NEW VBLOG AVAILABLE ON YOU TUBE

 I have moved my blog to YouTube under the name of Inspiration By The Slice.  It features meditations, none longer than two minutes on the spiritual life.   Please come and check it out - The Link below will transport you there!  

Link to Inspiration by The Slice

Taking Care of Each Other

First reading
Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6,12-14 ©

He who fears the Lord respects his parents

The Lord honors the father in his children,

  and upholds the rights of a mother over her sons.

Whoever respects his father is atoning for his sins,

  he who honors his mother is like someone amassing a fortune.

Whoever respects his father will be happy with children of his own,

  he shall be heard on the day when he prays.

Long-life comes to him who honors his father,

  he who sets his mother at ease is showing obedience to the Lord.

My son, support your father in his old age,

  do not grieve him during his life.

Even if his mind should fail, show him sympathy,

  do not despise him in your health and strength;

for kindness to a father shall not be forgotten

  but will serve as reparation for your sins.

I remember in my youth that when my grandmother died, my grandfather came to live with us.  There was no question about it, he just did.  That was how it was done back in the 1960s and 1970s.  I believe the concept of family was stronger back then.  I am not saying this because I am a boomer and want to reflect favorably on the good old days.  I just want to point out how things have changed.  

Today, in similar circumstances, many families would start using a web service to find a place for the widowed or widower to live. In a way, this makes sense.  Old people take up our time and we have so much to do, so many places to go to, so many things that eat up our time.  Time is the one thing we never have enough of.

By doing this, we deprive ourselves of learning from the older generation. Our children hear the stories of their grandparent's youth. They won't know how they compare to their ancestors. This is because grandpa or grandma is in a home, out of sight and out of mind.

One of my prized possessions is a cassette tape that I made one day when I was grampa sitting while the rest of the family was on an out to town trip for a few days. It captured the moments between grampa and me talking and me listening to him play the harmonica for me. I will never forget those days, they are very precious to me.

I understand that sometimes there is no choice. The ravages of time can make the care of an aging parent difficult and sometimes professional help is needed. Dementia and Alzheimers take no prisoners and can cause behavior that is dangerous for others and for grandma and grampa themselves.

What the writer in our reading today is telling us that no matter what we need to care for our extended families and that no matter what, respect and love are always to be given to them even if their mind fails.

The Main Problem The Church Has is Francis.

 WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE CHURCH AND WHAT WE PEW-DWELLERS CAN DO ABOUT IT

The problem has a name and it is Pope Francis.  

I admire Pope Francis as a good man, but he is a lousy pope.  I hesitate to say this but I think he is part of the problem.  I do not think he is an abuser but he may have shielded some in his time as priest, bishop, and cardinal. I have no evidence to back up my claim, how could I? I am just one of the pew people and the whole synod thing and the proposed investigations are designed to keep people like me and you in the dark.  The Church has had a long time to learn how do appear to be doing one thing and actually they are doing nothing.  I suspect that Pope Francis has lied to us!  I find it very unlikely that he had no idea about this McCarrick pervert had broken his vows by engaging in sinful, homosexual conduct over a period of years with boys and young adults while he was living in a seminary.  Pope Benedict put this low life on permanent restriction telling him to live the rest of his life in penance and prayer and to refrain from appearing to be an emissary from the Church.  The boy laid low for a while but when Benedict bowed out and Francis came in, this rainbow-colored cardinal was apparently rehabilitated by Pope Francis and set loose upon the world.  Big mistake here Francis.  McCarrick was one of the idiots that brokered the deal between the Church and the atheistic Chinese communists.  The Church does not have a good record when making agreements with nations that are hostile to her. Do you remember the Concordant between the Nazi government and the Church?  Do you remember how well that worked out? Priests were rounded up and sent to concentration camps where many of them died.  With this new deal, the terms of which are being kept a secret from us, pew dwellers, allows the Red government to help appoint bishops.  What a stupid thing to do. Where has it gotten us?  Well, just like the World War II agreement, priests are being rounded up and sent for re-education. Churches are being bulldozed and/or being forcibly being donated to the government.  Yeah, this agreement was dumb.  Francis through his pervert McCarrick gave it all away and have demoralized the Catholics in that nation governed by the spiritually bankrupt mandarins that seek to strengthen their stranglehold on the people.  Good job Francis, first-rate work.

When asked about McCarrick and how this man was able to collect so much power while he was supposed to be under discipline, Francis answered that he was not aware of any problem with McCarrick.  Holy Father, that is a lie and you know it.

