Month: December 2025

Bartolome de las Casas was born in Seville, Spain, in the 15^th century. At the age of 18, he traveled to the Dominican Republic, 10 years after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. What he saw was appalling! In their desire for gold and other riches, the Spanish conquistadores were working the native Indians to death and enslaving them in inhuman conditions, using their Christianity as a justification. He saw three native men tied together and slowly strangled to death “in honor of Christ, our Redeemer.” After being ordained a Dominican priest back in Spain, Fr. Bartolome returned to the New World to work with his Dominican friars on an encomienda, a large Spanish farming estate. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent 1511, he heard one of his friars give a powerful homily chastising the Spanish for their immoral treatment of Indians. For the rest of his life, Bartolome preached and fought for the human dignity of these enslaved peoples. A common philosophy was that certain groups of people, due to their lack of intelligence and moral integrity, were destined to be ruled. And that only by accepting Christ could they be saved from eternal damnation. Fr. De las Casas relied on his Dominican predecessor, St. Thomas Aquinas, to refute this view. Even pagan societies, in the measure that they lived by just laws, were implicitly in line with Christian civilization. Bartolome pointed out how the native peoples were skilled in architecture, painting, needlework, and song. Using Christ as an example, he pointed out that true evangelization only takes place in a peaceful context. Christ converted men and women through his words, ideas and good example, not through the sword.  Further, Christ summoned his apostles to preach only to those who were willing to receive his message of God’s love. – – – Fr. Jim

When I was young I had a friend whose name was Barry. He was a very good basketball player. He could make long shots into the basket from anywhere on the court. I asked him “How are you such a good shooter?” He said that he sits alone and plays make believe. He imagines himself shooting the ball and it goes in the basket. He pretends, and every time he pretends, the ball goes in the basket.I decided to play make believe also. I dreamed about myself playing the guitar, that I could play difficult songs with great skill. I also daydreamed about being a good priest. When we daydream about something good, we can make it start to happen. God wants us to imagine good things. When we pray the rosary, we imagine Mary as our mother. She holds us in her arms. She comforts us when we are afraid. When we gaze into the manger scene, we imagine a scene of much peace. The cattle are making soft noises. The baby is sleeping. The angels are singing about “Peace on earth, goodwill towards all men.” In the book of Isaiah, God asks us to imagine something very strange (Isaiah 11:1-10). If you put a lion and a lamb in the same cage, what do you think would happen? The lion would eat the lamb. He would make lamb chops to eat! But God wants us to imagine a world in which people live peacefully with one another.  When we imagine something like that, we can make it start to happen. We can begin to live as if it were true. And – you know what? It will then start to become true. – Fr. Jim