Denver Catholic

23 DENVER CATHOLIC | MARCH 10-23, 2018 Letter to a young man on combating six lies A s a young man, you are embarking on a great adven- ture, to find your place in the world. Unfortunately, the world will tell you many things along the way, so that it's di·cult to separate the truth from the lies. LIE #1: LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE. In pursuing your own needs, you always find yourself longing for more. But when you stop and help some- one else — be it a family member or a complete stranger — you will feel true accomplishment because you are fulfilling the design that God placed on your heart. To help people in need — that is the mark of a true man. LIE #2: YOUR WORTH IS BASED ON MONEY. Money can be a great blessing or a great burden. Scripture is replete with warnings. "For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains" (1 Timothy 6:10). Notice the warning is specific to the "love of money." Money without a foundation of faith and family — and loving God first — is shallow and unfulfilling. Money can't buy you happiness. The greedy pur- suit of it can completely ruin your life. LIE #3: WHOEVER DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS, WINS. Use the toys you have to experi- ence the joy of life that God intended you to experience. But if you focus on the toys, and not the people that you're experiencing it with, you'll lose sight of your purpose in life. What should be a gift from God can become a set of chains. Because when it comes to toys, you can never have new enough, shiny enough or fast enough. Materialism is a construct of the devil, tempting us to always seek more, more, more of meaningless things. Ask yourself: Do you want to have it all? Or do you want to give it all? LIE #4: SOW YOUR WILD OATS. Society says it's OK to be pro- miscuous. That's the legacy of the Sexual Revolution, which has been a wrecking ball through generations, causing much misery, fear, doubt and even death in the form of abortion. You were made for more. When you have sex outside of marriage, you're committing a mortal sin. Instead, be a virtuous warrior. Listen to the words of St. Dominic: "A man who governs his passions is master of the world." LIE #5: DELAY MARRIAGE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. Our culture tells us that indepen- dence, and the ability to do what you want, is the most important thing. Don't believe it. When a man says, "I do" to his bride, he takes responsibil- ity for his wife and for the creation of a family. Or, you may be called to be a priest or religious. How will you dis- cern God's plan for your life? LIE #6: PRAYER IS BORING BECAUSE NOTHING HAPPENS. The world throws every conceiv- able kind of noise at you to prevent you from getting closer to God, from taking time to be with Jesus Christ in prayer and to sit quietly alone in His presence — in adoration. It's when you finally do that that you begin to truly understand the meaning of life and your purpose in it. P.S. To women: are you helping men to be men? Husbands, sons, brothers, fathers, uncles and male co-workers all need your prayers and intentions to live out their God-given missions. Guest Column Larry Smith is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver. Visit online at ccdenver. org or call 303-742-0828 to learn more, volunteer or make a donation. LARRY SMITH millions of Chinese have embraced Christianity—thousands more con- vert every day and more than forty new churches open every week (not counting new underground congre- gations). If this trend were to hold for even another decade, there would be more Christians in China than in any other nation in the world" (2). These converts are well-educated, a»uent, and even members of the Communist party (which technically forbids reli- gious a·liation). They become Chris- tian through "social networks," which "are the basic mechanism through which conversion takes place" (50). The book is a short and easy read and will help you to get a quick under- standing of the changing religious situation in China. JOHN C.H. WU CHINESE HUMANISM AND CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY (ANGELICO, 2017) Martin Scorsese's movie, Silence (2016), adapting Shusaku Endo's novel, made the claim that Asian cul- ture was not compatible with Christi- anity. The Chinese convert to Cathol- icism, John C. H. Wu (d. 1986), would disagree emphatically. This remark- able man — student of ancient Chi- nese culture and Western law, trans- lator of the New Testament, drafter of the Chinese (now Taiwanese) con- stitution, and teacher at Seton Hall — wrote a remarkable book about the inculturation of traditional Chinese wisdom with the Christian faith. Wu looks to St. Thérèse of Lisieux as a model for the mystical vision necessary to inculturate the faith in China: "For me as a Chinese, the most intriguing thing about Thérèse's little way of spiritual childhood is that it is reminiscent, on the one hand, of the Confucian teaching of filial piety, and, on the other, of the Taoistic insight concerning the mystical significance of the little and the low, of the supple and the docile, of the feminine and the new-born" (97). He argues that Chinese culture o¦ers fertile ground for the Gospel both with its teaching on the natural law and its yearning for the absolute. Wu knows the Chi- nese and Catholic traditions remark- ably well and o¦ers the reader great wisdom not only for the meeting of cultures, but also for navigating the challenges of modern, Western materialism. With the growth of the Christian faith in China, it is not a time to bow before the Communist government, but to evangelize boldly, following in the footsteps of the many great Chi- nese martyrs and confessors. PHOTO BY DEVIN JUSTESEN / UNSPLASH

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