Office Notes In Comic Sans
First off, tip o' the hat to Merlin Mann. My title is a reference to an episode of his productivity podcast "Back to Work," cohosted by Dan Benjamin over at the 5by5 Network. It's worth the listen. Well, nearly everything there is worth a listen.
I tend to get really angry when people leave notes in a common space. I'm not talking about posted instructions or reminders. I'm talking about those snarky little notes that say, often in all caps, "YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T LIVE HERE. CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF," and usually end with an advanced ""Thank You"" that acts as a veiled threat. First of all, don't talk about my mother that way! Second, it's one of the worst ways to motivate me, or anyone else, to virtue. On the contrary, it provokes me, or anyone else, to anger.
So, stop!
Exit Word, back away from the PC (because no self-respecting Mac user would write such a note ... or use Comic Sans), and walk away.
Why, you might be asking? "Aren't I being helpful?" you ask. Well, no, actually for starters it's cowardly. It's just one more way to avoid confrontation. It may change behavior a few times at best; but, it will eventually fail to be effective. It's like trying to win a war with land mines. Yeah, they are briefly effective. However, they aren't going to achieve victory. And, just like land mines, they can be left around, only to erupt during times of peace. Because, you see, the problem that caused you to write the note wasn't solved at the root. The resulting resentment will lead to gossip and grudge holding — two of the greatest barriers to a healthy community.
Writing a note like this in Comic Sans just adds insult to injury. It's a feeble attempt to mask the underlying anger. It's the written equivalent of sarcasm. One of my Dominican brothers wisely noted that sarcasm is "anger with a smile." The results of both sarcasm and "helpful" Comic Sans notes are the same. And the vice at the root of the problem is the same, viz., cowardice.
I think sometimes the problem is that confrontation is often confused with being uncharitable. But, in reality, it's uncharitable to not confront bad behavior directly. The common term for this sort of uncharitable behavior is passive aggressiveness. Acting in a passive agressive way reveals a lack of mature emotional integration. In other words, put on your big kid pants and act like a mature adult.
The opposite of passive aggressive behavior is not aggressive behavior. The opposite behavior is fraternal correction. But, you can't just go around confronting people and call it fraternal correction. The practice of this virtue requires a number of things to be in place first. It isn't simply confronting someone in a nice way. It isn't simply confronting someone in a kind way. It's confronting someone in a charitable way.
In order to do this properly we must first be willing to bear the wrong that we've received patiently. It's natural to be angry when we experience a wrong. But, that anger should not control us. It should simply move us to correct the injustice we've experienced. Feelings of anger should quickly give way to pity. Pity should ignite in us a desire to be both merciful and helpful. Remember what Gandalf told Frodo about pity? In mercy we understand the words of St. Augustine, "But for the grace of God, there go I." Thus, the help offered should be born out of Charity. We should desire the good of the person who did harm more than our own relief from the injustice inflicted. We must truly desire the greatest good of the other for his own sake. It's also necessary to realize, and this is tough, that even if you do all of this perfectly your efforts may still fail. Fraternal correction can happen only after all of these have taken place.
Yep. It's hard; but, it's the right thing to do. It's called loving your enemies. It's one of the most difficult things in the Christian life.
Modesto
I wanted to take a moment and thank eveyone who assisted and attended the event in Modesto yesterday. I am deeply greatful that I was able to give the inagural lecture for the JPII Lectures for the New Evangelization at St. Joseph's Parish. It's my hope that the new lecture series will be very fruitful for all who participate.
Last Night
I gave a talk in Sacramento last night sponsored by the Veritas Club. It was a wonderful time. I was giving a talk on the Theological Virtue of Faith which they seemed to appreciate a lot. I was deeply grateful for the oportunity to join them for a fun night of faith and fellowship.
Catholic young adult groups are a beautiful leaven in society and in the Church. These young people take time out of their busy professional day to come together for fellowship and to learn more about the Faith. But it's not just young adult groups. There are so many types of Catholic clubs, orginazaations, groups, Third Orders, confraternities, etc., that provide this service for the Church.
This is one fruit of the Second Vatican Council. The Council Fathers desired that all Catholics take personal responsibility for learning about the Faith. They're doing it! They regularly bring in speakers to help them group in their faith. This is the sort of group that needs to be encouraged and supported by priests and religious. More than that. We need to promote them. These groups are a perfect staging ground for the New Evangelization.
I would encourage you to join a group like this in your area. If there isn't one (or a good one), start one. Don't be afraid, God will bless your work. It is His will that our faith is not individualistic. It is supposed to be lived in the context of communities.
