Home Page

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's Reviews page  

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's home page




Things Worth Dying For
Thoughts On A Life Worth Living
by Charles J. Chaput
Henry Holt and Company

Charles Chaput, retired Archbishop of Philadelphia, is an outstanding teacher of the faith and a brilliant critic of contemporary culture. In this book, he compares and contrasts various issues of our age: the idolatries of secular man versus Gospel values, right love of country versus wrong love of self, and human dignity versus the technological manipulation of the human person. He is rightly concerned about the way in which we have made human autonomy an absolute moral principle: that in an age when we have repudiated moral absolutes.

What are the things worth dying for? In order to answer this, Chaput really wants us to reflect on the things worth living for. He notes that Thomas More and John Fisher lived as fully believing Catholics who were ready to die for their faith. In their case, they actually did just that. Are we ready to die for our faith? We may not be called to martyrdom, but we need to make great sacrifices for our faith.

Chaput examines the current malaise in the United States with regard to the sacredness of human life from conception and the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman for life. Of course, there are other major issues including racial injustice. Chaput does not mention the names of the groups that have turned to Marxism and violence in response. But Marxism is never the answer. Neither are violence and sexual pluralism. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the remedy.

As perhaps expected, he deals with the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. He believes there are now sufficient safeguards in place to ensure this does not happen again. Let us pray he is correct.

What about our current "cancel" culture, the attempt to eradicate history from our memory? Once again, he is spot on in his assessment. How can we forget the destruction of the statues of the great St Junipero Serra by vandals? These are people who hate both their country and Christianity.

It was fascinating to read his observation on the recent Synods on the family and on young people. His conclusion is surely correct: they were both manipulated by high ranking individuals within the Church who have basically lost the plot. They have caved into secular values. Loyalty to the Holy See does not mean blind obedience.

But what can we ordinary Catholics do? I would love to have a respectful audience with the Holy Father when I could tell him how angry I was, and am, about the whole Pachamama incident and about the way in which the Synod on the family was manipulated. But I have no chance of doing so.

What Chaput is calling us to do is to live our orthodox Catholic lives fully and joyfully. We cannot stop people from losing their faith. Only God can do that. But we can be good examples of joy and hope.

Chaput īs a deeply cultured man. In his reflections, he turns to writers as diverse as Cicero and Dylan Thomas. He even manages to bring in the great movie Casablanca.

I found this work to be a joyful affirmation of our Catholic Faith.



     
Copyright ©; Dr Pravin Thevathasan 2021

Version: 11th June 2021



Home Page

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's Reviews page
  

Dr Pravin Thevathasan's home page