Coach was preparing for the Masters National Swim Meet, therefore I prefaced my text with:  “You don’t need to reply.”  Yet, within an hour, my Inbox revealed this answer, “ Wow — that’s awesome!  You’re right!  That puts everything into proper perspective!  Have you written an article about that?  You should, because that’s such a good point.  Thanks for sharing.”

I thought, “‘We’re infinitely valuable; ergo the Cross’, everybody knows that!  Why write an article saying, ‘God doesn’t make junk?’”  Yet deep within myself, I know I haven’t internalized that truth.  For Satan continually tempts me to envy other people’s success or progress in virtue.  I imagine that if I could be the brightest star in the heavens, then certainly my worth will have been proven.  I may sulk, “But why didn’t God give me the talents he gave her?  What’s wrong with me?  I’m so worthless.  It’s no use.  Who would love me, anyway, if they really knew me?”

Then my Guardian Angel reminded me of a book I read years ago called The Search for Significance by Robert McGee.  In this Christian self-help book, McGee reveals a lie that Satan uses to cause people to despair.  The lie is this:  Your success, plus what people think about you, equals your value.  I recognize that evil axiom as a perversion of truth and a lie.  For Genesis tells us that each of us is created in the Image and Likeness of God.  He has animated us with his pneuma (breath of life and spirit); therefore, we have dignity as transcendent beings.  Father Walter Schu writes in The Splendor of Love , “No single human being can be relativized in the presence of another.” The philosophy of Rationalist Materialism promulgated by secular humanists reduces the human person to the status of an “object” to be exalted for what he can do or produce. Original Sin, combined with that philosophy, continues fueling my pride yet sense of worthlessness.

The lust for temporal glory tempts many of us.  We erroneously believe our worth must be quantified.  For instance, “the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus, with her sons at her side. Kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. ‘What do you want?’ Jesus asked. She said, ‘Promise me that my two sons may sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your kingdom.’  Jesus replied, ‘You don’t know what you’re asking for,’ Then Jesus said to the sons of Salome. "Can you drink the cup of suffering I am going to drink?"  Jesus refers us to the cross as the way to regain our true identity as sons and daughters of the king.

Before he was Pope John Paul II, Bishop Karol Wojtyla wrote:

The evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person.  This evil is even more of the metaphysical order than of the moral order. To this disintegration planned at times by atheistic ideologies we must oppose, rather than sterile polemics, a kind of “recapitulation” of the inviolable mystery of the person.

Perhaps there is no greater mystery than the full response Jesus gives to his disciples about one’s importance. “ Instead, anyone who wants to be important among you must be your servant. And anyone who wants to be first must be your slave. Be like the Son of Man. He did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as ransom for many people." Quite beautifully, Mary carried the preborn Jesus as she, the “handmaid of the Lord”, hurried to serve her cousin, Elizabeth.  We do well to remember that Mary, God’s vessel, evoked Elizabeth’s greeting, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42), not because of who she was, but, rather, who she carried within her.  Whenever we serve in Christ’s name, His presence within us blesses the work and evokes authentic praise.

A person’s genuine success derives from freely choosing to place one’s talents at the service of God and man.  Jesus clearly states that only God exalts a person; and, if you exalt yourself you will be humbled. Of himself, he said, “I do not receive glory from men” (John 5:41).  Over the centuries saints have abased themselves for the sake of furthering God’s plan.  St Thomas Aquinas refused many temporal honors such as becoming archbishop of Naples. He believed he could better serve the Church through his study, contemplation, prayer, and writings.  Ironically, in his humility of simple service to God, the Church venerates his name centuries after his death.  Who did accept the archbishopric of Naples?

Saints Martin de Porres and John Masias, Dominican brothers who lived in Lima, Peru during the late 1500s, became saints by living simple lives of charity toward the weakest among us:  the poor. Martin de Porres had the intellect to serve as a doctor, but because of his biracial heritage, that occupation was denied him. Yet, he never embraced the presumption of self-pity and lived joyfully.  St John Masias served his community as its Gatekeeper for years.  His docility to his state in life, gave him the Wisdom to recognize Jesus in the poor who came to his gate.  He fed them the Bread of Life along with bodily sustenance.

Mother Theresa believed God chose her because her nothingness allowed only Christ to live within her.  Within this purity of heart, she began her work as a solitary nun working under the Indult of Exclaustration (a religious living apart from their community).  Hidden in Calcutta’s slums, the only witnesses to her love died before testifying to her greatness of spirit.  In secret and in darkness she brought glory to God and recognition to the dignity of the poor as she gave Jesus what he asked of her.  Yet, her simple “yes” to God in the work he gave her, garnered praise. Causing her much suffering, the world heaped honors upon her including the Nobel Peace Prize.   Through prayer, she guarded her “nothingness” which accomplished greatness for God’s glory.  She told her sisters, “The work is God’s work and not our work, that is why we must do it well. How often we spoil God’s work and try to get the glory for ourselves.”

Frequently we seek praise and recognition as proof of our worth.  Mother Theresa understood our value lies in dying to ourselves so that Christ can live in us.  She embodied St. Paul’s words, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  (Gal 2:19,20) What is this “faith”?  It is the certainty that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Jesus shed his blood for each one of us individually.  Each one of us is the Prodigal Son, the lost sheep, the missing coin. We’re infinitely valuable. Filled with God’s grace, the Holy Spirit allows each one of us, using faith and reason, to incarnate Christ’s humanity and live as adopted sons and daughters of the Eternal Father.

Repeatedly Sacred Scripture tells us of God’s tender love for individuals. Isaiah says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”  (Is 49:15-16) Having borne and nursed 11 children I cling to that passage as re-enforcement of God’s love for me.  In a sense, he carved me on the palms of his hands when my sins nailed his hands to the cross. Also, of sparrows Jesus tells us “that not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matt 10:29-31)

Through his humanity, Jesus perfectly understood the need for people to experience a personal love.  He experienced the love and nurturing a family provides.  Each of us is born into a family that should provide the first glimpse of the agape love of God for each of us.  Indeed, the Church declares the family is a School of Love. In his divinity Jesus knew that, unlike angels who posses infused knowledge, people come to understanding in and through their bodies and minds.  Therefore, he washed the disciples’ feet as an example of humble service to us and loved us unto death on the cross.  Jesus gave us the Eucharist so we’d never be lonely.  Finally, he commanded us to love one and other, as he had loved us so we could incarnate God’s love for man.

Individually, we must embrace God’s personal love for us and return charity to Jesus as we find him in our brother.  Tragically, some of us might not know what love is because we have not experienced human love in a meaningful way.  For this reason, we must reach out in love to others in a heroic way. Sadly, too, we might not want to accept God’s love, because in order to swoon on his breast, we must embrace the stumbling block of our personal sin and nothingness without the Trinity.  Our contrite heart and the worthy reception of the sacraments, especially Eucharist and Confession, activate the redemption of the Cross and the resurrection of the empty tomb.  We must constantly strive, with God’s grace, for freeing self-knowledge.  Mother Theresa’s prayer, her little way , can help us:  “Jesus in my heart, I believe in your faithful/tender love for me.  I love you.”

