Watchmaker

    WATCHMAKER
    MORNING STAR CATHOLIC ORIGINS SOCIETY
    P.O.BOX 189
    Shade Gap, PA. 17255

    March 20, 1995

   
    Dear Mr. Muzzy,

    Thank you for your donation of $10.00 to Morning Star.
    Your help is greatly appreciated.

        Your note was a learning experience for me. I was not hip to the generational battle cry,
    "I don't care!" and has caused me to do a little reflecting. I was reminded of Phillip E. Johnson's
    comment that the prevailing philosophy on the college campus today is genteel nihilism.
    I suspect also that the existentialism of Camus and Sartre is still somewhat fashionable,
    with its emphasis on the "absurdity" of all reality. And so it seems to me that the question
    "What difference does it(anything)make?" comes from a kind of nihilistic/existentialistic view
    of reality, and the implied answer is, "Nothing we think or say or do makes any difference
    whatever and is totally without significance." It is no wonder that the big problem Camus wrestled
    with was "Why should one not commit suicide?" and he never came up with any meaningful
    answer to that question either.
        In regard to your sister's suicide, I truly believe she is with God. Enclosed are three articles
    which I call Highlights of Watchmaker, as well as the March issue containing a theological article
  on grace by Fr. Brain Harrison, who tackles with suicide and forgiveness. Jesus said all are welcome
  at His Father's table. Your sister's grievous sin was an act of mental illness. God does not punish
  the ignorant. I am happy that your parish permitted her to be buried on consecrated ground.
  All have sinned and all are saved by God's merciful son.
        The question that face all thinking people are the ones that deal with God, nature, what's real
  and what isn't, life, death. and what happens to us, if anything, after we die. Our two thousand year
  Catholic tradition includes some great minds(Augustine, Aquinas, others)and the witness of some
  great saints(Francis of Assisi, Maximilian Kolbe, others)who probe these questions deeply and
  kept coming up with answers that constitute the Catholic faith. That faith has always served me
  in times of crisis more than any claims of philosophers.
        I hope you will enjoy WATCHMAKER. If ever you wish to challenge something in it, or delve
  deeper into some question, don't hesitate to write. I'll do my best to respond to whatever concerns
  you raise.


  Sincerely,

  Fr. David R. Becker.