Bearing witness to our culture hangs on this deeply personal question: “Are we convinced that what has been given to us will satisfy the human heart?”
It’s a question that Reverend Paul Scalia, son of late Justice Antonin Scalia, asked the crowd in his talk March 21, the final lecture of the season in the Archbishop’s Lecture Series.
Titled “The Word of the Lord Came to Me…,” his talk explained how ancient prophets show us how to be examples of our faith in our modern culture. The most important lesson from their stories is that we first have deep conviction in that which we bear witness to.
“Authenticity requires that these words come from within us — only our personal investment in the Gospel can make us authentic prophets,” Reverend Scalia said.
We especially need to be connected to that firm conviction inside ourselves in the areas where the culture needs it most; namely, marriage and family life, Reverend Scalia said.
He outlined other various areas where we can imitate the ancient prophets, who were seen as “odd” in their respective countries at the time. He referred to Flannery O’Connor, who is attributed to the quote, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.”
“Bearing witness to the truth might make you odd,” Reverend Scalia said. The ancient prophets were often seen as outsiders in their own homes, and we must be ready to not fit in as well. We are “strangers in a strange land,” especially as people in our culture are increasingly indifferent toward religion.
“This religious indifference is a challenge for the Church as well. [We’ve] had to scale back. Denver is fairly unique in its growth,” Reverend Scalia said.
March 21, 2017, Denver, Colorado Archbishop Lecture Series featuring Fr. Paul Scalia, a priest from the Diocese of Arlington speaking on the topic of the importance of prophetic Catholic witness in the culture today. Photo by Andrew Wright/Denver Catholic
He said that we also need to be witnesses to both the past and the future. This doesn’t mean we are harbingers of doom; rather, we “proclaim not what will happen, but what God has already done,” Reverend Scalia said.
“The failure to remember what God has done creates a mistrust of what God will do in the future,” Reverend Scalia continued. “Our role should be one of giving hope, especially to those who are suffering.”
Our testimony message needs to be this hope, “that the Lord is trustworthy,” he said.
He also noted that acts of charity and the suffering we experience for love of God and neighbor are the biggest opportunities to bear bold witness to our culture.
“If we aren’t suffering, we are compromising on our love of the Lord, or of our love for people,” Reverend Scalia said. “The Lord allows suffering as a way of understanding the sadness and pain in his own heart.”
“Suffering, in the end, is the most convincing witness to the truth,” he added.