St John of the Cross knew that the only significant accomplishment of our life would be accomplished in our soul, unseen by human eyes.  He wrote in Dark Night of the Soul

When a person journeys through the temporal world guided by God’s secret plan for his soul, he will achieve the success of which St John of the Cross writes: union with God.  The Trinity exploded with love, creating bright lights: each one of us.  God destines each of us to dwell in the “mansion” he has prepared for us in heaven.

In faith I do believe my email to my daughter’s good coach for, as St Thomas Aquinas wrote, “To take something away from the perfection of the creature is to abstract from the perfection of the creative power itself.”  Each of us is the “bestest ever”; and so I pray, “Holy Spirit, increase my faith as I accept God’s love for me and for each human being, regardless of our flaws or outward success.” Despite temptations toward human respect, I have embraced the vocation of raising a large family in the cloister of my home where washing feet and dying to self occurs continuously and unseen.  In my heart, as proven by my works, I do not want to be the brightest light in the universe, a supernova, a dying star.  In faith, hope, and love I’ll happily reflect authentic Light right here on Earth.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life — John 3:16.

Speaking at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., the former chair of the USCCB Liturgy Committee harshly criticized what he called “slavishly literal” English translations of the Latin text found in the typical edition (the authoritative version upon which all translations are based.)

The "sacred language" proposed by translators "tends to be elitist and remote from everyday speech and frequently not understandable," Bishop Trautman said ultimately concluding that moving forward could invite a "pastoral disaster."

Of particular concern is what Bishop Trautman called “vocabulary that is not readily understandable by the average Catholic,” and he pointed specifically to the following words as examples: “ineffable, consubstantial, incarnate, inviolate, oblation, ignominy, precursor, suffused and unvanquished.”

Getting to the heart of the matter, Bishop Trautman rightly suggested that the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium , is the compass that can point us in the right direction.

“The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy stipulated vernacular language, not sacred language," Bishop Trautman said.

Before taking a closer look at what the Council Fathers actually suggested, I would second Bishop Trautman’s concern for clearly defining the words that we use.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, “stipulate” means “to specify as a condition or requirement.”

With this in mind, let’s take a look at whether or not the Council actually requires vernacular language in the liturgy, and even more importantly if, as His Excellency implies, the Constitution sets up a dichotomy between the liturgical language it suggests and that which is sacred.

First, let’s consider what the Council Fathers have to say about Latin:

Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites (cf SC 36).

Steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them (cf SC 54).

As for the liturgical use of the vernacular, the Council Fathers state:

The limits of its [the vernacular language] employment may be extended (ibid ).

It is for the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority to decide whether, and to what extent, the vernacular language is to be used (ibid ).

In Masses which are celebrated with the people, a suitable place may be allotted to their mother tongue (SC 54).

The vernacular language may be used in administering the sacraments and sacramentals, according to the norm of Art. 36 (SC 63).

More examples exist, but it is very clear from the above alone that the Council in no way “stipulated” the vernacular; they simply suggested that its use “may” be useful, “to what extent” is yet to be determined.

The only real stipulation with regard to language concerns the use of Latin which the Council Fathers say rather directly “is to be preserved.”

Now let’s consider Bishop Trautman’s suggestion that the Council impresses a certain opposition between “sacred language” and the language that he supposes it “stipulated.”

With all due respect to His Excellency, this notion is more than just perplexing; it is deeply troubling that anyone in ecclesial authority could so grossly misunderstand the Council’s teachings on a matter as important as the Sacred Liturgy. Let me be clear; I am absolutely certain that Bishop Trautman is sincere, i.e. I take him at his word that he truly believes that his ideas about Sacrosanctum Concilium are correct. That said, let me also be clear about this; he is woefully incorrect.

The Council employs the word “sacred” more often in Sacrosanctum Concilium than any other document that it produced; more than sixty times in reference to the Liturgy and to those things associated with it, e.g. “sacred music, sacred art, sacred buildings, sacred vestments, sacred ministers, sacred images,” etc.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that the Council Fathers tell us that “every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others.”

Read that again. It is absolutely crucial.

The Sacred Liturgy is an action of Jesus Christ! Get that? This being the case, it is truly disturbing when the primary teacher and defender of the faith in his diocese insists that the Council “stipulated” the use of anything in the Liturgy that is less than sacred. Even a brisk reading of Sacrosanctum Concilium leaves one with the impression that the Council expects everything associated with the Liturgy to be sacred, including of course the language.

Troubling though Bishop Trautman’s ideas are they are not out of step with the earthbound liturgies that many of us have experienced over the last four decades. The problem is that we have largely lost our sense of the sacred.

As the future Pope Benedict XVI said, “We can explain the fundamental change that has come about in the understanding of ritual and liturgy: the primary subject is neither God nor Christ, but the ‘we’ of the ones celebrating.” (cf A New Song for the Lord , by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger)

Maybe a strict retranslation isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Perhaps the question that needs to be asked is whether or not the vernacular can also be sacred? The answer is of course it can. Let’s turn to the dictionary once again.

Sacred: dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity, of or relating to religion, not secular or profane.

Bearing this in mind it is laughable to imagine anyone being troubled that the words proposed for the new translation of the Roman Missal are “remote from everyday speech.” Things sacred necessarily go beyond the “everyday” precisely so they can elevate hearts and minds into the realm of the Divine.

His Excellency does make a good point when he states that the sacred language proposed “is not readily understandable by the average Catholic.”

If he is rightly concerned that this may make active participation on the part of the faithful more difficult, the Council Fathers have an answer for this as well, and they give it to us in the very title to Sacrosanctum Concilium Chapter II, “The Promotion of Liturgical Instruction and Active Participation.”

You see, the reason words like “ineffable, incarnate, and oblation” are not readily understood by many Catholics is simple; those charged with teaching the faith have largely failed to heed the Council’s directive to instruct.

In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit; and therefore pastors of souls must zealously strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all their pastoral work (SC 14).

Bishop Trautman offered many more ideas that deserve closer scrutiny, but presumably the point has been made.

I’ve no doubt that the new translation once it comes into use will cause some of the “people in the pews” and others to echo Bishop Trautman’s sentiments. Those who are willing to embrace what the Council Fathers truly taught, however, won’t be among them.

This article was previously published by Catholic News Agency and is used by permission of the author.

Above, the remnant of the day’s gloomy sky was breaking up in the west. Lit by a hiding sun that had sunk below the horizon, the undersides of the separating clouds went from bright gold on my far left to a sad purple overhead. A hundred reddish shades blended in between, and kept me gazing up.

A familiar voice from my past repeated an old seafarer’s saying just then. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,” my father would say whenever we fished under skies like this. I’d rather be fishing with him right now, I admitted to myself.

