Saint Pope
Pius X once said that there is a great heresy, a false teaching, blowing
through the world in our day – and he called it the collection of all the world’s
heresies into one – and he said it is basically the denial of the supernatural.
The longer I’ve
been a priest, the more I see what he’s saying.
If you think the world is a machine, and everything is determined by chemistry
and biology and that everything that happens in the universe can be calculated,
then the problem is this – there is no gratitude.
Not
thankfulness, because there’s nothing to be thankful for. It is all science, and math and physics and
genetics and neurons, it all has an explanation, even though no one has the
explanation, many people tell themselves “surely smart people have the
explanation for everything” or at least “surely someday smart people will FIND
an explanation for everything”
As a person
who wants to see everyone happy and at peace, who wants to see everyone know
and follow Christ, what breaks my heart in this denial of the supernatural is
that so many people tell themselves a monstrously awful thing: so many today
say that if they saw a miracle, they would certainly recognize it.
Let me say
that again, people tell themselves the lie that if they saw or experienced a
miracle, they would know it.
Since people
tell themselves that they don’t experience any miracles, since they don’t see
anything miraculous happening, there is nothing to be thankful for, nothing to
have gratitude in our hearts for, so we become a hard and cynical people who
rip each other apart on line, are lonely, and addicted and depressed because
nothing miraculous ever happens.
We’ve said
before that the current generation is walking away from the Faith at an epic
level, and it is happening today around the age of 13, and the studies suggest
it is largely over this supposed clash vs. science and Faith.
I want to
say something here: I’ve talked before about the fact that I studied math, but
I realized I need to say something if it might help a teen who sees “what can
be proved by science” and Catholicism proposes as being at odds.
I was the
Calculus student of the year in high school, and I was the math student of the
year my junior and senior year in college, and I was really close to going and
working on at least a masters in mathematics before deciding to go to the
seminary. I know it is absolutely gross
to talk about yourself, but I would say I’m probably better at math and science
than 98% of 13 year olds – I know – a really high bar. But St. Paul does this also to make a point –
he says no one was a more devout Jew than I.
I say this
about my science background in order to say “I’ve never seen anything in math
or science that contradicts anything in my Catholic Faith. AND, on the other side of that, I’ve had tons
of things that I’ve seen in math and science that have confirmed and
strengthened by Catholic Faith.
But if me
making a fool of myself talking about college math doesn’t help, I also reached
out to a medical doctor, two people I know who are in med school, and the best
chemistry brain I’ve ever seen, and I’ve asked lots of Catholic scientists and
mathematics people the same questions.
None of them report ever having their Catholic Faith challenged by
anything in science, and they also report, though, what they have seen, as
strengthening their Faith a great deal.
Gratitude
comes from realizing we’ve been given something, that there is such a thing as
kindness and love, and gifts, and that we’ve been given a gift.
And what is
the gift? What are the miracles we’re
missing?
One of the
most amazing things I’ve seen in a while was a video clip of about 90
seconds. CNN host Anderson Cooper was
interviewing Steven Colbert who is the rare Hollywood person that doesn’t
brandish about his Catholicism but also never seems to be ashamed of it.
And the
video gets right to the heart of what we’re discussing – miracles – gratitude and
whether we have anything to be thankful for at all. Whether anything special ever happens or we’re
all just chemicals bumping into each other in a machine.
Anderson
Cooper, in the midst of a larger interview where I’m told they dive into
politics, set that all aside and go watch the 90 second clip.
Colbert lost
his father and two brothers in a plane crash when Colbert was only 10. Cooper starts to ask Colbert a question, and
as Anderson Cooper asks the question – he gets choked up. The question he gets out through tears is this:
“you once
told an interviewer to love the things you most wish had not happened. You went on to say “what punishments of God
are not gifts” Do you really believe
that?
Colbert says
“Yes, it is a gift to exist, it is a gift to exist, and with existence comes
suffering, there’s no escaping that…if you are grateful for your life, you have
to be grateful for all of it”
They went on
to talk more about suffering and Christ and Catholicism, and it was, in my
estimation, the Church’s teaching on the gift of existence even in the face of
suffering, all condensed into 8 minutes.
I hope you’ll go seek it out.
Colbert
said, in that interview, the key Catholic rebuttal to those who want to strip
out mystery – it is a gift to exist
We are
grateful when we are given gifts.
And
gratitude is what fuels religion, it is what fuels our Catholic Faith and our
world view.
I’m here
tonight/today because God has given me many gifts – some I see, but MOST I don’t see
9 run off
after being healed from leprosy and don’t think to say thanks.
They don’t
see the miracles of their own healing, so they run off without a word of
thanks, on to the next thing.
Many of us
do the same
Don’t tell
yourself that if a miracle happened you would know it
Let us be
the Samaritan who sees the miracle of his healing, and return to Christ. Let us also say to Christ tonight and always
the two words that will totally change our relationship with Christ: “Thank you”
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