1. Holy Week is such a busy time: preparing for Easter dinners and travel, buying gifts, stuffing eggs, and going to church Thursday, Friday, and Saturday or Sunday.

    But it’s such a rich time, too. Our senses are engaged: receiving palms on Palm Sunday, washing feet on Holy Thursday, kissing the cross on Good Friday, and all of the smells and sights of lights and flowers on Easter Sunday.

    I wonder what Holy Week was like for Jesus.

    Pilgrims to Israel can still walk down the road Jesus took into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. At the bottom of this hill, a garden of olive trees silently watches outside the city walls. A small cave with an abandoned olive press is nestled there, and it was here that tradition holds Jesus stayed between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday night.

    Jesus probably walked in and out of Jerusalem from the garden all week. He probably passed the same people doing their daily things: women fetching water, children chasing each other, and men talking politics. He might have received accolades on Monday, the day after his triumphal entry. I wonder what happened during the week. How did they come to hate him so much in such a short time? What made them shout, “Crucify him!” on Friday?

    Do any of us have any really good reasons for hatred? In the face of love, the only reasonable response is love. Jesus loved those people so much, and he loves us the same. It is us who turn from him when we make other things in life our “gods” or even hurt him by hurting our neighbor.

    In this final week before Christ rises anew in each of our lives, maybe we can focus more consciously less on the busyness of Holy Week and more on the richness of Christ’s love we see in these days. Every day, face Jesus as he walks by you in your daily routines, and thank him for the gift of his saving life and love.


    Next week, this column will have a new title: “That they might have life.” In John 10:10 Jesus states that he came that we might have life, and this passage reflects the spirit of the column more accurately. I hope to hold up the goodness and love of God for all of us today—that we might have life to the full.

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  2. An article posted March 11 on www.USAToday.com reports that the most recent Texan execution leaves the leading state in death penalty executions “with enough of the powerful sedative to carry out only one more execution.” [1]

    But Texas isn’t the only state running out of drugs for lethal injection, and without access to this more humane means, several states are considering going back to execution by firing squad. Seriously.

    National interest in the death penalty follows on the heels of a shortage of thiopental and pentobarbital, the two drugs commonly used for executions. Companies produce these drugs for medical use—in much smaller doses, and a March 15 article from the Wall Street Journal reports that the companies “cut back [the] availability after death-penalty opponents and others highlighted the drugs’ role in executions.”[2]

    It sounds like those who make the drugs for healing don’t want their product used for execution.

    With so many opinions on this tough topic, let’s look at what the Church holds.

    According to the Catechism, “Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor…” (2267)

    There are three clear points concerning death sentences according to the previously quoted paragraph of the Catechism, and they make a lot of sense. First, guilt must be “fully determined,” especially since, according to a March 18, 2015 fact sheet from the Death Penalty Information Center, more than “140 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence.”[3] Second, the death penalty may only be applied if it is “the only possible way” to protect others’ lives. Third, and clarifying the second point, the Catechism goes on to write that cases of inability to reasonably and safely detain an offender “are very rare, if not practically non-existent” in our world today.

    Consider your own stance on the death penalty. Do the above points make sense? I wonder whether national attention on the death penalty stems from our natural aversion to inhumane means of execution made very possible in light of the drug shortage. And maybe our aversion to these means points to a greater aversion of killing a person regardless of method. 

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  3. It is easy to notice injustice. We often hear or say, “That’s not fair!” when something is unjust. For example, frequent travelers achieve rank over those who travel less, and they are given first class ticket upgrades, free checked luggage and access to “executive lounges.” However, when these loyal customers are not treated in the way their status suggests, they feel wronged. They sense an injustice.

    Likewise, spouses feel there is an injustice when household chores aren’t done as agreed upon. Children feel injustices when their friends ditch them for a better option. And athletes or businessmen and women will sue for contract violations. The point is that we readily notice injustice done to us, but we often ignore or are oblivious to particular injustices we cause.

    We find as many loopholes in taxes as possible, yet we complain when the government doesn’t have money to fix our road. We fail to offer assistance to our spouse who has done more work that day, and then get angry when he or she doesn’t ask (or really listen) to how our day went.

