Jas 5:1-6 - Ps 49:14-15ab, 15cd-16, 17-18, 19-20 - Mk 9:41-50
God is very specific and very harsh. When it comes to transgression against Himself, God seems to be more lenient then He is with those who causes the weak to stray and the persecutes the defenseless. Beware though, today the Trinity warns against storing up treasure on Earth. For those who see themselves as weak, must be careful when they see those who were enemies made to suffer.
Suffering in the context of Earth is an Earthly treasure! Who is it that makes your enemies to suffer? Not the loving and merciful Lord of Hosts who gives all men and women every opportunity in this life to repent of their ways. It is the work of the enemy that makes people to suffer for remember always that we are all Christ's on this Earth. After this life there is room to be separate, but while here it cannot be so.
The work of the enemy is always apparent in suffering with one exception. When God wills to work a conversion of heart, and the once wicked truly sees the works they have wrought it does hurt. It is the hurt of healing... It is the pain of cleansing an infection... Not the wailing of despair.
So be weary those who are persecuted! As Christ says better to pluck out your eye and be blind rather then be tempted to revel in seeing the misery of another. Better to be deaf then to hear the wailing of your earthly enemies in suffer and become pridefull that God has justified you. God justifies by love and compassion... Not fire and death. God heals the heart of the earthly enemies so that that might be called in union together with Him.
Pray for your enemies and do good to those who hurt you... Especially if you see that they are getting what you feel they deserve. Lighten their burdens... Console them through their pain... And then maybe God will see you poor in spirit, and maybe then might we begin to earn. Even in the tiniest degree all that the Father has allotted to us.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Poverty
What is poverty? Moreover what is the poverty with which God is concerned? I believe he is concerned with our physical well being only so far as it does not distract us in one direction or the other... Meaning that we do not devote our lives to providing for the physical but also not being so hungry that we can no longer recognize God because our very minds don't have the fuel to make the connection. However rich or poor God is indifferent to the amount of material we collect, but is highly interested in what we do with that material.
For example, the widow who gave the last of her money, Christ was not moved to provide for her but yet allowed her to voluntarily give all of her material resources to God. I believe this was because he was well aware of the strength of her spirit, she was rich in the spirit of God. Yet, Christ lavished vast amounts of compassion and time on the tax collectors who were very rich in material but very poor in the spirit of God.
So I ask now who is the poor in America? Most of the material poor I have met are rich with reserves in spirit for they understand, in heart, the phrase there but for the grace of God go I. Even if they do not attend regular services or prescribe to a particular belief system, I have seen a poor family take in an even poorer individual without hesitation. Yet in my dealings with parishes I have met many who are willing to give from their surplus to charity and devote surplus time to goals they believe to be worth while, but will walk past in judgment one of God's children who is poor in some way, much like the Judge or Priest in the story of the good
Samaritan.
I believe that there is a poverty among the well to do in our society. I believe that there is a great emptiness in the spiritual stomach of a large portion of Americans. Why else do they spend so much time in pursuit of extremes? What people claim as addiction, and make no mistake I understand the implications of chemical and physical addiction, is an attempt to fill the void in the soul. Of course it turns into habit and later serious addiction, but it starts with a "wanting to feel alive." At least that is what I hear from most of the people I have dealt with in addictions. The rest come from an attempt to find solace from one kind of a pain or another. In both cases I submit that they are really seeking God. Why then do they turn to some physical thing instead of to scripture?
It is because of those who in the day of Christ would be the Pharisees and Elders, Christ warned of. It is because of the hypocrites and the falsely pious, that these poor rich people lose their way. These morally righteous, when they teach the supposed law of God, start with the belief in their own superiority, thier own righteousness and call it god. They find some extreme sense of false devotion and call it belief. They take a personal crusade and call it righteousness. It is no wonder that good, and intelligent people can no longer find God, because His holy name has been used in vain to persecute those who sin.
