Everyone wants to be happy, but depression is at epidemic levels. We’re more connected through technology than ever, but we’re at critical levels of loneliness. Mothers go to abortion clinics to end their babies’ lives and people call it freedom of choice, a gross misunderstanding of both freedom and choice. That same misunderstanding applies to claims of autonomy and choice at the other end of life, with ‘Aid in Dying’ laws promoting assisted suicide now spreading.

We often hear claims that the health care system is broken, the education system is broken, immigration is broken, politics and culture are dysfunctional.

Why? Because the essentials are missing. Before anything can be repaired – cars, computers, watches – we have to know how they work, how they were made, what went wrong and what will make them work again. The same is true for people.

What is the essence of human life and human nature? Religion and transcendence? Conscience and free will? Society and individual actions? Law and justice? Marriage and family? Health and care? Happiness and God?

Throughout 2019 A Closer Look™ has been addressing these questions as posed by both issues of the day and timeless topics in the ongoing series ‘The Essence of Things with Fr. Robert Spitzer’. The series airs every other Wednesday, making for a full and compelling program hour. As a brilliant philosopher, educator, founder and President of the Magis Center, Fr. Spitzer skillfully and keenly applies universal principles to healing the culture in our time. Conversations cover a wide range, including Fr. Spitzer’s unique explanations of Church teaching on challenging topics, including:

Scientific Evidence of an Intelligent Creator
Philosophical Evidence of God
Evidence of the Soul and Heaven
Science, Reason and Faith
The Unseen but Knowable

And the existential questions ‘Where Have We Come From and Where Are We Going?’

The special feature addresses topical issues in current news, such as how an unlimited abortion license defies reason, justice, human rights, and conscience rights; what should be done about the use of stem cells from tissue of aborted babies in government research; the imperative that science must have moral limits; the spread of gender ideologies and the responsibility to help shape moral social policy and publicly engage debates and false ‘narratives’.

Fr. Spitzer explains what life after death means and he cites peer reviewed scientific journal accounts from near death experiences. He instructs listeners how to talk with unbelievers and people who deny the existence of the transcendent or even truth. “Why is evidence important to truth?” he asked during one such conversation. “What’s the point?” He made the message clear: ‘the enemy puts out lies, the evidence for truth is abundant, choice is in front of us, choose life.’

Fr. Spitzer best summarizes the core purpose and focus of the special series on A Closer Look with this fundamental call to the mission of answering key questions of our time: ‘Understand the essence of human life, creation, happiness, suffering, evil, power & faith; call things what they are; bring order to the world.’

Catch up on some recent episodes of ‘The Essence of Things with Fr. Robert Spitzer’ below, and be sure to tune-in to A Closer Look this Wednesday at 6:00 pm ET/3:00 pm PT for the next installment in the series!

The Essence of Human Life
The Essence of Religious Freedom
Evidence of the Soul, Love, and Resurrection
What is Truth?
The Evidence for Truth is Abundant