Fill in the blank

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blank 3Most faiths believe that there is one God that created the entire universe – seen and unseen.

Hold on to that thought for a moment.  Because, when it comes to most things, there are precious few on which most of us can agree.   But here it is: Billions of inhabitants on this planet, at this time, believe there is one God and that He created everything.  To reduce it even more generically, we agree that there is a single source point of spirit, energy and will that is singularly responsible for creation.  You may call your God by a different name, but there is still only one, regardless of how many names He/She is called.  That is the reality.  After that it starts to go in all sorts of directions – depending on your ancestral /cultural faith.  And so the saying: One God but many faiths.

We would then have to agree that this one God is also quite infinite.  Infinitely existing, infinitely powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely present, infinitely loving, and so on.  You get it- right? Omni-everything.  On our own little planet we then see quite clearly that this limitless God is also infinitely diverse, responsible for literally millions of different forms of life – past and present. (There are 20,000 different species of butterflies alone!)  God is obviously all in favor of diversity – diversity to the point of borderline chaos to any other mind but His.

If one way God is presented to us is via the infinite variety of life on this planet, and we indeed are created in the image of The God ‘of Diversity’, why is it so difficult for us (in all the diversification that we are) to accept that we are all His divine creations, every single one of us, none better or worse than the other when created?  Our diversity is in fact what makes us so special to God.  Yet we use it at times as a tool to divide and separate us from each other and ultimately from the One that created us…

So where am I going here?  You tell me.  I would normally try to wrap this up in something that I had recently learned or saw or read or heard…but what would that teach me?  So if you are so inclined, finish the thought in your own head.  Or if even further inclined share it with the rest of us:  What makes us humans regularly ignore our common heritage as God’s beloved children and think that promise is just for  some special ‘us’?  (Whatever your particular ‘us’ may be.)

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For Mom

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Mom_4631After a very full life of almost 94 years our mom passed away on September 8.  It was a life like many others, filled with good health, love, family and for the most part, happiness.  It also had its share of sorrows, and heartache, and despair.  It was, in the most fundamental ways, a life well lived.

Nothing else but death has the ability to make us pause and take stock of so many things: memories, beliefs, relationships, our past present and future.  The death of a loved one reminds us of our own human frailty and limited time here on earth.  It may hasten us to make that list, make that call, or make that promise.  And as such, I have learned that no passing is ever in vain.

Now, there is usually a time in our lives when we think that there is nothing else that our parents can teach us.  We become arrogant and believe that we know better.  I have been guilty of this.  There were many years that I refused to seek out my mother’s advice because I was convinced that her wisdom was outdated or too simple.  She became the last person from whom I would ask financial guidance, or seek out any parenting advice, though she (with our father’s help) managed to raise five children on a fixed income with no debt.  It’s just amazing to me how blind our own pride can make us to the things we need the most.

There is one lesson, thank God, that I am able to take from Mom even in her death.  It is the most valuable lesson I can learn and comes at a time when I need it the most.  Our mother has demonstrated, with great strength, her faith in God.  And, although a good life, it was seasoned with opportunities for that strength to weaken and even break.  She was married to a man who, while a loving husband and father, became separated from the church and had his own doubts about God.  As a result, we were not baptized as children and never went to church.  For the sake of her love for her husband and family, Mom practiced her faith inwardly for many years, and worked that faith in the background, ever faithful to her patron, the Virgin Mary.

When our brother became ill and suffered for two years before passing away, she never cursed her God for the heartbreak of losing a child.  She continued to raise up prayers, even to her last days, for the repose of her son’s soul.  And when her health began to fail and her wishes to die in the home in which she had lived in for 68 years faded away, she remained ever true to her baptismal promise to love and serve the Lord.  In a fallen world where we learn to trust our physical senses supremely, where does such strength of faith come from?  It comes from the source of all of our spiritual strength here on earth, the Holy Spirit, working through Jesus Christ and our fellow believers.  For me, it started off weak, needing evidence and signs.  But through years of prayer, studying scripture and now this marvelous demonstration of faith from my mother, it has become strong.

