Forgiveness Is Awesome, But Sin Still Hurts

This weekend, June 11th and 12th, all three readings at Mass have the same theme: God’s forgiveness. In the first reading, the prophet Nathan confronted King David. David had done a couple of rather nasty things recently. First, he committed adultery; then, in an attempt to cover it up, he committed murder.

When David humbly confessed his sins, Nathan said, “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.”

In the second reading, from his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul explained that we cannot earn God’s love. However, if we trust in God’s love through faith we will be justified.

Finally, in the gospel reading, Jesus was dining at the home of a prominent Pharisee named Simon. As they ate, a sinful women came into the dining room, probably right in the middle of their Buffalo wing appetizers, and she went over to Jesus. The woman began to weep, and washed Jesus’ feet with her tears.

The other dinner guests were horrified. “If this man were a prophet,” Simon said to himself regarding Jesus, “he would know…that she is a sinner.”

Jesus, of course, quickly turned the tables on the self-righteous Pharisee. He pointed out that the sinful woman had treated Jesus much more graciously than had Simon. Jesus then said, “So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.”

The main lesson this week is God’s love and forgiveness. No matter how badly we’ve sinned, no matter how selfishly and cruelly we’ve behaved, if we genuinely repent and ask for forgiveness, God will forgive us. Wow, how great is that?

There is, however, a secondary lesson this week that we should not overlook. Although God most certainly forgives us of our sins, when we do sin, very often there are severe consequences. In the first reading God forgave David. But speaking through the prophet Nathan, God also said, “Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house.”

David’s sins had earthly consequences, and in fact from that time on, his family was a mess. There were hatreds and betrayals and murders for many generations after David. The culmination came when the entire kingdom was torn in two, split into the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah. From the moment David committed those terrible sins, there was no peace in his life or in the lives of his descendants.

In our lives the same principle holds true. If we commit a sin, say, driving under the influence, God certainly will forgive us if we sincerely repent. But if we get arrested, we have to pay the price. And if, God forbid, we kill somebody while driving drunk, we have to pay a huge price (although not nearly as huge as the price paid by the innocent victim). By the way, even if we don’t get caught, there still is a steep price to pay for abusing alcohol, in the form of damaged relationships, poor work performance, financial problems, health issues, etc.

Just like King David, our sins can harm us and our descendants. Think of the example I’m using, the irresponsible use of alcohol. We all know families that have been devastated by booze. Not only can it wreck the drinker’s life, it can cause severe problems for his or her family for many generations. The same things can happen with other sins: adultery, dishonesty, theft, laziness, rooting for the Yankees, you name it. 

It’s great to know that God will forgive us, no matter what terrible things we’ve done. But it certainly is best not to do those terrible things in the first place. Yes, we still can receive eternal life in Heaven when we repent, but sometimes the consequences of our sin can be Hell on earth, for us and our loved ones and all of society.

Food Problems Loom For Italy Trip

A few weeks ago I wrote about our upcoming trip to Italy for our daughter’s wedding, and the fact that I don’t know how to speak Italian. Many readers send me email messages, most of which focused on my concluding comment that if I constantly keep my mouth filled with food, it will hide the fact I don’t know a single word in Italian other than the word Spaghetti-Os. (That is an Italian word, right? I’m pretty sure it is. It’s certainly not Irish, because in that case it would be O’Spaghetti.)

The various email notes I received expressed delight that I will be in Italy, where the food is awesome, rather than, say, Great Britain, where they actually eat things like blood pudding and jellied eels. No wonder the British spent centuries sailing around the globe conquering nation after nation: they were simply trying to find something, anything, that tasted good. (So why they had their greatest empire-building success in a place that puts curry on everything, I'll never understand.)

My email friends offered a long list of wonderful Italian foods I should shove into my face the entire time we are in Italy, things such as cannolis, manicotti, calzones, pizza, gelato — and then wash it all down with massive quantities of wine.

OK, that sounds great. However, there are two slight problems: first, I am lactose intolerant, and second, I am a recovering alcoholic. Whenever I eat something that contains cheese, milk, cream, butter, etc., within 20 minutes I have to sprint to the bathroom. And regarding booze, it’s been three decades and counting since I “put the plug in the jug,” but I remember all too well what it was like in the bad ol’ days. After one drink I was jovial. After two drinks I was hilarious. After three drinks I was a cross between Don Rickles and Norman Bates. And I never stopped at two drinks.

