Category Archives: Notes

The key to faith is humility. The thing that keeps most away from faith is pride. But nothing is harder for a person than understanding that they are prideful. Pride protects itself. And in many cases, as it was in mine, pride is a vital protection mechanism. Pride is the only thing that keeps us standing. We would collapse without it. And we don’t understand that it is precisely this collapse that will save us.

A life with God is infinitely better than a life without God, disregarding whether He exists or not. Atheists have likened it to a narcotic. That’s how good it is! So the real choice is utterly pragmatic and simple: do you want a good life?

Confessing that we are sinners is nothing more than admitting that we are imperfect. And naming our sins is simply figuring out the areas where we could improve. In the sacrament of reconciliation we receive the strength to grow closer to perfection, to holiness, a state we can only fully achieve after death.

Without Christ we’re basically just managing emotions. We try to avoid feeling bad. And when we do feel bad we try to get rid of the feeling through breathing exercises or relaxation, maybe meditation or even vacation, or simply distraction or sleep. Until we feel good enough again to go on living. There’s no reason why we want to prevent or remove the anger or the jealousy or the sorrow other than that it doesn’t feel nice. We’re afraid of bad feelings so we avoid situations that could provoke them. This is how we live without Christ. On a desperate rollercoaster beyond our control.

Conversation with a modern atheist:

“If you were very rich, would you pay for a therapy that would make you live forever?”

“Absolutely!”

“What if it were free?”

“No, then I’d rather die.”

Even if Jesus only imagined that He was saving you when allowing Himself to be tortured and executed, He deserves your respect. You could call Him a fool for thinking that His suffering would unlock your happiness. But doing so He loved you more than anyone ever has or ever will.