We need God’s help, but spiritual talk is unfashionable. The idea that God is active in our lives is equally unfashionable. And yet if he is not, there is nothing to hope for.
So what explains the pope’s popularity, even in matters sartorial, in the face of these secularizing trends and growing public embarrassment over religiosity?
Why is it that saints and mystics are shrouded in fog when they approach God? An anonymous 14th-century English mystic called it “the cloud of unknowing.”
As in “Les Miserables,” the crime illegal immigrants have committed is often motivated by a desire to feed a family. We must be careful of adopting a resolute, unforgiving, uphold-the-law-at-all-costs approach.
Is the world more dangerous than it was two generations ago? Do our children love their children more than our parents loved us? Are there more bad people out there or greater environmental hazards?
“Breaking Bad” is a television series on AMC about a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug kingpin. It has quickly become a favorite of mine. Educator Walter White puts his chemistry skills to work in his own meth lab after he learns he has advanced-stage lung cancer and just two years to live. His teaching job, he reasons, will not provide nearly enough for his pregnant wife and his son, who has cerebral palsy.