I pray for Christopher Hitchens too. Only God the ultimate Love & Justice truly knew his heart and hopefully at the end Christopher recognized God for that Love and not as a sky fairy.
A profoundly moral man? I hardly believe what I'm hearing. Those who burn with a passion for justice can be totally wrong about the object of justice, or how to go about accomplishing that goal. That makes them profoundly immoral men.
Some people REALLY don't believe in God. They really are not religious at all, and spurn all belief, although it might pain us or shock us to realize this. They really just might go to hell, no matter how cool they are, or well they wrote, or their phenomenal cocktail wit, or how fun they were at parties.
And they might drag other sychophants along with them.
Hitchens said Mother Theresa was a whore and a demogogue…. He screamed in Fr Rutler's face calling him every name in hell. And yet he was a profoundly moral man? After watching Fr Barrons Catholicism series , I am not surprised he thinks Thomas Merton was a "spiritual master". A man who abandoned his child and young mother to flee to the US and become a monk. He seems able to overlook almost any fault without the penitence of the offender, while heaping praise on them.
Frankly, calling people whores and screaming in their faces is better than Hitchens' ilk (Anglo secularists) used to do, in their dealings with Catholics—like intentionally exacerbating famines and gang-raping most of the female population of County Wexford.
So yeah, by the standards of his forebears, Hitchens is a profoundly moral man. Which is, admittedly, like saying that Muammar Qaddafi has a better chance of getting into heaven than Saddam Hussein. It's not really impressive, is it?
I'm reminded of a joke: "I'm on the Irish Peasant diet. I can have all the soup I want, but I have to renounce Catholicism."
This video is about how we as Christians understand the nature of God, and how atheists get God conceptually wrong, while actually they are sometimes passionate for Truth, for Justice, Goodness, Love. They rather inevitably get these seriously wrong in various ways too but their desire for them is perfectly sincere. Their philosophy is so messed up though, that they don't recognize it as being a (ravenous) desire for God.
I'm dumbfounded at the foolishness of some of these comments.
Fr. Barron almost always chooses to point out the goodness in people, rather than their faults. This is a very PROFOUNDLY Catholic thing, as St. Paul and others did this even with paganism. It is right and good to point out what is right in people and dismiss the bad, as Fr. Barron does time and time again.
There is a cult of personality around Hitchens as much as there was around Corapi. Just slightly more highbrow. If you take away Hitchens' accent, the things he said about topics other than religio, would not have seemed half as intelligent, and the things he said about Mother Theresa would have just plain creepy.
Father Barron's interpretation is full of hope. Having taught Dante, whose subject in the Divina Commedia was reconciling human understanding to Divine Love and Divine Justice, placed some rather surprising people in Purgatory and Paradise. His point wasn't to supplant God's sense of Justice with our own, but to illustrate that what is evident to God is not so to us, and that we must not attempt to impose our own conditions on the infinitude of Divine Mercy and Goodness.
There are plenty of instances in which I felt that Hitchens presumed too much; I would not wish to do the same.
All of you religious tards are living in delusion and I laugh everytime I see one of you ignorant children. You're so pampered and full of entitlement that you can't handle when someone challenges your mythology. I'd tell all of you to go to hell, but rational people like myself don't believe in fairy tales.
Does God need someone to believe in IT? I think not. That would be to anthropomorphize the Creative Force that, in the human consciousness, no one can fully grasp (or even get close to grasping, IMHO).
God is more than Justice…God is Love. That is God's essence.
We exist because It loves us without reservation. That love includes Christopher Hitchens.
In my mind's eye, I see Mr. Hitchens fully conscious, pleasantly surprised, and basking in a love that, while given without any strings attached was, in no small way, earned.
Hitchens wrote a book entitled "God is not Great." Barron calls him "religious" and believes Hell is likely empty. Nice example of the muddled confusion that the compromises with modernism from Vatican II has brought us. Of course no one but God knows Hitchens fate, of course he cared about truth, but "religious?" Please. Contrived deep thinking or wishful thinking, it all just seems silly. Makes me wonder if all the fuss about his new series is worth it, but will still check it out.
Christopher Hitchens searched for truth. That he failed to recognize God does not make him any more evil than St. Thomas who would not believe unless he put his finger in the nail holes and his hand into Christ's side. I trust between the passage between this life and the next God gave Christopher such an opportunity to do so. I pray that like St. Thomas, Christopher proclaimed, "My Lord and my God!"
I am not sure if I'd call Hitchens 'religious'… he seemed to have more than a little distaste for religions in general, yet I do agree that he was a man who was searching for something more and was not a blind reductive materialist like Dawkins or Dennett are.
Perhaps H. did not find what he was looking in this life, I hope he found IT (or HIM if you prefer) in the next.
December 29, 2011 at 4:57 am
I pray for Christopher Hitchens too. Only God the ultimate Love & Justice truly knew his heart and hopefully at the end Christopher recognized God for that Love and not as a sky fairy.
December 29, 2011 at 5:12 am
A profoundly moral man? I hardly believe what I'm hearing. Those who burn with a passion for justice can be totally wrong about the object of justice, or how to go about accomplishing that goal. That makes them profoundly immoral men.