Looking upward (and remembering back), my eyes avoided the structure before me. Seeing the dark brown building out the bottom of my periphery, I zipped my collar up to my chin. “Women’s Care,” the sign said. The letters were old and fading, just like the deceit it advertised.

Beneath the name and behind the lies of this foreboding place, wonderfully-made unborn children died here today. That sudden thought (or was it the chilly wind?) sent a shiver of unease down my neck.  It’s better to look towards heaven, I decided, than to conjure up a glimpse of the gruesome, frightening things that take place so close to where I was standing.

Call me a coward. Or tell me that I don‘t pray with enough courage. If I did, then maybe I wouldn‘t have to look away when the reality of abortion is directly in front of me. But then, all of us do it. All of us turn our heads. If it wasn‘t for our distractions, the dreadful thing would be too much to bear.

I’d rather not stand here alone , I thought rather loudly, sending the hint skyward, hoping it might pass through the colors and reach the Artist above. Maybe He would somehow come… descend from the darkening clouds… and comfort me in the cold. Then a doubt arose. With what goes on here, does He ever come near this place?

Alone with that question, I hummed a hymn I’d learned long ago. The words seemed like a good way to begin praying.

…Abide with me, fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens, Lord with me abide….

It didn’t take long for Him to answer my wish. No, nothing miraculous. Just a gift of nature—fifty to sixty Canadian geese on their seasonal migration—heading straight at me from across the eventide sky, making the most of the reflected light to get their day’s journey in.

“Thanks for the company,” I told Him, admiring His handiwork. Soon I could hear them—honking as they cheered each other on, flying like an arrowhead shot from miles away.

I remember as a boy my father explaining the way they traveled. “In the Navy, our ships would travel in a wedge like that,” he’d recount, pointing his long arm upward past my ear while he knelt behind me. He liked to take me back with stories of his youth, especially his service in the North Atlantic where his fleet protected unarmed merchant ships on their way to Europe. I superimposed the approaching formation with the warships I pictured from the memory he once shared. “The lead ship would break the waves so the ones in formation behind, riding along in the wake, didn’t have it as rough.” I could still hear the waves… and still feel his chin on my shoulder. His breath warmed my neck as my now traced over his then .

“How time flies,” I whispered up to him, knowing he’d get the pun. From my teenage years on it was my job, it seemed, to cheer him up. He liked it when I distracted him from his sadness. His last thirty years had been heavy for him—ever since he was told of a grandchild lost in a building like this.

“Seems like only yesterday you were telling me about the evil sea creatures that tried to sink your ship,” I said, keeping the conversation going. The Wolfpack submarines were deadly. Each sailor had to take a turn on deck watching for a periscope or a torpedo’s trail. I imagined him close by, the two of us manning the lookout.

“How cold was it when you were out there standing watch?” I asked. He didn’t talk much after he was told that his daughter‘s child became a casualty of yet another world war. Just then a chilling gust stirred, and a small cyclone spun some leaves and papers along the pavement. His way of answering, no doubt: it was really cold.

His own watch ended last year. I miss him these days. But I never feel him closer than when I come to pray at a clinic. He knows I’m there, but that’s not why he shows up. I’ve figured him out. He knows I can leave. I think he’s there for those who can‘t.

“It seems like only yesterday,” I said again, thinking of my childhood and a time when places like this weren’t allowed. But now they are, and ever since the declaration of war, fifty million grandchildren are gone. It was too much to dwell on, so I returned to the hymn…

…Change and decay in all around I see; oh Thou who changest not, abide with me….

“Tomorrow is Friday,” I told him in my prayers, as if he didn’t know. He knew. He knows what each morning means for this building—especially Fridays when business seems to pick up. Around eight, it will open–and become an evil sea creature rising from the deep with a gaping mouth to devour more children and grandchildren. Suddenly I recalled the rest of the mariner’s saying. “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.”

“Can you ask for some geese to fly over when the place opens?” I asked him. “Or angels?” Anything to fly the little ones home.

In less than twelve hours, the sky would brighten again. I looked to the east, and said a silly prayer, asking Heaven to stop the sun from rising. The darkness would keep the clinic from opening, I mused. “Can’t we just wish this place into a black, eternal absence?” I tried to reason with the sky. Unreasonable thoughts. They diverted me from the sad visions of the next day’s battle I saw through the water that my bottom eyelids could no longer contain. I had taken my eyes off of the geese.

“Ask Jesus to be here tomorrow,” I prayed, “when the little ones enter those doors I’m trying not look at.” I listened. Is their noise some coded message, I wondered, telling me He’ll be ready and waiting—to hold and heal and mend and kiss the tiny babies whose little frames will be torn from the place where they sleep now in their final night?

I closed my eyes and turned my mind to a dawn further off. It wasn’t darkness that I’d meant to ask of Heaven. Musing again, I squinted my imagination towards that one breaking day when trumpets will sound with the sunrise. A gloriously painted sky will start out purple, tricking us into thinking it’s just another day of dying for innocent, hidden babes. But then! Then it will flash to a fiery orange and a brilliant yellow and—in a startling instant—a blinding white!

“Dad, does He tell you when the war will be over?” I whispered upward. The honking was nearly at its loudest as he answered.

“I know, I know… a silly question,” I laughed back.

Then for a blessed half minute more, I pointed my face in the direction of the living wonders that were sent—no doubt—to aim my thoughts toward Heaven. And I continued to tell Him my mind. I mentioned how so many of us have had enough of standing in front of buildings like this—tired of trying to bring peace to a world that doesn’t even know there’s a war going on inside the wombs and souls of our sisters. I told Him how our morale is being tested. We know there will be victory… that the war will end and peace and justice will triumph—but victory seems a dream. Still, I told Him, we’re longing for the carnage to end, yearning for that unimaginable morning when an explosion of all-exposing light will tell us the battle is won and the innocents are safe forevermore. And with my humming I told Heaven, and the One who made the geese and all living creatures great and small, that I believe—in spite of my thousand impatient doubts—that the day will indeed come…

…Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me….

At the end of the verse I stopped and listened closely to the geese—and to our Father—directly above. Then in those moments, as I stood on the sidewalk battling the elements, the hideous building had completely disappeared. Witnessing in prayer for the little ones, I’d been rewarded. My prayers—more powerful than an atomic bomb—had made the place vanish.

Nothing to fear, He was saying, so long as we show reverence to life when it comes along. I stared, frozen but now settled, acknowledging this gift of life—one of the millions that come our way when we look to Heaven. I had turned my Faith against the peace-destroying beast—this Leviathan that is devouring entire generations—and was mesmerized by Life, and its Giver who longs for our company.

My neck was straining and my back was arched. The convoy was mostly behind me now. I dared to be bold—to turn my back on the building—and did a casual about-face, ready to salute them as they headed for the horizon.

