Why Freedom Matters

In terms of salvation, why would freedom matter? Why doesn't God just force us to be saved? Without  freedom, a bond with God doesn't matter. Our freedom not only helps us choose to sin, ti also helps us choose to be with God. Unlike other things in the world, humans can think and have a will and intellect. That means we can reason and have a choice. The reason we can be with God is because we can choose to. What makes us in the form of God, and cable to be one with god, is our freedom. Without our freedom, we just become machines like other animals and plants and such. This means we can't be with God because we don't have the autonomy condition. The autonomy condition means we can make free choices. Whereas other animals are created without a will, we are created with both an intellect and a will. God is pure intellect and will, meaning we are closer to God because of our intellect and our will. As such, without our freedom and autonomy we cannot be close enough to God to be one with him. As such, freedom, which makes it possible for us to turn away from God, is 100% necessary to be with God.

The second question asked is why God didn't just force everyone to be saved. Why were we created with sin? We weren't. That's the thing. Adam and Eve were sinless for God knows how long. Eventually though, they were tempted by Satan to eat of the fruit, and they turned against God. We weren't born with sin at the very beginning. Rather, it entered the world when temptation got the best of Adam and Eve. So let's discuss why God hasn't coerced everyone into becoming saved. If God forced us to be saved, he would also be taking away the same quality that makes it possible for us to be with God. If our autonomy doesn't exist, or is commonly trumped by God, then we lose the human condition that lets us be in the presence of God.  However, that begs the question of why God hasn't just redeemed everyone. To all of you bad Catholics and Christians who think that, remember that he did. He sent down Christ. Christ is there whether we want him to be or not. We can banish sin if we choose and be with God if we choose. But we have to make that choice. We can't expect God to coerce us into loving him. That's not loving God, that's just contradictory.

On Bumming

God's grace is universal. He treats us all with dignity. While some people are just too lazy to get off of their butts to get a job, there are many who simply cannot find a job. My personal opinion is that you ought to seize opportunities. You can't just bum on the street, collecting money from the government, and doing nothing to support yourself. On the other hand, it's not always so easy to get a job. Further, people who try to get jobs while homeless are many times not in respectable clothing, social standing, or what would be considered a good condition for a job. If you don't give someone a job, how can you expect them to get one? When people walk by and say "Get a job, bum" they aren't helping. Rather, they are only entrenching the poverty the person experiences, as they force them to feel demoralized as a human being. To say "Get a job, bum" when you wouldn't accept them into the job.

The second point about those who are homeless is that of helplessness. We can say you should get a job and stop "bumming" but that doesn't allow for us to see the humanity in others. What would you do in that situation? Everyone has had a situation where they were hopeless, helpless and just wanted some help. By forgoing this person's humility and calling them a "bum," we fail to recognize both their humanity and our own.  We turn off an empathetic part of our mind in order to feel a bigoted sense of superiority from being able to say someone else isn't as good as us. But what is that temptation? Concupiscence. This is how we relate degrading others to sin. Degrading others and not respecting their humanity generally stems from us choosing to not recognize our equality in the eyes of God. When we do so, we violate others in a sinful temptation that causes us to degrade ourselves. By not recognizing our own humanity in others, we fail to fulfill the human condition of empathy.

On Dolan's Sermon

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan

Archbishop Dolan's sermon has a lot of good metaphors. He does a good job of using examples to convey a point. His point is that the Church is universal. As has been said, the Church is not just for those who consider themselves holy. Rather, it is for the humble who choose to be redeemed. Just like Christ said, we are all sinners, and we cannot condemn others for it without addressing our own problems. So what does that make the Church? Rather than some kind of society where you are punished by earthly means for your sins, the Church is more like a hospital. The church has guidelines on what it takes to be fully cured, and not meeting those guidelines means you are still sick. That's how the Church is. If you're part of the Church and you still sin, you aren't breaking a rule. You're just sick, like every other human being on Earth. So what does that mean for those who have committed atrocities?

