A Humble Hero in the U.S.A.

Truly, Rick Santorum is an American hero. He is an “icon” of the little guy, the immigrant, the American who worked hard to serve God and country. He believes there is a God and—consequently—a moral order in the universe. He knows the Founding Fathers believed in the natural moral law and in the divinity of Christ. Had he been elected, he would have upheld the Constitution as the law of the land, which is more than we can say of our current President.
On a shoestring budget, going door-to-door he won eleven states in the Republican Primary. That’s quite an accomplishment considering that he had so little resources to work with. People—voters—saw him as “real.” He was not a man to seek to tickle your ears. He said what he thought and never hesitated to stand up for what is right. True Americans appreciate that.
He fought for the little guy, for the immigrant, for smaller government, for that “little guy,” the average American, to have a chance to advance by means of honest work and kindness toward one’s neighbor.
He believed in the family and in the right to life from conception to natural death. When he was a U.S. Senator, a debate was taking place over abortion and a baby in the room began to cry. Senator Richard John Santorum held the baby up for all to see.
His own baby, there-year-old Isabella, has a congenital disease. She was in the hospital on Friday, just a few days before Tuesday, April 10, that is, Tuesday within the Octave of Easter. On Tuesday, April 10, Rick Santorum made the announcement that his race for the White House had been suspended. One could just picture the Democrats smiling with glee. Even they knew that Obama just might not be able to defeat a man of true principle and true grit, one who will speak out in favor of the natural rights of the human person, including the Constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion and the right to life from conception until natural death. The Founding Fathers insisted that Congress is to make no law respecting the establishment of a national religion. While they did not want any one religion to be the official government religion, they nonetheless wanted the practice of religion—including natural law morality—to be encouraged and to grow. For, they knew that without the free practice of Judeo-Christian religion and morality the nation would perish. And if the government and the culture continue to squash our right to freedom of religion, the nation will indeed perish. I do not know what it will become, but it will cease to be the great United States of America, last best hope of the free world.
O yes, back to “Bella.” It’s interesting: her needing to be hospitalized on Good Friday, the day Christ died to save us, and her father bowing out of the Presidential Race just four days later. The Santorum family has given such marvelous Christian witness to our nation . “Bella” is another example of that. Mr. Santorum knows that—as he is married—his primary vocation in life is to be husband and Abba—Daddy—Father. May America turn back to God and may God the Father of All bestow His blessing upon Rick Santorum and all Americans.

Wisdom to the Simple

Every man can be wise. You don't need a college degree to be wise; some farmers are actually wiser than some professors. God gave us the natural law, which we can know because we are creatures with ratio or reason. The natural law is nonetheless revealed to us by God in the Ten Commandments. The natural law, says St. Thomas Aquinas, is "nothing more than the rational creature's participation in the Eternal Law." Follow this law, which God has given to man, and you will be wise.

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. -Psalm 19

Saint Agnes, Virgin Martyr

From a treatise On Virgins by Saint Ambrose, bishop:

Today is the birthday of a virgin; let us imitate her purity. It is the birthday of a martyr; let us offer ourselves in sacrifice. It is the birthday of Saint Agnes, who is said to have suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve. The cruelty that did not spare her youth shows all the more clearly the power of faith in finding one so young to bear it witness.

Now behold how St. Ambrose describes the execution:

You could see fear in the eyes of the executioner, as if he were the one condemned; his right hand trembled, his face grew pale as he saw the girl's peril, while she had no fear for herself. ... Agnes ... gained a martyr's crown.

Almighty ever-living God, who choose what is weak in the world to confound the strong, mercifully grant, that we, who celebrate the heavenly birthday of your martyr Saint Agnes, may follow her constancy in the faith. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Farmer Pope

St. Fabian was a farmer who became Pope and, later, martyr. He reigned from A.D. 236 until A.D. 250. He defended the Deposit of the Faith against heresy. St. Cyprian calls him an incomparable man.

