The next version, also from the USCCB has all the issues I have with the others but at least it has a good Christ focused line at the end.

O my God,
I am sorry and repent with all my heart
for all the wrong I have done
and for the good I have failed to do,
because by sinning I have offended you,
who are all good and worthy to be loved above all things.
I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid the occasions of sin.
Through the merits of the Passion of our Savior Jesus Christ,
Lord, have mercy.

Emphasis here is mine and I think that focus on Christ’s action on the cross is a good one. Again, we are saved not by our efforts but by God’s grace giving us the grace to seek him more deeply.

Finally, the USCCB also offers this one as a viable alternative, I think it is the best of all the options the USCCB offers.

Lord Jesus, Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.

Do you have a version of the Act of Contrition that you prefer? Do you use one of your own? Have you ever had a priest correct you on it? Let me know in the comments below.

Fr. Robert J Carr is chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

Thomas Masters was looking forward to his sophomore year in high school. he had always been a strong student and in fact enrolled in the AP courses. One class had him worried. Dr. Frank Anderson taught it. He was in a sense the pride of the school and the school system. An actual rocket scientist who taught AP Mathematics. However, there was a problem.

Dr. Anderson, hated Christians. Now we know that many scientists are Christians, even Catholics. However, Dr. Anderson was working in Mission Control when the Challenger Accident happened. It so disturbed him, he had to leave the industry. He then got into teaching. However, for some reason, he took out his suffering on Christians. If a student lived their Christian faith in any way, he would fail them in every grade, every test and every homework and quiz often without explanation.

Parents fought hard to get him removed speaking with principal, the superintendent, even the school board and nothing worked. They just heard there is nothing they could do. Meanwhile, Dr. Anderson failed every Christian. The other students did well and went to great schools. Christians had to retake the class elsewhere.

The first day Thomas and the other students entered the class and found the stern humorless Dr. Anderson greet them. The rocket scientist introduced himself, passed out the books and gave out a syllabus, he looked over to Thomas.

“Young man, is that a cross you are wearing around your neck?”

“Yes, Doctor, my grandfather gave it to me on his deathbed. I wear it all the time.”

“Well,” Dr Anderson picked up a class list. “Well, young man, I would suggest you remove it while you are in here. I do not tolerate any religion in my class.”

“I never take this off, this belonged to my grandfather and I am a parishioner at the parish where he attended mass.”

“I don’t care Mr. . . .”

“Masters, sir”

“I don’t care Mr. Masters, the cross goes, the religion goes or you can forget about passing AP mathematics at Enfield, Massachusetts High School and I mean now. I don’t believe in God because it is simple logic and mathematics and no one who does passes my class. Period, Mr. Masters.”

Some of the other students sat in shock, Tommy Michaels even removed a cross he wears around his neck under his shirt. Mary Jackson removed her cross pin. Thomas refused and sat looking at the professor in defiance.

“Fine,” said Thomas. “Then I will fail.”

So it began, Dr. Anderson failed Thomas on every test, on every quiz, on every homework. Sometimes he would write nasty things next to the F. Such as “Don’t be stupid—F”

His parents complained to the principal and he said he could do nothing. It was the same pattern and the school would do nothing.

Thomas failed the first quarter.

Every night the family prayed asking God to help them. Meanwhile, Thomas saw his chances to get into an Ivy League school slip from his fingers. Other students told him to just tell him, he stopped believing and remove the cross. Thomas said no. He dug in his heals.

At the parish, everyone prayed that this would work itself out and did their best to encourage Thomas. Especially Fr. Jackson, the pastor.

It was near Christmas and Thomas knew he would fail the second quarter and have to repeat the year probably. The family was on their way to buy a Christmas tree in Shirley, Massachusetts. Where they always went.

As they drove along Route 2, Thomas noticed the Dr. Anderson was passing in his car. He turned his face to make sure the professor would not see him and not recognize his family. However, as Dr. Anderson passed, Thomas noticed his right front tire was wobbling.