Then it happened again. Another surprise—a second sign appearing in the sky. How stupid I was to let the new symbol shock me. Time and distance had flipped it around as it took on its deeper meaning… a trickier code… hidden in what was now a departing “V”.

“That means victory, right?” I asked the last of them—birds, but also shrinking dots at the top of a letter that was scrolling away. “You were sent to tell me there will be victory soon, right!?” The honks were fading—soon a parting whisper. I strained my ear and listened for my answer.

Nothing. Then sensing the dark presence behind me, I unfolded my arms and buried my hands in my pockets. The right one still clutched my rosary. It’s the chain of my anchor, and it keeps me from drifting. Stationed here, while the fleet sailed off, I warmed the beads and felt for the answer.

Ah! There it was. I’d found it.

“The Virgin!” I said to the sky, finally understanding. “The Virgin!” A calm—the deep, warm, motherly kind—settled over me and made my fears seem puny. I turned back around, ready to face Her enemy. Leviathan, I realized, has not yet seen the full power of our Virgin Mother.

“You are waging war against Her children,” I informed it. Then, turning all my impatience over to Her, I started that powerful, powerful prayer. I reminded the monster—repeatedly and slowly, fifty times and more—of how our Mother will crush its head on that day when She comes to rescue Her little ones.

“Those are Her babes that you will harm in the morning,” I said to the clinic again, finishing the rosary—and my watch. “Leviathan, take warning.”

In this expectation, we see a curiously secularized echo of the Christian Tradition, which also teaches us to live in Hope. But for Christianity the object of Hope is not Progress, but Jesus Christ. We are called to “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:2-4).

This means that our hope is not in the future, but in eternity with Christ, which is a whole ‘nother thing entirely. The future is part of this world; and this world is passing away. If you want the quickest and most accurate description of the Future, it is that time when you and all you know and love in this world will be dead.

Now that doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as the bright shiny Future promised in the glossy brochures of the Futurists with the Jetsonesque Flying Cars and the Star Trek interplanetary multicultural conflict resolution counselors in leotards, but it happens to be true. And taken together with the rest of the Christian revelation, it even happens to be Good News.

That may sound weird. But it’s why the Latin tradition of Christianity speaks of the Four Last Things—Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell—as the Novissima or the Four Newest Things. In other words, it’s why the Tradition combines the notion of our mortality with the notion of… well, what do we associate with the New: youthfulness, freshness, morning, vitality?

How can it do something so daring? Because the Christ of paradox is, after all, the one who said that if you try to keep your life you will lose it, but if you lose your life for his sake you will keep it to eternal life.

The world is all about trying to keep its life. So it prattles on as though you and I are not going to die but live forever in a sort of eternal dream of the Pepsi Generation. This is worldly hope and it leads inevitably to worldly despair. That’s what is fueling the present movement toward euthanasia. A post-Christian culture that gives up on God inevitably gives up on real hope. The world says, “If I can’t have eternal Pepsi Generation happiness then, by golly, I’m going to assert my power one last time and end it all on my terms!” That’s despair as old and weary as Adam.

But in Christ we “die before we die” as T.S. Eliot put it. We begin, in this life, to live out what the ancients knew: that “the love of wisdom is the practice of death”. So Christians practice wisdom by little acts of death to self and love for God and neighbor that we might receive, in little bites of living bread and little sips of the cup of life, the life of God who cannot die. We start clearing out the rubbish of selfishness that clutters the soul and furnishing our hearts with the furniture of our Father’s House. Of course, none of that is possible without the help of God in Christ. Indeed, the very ability to turn from self to Christ for help is, itself, a work of grace. But it is one that requires our cooperation and it is one which has to begin, in however small a measure, before we die.

For die we shall, sooner or later. This is one of the hard truths the Faith confronts us with out of the great mercy of God. Death is the devil’s greatest triumph, the fruit of sin. But it is also the key to the victory of Christ. Like a chess move in which Satan stupidly rushes in his pride and greed to take God’s best piece, so too the devil puts into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus and all the powers of darkness rush blindly to put the Son of God to death. And by his very concession to their will to power God triumphs by putting our sins to death with Christ on the cross and then raising him fr0m death to immortal life—and us with him. In the world, death is a hole. In Christ, it is a Door to everlasting joy.

Who needs a theory?  The numbers tell the story. The article points out:

• 40 percent of women say they are now the primary breadwinner of their household.
• There are 3.3 million married couples in which the wife is the sole earner (in more than a few cases, not by choice, I’m sure).
• Today, only about 30 percent of kids grow up with a stay-at-home parent.
• A staggering 39 percent of all births are to unmarried mothers.

Thanks to the Women’s Movement, women have less freedom.  It sounds crazy on the surface, but the woman’s movement has sometimes confused the grab for control with freedom and dignity while inadvertently robbing women of both.

The movement still marches on  but I’ve learned that it is the Catholic Church—that age old institution with, yes, a male hierarchy—that truly promotes the freedom and the dignity of women.   I don’t claim that the Church’s history on the treatment of women is pristine.  And neither are societal issues all black and white either.

A Changed World

Throughout history, men were expected to take care of women — the weaker sex.  But in modern times, women en masse began wanting to take care of themselves rather than depend on others who might let them down. The women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s drew inspiration from the civil rights movement, but not all issues were good. For instance, it promoted a spirit of rebellion and was strongly linked to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the birth-control pill, and then finally abortion.

Some activists in the movement pushed for ratification of an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution.  It declared, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."  After years of efforts, the ERA died in 1982 when only 35 of the necessary 38 states ultimately ratified it.  But in 1973, abortion became legal.  This was considered a major victory for the women’s movement.

As a result, women are free to have sex with men that they don’t want to marry, then free to abort if a baby should come of that union.  In practice, this means that women are much more pressured  and expected to have sex before marriage than in the past.  Before the women’s movement had pushed contraception, there was a sacredness and respect given to women who waited for marriage. Such women are more likely to be viewed as oddities or prudes these days.   And if they relent and get pregnant, since women have the choice to abort, the babies are viewed as their choice–their problem.  The control that women were told they won, has largely gone to men who want to free themselves of responsibility.  (Not to discount men hurt by their  powerless to stop the abortions of their babies. )  Half of women who have abortions, do so because they do not want to be single mothers or because their partners do not want the babies. (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1995).

Then, somewhere on the way to gaining rights, marriages fell apart in a big way.  No-fault divorce meant no-strings-attached; no alimony for stay-at-home moms. Today, even if there are small children involved, divorced women are pushed to work or are considered lazy.  But the face of poverty is still largely a female head of family. That seems to be something the women’s movement just cannot get at.

Many will argue that before the women’s movement, women were expected to stay home, barefoot and pregnant, cleaning and cooking to the extent of boredom even if they preferred the board room. In reality, the world has changed to the point that few women can stay home even if that is their desire.  Some women dream of taking care of their family full-time.  Instead, they must get up before dawn and pack kids off to daycare while figuring out what they’ll make for dinner when they return before the sun goes down–if they are lucky.   Many men help at home, but survey after survey shows that when a woman works outside the home, the second-shift of housework and childcare falls mostly on her shoulders. Women certainly did win the freedom to work.  And work, and work.

