Comments for Polluting the Waters at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 12:41:25 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/polluting-the-waters.html#comment-8201 Lee, you are correct. But you should reconsider what the word "scandal" means in the letters of Saint Paul. It denotes a stone or some other obstacle placed in the path of one's brother, something that may trip him up. We have an obligation, as far as in us lies, to bring about a society in which the cardinal virtues -- the natural and even pagan virtues -- can thrive. When the younger brother returns home in the parable, of course he is forgiven! But that does not mean that he has not in the meantime hurt many people. My sins have done so too. The closer we draw to the Lord, the more keenly we see that we are bound one to another. That has implications both for our good deeds and our sins. - Tony Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:05:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/polluting-the-waters.html#comment-8171 It is certainly true that we should think seriously about the harm sin does. But I wonder whether the writer overestimates sin's effects and sin's "victories." After all, why would all of Heaven rejoice -- as Our Blessed Lord assures us it indeed does -- when just one sinner repents? This article could be read to suggest that Heaven should not rejoice in such a case at all, but should instead hold a grudge against the harm caused by that sinner while he was still sinning! If read in that way, the elder brother in the Prodigal Son would wholly concur with this article. I would respectfully suggest that one light is enough to extinguish the darkness, as any experiment with darkness and light at home will confirm. One who is pure and chaste -- particularly in this hedonistic age -- is a strikingly rare phenomenon that often instantly evokes intrigued curiosity at a minimum, if not outright admiration. The novel Quo Vadis illustrates this very impact at work. It's true that it could also evoke rejection or ridicule, but did not Our Lord say of such cases "Blessed art Thou"? Those who would fret over "losing" the "affections" of another if they are true to Christ and His Church have their priorities and values out of balance. Did not Our Lord assure us that if we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, everything else shall be added unto us? That our Heavenly Father knows our needs before we even ask and that we should not worry? These are admittedly hard things to do but they are the way we must walk. As Mother Teresa so beautifully phrased it, "God does not require me to be successful; but he does require me to be faithful." To be faithful is ultimately to be successful in the only realm that really counts. - Lee Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:04:13 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/polluting-the-waters.html#comment-8158 You sure have succeeded in destroying my imagination! - Yezhov Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:14:10 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/polluting-the-waters.html#comment-8156 Thank you, Dr. Esolen, for a critically important article. We live in a pornographic age, to be sure: twenty and thirty years ago magazine ads and billboards were showing the effects of Nice Fornication; now television ads themselves are "nicely" indecent. The effect is clear: whereas before, the onslaught was directed against those who willingly bought the magazines, now the innocent are subjected to stylishly presented sleaze at the earliest ages and their innocence is corrupted: a very sad state of affairs. A propos of this column, our parish priest yesterday preached that a recent poll shows American teenagers have virtually no sense of right and wrong: beyond the sense that violent crimes such as murder and rape are wrong -- though with little capacity to articulate as to why -- they have no sense that stealing, lying, etc. are wrong. Consider this too an effect of Nice Fornication. The hope I hold to is a remark, whether in a sermon or a conversation I do not recall, by a priest friend of mine many years back, who said that when we go to Confession, our Lord restores innocence to our souls. Church history is full of rakes who converted and went on to live chaste, holy lives whether as celibates or married men, and of fallen women who recovered their virtue because of their love of Christ and because of his grace sacramentally administered. Indeed, as Confession restores innocence to the soul, it strengthen or re-establishes the theological virtues and the natural virtues too, making the peninent faithful, hopeful, loving, prudent, just, brave, and temperate. What is wanting in our culture, and in the Church's general catechesis, is instruction in the beauties of the virtues, in the kind of strong lives that they create, and the ways and means of acquiring them. Such instruction, I am told, was widespread before the Second Vatican Council. It is still available, though harder to come by: one must know what to read and whom to seek. The classics of the Faith are still available, in print and on-line; and there are priests and some ecclesial organizations, too, dedicated to this apostolate. Pray God they remain faithful to their task, and pray He make us bright beacons of virtue and men and women whose hope shines forth as lights in the darkness -- for as the loss of virtue inevitably leads to the loss of hope, the acquisition of hope inevitably leads to an increase in virtue. There's no silver bullet here, but a deeper and more widely spread practice of Confession will lead to an increase in both. - Dave Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:00:02 +0100