“Dad,” he called to his father. His tire is wobbling.

“That dangerous, it could be a axle or something.”

“Can we warn him?” Said Mrs. Masters.

As they drove quickly to catch up. Mr. Masters beeped the horn, while Thomas yelled out the window. Dr Anderson somehow seem to believe they were harassing him and he sped up even more.

Finally, it happened, the axle broke. Dr. Anderson lost control of the car. It went into a spin and then flip over and over front to back three times and finally came to a rest on the median upside down.

The Masters pulled to the side. Mrs. Masters called 911. Mr. Masters grabbed the Fire extinguisher. Thomas and his sister ran to the car to see if there was anything they could do. They realized they had to wait for the EMS to come otherwise they could do more damage. They heard the sirens in the distance coming closer and finally they arrived, blocking the left hand lane as the firemen and EMT’s approached the car. It took almost an hour to remove Dr. Anderson who was unconscious.

The family realized there was nothing more they could do. Finished their trip to buy a Christmas tree in silence.

Dr. Anderson was in a coma and doctors said, he might never recover, he might never wake up.

The Masters family prayed for him every night, even though, he was nothing but trouble to Thomas.

After four months, they heard at school that Dr Anderson finally started to wake up and actually healed enough that he might make a full recovery. Some called it a miracle.

Thomas went in to visit him in his hospital bed one day, it was during Lent.

“Hi Dr. Anderson.” Thomas was a bit nervous stepping into the room. He wanted to be alone but his mother waited outside.

“Mr Masters, I am surprised you are here. Now you see why I don’t believe in your god.”

Thomas looked at him and said, “I do believe.”

“Well,” said the professor. “I look around and I see no evidence of your god.”

“That means,” said Thomas. “That the question of whether God exists depends on what you can see and understand. I believe because I realize there is more to the world than we can see and understand. That allows me to understand the universe is bigger than ability to see it or understand it. Its simple mathematics.”

“Touché,” said Dr. Anderson.

The nurses came in and said, Thomas needed to leave because his visit had to be short.

Thomas passed all his course, the man who substituted for Dr. Anderson looked over all Thomas papers and realized he had deserved A’s.

He passed all his classes.

This story was a work of fiction. I tell it because Jesus reminds us that what the lord hides from the learned and clever, he reveals to the merest children. We must never forget that. The day we become too smart to understand God is the day we have to take another look at our reasoning and return to simple logic and mathematics.

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

The priesthood has various ministries. For example, I was a parish priest for thirty two years. During that time, I was an assistant priest (aka parochial vicar), administrator and pastor. A year ago, seeking to take a break from parish ministry, I became a hospital chaplain.

Every role a priest has requires different responses to any situation. I address my ministry one way in a hospital, another way in a parish office and still another way in a confessional.

I make it my ministry to explain what the Church actually teaches and not what people say the Church teaches: the two perspectives can be radically different.

Fr. Mike Schmitz is a highly respected priest and campus minister at the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth Newman Center. He also is a media priest, author and more for Ascension Press and other Catholic media organizations. What he teaches in a video is one form of ministry and what he explains to a student at the Newman Center is another.

In a video, a mother asks Kim Zember and Fr. Mike if she could attend her son’s same sex wedding. Fr. Mike said no because by her presence she is giving approval. Chris Damian, a lawyer and Catholic who touches on various issues in the Church specifically on gay issues, asks Fr. Mike in a voice mail to cite his sources on this question. As of his latest video, he had no response from Fr. Mike.

What should be the response?

Remember, as I said above, priests can be found in different roles. When Fr. Mike is a campus minister, he is one kind of priest. When he is doing videos, he is another kind of priest. He cannot change Church teaching but he has to present it in light of the situation.

In a video, he is giving a general instruction based on Catholic principles and in the office, he should give more personal instruction based on a specific situation. That is following Church teaching.

