Hi, my name is Father Mike Smith and this is Ascension Presents.

So I've noticed something relatively recently, kind of just in our culture.

I guess what I might call it is a culture of offense, where I can't hardly go by one

day and not hear a bunch of people, whether it's in person or online or on the news, talk

about how offended they are.

Like I'm just like that, that offends me and I'm offended by this and you can't say that,

you can't do that, that's offensive.

Which is interesting because maybe that's true, right, that I'm offended or that's offensive.

And it's not awful, right, to notice those things.

But one of the things that I'm noticing is that it's often used as a way to shut down

the conversation.

So we're not going to have a conversation because why?

Because I've already described you as someone who's offensive or that thing as an idea

that's offensive.

We can't have a conversation anymore because you've just laid down your trump card and said,

no, it's done because why?

Because I have this card that says I'm offended.

Now that might be the case.

But as Catholic Christians, we're called to become unoffendable.

I mean, really, when it comes down to it, you and I are called to become unoffendable.

Now we're also called to avoid giving offense.

We're actually called to kindness, we're called to gentleness, we're called to humility,

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