In Italy, if I eat any of those dairy-laden items and wash it down with a bottle of wine, my sprinting will be more like zig-zag staggering, and I probably won't make it to the bathroom in time. Without going into a lot of gruesome gastrointestinal details, let’s just say if this occurs, it surely will spark an international incident, one which could bring the U.S. and Italy to the brink of war.

My personal “Bucket List” has a few weird items on it, but “start a war” is definitely not one of them. So in the interest of global peace and harmony, it is very important that I refrain from consuming dairy products and/or wine while in Italy. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: that is absolutely impossible. In Italy, if you order a slice of white bread, they automatically put a hunk of mozzarella cheese on it. If you order a glass of water, they ask you, “Red or white?” And if you order any item in a restaurant and specifically say (in Italian, which I haven’t learned yet), “No cheese! Please, I’m begging you. No cheese!” They interpret that to mean, “OK, I’ll only put three different types of cheese on his meal rather than the usual five.”

I suspect when my future in-laws hear that I can neither eat cheese nor drink wine, they’ll say, “Oh, I’m so sorry. When did he die?” When it’s explained that I’m actually alive, they’ll reply, “Let’s not quibble. There’s death, and then there’s no reason to live.” 

The wedding will be great. But if in mid-October you hear a breaking news report that a U.S. Navy battle group is steaming up the Adriatic Sea toward the city of Venice, it probably will be my fault.

‘The Grand Sez Who’ Wreaking Havoc in Our Culture

Some years ago I wrote an editorial column for a local newspaper, which explained the harmful effect of moral relativism on our culture. Moral relativism is the popular notion that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Instead, all moral values are merely personal opinions, and no one opinion should be judged as better or worse than another. I wrote that this mindset is the true source of the violence and chaos and polarization we see in our society nowadays.

That column generated a fair amount of feedback, and many of the email notes I received can be summarized as follows: You claim we need firm values, Mr. Dunn, but WHOSE values? Will it be your right-wing conservative Catholic values? No Thanks. Fanatical Jesus freaks like you just want to impose a theocracy on the country.

First of all, Christians in America, at least the ones I’ve met and prayed with, do not want a theocracy. The genius of the Founding Fathers was their ability to keep specific religious doctrines and dogmas separated from the governing of the country. But many people do not realize our nation was built on a firm foundation of traditional Judeo-Christian values and virtues. There was a clear moral consensus throughout the country. Regardless of a person’s particular religious affiliation, or no religion at all, the citizenry acknowledged a basic moral code.

Honesty, hard work, discipline, and courage were good. Deception, laziness, promiscuity, and cowardice were bad. Everybody agreed. When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Most conservative Christians or traditional Catholics, such as myself, understand the wisdom and common sense of Adams’ words, and for the sake of the nation we simply want to return to a clear moral consensus. However, my email friends raised a very valid point: WHOSE values? WHICH moral code will the citizenry acknowledge and follow?

The late Arthur Leff, a Yale law professor, coined the phrase, “The grand sez who.” Leff realized that moral relativism has a fatal flaw. If there are no absolute truths, if all moral values are merely personal opinions, then there is no transcendent authority as the source of values. Every single claim about specific morality or virtue can be answered with an indignant, “Sez who?!”

Without a transcendent authority as the source of morality and values, there never will be a societal consensus. In cultures without a moral consensus there are only two possible outcomes: either a chaotic mish-mash of competing personal opinions, which is our situation today; or totalitarian oppression imposed by a ruling elite to bring order to the chaos, the scenario I fear will happen in America within a decade or so. Either way, true freedom and liberty are lost.

Thomas Jefferson identified the transcendent authority for morality and values. Jefferson, no friend of organized religion, cited in the Declaration of Independence that this source is the “Law of Nature and Nature’s God.” He knew the source was far weightier than mere human opinions.

The fact that people nowadays are indignantly demanding, “Whose values?!” and “Sez who?!” shows how much trouble we are in. If we as a society do not find a moral consensus—and fast—we will continue down the path of greater and greater cultural chaos.