Some people REALLY don't believe in God. They really are not religious at all, and spurn all belief, although it might pain us or shock us to realize this. They really just might go to hell, no matter how cool they are, or well they wrote, or their phenomenal cocktail wit, or how fun they were at parties.
And they might drag other sychophants along with them.
December 29, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Fr Barron is way off as usual.
Hitchens said Mother Theresa was a whore and a demogogue…. He screamed in Fr Rutler's face calling him every name in hell. And yet he was a profoundly moral man? After watching Fr Barrons Catholicism series , I am not surprised he thinks Thomas Merton was a "spiritual master". A man who abandoned his child and young mother to flee to the US and become a monk. He seems able to overlook almost any fault without the penitence of the offender, while heaping praise on them.
December 30, 2011 at 1:32 am
Frankly, calling people whores and screaming in their faces is better than Hitchens' ilk (Anglo secularists) used to do, in their dealings with Catholics—like intentionally exacerbating famines and gang-raping most of the female population of County Wexford.
So yeah, by the standards of his forebears, Hitchens is a profoundly moral man. Which is, admittedly, like saying that Muammar Qaddafi has a better chance of getting into heaven than Saddam Hussein. It's not really impressive, is it?
I'm reminded of a joke: "I'm on the Irish Peasant diet. I can have all the soup I want, but I have to renounce Catholicism."
December 31, 2011 at 3:26 am
This video is about how we as Christians understand the nature of God, and how atheists get God conceptually wrong, while actually they are sometimes passionate for Truth, for Justice, Goodness, Love. They rather inevitably get these seriously wrong in various ways too but their desire for them is perfectly sincere. Their philosophy is so messed up though, that they don't recognize it as being a (ravenous) desire for God.
December 31, 2011 at 6:03 am
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
December 31, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I'm dumbfounded at the foolishness of some of these comments.
Fr. Barron almost always chooses to point out the goodness in people, rather than their faults. This is a very PROFOUNDLY Catholic thing, as St. Paul and others did this even with paganism. It is right and good to point out what is right in people and dismiss the bad, as Fr. Barron does time and time again.
December 31, 2011 at 2:48 pm
There is a cult of personality around Hitchens as much as there was around Corapi. Just slightly more highbrow. If you take away Hitchens' accent, the things he said about topics other than religio, would not have seemed half as intelligent, and the things he said about Mother Theresa would have just plain creepy.
December 31, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Father Barron's interpretation is full of hope. Having taught Dante, whose subject in the Divina Commedia was reconciling human understanding to Divine Love and Divine Justice, placed some rather surprising people in Purgatory and Paradise. His point wasn't to supplant God's sense of Justice with our own, but to illustrate that what is evident to God is not so to us, and that we must not attempt to impose our own conditions on the infinitude of Divine Mercy and Goodness.
There are plenty of instances in which I felt that Hitchens presumed too much; I would not wish to do the same.
December 31, 2011 at 11:31 pm
"The fool says in his heart, "There is no god.'"
So also said Christopher Hitchens.
January 1, 2012 at 8:18 am
All of you religious tards are living in delusion and I laugh everytime I see one of you ignorant children. You're so pampered and full of entitlement that you can't handle when someone challenges your mythology. I'd tell all of you to go to hell, but rational people like myself don't believe in fairy tales.
January 1, 2012 at 8:30 am
Does God need someone to believe in IT? I think not. That would be to anthropomorphize the Creative Force that, in the human consciousness, no one can fully grasp (or even get close to grasping, IMHO).
God is more than Justice…God is Love. That is God's essence.
We exist because It loves us without reservation. That love includes Christopher Hitchens.
In my mind's eye, I see Mr. Hitchens fully conscious, pleasantly surprised, and basking in a love that, while given without any strings attached was, in no small way, earned.
January 2, 2012 at 4:09 am
Hitchens wrote a book entitled "God is not Great." Barron calls him "religious" and believes Hell is likely empty. Nice example of the muddled confusion that the compromises with modernism from Vatican II has brought us. Of course no one but God knows Hitchens fate, of course he cared about truth, but "religious?" Please. Contrived deep thinking or wishful thinking, it all just seems silly. Makes me wonder if all the fuss about his new series is worth it, but will still check it out.
January 5, 2012 at 2:03 am
Father Barron is right on as always. Thank you, my Lord and my God for giving him a voice.
January 8, 2012 at 3:55 am
Hitch was an athiest,. Attribute nothing more. He and I believe(d) there is no evidence of Any god.
January 10, 2012 at 4:09 am
Christopher Hitchens searched for truth. That he failed to recognize God does not make him any more evil than St. Thomas who would not believe unless he put his finger in the nail holes and his hand into Christ's side. I trust between the passage between this life and the next God gave Christopher such an opportunity to do so. I pray that like St. Thomas, Christopher proclaimed, "My Lord and my God!"
January 11, 2012 at 9:39 pm
I am not sure if I'd call Hitchens 'religious'… he seemed to have more than a little distaste for religions in general, yet I do agree that he was a man who was searching for something more and was not a blind reductive materialist like Dawkins or Dennett are.
Perhaps H. did not find what he was looking in this life, I hope he found IT (or HIM if you prefer) in the next.