    The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that justice “consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor,” and that the just person, “is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor” (CCC 1807). “Constant” and “habitual” are two key words here. Justice is a daily—constant, habitual—way of life.

    As human beings, we live with others. We are communal by nature. So, we must give others what is due to them if we expect it in return. Yet listening to our spouse one time after a long day isn’t living the virtue of justice. No. Justice requires constant action.

    Granted, it is probably good to remind others when they treat us unjustly; how else would legitimate injustices be corrected? However, we need to also examine our lives for injustices we do to others (like gossiping), and to God (like missing Mass).


    Lent is a perfect time to consider justice and injustice in our own lives. What is yours that really belongs to another: time that you give to work or to yourself instead of your family? Clothing you store but don’t wear?  Little, daily action build the habit of justice. And just people will build a just world.

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  4. How we live stems from what we believe. All persons have an inherent dignity: big-city muggers and our own mothers, coworkers and the unborn, our children and the homeless. In Church, State, and Society, J. Brian Benestad points out that this dignity stems from a three-fold truth about us as persons. 1) We have been created in God’s image. 2) We have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. 3) And we are destined for eternal life.[1]

    As Catholics, we often say life should be protected and respected “from natural conception to natural death.” This stems from the first of the three-fold truths about human dignity: that we are images of our Creator. God created us to love and labor, just as He loves and labors, and God gave us the gift to choose freely one action or another. Because we will never fully choose to live and love as God lives and loves, we need a bridge back to God.

    God sent his only begotten Son, so that anyone who believes in Jesus may be restored to life with God (cf. Jn 3:16). Jesus Christ is the answer to our struggle to find Communion with God again after our choice to sin. Because of Jesus’ redemption, each person is not only God’s image, but each is redeemed—you, your spouse, your children, and even the worst persons on earth. Jesus came “that they might have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10).

    The problem is that each of us—at least at times—fails to choose the destination God has for us. We choose to gossip in order to seem informed or maybe better than another, and we choose to remain excessively-secure financially rather than to trust that God will give back what we give to others.  We also sometimes write-off those who kill in the name of their religion. But has Christ not redeemed them and hopes for them to choose Him, too?

    Heavy stuff. The simple answer is to begin again in our own lives. The entire life of discipleship concerns getting back on track to becoming like God who made, redeemed and calls us to Communion with Him. How we live stems from what we believe. Does your life look like God's own?



    [1] Benestad, J. Brian, Church, State and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine, Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010, p 38.

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  5. On June 25, 2013 HuffingtonPost.com published a story[1] about 31-year-old social worker Julio Diaz. As he was making his typical stop for dinner traveling home from work on the New York City subway, he was met by a teenage boy on an empty subway platform. And the teen was holding a knife toward him.

    The boy asked for Diaz’s wallet, and Diaz relinquished it quickly, but as the boy fled, Diaz said, “Hey, wait a minute… If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

    The boy looked confused and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

    Diaz responded, “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money.” Diaz told the boy that all he wanted to do was get dinner, and Diaz said that if the teenager really want to join him, he would be more than welcome.

    The would-be robber accepted, and they shared a booth at Diaz’s favorite restaurant.

    When it came time to pay the bill, Diaz told his guest he would have to pay since Diaz no longer had a wallet. The boy slid the wallet back across the table. Diaz paid the bill, and then he offered $20 to the boy in exchange for his knife.

    “I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right,” Diaz said. “It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

    How we live stems from what we believe, and we believe that all persons have inherent dignity—even those who we are our enemies.

    This inspiring story illustrates love amidst extraordinary circumstances. Treating people with the fundamental human dignity they deserve, though, is difficult even in ordinary moments. We lie to friends rather than swallow our pride to tell the truth. We hoard our treasures rather than making ourselves equal with those who have less than we do. We don’t let grudges go—even with family—because “they deserve it”, we think. Often, we are trying to protect our own dignity, but what are we doing to others? We devalue others when we value ourselves more highly than them.

    Break the cycle of undervaluing others. “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” Mt 5:44


    [1] Hawkins, Kathy. “Man Buys Dinner For His Mugger,” from www.huffingtonpost.com, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/julio-diaz/, Web, accessed February 12, 2015.

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