This article is not to ignite a battle of the sexes, but merely to point out that in many ways, the women’s movement has freed men and further burdened women.  This being a fallen world, there are no easy or clear cut answers but the world’s brand of feminism often causes more problems than is solves.  Women have been discriminated against and treated unfairly at times throughout history. Yet, the methods used in fighting inequality must be evaluated according to an understanding of the dignity of woman in the light of the word of God.

On the Dignity of Women

Pope John Paul II expressed this desire of the Church in 1995 when he wrote his Apostolic Letter titled Mulieris Dignitatem – On the vocation and dignity of women. This beautiful letter touches on the true value of women and cuts through mistaken notions that ultimately hurt women and society.  “The Church desires to give thanks to the Most Holy Trinity for the ‘mystery of woman’ and for every woman-for all that constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for the ‘great works of God’, which throughout human history have been accomplished in and through her."

Pope JPII agreed that women’s dignity has not always been acknowledged which resulted in a  spiritual impoverishment of humanity. He stated: “When it comes to setting women free from every kind of exploitation and domination, the Gospel contains an ever relevant message which goes back to the attitude of Jesus Christ himself. Transcending the established norms of his own culture, Jesus treated women with openness, respect, acceptance and tenderness. In this way he honoured the dignity which women have always possessed according to God’s plan and in his love.”

Pope JP II stood behind  real equality in every area such as equal pay for equal work and fairness in career advancements but he always upheld morality and respect for life and stopped short of encouraging women to do everything that men do.  Referring to the Book of Genesis, he said that we are then told that, from the very beginning, man has been created "male and female" (Gen 1:27). "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Gen 2:18). The creation of woman is thus marked from the outset by the principle of help: a help which is not one-sided but mutual. Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the "human" as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way.

Thus, the genius of women” is part of God’s plan in which he assigned different roles. He further explains that there is diversity in being male and female.  For instance, Christ chose men to shepherd his flocks in the priesthood. “…this in no way detracts from the role of women, or for that matter from the role of the other members of the Church who are not ordained to the sacred ministry, since all share equally in the dignity proper to the ‘common priesthood"\’ based on Baptism.”

So an authentic women’s movement should be more about dignity and serving others in Christ rather than being free to do whatever one wishes — such as ending a pregnancy, becoming a priest, or engaging in licentious behavior. Such supposed freedoms, end up as slavery. It is here that we have a paradox, for the more we submit to God, as St. Paul calls it the “obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5) the more free we will be.

The Next Generation

This is something that is often lost on the women’s movement –t he dignity of women through serving God in the role for which they were created. It is the gem that we must hand down to our daughters –t hat they are of infinite value and dignity.  Their God-given gifts are meant to be used to their fullest to enrich the world along paths God has chosen for them.  This is where their strength and their beauty lies. Lest  we specifically set out to teach our girls this lesson, however, they will be easily swept up in the shallow worldly view of feminism.  We must consider the input of the media, literature, school or other organizations, and counteract the errors with truth.

For instance, I recently came across a book which imparts the Christian view of true femininity as opposed to feminism.  Girls Rock , (Tomeo, Miller and Cops) is part of the “All Things Girl” book series for pre-teens and young teens.   Examples in the New Testament reveal that Jesus treated women as first class citizens. The book also shows that  there are many instances of women of great influence in the Church throughout history and in modern times. The examples of modern Catholic women making a difference in the world, shows girls that the Church and God’s teachings do not hold women back, but rather empowers them.  It points out that women and men are made the same in that we are made to know, love and serve God.  Yet, it explains this in light of the fact that men and women are not always called to serve in the same ways–the priesthood and motherhood being prime examples of different ways.

The book also contrasts the Feminist Movement with True Femininity.   For instance, the Feminist Movement tells women:  Motherhood takes away freedom and freedom is doing whatever you want without rules.  True Femininity tells women:  Motherhood is a fulfilling gift full of joy and true freedom is the ability to choose what is right and good.

Although this article may be preaching to the choir, we must take care to pass the truths we have come to know down to the next generation. Then, if we are successful in teaching our daughters what true femininity is, we really will be able to announce:  “You’ve come a long way, Baby!”

Jennings is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) that claims a national network of 10,000 “students and allies working to create safer schools.” The truth is that GLSEN is after our kids, as its following 1999 statement demonstrates: “The fear of the religious right is that the schools of today will be the governments of tomorrow. And you know, they are right. If we do our jobs right, we’re going to raise a generation of kids who don’t believe the claims of the religious right.” Here in California, the recent passage of the law instituting “Harvey Milk Day” in the public schools should make it that much easier for GLSEN to achieve this goal.

Groups like GLSEN and the ACLU are now closer than ever to eradicating from the public schools all traces of the Judeo-Christian beliefs which have greatly influenced our American culture for over two centuries. The ACLU issued a statement in connection with the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas that said: "The religious beliefs of Americans have nothing to do with reality." Moreover, ACLU Board Member, Franklin E. Kameny, had this to say in 1993: "I view homosexual activity . . . as moral, virtuous, right, and desirable." This is apparently also the official view of the Obama administration.

Jennings’ concerns about kids being indoctrinated into heterosexuality are not unique to him. A coalition of liberal sex education advocates says the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress will end support for sex-ed programs that emphasize marriage and heterosexual relationships. Martha Kempner, vice president for information and communications with the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) claims that these programs will end because emphasizing marriage and heterosexual couples is discriminatory: “These programs are really made — I would say they are made — for a heterosexual classroom, but they are really made for a heterosexual world and obviously that’s inappropriate.”

Another Obama appointee, Harry Knox, is a leader with the homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign. He has been appointed to President Barack Obama’s advisory council on faith-based partnerships. Knox has called Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic bishops “discredited leaders”. He has also attacked the Catholic lay men’s organization, the Knights of Columbus, by calling it an “army of oppression” for their work to preserve the definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

Rather than heeding calls to replace Jennings and Knox, Obama’s recent public statements lead one to conclude that he actually supports their extreme viewpoints. At a recent speech before the Human Rights Campaign, Obama stated: “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.” He went on to state: “We must all stand together against divisive and deceptive efforts to feed people’s lingering fears for political and ideological gain.”

President Obama promised the Human Rights Campaign that he would seek to “pass an inclusive hate crimes bill” but, unable to pass it legitimately, as a stand-alone law, the Senate snuck it in as an amendment to a “must pass” defense funding bill. It was signed into law by Obama on October 28th. Such laws have been used in places like Canada and Belgium, where same-sex marriage is already permitted, to silence the voices of any that dare oppose it. We can expect the same to occur here. Indeed, closer to home here in San Diego, I have already seen religious persecution suffered by my own clients who dared stand up for traditional values. This includes the four brave Christian firefighters who protested their being ordered against their will to participate in the licentious San Diego Gay Pride Parade. It also includes my client Carrie Prejean, a native San Diegan and Christian, who lost her title as Miss California for courageously exercising her Constitutional right to speak out in favor of traditional marriage.

