Lent Day Nineteen - A Ha-boob , A Lady, And a camel

Gospel	Luke 1:26-38 ©

'I am the handmaid of the Lord'

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

We were lucky today.  Before dawn today a great wind came up and one of the things even seasoned desert travelers fear came up a sandstorm!  My first thought was of Benjamin, I rose and began to dress quickly so I could do something to help the camel that I was in charge of.  I was just getting ready to leave when Uriah, our leader, stopped me and asked where I thought I was going.  I told him that I was going to help Benjamin and find a safe place for him to weather the storm.  Uriah almost died laughing when he heard this.  He said. "You idiot, the camel is happier than you are right now.  If we had to we could load up and march on.  The camel is perfectly adapted to whatever this cursed desert can throw at him.  His hooves are large so he has no trouble walking in the soft sand and his eyes are protected by his eyelashes.  If you go out there, you will take the chance of breathing in the sand into your lungs and perhaps somewhere down the line get an infection.  No, sit and meditate and enjoy this brief respite.  It will be over soon and I will be all over you to get that stinking camel loaded so we can make up the time we are wasting because of this ha-boob, which is a word that means sandstorm."  He walked away still laughing over my ignorance.  It gave me pause though to think about how the camel received everything he could need from God to live in the space allotted to him.  He was perfectly adapted.  

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation when God sent the Angel Gabriel to a young girl named Mary and with her consent, the Savior was sent on His way to become a man and to save us from our sins.  

May Mary, the Mother of God forgive me, but she like the camel is perfectly adapted to her role in the story of salvation.  She, by a favor granted by God, was born without original sin. This was a necessary thing that God did because the mother of God could have no connection with evil, not even the stain of original sin.  So, while we were drawn out of the pit of sin by the work of Jesus, God, drawing on the benefits of the sacrificial death of Jesus beforehand, He caused Mary to be carried over the pit of sin that the rest of us all fell into.  So God saved Mary and was her needed savior. 

While the winds were howling I broke out my Bible and read the account of the Annunciation.  I was struck by one phrase and that was "Hail Mary, full of grace."  The angel did not bring a supply of grace to Mary, he recognized that her soul was filled with it.  When something is filled, you cannot fit in anymore.  The angel Gabriel simply was greeting the woman and saying what was in his view. 

How do we know that Mary was full of grace?  That is simple, she was humble and selfless and immediately took on the work that God had asked her to do. She could have refused without any consequences what-so-ever but she didn't because her whole heart was turned to God and refusing God anything would not be something she would want to do.  She was, like the camel, forgive me gentle mother, adapted to her role.  

Today, I believe her to be physically in heaven and always beside her Son.  I pity those who take little notice of her because they miss the opportunity to receive graces from Jesus through her.  Jesus loves His mother so much that He cannot refuse her anything.  For her part, her eyes are on the hands of her master, her Son, and the spiritual mother of us all. 

The haboob came to an end and Uriah was as good as his word. He was all over us to get the camp struck and us on the move.  I could imagine John Wayne playing his part if this were a movie because one of his favorite sayings in the morning was, "Let's get a move on.  We're burning daylight."  And so I put my back into breaking camp and loading the camels, breakfast will happen at lunchtime today.  Another day which would pass like so many others.  Funny, isn't it?  I now have a greater love for the Blessed Mother because of a camel named Benjamin. 

Sunday Edition - The Synod and Cardinal Pell

SUNDAY EDITION IS PUBLISHED WHEN I FEEL LIKE PUBLISHING IT.
IT EXPRESSES MY OPINIONS ABOUT THE GOINGS ON IN THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO AGREE OR DISAGREE BUT DO SO IN A RESPECTFUL MANNER.

Texts from the third day of the Vatican summit on child protection emphasized transparency, including:

-- The church must be transparent and open in facing the sexual abuse crisis, and the first step in true transparency is to admit wrongdoing and how it was dealt with, says Sister Veronica Openibo, congregational leader of the Holy Name Sisters.

Sister Veronica hits the bullseye with what she says. For too long the management of the Church has lost sight of what their job is.  Their job is not to "protect the church or her reputation" for that job is the job of the Holy Spirit.  However, words are just words and I should know because I am a wordsmith and can manipulate words to emphasize any point of view.  The words our bishops and cardinals speak now have to be followed up with action.  This action must be taken without regard to the rank of the perpetrator.  If they thought so little of their vows that they abused another vulnerable human being, well, then they must be rendered harmless and they must never be allowed into a position of trust in the Church again.  We do not see much action right now, hopefully, the hand wringing and rhetoric will now stop and the scandal can be addressed with action.  What do you say, Pope Francis?

-- German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising says counteracting sinful behavior requires traceability and transparency within the church.

Really Eminence?  I can see why you are in the position that you are.  You have a great grasp of the obvious.  Could you do me a favor and perhaps mention this to the Holy Father when you see him next?  He does not seem to have a clue at how to move on this issue. 