In A.D. 250, Roman Emperor Decius required everyone in Rome to offer public sacrifice to the pagan gods of Rome or be killed--and the law was applied first of all to the bishops, especially the Bishop of Rome, who enjoys primacy over the whole Church. Pope Fabian suffered martyrdom rather than deny his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

God chooses the weak and makes them strong in bearing witness to Him.

Long Live Christ the King!

Today’s Second Reading—from Saint Paul—is truly wonderful. St. Paul first affirms the Resurrection of Christ—and our Resurrection in Him on the Last Day. This is the sine qua non of the Faith. For, if there is no resurrection, then we are nothing other than fools. But there is indeed the Resurrection and the Passion and the Incarnation to open up for us the Gates of Heaven, to repair the Felix Culpa, the Happy Fault, of Adam.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a “myth”, a subcreation, in which he captures the real world created by God—the world found in the Bible and in Catholic belief—and makes it present to the reader’s intellect, especially in the intellect’s power of imagination. He helps us to momentarily step outside of our everyday world in order to see reality in a fresh view, as God actually made it; and this is totally consistent with Holy Scripture and the Doctrine of the Church.

In fact, people who have read Tolkien with a mind open to reality, are always finding things in reality—even in the Bible—that remind them of Tolkien’s writings, of Tolkien’s subcreation. This is not because God read Tolkien—obviously, but rather because Tolkien was so much in touch with reality: with God’s creation and with God, upon Whom Catholic belief and worship is based.

The passage from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is a case in point. Upon hearing St. Paul say, “For, since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a Man [Jesus the Christ], one cannot but think of the passage from Tolkien in which Aragorn says, “… and so it seemed fitting that Isildur’s heir should repair Isildur’s fault.” Isildur, like Adam, was the king who failed. Yet Aragorn, like Christ, was the king who repaired Isildur’s fault. He is but a faint shadow of Christ the King, who repairs the fault of Adam. In Tolkien’s subcreation, Aragorn is the figure of Christ as King. How fitting this is for the Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe!

Saint Martin de Porres

Let us proclaim the greatness of the Lord, for with heavenly gifts he has raised up his lowly servant Martin. -Liturgy of the Hours, Magnificat Antiphon, November 3: St. Martin de Porres

Just one reading of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings is enough to convince one that St. Martin de Porres is indeed a Humble Hero.

Render Unto God

Render unto God what belongs to God.

And just what belongs to God? The human person belongs to God. Indeed, man is precious in the eyes of God. How precious? So precious that God’s only-begotten Son, in eternal glory and bliss reigning over all—perfectly happy—deigned to take our flesh—our human nature—and become man, while still remaining God.

This passage means that we must respect the dignity and the natural rights of each and every human being because each was created—given existence—by God. Furthermore, human dignity and human rights come from God—not from the State. The State did not create each and every human person—God did. We must be careful. If the State gives us our rights, then the State can take them away. However, the right to life and freedom of religion [and of worship] are God-given rights. Every human person has these rights because he is given existence by God. The State has no right to take these God-given rights away from any human being.

Furthermore, when a person lives according to God’s law and practices virtue, then that person is truly free. Only when we deliberately decide to offend God by sin do we lose our freedom. Let no one deprive you of your freedom as a child of God.

Blessed John Paul II was the great defender of the dignity of the human person. I think that if he were here today, he would tell us about the personalistic norm of the Second Vatican Council, which is found in the document Lumen Gentium:

1. No human person is to be an object of use, but only a subject of love.
2. The human person realizes himself only in the sincere gift of self.

When Adam first saw Eve, he gave a great cry of joy, because finally he had found someone to whom he could give himself in love, that is, someone for whom he could sacrifice himself—to the death if need be. Adam was created to love Eve, not to dominate her. Husband and wife are to love each other, to give generously to one another, never seeking any kind of domination of either one over the other. By the sincere gift of self, each is to find fulfillment.