Our experience of weakness and failure and of making wrong choices does not have to weigh us down.

If we know how greatly we are loved by God, and how much God wants to forgive us, it becomes easier to move on. And that is the kind of love God revealed to us through Jesus.

"Moving on" doesn't mean disowning the negative moments in our personal history.

Just the opposite: it involves accepting ourselves as the person we actually are, including our incompleteness!

"I am the person who made those choices - some of them good and some bad".

I think we are more vulnerable to disappointment when we imagine we are supposed to "have it all together".

Even God hasn't put that expectation on us: becoming is an unfinished process, and we are a work in progress.

Accepting reality also means not needing masks, pretences or excuses.

Sometimes this takes time.

Shame or guilt or anger or pride or sadness can get in the way.

But these are only stages on the journey.

The important thing is to keep moving towards self-acceptance.

If we need to be forgiven, then that is our reality.

And when God forgives, that is also part of our reality - so we don't get stuck with a sense of guilt; we gratefully and joyfully move on.In one of his parables Jesus contrasts a person who is in denial with one who is honest:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing aside, said this prayer to himself: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people - greedy, dishonest, adulterous, or even like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' The tax collector stood some distance away, not even raising his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner'. It was this man, I tell you, who went home at rights with God, not the other. (Luke 18:10-14)

Being forgiven is a liberating experience.

But so is the ability to forgive!

Psychologists point out that our mental health and physical health can be harmed if we are unforgiving and harbour resentment.

It's our self who is harmed by holding on to resentment.

Forgiving those who have wronged us is healing for our self as well.

To forgive can take moral courage in a society where many can only think of punishment.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless God's holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord,
and never forget all his blessings.

It is God who forgives all you guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion.

The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He does not treat us according to our sins
or repay us according to our faults. (Psalm 102:1-4,8,10)

• +Peter Cullinane was the first bishop of the Diocese of Palmerston North. Now retired he continues to be a respected writer and leader of retreats and is still busy at local, national, and international levels. Here he shares his reflections on sciences and Christian faith. To conclude the introduction of this series he quotes Albert Einstein, "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."
• This is the fifth in a series of chapters from his letter to senior students
• Image: Manawatu Standard

Redemptorist Fr Gerry Moloney was editor of Reality magazine in Ireland.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's displeasure with some of the liberal content of the magazine was broken to him in May, 2011.

The CDF told the Redemptorist superior in Rome that Fr Moloney was to be removed as editor with a month's notice.

This demand was accompanied by a list of allegations and findings against the magazine.

The superior, Fr Michael Brehl, later said the CDF case was shoddy and amateur, with statements being taken out of context and a lot of "reading between the lines".

Of particular concern to the CDF was a special issue in 2009 on women in the Church.

Fr Moloney said there was no explicit call for women's ordination, "though several pieces did call for women to be given full and equal partnership in the Church".

The then-prefect of the CDF, Cardinal William Levada, became involved in the case.

The order hammered out a compromise with the CDF.

Fr Moloney could remain as editor subject to five conditions.

The conditions stipulated that he could not publish anything that was supportive of the ordination of women; critical of mandatory celibacy; in favour of general absolution; opposed to the Church's stance on homosexuality; and could be seen as disrespectful of the person of the Holy Father.

In addition, a censor would have to approve the content of every issue prior to publication.

Fr Moloney eventually resigned as editor of Reality in 2014 for medical reasons.

He said the whole affair left him dumbfounded.

He especially objected to the fact that the CDF never spoke to him personally.

Fr Moloney was one of 15 signatories to a recent letter to Pope Francis and the CDF calling for reform of the Vatican's investigation processes and for greater accountability and transparency in its methods.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Abeldanger.org

The first type is "shameless self-advertising by people in government, or in related organizations supported by the tax-payers or donors, saying how much nobler it is to be in ‘public service' than working in business or other ‘selfish' activities."

Or to clarify the point, he added, that in the view of many, "It is morally superior to be in organizations consuming output produced by others than to be in organizations which produce that output."

The second type of commencement address flatters "the graduates that they are now equipped to go out into the world as ‘leaders' who can prescribe how other people should live."

Sowell sums up this approach this way: "Young people, who in most cases have never had the sobering responsibility and experience of being self-supporting adults, are to tell other people—who have had the responsibility and experience for years—how they should live their lives."

The situation gets worse later on when the said students are promoted within the government so that no one within it has ever really worked for a living.

During his years in office, President Obama, who had no non-governmental experience, issued to business and culture over 20,000 regulatory decrees, few of which had any congressional authorization or helped the economy.

It is interesting to read these incisive comments of Thomas Sowell in the light of the ongoing controversies about the purpose of higher education. Is it to provide a "liberal education" or is it to prepare one for a job, profession, or skill?

Of course, as A.D. Sertillanges said in his famous book, The Intellectual Life, both purposes are valid and indeed necessary. All the political candidates and even the Pope are constantly talking of jobs and their lack, as if providing for jobs was the primary purpose of education or government, for that matter. Continue reading

Source and Image:

MercatorNet — from an article by Rev. James V. Schall SJ, who taught political science at Georgetown University for many years.