Artificial bread that does not satisfy: gambling, pornography, prostitution, illicit drugs, junk food, mindless entertainment, investment scams, and insatiable materialism are all linked. These all depend on our normal desires being redirected to objects which promise much, but ultimately fail to satisfy our deep spiritual longings. They are examples of artificial bread that does not satisfy. An old prophet wrote:
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
(from Isaiah 55)
Real bread that satisfies includes: honest work, true romance, intimate sex with a life partner, financial investments with integrity, wholesome food, compelling stories, live music, and quiet prayer.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
The Pope said it well!
I am not a Catholic, but I have been impressed by the last few Popes. The storm of Muslim criticism of Pope Benedict's address at the University of Regensburg in Germany led me to read his address in full. I was favourably impressed. If you are curious, here is the link.
The Pope's address at Regensburg
His address was entitled Faith, Reason and the University Here are a few quotes from his address:
ON UNIVERSITIES
"I began teaching at the University of Bonn. That was in 1959, in the days of the old university made up of ordinary professors. The various chairs had neither assistants nor secretaries, but in recompense there was much direct contact with students and in particular among the professors themselves."
ON FORCED CONVERSION
"Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death."
ON REASON AND FAITH
"While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them. We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons. In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith."
The Pope's address at Regensburg
His address was entitled Faith, Reason and the University Here are a few quotes from his address:
ON UNIVERSITIES
"I began teaching at the University of Bonn. That was in 1959, in the days of the old university made up of ordinary professors. The various chairs had neither assistants nor secretaries, but in recompense there was much direct contact with students and in particular among the professors themselves."
ON FORCED CONVERSION
"Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death."
ON REASON AND FAITH
"While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them. We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons. In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)