Category: Life

On Empathy in the Digital Age…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ 1 Comment

How could this happen?  I believe American teens are in the grips of a psychological epidemic that has eroded much of their capacity to connect with genuine emotion and is, therefore, crushing their empathy.  

Having watched tens of thousands of YouTube videos with bizarre scenarios unfolding, having Tweeted thousands of senseless missives of no real importance, having watched contrived “Reality TV” programs in which people are posers in false dramas about love or lust or revenge, having texted millions of times, rather than truly connecting and having lost their real faces to the fake life stories of Facebook, they look upon the actual events of their lives with no more actual investment and actual concern and actual courage than they would look upon a fictional character in a movie.  

They are absent from their own lives and those of others.  They are floating free in a virtual world where nothing really matters other than being cool observers of their own detached existence, occasionally alighting on one another’s bodies, in sexual embraces that remind them—for an orgasmic moment—that they are actually alive and actually human.  

The Way of Life and the Way of Death…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

There are two Ways: the Way of Life and the Way of Death and the difference between these two Ways is great.

The Way of Life is this: first, you shall love the Lord God, your Creator; and second, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Do not do anything to your neighbor that you would not want done to yourself.

These words mean this: speak well of those who slander you, pray for your enemies and fast on behalf of those who work against you. For where is the merit in loving only those who love you? Even non-Christians do that! If you love those who hate you, you will have no enemies. Guard against the lust of the flesh. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other cheek as well and you will exemplify your faith. If someone compels you to go one mile, go another one as well. If someone takes your coat, give up your shirt as well. If someone tries to rob you, do not resist, even if you think you might prevail. Give help to anyone who asks of you, without looking for repayment, for it is the Father’s pleasure that we should share His gracious bounty with everyone. We are blessed when we give freely in accordance with God’s command.

The second commandment of the Lord’s Teaching is this: do not commit murder; do not commit adultery. Do not practice sexual immorality. Do not steal. Do not practice witchcraft. Do not kill an unborn child by abortion. Do not commit infanticide. Do not be greedy and envy your neighbor’s possessions. Do not commit perjury or give false testimony. Do not slander anyone or be malicious towards anyone. Do not equivocate in thought or speech. Do not be deceitful. What you say should not be false of empty but exemplified in your actions. Do not take advantage of other people or swindle them. You must resist any temptation to hypocrisy, arrogance and spitefulness. Do not hate anyone. Do not be quick-tempered. Do not be fanatical or quarrelsome. Beware of lust, for lust breeds adultery. Do not always be looking for omens or follow fortunetellers for this leads to idolatry. Have nothing to do with witchcraft, astrology or magic. Do not lie. Do not be a grumbler. Do not be over-anxious to be rich or admired, for this leads to conceit. Learn to be meek, for the meek shall inherit the earth. Practice humility and be patient, merciful, quiet and honorable, always paying attention to the things of God. Do not associate with those who are eminent in their own eyes but choose as your companions those who are humble and just. Do not create division, but bring peace among those who are divided. Make all your judgments with justice and show no partiality towards anyone. Do not turn away from those in need, but be willing to share whatever you have. Do not look upon your possessions as your own. Do not be hesitant or complain when you give. Make an offering as a ransom for your sins. Remember who the eternal Paymaster is who will give you your reward in due time. Do not fail to cherish your sons and daughters and teach them to love and revere God even while they are young. See that you do not neglect the commandments of the Lord, but keep them just as you received them, without any additions or subtractions of your own. In church, confess your sins and do not come to your prayers with a bad conscience. That is the Way of Life.

The Way of Death is this: it is completely evil and filled with destruction and damnation. Along the Way of Death is found murder, adultery, theft, sexual immorality of all kinds, idolatry, perjury, hypocrisy, duplicity, deceit, pretentiousness, arrogance, malice, greed, treachery, jealousy, obscene speech and a lack of love for God. The Way of Death is tread by those who oppose truth, love lies, show no mercy to the poor and do not know the rewards of righteousness. Gentleness and patience are beyond their conception; they care for nothing good or useful and love their empty life. They do not know God their creator. They are utterly and altogether sunk in iniquity.

Be watchful over your life! Watch out that you are not led astray from the Way of Life by those who do not know God. If you are able to carry the Lord’s yoke, your life will be full and complete.

 

– taken from an ancient Christian document called The Didache or The Teaching of the Apostles, written anonymously circa 125-150AD.

How Christians Live…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

from the Apology of St. Aristedes of Athens to the Roman emperor, Antoninus Pius, circa 150 AD

Christians know and believe in God as the Creator of heaven and earth in whom and from whom all things exist. They have learned God’s commandments and they live by them in hope of the world to come! For this reason, they do not commit adultery or engage in sexual immorality; they do not give false testimony in court or withhold someone’s deposit or envy another person’s possessions. They honor their father and mother, they are helpful to their neighbors and as judges, they make decisions with justice and mercy.

Christians do not worship idols. Anything they do not want others to do to them, they do not do to others. Christian men do not enter into illegal marriages or engage in sexual promiscuity. Out of love for their slaves and children, if they have any, they encourage them to become Christians, and if they do so, they are called brothers and sisters without distinction.

