By Robert Royal

But first a note, Don't miss the new TCT podcast in which Fr. Gerald Murray, Vatican journalist Diane Montagna, and TCT's Robert Royal discuss the recent reactions against the blessing of "same-sex couples" and the prospects that some future pope might see fit to retract the troublesome document 'Fiducia supplicans' that allows them. Now for Robert's column...

Today is "Dante Day," according to someone, somewhere. (It's also - who knows how? - National Napping Day, National Immune System Day, and a dozen other such profane observances now jostling the liturgical calendar.) It's good to honor the greatest Catholic poet, of course, arguably the greatest poet period. We've done our part at TCT: You can click here for our online courses on Dantes Divine Comedy. But today is also the Fourth Monday of Lent, the minor feasts of St. Aengus and St.

Constantine (co-incidentally, the first night of Ramadan), which are of far different and infinitely greater import.

As "everything solid melts into air," as Marx put it, human beings instinctively reach for something stable amid the flux - especially in times like these, when time itself seems to have sped up, and on a bad road. Remembering and seeking to live in continuity with the past is not "backwardism" or "rigidity." It's the sane human recognition that we come from somewhere. And are going somewhere.

Unlike most religious and philosophical systems, Christianity, like Judaism before it, recognizes that God works in history, which is to say, time and space - that time and space are, therefore, fundamentally sacred, not secular. A stumbling block to many because it means that a tiny Middle Eastern tribe - contrary to reasonable expectations - was the temporal vehicle for God's revelations to the world. An absurdity to ancient pagans. And to pagans now.

Despite the historical record - that the Church, God's faithful people, converted the mighty Roman Empire and spread around the entire globe - the reality of sacred history looks nonsensical to many who regard themselves as rational and enlightened. But how else do we explain the spread of the Faith by humble figures - fishermen, tax collectors, tent-makers - which Aquinas suggested may be the greatest of miracles?

Christians today number around 2.4 billion. Muslims, a militant Christian heresy, are close to 2 billion. So over half the world stems from the Jewish source, which still is only a fraction of a percent of the global population. Denying the clear evidence of human attraction to the one true God, the default attitude of many in Western nations, ignores a large part of reality - and truth. And has serious consequences.

The American Catholic novelist Walker Percy speaks of one of the deepest reasons behind our current instability and division over things like family, sex, authority, and hierarchies:

Watch the Jews, their mysterious comings and goings and stayings! The Jews are a sign! When the Jews pull out, the Gentiles begin to act like the crazy Jutes and Celts and Angles and redneck Saxons they are. . .and growing nuttier by the hour. (The Last Gentleman)

Further, "Why does no one find it remarkable that in most world cities today there are Jews but not one single Hittite, even though the Hittites had a great flourishing civilization while the Jews nearby were a weak and obscure people? When one meets a Jew in New York or New Orleans or Paris or Melbourne, it is remarkable that no one considers the event remarkable. . . . if there are Jews here, why are there not Hittites here?. . .Show me one Hittite in New York City." (The Message in the Bottle)

We still, mostly, date events from something that happened long ago in fulfillment of the Jewish Law. But in large swaths of academic and cultural circles, we're moving away even from AD (anno Domini - "in the year of Our Lord") and BC ("before Christ") into the thicket of BCE (before the "Common Era") and CE ("Common Era"). What's "common" about this dating scheme...