-- If bishops are really serious about fighting clerical sex abuse, they must join forces with journalists, says Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki.

This would be a good idea but for one fact.  The journalists from all media have a bias against the Catholic Church.  Sexual abuse, as bad as it is in the Church is only the tip of the iceberg.  Sexual abuse is a symptom of the miasma we find ourselves in.  Little bit by little bit over the years our respect for life and for one another has sunk to new lows.  We do not see ourselves as children of God but just as interchangeable pawns in the game of life.  This is exacerbated by the press, TV, and all other forms of news sources who no longer just report the news but wordsmith the news to point to a value that they want to push.  The point they want to push is usually the one that sells more papers or gains more viewers and generally, these are positions that are opposite of what the Church teaches and that is what makes it popular.  In America beating up the Catholic Church is second only to baseball as a national pastime. 

-- "Too often we have kept quiet, looked the other way, avoided conflicts" and been "too smug" to confront the "dark sides of our church," Archbishop Philip Naameh of Tamale, Ghana, tells fellow bishops.

Let the confronting begin!  When a person has cancer develop in their body, in order for them to regain their health the cancer must be, in some way, be removed.  The process of removing cancer can be painful and can cause scars but in the end, the person who has been cured lives a longer life and actually has more appreciation for the act of breathing in and breathing out while walking, talking and thinking.  

For our Church, the time for surgery has arrived and we must excise the corrupted parts of our Church and we must cut deep and cut true.  We have to be fair, we have to make sure that there is credible evidence against a malefactor but once it is proven the process should proceed immediately and the perpetrator should be laicized without delay so that the harm that this person has done is cut off and healing can thus begin. 

PELL DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE ACCORDING TO THE JURY AND BILOCATES 

• Twenty Alibi Witnesses showing that reported abuse was impossible ignored by the jury.
• Anti-Catholic bias suspected major factor in conviction because of Pell refusing communion to gay activists, also he was a major supporter of Right to Life - both offenses angered non-christian people. 

EDITORIAL

What is the Church? One answer might be that it is the Pope and the Cardinals, the Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Nuns, Sisters, Brothers and the people in the pews. This answer is not satisfactory.  The Church consists of all of these people but all of these people form the People of God.  No matter what title that they might have, no matter how much power they think they have, no matter whose ear they have, none of us are any greater than God.  The Church is His.  It does not belong to the clergy or even the pew-dwellers. it is His. 

Today we are facing (again) a scandal that will not go away.  Common ordinary Catholics are starting to look outside the Catholic Church and running away to receive their spiritual nourishment.  Without a doubt, each of them will be welcomed with open arms by any Protestant denomination that they fall victim to.  There they will receive the word that the Church, the Bride of Christ is nothing more than the Whore of Babylon.  It is a sad fact that some will actually believe this and turn away from the True Church and accept something less than they are entitled to.  They will become Christians of the Book and begin to believe in strange doctrines such as sola scriptura - where if it is not in the Bible, it has no place in your faith life.  Sadly Sola Scriptura is not found in the Bible.  They might be taught that once they accept Jesus as personal Lord and Savior that they cannot lose that salvation. They will also be taught that works are not needed in spite of the fact that in the Gospel of Mark we are told that the goats who did nothing went to one place and the sheep that took care of their brothers went another.  They will also be taught that the letter of James doesn't really mean what it says.  Four times a year they will participate in a memorial of the last supper, crackers and grape juice will be distributed and the remnants will be fed to the birds because after all, they are just crackers. 

Pray for those who are suffering because of the small percentage of renegade clergy that has sullied the name of the Roman Catholic Church.  Remember as well that our Church enjoys the fullness of the Treasury of Faith and that includes the greatest gift we have ever received, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 

 

Unity - The Only Road Leads to Rome

Be united in your love     Philippians 2:1-4

If our life in Christ means anything to you if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself so that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead.

Let me begin by stating up-front that I am not trying to be the Catholic Gestapo, forcing people against their will to return to the Catholic Faith.  I respect our Protestant brothers and sisters and I know that many of them are much further along the spiritual trail than I am.  I know that they love the Lord Jesus and have given over their lives to Him and that they practice that commitment every day.  The mainline Protestants set good examples as to what a Christian should be in many respects.  The one charism that they cannot demonstrate, however, is that of unity.  In the sixteenth century, an unbalanced monk went off in a new direction and created a church built in his own likeness and trashing things that made the faith united.  From that day, the Church would never be the same.  For, if you could split once because you disagreed with some principle that your local preacher was committed to, well then you could split again so that your view, in your church, took precedence and your world was once again in synch with what you thought and taught.  The man in the third pew, however, has many problems with your interpretation and knows for a fact that he is right and you are wrong.  Since you won't come around to his way of thinking, he splits and creates for himself a church in his own image.  We could carry this on for quite a while if we wanted to, at least thirty-thousand times which is how many denominations of Christianity there are.

