No, there is nothing wrong with your email subscription! There was no Catholicism In Focus on Monday, and since I was traveling yesterday I was unable to post the week’s podcast here. My apologies!
This week, Br. Tito and I discuss the issue of stereotypes in art and entertainment. What to we make of them? As always, there are good and bad examples of each, and how we approach them in our entertainment can say a lot about how we interact with each other in real life.
Ever since I finished the final episode of A Friar Life two years ago, I’ve been thinking about how I would reboot the series. Last summer I even started tinkering with a different introduction. I thought about friars I wanted to include, what I would do with them, and so on. I couldn’t wait to start again.
There was just one problem. Okay, two problems: time and money.
Living in Chicago and being a full-time student made the prospect of filming friars very difficult. Not only did I have little time to travel, but being from the East Coast province, there weren’t many guys in the Midwest that I actually knew. Even if I had the time, there weren’t many friars within driving distance to film.
Well enough is enough, I say. Excuses excuses. I clearly have the time to travel (as I have been on and off of an airplane multiple times a month for the past year), and since these travels often include speaking and selling my book—two things that I have been given permission to funnel back into the ministry—the money wasn’t really an issue anymore either. With my first priestly assignment on the horizon, I felt that it was sort of now or never.
And so… for the past two months I have been traveling around the country to show the life that we live. I’ve been to a center for the poor, a university, retirement home, and high school, and over the next I plan to visit the friars in foreign missions and urban ministry.
My hope is to have an official trailer of the places I’ve been so far in about 2 weeks, and to release a new episode each Friday this Easter season. Talk about something to rejoice over!
I hope that everyone has a blessed Holy Week!
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In a galaxy far, far away… there were a lot of theological statements and themes of life that apply perfectly to our own!
In this extra special (and extra long) episode of Everyday Liminality, Br. Tito and I take a deep dive into the world of Star Wars, looking, as we always do, for an answer to some of our own questions of faith. While the casual observer will undoubtedly sense a connection to the “force,” we think that this intergalactic drama-series actually has a lot to say about hope, pride, scripture, tradition, and our relationship with God.
Enjoy, and may the force be with you!
What was the first sin? Not what was the first act (eating of the fruit), but why was the first sin a sin and what did it do?
While it might seem like an easy question, there are a number of ways of looking at it. Some might see it as an act of disobedience against God, that humanity sinned in breaking God’s law. Others might see it as a poor use of the intellect, that it was the act of choosing something that was not pure and true, turning away from the source of Truth. Others, still, might see it as an act that affected future generations, breaking down the ways of a perfect society to create a world of injustice. All of these things are true, and yet they reveal a different operative theology.
This week on Catholicism in Focus, I look at the work of Justo Gonzalez, Roger Schroeder, and Steve Bevans, theologians that suggest that there are three types of theology for which all theologians generally conform. These types identify how we may begin the theological process from a different assumptions and values, and how this leads us to a different conclusion.
Take, for instance, the role of evangelization. What is mission and why should we engage in it? For those of Type A (sin as disobedience), the outside world is depraved and without the light of Christ, so we must save souls by informing them of what they do not know, namely, that Christ saves. For Type B (sin is untruth), the truth of Christ can be found everywhere and so we must ask questions, engaging in mutual discovery with all of creation. For Type C (sin as social disorder), the kingdom in which we live is far from the Kingdom of Heaven and we must undertake the process of bringing, proclaimed and lived by Jesus, of reconciliation and justice.
Are all three of these answers capture an important aspect of our theology. All three of these answers have defined our mission theology for centuries. And yet, all three of these answers end up at a completely different place with widely divergent expectations.
And for me, that is not only fascinating, but encouraging. When we think of Catholic theology, we must fight the temptation to think of it as a singular relation of answers and open ourselves up to the true meaning of “catholic”: we are a universal Church. When we look to the full history of our Church, we see that we consist rather of Catholic theologies, many perspectives that offer a deeper, more universal take on God and our reality.
This semester has been by far the busiest semester of my life. From traveling to missions to school work to keeping up my one-man-online-show, there has not been a day since Christmas that I’ve done absolutely nothing. The calendar for each day has a task that must be completed, and it gets completed.
On the one hand, this has left more by far the most exhausted I’ve ever been in my life. (Funny how that works!) I find myself with less energy at the end of each day and having to just force my way through certain tasks. Being busy has a cumulative effect.
But on the other hand, I can’t help but feel fulfilled in what I’m doing. There is something to “getting things done” and always having something to do. While I find myself physically tired keeping this schedule, vacations—times when I do absolutely nothing but relax—often leave me restless and tired in another way. I guess some people work to live, and others just live to work. I find myself solidly in that latter category.
I think this is a good thing. I think this is something that God is proud of, that I spend my time well, that I’m always driving to get something done. For me, being busy is a good thing.
But it’s not a virtue, in and of itself. Being busy means nothing if what I’m busy with is folly. A full schedule is not a sign of holiness. And if forces me to ask a difficult question of myself at times: am I busy with the mission of Christ, or am I just busy?
There is a big difference between these things.
Breaking In The Habit 