These morally righteous, these pious charlatans, claim that God is the answer to all things. God is the answer to all things, but what they mean is "devotion to God, as I am devoted to Him, is the answer... the goodness I exude because I am so totally devoted to God is the answer." They do not believe in the God of Abraham, the Spirit, the Father and the Son. They believe in their own image of a god, which if it could be seen would look strangely like them. They believe in a god that can be cajoled, whose favor can be won from and his will, subverted to their own.
God, the true God, is not this. The will of the God of all cannot be controlled or stopped. It is unrelenting and ever moving toward His kingdom. We can either move with it or against it.
These self-righteous are truly the least in God's kingdom, and therefore most deserving of our love and compassion. We must learn to love the self-righteous and fill the shallow. We must help them both to know the God of all, the God of love.
We can only do this by following God's law and keeping His commandments. We must treat them as gently and lovingly as we ourselves would want to be treated if we became lost and blind, at all times keeping God first and foremost in our minds. This is what the phrase "God is the answer means." This is what the answer entails. If we do this, no matter how hard it gets then we will find all that we seek. For if we, with the help and grace of God, solve the spiritual poverty problem, then the material poverty will simply cease to be.
For example, the widow who gave the last of her money, Christ was not moved to provide for her but yet allowed her to voluntarily give all of her material resources to God. I believe this was because he was well aware of the strength of her spirit, she was rich in the spirit of God. Yet, Christ lavished vast amounts of compassion and time on the tax collectors who were very rich in material but very poor in the spirit of God.
So I ask now who is the poor in America? Most of the material poor I have met are rich with reserves in spirit for they understand, in heart, the phrase there but for the grace of God go I. Even if they do not attend regular services or prescribe to a particular belief system, I have seen a poor family take in an even poorer individual without hesitation. Yet in my dealings with parishes I have met many who are willing to give from their surplus to charity and devote surplus time to goals they believe to be worth while, but will walk past in judgment one of God's children who is poor in some way, much like the Judge or Priest in the story of the good
Samaritan.
I believe that there is a poverty among the well to do in our society. I believe that there is a great emptiness in the spiritual stomach of a large portion of Americans. Why else do they spend so much time in pursuit of extremes? What people claim as addiction, and make no mistake I understand the implications of chemical and physical addiction, is an attempt to fill the void in the soul. Of course it turns into habit and later serious addiction, but it starts with a "wanting to feel alive." At least that is what I hear from most of the people I have dealt with in addictions. The rest come from an attempt to find solace from one kind of a pain or another. In both cases I submit that they are really seeking God. Why then do they turn to some physical thing instead of to scripture?
It is because of those who in the day of Christ would be the Pharisees and Elders, Christ warned of. It is because of the hypocrites and the falsely pious, that these poor rich people lose their way. These morally righteous, when they teach the supposed law of God, start with the belief in their own superiority, thier own righteousness and call it god. They find some extreme sense of false devotion and call it belief. They take a personal crusade and call it righteousness. It is no wonder that good, and intelligent people can no longer find God, because His holy name has been used in vain to persecute those who sin.
These morally righteous, these pious charlatans, claim that God is the answer to all things. God is the answer to all things, but what they mean is "devotion to God, as I am devoted to Him, is the answer... the goodness I exude because I am so totally devoted to God is the answer." They do not believe in the God of Abraham, the Spirit, the Father and the Son. They believe in their own image of a god, which if it could be seen would look strangely like them. They believe in a god that can be cajoled, whose favor can be won from and his will, subverted to their own.
God, the true God, is not this. The will of the God of all cannot be controlled or stopped. It is unrelenting and ever moving toward His kingdom. We can either move with it or against it.
These self-righteous are truly the least in God's kingdom, and therefore most deserving of our love and compassion. We must learn to love the self-righteous and fill the shallow. We must help them both to know the God of all, the God of love.