We pray for Christian unity but it is unlikely to come until Jesus does return and sets everything straight. There is only one direction that a return to Christian Unity can take and that is for the Protestants to come back home to Rome and accept the authority of the Church that Jesus founded and which bears the four charisms of the true church and that is that the Catholic Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.  It is the Apostolic charism that most Protestants have trouble with.  First, they believe that the Bible is the sole source for all Christian doctrine. At first blush, this seems like a wonderful way to make sure that what you believe is what Christ intended.  But it falls apart rather quickly when you realize that it is the freedom to interpret that has caused the Church to splinter into so many groups.  If every man can interpret the Bible himself, well then every man is his own authority.   Personal interpretation of the Bible leads to division because one person's interpretation is just as good as another's interpretation because they only have to answer to themselves.  

The Church depends on Scripture, all Catholic teaching can be found in the Bible.  If you look to the right, there is a paper you can view that shows where the teachings can be found.  Now, the Church also has teachings that are not written in the Bible.  These are the what we call the Sacred Traditions.  Please note these are not traditions like having turkey on Thanksgiving or a tree at Christmas time or having a family reunion on the second week of August.  Those are all human traditions.  Sacred Tradition, on the other hand, is the passing of our beliefs from one generation to the next.  It is rather ironic that one of the Sacred Traditions is the Holy Bible.   From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 

"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church, the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority." Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes." "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer." -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 77-78

So, how does all this affect Christian Unity?  Well, the Catholic Church occupies the high ground.  It is she that bears the imprint of her founder, Jesus Christ.  While some would say that we could become one again if we just engaged in some give and take, in compromise.  Well, there is the rub.  The Catholic Church has maintained her doctrine unchanged and her interpretations of the Biblical truth is the same today as it was in the sixteenth century.  Protestants, on the other hand, have changed and changed and changed again and again so that with the exception of Christ, there are differences that the Protestant man or woman would not want to give up in the name of unity.  Even if one denomination gave up one of their differences, there are thousands of others that would tell the Church to go peddle fish. 

What would you have the Church give up in the name of Christian unity?  Should we strip our churches of the Crucifix in favor of the Cross?  Should we tone down our belief in what the Holy Eucharist is, namely, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ and make it nothing more than a simple memorial using saltines and grape juice?  Should we give up the Pope and institute a committee approach to church government where every man has a vote?  Should we soften our stance on abortion or homosexuality?  No, I do not see any of these things happening and these are the sorts of things that other denominations believe and allow and the Church could never compromise her teachings in the name of Christian unity.

So, it is unlikely that we will see a mass return to Rome by many of the Protestant denominations because in order for that to happen, the notion of private interpretation would have to go and they would have to submit to the authority of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and that would be impossible for them to do.  

The one hope we do have in this impossible situation is that what is impossible for man is possible for God.  So, Catholics and Protestants alike should pray for unity and God may one day move His hand. 

"Call no one on earth your father"

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,

"The scribes and the Pharisees

have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,

but do not follow their example.

For they preach but they do not practice.

They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry

and lay them on people's shoulders,

but they will not lift a finger to move them.

All their works are performed to be seen.

They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,

greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'

As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'

You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.

Call no one on earth your father;

you have but one Father in heaven.

Do not be called 'Master';

you have but one master, the Christ.

The greatest among you must be your servant.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;

but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Some evangelical, fundamentalist, Bible thumping Christians find in Matthew 25 1-12 proof positive that the Catholic Church has gone off the deep end because they call their preachers "father."  It appears when you read the passage that they are correct, but are they?  

If I said "yes" to my rhetorical question, that would end the discussion right here and this would be my shortest blog entry ever.  Sorry, the evangelicals are not correct. But, does it not say in plain English to not call anyone on earth your father?  It most certainly does say that. But, Jesus is using hyperbole or exaggeration to make a point.  The point He is making is not prohibiting the title of father, otherwise, what do you call the husband of your mother?  

In order to understand this passage of scripture you really have to read it from the beginning and see what Jesus is actually telling us.  He tells us the Scribes and the Pharisees make up rules that they themselves do not keep.  It is for this reason, that He says to not call anyone Rabbi which is another word for teacher.  When it comes to the word father, we have to call no man father who does not deserve that title. 

In the Bible itself, there are instances where the word father is used by personages such as Paul.  For example, we have this passage: 

 "I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel" 

(1 Cor. 4:14–15).  (*)

And we hear from Peter, the prime minister of the Kingdom who does not have any problem assuming the role of a father:

 "She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark" (1 Pet. 5:13). (*)

We also hear from the Apostle John: 

John said, "My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1); "No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth" (3 John 4). In fact, John also addresses men in his congregations as "fathers" (1 John 2:13–14). (*) 

So we can see that the Apostles themselves were not against being spiritual fathers.  The New Testament has other examples from the mouth of Jesus where he refers to "Father Abraham."  So, it is not with the title Father that we should have trouble but we should be wise in who we bestow the mantle of the office upon.  

