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Resisting Happiness

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resistI woke up this morning and smiled when I remembered that I didn’t have to read any of the Qur’an this morning! So, instead of reporting on another chapter of Islamic scripture, I thought I’d write a little bit about one of the books I’m reading, Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly.

I’m only about six chapters through “Resisting Happiness” so far, but since we’re at the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be a good time to share the book’s central message.

Resistance

Matthew Kelly opens the book by describing what he calls “resistance”:

It’s that sluggish feeling of not wanting to do something that you know is good for you, it’s the inclination to do something that you unabashedly know is not good for you… It’s the desire and tendency to delay something you should be doing right now.

– Resisting Happiness, Chapter 1

Hopefully it’s clear why I think this subject is appropriate to discuss. We are at that time of year when everyone makes New Year resolutions which will, unfortunately, probably not last beyond February…

As with most of Mr. Kelly’s books, I’m sure his hypersensitive critics will complain about the style of this book. It doesn’t use hefty theological terms and, at least in the opening few chapters, it doesn’t identify “resistance” as “the world, the flesh and the devil”, the three enemies of the soul which are traditionally identified in Christian theology. Even though it’s not described in these terms, Mr. Kelly makes it very clear that “resistance” is to be fought and he uses imagery which should be very familiar to most Christians:

Make no mistake, resistance is your enemy. It will not quietly go away and leave you alone. You have to slay it like a dragon, and you have to slay it anew each day

– Resisting Happiness, Chapter 1

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A nice conversation about killing small children

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Last week at Theology On tap we had Cy Kellett spoke to us on “Voting Your Conscience” and during the Q&A he mentioned Peter Singer, the Professor of Bioethics at Princeton.

I wonder if some people present thought that Cy was exaggerating when he described some of the opinions held by this chap. Well, thanks to Aggie Catholics, I’d invite you to watch the video below without gasping in horror at some of the things said in his interview with Richard Dawkins…

 

(Unfortunately, this wasn’t the original video I shared – the one before had Dawkins praising Singer for being “the most moral person I know”)

If you watch the uncut version of the interview, Dawkins begins the interview with the accolade “Peter, I think you must be one of the most moral people in the world…”….wow…kyrie eleison.

Did the Apostles screw up when they appointed Matthias?

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A while ago we were studying Colossians in Bible study. In preparation for this I downloaded sermons and podcasts on this epistle of Paul to aid me in my study. One such MP3 I downloaded was a sermon series by a Protestant pastor in which he said something that rather shocked me.

During his presentation, he spoke for some time about the apostleship of St. Paul. He then spoke about the replacement of Judas following the Resurrection:

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet… In those days Peter stood up…and said, “Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled…concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry… So one of the men who have accompanied us…must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 

And they put forward two…and they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthi′as; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles. – Acts 1:12-26

What shocked me was that, after recounting these events from the Acts of the Apostles, the pastor said that the Apostles made a mistake! He claimed that it was not Matthias who should have been selected, but they should have waited until the conversion of Paul! Wait…what?!

Apostles

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PWJ: S4E43 – AH – “After Hours” with Carolyn Curtis

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Carolyn Curtis, co-editor of “Women and C.S. Lewis”, came on the show to discuss her book which was recently rereleased as an audiobook. In this work she gathers together a large number of C.S. Lewis writers to examine C.S. Lewis’ life and literature in order to understand his relationship with women and respond to those who would charge Lewis with sexism.

S4E43: “After Hours” with Carolyn Curtis (Download)

If you enjoy this episode, you can subscribe manually, or any place where good podcasts can be found (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Podbean, Stitcher, TuneIn and Overcast), as well as on YouTube. The roadmap for Season 4 is available here.

More information about us can be found on our website, PintsWithJack.com. If you’d like to support us and get fantastic gifts, please join us on Patreon.

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Who’s your daddy? St. Polycarp

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Today is the feast day of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Contrary to the insistence of some of my friends, “Polycarp” does not mean “much fish” 😉 Rather, his name means “much fruit”, an appropriate appellation for a man whose life was full of the fruit of one whose life was devoted to Jesus Christ:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”

– John 15:5

Polycarp, perhaps more so than any other Apostolic Father, provides us with a bridge between the Apostles and the Early Church. When Polycarp was young he sat at the feet of St. John and when Polycarp was old, another young man, St. Irenaeus sat at his feet and would later become one of the great defenders of the faith against the Gnostics.

Polycarp has a link to another Early Church Father. In fact, I have mentioned St. Polycarp on this blog before, when I wrote about the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans and his letter to the bishop of that city, Polycarp. In his letter, Ignatius exhorts Polycarp:

“The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks for the haven, so that both you and those under your care may attain to God. Be sober as God’s athlete: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life”

– Ignatius to Polycarp

The turbulent times did indeed call for a great bishop and they did indeed find one in Polycarp…
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Voting for Pro-Choice Politicians

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I’ve had a three different conversations recently related to voting for pro-choice politicians. Each time I’ve had these conversations, I’ve been told that pro-lifers shouldn’t let a politician’s opinion about abortion be a deciding factor as to whether or not one can vote for that candidate.

The argument is made that a candidate may indeed be in favour of “reproductive rights” (a delightful euphemism for something quite so barbaric), but I’m told that this is okay if that candidate is in favour of some social programme. I’m told that this is what it really means to be pro-life…

A game you can’t win

The real advantage of this position for the pro-choice advocate is that he can play this game ad infinitum. He will always be able to come up with another social cause which he’ll say demands our attention before we can get around to looking at abortion directly.

Even in some utopian future where there are state-funded programmes for every possible social ill, the pro-choice advocate can still postpone protecting the unborn by demanding first that more money be devoted to these government programmes.

The unanswered question

Each time I’ve had this conversation, I’ve asked a question:

Would you mind engaging in a thought experiment? Let’s say that there was a party or candidate which was onboard with all of your desired social programmes…but they also campaigned for the right for parents to have their child killed up until their first birthday. Would you vote for that candidate or party?

Question posed to pro-choice advocates

I’ve used different versions of this question, sometimes talking about a party which supports slavery, rather than infanticide. Either way, I have yet to hear an answer to this question.

Questions like this put the pro-choice advocate in a bind. After all, very few people could countenance supporting a politician who supports infanticide or slavery. This intuition points to an important truth, that one cannot vote for a party which endorses something obviously intrinsic evil.

I explain that I cannot vote for a candidate who endorses the killing of the unborn for the same reason that my interlocutor would refuse to vote for someone who endorses slavery, regardless of the candidate’s economic issues.

Saint Worship

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I went to Mass at lunch today and was thinking about the common concern among Protestants that Catholics and Eastern Orthodox worship the Saints.

Let me just say up front that we don’t worship the Saints, we honour them. Now, that’s a fine and dandy thing to say, but really, is there a difference between “worship” and “honour”?

All Saints

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