We can only do this by following God's law and keeping His commandments. We must treat them as gently and lovingly as we ourselves would want to be treated if we became lost and blind, at all times keeping God first and foremost in our minds. This is what the phrase "God is the answer means." This is what the answer entails. If we do this, no matter how hard it gets then we will find all that we seek. For if we, with the help and grace of God, solve the spiritual poverty problem, then the material poverty will simply cease to be.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Reflections on the Devil and Time
[ Please note that these are just ramblings of an uneducated man and should not in any way be taken to represent official teachings of the Catholic Church. These are merely my reflections. ]
It is, I believe, the voice of the counter influence that tried to tempt Christ away from His path in Gethsemanie, as he had tried in the desert. It was at that point, the point of the anticipation, before Christ's own betrayal, pain, humiliation and death that the case of the opposing side could make it's strongest case to the human God. We believe that Christ was fully human and fully God and both have the ability to choose, yet it is His human side that can be given to fear or taken by passion, or can agonize in a Garden.
The other side of light is cunning, the antithesis not of God but of perhaps the strongest of the angels, Michael to make the metaphor. He has the knowledge and abilities of the angels at his command, just as the archangel "commands" the "armies" of Heaven on God's behalf. He, the darkened angel, lacks however the ultimate knowledge of God, which does not make him as stupid or obvious as he would have us believe.
The "war" has been fought and is already over, in one sense... God won, Christ died. The "gates" of heaven are opened and His "kingdom" is being realized. The moves have been made the board is set, what is undetermined is who fights on what side... Since time "unfolds" we must play out the game and choose up sides. I am not speaking of choosing a religion, there is either movement towards God's will or against it. If we are voluntarily conformed to God's will then we fit and we can "find" our "way" to Gods "kingdom", because "shaped" in the way God's will is "shaped" it is like us and we are like it.
Consider for a moment the goal of the other side... Their goal is a mystery to me. We have to assume that seeing the "face" of God they have some comprehension of God's might, how could they conceivably hope to stand against it. Obviously they could not. If, however, the "dispute" was over God becoming man, and on one side were those who believed in God's will, which includes love of man and those opposed to the idea of God lowering himself and thereby being opposed to God's will then one starts to get a picture of perhaps a purpose...
Suppose time is like a sheet of paper, running from one side to the other. Now suppose you place a dot in the exact center of the paper and fold the paper ( like a flower holding the dot in the center ). All points on the page would now be seen to run towards that one point. Consider too that both factions are not literally, or should I say, linearly bound to time itself. Say that focal point was Christ then all sides would work at the paper as a whole. Then the ideology of the opposing side starts to make sense, the less man conforms to God's will, universally speaking, the harder it becomes on Christ to make it through Gethsemanie. Assuming that Christ had even a glimpse of what the future would hold, he knowingly makes the decision each time the course of events is played out... Say if the multiple universes theory was true and that every decision that could be played out was in all dimensions except that in that one moment Christ in all the universes never once turns aside. Such an event, even if it were only a nanosecond long would be a "hitch" in all things, it would quite literally be the focal point of the universe... And given the relative nature of time what if there is other life and all the other planets are visited by Christ in one form or another at that same relative time, then all histories would be shaped by that same event.
God must pass the trial as material form every time, taking on all the burdens of all the weaknesses of all creation and each of the million billion times, because God must be unchanging, must make the sacrifice each time willingly knowing the shape of history of the rest of the universe, one might conceive that an angel or two might actually believe enough that out of one of those times Christ could be swayed from the ultimate act of altruism that His death was. Especially considering because of God's infinite nature, all of space time itself, would be available to use against Christ in the garden, and the knowledge that He must endure it not once, but on every world in every reality. Then the moral philosophy of the Devil makes some sense. I think about that idea, and the phrase as was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, and I think, what if Christ is in the garden of Gethsemanie for all of existence ( and of course outside of it because He is God eternal as well ).
Of course it is entirely possible that I am too science fiction fantasy minded to really make interesting theological argument.
It is, I believe, the voice of the counter influence that tried to tempt Christ away from His path in Gethsemanie, as he had tried in the desert. It was at that point, the point of the anticipation, before Christ's own betrayal, pain, humiliation and death that the case of the opposing side could make it's strongest case to the human God. We believe that Christ was fully human and fully God and both have the ability to choose, yet it is His human side that can be given to fear or taken by passion, or can agonize in a Garden.
