#fr barron

[catholiccontemplation-blog]

"Love is the only virtue that you can never over do...” Great line.

[becomingcatholic]

Recently, I watched a clip of Neil deGrasse Tyson answering the question, “Do you believe in [the Christian] God?” His answer is a good one and well articulated, as you might expect of him.

In it, he makes many points, but I wanted to note two of them. The first is that he cannot reconcile a God who allows natural disaster with a God who is all-powerful and all good.

In the video above, and also this one, and this one, Fr. Barron addresses "the problem of suffering" with typical nuance and sophistication. The conclusion is this: yes, this is a tough problem. Ultimately, in this life, it's largely a mystery, but to therefore surmise that there is no God or that He's not worth knowing is a mistake-- it is to take one piece of evidence and ignore any counter-evidence (say, certain well documented miracles, exorcisms, or what have you). Fr. Barron makes the point that if you can imagine there is a God and that this life is not "the ultimate horizon of existence" then it might be worth pondering the question: "Is it possible that suffering is a route of access to a much deeper life?"

The second point from Neil deGrasse Tyson that I wanted to mention is this: "It is unstable to build a government on a belief system." This statement is justified by pointing out:

There are many religions in the world

Varying religions disagree with each other at least as often as they agree

You can't build a government on such belief systems or it will be chaos.

OK. Well, I tend to agree. But on the other hand you can't really found anything without a belief-system of some kind undergirding your actions. If you say, "I want to live in a country where all religions have equal rights..." You are really saying, "I have a belief-system that says all religions should have equal-rights."

What is law, if not the explicit rules of a societal code-- or belief system? Maybe it's not religious, but it is a belief system, nonetheless. And it greatly matters what kind of belief system you base your society on. How else will you determine policy on things such as: euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment, warrantless searches, wiretapping, torture, mainfest desstiny, sex-ed, government-operated businesses, taxation, voting rights, marriage rights, healthcare, social safety-nets, etc? Mob-rules? One might respond: "It is unstable to build a government without a belief system."

[thanksandyes]

"There's a flip side to this, and to get this right is to get the Catholic thing."

Kind of long for an internet attention span, but totally worth it.

[padrepiosson]

"The Hobbit": A Commentary by Fr. Barron (SPOILERS) (by wordonfirevideo)

[padrepiosson]

The Devil: A Commentary by Fr. Barron (by wordonfirevideo)

[homeisthelight]

To get married in the Catholic Church, that is to say, before God, what you're saying is, "We've discerned that together, we are in love with God, and we've discerned that God, for his purposes, has drawn us together.  It's not just, the two of us met, the two of us like each other, the two of us fell in love.  It's something stranger, more mysterious than that.  It's that God, has for his purposes, drawn us together so that we might find our salvation in each other's presence and that together we might fulfill a common mission."  When you have discerned that, I would say, then you're ready to stand at the altar before God and his people and say, "Lord, we're being married in your presence."  That's falling in love with a transcendent third now in the fullest sense.

If we're simply looking for love, period, that won't be enough.  You'll be looking for love in all the wrong places.  What you should be looking for is God's will, God's purpose, and then find somebody who is as in love with that purpose as you are.  Now you've found someone to love.

-- Fr. Robert Barron

[padrepiosson]

The Meaning of Vatican II: A Commentary by Fr. Barron (by wordonfirevideo)

[padrepiosson]

Why Catholics Leave the Church : A Commentary by Fr. Barron (by wordonfirevideo)