This is another example of what our evangelical friends miss when they hold to a strict reading of the words of the Bible without taking into account the context of the passage and how the people of that time would have interpreted the story. If we take the Bible and interpret everything according to how we think, act, and learn now we are going to make mistakes.  

For me, I will take the interpretation of these passages from my Fathers in faith in the Catholic Church.  The body that kept the Bible pure is the organization that is fit to translate it.  If we don't trust the Church and begin to interpret the Bible ourselves, we could end up with thirty thousand Christian denominations...oh, wait, we do have that! 

 

Change

As Moses came down from Mount Sinai

with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands,

he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant

while he conversed with the LORD

One thing that I can say for sure is that an encounter with God will change a person in ways that may or may not be visible to those around us.  Sometimes the change can be a big one.  For example, look at Paul.  He encountered Christ and went from hating and persecuting Christians to becoming one of the greatest teachers in church history. For most of us, our encounters bring on small changes.  We encounter God while reading the Bible and perhaps we start to allow ourselves to treat other people in a more loving manner. In order for these changes to occur, we have to be open to them.  Remember, Paul was turned towards God even while he was persecuting the Church.  Had he not already been attuned to God, chances are he would have ended up as just another blind man begging on the side of the road to Damascus.

So, open your hearts to God and make the changes He leads you to make.

It is our duty to help those in need.  There is no one needier than the Poor Souls in Purgatory, please pray for them today.

Quite an Eye Full

"But blessed are your eyes, because they see, 

and your ears, because they hear. 

Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people

longed to see what you see but did not see it,

and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

I never thought about this before.  Sharing the earth with me are seven and a half billion people.  That is certainly a lot of people. Of that number, I can count myself as one of the fortunate ones because I have heard and have accepted the wild tale of God coming to earth, taking on our mortal bodies, working a sun up to sundown job which He learned from his foster father.  Then, after thirty years of coming to know what being a human was like he began to teach about the Kingdom of God, which angered the people in power who could not see the forest for the trees, and they hung this God come to earth on a tree and left Him there to experience the pain of death, which, like any other human, He did. Then He did something that no one could conceive of, He rose from the dead.  I am one of the blessed because I have heard and I believe these truths.

I am really happy that I am one of the chosen ones. But then again, everyone on earth is a chosen one, it is just that they have to first hear the Good News and then they have to believe the Good News. In this modern age, there are so many opportunities for the pagan (Come on now, that's what they are, I don't mean it as an insult.) can hear about Jesus and the wonderful work He did so many years ago that has changed the ultimate fate of believers.  He opened the Gate of Heaven and has readied the feast. It is just too bad that the vast majority of people on this world do not look at life through the lens of eternity.  They fix their eyes on what is and not what can be.  They rise daily, work for eight or more hours, eat, then sleep and then do it again and again and again buying this and that with their money and not storing anything away for eternity. 

So, my eyes are blessed and one of the things I have to do is to help my brothers and sisters to see, to look at the long picture, to store up things for eternity.  This is the New Evangelization, funny, it's just how the old evangelization worked too. 

THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY NEED YOUR HELP.  PLEASE, TAKE A MOMENT NOW AND PRAY FOR THEM.  THEY CANNOT HELP THEMSELVES, THEY DEPEND ON US.  WON'T YOU HELP TODAY?

Jesus 102 - THe Gospel of John

For many Christians, this beloved passage from John is where they get their first taste of Christianity.  John the Apostle was the last of the apostles to be called home to heaven.  His Gospel is different than that of the other three evangelists. I believe that his Gospel is Jesus 102.  By this, I mean that the Book of John has to be read after you have a familiarity with the Synoptic Gospels. I do not mean that it does not stand on its own, it does.  I mean that its lessons are better understood after reading Matthew, Mark, and Luke and becoming conversant in the story of Jesus.  For example, you would not tell a new Christian to begin his journey with Christ by reading Revelation, would you? The symbolism would be beyond what they could understand. 

A reader could spend the rest of his or her life studying the Gospel of John and daily come up with fresh ideas to inspire their life.  The one chapter that gets the least amount of attention is John Chapter Six.  Protestant preachers just do not know what to make of this chapter that discusses in great detail Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. 

I've never understood why people who read Genisis and claim that the world was created in six days because it says so, do not believe that Jesus meant what He said about eating his Body and drinking His Blood.  Reading John 6 leaves no doubt as what the intent of Jesus was at the Last Supper when he took bread into His sacred hands and He blessed it and broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, "This is my Body."  He then took the cup filled with wine and passed it to them saying "This is my Blood."  He then said, "Do this in memory of me."  The word "this" refers to the action Jesus had just completed, changing the ordinary bread and wine into His Body and Blood.  The apostles were to do this over and over again. This was to be how Jesus would remain with His people through all generations until He returned at the end of time. 

