It is Right and Just

Our world has changed, to be quite honest. The push of society and a constant march towards secularism have become evident, if not so more evident in the past year. What are we, as Catholics, to do? This is a burning question on many people’s minds right now. Scott Hahn and co-author Brandon McGinley have written a book that attempts to answer that question. It Is Right and Just: Why the Future of Civilization Depends on True Religion Depends on True Religion provides insight into today’s culture and our roles within it.

The book delves into an area that most people feel should be kept as two separate matters, politics and religion. We are often told that politics and religion do not, or rather, should not mix. This thought process finds it’s roots in the separation of church and state; however, there’s much more to it than that. Indeed, we should be active within our society. It’s our role to live out our faith within our communities. This includes when it comes to the political area.

Politics can and often does, unfortunately, become “dirty”. There is a certain level of “ickiness” to it, but that is because it’s allowed to happen. Why? Because we allow the players into the arena that allow it to be that way. Passiveness towards the political realm has led to what we are witnessing today. Our society as a whole has become quite frankly dysfunctional and chaotic. In the book, Scott and Brandon remind us that our religion, our faith, is something we choose to follow or ignore. If we choose to follow it wholeheartedly, then there are some obligations that come along with that. The prime one is being that light upon a hill that shines brightly for all to see.

“We speak of religion as if it were a hobby or, if we’re really taking it seriously, a personality quirk: something that you spend time on, something that is meaningful to you and gives you meaning, something that’s just a weird part of your life that makes no claim on the rest of your life—or on that of others.”

Religion is something we live. It is something that spills out into everything we do if we allow it to. Religion is something society desperately needs to lift itself out of the muck. This doesn’t mean each of us should be standing on the street corner professing the Gospel. We would quickly run out of street corners! What it means is we live our lives within our local communities while daily reflecting the Gospel message. We do that by becoming actively involved, by leading our society to greatness. A greatness that one day may reflect our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That means we must get involved. We can no longer be passively sitting on the sidelines praying for an answer to come. We must become that answer in our local community, in our state, and in our nation.

Religion has always played a key role in society. Through the centuries, attempts to suppress the faith on a large scale have generally failed. However, that doesn’t stop people from trying! Our role here and now is not to allow suppression of the faith to occur. Our role is to change the trajectory that we see our society is headed in. If we do not act in this generation than generations after us will wax poetically on the freedoms their grandparents once had and how society seemed more normal.  It Is Right and Just does an excellent job of outlining that need and explaining how each of us can make it happen in some small way. If we each contribute even in the smallest way, then collectively, we will do great things.

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