Dear Lu, Your note about the religious studies classes you are taking intrigued me.\u00a0 I have always been interested in great intellectuals who try to reduce man\u2019s thirst for God to neat sociological formulas.\u00a0 Do keep sending me articles and updates; I\u2019ll look forward to following along. As for yourself, I issue a humble, avuncular warning.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let all the ideas that you bat around from 9 to 9 every day interfere with your personal, heart-to-heart relationship with Christ.\u00a0 He is more than an idea, you know \u2013 he is a person.\u00a0 A living person, whose friendship alone will give true and lasting meaning to your life.\u00a0 You need to make a constant and concerted effort to keep that in mind, so you don\u2019t succumb to the temptation of intellectual pride \u2013 thinking that your own brilliance is enough light for your journey into eternity. Today\u2019s saint could be a big help for you.\u00a0 He was a medical doctor, a writer, and an artist (probably from Greece, maybe from Antioch in Turkey), so he had an avid mind and a sensitive heart.\u00a0 God set him aside as one of the four Evangelists, the only four people in the history of the world chosen to record (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) the life and words of Jesus Christ, God become man.\u00a0 He was also entrusted with giving us the inspired narration of the very first days of the Church.\u00a0 His Gospel and his \u201cappendix\u201d to the Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, almost form a complete picture of Christian revelation.\u00a0 In their pages, you will find the person of Jesus Christ and the living faith of the Church masterfully described.\u00a0 If you take some time to dip into them every day, it will help you keep your faith fresh (it will help even more if you dip into them while making a visit to our Lord himself in the Blessed Sacrament \u2013 nothing like the Real Thing to counteract vapid ideologies like the ones you mention in the note). Since you\u2019re planning on going on to get your PhD, you might even want to make St Luke into a kind of personal patron \u2013 he is the official patron of \u201cdoctors,\u201d after all (strictly speaking, medical doctors).\u00a0 May he help you stay humble and simple (remember, the Kingdom of God belongs to the childlike), even as you scale the dizzying heights of intellectual achievement. God bless, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Lu, Your note about the religious studies classes you are taking intrigued me.\u00a0 I have always been interested in great intellectuals who try to reduce man\u2019s thirst for God […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n