At some point soon, frightened citizens will demand the government “do something!” to restore order. You don’t want to be around when that happens. Just ask people who lived behind the Iron Curtain, or who live in North Korea today—if they haven’t already starved to death.

The only way for America to avoid the inevitable chaos-then-crackdown fate is to reject moral relativism. This is in no way a desire to impose a theocracy. It is a desire to see our nation survive.

Color My World

I finally uncovered one of the deep mysteries of life. Men are not insensitive and uncaring, despite popular opinion to the contrary. The problem with men is that our brains can only recognize eight different colors. We cannot handle anything more than the basic, Kindergarten-issue Crayola 8-pack.

Women, on the other hand, are just getting started with the Deluxe Crayola 96-pack (with a crayon sharpener built into the box!). A woman’s brain can easily recognize hundreds of subtle shading nuances of each major color.

The revelation of this males-only impairment came to me, if you haven’t already guessed, while standing with my wife in the paint department of the local Home Depot store on a Saturday morning. (I believe Home Depot’s corporate motto is: “And you thought Disney World was the largest and most crowded place on earth!”)

Our mission was simple: purchase a can of paint for the walls of one of our bedrooms. My wife kept displaying paint samples before me and asking Eastern mysticism riddles, such as, “Which shade do you think is softer, the ‘Saint Martin Sand’ or the ‘Oklahoma Wheat’?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond. My first impulse was to blurt out, “How can a color be SOFT?” My second impulse was to say, “Every one of those rectangular color samples is IDENTICAL! They’re all tan!” I finally settled for my standard response: “Doesn’t matter to me, Honey. Choose whatever you like.”

In my mind I was being very prudent and wise by deferring the final decision to an expert. In a certain someone else’s mind, however, I was being insensitive and uncaring because I wouldn’t study the hundreds of subtle shading nuances before assisting in the final decision.

But it’s not my fault. It’s genetic. A man can only tell the difference between the following colors: blue, red, green, yellow, orange, purple, brown, and white.

I think it has something to do with televised team sports. The Yankees wear blue and white. The Red Sox wear red and blue. The Celtics wear green; the Lakers blue and yellow; the Chicago Bulls red and black; the Minnesota Vikings purple and yellow; the Cleveland Browns orange and brown. Simple, basic, no-subtle-shading-nuanced team colors. And no tan.

Only one color, blue, has variations that men can notice. The Yankees wear dark blue; the Dodgers wear medium blue; and the University of North Carolina basketball team wears light blue. However, men cannot notice the difference unless the colors are side-by-side, for example, if the Yankees play the Dodgers in the World Series and the Commissioner of Baseball decides to use UNC basketball players as umpires.

No other basic color has dark, medium, or light variations (at least that men can detect). A particular color either is, or it isn’t. Someone may say that red has different variations. But of course, that’s false since light red is really pink, and as we all know, pink is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution from being used as a team sport uniform color. 

Instead of accusing me of being insensitive and uncaring, my wife should be more understanding. She shouldn’t put such pressure on me, especially in a public place.

I hope medical researchers will study this syndrome. Maybe they will label it Chromatic Arrested Disorder, or CAD for short. (Doctor: “I’m sorry to tell you this, Mrs. Dunn, but the tests reveal that your husband is a CAD.” My wife: “Tell me something I don’t already know.”) 

At least I’ll be able to get an official doctor’s note: “Bill is not allowed to enter the paint department of Home Depot stores. Instead, he should take two doses of televised team sports and call me in the morning.”

The Body and Blood: Super Symbol or Super-Natural?

This weekend at Mass we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. The second reading, from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, describes what Jesus did at the Last Supper: “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

Most Christian denominations agree this practice is a basic part of community worship. On a regular basis we use bread and wine to conduct rituals with names such as Communion Service, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharistic Celebration, etc.

In the Roman Catholic Church, however, we believe the bread and wine do not merely represent or symbolize Jesus’ body and blood. We believe the bread and wine actually BECOME Jesus’ body and blood during Mass.

Many groups claim the Catholic Church made up this particular view during the Middle Ages, many centuries after Jesus walked the earth.