The signature document on ministry to those in the LGBTQ+/SSA community as Catholics was written by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, whom most people know today as the late Pope Benedict XVI. It is Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986). Many faithful know this document for calling homosexuality an objective disorder which resulted in serious rejection by many in the LGBTQ community. Unfortunately, those who rejected the document out of hand, also threw out the baby with the bathwater. There are some fascinating statements in that document that apply in this situation.

According to the then Cardinal Ratzinger, homosexuality is a complex issue. Those who simplify it and just dismiss anyone same-sex attracted are not following Church teaching. The document also states that it is an issue that requires more than just knowing rules:

It is within this context, then, that it can be clearly seen that the phenomenon of homosexuality, complex as it is, and with its many consequences for society and ecclesial life, is a proper focus for the Church's pastoral care. It thus requires of her ministers, attentive study, active concern and honest, theologically well-balanced counsel.

The Church also warns against generalizations:

Here, the Church's wise moral tradition is necessary since it warns against generalizations in judging individual cases. In fact, circumstances may exist, or may have existed in the past, which would reduce or remove the culpability of the individual in a given instance; or other circumstances may increase it.

This is an important passage in this case because the media ministry by default is one that is to a general audience. So, any teaching in a video format must fit a general audience. For example, if someone were to ask: “Why does the Church use the term objectively disordered?” The answer can be given to a general audience without concerns about an individual case. “The Church understands genital sexual expression is for pro-creation. Homosexual acts do not have that finality, by default, therefore, an orientation that leads one to that action the Church labels objectively disordered. “

That is a general statement describing what the Church teaches but obviously not completely because one has to read this and other documents to get the full teaching, as this document states. However, that statement to describe Church teaching can be used to a general audience which a YouTube video always will be.

Addressing a pastoral situation for a general audience?

Fr. Mike Schmitz and Kim address a specific pastoral situation and make a general teaching. Further, Father Mike gives a definitive teaching which the Church also says not to do in this format. However, in the process, he also gives general teaching which is the nature of the genre.

In another document, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons (2003), also written by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, the Catholic Church does not approve of same-sex marriage because it redefines the nature of what God created as the basic unit of human existence.

[M]arriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.

The movie Bridegroom explains the legal issues of two people of any sexual orientation who are in a relationship not legally recognized. We learn disturbing complications happen. The movie, used as evidence in the Obergefell case before the U.S. Supreme Court which legalized same-sex marriage, shows survivors of relationships in which couples lived together for decades were denied the right to grieve properly the death of a loved one. Some were even denied knowing the location where the loved one was buried by families who rejected their relationship. The survivor in the relationship in the movie was even threatened with violence if he showed up at the funeral. His loved one’s family never spoke to him again because they thought he was the reason why their son was gay. These actions, if the family was Catholic, would be gravely sinful. They were Christian but not Catholic.

St. John Henry Cardinal Newman and Ambrose St. John were two men whom according to NPR shared everything but a marriage bed. This included a house and even a grave. When Ambrose St. John died, Newman’s grief was intense and he felt it was even greater than the grief shared by husband and wife, NPR reported.

These are real issues that affect men and women every day and as the Church teaches have to be pastorally addressed on individual bases. One needs a full understanding of what the Church teaches and how to apply it in a specific situation.

Parish Priests deal with this question too

I got the same question Fr. Mike and Kim addressed from time to time and I respond with another question: “What message are you trying to send? Is it your intention that because of this wedding, you want to communicate the door between you and your loved one is closed?” This would mean they choose to be estranged from their son or daughter. “If not how do you communicate that you want them to know your door is always open but that you disapprove of the wedding?” If the mother attends the wedding, she is not testifying she approves and the Church would not say that. She would testify that her son is her son no matter what and she will always be there for him. The door is not closed. However, a pastoral minister such as a priest should not make the decision for her. She needs to make the decision based on the message she intended to communicate. Pastorally, you help someone make a decision, you do not make the decision for him or her because it is not ours to make.

