Category Archives: Musings

More on free speech

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As noted in the blog’s “About”, “…when I have time and inspiration, I muse on things.” Apparently I had time this morning. And so, I mused about free speech.

Two years ago College Pulse and FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) surveyed 55,000 undergraduates. Nate Silver, commenting on the resulting analysis and report, wrote: “Long story, told short, college students are not very enthusiastic about free speech. Particularly true for progressive/left wing students at elite institutions but also more broadly across all colleges. In general student support for free speech is tepid and [citing the report] ‘A significant minority of students don’t even have much tolerance for controversial speech on positions they presumably agree with…When it comes to controversial speakers, students at non-elite colleges are just as intolerant as their Ivy League counterparts.’” I think the point being is that over the last decade (maybe longer) we have collectively raised a generation that is risk-averse in general. Perhaps they have reason to be. Its has been a tumultuous last 20 years.

In the general population, within and outside of the political sphere, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and everyone in general has concerns over misinformation and are more supportive of governmental restrictions on misinformation. There are calls for governmental censorship on misinformation although no agreement on the standard and who enforces it. Meanwhile the social media conglomerates push for self-regulation.

In some sectors, there is concern that the United States may be reverting to the statistical mean of free-speech tolerance as seen in other western nations who have a more restrictive understanding of free speech.  I think we are all finding out what happens when someone stands up for a controversial, unpopular position. How tolerant are we willing to be of the rights of others to express themselves? Because unless we are willing to do that, as Nate Silver commented: “to defend free speech in a principled, non-hypocritical way — the game theory says it’s just going to be a race to the bottom. And given the increasingly tenuous commitment to it in many corners of American society, free speech is going to lose out.”

Here in the United States, free speech is protected by an absolutist constitutional First Amendment. Not so in, for example, Britain. Their free expression operates under the laws of parliament. There is no First Amendment equivalent, rather the milieu of general freedoms protected via common law and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), incorporated into UK law through the Human Rights Act 1998. Britain balances those freedoms against the parliamentary sense of what is needed for public order, the control of hate speech, and, in general, defamation laws. In other words, it can and has changed.

Legislation in the UK is highly subjective with standards such as “grossly offensive” or whether the expression is deemed to demonstrate “hostility”. Enforcement by local authorities and adjudication by the courts can be somewhat fluid, seeming to shift with politics, cultural norms, and local discretion. If that all seems to paint the picture of a moving target, I don’t think you are incorrect – at least from the standard of free speech that is just part of the American “DNA.”

Legislation and enforcement can vary within the UK. Scotland’s recent hate-crime laws criminalizes behavior that “stirs up hatred” against protected groups, even within the privacy of one’s own home. As you might expect, as soon as the law was passed the police were inundated with anonymous complaints against public figures, private citizens, and neighbors.  Besides being overloaded with such reports, under law, it can lead to the police placing a notation of a non-hate crime incident in the person’s record, even if no crime was committed. Different regional police forces interpret the guidance differently, meaning a controversial blog post or workplace comment might be officially logged in Manchester but dismissed in London.

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series,  immediately posted a thread on X detailing various high-profile transgender women, explicitly calling them men, and critiquing the law. At the end of the thread she invited the police to arrest her, writing: “If what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.”

As you can imagine the police were flooded with complaints which, after a few days, announced they did not consider it a hate crime or even an incident. Was it a realization that it was more a public challenge to the law, purposefully incendiary? Was it the reluctance to engage in what would be a public relations nightmare with a person who had the financial means and access to counter punch? And should they have gone to trial, they’d be facing someone who could afford a stable of lawyers to make the battle protracted and public. Or was it a recognition of a fundamental flaw in the law that the police recognized would keep them from applying resources against real-world violent crime?

All something to think about when someone’s free speech has you grinding your teeth and raising your ire.