Christians do not lie. They love one another and take care of the their widows; orphans are protected from those who would harm them. They willingly share what they have with those in need. They bring strangers into their homes and welcome them as true brothers and sisters. Christians, as they are able, provide for the burial of their poor when they die. They provide help to those among them who are imprisoned or oppressed because of their faith in Christ.

When there is a person in poverty or need among them and they do not have the resources at hand to help, they will fast for two or three days in order to provide the food needed. The good works they do are not made public to impress others, but, rather, are done unnoticed so that they may hide their deeds as one who finds a treasure and hides it (Matthew 13:44)

Every morning and at all hours they give praise and thanks to God for the gifts they have received; for food and drink also they give thanks to God. This is the content of the Christian’s law and the way they live their lives.

I’ve Been Pondering…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

the story of the prodigal son and it occurred to me that the man returned was, at one time, part of the family. Perhaps the story is less about the “unsaved” , in some ways, than it is a call to those of us who have wandered from the faith, forgotten our priorities, and left, through a myriad of ways, our home in the Faith to return home.  In these times, especially, perhaps one of the most important things is for people who identify as Christians to come to their senses, cease their wanderings, and return to what they had left.

On Forgiveness…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

Following a wrong against us a crucial part of the recovery is the attempt to make sense of what has happened, to provide an explanation for the vulnerability and pain we’ve experienced. We see ourselves with all our complexities, our history, the interwoven moments of our life and within that fabric we see the damage done. We look for an explanation and simple ones are easy to find. Among them is to see the one who we believe has wronged us in one dimensional, cartoonish, form. We are a tapestry full of subtleties but the person who has hurt us is a piece of cardboard, simply and easily defined by what they did to us. The story we seek to construct to help us move through our experience of hurt and pain is made so much easier if the good guys are completely good and the bad guys completely evil, especially if we are the good guy. Yet this won’t suffice when it comes to forgiveness.

The person we believe hurt us is, like us, multidimensional, a person with complexities, a story, a history before they encountered us and a lived experience after us. Part of the process of forgiveness, and it is often a process more than a moment, is to become aware of the larger story, the context of the person who has harmed us. Doing us forces us to humanize them, to see them as more than a simple villian. To forgive a stereotype we have created can sometimes be no forgiveness at all and even a kind of revenge.  Our pride, wounded, strikes back at the evil done by making the one who harmed us something less than a person and our words of forgiveness an act of reasserting power over them and keeping them in a place of perpetual obligation to us. Forgiveness is much deeper and harder than this.

Forgiveness, in its most authentic sense, requires us, over time, to rediscover and uphold the image of God which is present even in the most evil of people. This is not about excusing actions but rather about seeing the larger context, the humanity of the person who has wronged us and and hoping, if at all possible, that our refusal to destroy in return even if it is warranted will somehow, some way, help restore the person whose evil against us is a symptom of our shared human frailty, illness, and mortality.  This is difficult and the greater the amount of harm that is done to does only increases the difficulty. Yet it is even in this great difficulty that we ourselves are restored and healed. It is in this great struggle that we discover the depths of the love and grace of God for us and the whole world even as we ourselves become partakers of it as well.

Researchers are looking…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

for a genetic cause relating to the recent school shooting in Connecticut. They will examine the DNA of the gunman to see if there is any abnormality. Who knows if they find some sort of illness or psychological problem related to a genetic cause? Yet, in the end, the problem is deeper than just a gene or two out of place. We understand, as Christians, that there is a primal mortality at work in us, a twisting and distortion of who we were meant to be beyond our genetics. It would be good to explore the deepest parts of our physicality to see if there is the potential to heal what is broken. Yet the basic human abnormality will always be beyond the care of science.

To Cut Corners…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

shade truths, round off the challenging edges, and live without thought of eternity is most always, in the short term, easier than following the higher calling. Yet there is a quality of being alive that belongs only to those who take a step away from easy compromise. The higher calling can be a very narrow road, traveled only by a few. Those few, however, seek and find life.

There are some things…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

that will not be explained. This is a difficult thing because no matter how old we get there is part of us that remains a child asking “Why?” When the answers we want don’t come in the way we want them there is a choice between despair and leaning into the depths of God’s mercy and love. I ponder, sometimes, whether God allows unanswered questions for the greater good of discovering these depths. Sometimes it seems that this is all there is.

Imagine…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

if suddenly we would become aware of all the blessings, including the small and invisible, that God has provided for us? What would happen if every small breath and beat of our heart was a reminder of the One who holds things together? So often we travel through life unaware of the sea of blessings in which we swim because we presume that God’s blessings are large, grand, and extravagant. Most, however, are quiet. They flow in and out of our lives in near anonymity. The breath that comes in and out. The heart that beats. The light of morning.

If we were to become aware of the myriad of ways that God’s life intersects our own, the thousand silent blessings that surround us,  we should be changed forever. So much of what we think matters would not, So many things of importance would fade away to be replaced by that which is better and higher.  May we be changed forever.