Category: Behold Vancouver

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Angels are appointed to the guardianship of men, that they may take them by the hand and guide them to eternal life, encourage them to good works, and protect them against the assaults of the demons.” As we grow in our faith, shouldn’t we do the same for others? Through his Instagram pages Marian Militia and Monk Mindset, George Jacobson is taking people by the hand. Join Dr. Tod Worner and George Jacobson on The Evangelization & Culture Podcast as we explore how, in an age of uncertainty, one Catholic college student is lighting the fires of faith in others.

The Book of Genesis begins with a sweeping picture: God, in His grandeur, breathes life into the universe. Mountains and hills are formed, seas are poured out, skies are fixed in place, and all of it is filled with swarms of life. It’s into this creative symphony that God forms human life from the dirt – Adam and Eve, the first humans we meet in the Bible. Genesis records God giving these people a surprising command: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15 NRSV).

This command is interesting because there’s a subtle implication behind it – the garden requires tilling and keeping. In other words, the world that God made for man and woman is beautiful, majestic, perfect even, yet also raw and wild. The garden is good, certainly, but it hasn’t been brought to its fullest expression. It requires cultivation – for people to bring something out of it.

Later, when Adam and Eve rebel and fall to the temptation of the serpent, God tells Adam that his work will be cursed, that he will have to toil painfully to get anything from the ground. He doesn’t say that his work is bad. The command to cultivate and create came before the curse, not after. What does this mean for those of us who consider ourselves to be “creatives?”

In his book Garden City, pastor and theologian John Mark Comer paints a picture of salvation history that feels a little bit different than what many of us are used to hearing. He begins with the raw material of Eden and the command to cultivate and finishes the book by describing the Heavenly City in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Comer notes that there are several similarities between Eden and the Heavenly City: both feature a river of life, a tree of life, precious stones and gold, and as being on top of a sacred mountain.

In Comer’s reading, it would seem that the Heavenly City is the Garden of Eden in its cultivated state – the fulfillment of God’s command to till and keep the earth. What matters for creatives is the work that occurs in between.

It may be difficult, yes, even cursed, but it is more significant than many of us give this work credit for. It can be easy to fall into the belief that creative work (or any work for that matter) doesn’t have anything to do with our spiritual lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. If we take this reading of Scripture to be true, then our creativity is in fact a fulfillment of one of God’s first commands to the human race.

The truth is, as often as we’re speaking, we’re witnessing. Every word is its own testimony.

How does it seem as though two people are talking past each other? Or that two people are firmly convinced that, individually, they’re in the right but the other is in the wrong?

There’s a way to fix the habits that lead to broken communication, and I’m going to suggest an unlikely starting place — the 9th Commandment (or the 8th Commandment according to the Catholic numbering of the commandments; I was using my old Protestant Bible when I wrote this, so I refer to it as the 9th).

The Commandment is, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”

But wait a minute

But is the 9th really that easy to skip past? I was making a lot of assumptions, assumptions that any good examination of conscience won’t allow me to get away with. My modern mind, accustomed as it is to a court system and trials by jury, was identifying a witness only in connection with an official legal process, or with outright lying when asked a question about someone else. This is not at all accurate.

The truth is, as often as we’re speaking, we’re witnessing. Every word is its own testimony. Negative people often bear false witness against the blessings they’ve been given. Cynical people bear false witness against hope. Angry people bear false witness against the need for forgiveness. Bored people bear false witness against wonder. What might seem to be harmless gossip bears false witness against others.

The truth is, as often as we’re speaking, we’re witnessing. Every word is its own testimony.

The more I live a life that I don’t have to lie about, the less I lie … Aren’t there basically three reasons we tend to lie?

What are the reasons we lie?

Second, we lie to make ourselves look better. I have the uncanny ability to make myself the hero of the story I’m telling. I’m a great editor at making my role in the story sparkle. Everything I said was witty and pithy. I had just the right comeback when I was insulted. I was right about everything.

Third, we lie to avoid trouble. When I was a child, I would tell my mom I cleaned my room. Tell my teacher I did my homework. Tell the boss I finished the task. Claim that I ate all my broccoli (when in fact I’d hidden it in a napkin and put it in the trashcan).