What are we to do? Remember and act upon this morning’s first reading: “Brothers and sisters: Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us…” (Eph 4:32 – 5:1)

Free Speech and the First Reading

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Here in the United States, free speech is protected by an absolutist constitutional First Amendment. We might find someone’s speech repugnant, etc. and wish it would “go away” but as much as it might rub us the wrong way we acknowledge free speech is a fundamental right unless it crosses the line in the narrow categories of expression that cause direct, immediate harm, illegal acts, or fraud.

In a 1974 Yale Law Journal, law professor William L. Cary popularized an economic and legal concept originally coined by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Cary coined the phrase: “racing to the bottom.” Wikipedia describes the expression’s popular use: “Over the late 20th and early 2011s, the phrase crossed over from academic economics and corporate law into the sociopolitical lexicon. In discussions of public decorum, it applies the same structural logic: a negative feedback loop where competing entities (such as politicians, media outlets, or public figures) realize they can gain short-term attention or advantage by abandoning traditional standards, insulting rivals, and lowering the bar of civility. Because one side lowers their standards, the other feels compelled to match them to stay relevant, driving a collective descent into vulgarity or hostility.”

Not sure of the pathway in the Ohio race for Governor, but the recent ad by the Republican candidate’s campaign seems to have entered the race.  One can’t help considering that in the context of this morning’s first reading: “Brothers and sisters: Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us…” (Eph 4:32 – 5:1)

It is always good to check yourself. Are you following St. Paul’s advice, staying on the path of love, or are you straying afield and racing to the bottom.

It’s Enough

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In today’s first reading we hear Jesus’ reference to “the sign of Jonah.” I think we have been conditioned to think: “Jonah, three days in the belly of the whale. Jesus, three days in the tomb. Ok, the ‘sign of Jonah’ must be Jesus’ Resurrection.” Maybe. I think it is more than that.

If I said, “Oh, say can you see…” most citizens would recognize those words as the opening verse of the national anthem. But I am not asking a question about your visual acuity. I am asking you to recall the whole story of a nascent nation struggling for its independence. In the same way, I would offer that “the sign of Jonah” is asking us to consider the whole of the story of Jonah – and not just the whale.

The Lord came to Jonah and asked him to be a prophet to the city of Nineveh, capital city of the moral enemy of Israel. Jonah’s response was to run away and attempt to sail to the farthest ends of earth. In short: storm at sea, crew throws Jonah overboard to appease the Lord, whale swallows Jonah, and the whale spews Jonah on the beach. Jonah begrudgingly makes the long journey to Nineveh.

Nineveh was located hundreds of miles from where the whale spewed Jonah on the beach. It is not likely that Jonah’s arrival in Nineveh was heralded by the news that he had spent three days in the belly of the whale. Yet somehow Jonah’s recalcitrant and truncated announcement, essentially, “repent or die” was heeded by everyone from King to people, even the animals.

What was the experience of Jonah in the belly of the whale? All of Chapter 2 is Jonah’s realization that he has sinned against the Lord and because of that is at the point of death. Does Jonah ever repent? He certainly realizes that only God can save him, but I am hard pressed to find where he repents. It seems to me that Jonah relents and gives in to the inevitable rather than death. God wants him to be a prophet to Nineveh and God gets what he wants.

The city of Nineveh witnesses the unlikely prophet of Jonah walking their streets with the basic message repent or die. In Hebrew his entire message is five words and I doubt it is given with either volume or enthusiasm. Jonah is a reluctant prophet at best – as shown in the last chapter of the book where he is sulking because they did repent and the Lord was not going to destroy them.

There were no miracles or great signs, just the prophetic word.  It is enough and it is clear that the people of Nineveh repent.

Israel witnesses the unlikely prophet from Galilee – what good ever comes from Galilee, right?  They were witness to a whole host of miracles and signs, yet they resist. It is as the Gospel acclamation says: “Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart for I am gracious and merciful.” (Joel 2:12-13) And yet they resist. They want another sign. Jesus says that at this point they will get what Nineveh received, the unexpected prophet announcing repent or die. The life, death, and ministry of Jesus is that sign. The choice is theirs.

We have the one sign given, Jesus the Christ. We have the Word calling us to turn to the gracious and merciful God. As always it is our choice.