One of President Obama’s latest appointees to the EEOC is lesbian law professor Chai Feldblum, a former lawyer for the Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU. In 2006 , Feldblum admitted that when sexual freedom and religious liberty conflict, “I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win.”

At a recent GLSEN awards ceremony, a wealthy homosexual activist, David Bohnett, stated: “It’s time to combat head-on the religious organizations that are funding the opposition to marriage equality and safe school legislation.” He further declared: “Among our greatest adversaries who actively work against us are the leaders of the Catholic, Mormon, and evangelical churches who seek to deny equal protection for us and for our children.” Bohnett called for “active measures” to be taken against such religious organizations: “The Bible is all too often used as a weapon against us”. He argued that children taught that the Bible condemns homosexuality may become “school bullies” and later become the adults who vote “to deny marriage equality.”

It seems sadly ironic that the man who campaigned on the theme of unity is proving to be the most radical and divisive President in the history of the nation. President Obama’s hate crimes amendment will undoubtedly have the affect of chilling religious speech and may well be the counter-weapon to the Bible that the likes of Bohnett are seeking to try to silence their opposition. The battle has been joined. I only hope that parents of school children and the churches realize it.

One week later, the ring is still missing. I finally told Craig about it, who promptly said he’d replace it (as though such a thing could ever be replaced). Then I went online and bemoaned my fate. “St. Jude … help!”

Moments later, I saw with crystal clarity the cultural and theological “devotional divide” that splits my circle of friends and family.  The camps were fairly evenly divided between unequivocal support (“Tony, Tony come around . . .”) and chastisement (a.k.a. “Don’t you know you can go straight to GOD for this kind of thing?”).  Theology, Facebook style.

Didn’t I know I could pray directly to God? Uh-huh. Well aware of that. God and I have been on regular speaking terms for about forty years now. That doesn’t stop me from calling in reinforcements. The last time I lost my ring, I asked my guardian angel to go and sit on it until I could find it. When Craig and I discovered the ring in the middle of a snow-covered strip mall parking lot, the ring was centered in a heart-shaped “bald patch” on the asphalt. As though the angel had literally sat upon it until we arrived.

Friends in High Places

For centuries believers have sent their petitions in care of Mary and the saints, confident that those perfected in heaven are in a better position to pray in a way that is consistent with the will of the Father. Here on earth, so much obstructs our view: selfishness, pride, and weakness keep us from persevering in the battle as constantly and vigorously as we ought. The saints do not have this problem; the “cloud of witnesses” of which Scriptures speak (Hebrews 12:1) provide essential spiritual reinforcement.

The Catechism (2683) says:

The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were "put in charge of many things" (Mt 25:23). Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.

Does God care about the little details of my life, including missing wedding rings? No doubt.  He is big enough and wise enough and all-loving enough to handle this and every other crisis that comes my way. And yes, because I am a daughter of God, my every need is only a whispered prayer away from the ear of God.

So why bother to ask others — in heaven or on earth, for that matter — to take up my intentions? Why are we commanded to confess our sins and to pray for one another (James 5:16), and why do the prayers of the saints ascend to the throne of God (Rev 8:4), if each believer has within himself the power to get everything he needs directly from the throne of grace?

Could the answer be . . . because we are a Body ? Because the God who created us, made us to be in relationship with one another? When Jesus returned to heaven, He did not leave behind a book but a group of men to guide His Church. And when He spoke of being the Vine (John 15:5), He said that those who continued to “abide in me” would bear “much fruit.”

Nowhere do the Scriptures say that we get cut off from that Vine when we leave earth. Rather, the ongoing teaching of the Church has always been that the faithful are perpetually connected in Jesus.

The Church, in Christ, is like a sacrament — a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men." The Church’s first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God . Because men’s communion with one another is rooted in that union with God, the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race . In her, this unity is already begun, since she gathers men "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues"; at the same time, the Church is the "sign and instrument" of the full realization of the unity yet to come (CCC #775).

When we include the saints in heaven in our intercessions, asking them to join our chorus of adoration, petition, supplication, and blessing — from heaven — we bear witness in a particular way of this unity, which will be perfected in heaven.

It is this witness , this acknowledgment of our utter dependence upon God and our need for one another, that is the real need for prayer. Not primarily to get us the parking space, or to find the ring, or to get a temporary reprieve from illness or pain. But, in the words of C.S. Lewis:

I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time…waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.

“God of the Gumball”

This realization — that we are in fact in need of changing — is something we as human beings are prone to forget at times. We want God to change our circumstances : find the parking spot, heal the disease, find the wedding ring. We forget that it is precisely through these little struggles that we are forced to grow stronger and taller in grace.

When we lose sight of this, we begin to serve the “God of the Gumball Machine”: put in a prayer, get out what we want. A deeply felt sense of failure washes over some Christians when they ask God for a specific intention, and the answer is not what they’d hoped.  Some see it as a signal to pray even harder… or to give up altogether, as though the battle has no intrinsic value.

The Catechism offers a third perspective:

"Pray constantly . . . always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." (1 Thes 5:17) St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints." (Eph 6:18) For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing." (Evagrius Ponticus, Pract . 49: PG 40, 1245C.) This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightening and life-giving facts of faith about prayer (#2742).

The Catechism defines these three facts as follows:  (1) It is always possible to pray; (2) Prayer is a vital necessity; and (3) Prayer and the Christian life are “inseparable.” Furthermore, John 15:16-17 shows that there is an intrinsic connection between asking the Father . . . and truly loving one another.

Never Walk Alone

Is there ever a time when we should just hunker down on our own knees, and abandon ourselves to “the Great Alone”? Absolutely. The intimate conversation of Father and child is an indispensable part of family life. And yet, it is not the only part. Most of life is spent in the company of one another, helping each other and conversing with one another.

To abandon oneself to Divine Providence in abject humility and deliberate solitude, is one thing; to suppose oneself not to need — or be in the invisible company of — other members of the Body is a prideful delusion.  Just as the Trinity is an eternal flow of love from one divine person to the next, so the Church — the Bride of Christ — is sustained as a Body with an eternal infusion of Spirit.

The “Jesus and me” — devoid of any other spiritual attachment — that predominates in some Christian communities has no more to do with true spiritual intimacy than a teenage crush has to do with married love. True attachment is anchored in family; isolation produces delusion, confusion, and death.

This revelation of unity is more important than any earthly possession. So when I ask the saints to help me find my wedding ring, I’m simply asking my big brothers and sisters in faith to give me a hand. And like any good parent, the Father smiles to see His children working together, and loving each other. He doesn’t worry that they aren’t focused totally on Him. He just sits back and enjoys the camaraderie.