We can't just be pew-sitters. We need to take an active part in the evangelical work of the Church. These groups are an easy and fun way to do just that.
Upcoming Talks: Correction
I just need to make a quick correction. The talk I'm giving in Modesto is on Sunday not Saturday.
That is all.
Site Update: Video
Today I added a new section to my site that I'm sure you will love. Now when you visit the The Eighth Way you will see a new item in the Navigation Bar titled Video. Currently I have embeded the awesome videos that Br. Brad Elliott, O.P. has created in conjunction with us Student Brothers of the Western Dominican Province. I love these videos. You will too.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. They work perfectly and look beautiful on a mobile device.
The Enemies Weapons
Every once in a while there is a zealous group who will do nearly anything for their cause. Zeal is a wonderful thing. But, more often than not it's something that is fuled by the fires of an emotional reaction to some percieved evil. A deep pool of anger is unearthed by that percieved evil. This is good. Anger is an appropriate emotional response to injustice and other evils. The problem often occurs when that anger, that zeal, is misdirected or misused. A great example is the eco-terrorist who firebombs a parking lot of SUVs. He becomes the victor over something he believes is a large contributing factor to the harm of the earth's environment. However, by blowing up the SUVs he causes the release of more polluting toxins into the atmosphere than whould have been produced by those despised combustion engines.
Protecting the environment, good. Firebombing SUVs, bad.
Likewise, in the fight to save lives through the Pro-Life movement it is unacceptable to use immoral tactics to achieve the desired and laudable goal of saving innocent human life. If this is the first time you have heard this, I'm not surprised. You won't hear this from most people. In fact, sometimes the use of evil means to bring about a good is called heroic. This is because most of the English speaking world has been highly effected by the Philosophies of Utilitarianism and Consequentialism. And, in these philosophies all that really matters is the end result. People generally only want to know if some action worked to its desired end. The means used to achieve the desired end is either not considered or given only a passing consderation in the morality of an action. But, Catholics should not and cannot accept an "ends justifies the means" mentality. In fact, this is an ancient axiom held by many for good reason. It is not a uniquely Catholic notion but it is a deeply Catholic notion.
If we are escape the grasp of Utilitarian and Consequentialist ethics then we must take seriously the means that we use to achieve some laudable goal. So, contrary to common practice, if we want to catch a criminal we can't lie to him. The law allows this. But, just because something is legal doesn't make it morally acceptable. Waterboarding is legal. Is it morally acceptable? No. This is a very real and proximate example of doing evil to bring about some good. Likewise, if we want to expose the evil and sometimes illegal actions of the abortion industry we cannot expose them through evil actions. We cannot lie to them. Why?
Lying is always an evil. This is different than speaking a falsehood unintentionally. That should be clear. It is even different than speaking falsehood intentially. Few would argue that performing a dramatic play or doing a magic trick is evil. Lying has a very narrow definition. Lying is speaking a falsehood with the intention to deceive. According to this very concise definition lying doesn't pass the moral "smell test" in a number of ways.
- It violates the purpose of language
- It deprives the mind of truth
- It does violence to the dignity of things
- It is contrary to the common good
- Theologially speaking, Scripture tells lying doesn't please God
Now, I could unpack each of these and discuss all of the nuances. I won't. Instead, I will actually turn comments on for this post. I think that a firm understanding of this topic requires dialogue. So, take advantage of this opportunity. Comments will be a rare occurance on this blog.
But, I will say that all of the points that I listed are ways that lying is an action contrary to nature. This being the case, lying can never be a valid means to achieve a good end. An evil means pollutes the whole action no matter how good or noble an end.
We simply can't use the weapons of the enemy to fight in the cause of good. Every superhero story, every tale told to children to help build their moral character teaches us: It is harder to be good than bad. The hero follows rules that the villian can ignore.
Finally, Scripture warns us that we should never presume to do evil to bring about a good. Only God can bring good out of evil. The contrary would seem a great act of presumption.
God is the God of Truth, he is Truth itself, no falsehood can be found in Him. Likewise, in our conformity to Christ the same should be able to be said of each of us.
Site Updates
I thought it would be important to let you all know that I've made a few revisions to the site. They are minor but I hope they'll be helpful. First, I've removed the Archives Page.
Bam! Gone!
In its place you will find an new section in the navigation bar titled FIND and I'm sure you'll love it. Why? Well, I've fixed the Calendar so that it is now center justified making the page more pleasing to view. But, under the calendar there is now a search bar. I can't believe I neglected this until now! But, it's really cool. I tried it the other day and loved it. The search interface is beautiful and clean. It's a please to use. Try it out.