Guardian Angels

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Today is the Memorial of the Guardian Angels. I think the majority of us grew up with images, holy cards, and picture books of an angle every and always hovering over our shoulder, standing watch, guarding and ready to act at a moment’s notice to protect from the wiles and ways of the devil. So… are guardian angels just a tale the children are told, a metaphor for the continual care of God, or something to help us sleep better at night safe from nightmares.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church ( para. 336) teaches that each person has a guardian angel assigned to them by God. These angels are spiritual beings who protect and guide us throughout our lives. They help us to grow in holiness and lead us closer to God. Specifically, the Catechism states that “from its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession”. This means that our guardian angels are always with us, watching over us and helping us in our journey of faith. Additionally, the Catechism emphasizes that we can petition our guardian angels for help and guidance, encouraging a personal relationship with them (CCC 336). This acknowledgment of angels, including guardian angels, is rooted in Scripture and tradition, affirming their role as intermediaries between God and humanity.

The most direct biblical text is Jesus’ statement: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 18:10) The expression “their angels” was understood by many Church Fathers as referring to angels entrusted with the care of particular persons.

Other important passages include “For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11-12) In Acts 12:15 when Peter, miraculously freed from prison, knocks at the door, the disciples say: “It is his angel.” (emphasis added). Might this suggest that first-century Jewish Christians were already familiar with the notion of a personal angel associated with an individual? Additionally, Hebrews 1:14 offers: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?”

The idea did not emerge in a vacuum. In Second Temple Judaism there was already a developed belief that angels were assigned protective roles. Nations were thought to have angelic patrons (Daniel 10). Individuals were believed by some Jewish traditions to have angelic protectors. The Book of Tobit provides a dramatic example of angelic guidance through the angel Raphael, who accompanies and protects Tobias (Tobit 5-12). While Raphael was not Tobias’ “guardian angel” in the later technical sense, the book strongly illustrates God’s care through angelic mediation.

The early Church Fathers generally accepted the existence of guardian angels. St. Basil the Great wrote: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.”  St. Jerome, commenting on Matthew 18:10, remarked: “How great the dignity of souls, since each one has from birth an angel commissioned to guard it.” The debate among the Fathers was usually over the nature and extent of angelic guardianship, not over its existence. By the end of the patristic period, belief in guardian angels was widespread and largely uncontroversial.

St. Thomas Aquinas gave the classic theological explanation, arguing that God’s providence governs creation through secondary causes. Angels, as higher intelligences, participate in God’s care for humanity. In the Summa Theologiae (I, q.113), Aquinas concludes that each person is assigned a guardian angel because of humanity’s vulnerability in the journey toward salvation.

In the past I have been asked what is the Fraciscan perspective on guardian angels. Simply put, we stand with the Church’s teaching and traditions. A different question that could have been asked was about St. Francis’ perspective. To be clear, I know of no place in his writings where he mentions guardian angels, but St. Francis frequently viewed angels less as spiritual “bodyguards” and more as fellow creatures participating in the praise of God. In the Earlier Rule (para. 23), Francis joins “all the angels in heaven” with the whole creation in blessing the Lord. Based on that one might say that the Franciscan emphasis tends to be relational and ecclesial: guardian angels are signs that God does not guide us in isolation but within a network of relationships extending even into the heavenly realm.

Image credit: WordPress AI generated using the text of the post.

The Passion of John the Baptist

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Today the Church celebrates the Passion of St. John the Baptist. This is not simply a martyr’s death or the tragic execution of an important biblical figure. His death marks the completion of his prophetic vocation. From the question posed in Luke’s gospel at his birth: “What, then, will this child be?” – this scene completes a life of fidelity to the truth during which John prepared the way for Christ not only through his preaching and baptism, but ultimately by giving his life. It is a celebration with several layers.

