The Butterfly Effect

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Last week I was listening to Fr. Mitch Pacwa on EWTN Radio answer a question on his open line show. I am always fascinated with the many questions, and answers, that come up during EWTN’s open line shows. A caller asked Father to explain the two judgments that are believed by Catholics to come when we die, the particular judgment and the general judgment, also called the last judgment.

Father Pacwa explained that the first of the two judgments, the particular judgment comes at the moment of death when it is determined if our soul will go to heaven, hell or purgatory. You remember this from your Catechism. He likened the human soul to clay, which, while we are alive can be molded either by God, by the devil, or even by ourselves. But at the moment of death, the clay is fired and can no longer be changed in any way. The state that our souls are in at death is permanent, which is why we pray for others in purgatory because they can no longer pray for themselves.

The second judgment, the general of last judgment comes “at the end of time.” At that time all of the sins we committed during our lives will have “played out,” if you will, their complete consequences.

We were talking about this the other night at dinner. I mentioned what I had heard Fr. Pacwa say and my college boy likened the ramification of our sins to the Butterfly Effect, a well-known scientific theory that explains why certain phenomenon can not be explained, like weather. The Butterfly Effect allows that a butterfly flapping its wings in South American can cause a tsunami in India, but not directly like in the Domino Effect. One action begets another, and another and indirectly leads to a huge consequence. My sin affects someone or several people who, in turn, act(s) in a way that affects other people, who in turn… you get the picture.

Our conversation turned to Senator Kennedy, since talk of his passing was on every news station. We spoke of how someone with so much power, not just because he was a senator of the United States, but also because his family name afforded him immense control, can result in a tremendous “Butterfly Effect,” for good or for bad. Senator Kennedy’s pro-choice history came up as an example of an action that could cultivate many negative consequences for him, at his last judgment (I said could, not will – I do not stand in judgment of the senator). I mentioned that I had listened to Patrick Madrid on EWTN radio during the day and heard that Senator Kennedy, during his time in office, paid two full-time employees on his staff to work exclusively on pro-choice legislation. And that even though he had once been pro-life, before Roe v. Wade, he was easily one of the biggest movers and shakers in the pro-choice movement in this country. Patrick Madrid, interestingly, mentioned that Kennedy’s change of heart came as the result of a group of Catholic priests, who early on after Roe v. Wade, convinced the Kennedy family that is was fine, in fact good, to be pro-choice.

And so the Butterfly Effect, did not, in fact, start with Senator Kennedy, but with a group of misguided, at the very least, Catholic priests. And the effect on the pro-choice movement was enormous. Not only did the Kennedy family put their power behind it, but other so-called Catholic politicians came out of the closets and put their name behind the movement. You could ask, if Ted Kennedy had not be so successfully Catholic and pro-choice, would Cuomo, and Ferraro, and Pelosi, and Biden, and Sebalius (it seems there is no end to them) all have been so successful in their pro-choice political lives?

And so there will be much playing out of consequences in our lifetime and the lifetime of those who come after us, until “the end of time.”

“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”

I realize that each of us, Senator Kennedy included, have both good and bad to account for at the end of time. Will our good outweigh our bad, or maybe the bad weighs more than the good? We cannot know, until the end of time. It certainly makes you think about each action a little more carefully – the effects of which may be felt for years and years to come.


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