A more proper response would be to encourage her to discuss this with her parish priest or another trusted personal pastoral advisor. She also must receive encouragement to bring this to prayer and trust the Lord to guide her in her decision. As I always teach, prayer is essential for all of us. We all need a good solid prayer life and situations like this, we bring to prayer and trust in the Lord’s guidance.

The Church does not work as black and white as many would believe to be the case. She calls us to act pastorally and in love without compromising on what the Church actually teaches. This is what Jesus did and we must go and do the same. The first step is to understand the proper response for the type of ministry we do.

Catholic media is nevertheless an industry

Finally, for those who may disagree with Fr. Mike’s answer, please keep in mind that he is a talented man, zealous for the faith who also is deep in Catholic Media ministry. These companies have their own message and if you appear on their channels, in their magazines or on their bookshelves, your message has to match the company message or you do not get published, your video does not get uploaded, your columns do not appear in their pages. This is the nature of any part of the media industry, Catholic or not. I self-publish exactly for that reason, but I also have few listeners and followers compared to Fr. Mike. It is the nature of the beast.

Fr. Robert J Carr is chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

In today’s second reading, St. Paul speaks to us of the core of the fruit of Baptism. When we receive the grace of Baptism, God calls us into His kingdom as servants of the king. Many people focus on Baptism as the means of salvation, which is true, but it is also the commissioning for mission. This is what St. Paul teaches.

Our priorities will change based on our goal, which is eternal life with Christ, and the mission which is part of the goal, preaching the Gospel by living it. This means that we focus our lives in a different way in our relationship with Christ.

The commandments mandate that we love God and neighbor and our focus is now in doing exactly that. This does not mean that we desert our dreams and aspirations, but we focus on them in light of the kingdom of God. What does God call us to do with our talents and desires and how do we use them to benefit the kingdom of God. This is the meaning of vocation.

St. Paul discusses this same principle in 1 Corinthians where he mentions that there are different gifts that different people use for ministry and these diverse level of gifts help make a comprehensive mission in service to Christ. However, the focus is on serving Christ with our gifts, not serving ourselves or rejecting our gifts.

He also says those who are baptized in Christ are baptized into his death. This means that we turn everything over to Christ and allow him to bring forth the fruit of our using our gifts.

Many years ago, I was visiting a priory in California. It was Benedictine and of course they are strong of the use of music in their liturgy. Someone painted for them a beautiful section of music on the wall. Basically, it was one measure with the staff and the notes indicating how singing to the Lord is so important. It was a great piece of art that greeted you as you entered the priory indicating that there is a new emphasis now that you stepped out of the world and into the priory.

It was the use of art to glorify God. The artist could have been focused on becoming rich in doing his or her work but instead chose to glorify God. Now that does not mean he or she does not get paid but it means that they focus on that which serves Christ instead of that which serves their own career goals.

This is what St. Paul explains. If you are a teacher, you never have to mention Christ’s name but your actions as a teacher can glorify God. If you are doctor, the same, a lawyer, a janitor, a writer, whatever, our aspiration is not to become rich and famous but to glorify God.

Keeping that in mind, remember, our role is to serve Christ in all we do. It is for this reason God chose us to be part of his Kingdom.

Fr. Robert J Carr is chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

Many in the secular community paint all Christians with a broad brush. Therefore, what they say about evangelicals they also say about all Christians even Catholics.

There is a fundamental doctrine separating the two forms of mainstream Christianity. Three centuries before Martin Luther created this separation and more a half-millennium before the rise of evangelicalism, St. Thomas Aquinas cites why it is important.

The earth-shattering impact of a seemingly benign question

In his Summa Theologica, Book three, the philosopher saint addresses the benignly appearing question of why Jesus did not put any of his teachings to writing.

Understand the importance of that question for us today. Catholics believe in scripture and tradition. Evangelicals and other Christians, drawing from Martin Luther, believe in scripture alone. They do not believe in drawing on tradition. Other faiths such as Unitarian-Universalists who can trace their existence back to the puritans reject the bible as the sole source of direction and open themselves also to non-Judeo-Christian texts and philosophical treatises.

