Love is Not Hate

"When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction..."

- Jeremiah 7

There is an utter simplicity to every waking moment of ours that can truly prepare the way towards happiness or misery, trust and hope, or fog and confusion. It lies in the posture of openness... of receptivity. We say yes or we say no. It's encoded within the moral law. Inescapable. Powerfully purposeful. It is that solid foundation Thoreau wrote about many years ago when he spoke of shoving down ones boots through all of the many layers of opinion and agenda, politics and double-speak until we hit rock bottom. We then choose truth or we don't.

These are harsh words, as strong and biting as a winter wind, because they expose us in all of our utterly naked dependence on God. The truth is I we did not, nor could we ever, create ourselves or the vast framework of reality in which we live and breathe and have our being. So in the end, this simplicity of the truth must either be listened to or ignored. "Do this. Don't do that" always sounds off in the depths of our being. The words of the Lord above flowing through Jeremiah are of course just as applicable to us now as they were for his ancient audience. Either a thing is true or it isn't. We accept it or we reject it. 

Case in point; less than a week ago, the incredibly gifted Sr. Jane Dominic of Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee gave a talk at a high school in Charlotte, North Carolina on masculinity and femininity and the wonderful and illuminating differences between them. She spoke a truth ancient and ever new. She then extrapolated near the end on the disorder of homosexuality in the sphere of this masculine/feminine sexual expression of love. As can be seen in any of her online video teachings, (available through the Newman Connection YouTube channel) Sr. Jane delivers the Faith with love, mercy, and compassion. But it was met last Friday with anger, hate, and a student (and parent) led online complaint with over 2000 signatures (as this article attests, some names are fabricated, some authentic). 

This was a Catholic High School with a Catholic nun presenting, and arranged by a Catholic Chaplain (a good friend of mine and an amazing and faithful priest by the way) with a mostly Catholic audience of students and teachers. And yet, reportedly, there was a firestorm of reactions.

A sample of comments from the www.change.org online complaint: 

"There was absolutely nothing positive that came out of the nun's mouth that day. I'm upset that the school had to be subjected to such ignorance."

"We are disgusted by the message this talk portrayed and in NO way support it or anyone who presents such twisted and offensive information." 

"This was a poorly veiled attempt to present hate propaganda disguised as something to do with our faith based education." 

"I believe the students of CCHS are far more intelligent than the group behind this "presentation" and saw it for what it was... garbage."

Wow. Now watch Sr. Jane Dominic for a few moments in ANY of the videos she has posted here. And here below is a three minute sample...

What a bunch of garbage right? This content truly has no place in a Catholic school! It's hate propaganda! OK, my brain hurts. Ladies and gentlemen, sanity has indeed left the building.

"When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you."

- Jeremiah 7

We are strangers in a strange land. Perhaps the best thing to do is just keep listening to the anger, digging in deeper to see what lies beneath it, then spending time before the Great Mystery of the God Who made us, made each of us unrepeatable and unique, receiving that Truth, that reality, and letting it get into our hearts and form us. We have to become so one with this Word of love and truth that no matter the hate we will face it with Love. For Love is the only answer. 

Sr. Jane Dominic, Fr. Matthew Kauth (the school chaplain), Pope Francis and every single faithful and properly formed Catholic on the planet loves every single unrepeatable and unique human person on the planet. In our sexually confusing times, amidst the incredible fallout of the pornographic revolution, where organizations like Planned Parenthood are miseducating our kids (see this piece of actual garbage) the words of Sr. Jane and the light flowing from Blessed John Paul II's Theology of the Body and the compassion and clarity of Pope Francis's words are exactly what we do need in schools. God help us, God bless Charlotte Catholic High School. God bless the young, the confused, the abused, the seekers and the searchers. God bless us everyone!