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?

Einstein Proven Wrong !

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;

what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Albert Einstein explored the wonders of God's universe by exploring the properties of light.  His "E=mc2" told us what the speed of light was and his further meditations proved to a reasonable degree of certainty that nothing could exceed the speed that light travels at.  Of course, we know that he was, while not actually wrong, just not one hundred percent right. Why do I, a man with an IQ of about 120 claim that Albert, who never took an IQ test but whose IQ was estimated to be somewhere between 160 and 180 was wrong?  Well, it is simple. Remove the light and what immediately takes its place? Why darkness does! So, all of his calculations, to my way of thinking, are based on the wrong phenomenon.  I say that what he applies to light can be equally applied to the darkness. So, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Albert!

The Gospel reading proclaimed at Mass today tells us that what we hear in the dark, we should proclaim in the light.  We cannot hear about the love of God for us and keep it hidden as a treasure belonging only to ourselves. Once we have the light of Christ in our hearts and in our souls we must enlighten the darkness of the world.  Yes, this will be inconvenient for us because nothing could be simpler than to just take the perfect joy of the knowledge of what God did for us and how He feels about us and for us to keep close to the vest and hidden away from view. To share the Light of Christ with the world will not make us popular because in doing so we are interfering with other people's freedom to choose darkness.  It is our duty to show others that there is another way.  Once a person has been touched by the bright light of Christ, they can no longer, try as they might pretend that the darkness is a good to be in and certainly not a place to live in. 

Albert Einstein was a brilliant man. He fell short in one respect.  He believed in a supreme power,  but not in a God that takes personal care of His people. So I guess that even a man with a huge IQ can be wrong. So, what you hear in the dark, proclaim in the light this week. Jesus is the light of the world. Share Him and let His light shine through you.

 

Save Yourself From The Corruption of This Age !

Peter testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,

"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."

Corruption is all around us.  It has been a constant companion to mankind from the very beginning of time. Corruption happens when a person entrusted with some sort of responsibility that affects other people uses his or her authority to enrich him or herself at the expense of his friends and neighbors. For the one that commits this type of fraud against his neighbor, it is always for some perceived good.  For example, in Chicago, we had an official of the public schools that used her authority to steer contracts to companies that paid her for the use of her office.  This lady had an excuse, it was simply that she wanted to make extra money so her grandchildren could go to college.  Now, grandchildren going to college is an important goal but she should not have placed her goal over the needs of literally thousands of Chicago Public School children who are already dealing with the corrupt politics of Mike Madigan in Springfield Illinois where he is using his political influence to keep the legislators from passing a budget. Corruption breeds corruption.  If it is okay for the likes of Madigan, then it should be okay for others as well.  

Corruption is a sin that is caused by a lack of faith in God to take care of His people.  Corruption always infuses riches into those that practice it and takes it from the coffers of those who need it most. In our reading today, Peter rises and tells us to save ourselves from this corrupt generation. How in heavens name can you do that in a world like ours?  

The first thing that needs to be done is our silence must end.  When we see a wrong we must point it out but we must also be ready to suggest a solution to the issue as well.  

Next, we need to watch and pray.  Our prayers will be answered but we need to be ready to accept the solution God sends to us.  Our cries will be heard and a solution will be offered.

We must be ready to take a risk.  The solutions we receive from our prayers may make us a bit uncomfortable. We must have faith that God knows what He is doing.  We must take the solution and run with it. 

We must be patient and be persevering.  Just because we ask for something once and we do not seem to receive an answer does not mean that an answer is not coming.  We must ask, and ask, and persevere in our prayer.  Our faith will be our rock. 

We must avoid the temptation to just give in and to go with the flow. The enemy may attempt to present a solution that would be great for you but would leave others out in the cold, in effect making you a part of the problem.  We must be selfless in our view and be ready to make a sacrifice for the good of others. 

We must not be afraid of failure. In our pride, we say that "Failure is not an option."  Look at the cross of Christ, if there was ever a monument to failure, that is it and look at what happened because of it, death itself was destroyed and we have inherited eternal life.  What appears to be a failure in our eyes, may just be God saying to wait.  That is hard for us to do, to just wait.  

We must remember that all of the advantages that a person of this world receives because of corruption will decay into corruption when that person is called to give an account of their life to God. 

Our life as a Christian will always be counter-cultural. It is why Christians are laughed at and scorned.  We show the example of what should be done and that gets in the way of what people, without God in their lives, want to do. 

To save ourselves and those we love from the corruption of this age, we need to not engage in it ourselves and we need to put our trust in God.  God has won the victory, we just need to keep the faith and keep ourselves from being drawn into the sin around us. It is easier to sin than it is to pray to be delivered from sin. 

Be filled with joy this Easter season.  God loves you very much.  He has proven it by what He has done and what He continues to do. Have faith even in the face of death that you will be rescued and be brought home to Jesus.