The Hard Paradox of the Gospel
The gospel is full of paradoxes but the one that seems most difficult to swallow is that we have to die in order to have life. We see this in John 12:24 when Christ talks about the grain of wheat that has to fall to the ground and dies in order to bear fruit. The world today tells us that we need to be free to do whatever we want, to �...
Selfless Self-Preservation
Lent is a time where the virtue of temperance gets lots of nods. Philosopher Josef Pieper called temperance “selfless self-denial.” This formulation helps us understand this virtue, because many people can be said to have denied themselves comfort or ease for the sake of something, but looking deeper that “something” is very o...
The Other Extreme of Lust
Lust is something that all men struggle with to one degree or another. With the advent of the internet this has become a sin that is all too easy to fall into. Virtue is characterized by Aristotle as the mean between two extremes. So, in a sense, virtue is the balance between two vices. This doesn’t mean that virtue is exactly in the ...
The 10th Commandment: Vague Placeholder or Key to Happiness?
Have you ever thought that the ten commandments kind of start strong and peter out? It’s like listening to a sermon that starts strong (“You shall have no gods before Me!”), gets appropriately practical (“Honor your parents”), but then gets so broad that it sounds like a platitude. I’m speaking of that last commandment, “y...
Be Master or Get Mastered
Nobody likes a person, especially a man, who just agrees to everything and goes with the flow, because that flow will typically by along the lines of whim, impulse, and sin – he’s a “yes man” not just to another man, but to everything. If you say ‘yes’ to everyone and everything you are not free and you are not really your own person. Y...
Temperance is More than Self-Denial and Moderation
Lent is a time where the virtue of temperance gets lots of nods. Philosopher Josef Pieper called temperance “selfless self-denial.” This formulation helps us understand this virtue, because many people can be said to have denied themselves comfort or ease for the sake of something, but looking deeper that “something” is very often the s...
Mastering Self-Control in the Workplace
Temperance is about growth and development. While the standing traditional definition has been aligned around moderation in a variety of our activities, the practice of self-control is more in line with the discipline of building upon one’s faith. Self-control allows for growth in our freedom, in our ability to have the world revolve less arou...