The other side of light is cunning, the antithesis not of God but of perhaps the strongest of the angels, Michael to make the metaphor. He has the knowledge and abilities of the angels at his command, just as the archangel "commands" the "armies" of Heaven on God's behalf. He, the darkened angel, lacks however the ultimate knowledge of God, which does not make him as stupid or obvious as he would have us believe.
The "war" has been fought and is already over, in one sense... God won, Christ died. The "gates" of heaven are opened and His "kingdom" is being realized. The moves have been made the board is set, what is undetermined is who fights on what side... Since time "unfolds" we must play out the game and choose up sides. I am not speaking of choosing a religion, there is either movement towards God's will or against it. If we are voluntarily conformed to God's will then we fit and we can "find" our "way" to Gods "kingdom", because "shaped" in the way God's will is "shaped" it is like us and we are like it.
Consider for a moment the goal of the other side... Their goal is a mystery to me. We have to assume that seeing the "face" of God they have some comprehension of God's might, how could they conceivably hope to stand against it. Obviously they could not. If, however, the "dispute" was over God becoming man, and on one side were those who believed in God's will, which includes love of man and those opposed to the idea of God lowering himself and thereby being opposed to God's will then one starts to get a picture of perhaps a purpose...
Suppose time is like a sheet of paper, running from one side to the other. Now suppose you place a dot in the exact center of the paper and fold the paper ( like a flower holding the dot in the center ). All points on the page would now be seen to run towards that one point. Consider too that both factions are not literally, or should I say, linearly bound to time itself. Say that focal point was Christ then all sides would work at the paper as a whole. Then the ideology of the opposing side starts to make sense, the less man conforms to God's will, universally speaking, the harder it becomes on Christ to make it through Gethsemanie. Assuming that Christ had even a glimpse of what the future would hold, he knowingly makes the decision each time the course of events is played out... Say if the multiple universes theory was true and that every decision that could be played out was in all dimensions except that in that one moment Christ in all the universes never once turns aside. Such an event, even if it were only a nanosecond long would be a "hitch" in all things, it would quite literally be the focal point of the universe... And given the relative nature of time what if there is other life and all the other planets are visited by Christ in one form or another at that same relative time, then all histories would be shaped by that same event.
God must pass the trial as material form every time, taking on all the burdens of all the weaknesses of all creation and each of the million billion times, because God must be unchanging, must make the sacrifice each time willingly knowing the shape of history of the rest of the universe, one might conceive that an angel or two might actually believe enough that out of one of those times Christ could be swayed from the ultimate act of altruism that His death was. Especially considering because of God's infinite nature, all of space time itself, would be available to use against Christ in the garden, and the knowledge that He must endure it not once, but on every world in every reality. Then the moral philosophy of the Devil makes some sense. I think about that idea, and the phrase as was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, and I think, what if Christ is in the garden of Gethsemanie for all of existence ( and of course outside of it because He is God eternal as well ).
Of course it is entirely possible that I am too science fiction fantasy minded to really make interesting theological argument.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Reflective Quote
"[The cause of the deciever] is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do [God's] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."
-- Screwtape Letters, Letter 8, C.S. Lewis
I submit this quote, and suggest it to your memory. This is not a quote of hope or joy, but of determination. The standard it sets is not one of "what God can do for me" but "how can I continue to serve even when all is silent and unyeilding."
It is important not just to read the quotes that give glory and joy to God, but also that acknowledge the sturggle of human existance... and once acknowledged continues to call towards goodness, even when all seems dark and corrupt.
-- Screwtape Letters, Letter 8, C.S. Lewis
I submit this quote, and suggest it to your memory. This is not a quote of hope or joy, but of determination. The standard it sets is not one of "what God can do for me" but "how can I continue to serve even when all is silent and unyeilding."