John dies as a prophet. The immediate reason for John’s imprisonment and death is striking. He isn’t executed because he proclaimed Jesus as Messiah. He is imprisoned because he tells Herod Antipas: “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” (Mk 6:18). John refuses to adjust God’s truth to accommodate the powerful. That places him squarely in the tradition of Israel’s prophets. Elijah confronted Ahab. Nathan confronted David. Jeremiah confronted kings and religious leaders. John does the same and pays the price often associated with prophetic fidelity. At this layer, the feast celebrates the cost of speaking truth when truth is inconvenient.

John prepares the way for Jesus even in death. There is also a remarkable parallel between John’s Passion and Christ’s Passion. Consider that both are innocent and are arrested by political authorities who are reluctant to execute them. Herod recognizes John as righteous; Pilate recognizes Jesus’ innocence. Both rulers nevertheless surrender to pressure rather than doing what they know is right. Both of their deaths reveal the point where God’s Kingdom and worldly powers collide.

John is the herald and forerunner of Christ in preaching, suffering and even in death. His whole life says what he had earlier said about Jesus: “He must increase; I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30) His martyrdom is the final and most radical form of that decreasing.

Why call it the “Passion”? Ordinarily we speak of the martyrdom of saints. The Church traditionally calls August 29 the Passion or Beheading of John the Baptist. “Passion” emphasizes his suffering and deliberately invites comparison with Christ’s Passion. John isn’t another redeemer; Christ alone accomplishes redemption. But John’s death has a distinctive relationship to Christ’s because the entire purpose of John’s life is to point beyond himself toward Jesus.

Still, I am often asked why celebrate such a gruesome event? We are celebrating a most radical example of fidelity. Think of the contrasts: Herod appears powerful. John appears powerless. Herod has the palace, soldiers, wealth, and authority. John is sitting in a prison cell. And yet there is a radical reversal. Herod is actually captive to his reputation, an oath he made is a moment of inebriated passion, the opinion of his guests, and to Herodias. He is captive to his unwillingness to admit that he has made a terrible promise.

John, meanwhile, is physically imprisoned but morally free.

“What, then, will this child be?” (Lk 1:66)

Today’s celebration answers that question. This child will become a man so completely given to God’s call that he will not abandon it even when fidelity costs him his life. He became a faithful witness.

And I think that is ultimately why the Church keeps this rather unsettling feast. John did what he had done throughout his entire life: he pointed toward Christ. At the Jordan he did it with his hand and his voice—“Behold, the Lamb of God.” At Herod’s court he did it by telling the truth. And finally, in prison, he did it by remaining faithful when speaking that truth had become terribly costly.

The Passion of John the Baptist celebrates a life in which the message and the messenger finally became inseparable.

Image credit: St. John the Baptist Rebuking King Herod | Giovanni Fattori, 1856 | Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence | PD-US

Under the fig tree

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Today we have a reading from the Gospel of John in which Jesus encounters Nathaniel under a fig tree. It is only at the end of the reading that angels get a mention: “you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51) Otherwise, Jesus is involved in the calling of the disciples, having found Peter, Andrew and Philip at work. He finds Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree. Micah 4:3-4 and Zechariah 3:10 suggest that “under a fig tree” may be a place of contemplation. It may be that Nathanael was a “thinker”. He wouldn’t accept anything at face value, but he would question and contemplate everything until he was sure of its truthfulness. On the other hand, sitting in the shade, eating the free figs, might indicate that he was just a lazy bum.

I think that we need more fig trees — at least in a figurative sense. They can be quite messy when the unpicked, over-ripe fruit falls to the ground and attracts all kinds of birds and bugs. What I mean is that we need more places and time to be contemplative — time to be quiet and think. We need more “fig trees” in church — places and times to stop working, to stop doing the business, and to sit and reflect. Perhaps we might become more Christian with less busyness in our own lives and more time to ask the simple question to ourselves: how was I a disciple of Christ.

Perhaps we would be a better church if we could stop and contemplate our place in this world we are called to evangelize. We might find things quite messy: unpicked, over-ripe fruit on the ground. A harvest wasted.

