Did I mention that I also get heaping helpings of silence and solitude at work too? It is a long way from the noise I endured on the flight line and the gun line when I was a Marine. And it's a long way from the controlled chaos of a trucking fleet's dispatchers office when I was a logistics manager too.
But none of that is the reason why I am sharing this video of Father Barron's that I saw posted over at Aggie Catholic (thanks Marcel!). The most important part of the video that helps explain Why I Am Catholic kicks in towards the end of the clip below.
I mentioned in a post recently that I have become increasingly fond of the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Full credit for pointing me in this direction goes to Jacques Maritian's The Peasant of the Garonne, which I picked up in a used book sale recently.
There is another reason to share this clip now though, and it has to do with some of the comments Allison's post on the movie Bridesmaids generated, most of which were never published. Why? Because they were exactly the shallow stuff that Fr. Barron describes starting at the 4:00 minute mark below. Have a look,
Ad hominem attacks...emotional responses driven by anger...Aquinas read everybody, heretics, Islamic scholars, Jewish rabbi's, etc. It's like I said in the Bridesmaids post commbox (forgive me for quoting myself),
to ignore the secular culture, and turn away from it, and in the process calumniate it, is not what Christ did. To do so would be to ignore the huge field of souls whom Our Lord came to save. To attempt to save them is hard work. Work in which we need to roll our sleeves up in order to do properly.
St. Thomas rolled up his sleeves, for sure. So must we.
P.S. For those of you who are new to our blog, or just stopping by for the first time, you'll find helpful hints for acceptable commbox etiquette in the righthand sidebar, courtesy of St. Paul.
