Thine Own Service

Thine Own Service

Tag Archives: morality

Homily for Sunday XXI of the Year

22 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

BOL2015, eucharist, homily, morality

High Altar, Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, New Orleans, LA

High Altar, Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, New Orleans, LA

Over the past five weeks the Church has led us through the primary scriptural text concerning the Most Holy Eucharist, the sixth chapter of the gospel according to Saint John. This has afforded us the opportunity to meditate on the nature of this most august sacrament, and consider our approach to this gift to us of God himself. We began with the familiar description of the feeding of the five thousand. Here we discovered that the Christian life must be profoundly Eucharistic; that in the Most Holy Eucharist we find supernatural nourishment for the soul, receiving Christ himself in Holy Communion. This led us to acknowledge the reality of Christ’s presence in the Most Holy Eucharist—not simply a means of grace but an opportunity, through true Eucharistic piety, to encounter the Lord God and to grow in a personal-passionate relationship with him. Finally we considered the connection between our encounter with the Most Holy Eucharist here in earth—particularly in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—and the eternal banquet of the kingdom of heaven: how we should prepare to come to the Eucharistic altar, which is at once the foot of the cross and the gate of heaven. We come now to consider in a particular way the relationship between the Most Holy Eucharist and the moral life.

Continue reading →

Authority and Credibility

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apologetics, morality

Yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme explored the idea of the moral authority of the Church in the light of what we can all recognise to be scandals. At this time when we are praying for the election of a new Pope, such a topic will indeed be in the mind of the Cardinal-Electors, as much as those who look to the Church – from within and without – for moral guidance. Do these scandals undermine the moral authority of the Church? Can the Church proclaim truth despite, and even through, her failed members and leaders?

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, whose parish I was covering this weekend, spoke on the programme. He ably described moral authority as ‘the ability to speak on moral issues, it’s the ability to pronounce on right and wrong, it’s the ability to mediate to people what is not just the opinion of the Church, but what is the authoritative teaching of the Church – that which must be obeyed, as Canon Law says, with religious obedience of the will’. He went on, ‘In other words it’s not just another of the things offered in the great marketplace of humanity, it’s something which can be taken as true and believed as true. That’s what moral authority is: it’s the ability to speak truth’. That is important. Moral authority is the revelation of truth which, as the Catechism says, is always from God: ‘The authority required by the moral order derives from God’. (CCC §1899).

Continue reading →

Father, forgive them

10 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

abortion, civilisation of love, morality, prayer, prolife

Today is Day 25 of 40 Days for Life and I’m privileged to have been asked to write this short meditation for those supporting this great initiative. Today’s intention is that those who carry out abortions may have their hearts converted. The text is Luke 23: 34: ‘And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’.

It may be naive, but there must be some sense in which those who are involved with this most heinous of crimes against the dignity of human life, are unaware of the depth and seriousness of what they are doing. If they understood fully what was going on, what damage they were doing, then I cannot believe any human would be capable of carrying out this offence.

We rightly make public our opposition to these horrors, but in our hearts too, we must pray that those who are unable to see what they are doing might have their hearts converted. We read regularly of stories of abortionists who have had a conversion experience – often through the witness of a soul whose life has been cut short by them. We might, as a discipline that turns our anger into love – the only force which can bring about true change – pray that more such conversions might come about, as powerful expressions of the love of the Lord, whose incarnation brings a special dignity to the lives of all humans from conception to the natural death.

May the saints – whose lives show us the conversion we all require – support us in this task. And may the Lord use us as his instruments, to show his love to a world which so badly needs it, especially in these darkest of circumstances.

Let us pray.

Almighty and ever-living God, you show us in the lives of the saints the need we have of your mercy and grace, so that our hearts may be conformed to that of your Son. Grant, we pray, that the hearts of those who commit crimes against the dignity of human life, may be so infused with your love, that they may come to depend entirely on you and, in so doing, become the strongest advocates of your mercy and grace. We make this prayer through the same, Christ our Lord. Amen.

Something different to offer

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apologetics, confession, forgiveness, morality, reconciliation, secularism

The past few weeks have seen a number of pretty vocal criticisms of a handful of public figures in Church life. Many of these criticisms are entirely justified, and only a fool would try to defend the actions of those few individuals who have fallen short of the call to holiness. Often these public reprimands are bound up with a call for Church reform. The Church is, in fact, permanently in the business of reform, though we might more usefully speak about ‘conversion’. Of course, this might not be the ‘conversion’ that society wants, but reform and renewal and conversion, are not alien to the life of the Church – in fact, they are central to it. Christians undergo a constant and continual conversion deeper into a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and so with the Church and each other, because that is the life to which we are called by our baptism.

