Recently, my sister told me a story about her 6-year-old daughter – my niece – who had a friend of hers over. Now, the friend she had over has nine brothers and no sisters. So, at one point she was delighted when they were able to lay out in the bedroom all of my niece’s princess dresses and take careful time beholding and appreciating each one (not something often done when you are the only girl in a family with 9 brothers).

Why is there suffering in the world? Why do we always seem to rebel against God? Why do we want to take the place of God our Creator?

It all started when Adam and Eve mistrusted God and instead listened to the Evil One, the Ancient Serpent, the father of lies. The devil tricked Eve to disobey God, to be like God without God, “to know what is good and what is bad.” It means to know everything like God and even to decide what is good or bad, which is a prerogative of God not of the creature.

Some years ago, I came across a little book called “Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power” by the Catholic German philosopher Josef Pieper. This book explained to me why I generally hated political discourse but didn’t know why. I wanted to be an informed Catholic American doing my patriotic duty –which falls under the fourth commandment – by learning the issues and voting well i.e. according to a well-formed Catholic conscience. And yet, I had such little patience for politicians and their discourse –why?

Dear Family of God,

This weekend we will hear Jesus rebuke the Pharisees and the Scribes: “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” (Mark 7:6-8).