Theology on Tap

It was so nice to see Chris last night, to hear about his current work in the pro-life offices of the Archdiocese of New York. He is clearly more in his element, doing meaningful work that nurtures him more than his engineering work in the Air Force did. It was nice, too, to be around an enthusiastic group of younger Catholics who are hungry to grow in their faith. What a great venue to discuss our faith, and Chris did a great job echoing Pope Francis' observation that the only way to counter the culture of death is to joyfully live the life of love to which we are called.  Two things in particular stood out from what he shared; as always, a good talk always gets my own thoughts rolling, and I'm undoubtedly adding in a few of these:

• Cardinal Dolan of New York was apparently meeting with the staff of Chris' office the day that Pope Francis' interview with America magazine was published. Cardinal Dolan related that in response to that interview, a member of the New York press had asked him why it seems like the church focuses so much on issues that the Holy Father has indicated should not be our biggest priority. I thought his response was incisive: "We don't. You do." These sexuo-cultural issues consume our modern society, and are therefore often used to caricaturize how "out of touch" the church (specifically the Catholic Church, but increasingly this charge is leveled against evangelical Christianity as well) has become. Yet Cardinal Dolan's succinct reply can only form the smallest part of our response. We instead have to continually draw the attention back to the Good News we have to share, which we can only do effectively as we live out joyful lives that are transformed from death to life. 
• Chris turned the tables on a Scripture that Catholics who've had to defend our faith know by heart: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."  Now, it drove me crazy that he insisted on repeatedly pronouncing it /HAYDS/ instead of /HAY-deez/, but that did not distract me from the point he made about it. We usually consider that the church is under attack by the world, by society, or by our adversary, the devil.  But the ancient understanding of Hades, rather than the fiery torment that we think of (and - my input - which was surely the sort of image that Jesus meant whenever he referred to "Gehenna") was simply the place of the dead. The image which Jesus is using is that the place of the dead - and by extension, the culture of death - cannot withstand the assault which the church should be making upon it. We are not to be on the defensive about these issues which our society upholds as the ideals of freedom and love to which we should aspire rather than the "restrictions" which the church places upon us. Rather, as we experience our transformed life in Christ in the joy of the Holy Spirit, we must share this life by living closely among those around us and letting them see for themselves what a difference this hope brings about in us. Then the gates of the stronghold of death will not be able to stand against the resurrected life in which we share, and we will deliver the victory of love and life to those imprisoned by the culture of death..

In a nutshell, then, as Pope Francis has emphasized, we must focus first on being transformed in Christ's love, and next on sharing that love with those around us. Then we can allow the Holy Spirit go to work to change the things that are internal strongholds of sin and death in the lives of those whom he has delivered/is delivering into new life in him.