Part of that continuing conversion is the growing towards Christ which takes place through the recognition, admission, contrition, and absolution of sin. In this, the Christian is restored to the grace of baptism through God’s forgiveness in the sacramental action of Confession. When we Christians do something wrong, we don’t only have vocabulary to describe it – e.g. sin – but we also have a clear moral code by which we are able to judge the act. ‘Wrong’ and ‘Sin’ are not only fluid terms in the Western secular mindset, but they are always applied subjectively because no moral code exists independently of the Judeo-Christian moral law which undergirds the very fibre of society. Thus we have the analogous situation of a senior Churchman being decried for doing something which secular society encourages and promotes, and the cries of hypocrisy from certain quarters begin to ring hollow.

Continue reading →

A Question of Morality?

21 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

germain grisez, jimmy carr, morality, taxation

Last night I had a fairly robust interaction with a few people on Twitter about the Jimmy Carr tax controversy which has been in the news here the past few days. My point was that, whatever level of hypocrisy might have been exercise by the comedian, the moral question with regard to tax avoidance is one which (in this case) cannot be separated from the legal requirements placed on UK citizens.

What do I mean by that? Well, firstly a small example. Is it immoral to buy a bottle of gin in Duty Free shops? I sincerely hope not. This is because the government has, under certain circumstances, allowed a dispensation from paying a certain amount of taxation on a commodity. Is it immoral, then, to pay not one penny more than your annual tax bill requires? No. The government asks for X amount, and we respond to that in a way which fulfils Christ’s command – Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

So, then, is legitimate tax avoidance (not evasion, I hasten to add) immoral? Well how can it be? If there is a legal loophole which allows a person to say that they do not have to pay more than they have to, why would it be immoral for them to make use of it?

Whether or not it is desirable for the government to allow such loopholes to exist is, I think, a valid question. But if somebody legitimately and legally avoids paying more than they must, then this is surely not their error but their right and duty, especially if they have dependents (such as a family).

Now, I must add that this is not a defence of those who engender a smash and grab attitude. It is immoral, for example, for a person to have wealth and yet not give at least some of that wealth over to aid the poor and those less fortunate. But that’s not the question that is directly posed here. Rather, the act which is being described as ‘immoral’ (by the PM, no less), is in fact an example of a legitimate exercise of civil law. Whether or not that law should now be changed – well, that’s a different question altogether.

For those interested in reading more about the Catholic approach to taxation, I would heartily recommend the excellent writings of Germain Grisez, in his excellent and concise The Way of the Lord Jesus. It is available for free (!) online, and I would recommend this, this and this as good places to start.

Update: Maybe he read this and was filled with remorse and contrition. Maybe not. Anyway, Jimmy Carr has (within minutes of me posting this) put this statement out to his 2, 302, 756 followers on Twitter:

I appreciate as a comedian, people will expect me to ‘make light’ of this situation, but I’m not going to in this statement as this is obviously a serious matter. I met with a financial advisor and he said to me “Do you want to pay less tax? It’s totally legal.” I said “Yes.” I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgement. Although I’ve been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly. Apologies to everyone. Jimmy Carr.

Credit where credit’s due. As it were. No pun intended.

Enter your email address to follow:

Categories

  • Canon Law
  • Evangelisation
  • Homily
  • Liturgy
    • Beauty
  • Media
  • Music
  • Ordinariate
  • Pope Francis
  • Talk
  • Uncategorized

Tags

advent Anglicanism anglicanorum coetibus Anglican Use apologetics architecture baptism Beauty Benedict XVI bishops BOL2015 BSDW bxvi canon law catechesis catholicism charity christmas church communications communion confession cross discernment discipleship Divine Worship DW: Collects easter ember days eucharist evangelisation extraordinary form faith fid formation fr robert barron heaven holy week homily intentional catholicism law lent liturgy mary mass media mercy morality music new evangelisation new media ordinariate ordination our lady papacy passiontide patrimony plainchant pope pope benedict pope francis pre-lent priesthood reform of the reform sacred heart sacrifice septuagesima sherry weddell social communications social media tracey rowland unity virtue vocation worship

Archives

  • February 2021
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • April 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012

Blog Stats

  • 128,318 hits

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×