For those who have committed horrible deeds, the Church welcomes with open arms. The church has no elitist structure. Rather, it has the opposite. Being Pope or Cardinal means nothing in terms of authority. You just become more of a puppet of God. This also shows a key to sainthood. Saints did not free themselves totally of sin. Christ even condemned those who stated they were sin free, denouncing them as hypocrites and showing all people how they are not holy. Rather, saints, on the other hand, are those who accept their sinfulness. They say "Wow, I'm a pretty sinful guy. I'll change that." So those who become free of sin first must deny their holiness. If you have the idea that you're sin free, it means you aren't going to ever compensate for your sins. You'll go on thinking you're perfect. Rather, we are called to overcome our sin and become better people, closer to God, because of it.

Blasphemous Kentuckians

Kentucky is the home to the Kentucky derby, bourbon country, and now... female priests? While the Church treats all people as equal in God, it does not allow female priests. This has caused the Church to come under a huge amount of fire. However, there are good reasons for this.

Lady Blasphemy Herself

First: Christ instituted the Church with twelve male disciples. Does this mean Christ was sexist? No. Absolutely not. Christ did not choose men because he thinks them superior. Rather, Christ chose men as they held a greater amount of power in the time. In the culture around Christ, women did not have much freedom. They did not go out in public often, and were not treated equal to men. Why hasn't this changed? Well, Christ has further reasons for choosing men. God gave men and women different roles. While women have led in the past, they do not have as much of a seat in the Church. Rather, women have a different role. This role is not just to serve men, but it doesn't involve Church leadership, either. The Bible is structured with men in charge for reasons unknown to us. We don’t know why God designed it that way, but that’s the way he did. That means that, since God is perfectly good and infinite, the reason, whatever it is, is valid and true. Now why can’t roles change? Roles don’t reverse because if a woman is not purposed with a deed they ought not do it. You don’t get a dog to pull your carriage. You get a horse. You don’t power your car with a flashlight. It’s absurd. The same way, since women aren't necessarily purposed with leadership in the Church, they have no reason to serve in positions of “authority.”

Second: The Church is not at all oppressing women. No matter how many feminists say the Church is made to be oppressive, it is utterly ignorant of what it means to be Catholic. To be Catholic is to be in Communion with God. We are made to be close to God, and the Church is our instrument to do that. As such, all women and men are equal as children of Christ. Moreover, the Church isn't like a government. The Church does not give people power within it. Rather, the Church allows people to become larger servants. Being Pope isn't like being king. Rather, being Pope means being a larger messenger of God, a larger speaker to amplify his message. As Pope, your only extra ability is conveying God’s message.

Third: we are all priests in different ways. Just because women can’t be ordained as the “official” priests we call priests, does not at all mean they don’t participate in the common priesthood. Those who support priesthood for women are more than a little bigoted, as their heads are too big to realize that women are priests in the Church with different, but equal vocations. Just because you didn't go to a Catholic school as a child does not give you an excuse to butcher Catholic doctrine and call it true. Moreover, those who support ordination for women are just posers. They aren't Catholic, and never will be Catholic if they do not understand what it means to be a priest. Being a priest does not just mean leading a mass. Being a priest means helping with God’s mission of spreading the word. So, to any of you feminists who want women to be ordained, read a little about what priesthood actually is before you try to preach heretical blasphemy.

Miracle of Lanciano

The miracle of Lanciano is a physical miracle about the Eucharist as Christ. The priest who was blessing unleavened bread was unsure of the nature of Christ in the bread. As he blessed the bread, the bread became Christ and his flesh, and the priest had no more doubt. So what does this mean?

The Eucharist is Christ. Not necessarily in a physical way, but in a metaphysical way. WHile Christ is a human and not a loaf of bread, the part that makes Christ our savior is metaphysical in nature. This is because his nature as God is spiritual and transcendental, meaning it is above physical existence. Because of that, Christ can be instituted in the host as God himself. Further, the host being Christ is important for the sake of what it means. The reason for Communion is to be one with God. When we partake of Christ, we make him a physical as well as a metaphysical part of us. Furthermore, Christ need not be represented in his physical form. After the Ascension, Christ became totally metaphysical, meaning he doesn't need to be represented in a physical form. Because of that, he can be present metaphysically anywhere at anytime, including in the host during the celebration of mass.

The flaw the priest had in the miracle of Lanciano was that he was doubtful of the true divinity of Christ. Had he truly believed in the divinity of Christ, he would have realized Christ does not have to be physically present to be present. As such, the priest committed a theological error in doubting the nature of Christ as metaphysical when he didn't believe Christ could be a part of the Eucharist.