It is important not just to read the quotes that give glory and joy to God, but also that acknowledge the sturggle of human existance... and once acknowledged continues to call towards goodness, even when all seems dark and corrupt.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Depth
1 Kgs 10:1-10 - Ps 37:5-6, 30-31, 39-40 - Mk 7:14-23
It is not the wealth of the world that defiles, but greed. It is not pornography that defiles, but lust. Yet, we rarely hold ourselves accountable... as if all the alcohol, porn, drugs, guns and money vanished tomorrow sin and vice would go right along with them. We must reclaim our own chastity, our own conformity to Christ and stop crusading. We must learn to love and then maybe we might learn wisdom and peace...
It is not the wealth of the world that defiles, but greed. It is not pornography that defiles, but lust. Yet, we rarely hold ourselves accountable... as if all the alcohol, porn, drugs, guns and money vanished tomorrow sin and vice would go right along with them. We must reclaim our own chastity, our own conformity to Christ and stop crusading. We must learn to love and then maybe we might learn wisdom and peace...
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
The Blindness of Pride
1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30 - Ps 84:3, 4, 5 and 10, 11 - Mk 7:1-13
Today I have achieved perfect sympathy with the Pharisees. It is entirely possible to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. It is entirely possible to strengthen the tendancy of devotional action while all the time straying further from God.
How often do we try to help people in the direction we want them to go instead of the direction God has set for them. We claim it is out of love and compassion for them and believe it, but it is really gratification of ourselves and justification of our own actions we seek. If I did this to find God and I make someone else follow them same path then obviously I was right to do what I did.
A common theme among theologians is that there is no one path to God or His will and that each person must encounter God of their own accord.
Yet, we persist in thinking ourown way is the best. I am no less.
Today I have achieved perfect sympathy with the Pharisees. It is entirely possible to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. It is entirely possible to strengthen the tendancy of devotional action while all the time straying further from God.
How often do we try to help people in the direction we want them to go instead of the direction God has set for them. We claim it is out of love and compassion for them and believe it, but it is really gratification of ourselves and justification of our own actions we seek. If I did this to find God and I make someone else follow them same path then obviously I was right to do what I did.
A common theme among theologians is that there is no one path to God or His will and that each person must encounter God of their own accord.
Yet, we persist in thinking ourown way is the best. I am no less.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Mystery vs. Familiarity
1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13 - Ps 132:6-7, 8-10 - Mk 6:53-56
Where is the dwelling place of Christ? We can he go to find rest? The multitudes come and continue to come and he continues to give, untiring, unceasing to the limits of his human strength and then some. Who brings food for him? Who tries to heal him?
Surley if he is human he must have wounds, would his feet not blister and tire after staying on them all day? Would he at not least be hungry?
Or do we imagine that Christ was not really human and just healed himself whenever he needed? Do we imagine that Christ was only God "playing" at being human? Do we imagine that when the whips of the romans bit his flesh that God magically made him endure more then a man could handle?
Where was Christ's Solomon to build him a magnificant temple? Would Christ have allowed or asked for Solomon to build him a temple? What kind of a temple would Christ have built? Would it have gold and silver and beautiful crystal? Would it have expensive statues and high ceilings? Would it have elaborate sound and lighting systems? Would it look like your own parish? If not, then for whom is your temple built?
Where is the dwelling place of Christ? We can he go to find rest? The multitudes come and continue to come and he continues to give, untiring, unceasing to the limits of his human strength and then some. Who brings food for him? Who tries to heal him?
Surley if he is human he must have wounds, would his feet not blister and tire after staying on them all day? Would he at not least be hungry?
Or do we imagine that Christ was not really human and just healed himself whenever he needed? Do we imagine that Christ was only God "playing" at being human? Do we imagine that when the whips of the romans bit his flesh that God magically made him endure more then a man could handle?
Where was Christ's Solomon to build him a magnificant temple? Would Christ have allowed or asked for Solomon to build him a temple? What kind of a temple would Christ have built? Would it have gold and silver and beautiful crystal? Would it have expensive statues and high ceilings? Would it have elaborate sound and lighting systems? Would it look like your own parish? If not, then for whom is your temple built?
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