Little white lies are things we say out of convenience and laziness. Fixing the latter goes a long way towards eliminating the former. The more I live a life that I don’t have to lie about, the less I lie. Of course, there are still some awkward moments, times when people don’t understand where I’m coming from when I decline an invitation or say no to an event, but I’ve found that the more consistently and transparently I draw my boundaries, the easier it is. For instance, I’ve let it be widely known that, as an early riser, I rarely accept invitations to events that go past 8:30 pm. It’s nothing personal; it’s just that I’ll fall asleep in my seat.

Daily life can drag you down; the to-do lists seem to be never-ending. It begs the question, were we made to be so busy? And if not, how can we rest in God? 

Sister Mary Grace shares powerful personal stories and her top tips on how we can all truly rest in the Lord.

Fr. Mike Schmitz reflects on the brokenness of humanity and the damage of sin. What do we do now? You get what you choose and you will become what you repeatedly choose.

Why do we chase love that hurts us? Why is it so hard to receive real love? 

Many of us carry unmet childhood needs into adulthood, leaving us stuck in unhealthy patterns. In this episode, Fr Columba helps us recognise our emotional wounds, stop self-sabotaging relationships, and open ourselves to authentic love—from God, from others and for ourselves.

Do you think of Christianity as a set of rules? A list of dos and don’ts? 

In this episode, Fr Columba opens with a striking line from the Acts of the Apostles: the angel doesn’t tell the disciples to preach a doctrine or teach a philosophy. He tells them to share “this way of life.” Drawing on his own experience of encountering Catholic teaching on the human person for the first time, Fr Columba walks through the practical essentials that actually make us human: works of charity, daily prayer, the sacraments, real fellowship in the Church, and passing the faith on to others.

The “Preferential Option for the Poor” is a Catholic social teaching on how the Bible gives priority to the well-being of the poor and powerless. 

Referring to the Preferential Option for the Poor, Pope Leo XIV writes in his Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, “This ‘preference’ never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups, which would be impossible for God. It is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest… With St. John Paul II, the Church’s preferential relationship with the poor was consolidated, particularly from a doctrinal standpoint. His teaching saw in the option for the poor a ‘special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness.'” 

Fr. Mark-Mary shares powerful examples of how we can put the poor and weakest among us at the front of our hearts and minds.

Shift your attitude about leadership and it can change your life.Think of the names of some living leaders.

Is your own name on that list?

I guess not. But it should be. Each of us has a leadership opportunity and responsibility, every single day, whether at home or at work. What’s more, showing leadership is core to our calling in this world. That will become clear in following paragraphs, as we discard some faulty stereotypes to reach a more authentic understanding of leadership.

We don’t typically think of ourselves as leaders. We stereotypically associate “leadership” with hierarchy and fame. You and I aren’t leaders; popes, presidents, and chief executives are. To proclaim oneself a leader? That sounds like chest-thumping arrogance, directly contradicting the New Testament’s manifold exhortations to humility: “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled,” for example, or, “Blessed are the meek,” or “Humble yourselves before the Lord,” and we could go on.

But a life of leadership is not at all inimical to a Christian worldview; rather, it’s core to the Christian calling.

Consider one common dictionary definition: Leadership involves “pointing out a way, direction, or goal,” and “influencing others toward it.” Well, every one of us is living that definition every day. We’re not standing on street corners holding road signs and literally pointing out the way. But we’re doing so implicitly. By our behaviors, values, and priorities, we’re pointing out a way of living, our vision of how human beings ought to live and treat one another in this world. Many of us are parents, and all of us have parents: Could there be any more obvious example of “pointing the way” and “influencing others” than what parents do for children over a lifetime? Good parenting, then, is good leadership.

Once we embrace this way of thinking, the “leadership light bulb” goes off and transforms our approach to life and work. Leadership becomes today’s challenge and my challenge. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eloquent call to embrace “the fierce urgency of now”? Well, that happens upon accepting one’s leadership responsibility: We “embrace the now” by discovering each day’s small opportunities to point out a way of living through our example: How am I using my time? How am I treating my children, community members, or work colleagues? How am I using my money?

It’s no longer some remote opportunity that may emerge if I someday manage hundreds of subordinates; instead, leadership is about the influence I can have today, whether I’m managing hundreds or indirectly influencing a handful of family members and colleagues. And it’s no longer the exclusive domain of high and mighty personages who wrestle with world-shaking issues in the global limelight; it also involves the more humble impact that I can make.