We don't know what inscriptions Washington's nephew found on the tombs of their early Virginian ancestors. But we do know what Washington's ancestors ultimately put on his Mount Vernon tomb. Should you visit Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon, you will read "I am the resurrection and the Life." (John 11:25), the very first words of the funeral service in the Book of Common Prayer.

Perhaps even atheism versus theism is an example of this principle that an apparent either/or can really be a both/and. For I suspect that the God you insist does not exist is probably a God I also insist does not exist; and perhaps the God I maintain does exist is a God you have never denied.

So nothing can be ours by right, by nature, or by necessity. But one thing is mine by my free choice: the self I give away in love. This is the thing even God cannot do for me. It really is my choice. God can love, but He cannot compel my free love. If it is compelled, it is not free. If it is free, it is not compelled.

God's solution to the problem of evil is his Son Jesus Christ. The Father's love sent his Son to die for us to defeat the power of evil in human nature: that's the heart of the Christian story.

He offers total mercy and forgiveness to all who will accept it by trusting Him and repenting of their sins, but He does not, and cannot, give forgiveness to those who will not receive His gift. Gifts are freely given and freely received. Heaven cannot be forced on a creature with free will.

God loves good men more than bad men, as He loves angels more than men

But God loves men more than angels in intensity, because He became one of us

God loves us more than we love Him.

He came. That is the salient fact, the towering truth, that alone keeps us from putting a bullet through our heads. He came.

Human fathers give human life, animal fathers give animal life, God the Father gives divine life. It's called grace.

When I ask my "Catholic" students what they would say to God if they died tonight and God asked them why He should let them into Heaven, fewer than 5% ever even mention Jesus Christ.

Christ changed every human being he ever met. In fact, He changed history, splitting it open like a coconut and inserting eternity into the split between B.C. and A.D. If anyone claims to have met Him without being changed, he has not met Him at all. When you touch Him, you touch lightning. Socrates is puzzled because he is looking for the burn marks.