With each earthly suffering there is a challenge to our faith.  Each test becomes an opportunity to seek out God through His Spirit to guide us gently into our Saviors arms.  It is our choice to respond to these challenges as demonstrated by the great influences in our lives, to pay them the honor of maintaining their legacy of faith and thank them for setting the foundation upon which we can build our own faith.  Thanks, Mom.

Generation Termination

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8 week babyWe recently moved outside of our parish.  We love that parish – St Pat’s in Scottsdale.  We moved knowing that we would remain connected to it one way or another for the rest of our lives.  But God has plans for each of us that go beyond what we think may be best.  We moved into another parish – Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) in Tempe – also a good parish.  I say ‘good’ because after attending a couple of services I can see already that the pastor and church members are engaged in the community – local and global – and that is what I believe church is for.

Now as most know, Planned Parenthood (PP) has been in the news lately (Google it if necessary).  And as most also know, the Catholic Church and most other Christian churches are no friends of Planned Parenthood.  In essence, the parties stand on the opposite sides of the abortion issue.  I won’t get into the details here, and like anything else, you should educate yourself fully before you take sides.  I wrote a post a couple of years ago where I explained that I had found myself on the wrong side of the issue when I was younger and that my position has changed dramatically.   Click here if you want to read it:  https://holyfolk.com/thou-shalt-not-kill/ 

Back to church:  So, I recently left a service at OLMC with a bulletin in my hand and in it was a very impassioned letter on the subject by the pastor including statements like, “Don’t buy the lie that PP is in business for anything other than abortion.”  There was also a call to join a protest at the local PP offices in Tempe this Saturday (today).  Protest?  Really?  You mean we are going to actually publicly express our outrage?  Wow!  I think I might like it here!  Now, this protest was part of a nationwide effort to urge the defunding of PP and the turnout was pretty good for a Saturday morning in Tempe with the temps in the high ‘90s, maybe 500-700 people.  I went mostly out of curiosity to see who would show.  Shame on me!  I should have gone out with the same kind of outrage that most of the protesters went.  Like the 22 year old young man that spoke eloquently in the heat about how some 20% of his generation were missing due to abortion.  Whether the number is accurate or not, (And what number would you think is acceptable?)  it underscored the fact that the numbers are huge.  Conservatively, estimates of 55,000,000 lives have been ended since Roe v. Wade, and that is in the US alone.  This student also conjectured that maybe one of those lives would have been instrumental in discovering the cure for cancer.  Ironically, the PP also uses the ‘cure for cancer’ card to support some of the group’s activities that have come to light this month.

Either way you stand on this matter you cannot deny where God stands.  Ancient history clearly indicates that for centuries, there were Middle Eastern followers of the god Baal that routinely sacrificed their infants to this god.  One of these civilizations lived in Canaan – the land that God promised to the early Israelite nation.  God uses the Israelites as his tool to destroy these people who had sunken so low they were beyond reconciliation:

“But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods…” (Duet 12:29-31)

So if the only thing that separates our civilization from that of the worshipers of Baal is whether the infant sacrificed is in the womb or outside, or how long the infant has germinated, how far have we really developed in 4,000 years?  How is it possible that with all of the presumed development in healthcare, technology, social justice and ‘morality’ that this is even an issue anymore?  How have we not been able to take all of the very same resources used in ending these lives, and redirect them into a more reasonable and sensible way to address unwanted pregnancies, including those that are the result of rape or incest?  Why isn’t the full focus of our nation turned to finding a cure for a ‘disease’ that has conservatively killed over 55 million of its citizens since 1979 alone?  Think about that for a while and it starts to spark some outrage and maybe some action and maybe some change.  With the countless millions of childless couples praying for a baby how is it that we can’t figure this out?  Why isn’t PP the world’s largest adoption agency?

There was a time not too long ago where we burned people alive because we thought they were witches.  I am afraid that our future generations will look back on this one and shake their heads in disbelief when they recount the loss of a generation of unborn children because of our choice to worship at the altar of convenience.  God help us all.