It is in the Body and Blood that God demonstration how much He really loved his errant children on earth.  Not only would His Son take upon himself all of the sins of the world, but He would make Himself available to all of His people in the Eucharist.  To take the Eucharist is to absorb the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus into your body. In a most intimate way, Jesus is physically present in you!  It is difficult to understand why Jesus would choose to do this except that He loves us without end and it is his fondest desire to do this for us. 

May Jesus be adored, praised, and loved, in all of the tabernacles in the whole world and especially when He is with me as I receive him in the Bread and Wine at the table of the Lord.  Amen.  

It's good to be a Catholic! 

Star Stuff and the Round-About at Bernards Star...

This week I have been watching some YouTube videos dealing with space and the incredible data that has been collected by the Hubble Telescope. What I have heard and observed this week has convinced me that we do not always see things in the reality that they reside in without the help of a powerful lens. Take for example our picture today. It shows part of the sky as seen by the Hubble Telescope.  The brightest points are all within our galaxy, the Milky Way. They are the objects in this photo that are closest to us and the word close is a tiny bit on the inaccurate side because the light from these stars may have begun the journey to our eyes hundreds of years ago.  What we see in this photograph is not what any of the stars or galaxies look like today, no, using the Hubble lens, we are seeing what they looked like hundreds, thousands, or even billions of years ago.  The scientists can peer further and further back into the past almost to the point where they can see the hand of God putting a match to the fuse on the concentrated ball of matter that was the center of the Big Bang.  As strange as it seems, scientists are more and more becoming more and more convinced about how intelligently the universe has been designed.  The calculations made by these scientists show that if the Big Bang had lasted a nanosecond more, or if there was just a little bit more or less matter at the time of the explosion, the universe would not have formed.  The odds of all of these random factors lining up just perfectly are, excuse the pun, astronomical! 

 Our home, the Milky Way Galaxy contains about four hundred billion stars.  You and I live, love, and die on a blue marble near our sun which is about twenty-seven thousand light years from the galactic core. We are in the Orion arm of the galaxy.  As impressive as that may be, our illustration to the left shows dozens upon dozens of galaxies of all sizes out there.  All of them at distances that make making a visit to them quite impossible for us to contemplate.  While all this is breathtaking, it makes us "bags of mostly water" as a creature on Star Trek once called humans feel a bit puny and quite non-essential to the bigger picture. The Big Bang was instituted by God with YOU in mind.  His calculations from the very beginning included you in them.  Every calculation was perfect and over the eons, our earth was formed, life began, and soon man walked the earth, subduing it and mastering it as God tells us to do in Genesis. When the time was right, you were conceived in the furnace of passion and in about nine months you began your sojourn through space and time. 

God went through a lot of trouble to create you.  Everything had to be in place for you to arrive and He saw to it. In Genesis, when God was finished with all of the work he was doing, he looked it over and saw that it was "very good." What we forget is that God, who lives outside of space and time, saw each of us, and he pronounced us as "very good" too.  This is an important concept because it validates the life of every person who ever lived as being from God and destined to return to God. So, on those days, and all of us have them when the boss is cranky, the baby is crying, the bill collectors are calling, take the time to remind yourself how very important and precious you are to God.  He made only one of you and there will be no Mark II model, you are it. You have been created out of star stuff and placed in this universe to do a job that no one else can do.  For heaven's sake, do it! 

Going On A Journey

This summer, in the middle of July, I am planning to go on a trip to a place I've always wanted to go to, Arizona.  I am very excited about the trip and I am already planning what I am going to bring along with me.  I am going to pack my goose down jacket, a heavy sweater, a pair of gloves, a warm hat with fur ear flaps, snow boots, and of course a bunch of those chemical hand warming packs. I am going to need my bowling ball, a dozen dead batteries, a paper cup with a hole in the bottom of it and a fistful of pens that don't write.  With all of these things, I will be ready for my trip. I can hardly wait to go! What do you mean that the stuff I am going to take is not appropriate or useful for the journey? Oh, I know it is hot in Arizona in July but these are my favorite things, the things I feel comfortable with, I want to take them all with me!  

Okay, so I am not really going to Arizona this July and I certainly would not be taking that ridiculous list of things with me if I were going there in one of the hottest months of the year. The point I am trying to make is that very often when it comes to packing for our heavenly journey, we pack the wrong things. 

Our life is a journey from the day of our birth to the day of our death.  Along the way, we pick up things to sustain us on the journey.  Some of the things we choose to carry are things that will help us while other things will most definitely hinder us.  Most of us plan more carefully for our retirement, an event that may last twenty years or so but we fail to plan carefully for our journey to heaven which will last forever.  

The problem all of us face is how to determine what to bring with us.  First of all, we have to consider the amount of luggage space we will have.  For the sake of argument, I quantify that space as the size of your heart. So, immediately we have a problem.  That is not a whole lot of space so we will have to fill it carefully.  If we place prejudice in our heart, there will be no room for love.  If we attempt to place a bit of retribution in, the forgiveness won't fit. Stuff in some anger and the joy will have to be left out for want of room.  You see where this is going I assume. 