But let’s take a closer look. The reading this week from 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, ends at verse 26. But if you look up in your Bible at home and continue on a few more verses, you’ll see that Paul offered some very interesting warnings. Starting at verse 27 he wrote, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.”

Now if it’s just a symbol, if it’s just plain old bread and wine, how can someone partake of it in a manner so unworthy that they’d actually be sinning against Our Lord’s own body and blood? It doesn’t make sense — UNLESS the bread and wine are something a little more special than mere bread and wine.

A bit later, in verse 29, Paul wrote, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

If it’s just plain old bread and wine, how are we supposed to “recognize” the body of the Lord? And if we don’t recognize the body, how can we bring judgment on ourselves if it’s just plain old bread and wine? The only thing that makes sense is that we’re supposed to recognize the body of the Lord in the bread specifically because the bread now IS the body of the Lord.

The Real Presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist was understood and believed by Christians from the very beginning. It was not “made up” by the Church in the Middle Ages. It didn’t have to be “made up” centuries after Jesus walked the earth, because during the first century—during the time the apostles were still alive—none other than St. Paul clearly believed it and clearly taught it in his letter to the faithful in Corinth.

And when you read what Paul wrote here about the body and blood of the Lord, along with Jesus’ amazing words about His body and blood in John’s gospel, chapter 6, it becomes crystal clear that a supernatural miracle is taking place: mere bread and wine are transformed by the power of God into the actual body and blood, soul and divinity, of Jesus Christ the Lord. Whoa! That is breath-taking!

So, this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (or “Corpus Christi,” as it used to be known), is a terrific time to remember what a remarkable gift the Lord has given His Church: the gift of Himself, when bread and wine are supernaturally transformed into His body and blood. As Paul instructs, make sure you recognize it.

The Holy Trinity Is Beyond Comprehension

Imagine living in a two-dimensional world, where everything is flat. There is only height and width, but no depth. All of existence is contained on a flat plane, like a huge sheet of glass which extends in all directions as far as the eye can see.

The people living in this two-dimensional world have various shapes. There’s Timmy Triangle, Cindy Circle, Sammy Square, Reggie Rectangle, and that free-spirited non-conformist, Trevor Trapezoid.

These flat people can move forward and back, left and right. But in their two-dimensional world, there is no such thing as up and down.

One day Timmy Triangle said to Cindy Circle, “Hey, guess what? Sammy Square just told me there is someone who is made up of six separate squares but is actually one person.”

“Impossible,” Cindy replied. “It’s either six different people or it’s one. It can’t be both at the same time.”

“Sammy says it’s true.”

“What does he know? He’s a blockhead. And you, Mr. Triangle,” Cindy continued, “You’re so pointy-headed you actually believe that nonsense.”

“Well, maybe it is true,” Timmy said.

“C’mon, do the math! How can six separate square people be consider one person at the same time? It makes no sense!”

Well, she’s right. It makes no sense...in a two-dimensional world. Six separate squares cannot at the same time be considered one thing.

But what if, unbeknownst to our flat people, there exists another dimension? What if the third dimension, depth, really exists and the two-dimensional flat people simply are unaware of that fact? They’ve been living their entire lives on a single plane, going forward and back, left and right, not realizing that they could also go up and down.

With three dimensions, you can take six separate squares and arrange them into one cube. For we human beings, living in our three-dimensional world, this is obvious. But to the flat people, living in their two-dimensional world, it makes no sense. They cannot comprehend how six can equal one.

 

Maybe this is why it’s so hard for us to comprehend the concept of the Holy Trinity. The Christian faith teaches one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Many people hear that description and say, “Oh, so Christianity is polytheistic. You guys believe in many different gods.”

“No,” we explain, “We believe in one God, who exists in three persons.”

And just like Cindy Circle, the reply is, “Impossible. It’s either three different gods or it’s one. It can’t be both at the same time. I knew you Christians were blockheads.”

Maybe we’re like the flat people, constrained by our three-dimensional time-space existence, and unaware of an additional dimension. We cannot comprehend how one God can exist in three persons.

