On Forming Opinions

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NOTE: about every 5 weeks, I show up on Salt and Light Radio’s Blessed and Beautiful Segment for 15 minutes to share thoughts and experiences on an assigned topic. While the interview plays out spontaneously, this is a more comprehensive reflection. “On Forming Opinions” took place on Friday, October 11th, the memorial of Pope St. John XXIII, who called Vatican II. 

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​Let Jesus be our “fact checker” when it comes to serious topics and our “cheerleader” as we personally move in right directions. As Catholic Christians, we differentiate between absolute truth (things that are always and everywhere true, conforming to reality and the eternal mind of God) and personal opinion (things that are merely a matter of prudential judgement or wisdom which lean heavily on individual circumstances and preference). When it comes to truth, it is a matter of assent, bending one’s mind, heart, and life to the Lord. The truth is applied to the practice of life. Not only is there “the Truth” but Jesus said, “I am the…truth,” emphasizing truth and love are two sides of the same coin in Him (Jn 14:6). An opinion, however, is a prudential judgement of something that may be workable for one person but not another. The virtue of prudence indicates the best what, when, who, and how. There are many good options, so we figure out the best for us.

A good analogy might be the spectrum from black to gray to white. The black are those absolute negatives like, “thou shalt not murder, commit adultery, or procure abortion.” The gray is the myriads of life choices that can vary from person to person, like where we live or work or how we decorate our house or choose to pray the rosary versus divine mercy chaplet. The white would be those positives, like “there is a God; this God is Trinity, and so forth.” With the black and white, the lines are clear, and we propose (not impose) this way to others; with gray, we discuss, consider, support, accept, and rejoice in differences.

​Pope St. John XXIII wrote, “What unites us is much greater than what divides us.” A huge difficulty in today’s world is that we have lost a Christian framework and an ability to have good discussions. A Christian framework based in the natural law gives a common foundation and language in which to dialogue with others. Without this, people constantly bypass each other in conversation, accuse each other, and shut doors on each other. If we can seek common ground, underlying interests, and respectful dialogue, great things can happen. Jesus modeled how to mingle with all kinds of folks without losing His identity and purpose. 
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Jesus wants to encounter us in our personal beliefs. The Scripture that grounds me regarding opinion is Mt. 16: 13-20, where Jesus asks his disciples, “who do people say I am?” After listening to their response, that the crowd thinks He might be Elijah, the Baptist, or a prophet, Jesus zeros in on their personal belief with, but “Who do you say I am?” He strategically moves his disciples to acknowledge the popular opinion and then to acknowledge their own heart and conviction. He shows us the importance of considering the crowd but then and most importantly stepping aside from the crowd, sometimes even the religious crowd, to consider what we really think and believe. This is where Jesus as “fact checker” comes in. After Peter responds that He is the Messiah and Son of the Living God, Jesus tells Peter that this was not a natural conclusion but a revelation from the Heavenly Father. What has the Father revealed to be true for all? What has He revealed to me about my life? The process of identifying what I believe, not just what society, my school, my parents, or social media tell me to think is an important step in spiritual maturity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience” (#1790). Conscience is the voice of reason and voice of God within (leading to truth and prudence). The caveat is that we must form our conscience in accord with Gospel values and a Catholic filter. Forming opinions ought to include:

• regular family discussion,
• intentional study or research,
• going to the sources (first Scripture, second the 1997 Catechism, and third original videos/interviews/documents before watching and reading news commentaries),
• seeking civil and church news sources and commentators that build unity and speak truth (rather than those that promote bias, agendas, sensationalism, partisanism, or tribalism),
• engage in mutual dialogue with honesty and respect (trying to find out, not just what their position is, but what their primary and underlying concern is as this is often a place of common ground - as well as voicing our own),
• discerning and walking in deep peace (the peace that only He gives and passes understanding according to Phil. 4: 7. This peace does not avoid conflict and difficulty but rests in the Presence and Will of the Lord. Pope St. John XXIII wrote, “A peaceful man does more good than a learned man.”),
• Pray into the topic, which means to intentionally take the topic to prayer, setting it before the Lord, seeking His word, and waiting upon His answer. “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Rm 12: 2).

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​Several personal experiences shape my perspective on forming opinions. One experience happened about 5-7 years ago. One evening I sat down with a glass of wine and read a word-for-word interview of Pope Francis. I did not think much of it until the next day when I opened my email to a supposedly trustworthy Catholic news source to read an article about the interview that I had read the night before - only to discover the headline was misleading and the article clearly inaccurate and divisive. More recently, our family watched the entire Harrison Butker speech at Benedictine college. We then read/watched commentaries. Most people I talked to had strong opinions but based on soundbites and had only perused commentaries. How many of these represented a contemporary Catholic Christian viewpoint, not just progressive liberalism or reductionistic traditionalism? Catholicism is grounded in the richness of tradition, the sacredness of Scripture, and a living Magisterium today. That is our Catholic filter.

Going back a few years to 2010 and while I had already personally evaluated and chose Christ and His Church, I had to pass through another faith crisis. I had been involved in a Church group that discovered the founder was a sexual criminal. After the truth came out in an undeniable form, I realized that I had let others tell me the founder was a saint despite the still small voice within that said otherwise. Because when it rains it pours, around this same time, I was trying to wrap my brain around some difficult Church topics and getting nowhere intellectually. Then, I attended Mass at a Catholic conference in Florida when I had a powerful experience of the Lord that settled it all. On my way back to my pew after receiving communion and as the choir sang “This is Jesus” by Tony Menendez and Jim Cowan, I felt a powerful explosion of grace from within, confirming that the Eucharist was Jesus. I cried for the following 4 days as this touched me deeply. As I asked the Lord more about this, I realized that this experience was meant to cement, not just my devotion to the Eucharist, but also my adherence to the Catholic Christian faith. Yes, there are amazing saints and horrible sinners in the Church. Yes, God sometimes writes straight with crooked lines in the history of the Church. Yet, the Church holds the fullness of truth and gives us the Beloved.