Sometimes, the secular world can give us a hint about the eternal world.  The song The Gambler by Kenny Rogers is an example of this.  In the song, the gambler states, "Every gambler knows, that the secret to surviving is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep."  This is true for us in the spiritual realm and is probably more important for us because a gambler is vying for something that will soon crumble into dust.  We, on the other hand, are looking for things that will be useful for the journey to our eternal destination. 

We need to be very selective in what we pack. The things we put in our suitcase should be able to pass one test.  Does the item help or hinder us in following the instructions of Jesus "to love one another as I loved you?"  The wonderful thing about our spiritual suitcase is that it will expand to accommodate all of the things that will help us.  So, this week, as you go through the mundane tasks of your life, tend to your packing for your eternal journey by placing a lot of joy, peace, and love into your suitcase by looking for ways to serve others even in the smallest of ways.  Mother Teresa gives us a hint on how to do this; Do small things with great love. 

What Do You Think?

Goodness Gracious it is good to be a Catholic!  Why?  Well, I am glad that you asked.  It is because I am Catholic I do not have to really think about the following stumpers. 

1. If Sola Scriptura is really true, please show me where it is taught in the Bible.  Search high and low, through the Old Testament, through the New Testament, and you will not find it mentioned.  So, Sola Scriptura is not scriptural. As a Catholic, we know that God's truth is found both in the Bible and in Sacred Tradition. I can depend as a Catholic, that my Church will not teach error. 

2. If the message of the Bible is so simple that anyone can read it and interpret the truth it contains on their own because the Holy Spirit will guide them, then why don't all of the Protestant denominations believe the same things?  As a Catholic, I can depend on my Church to tell me exactly what a particular passage means and how to incorporate it into my life.  The Church bases her teaching on Sacred Tradition of which the Bible is part of, plus all of the truths that have been passed down through the ages, especially from the Church Fathers who lived in the early centuries of the Church. 

3. Protestants of an earlier generation recognized abortion as the murder of innocent life.  Today, many of the denominations fight for the right for a mother to murder her unborn child.  This change in belief usually comes from a synod where the matter is voted upon and the side with fifty point one percent of the votes wins and thus truth is changed by a simple majority. How very democratic.  Catholics have not forgotten that the Kingdom of God is just that, a kingdom. We have no right to change the truths taught by Christ, as it is His Church and his Kingdom.  As a Catholic, I can depend on the fact that our doctrines have not changed, that they are the same things that we have believed from the beginning.  The Holy Spirit protects the Catholic Church and keeps its teachings pure. 

4.  I find the belief of "once saved, always saved" a curious belief at best when you extrapolate what that means as far as it can go. For example, let's say one day I decided to be saved. I have an evangelical friend who leads me through the "sinner's prayer" and I accept Jesus into my heart as personal Lord and Savior. He tells me that is all I need to do to secure a place in heaven, I am saved. He tells me that my place in eternity, real estate bought by the blood of Jesus on Calvary is mine forever.  My name has been inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life, never to be effaced.    I smile and thank him.  I then ask him if I can continue to go to the Catholic Church?  He says, "Oh no, you have to quit the Catholic Church and go to my Church of What's Happening Now."  So, I tell him that actually being saved is not actually enough. I need to be saved AND I need to go to his church. I go one more step, I ask, "What if I rob a bank and kill the teller, will I still get into heaven even if I was not sorry for it and did not repent of it?"  He tells me that I have to repent, so now to get into heaven I have to; accept Jesus, Quit the Catholic Church and join a Protestant church, and finally, I have to repent. If I miss even one of these steps, I guess my name would be erased from the Lamb's Book of Life. It would seem that once saved always saved does not quite work out. This doctrine fails to take into account God's justice. Of course, once saved, always saved is put to rest by Jesus Himself. We can see how he views this teaching if we read this in the Bible in the tale of the sheep and the goats in Matthew Chapter 25.

I am not pointing these things out because I think that only Catholics go to heaven.  The people born into other denominations are NOT guilty of the sin of schism.  That sin was committed by the so-called reformers who broke the unity that Christ wanted for us as stated at the Last Supper.  The people born into other denominations are guiltless of the sin of separation. They are brothers and sisters in the Lord, they are just not in full communion with the Catholic Church, the church that Christ established on earth. Many of them love the Lord and follow His teachings in their everyday life.  God will not turn them away.  

The Mercy of God is for Everyone.  For me, I prefer to live the way of a Catholic.  As they say on EWTN, the Catholic Cable Channel,  Live Truth, Live Catholic! 

Tuesday of Holy Week - Betrayal

Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,

"Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."