Are we never to approach God on our own? Can we not speak to Him, heart-to-heart? Will He not hear our prayers? Of course we can, and do, and He does.

As does the entire company of heaven, who intercedes on our behalf.

As the saying goes: “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.”  But taxes you can avoid and evade; death — not so.  Therefore, the only logical response to death is to embrace it…or at least accept it.  After all, it’s not like we have a choice.

While traveling back from dropping off a son for college in Oregon last week, we attended Mass in Missoula, MT at St. Francis Xavier church.  During the prayers of intercession, one prayer caught my attention: “For all who have died, for all who are going to die and for all who are afraid to die.”

That last one — all who are afraid to die — stood out for me.  “Isn’t that just about everyone?” I thought.  Yet, many years ago, I realized there was only one thing to do about death — to make a friend of it and think of it often.

Life through Death

At first glance, thinking of death seems morbid.  Death hardly seems like a cheerful thought the day.  But I contend that it is just that — or at least it can be a holy way to get through the day. And with holiness comes peace and ultimately joy. The opposite would be to try to deny death. That would be a depressing and hopelessly futile endeavor.  Death is coming for us all so the sooner we make peace with it the sooner we can get on with living.

In the book Amazing Grace for Surivors (Ascension Press) there is a story titled “The Gift of Cancer.”  In it, Richard J. Cusack, Sr. says that God gave him the greatest possible gift. “It was cancer and the fear of dying,” said Cusack. “Through that gift He woke me up and showed me what life is all about and how wonderful it can be when you begin your journey closer to Him.”

Cusack recovered, but during the time he believed he was at death’s doorstep, he prioritized his life very differently than it had been previously and he also began a ministry. “One Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. he was sitting in a perpetual adoration chapel, thanking God for all the extra time he had been given. ‘Before I arrive at my final judgment, is there something I can do for you here on earth?’ he asked God. ‘What would be pleasing to you?

He suddenly had an inspiration about making a beautiful holy card with a monstrance on the front and the words, ‘Do you really love me? Then come to me. Visit me before the Blessed Sacrament.’” His first printing of 100 cards quickly ran out and requests for more poured in. Since that time, Cusek has distributed tens of thousands of these cards.  It was death that was the inspiration for such living.

Several years ago, I was speaking with Elizabeth (Beth) Matthews, a favorite author of mine who contributed stories to the “Amazing Grace” book series.  She was in the middle of yet another move, dealing with all the usual hassles and then some.  Beth related to me a phone conversation she had with a relative. “In another hundred years we’ll all be dead and none of this will matter,” she had said.

Her relative was taken aback and said, “Oh Beth, don’t say that.”

But Beth responded:  “Why not? It’s true.”

I understand that such a thought is actually not depressing, but freeing. Death puts everything in perspective.  Instead of fretting over some irritation, it reminds us that indeed, soon our life on earth and life’s inconveniences will be nothing to us.  It reminded me of something my mother used to say to me when I was a girl, whenever I was upset over some trivial thing:  “Will it matter in a hundred years from now?”

What if Death Was on Your “To-Do” List Today?

I once read of a monk that was working in the garden when he was asked what he would do if he had one hour left to live.  The monk calmly stated that he would not do anything differently, he would continue working in the garden.  Many are surprised at such a response since most of us would immediately drop to our knees and pray. But for this monk, he strove to live every moment for God. Thus, he was always ready.

We all know people who spend inordinate amounts of time at work and have many possessions, but don’t go to Mass. If they knew they would come face to face with the Almighty that afternoon, would they change their schedule for the day? Or parents who run their kids all over town for activities, but don’t bother to take them to church on Sunday.  If they suddenly learned their child was going to die very soon, would the priorities change?

I actually had the experience of thinking one of my sons had died.  When my husband Mark and I came upon our 14-year-old son, he was blue and not breathing.  It turned out that he had a seizure and his breathing had been cut off.  We were at a lake at a family reunion and it was the middle of the night.  Our older son heard him struggling to breathe before he lost consciousness. Mark ran next door for help where his brother, a doctor, was staying. During those tense moments, Mark and I prayed separately. My oldest son and I prayed together and another son did CPR, which he had learned at boy scouts.  Mark and I later learned that we prayed with the same thought in mind — that perhaps our son was already gone and it was too late.  While we pleaded with God for to save our beloved son, we also acknowledged our acceptance of God’s will.  Or course it was an emotional situation.  My body shook with shock as I thought with horror that I had not even gotten to say good-bye.

Our son recovered within minutes and never again had another seizure.  But our family was left with the experience of death.  I told the kids we had been blessed for two reasons.  One, our son and brother was still with us and two, we experienced first-hand what it is like to have death come without warning.

I am not in any way trying to lessen the shock and grief one feels over the death of a loved one.  I know it is not a one-time feeling, but something that is grieved over and over again.  But for Mark and me, the fact that we are in touch with eternity and try to live or it, our first reaction to any death is acceptance — even along with the shock and grief.  It is what keeps us grounded and helps us to share the same priorities: God first, everything else second and nothing in the way.

The Divine Jeweler

A few years ago, I heard on the news that former Beatle, George Harrison, had died.  For some reason, on this particular occasion, I was immediately struck by the thought that now he was no different than a cleaning woman.  His soul lay bare while his fame and fortune remained in this world.  The only things he could take with him were the same things we all take with us — the love and service to God and others.

On earth, true value is often clouded by the glitz of the world, but death, like a divine jeweler, appraises life’s true valuables.  I need the help of death to do this for me.  For instance, I could be dropped into any department store onto any aisle (save the tool section) and find things I want to buy.  Linens and towels?  Suddenly mine seem so faded and thin. Furniture? Everywhere I look is something I like.  One thing that helps to douse my materialistic inclinations it so remind myself that life is passing and nothing that I want to buy is of lasting value.

Someone much wiser than I once likened earthly life to a ship:  It is the vessel, not the destination. The only reason we fear death is because we try to make the ship into the destination.  That would be like driving across country in a car and then not wanting to get out once we arrived at our desired location.

Don’t think that I am above fearing death or that I’m looking forward to losing my loved ones.  I simply have come to terms with the fact that God has promised us eternal life and that it will be better than anything we experience on earth. There’s only one way to get there — through death. And we all have to go sometime.

A favorite prayer of mine which keeps me grounded in this reality is “A Workman’s Prayer to St. Joseph”.   Appealing to St. Joseph for a right disposition in our work, it asks for help: “….having always death before my eyes and the account which I must render of time lost, of talents wasted, of good omitted…”

When the inspiration struck for this article, I envisioned that the topic would incite some to imagine me at my computer dressed in black with a humorless expression on my face. Some might wonder what sort of mother I must be to keep death on my thoughts.  But instead, it is life that we strive for in our home. The idea is just not to confine ourselves to life on earth but to live in harmony with eternity. Only then do we live life to the fullest.