 

 

Replace the ‘I’ with a ‘J’

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WWJD1Anyone that knows me pretty well knows that I am a “What Would Jesus Do?” kind of guy.  I have always looked for rules of thumb, short-cuts and those little ‘cheats’ to help me whether I was in school or in the office.  I was always pretty good in math because I would be able to see how one calculation or formula worked and repeat the process.  I may not have thoroughly got the total underlying concept, but I had a good memory at the time and that helped immensely.  I am also a bit of a parrot when it comes to songs, so some stuff sticks in my head – again mostly numbers or events.  Like most, these particular skills tend to fade with time.  And here I remain searching even harder for that trick that will trigger the thought or memory that I know I will need sometime down the line.

So, once I started to understand who Jesus Christ is, what He has done, and what He has asked me to do, it became clear what the journey to our salvation really was:  To become more like Christ every day.   For me, it has become the reconciliation between what I would do and what Jesus would do, in every case, situation or circumstance.  To conform my way of thinking to what Jesus would be considering any time I had a decision to make of any consequence.  Changing, What I Would Do to What Jesus Would Do.  (WWID to WWJD.)  Forsaking the ‘I’ for the ‘J’ is what I have determined as my test to see if I am on track.  St. Paul talks about it (of course) in his letters (Ephesians 4:20-24)

20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Again, not easy to do, but it is easy to remember and that may be half the battle, remembering what I should be doing instead of what I want to do.  And, if I forget everything I was ever taught about the history of Christian salvation, but can still ‘put on the garment of Jesus Christ’, I’ll be OK.  That’s my little cheat, the answer written on my palm, but in this case it is the $1.49 purple cotton band I wear around my wrist:  WWJD?

JEE-zuss Kryst

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imagesUrban Dictionary is a website where you can see or create new words, phrases and definitions mostly pop culture type of stuff.  For instance, today’s top phrase is ‘body by Mattel’ defined as a ‘female that is more plastic than human’.  So, it is a place where people can express their creativity as word-smiths.  The site also allows visitors to provide their own definitions for commonly used words, usually with some sort of twist, be it witty, clever, sometimes dark or sometimes opinionated.  One example is a definition for the word ‘gravity’ which I submitted when it came to me one day a few years back:  ‘an omnipresent force with extraordinary power that no one can see, but exists without doubt to those who place their faith in it every day – just like God.’  Of course, like everything else on-line you get to vote thumbs up or thumbs down on the definition, and from what I can tell the definitions are ranked based upon the highest ratio of approvals to rejections.

This led me one day to provide a definition for ‘Jesus Christ’.  It was right after a bible study class about the time when Jesus asks His disciples ‘Who do people say that I am?’  (Matt 16:13…)  Here Jesus, Himself, is asking for a definition of who He is.  Well, besides the brilliance of the question, I thought that it was a good opening for me to basically plagiarize Peter’s response when Christ puts the question to him to this exchange:

“But what about you?”  (Jesus) asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus replied, “Good for you, Simon, son of John!  For this truth did not come to you from any human being (or Urban Dictionary), but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven.”

I thought that it was the definitive answer and expected a 100% approval rating!  Maybe not as funny as the top definition** at the time (and still), but nonetheless it was irrefutable considering that God Himself had inspired Peter’s answer.  Since then, though, I have also learned that Jesus Christ has different meanings to different people at different times in their lives.  Sure He is the Son of God, but what does that really mean to our limited minds?  And, is this really how we experience Christ once we have accepted Him as the Son of God?  Is this really the relationship that God meant for us to have with His Son – Jesus up there in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father?  Seems a bit intimidating.  Rather, I am now seeing that in the context of what we can understand, Jesus Christ is:  unconditional love, or peace, or comfort, or rabbi, teacher, friend, brother, confidant, strength, savior, soul mate, hero, sacrifice, eternity…So I guess the point here is, what does Jesus Christ mean to you?  And watch how the definition changes based on your needs.

**Jesus Christ:  The name Bill Cosby thought was his when growing up. He thought his brother’s name was “God Dammit”.   According to Cosby’s classic stand-up routine, his father would always yell at him and his brother. Something like: “Jesus Christ, it’s raining, get in here. God Dammit, you get in here too.”