I don't think that there is anything more painful to the human heart than an act of betrayal.  What makes betrayal so painful is that it is an act of a friend.  A person who does not know you cannot betray you. We all have been the victim of betrayal in our lives.  When I was a seventh grader, my friend Dennis and I went over to McKinley Park, a beautiful place when I was a kid, it was filled with bicycle paths, playgrounds, and a lagoon that you could actually catch fish at. This, of course, was in warm weather.  My friend and I were going to the park on a day when only fools and idiots were out of doors as it was very cold. We had a purpose in mind.  The cold snap would have frozen the lagoon solid and we wanted to take some time to explore the three islands that were on this man-made lake.  And so we did.  It turned out that these three little islands were nothing very special, a fact which we took note of and started to use the ice for its native purpose, sliding.  All in all, it was a lot of fun for a couple young boys on a cold and blustery Chicago winter weekend.  At one end of the park was the "inlet" that kept the water fresh.  The inlet was not a spring, it was a pipe that poured fresh Lake Michigan water into the lagoon to prevent it from becoming a stinking swamp in the summer months.  We gravitated towards this pipe because even though it was freezing cold, there were six feet of liquid water surrounding the pipe.  We got to the edge of the ice and my friend pointed at something and I bent low to see what it was.  The next thing I knew I was under the water. The icy water made me gasp and I was out air quickly.  God was with me at that moment because I did not panic and thrash about so I stayed near the hole.  I remember seeing the ice from the bottom with the weak sunlight lighting it up.  I struggled and pushed myself up and my friend's arm pulled me out and deposited me on the ice like a walrus.  I began immediately to shiver. My friend found it all hilarious and called me a clumsy oaf.  My lips were blue and I knew I could not walk the two miles back to my home but luckily my Uncle John lived not too far from the park.  My friend said he had to go home and turned and left me shivering and freezing to death on the ice.  I trudged off the ice and walked to my uncle's house which, luckily, was only two blocks away. My uncle provided me with warm clothes and hot chocolate and called his brother to come and pick me up.  Later, I learned that my friend, Dennis, was bragging and laughing about how foolish I looked after he pushed me into the lagoon.  That was the first time in my life I felt betrayed and it hurt. It hurt badly.  If you think back, I am sure that you will remember a time when a friend turned on you.  How did it feel? 

Judas Iscariot was a friend of Jesus. He was one of the twelve picked to be His special friends, His Apostles.  These would be the men He entrusted his kingdom, his Church on earth to.  Judas was an important Apostle. He had charge of the money.  He saw to needed purchases and made sure that the charity people offered were put to good use.  He may have also kept a bit for himself, at least there were suspicions that he did so but Jesus did nothing when it was brought to His attention.  This emboldened Judas and he began to think that if he could get away with stealing from the common purse, then how could Jesus be the Messiah, the Son of God?  Judas could see the writing on the wall.  He could tell that the Pharisees were baiting Jesus and were just waiting for him to make a single wrong step. If Jesus were to be arrested, so would anyone close to him unless that person had a special relationship with the high priest.  Judas decided to sell Jesus to His enemies.  Of course, once Jesus was arrested he could keep the common purse because it was money belonging to a criminal.  Inwardly, Judas was delighted with his plan.  Outwardly he continued to pretend that he was a faithful follower of Jesus.  When the time came, he received all that he had hoped for. He got the donations, he got thirty pieces of silver, the cost of an unskilled slave, and he was immune from prosecution because he had turned Jesus in.  In the end, he realized his betrayal cost him a lot more than he had received.  He could have asked Jesus for forgiveness and he would be forgiven.  Instead, he gave in to despair and committed suicide.

We all like to think that had we been around in the time of Jesus we would have been faithful followers of Christ. Back then, being a Christian brought with it dangers of death. Would we have become martyrs for our faith of would we have offered incense to the emperor's statue? 

Today, in America, we do not risk death for being a follower of Christ. But are we afraid to show we are Christians?  The America we live in is hostile to Christian ways. We can lose friends and esteem if we point out things that are wrong.  But if we fail to do this we are just like Judas in that we are trying to make friends with those who are in power who may hate Jesus and His Church. We cannot choose to be an undercover Christian. To do so would be a betrayal that would make Judas's betrayal seem mild in comparison. 

As we approach the end of our Lenten journey, let us look at where we have missed the mark, where we have sinned.  Forgiveness is just one reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation away.  If you haven't been to it in years, so what?  Tell the priest and he will help you along.  Our sins are betrayals of the One that loves us. We can ignore them and sign on to follow the world or we can face them, confess them, and receive forgiveness.  We can be Judas who betrayed and died or we can be Peter who betrayed and lived.  The choice is up to us. 

Astrology, Fortune Telling, Psychic Readings - Trouble Predicted

Maybe it is a sign of the times we are living in.  I have noticed in my town, right on the corner of my block actually, a psychic reader has hung up her shingle (actually a neon sign) offering psychic readings to all who want them. I know it is a sign of my age that I remember a Dragnet episode where they bust a fortune teller who schemes to steal her customer's money by telling her that it is cursed and must be burned.  The victim seemingly goes to the bank and pulls out all her money. She brings a wad of cash back to the fortune teller. The so-called fortune teller puts it in a bag and after having the lady herself sealing it, she promises that all of the victim's troubles would soon over as the flames burned the curse trapped in the tainted money.  Well, the bag burns and once it is all ashes the victim stands up and says that she feels better. Into the parlor steps, our hero's and they greet the policewoman whose money had been burned.  They find the bag with the real money hidden on the fortune teller and they cart her off to jail for theft by deception.  

