Jim McCrea is one of my favorite bloggers, google his name for many other great topics.

Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own." (John 15:18, 19).

The "world" here is not the world as created "good" by God, but is, rather, the Biblical concept for that which exalts sheer power, pleasures for their own sake, and material goods above all spiritual realities, and which is opposed to the spirit of Christ, His charity, humility, and self-sacrifice. Alas, it would appear that some particularly hate Catholic Christianity and exercise a vehement form of persecution towards it, as is evident to any with eyes and ears in our time.

For example, there have always been scandals of exceptional human weakness or even wickedness in organizations which consist of human beings . But of all the things that a myriad of other organizations or religions might do wrong, we mainly hear about those in the Catholic Church in the mainstream media. We don't often hear of scandal in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism or but, rather, much respect is given to them by the mainstream media. It is mainly the Catholic Church that is presented as unreasonable - whether they report something done wrong in Her name, or simply present a half truth which puts something out of context. When the media notes that the Church differs with the zeitgeist on a particular issue, often it is framed as "Catholic Church is furious..., " "Church mad as Hell..."

These are tricks which are both ancient and new and are used when someone wants to demonize an 'other'.

We turn now to events more recent. Sexual abuse happens in all denominations, but it has been almost exclusively reported as happening in the Catholic Church in recent times. (Insurance companies know differently). This was done deliberately to give the general public the impression that abuse is a problem particular to Catholic priests. It is a strategy that has worked well, since so many have swallowed that lie (not lying in saying the abuse happened, but lying in giving the impression that it is mainly Catholic priests who are abusers by the emphasis given). One can hardly be blamed for not knwowing that far more teachers in the United States sexually abuse children than clergy. The mainstream media highlights what it wishes and downplays what it wishes. This fact suggests the agenda.

The reason why the mainstream media, along with liberal elites in general, wish to discredit the Catholic Church is that only the Catholic Church hits the bull's eye of Truth. To accept this Truth requires a deep humility where pride and concupiscence must be mortified. No other religion makes as great a demand on the deepest center of man as Catholicism. That is why other religions are much more tolerated by the movers and shakers in society. The mainstream media has much more tolerance for harsh legalistic religions than for the benign authority of the Catholic Church. When a Catholic falls, he falls from the highest principle of his religion. The Truth does not fall. And a fall says nothing against the Truth.

It is true that most other religions encourage virtue and have commandments against vice, but there are some concessions to fallen human nature within all religions except Catholicism. For example, Protestantism does the right thing in exhorting one to live by the ten Commandments and to accept Christ as one's Lord and Savior. However, Protestantism in its essence concedes to man's proud independent nature. It prefers private judgement and will not recognize Christ's authority in the the successor of Peter and in the bishops united to the him (the Magisterium).

Hinduism is perhaps well-tolerated for a similar reason. In Hinduism (especially corrupted forms of it in the west), the transcendent moral law does not exist in the same way that it does in Christianity. In Christianity, we submit to a God who is "totally other" and who is completely independent of the ego. In Hinduism, on the other hand, we attain to a pleasant harmony with "what is" through "enlightenment" and discover that God is our deepest self. This sometimes give generous room to subtle pride and sensuality, leading the devotee to think that these are the motions of the divine within----at witness western pop versions of Hinduism. If a person is his own standard, then it is possible to justify anything. If we are "one with the cosmos," then the cosmos may be the ego inflated to infinity. That would appeal to modern secular man, and the world would love rather than hate such a concept. That would appeal to fallen man's desire to be God.

Of course, Evangelical Protestantism is despised by the liberal elites, right behind Catholicism. This is because "the world" and Christianity have two diametrically opposed goals for human life. The aim of life for the non-spiritual is to conform all things to one's pleasure and to the padding of one's ego. For the Christian, the goal is to conform oneself to Christ. This Christian way may require that one accept all sorts of things that are unpleasant to the self. For the unbeliever, the goal of life is to inflate the self, and all other things and people may be a means to that. For the Christian, the goal of life is to conform oneself to the "other" - to find salvation in a Savior who is Other, who is Christ, rather than being one's own savior and pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps, as "the world" does.

One of the highest phases of this spiritual process, of being conformed to Christ, as it appears in the writings of the saints and the true Catholic sages, is in the acceptance at times of many difficulties (even unfair attacks) which are hard to bear. This is one of the hardest things for human nature to bear, and it is that which a person apart from Christ strives to avoid at all costs. However, the humiliations that God allows in His providence go to the deepest root of our pride and effect a radical purification of our soul, according to the saints. This radical purification is necessary because only when one has been purified, can one enter heaven (see Rev 21:27). Because of this, our cooperation with purification is the work of a life-time. It is the highest wisdom to "turn the other cheek" and accept such non-violence (see Matt 5:38-42), for that is love, and the shortest route to perfection and to heaven (one resists only when some principle or positive value is a stake, never when it is only one's ego at stake -- be glad to have an opportunity to have the ego killed). Such purification is the route to true happiness and peace even in this life, for it is precisely the impurity of sin that makes people unhappy and destroys peace.

It is the Cross, particularly the cross of humiliation, that the world does not comprehend. Many Catholics experience that their non-christian acquaintances find the idea of mortification and self-denial baffling and irrational. To the fervent Catholic, such a thing is a means to make the 'old' man of sin die, in order that Christ rise within him or her. To the unspiritual, on the other hand, mortification and self-denial contradict the "evident" purpose of life which is to make all things conform to one's own pleasure.