The fact is that the inmates are running the asylum. Years of covering up and paying hush money have come home to roost and it is time to pay the piper and he is demanding transparency.  There is too much smoke and mirrors under the reign of Francis and too many careerists that are active, practicing homosexuals.  There is no hope for the Church to police itself.  The long black line will circle the wagons and obscure the truth.

Where did all of this hush money come from? It came from the pockets of pew-dwellers the world over.  Money donated to fund charitable works and mercy were used to buy featherbeds and lubricants and booze and probably drugs as well.

What can we do about it?  Some say that they will leave the Church and go elsewhere.  That is a stupider move than any that McCarrick ever made.  But, I hear you as if there is so much corruption, why should I stay.  I will explain, and please understand that what follows is not my original thoughts, but thoughts of others that are better schooled than I am.

It is our duty to pass the Treasury of Faith to the up and coming generation. If we leave the Church, then this will not be done and there is a possibility that a whole generation will lose the beauty that is the Catholic Church.  The holiness of the Church comes not from the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops, or priests.  It certainly does not come from those that broke with the faith and engaged in Ilegal and illicit actions.  No, the holiness of the Catholic Church comes from the founder of the Church, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Second Person to the Holy Trinity and He promised us that no matter what, His Church would be protected by the Holy Spirit and the gates of hell would not prevail against her.  But what do the gates of hell have to do with sexual perverts in the Church?  Remember, the devil wants to bring as many of us to join him in the lake of fire as he can.  He knows that the end of the world is getting closer and he will use our sins to drag us down to his level.  He has been very successful in his attempt to bring down the Church.  He scripted the fall of many priests who were not loyal to Christ and he arranged for the cover-up and the payments of hush money and then he bided his time and when he thought the time was right, he began the exposure and he sat back and watched as people began to forsake the boat of Peter and jump into the river where they were alone and vulnerable.

So, I am approaching one thousand words or so here so I probably should wind this up.  What are we to do?

1.       First and most important -- DO NOT --  leave the Church

2.     Write to your local ordinary and let him know how you feel and how you hurt. Why write?  It will help the Church management see that what they do has an effect on those of us in the pew.

3.     Demand transparency – no more secret deals.  As part of this, begin adhering to the deal with China in the same manner that they do, ignore it and do what is best for the Church.

4.    Pray for Pope Francis that he gets off of his duff and starts cleaning the house.  Pray that he learns that he has more important things on his plate than changing the wording of the Our Father or prohibiting us from using Yahweh in worship songs.

5.     Say the Rosary EVERY DAY.  Our Blessed Mother will help.

6.    Keep watch and if you have children involved in Church activities, keep the lines of communication open.  Let them know that you love them deeply and they would not be in trouble if they reported that someone, even a priest or deacon, had said or done something that made them feel anxious or uncomfortable.

7.     If your young one reports something, you MUST take it seriously and report it to the authorities and only then to the Church so that an investigation can be made.

8.     It is important that you get the police involved even if the accused has been a gentle, kindly, gracious priest as far as you can see. We cannot trust the Church to police itself.  The management team has proven itself incapable of doing this. 

9.    Get involved with the Church in some way and keep your eyes and hears open.  Your instincts may prove to be true.  Make it known that you are watching.

Pentecost Sunday

You Are So Small...Putting Things In Perspective

IN MEMORY OF A FALLEN HERO - Memorial Day 2019

A Guide to Heaven

Second reading
Apocalypse 21:10-14,22-23 ©

He showed me the holy city coming down out of heaven

In the spirit, the angel took me to the top of an enormous high mountain and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven. It had all the radiant glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond. The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

  I saw that there was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple, and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.

Where is heaven?

This is a good question.  My answer is simple, I don't know.  Is heaven a "place" in the classical sense in that it occupies space somewhere "out there?"  Well, you can answer that in two ways.  First of all, it is the abode of souls, a multitude of millions of them. Souls, of course, have no physical substance to them.  They, therefore, would require no physical world to house them.  A soul is the inner essence of a person and we are told that we will recognize each other in heaven and that it will be a place of perfect happiness and joy.  On the other hand, heaven is also the home of the Risen Jesus and His Mother, Mary who both have bodies that have been glorified by God. You might make a case that they are exceptions because of their special place in salvation history.  But then you are faced with Elijah who, while still a holy man and a prophet, went to heaven in a fiery chariot.  While he is an important prophet, his importance does not reach as high as that of Jesus and Mary.  So, he too is in heaven with a physical body if we are to believe the scripture. I believe that our heaven, the home God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is a real place where you can either have a physical body or be a spirit.  The location of this place is beyond our understanding. I believe it is outside of our universe, inaccessible to us because we live in the universe where time moves forward at a constant speed and the citizens of heaven dwell outside of time.  While in our universe it is forever expanding and is subject to the passing of time. 