Also, by the end of the day I'll be adding an Events Page. I'll always announce events I'm involved with on the home page as a blog post. But now I'll also have a dedicated page for event information. I haven't designed the style rules for it yet but I promise to make it clean, straightforward, and easy to read. So, it should make it a lot easier to stalk me ... er ... yeah.
Also, just a plug for the Order. If you want to help participate in the mission of my Province you can navigate to the Donate page. I've put a beautiful link to the main electronic donation page for my Province (not as beautiful). Please consider a donation. It's a great and easy way to participate in the charism of the Dominican Order. Just click the graphic. I will also be adding links to other ministries of our Province that are seeking benefaction. I hope to give you as many good options to make possible the important work that we do in the Province.
Speaking of donations. I've had a number of people contact me wanting to help fund the cost of running this site and the future projects that will be coming very soon. I've been given permission to receive your financial assistance. This work is now formally my ministry as a Student. So, I will now be able to dedicate real time to make this site a better resouce for the New Evangelization. If you're interested in supporting my work here please contact me using the Contact Form. With your help I will be able to offer you all something really cool that will also involve many other memebers and friends of the Province.
I'm really looking forward to some of the projects that are in the works. A few more things need to come together to make them a reality. But, by God's grace all things will happen in His time. I hope you are too.
If you like what you have seen so far don't keep it to yourself.
Pass it on!
Upcoming Talks
I'll be giving a couple talks about the necessity of Faith in the next few days. So, If you are in the Sacramento area on Thursday or Modesto on Saturday come by.
Please be aware that you need to R.S.V.P. for the Modesto event.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Kilt Pub
4235 Arden Way
Sacramento, CA 95864
Sponsored by the Veritas Club
Follow this url for more details about the event.
Sunday, 27 January 2013: 2pm to 3:30pm
John Paul II Lectures for the New Evangelization
St. Joseph's Catholic Church
John Paul II Center: Room 10
1813 Oakdale Rd.
Modesto, CA 95355
R.S.V.P.
Contacts:
Kathryn Casey
209.648.2539
kcasey@jp2lectures.org
or
Melanio Puzon III
209.380.4130
mpuzon3@jp2lectures.org
Not Enough
Topics are often brought up in a contentious conversation that are never fully addressed. It's the nature of these sort of encounters. The conversation I had with that athiest at the coffee shop in Albuquerque was no diffferent. In it we briefly referenced the possibility of an afterlife. What I said suprised him.
The context was strange. We were talking about need for good behavior. It's an often repeated topic when talking to an atheist. The athiest is, after all, usually a humanist. Every athiest I've met has had an intense love for humanity. Each has had a litany of charitable causes and service ortiented societies that they've been involved with. But, usually this issue is also frequently used as a weapon against the religious man. I can't count the number of times I've heard the complaint that many bad things done by many bad people have been done in the name of religion/God/etc.
I'm sure this particular man had heard the usual responses. I'm sure you've heard them too. You know, all the excuses given for why bad people do bad things in the name of religion. I won't repeat them here. It's a topic for another post. But, when it comes to the religious man doing bad things in the name of religion I have a different take. He wasn't prepared for it.
I agreed with him. It's true. Many Christians do bad things. But I suggested that this is as it should be. Why? Because, Christians are hypocrits. We can't help it. He was stunned. I don't think anyone had ever pointed this out to him before. He didn't like the idea. In fact, he said that it shouldn't be that way. Christians are about love and goodness, right? Nope. Not really. I suggested that it couldn't be any other way. As long as we carry in our nature Original Sin this will always be the case. All who profess Christ are spiritually sick. But, Christ is a divine physician who came into the world to heal us. He didn't come for the healthy.
This is important for us all to remember. We are sinners, we are sick, we are hypocrites. Thanks be to God! If it were otherwise I would not have needed Christ. But, the reality is: I'm in desperate need of a Savior. As long as I know this, as long as I let the Divine Physican do his work, I know I'll get better. As I'm filled with God's healing grace the world becomes a little better. Would that we all seek this remedy. Yet it remains that until I'm fully transformed into a saint I will continue to contribute some evil to the world. I'm a sinner. I constantly do things that are contrary to the creed that I profess. But, this is the lot of the Christian. The Church is a hospital for sinners.
This does not mean that we should be satisfied with evil being done in the name of God. On the contrary, we should be disgusted by it. However, we shouldn't be surprised. We each need the mercy of God at each and every moment. It's this gift of mercy – God's grace – that will communicate to us the possibility of eternal life. This is, after all why Christ died.
It is, in the end, not my goodness that matters, but God's mercy.
Goodness is not enough.
Oddly, he agreed.