Though far from unexpected, I jumped to my feet as if surprised by the sound of the doorbell’s ring. Not knowing exactly who or what awaited me on the other side, I flung the door open confident that I had pretty much seen it all and was prepared for just about anything. Boy was I wrong.

There on my front porch was none other than His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI — all four-foot-two of him — with a crosier in one hand and a bag in the other.

“Trick or treat,” my little mitred visitor demanded, to which I burst out in laughter and dutifully handed over a candy bar.

At that my audience abruptly ended as the miniature pontiff hurried across the lawn, white robes flowing in his wake, determined to perpetrate the exact same extortion on my next door neighbors.

That was Halloween 2006 and to date that kid remains one of the most memorable Trick-or-Treaters we’ve ever had.

Of all the costumes that one sees on Halloween it is those of the Devil variety that make me shudder more than any other; not because they’re so real but precisely because they are not.

When I see small children running around in little red body suits with horns on their heads, a pitch fork in their hands and pointy tails in their trail, all to the delight of naive adults, I cannot help but marvel at how masterfully Satan has remarketed himself as nothing more than a fairy tale figure.

Since the close of Vatican Council II no small number of Catholics — priests, theologians, and educators among them — have downplayed the reality of spiritual warfare to the point of practically, if not explicitly, denying the existence of Satan and his minions who seek to destroy us.

By 1975 the problem had grown so serious that the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship moved to correct this grave error in a document most commonly known as “Christianity and Demonology.” Skeptics would do well to read it.

The relegating of evil spirits to the trash heap of medieval superstition, like most of the errors that came of age in the decades after the Council, can hardly be blamed on the Council Fathers. The Council documents mention “Satan,” “the Devil,” and “the Evil One” no less than eight times, including in the following warning:

“But often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair” (LG 16).

Get that? “Final despair.” In other words, Hell is very real and so is its nefarious keeper.

Satan and those other spiritual beings who similarly exercised their will to rebel against God are constantly engaged in a battle with the forces of good; the ultimate spoils of which are nothing less than the souls of God’s people. It’s no joke.

Speaking of souls, what are Catholics to make of stories, also prevalent during Halloween, of ghosts and allegedly haunted places?

If by “ghost,” which is really just a Germanic word for “spirit,” one means a human person that is somehow trapped between the physical world and the afterlife, the answer in short is that we reject the very notion.

At death, every human being receives eternal recompense by Christ in a particular judgment, at which point there are but three possibilities for the soul; direct entrance into Heaven, temporary entrance into the purifying state of Purgatory, or eternal damnation in Hell.

Might God occasionally allow the souls of the elect, perhaps even those in Purgatory, to become manifest to us in some way in order for good? Sure, but given the finality of eternal damnation it seems very unlikely that a soul once damned could manifest to do us harm.

If ever a “ghost” or a “haunted” place is an authentic manifestation of spiritual malevolence it is the activity of those demonic beings that are aligned against God and His people, not the souls of the departed. In other words, it is the work of Satan — a real spiritual being bent on death and destruction, not just some cute polyester costume — and those other fallen angels that serve him in battle against the Lord.

I’ve no doubt that some who are reading this now are chuckling at the silliness of it all, but laugh at your own peril. As Pope John Paul II said, “The devil, the ‘prince of this world,’ even today continues his deceitful action. Every man is tempted by the devil, all the more when he is least aware of it."

Why parodies? Because he cannot make, he can only mock. So instead of love, he offers lust. Instead of justice he offers merciless vengeance. Instead of dignity, he offers pride. Instead of contentment with the world’s goods he offers greed.

Why does he send errors into the world in pairs? So that, in fleeing one lie, you will embrace the opposite lie. And so, for instance, he ignores the Church’s ancient affirmation of both faith and reason and instead foments credulity and skepticism, which are to faith and reason as carob is to fine Belgian chocolate.

Halloween is an especially good time for the devil, for it annually introduces into our national conversation a good solid dose of both credulity and skepticism, while encouraging us to overlook both faith and reason.

Credulity encourages us to believe without thinking and skepticism encourages us to disbelieve without thinking. Both are folly. The credulous person accepts tales of the supernatural without bothering to find out if they are a) true or b) from God. The skeptic reflexively rejects the supernatural, not on the basis of the evidence, but on the basis of a personal dogma which rules out the supernatural in advance of and in the teeth of whatever evidence there may be.

Neither approach is the way of the Catholic faith. The Church is open to the reality that God made the world to be orderly and discoverable by reason. This fundamental faith statement is the basis of all the sciences. Without the basic (and scientifically unprovable) faith that the mind can grasp reality there would be no science. The dogmatic skeptic who believes that everything you cannot prove with reason should be rejected is sawing off the branch he is sitting on, because you cannot prove with reason that reason is reliable. We take that assumption on faith. A thorough commitment to skepticism means the end, not just of faith, but of reason.

Conversely, the credulous person who sees the miraculous at work everywhere and is ready to declare every water stain on a freeway underpass as an apparition of the Blessed Virgin is also acting against both faith and reason. Credulity will often race ahead of the Church to embrace loony seers and visionaries who announce all manner of non-Catholic rubbish. It will often cower in fear before such seers in anticipation of some terrible divine judgment or demonic spectacle. That kind of credulity is also frequently ready to see demons at work in every head cold or hangnail—with the result that the dogmatic skeptic feels vindicated in sneering at the supernatural.

The Catholic way is wedded to common sense. With respect to credulity Catholic common sense says, “Chances are the water stain is just a water stain and not a miraculous apparition. Chances are the cold is just a cold and not a manifestation of demonic power.” With respect to dogmatic skepticism, Catholic common sense says, “If a person with nothing to gain and a lot to lose reports seeing a miracle, odds are they are at least being honest. If that honest person’s report of a miracle has solid evidence backing it, then the sensible thing to do is praise God for a miracle.” So when the apostles and 500 witnesses report seeing the Risen Christ and live lives or suffering and martyrdom for it, the most reasonable (and faithful) thing to do is acknowledge that the thing happened. After all, nothing in science or the Catholic faith really makes it impossible since God, under carefully controlled laboratory conditions can do whatever he likes.

Both faith and reason are grounded in truth: the truth God has revealed about himself and the truth he has built into Creation. Both credulity and skepticism are grounded in personal prejudice: a person’s will to believe or disbelieve something based, not on the truth, but on one’s own personal preference imposed on the evidence. Both the credulous person and the skeptic are driven to arrive at conclusions that fit their personal prejudice. The Catholic is free to follow the evidence where it leads and even, when necessary, leave a mystery mysterious. A Catholic can look at the odd things of this world and say, “I don’t know what it means, so I will think about it and, God willing, form a conclusion based on the evidence.” The credulous person and the skeptic are committed by their philosophies to not think about it and leap to their conclusions. They must pretend they have knowledge and understanding when really they have only a prejudice.