Seized by Christ

They are experiencing Christianity as joy and hope, having thus become lovers of Christ.

Tag: religion

  • Vocations by the Numbers:

    Why Priestly Life Looks Like a Miracle

    About fifteen years ago, I began to investigate the state of vocations in the Church. What I found was sobering. At that time, in my own diocese, there was about one diocesan priest for every 3,000 Catholic men.

    To an engineer like me, those numbers were staggering. If something happens only once in 3,000 tries, statisticians don’t call it normal — they call it an anomaly, an outlier, or even an error. The positive spin we use in the Church is “miracle.”

    But think of what that means: if vocations really were chosen at random, it would take the equivalent of tossing a coin twelve times and having it come up heads every time before a man became a priest. If that actually happened, most of us would laugh, say it was a bum toss, and start over.

    What if Priestly Vocations Were Realistic?

    Just for the sake of discussion, I asked myself: what if one priestly vocation came from every 100 men? That’s still not a majority, but it’s at least in the realm of possibility.

    In statistical terms, that would be like tossing seven coins and having them all land heads — odds of about 1 in 128. Far more likely than 1 in 3,000.

    If we applied this across a parish or diocese, the numbers look very different:

    • Assume people live about 83 years, or roughly 1,000 months.
    • That means people are born and die at about the same rate: one born, one die, per 1,000 people each month.
    • If a priest’s ministry spans half his life, then at any given time there whould be 1 priest for every 200 men.
    • With half the Church being women, that would mean 1 priest for every 400 Catholics.
    • There would be every year 1 new priest for every 16,000 Catholics.

    Take a parish of 2,000 families — say 5,2000 parishioners. By this ratio, we should have 12 to 13 priests in that one parish. And it would produce roughly 1 new priest vocation every 3. years. (16,000 / 5,000)
    Take my diocese, with about 1.6 million Catholics. By this measure, we should have 4,000 priests. And we should have about 100 men becoming new priests every year.

    The reality, of course, is nowhere near that.

    A Sobering Comparison

    We treat marriage very differently. Even with falling rates, still around half of people marry. When it drops, we call it a tragedy.

    But imagine if marriage happened at the same rate as priesthood — once in 3,000. Would we even call it a “vocation,” or just a statistical accident?

    That is the dilemma with vocations today. By the numbers, the priesthood no longer looks like a reasonable life option for Catholic men. It looks like winning the lottery.

    And yet, the Church depends on it.

    To be continued: In the next reflection, I’ll share how I asked myself: what if we replaced the seven coin tosses with seven questions? If a man could answer “yes” to all seven, maybe he should seriously consider a consecrated vocation.

  • Wrestling With Ideas:

    Wrestling With Ideas:

    The Church, Orthodoxy, and the Spirit of the Age

    The Catholic Church has always carried a dual responsibility: to guard the deposit of faith and to protect the faithful from error. This task, though divinely entrusted, is carried out by human beings. And like every human institution, the Church is not immune to the influence of surrounding cultures, philosophies, and political theories.

    That tension is felt most keenly when the Church seems to “experiment” with new ways of speaking, teaching, or practicing the faith. At times, these efforts are seen as an attempt to incorporate temporal or even ideological ideas — the kind that history shows do not last. The question, then, is how to distinguish between legitimate development and dangerous dilution.

    One way modern thought often frames progress is through the lens of “thesis–antithesis–synthesis.” First articulated by Hegel and later adapted by Marx, this model suggests that truth advances by the clash of opposing ideas, resolved in a new synthesis. While this might apply in politics, economics, or philosophy, it becomes dangerous when applied to divine revelation.

    God’s truth is not simply another “thesis” waiting to be refined by the latest cultural antithesis. It is the anchor. To treat it otherwise risks diluting eternal truth with passing ideologies.

    Yet history also shows that false ideas, however seductive, tend to collapse under their own weight. They rise, attract attention, and then falter. In their wake, the Church often emerges with a clearer understanding of why such ideas fail. The cost, however, is real: confusion among the faithful, weakened trust, and even generations turning away.

    And still, God allows this wrestling. He permits both the Church and individuals to struggle with competing voices. In the end, truth endures. Consider St. Faustina, St. Bernadette, and St Juan Diego with Our Lady of Guadalupe. Each faced skepticism or outright rejection from Church leaders of their time. Yet their authentic messages bore fruit, purified by trial, and confirmed by their endurance.

    Perhaps this is the deeper lesson: God uses even tension, error, and conflict as a refining fire. What is temporal passes away; what is eternal remains. And in that promise we find hope — for the gates of hell shall not prevail.