How do you get into heaven? 

Our residency in heaven is assured and is a free gift because Jesus died for our sins.  To enter heaven one just needs to be owned by Jesus.  We must bear his mark on our soul.  This begins with the Sacrament of Baptism.  This Sacrament wipes away original sin and brings us into the household of God.  We are then to live our lives as servants to one another.  We are to love others as Jesus loved us.  He loved us to death, His death upon a Roman cross. We are to become whole people, that is, holy. 

So, Everyone goes to heaven then? 

No, unfortunately, that is not the case.  After Baptism has wiped away original sin and you become old enough to understand good from evil, it is possible for you to squander your inheritance and declare God as your enemy by living a life that places your will and your rules above God's.  God loves you so much that He will allow you to do your will over His.  He will, of course, try to win you back.  You have to come back of your own volition, He will do nothing to force you.  Some of the evil you do will cause consequences in this life but they are because of the natural world we live in.  For example, if you murder someone, you may get the death penalty which is a consequence of your actions.  People who consistently follow their own will and desire God to be out of their life will have their wish granted to them and after death will make hell their abode. 

Also, not every "good" Christian goes directly to heaven.  We may have some minor sins that we did not confess and did not make amends for.  Or, we may have some attitudes that would cause discord in heaven. For example: 

I found out in first grade that you stole my pencil when I was not looking. I loved that pencil, it had a red lead on one side and a black lead on the other.  My grandma gave it to me and I always thought about her when I used it.  You stole it.  When you were on your deathbed and I came to visit and comfort you, you confessed to what you had done.  I became very, very, angry at you even though I did not say anything.  Shortly after this, you died.  I lived a few more years and then I said good-bye to this world and passed away.  Let us assume I arrived in heaven and saw you.  Immediately, anger boiled up inside of my soul and discord and hate arrived for the first time in heaven.  This cannot be.  Heaven is a place of eternal happiness and peace.  With the hate, I was carrying around for you because of what you had done to me on earth, I was not fit for heaven.  Yet, it was a small matter and I was not damned to hell for it.  What would become of me?  I would choose to go to purgatory, a place that God has provided for us to get rid of those things that keep us from heaven. 

Purgatory? Didn't the death of Jesus remit all sin?

Why, yes it did. Guilt for the sin was is not the point of purgatory. Purgatory is there to purge the underlying cause of the sin.  In the case of me and stolen pencil, I would be in purgatory to purge the hate from my soul so that when I got to heaven I would be a whole person or a holy one.  Purgatory also is the place where you satisfy the demands of justice for the sins you committed.  For example, you stole, well, you would either make amends on earth while you were alive or in purgatory.  Evil and God do not mix.  Heaven will admit no sinful person. But God is a God of mercy and He will do what is best for His children, applying discipline as needed as a good father will but His discipline will be applied and be tempered with mercy. 

Imagine, if you will, that you were getting married in the afternoon.  In the morning of your wedding, you go and play a game of football with your friends.  The field is wet and muddy and you are tackled several times and are quite dirty.  Would you go to your wedding before you had a chance to take a shower and just perhaps put on some clean clothes?  Well, purgatory is just that sort of a place.  You are readying yourself to see God as He is.  You do not want to do it in dirty attire. 

What about those in hell, can they repent? 

St Teresa once said, "Hell could be emptied with one tear of sorrow."  This means that the people in hell want to be there, they want to be away from God, they do not have any desire to share eternity with Him.  To repent from the evil of their lives would be abhorrent to them.  They curse God and blame Him for all of their woes.  Every corrupt thing, every curse, every evil ever committed are memorialized on the walls of hell.  Each person is known by their own particular sin and the punishment they receive is appropriate to the crime.  Some say that they would choose hell because that is where all of their friends are.  Well, there is no friendship in hell, only hate, bitterness, regret, and thoughts of revenge against God and His followers.  Your "friends" will be too busy hating and lusting after violence to be talking over old times with you.  The fact is, they will despise you and do what they can to make you more miserable.  There are no friends in hell.