Catholics believe that all our teachings must be rooted in scripture but they develop over the history of Christianity.

An ancient answer from two powerful Catholic philosophers

Aquinas, in his explanation, cites St. Augustine who lived almost one thousand years earlier. They both address the significance of the last line of the Gospel of John. There the gospel author explains that Jesus did and said so many things there is not enough space in the world to record all of those accounts.

John’s gospel explains everything we need to know about Jesus’ teachings are not contained in the Bible.

John wrote allegorically, according to St. Augustine. He taught the lack of space was not in the world but in the ability of the people to comprehend Jesus’ words and share them. This means our understanding of Jesus’ message grows and deepens over time, dare I write — evolves. Aquinas and Augustine warn:

if Christ had committed His doctrine to writing, men would have had no deeper thought of His doctrine than that which appears on the surface of the writing. (STh., III q.42 a.4: “I answer that . . .”)

Many of the questions people have on Bible teaching especially the many times they ask ‘why’ the contemporaries of Jesus listening to his teaching clearly would have asked as well.

If Jesus’ or a secretary wrote down his every word including the answer to questions many would ask, His message would be set into stone but frozen at a superficial level, according to both Aquinas and Augustine. This would create Catholic fundamentalism.

Jesus’ words set in stone is not a good thing

If I restrict my understanding of my role as a disciple to just the written pages of the Bible then I will never fully understand or embrace the true teaching of Jesus which is too profound to be limited to the written pages. As per St. Augustine, each era comes to a deeper understanding of the meaning of the word of God building upon the comprehension of the previous generation. None of this can be done when we limit our understanding to just what is written between covers of any Bible.

One of the oldest images for the Church is that of a tower. Ancient writers represented each believer as a stone in this structure same structure. Towers by definition grow upon the foundation of previously laid stones. Therefore, the tower grows generationally as construction continues.

This reflects the Catholic position of scripture and tradition. Both forms of Christianity will grow in their understanding but Catholicism is not limited by the sola scriptura doctrine of Martin Luther and his successors through the ages to today. Rather, it is set to explore the deepening understanding of the profound teaching of Christ through prayer.

This is why our prayer is so important because through it we can take our confusion to the Lord and ask to understand his words to the more deeper level.

We need to pray to understand virtue

I criticized the writings of an archbishop several times, and in several venues when he corrected others. He taught them that we must pursue virtue. That is true to a point but according to Catholic teaching, it is impossible to live it fully if we do not pray. I am sure his invitation to pray was implied, it just was not expressed. This means it is not the one who pursues virtue who comes to comprehend Christ, it is the one who prays seeking to understand why one should pursue virtue of any type in the first place who will discover Him.

Therefore, it is the person who feels most alienated from Christ who prays to understand his teachings that will eventually discover their true meaning, learn of them and embrace them. This is why prayer is so important and why rooting my faith only in the words of the Bible without pursuing any deeper understanding will not lead me to a life-giving way of living my faith. It may explain why so many feel alienated from their original Christian faith.

Prayer, helps us to be in communion with He who is not just wise but is the incarnation of wisdom. Our communion with him leads us to understand the truth to a far more profound level than all that is written can ever deliver. Our continued prayerful communication will lead us to grow to a deeper knowledge day by day, week by week and year by year. What we learn builds upon what we gain through books alone of all types even if we study them all. This is the meaning of not reducing our faith just to what is written and seeking in prayer to understand what Christ teaches us to truly believe.