    For Catholics today, the task is not to despair when the Church seems to flirt with every new “synthesis.” The task is to hold fast to Christ, to the tradition handed down, and to the lived witness of the saints. Orthodoxy is not fragile; it does not need to reinvent itself in each generation. It needs only to be lived, courageously and faithfully, in every age.

    Developed with assistance from ChatGPT-5

  • Reimagining the Ten Commandments

    Universal Principles for Meaning, Morality, and Human Flourishing

    There’s been growing controversy over states requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms. To some, this represents a return to foundational values. To others, it feels like religious overreach in a secular space.

    But what if — instead of framing these ancient rules as religious mandates — we could reframe them as universal psychological and ethical principles, rooted in thousands of years of myth, philosophy, and human experience?

    What if we could recover the wisdom buried beneath the doctrine?

    Let’s explore how the Ten Commandments might be reinterpreted as timeless guidelines for meaning, character, and societal stability — in ways that resonate across faiths, cultures, and even modern science.

    The Ten Commandments, Reimagined for a Secular Age

    Below is a side-by-side comparison: the traditional commandments, and their modern reinterpretation as principles of human flourishing.

    🕊️ Original Commandment🌱 Reframed Principle🧠 Interpretation
    1. No other gods before MeRecognize a higher order beyond the selfWhether it’s truth, nature, or the collective good — acknowledging something greater than ego provides orientation and humility.
    2. No idolsDon’t confuse symbols with realityWorshiping wealth, power, or technology leads to disconnection. Myths and psychology warn us: we become what we idolize.
    3. Don’t take God’s name in vainUse language with integrity and respectWords shape reality. Speaking carelessly — especially about what is sacred or unknown — erodes trust and meaning.
    4. Keep the SabbathHonor the rhythm of rest and reflectionAll life needs cycles of renewal. Rest isn’t laziness — it’s wisdom. Reflection opens space for meaning.
    5. Honor your father and motherRespect your roots, even as you growAcknowledging where we come from — biologically and culturally — grounds us and helps us evolve with integrity.
    6. Don’t murderHonor the sanctity of lifeAt the heart of all ethical systems lies the recognition that each life is sacred and not ours to extinguish.
    7. Don’t commit adulteryBe faithful in your commitmentsTrust is the glue of relationships. Faithfulness sustains bonds that form the bedrock of families and communities.
    8. Don’t stealRespect the boundaries of othersStealing violates autonomy and trust. Flourishing societies depend on mutual respect and fair exchange.
    9. Don’t bear false witnessTell the truthTruth is the foundation of justice, connection, and reality itself. Lies fracture all three.
    10. Don’t covetCultivate gratitude over envyEnvy eats away at inner peace. Gratitude fosters joy, contentment, and stability in both individuals and communities.

    From Commandments to Common Ground

    By reframing these principles, we shift from a religious mandate to a shared moral vocabulary. These aren’t just rules from one tradition — they’re echoes of ideas found in:

    • 🧘‍♂️ Eastern philosophy (like the Tao or the Eightfold Path)
    • 🏺 Greek Stoicism and virtue ethics
    • 🐺 Indigenous tribal wisdom
    • 📚 psychology and neuroscience
    • 🧬 Evolutionary biology (our moral instincts evolved for group survival)

    They’re not about obedience. They’re about orientation — how to be human, how to live well, and how to avoid unraveling ourselves or society.

    Why This Matters in Schools (and Society)

    The classroom debate isn’t really about tablets on a wall. It’s about what we teach young people to live by. And if the traditional religious framing is too narrow or controversial, this reframed approach might offer a third path — one that:

    • 🏫 Teaches ethical literacy without religious coercion
    • 🧠 Sparks self-reflection and dialogue
    • 🧩 Connects modern life with ancient wisdom
    • 🌍 Builds common ground in a divided culture

    These aren’t commandments carved in stone. They’re living ideas — ones we can still shape, interpret, and grow with.

    Final Thought

    Human beings have always looked for patterns — in stars, in stories, and in laws — to guide their lives. The Ten Commandments were one early attempt to do that. Rather than dismiss them or enforce them dogmatically, perhaps we can rediscover their core meaning and bring them into the present in a way that helps us — and our children — live with greater purpose, compassion, and clarity.

    Because what we put on the classroom wall matters.
    But what we help people understand — and live by — matters even more.

    If this reframing gave you something to think about…
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    💬 Leave a comment — I’d love to hear how you would frame a universal principle for the next generation.

    Let’s keep the conversation going.
    Because ideas only come alive when we share them.

    Developed with assistance from ChatGPT