
Andrew Bennett
The Reverend Andrew Bennett is a deacon of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada.
The new evangelization begins with ourselves
On the fifth Sunday of Easter in the Byzantine rite we commemorate the Samaritan woman at the well who meets Jesus and hears the Gospel preached. To Jews such as Our Lord the Samaritans were distinctly the “other,” worshipping God in a way that the Jews rejected. Among the many important aspects of this Gospel passage one that merits greater discussion in our day is the preaching of the Gospel to those who are not “us.” We encounter in the Gospels many occasions when Jesus meets non-Jews such as when He meets the Syro-Phoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30), or when the Roman centurion requests healing for his slave (Luke 7:2-10), or when He heals the Gerasene. Our Lord does not limit His saving ministry to His fellow Jews; He comes as the promised Messiah calling all people to salvation.
The Jews and us
As I write this column, the State of Israel and Jews around the world are preparing to celebrate Yom Haatzmaut marking Israel’s independence. This year’s celebration will be especially poignant as it is the 75th anniversary of the Jewish state — a country that has flourished and has become an example to the world of perseverance.
Euthanasia rejects the Cross, Resurrection
Euthanasia is murder. And, it is not simply murder but State-sanctioned, State-abetted, and State-funded homicide. To call it anything else is to engage in a serious form of deception.
Canada falling into anti-faith hatred
Why do we hate one another? Why do wait hate those who are unlike us in what they believe, how they act, or in how God Himself made them? The simple answer is because of the effects of the First Sin, the Fall, through which we became subject to sin, death and corruption. While Our Lord Jesus Christ through His passion, death and resurrection has conquered these effects, we are still prone to sin. Hate is a particular ugly manifestation of the effects of the Fall.
Treating liturgy as therapy obscures its deep truths
As the Church, we have embarked again on our Lenten journey, that season of bright sadness during which we consider our sinfulness and the call to repentance.
How we live being fully ourselves
Almost a decade ago, I visited a close Catholic friend and his wife and family in one of the charming bedroom communities outside Boston. The highlight of the evening was a dinner that my friend hosted replete with fine food, delightful wines from a well-stocked cellar and rich conversation. Sitting next to me on that occasion was my friend and American Catholic man of letters Thomas Howard.
Saving ourselves from overzealous safetycrats
My 86-year old joyful and faithful father has a cheeky toast that he likes to trot out once in a while. With glass raised, he proffers “Death to temperance!” It’s witty and always gets a laugh from family and friends. Yet, the wittiness of the toast draws back the curtain on our present societal stage more then one might expect.
True progress ends in union with God
The supreme virtue of our secular culture is progressivism. To be a progressive is to be enlightened, tolerant and woke. It is to be on the right side of what are determined by secular elites to be the most important issues of our times.