Psalm 1:1
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
Today’s verse gives the negative side of the blessed person: what he or she does not do. In a culture that is terribly fearful of making judgments, it is not that we don’t have limits: we do. But they tend to be media-approved limits rather than God-oriented ones. As such, things are rather hit and miss, depending on the ideology du jour. For political liberals, killing people before they are born is okay, but killing them afterward is not. For political conservatives, abortion is bad but killing people who are guilty of crime is often celebrated, rather than seen as a reluctant concession to necessity that is (according to John Paul II) virtually unnecessary anywhere in the First World. Catholic teaching is therefore at odds with both ideologies, cherishing human life and aiming to preserve it wherever possible. Why the conflict? Because the basis of the limits is different between Catholic teaching and the various ideologies of modernity. Today, let’s take counsel from Holy Church before we take counsel from media pundits (whether left, right or middle) as we form our thoughts and opinions. We might just find ourselves looking at life in a whole new way!