But from the heavenly perspective, outside of time and unconstrained by physical dimensions, it may be plain and obvious—as obvious as us knowing that six squares can equal one cube.

As Christians we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity this week. We celebrate it, but in all honesty, we really don’t understand it. It is an article of faith. We believe that our eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator left the heavenly dimension in the person of Jesus Christ and entered into our earthly three-dimensional world. He did it to guide us and teach us and most of all to save our souls.

You see, we each have a soul. It is eternal. In our finite, three-dimensional, time-space existence, a little bit of the next dimension has been given to us: our souls.

Today, many folks deny this. They say the soul is fiction. They claim all our thoughts and emotions, desires and dreams, are nothing more than complex electro-chemical reactions formed by zillions of years of evolution.

Piffle. That’s a close-minded Cindy Circle explanation.

We should know better. We should realize that the core of our being—all those ideas and memories and longings known as our higher consciousness—is not purely physical and natural. There is something supernatural and spiritual about it. It is our eternal soul.

Unlike Cindy Circle, who had no way of knowing that another dimension existed, we have evidence that there is something beyond what we can see and touch. We have our souls, which point us heavenward. And we have Jesus Christ, who came from that realm to assure us that it truly does exist, and showed us how to get there.

As it says in one of the shortest but most profound verses in the entire Bible: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” 

And as the great hymn says, “Praise the Holy Trinity, undivided unity. Holy God, Mighty God, God immortal be adored.”

A Bad Night’s Sleep Is Terminal

The other day I got to check an item off my personal “Bucket List.” Here is item #7 on my list: “Spend the night sleeping on a thin dirty carpet on the floor of an airport terminal, with a lumpy backpack as a pillow.” Check! Cross that one off the list.

No, I’m kidding. I’ve got a few weird items on my person Bucket List, but sleeping on the floor of an airport terminal is not one of them. Even if that were on my list, technically I could not check it off because in order to claim that you slept on an airport terminal floor, you actually have to do some sleeping. I did a lot of laying on the floor, begging my exhausted brain to fall asleep, but every time I was about to doze off, one of two things occurred: either a strategic body part, such as a hip or shoulder or neck, suddenly screamed at me, “Hey, this hurts like hell, so roll over and let some other body part suffer for a while,” or the overnight maintenance crew fired up one of their industrial strength vacuum cleaners, the ones that sound a lot like the space shuttle being launched, except slightly louder.

Thunderstorms in the Midwest caused my flight from Kansas City to be delayed, so when we finally arrived in Baltimore, my connecting flight to Hartford was already gone. It was after 11 p.m. and I asked the person at the counter when the next flight to Hartford was scheduled to leave. She replied, “Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.” Wanting to get home as soon as possible, I said, “Well, put me on that flight.”

Then I started running the numbers in my head. “Let’s see, by the time I call around to find a hotel with a vacancy, and then get a cab, and then have to wake up in time to take a quick shower and get another cab back to the airport so I have enough time to go through security and be at the terminal for the boarding that begins at 5:30, I’ll probably get no more than an hour or two of sleep. So I might as well just spend the night in the terminal.” I then asked myself this rhetorical question, “How bad can it be?” Here’s the rhetorical answer: REALLY FREAKIN’ BAD!

There are few things more painful than being unable to sleep when you are completely exhausted. The hard floor and the lumpy backpack pillow were simply excruciating. My brain was tired to the point of hallucinating, but it would not doze off.

The last time I slept on a floor was over 30 years ago and I was drunk, so it was no problem. (Well, being a drunk proved to be a big problem. But sleeping through that particular night was a piece of cake.) 

Now, however, in my late-50s and sober, getting some sleep was just not going to happen. So I spent about four hours prone on that hard floor, tossing and turning and wondering if one of the unicorns frolicking through the airport terminal would let me ride on him. (Hey, I wasn’t kidding about the hallucination thing.)

In hindsight, my big mistake was choosing to take the 6 a.m. flight. If the same situation ever occurs again, instead of the earliest flight the next morning, I’ll take a flight that leaves about two days later, which will give me time to find a hotel and take a few 12-hour naps. 

Either that, or the next time my company wants me to travel to Kansas City, I’ll attend the meetings via online video-conference, from the comfort of my bed at home.