It would seem that most persons unconcerned about spiritual realities are not consciously aware of the metaphysical roots of their antipathy to Christianity and to Catholic Christianity in particular--that it is the values of Christianity, registering mainly on the subconscious level of the unbeliever, which provoke such a negative reaction. Often this reaction can be seen in human interactions in day to day life. Much communication takes place on the subconscious level. We "click" with some people and not so easily with others - and usually we don't know why. At every moment we are broadcasting our perspective of reality and personal values with many elements of communication per minute. And we communicate in a multi-dimensional way with others in our social environment, and most of this takes place below the threshold of our conscious understanding. There is a whole series of expressions, body language elements, comments, tones of voice by which information is exchanged between people. Most of this is transferred from the subconscious of one person to the subconscious of another.

What we are mainly aware of on the conscious level is whether we are comfortable or uncomfortable with the person with whom we are interacting. It is these elements of communication that help determine whether we have something in common with the other person or not. Often a Christian will "click" with a Christian, the unspirutal with the unspiritual, but a Christian will often not click with the unspiriual in the same way as with the spiritual, precisely because of their deeper affiliation with Christ Whom they want to share. When we are with some people, the words flow with great ease and pleasure, and we feel validated. With others, we feel that there is a sad wall, and we may experience some kind of loss of energy and / or self-esteem.

There is a fundamental reason why some groupings of people "click" and others do not. It is their basic ethical stance towards reality. Whether people get along or not may largely depend on whether they have a Christian or a worldly stance towards life. Although people sometimes talk about whether they are Christian or anti-Christian, that is often communicated on the subconscious level as discussed.

What is it that is being communicated that makes the difference between the "world" and the Christian Comunity? What does each type of person broadcast and accept or reject on mainly the subconscious level? Even when the Christian is not talking about Christ and Christianity in particular, they communicate on topics of the good and the true. They communicate the objectively important or what is important in itself, and communicate their reverence towards things other and higher than themselves. Even when Christ is not being discussed explicitly, He is being communicated implicitly because Christ is the supreme Good and True to which all goodness and truth point. Christ is the "other" and the "higher" to whom the true Christian is reverent, and this reverence is reflected in the Christian's attitude to being in general. They do this both in explicit topics of conversation and on the subconscious level.

The non-spiritual person on the other hand communicates elements pertaining to the satisfaction of self. In other words, their communications pertain to the subjectively satisfying. In subtle ways, the person of the world communicates his love of the fulfillment of pride and concupiscence. While the Christian looks up to things in reverence, the unbeliever tends to look down on things in haughtiness. While Christian conversation tends to lift things up, worldly conversation tends to tear things down.

Even a marked difference in humor can be seen between the two. The worldly person engages in mocking "humor" which---because it is a mocking--- Reflates higher realities - especially often traditional virtues and values. The Christian, by contrast, engages in a true humor reflecting the incongruous, or their laughter may be an overflow of joy. The true humor of the incongruous is a reflection of the divine because it is a manifestation of what I will call a suprageometric order which transcends that order normally proper to this world. The joy of honest laughter is a foretaste of heaven.

As a result of this, the Christian and those unconcerned with spiritual things may have little in common. So they must begin to find common ground and build on it. Often when someone converts to Christianity, he finds that he can no longer relate to his former friends and he loses them. There is a strong temptation to go back because he is often made to feel that "something is wrong with" him. Something is out of joint. For a while, he may be in a no-man's land until he feels comfortable with his new state, when Providence allows him to fit into a whole new set of people and situations which seem far more satisfying than before his conversion. Then he may seek to invite others more freely to the process of awakening to the message of the Good News.

As mentioned at the beginning, the mainstream media persecutes Christianity, and particularly Catholic Christianity. This is because those in the mainstream media who determine editorial policy, are mainly "of the world" as Jesus said (statistics show that those who work in positions of authority in the mainstream media have a low level of church attendance). Christians can also persecuted by others on a personal level. As previously stated, even when the Christian does not explicitly discuss Christ and Christianity, we are constantly broadcasting the values of Christ and His Kingdom in expressions, body language, comments, tones of voice, without even realizing it. Those who still "are of the world" pick it up on the subconscious level and may react to it with animosity. As Our Lord said:

"If you find that the world hates you, know it has hated me before you. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own; the reason it hates you is that you do not belong to the world. But I choose you out of the world" (John 15:18-19)

But the good news is, this broadcasting of one's state, on the subconscious level of being a Christian, is a form of evangelization in itself. Without realizing it, the true Christian may powerfully draw people to Christ, simply by being. If others are of good will and are open, they will be attracted to this. Instinctively the conversation may turn to Christ and Christianity in particular (we should never force a discussion of Christ when that is not appropriate, a mistake often made by fundamentalists). When the discussion of Christ is appropriate, and when the discussion of the fullness of Christianity which exists in the Catholic Church is appropriate, the true Catholic has a duty to share the Gospel. For the light of Catholic Christianity is like a fire which first warms others and then makes those others catch Fire of the Spirit themselves. As Catholics, we must always be ready to do our duty to back our actions with an explicit explanation of what we have within us. As St. Peter says:

"Venerate the Lord, that is, Christ in your hearts. Should anyone ask you the reason for this hope of yours, be ever ready to reply... (1 Peter 3:15)