That is what is wrong with the world of psychic readings, fortune tellers, and astrology.  It is all a scheme to separate you from your money,  The whole kit and kaboodle are built on a platform of straw that even a teaspoon full of logic show how weak the whole structure is. But if it was just money that was involved I would be tempted to say that those that want to give their money away should be allowed to give it to charlatans if that is what makes them happy.  But much more is involved than money.  What is involved here is your immortal soul. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (CCC 2116)

The practices of these dark arts are deeply sinful as they are a violation of the first commandment where we are to worship God alone. All occult practices are tools of the devil and should be avoided at all costs. 

Let's take a look at just one practice that is considered to be harmless fun by many people.  This is the practice of Astrology.  In the ancient world, the pagans believed that the stars were gods. The gods were in control of life through Fate. They believed that their Fate could be discerned by reading the stars.  It is from these pagan pioneers that came our (false) belief in astrology. Logic destroys the power of astrology. First, the stars are so far away that there is no way their "power" could reach us.  Second, even though the astrological chart divides the sky into twelve lovely, equal slices, the fact is that some of the constellations take up more room in the sky and there is no way you can have twelve equal slices.  This throws off the calculations that the fortune tellers make.  Secondly, the stars of the zodiac are visible in the northern hemisphere only.  Even if the stars could influence our world, there is a whole other half of the earth that are outside of their boundaries.  The whole system is a bunch of dingo's kidneys.

Okay, since astrology is bogus, has no real effect on life, what is the harm in reading my daily horoscope?  Let me ask you a question.  Would you pet a cobra? Would you put your head in a crocodile's mouth? Would you cut yourself and pour pure mercury into the wound?  Of course, you would not do any of these things.  When you read your horoscope or have your fortune told, or get a physic reading, or attempt to talk to the dead through a medium, you are doing all of these things at the peril of your soul.  The devil is real and the devil looks for ways to get inside the armor we have built through our spiritual life. He cannot get in unless you open the door for him and engaging in occult practices, even innocent sounding ones such as reading your daily horoscope can open the door to the devil. (Cobra petting anyone?)

The other forms of the occult are no less dangerous and belief in astrology can lead a person deeper into practices best left alone.  Our desire to be in control was born in the Garden of Eden and the rise of the occult and New Age practices is directly connected to our parent's actions on that day.  We have a loving Father in God. He is the creator and the One who set all things in motion.  The actions of the stars as they seemingly move in the universe are regulated by Him.  Put your faith in Him and avoid opening the door of your soul to the evil one. Astrology and all types of divination, talking to the dead, fortune telling are all human inventions,  Trust in God and He will never disappoint you.  

   

Creation in 7 Days or Evolution - Why Not Both?

On one side of the aisle, we have the people who believe that God created the world in seven days while on the other side we have those who believe in evolution.  Those that believe in creationism believe because the story is written down in the Bible for us. Those that believe in evolution have their story showing in the very rocks we walk on.  Who is right and who is wrong? 

I do not think that how this world came into being is something where one can be right or wrong. Both beliefs have points that are well taken and both beliefs culminate in the same point in time, the arrival of mankind on the earth. 

What we are dealing with here is cause and effect, or rather, the ultimate cause and effect. In the creation story featuring Adam and Eve, the cause is easy to see, God created light and created everything from that point including all plants and animals, fish of the sea, creeping things and as His crowning achievement, He created man in His own image. 

In the story of evolution, we are still dealing with cause and effect, or rather, once again, the ultimate cause and effect.  Science has proven that the universe as we know it started with a big bang, an explosion that sent matter to all of the ends of the universe.  The matter in some cases became stars while in other places the matter formed into planets that orbited the stars. In one particular place in the universe, on a rather small planet covered with liquid water, life formed in the primal ooze. Years passed and simple forms of life became more complex and eventually, mankind appeared and took charge of the earth.  Creationists are horrified that this story is believed by anyone. It seemingly removes God from the equation, making Him unnecessary. Nothing could be further from the truth. God is the ultimate source of life and it was he who created the big bang.  I've always thought of the big bang as God creating light.  After all, in Genisis, we are told that everything was a formless waste.  God, in instituting the big bang created light and began the process of creating life.  That was the first day of creation. The Psalms tell us that for God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day, which is one way of saying that for God a day can be a long time as humans measure time. So for God, a day or even seven of them could be millions of years as our clocks tick away hours.  

As a Catholic, I am free to believe either of the scenarios.  I choose to believe both of them.  I know for certain that God in his love for us set the entire universe into motion. I believe that he is the Ultimate Cause in the universe.  I believe He is a loving Father who always does what is best for His children. How he created the universe and our world is not so important.  What is important is that he did so.