If there was one person in the Catholic world who really lived by his words to make a mess — an exhortation he gave to the youth gathered Rio de Janeiro, it was Pope Francis. He admonishes all Catholics of the importance of prayer and warns:

Spirit-filled evangelizers are evangelizers who pray and work. Mystical notions without a solid social and missionary outreach are of no help to evangelization, nor are dissertations or social or pastoral practices which lack a spirituality which can change hearts. These unilateral and incomplete proposals only reach a few groups and prove incapable of radiating beyond them because they curtail the Gospel. What is needed is the ability to cultivate an interior space which can give a Christian meaning to commitment and activity.[205] Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties, and our fervour dies out. Evangelii Gaudium #262

His call was to let prayer challenge us to break out of understanding Jesus’ words superficially as if they were made in stone. Obviously, Aquinas and Augustine understood almost eight hundred and nineteen hundred years ago respectively how destructive to Jesus’ disciples such petrified understanding of His’ teachings would become.

Fr. Robert J Carr is chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He podcasts at Catholic Audio Media Podcast |

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity

Jesus teaches us to trust in the Lord's providence just as do the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.

This is a powerful teaching but how do we put it in place. The answer begins with him teaching us that we are children of the Heavenly Father and that when learn to trust in his care, we turn from those things that trouble us.

Meditate on the relationship between a child and his father and mother. In Jesus' time, it was the role of the father to provide and care for his family. So, we see elsewhere that Jesus says a good father is going to provide for his children based on their needs.

He is also going to protect his family and ensure they feel safe. This is what a father does. Jesus then tells us that just as a child trusts his parents to provide for him or her, so must we trust in God to provide for us. What is God's greatest desire for us? To be united with him in Heaven. What is he going to do to ensure that happens? Everything he can. We can clearly see this in the action of Jesus on the cross and the sacrifice he does that all can be saved. However, he will also provide all the grace we need to be saved. We must not worry or be fearful that this is not true.

He and all the hosts of heaven intervene in our lives and work to lead us to salvation in him. Therefore, trust in that. This means reject anyone wo would lead you to believe otherwise. Many people will teach you a false Catholicism that will lead you believe that you jump through a certain number and type of proverbial hoops in order to be saved. If you don't then you will be condemned. Why would God put those conditions on you. If such hoops actually existed, would he not help you through them.

Many years ago, when I was in bootcamp, we had to do a ten minute mile. I understand that this slow, but not for me. I am not used to running a ten minute yard. In order to graduate boot camp, we had to make it. The way it worked is two men ran the ten minute mile. We all went on before them and if we slowed down to a point that we fell beind those two men, we failed It was rough for me and I started to fall back but I did not quite reach where those two men were at the end of the line. One of my fellow sailors who was good at this, said to me: “C'mon Carr you can do this.” Think of what you will be doing Friday. That was our first and only boot camp liberty, I immediately decided I could use a burst of energy and move to the front of the line and then if I slowed down, there was not enough time for me to fall back behind the guys. I succeeded because of that encouragement.

That is the way God is always sending encouragement and the tools for your journey to Heaven. However, there are many out there who are naysayers who live a Catholicism that is not connected to God.

For example, one man said this week on a tweet that if the pope is wrong and you obey him, you will end up in hell. You realize that makes no sense in light of Christ's teachings. You may have heard about the celebrity exorcist who said if you go to the movie Disclosure you may open yourself to demonic activity. These people reflect an impotent God who can do nothing for his chidren. That concept is as false as it gets. Don't listen to them.

Can you find ways to open yourself to demonic activity? Sure, they are obvious and unmistakable, such as visiting a medium and other forms of idolatry; commiting an obviously grave sin that by default seriously hurts your relationship with God or others.—going to a movie is not it, unless its something like a documentary on ways to worship Satan, or it’s hard core pornographic, etc. Another type of serious sin is any form of violence against another person either physical, emotional, reputational, financial, etc.

However, even in these cases, our Heavenly Father supplies the ways to be healed of even demonic attack. Remember, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is more powerful than 100 exorcisms. Our Heavenly Father gives it to us, not to prevent embarrassment for not receiving communion but to be free as a child of God. Beware of any exorcist who rarely promotes the power of the sacraments.

Jesus is telling us to trust in the Father. Do this and as the saints teach: All will be well.

Fr. Robert J Carr is chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts

His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia

He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity