The Repulsiveness of Christ

Colijn de Coter, Christ as the Man of Sorrows (1500)

When we’ve tried everything we can think of to lead someone to Christianity and it doesn’t work, it’s so easy to blame ourselves: to think that if we had done everything just so, or found just the right combination of words, everything would have clicked, and they would have accepted Jesus Christ. If we were only a little more compassionate, or a little smarter, or a little more persuasive in our speech. This reaction is discouraging, and what’s more, it’s often false. It gets three things wrong: grace, free will, and Jesus.

Trial by Fire: Modernity’s Response to Miracles

Dieric Bouts the Elder, Ordeal by Fire (detail), 1460. In this scene, a woman proves her innocence by holding a red-hot iron without suffering injury.

We moderns think of trial by ordeal as proof positive of the irrational dogmatism of our religious ancestors’ culture. The idea of determining someone’s innocence or guilt by having them hold a red-hot iron seems, well, insane. But new evidence suggests that the process worked… and might provide documentary evidence of a huge number of miracles. That modern researchers refuse to even consider this possibility reveals a great deal more about the irrational dogmatism of our own irreligious culture.

The Untamed Virgin Queen

Caravaggio, Madonna and Child with St. Anne (1606)

The world has just learned that three more Assyrian Christians have been executed in a particularly barbaric way by ISIS… who’ve promised to continue this murderous campaign if the Christians of the Middle East don’t submit. Pope Francis has repeatedly tried to call our attention to the ongoing genocide of these Christians, and that’s exactly what it is: a systematic attempt to wipe Christians off of the map, permanently.

All of this bloodshed is being perpetrated in the name of a radical and expansionist form of Islam. To be sure, this isn’t the only form of Islam practiced, but it is nothing new, either. From the very beginning, there have been groups, beginning with Muhammad himself, who sought to spread Islam by the sword.

The Heretical Case Against the Synod

Nicolas Beatrizet, Christ's Charge to Peter (1540s)

Even a number of ordinarily sober-minded Catholics have begun panicking that the Synod on the Family is about to lead the Church into apostasy. While we should always pray for the Church, and pray especially for the Synod, these fears are unfounded… and heretical.

How Richard Dawkins Helps Prove Biblical Inspiration

Raphael, Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1515)

When Richard Dawkins and American Atheists write off the Bible as a “Bronze aged book,” they’re only demonstrating their historical ignorance and the strength of the case for Biblical inspiration. If the human authors of Scripture were primitive ignoramuses, how do we account for the credibility of the Apostles’ testimony?

The First Step in Learning to Forgive

Bernardo Strozzi, Banquet at the House of Simon (1630)

Every day, when we pray the Our Father, we ask God to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If we refuse to forgive others, we’re asking God to hold us to our own unforgiving standard. This is a hard message, because it’s hard to forgive others when we’ve been hurt. Jesus recognizes it. When He introduces the Our Father, this is the only one part He feels the need to explain. But He doesn’t say “forgive, unless it’s hard.” He says, “if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

The Virgin Mary, Suffering, and the School of the Cross

Michelangelo, Pieta (1499)

We, the Church, we are the Body of Christ. We say that all the time, but do we really believe that? If we do, then we need to know two things: (1) that Mary is our Mother, and (2) that our sorrows have meaning, they have a purpose.

Jesus didn’t say, “take up your Cross and throw it away,” but “take up your cross and follow me.” He doesn’t suffer and die so that we don’t have to suffer. He suffered and died so our sufferings have meaning.

Behold, the Wood

Tree of Life, Miniature from the Scherenberg Psalter (1260)

It was through wood that we fell, and it is through wood that we have been redeemed. It goes back to Adam and Eve. The Fall of Man happens after the serpent tempts them into eating from the fruit of the forbidden tree. But from the very moment of the Fall, we’re promised that sin and rebellion aren’t the end of the story.

God promises that a Redeemer will come who will crush the serpent, Satan, underfoot. And the passage in Genesis ends with a tantalizing clue: an angel with a fiery sword is sent to guard the Tree of Life, lest man eat of it and live forever. Salvation, eternal life, will come through the tree, but we can’t reach it on our own.

The Promise and Peril of Online Catholic Dating

One of the side projects that I work on is a bi-weekly “talk show” on YouTube called The Catholic Five, so named because there are four other people involved: David L. Gray (of DavidLGray.info), Katrina Fernandez (The Crescat at Patheos), Brantly Callaway Millegan (Founder and Editor of Church POP), and Kevin M. Tierney (Associate Editor of Catholic Lane).… Continue reading The Promise and Peril of Online Catholic Dating