In my last assignment, the Franciscans had just taken up pastoral leadership of a parish almost 150 years old. There was a lot of focus on the past, a church caught in the Newtonian mechanics of an object at rest. We can learn from the past, but we also have to consider the now, and then contemplate a new future of a church not at rest, but a restless church.

Same is true of each one of us as individuals, members of a family, and all the other roles we have in life.

Where is your fig tree? Find it and may the messengers of God, the angels, bring you divine food for thought.

Nathaniel under the fig tree | James Tissot, ca. 1890 | Brooklyn Museum | PD

Things were so much better

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From St. Augustine’s Sermo Calillus-Saint Yves 2, he offers us some advice

And yet you hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former time. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors – would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them.

Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

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The Assumption was defined as dogma only in the 1950.  In our Catholic Church ‘dogma” is defined as a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding upon all Catholics. The term Dogma Catholicum was first used by Vincent of Lérins (450), referring to “what all, everywhere and always believed” – with the emphasis on katholica meaning universal. The term dogma derived from the Greek dogma (δόγμα) meaning literally “that which one thinks is true” and the verb dokein, “to seem good.”

On 1 November 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary as a dogma:

By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory

Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption.

On the same day, the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God (or Dormition of the Theotokos, the falling asleep of the Mother of God). Eastern Christians believe that Mary died a natural death, that her soul was received by Christ upon death, and that her body was resurrected on the third day after her death and that she was taken up into heaven bodily in anticipation of the general resurrection. Her tomb was found empty on the third day.

Orthodox tradition is clear in regard to the central point of the Dormition: the Holy Virgin underwent, as did her Son, a physical death, but her body – like His – was afterwards raised from the dead and she was taken up into heaven, in her body as well as in her soul. She has passed beyond death and judgement and lives wholly in life eternal.

Many western Catholics also believe that Mary first died before being assumed, but they believe that she was miraculously resurrected before being assumed. Others believe she was assumed bodily into Heaven without first dying. Either understanding may be legitimately held by Latin and Eastern Catholics.

In parallel to the theological discussion – actually, well before the theologians got into the mix, the Assumption had a rich history of writings and liturgical celebrations. The earliest known Reference is “The Book of Mary’s Repose” which survives in an Ethiopic translation. It is understood as being a 3rd century writing. Also, quite early is a book titled, “The Six Books” a collection of Dormition narratives dating to the 4th century.

In some versions of the narrative, the Assumption is said to have taken place in Ephesus, in the House of the Virgin Mary. Comparatively, that is a later and localized tradition – especially in Ephesus. The earliest written traditions say that Mary’s life ended in Jerusalem located in the Kidron Valley – at the foot of Mount of Olives. What is interesting is that since the 5th century all rulers over Jerusalem have honored the tomb of Mary as being in that location.  The Muslim rulers may have destroyed the church atop the tomb but the crypt was left untouched, as for Muslims it is the burial place of the mother of prophet Isa (Jesus)

By the 7th century, a variation of the narrative emerged, according to which one of the apostles, often identified as St Thomas, was not present at the death of Mary but his late arrival precipitates a reopening of Mary’s tomb, which is found to be empty except for her grave clothes.

The liturgical celebrations (transitus celebrations) of the Assumption were well established in the East by the 5th century and began widespread celebration in the West by the 9th century.

Clare of Assisi – audaciously following Christ

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August 11th is the Feast of St. Clare of Assisi – in many ways considered a “second founder” of the Franciscan orders of men and women because of the influence her life, example, and spirituality have upon the religious orders of men and women that carry the name “Franciscan.” In honor of these celebrations, let us look at The Legend of St. Clare (1255) in which we read of Clare’s decision to follow Francis’ way of life.

“The Solemnity of the Day of Palms was at hand when the young girl went with a fervent heart to the man of God, asking [him] about her conversion and how it should be carried out.  The father Francis told her that on the day of the feast, she should go, dressed and adorned, together with the crowd of people, to [receive] a palm, and, on the following night, leaving the camp she should turn her worldly joy into mourning the Lord’s passion.

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