The Gadfly “To persuade and reproach” - Socrates, The Apology
Vol. XIII, Iss. III October 21, 2010
Searching for God’s Best The above is the title of an attractive, purple-colored pamphlet found in the JC among all the other pamphlets. It has been there for a while, and I have read it before, but I picked it up again recently and would like to elaborate on it. To begin with, I think the pamphlet is very well done and covers topics that need to be covered. I would like to merely respectfully take it forward a few more steps, in the way of a reflection. (These things happen when you’ve had a lot of theology classes … EVERYTHING becomes a theological reflection ...) To me, the pamphlet seems to be targeted at an overall audience
that is new to the idea of the Christian life, and therefore needs to step away from the chaos that can be found in the secular approach to dating. I feel that, sociologically speaking, the simplicity of this message is outdated in its approach. I understand that society is still very secular. However, the difference, for the most part, is that this is not as much of a shocking revelation anymore. FUS students are still actively involved in challenging the culture, but their acceptance of reality is calmer (with a readiness to go deeper)—at least, calmer than it was for me growing up, and what I saw in the older members of my youth
groups. When I opened up the pamphlet a few days ago, I immediately read under the topic of Women and Purity, “An unmarried woman needs lust in her life like a fish needs a bicycle.” I visualized a fish riding a bicycle and my momentary happiness was rudely interrupted several seconds later by the repulsion that I mistakenly picked up as a teenager: that a person should just let go and be free and lustful after they get married—they just have to wait until then. Yes, waiting is good. Yes, PLEASE wait; but, “after marriage?” “Lust?” This then brought to mind the response to a question we put to Dr. Asci in Continued on page 6
To Talent Or Not To Talent, That Is The Question We applaud aspiring actors, admire agile athletes, emulate enlightened educators, salute stalwart soldiers, and seek out superb singers, because in such people we recognize and respect their talents. We treasure talents as God-given gifts, but are popularity and profit—those by-products of talents—treasured more than talents themselves? Are we being hoodwinked into believing that popularity and profit perfect all talents? If yes, then we fawn over the famous, chase celebrities, revere the rich and seek out superlative stars hoping ourselves to get a
piece of the pie some day and rise to stardom. Or does lavishing in the limelight too much pillage talents, mutating them into our greatest temptations? It is reasonable to believe that temptations do often come from our talents. Take Judas Iscariot for instance, the treasurer among the apostles. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was keen to point out that Judas was the only Judean apostle among the other eleven Galilean apostles, probably since Judeans were commonly better administrators than Galileans. His shrewd economic un-
derstanding knew exactly how to raise money for charity; that was his talent. Unfortunately, greed spoiled his talent, as he stole small sums of money from the apostles and ultimately sold our Lord for the price of a slave. The power of pecuniary profit pillaged his talent. Captain Wage Labor has convinced our commodity-consuming culture in constant consumer training that our talents are for the sole purpose of bolstering buying power and milking monetary profits. Put simply, talents are only a Continued on page 4