But then one day he was playing in the yard alone and his father called him: “God Dammit, quit making such a racket!” Bill just stood there looking around for his brother. “God Dammit didn’t you hear me?” yelled his father to which Bill replied, “But dad, I’m Jesus Christ!”

Curse the sin and not the sinner

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CarterLast week former President Jimmy Carter made a few statements regarding gay marriage.  “I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else…I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage,” he said. “That’s just my own personal opinion.“

Because it is his opinion, he is certainly entitled to it.  However, I am of the opinion that our former President missed an opportunity to really inform about the love of Christ and exactly how God our Father loves His children.  As Christians we are taught to hate the sin and not the sinner.  This is thankfully the way God sees it.  We are all sinners in one way or another, and though God hates our sin, He nonetheless loves us without discrimination.  Jesus’ mission includes lessons to not judge nor exclude, but to love the sinner, as He loves us, knowing that it is by this unconditional love we are all ultimately brought into God’s grace.

Now, the bible is very clear that homosexuality is a sin, and among the 613 commandments of the Old Testament.  And unlike, man-made laws which come in and out of fashion, God’s laws are eternal.   There are several versus that leave no doubt from what I can tell.

Leviticus 18:22, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”1

Leviticus 20:13, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them.”

And St. Paul does spend some time on the matter in his letters to the early Christian churches:

 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10  nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Romans 1:26-28, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.”

So this is where Mr. Carter veers from the path of righteousness in my opinion.  As a Jew and rabbi (and Son of God), Jesus certainly would be very familiar with the OT teachings on the matter.  And although there is no doubt that Jesus loves and would forgive those that practice homosexuality, like any other sinner, including those that nailed Him to the cross, He would not condone the act.  Jesus is always quick to remind us of our sin, but equally so in His forgiveness and desire for reconciliation.  By basically telling the gay community that it is OK by Jesus, in his opinion, for gays to marry, Mr. Carter does more harm than good.  First, he propagates the activity and uses his notoriety to endorse the sinful behavior.  Secondly, he further impairs the view of the gay community that does not see anything wrong in this type of conduct.  So our gay brothers and sisters see no harm, do not see the need to repent, and actually condemn those that may not agree with their ‘choice’.  This is the really bad part – for it moves them farther away from where they need to be – in God’s presence.  They remain lost, as do all sinners that fail to acknowledge their sins and fail to ask for forgiveness.

God had an opportunity to create the world and mankind in any way that He chose.  After all He is God, the Creator.  He chose to create both a man and a woman.  He could have easily created a single sex race capable of procreation, but through His infinite wisdom He knew that the complimentary characteristics and co-dependency of the two sexes was critical in fulfilling each of us.  He knows exactly what it takes for us to become truly fulfilled as human creatures and gay relationship is not it.  Just like adulterous relationship is not it, or prideful acts of arrogance is not it, nor is lying, cheating or stealing.

I am disappointed in Mr. Carter, as an influential celebrity, but more so as a Christian.  Any opportunity to promote the teachings of Christ is one of our obligations.  To express the joy and love of Christ to each and every other person regardless of their personal choices is a requirement.  We must love as God loves us – unconditionally.  However, we can certainly do this without the need to justify or in Mr. Carter’s case, support the sinner in their sin.

(Update July 20, 2021 – I’m not sure I would write this in the same voice I used in 2015. It’s was a bit heavy handy to quote scripture to condemn . Noone is free from sin. No one. So who am I to do so? I am definitely in no position to judge anyone. My focus should have remained on the lost opportunity for President Carter to speak about sin in general and how none of us are free from it or its consequences – separation from God. In addition, that none of us are lost once we acknowledge God’s Grace and ask for His help in keeping aligned with His will for our lives.)

Give it to me straight, Mother.

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Mother AngelicaIt is thought by many that once we stand in the presence of God all of the universe’s mysteries will be revealed simultaneously and we will become fully aware of the who, how, what, when and where of God’s will and purpose.  That should be an interesting day!  Imagine finally understanding the ‘God’s honest truth’ about creation, our reason for being and a peek into the mind of God.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending how you look at it) we need to pass on from this life to the next to get the 4-1-1 on that bit of news.  Now, it’s not like we have nothing right now that we can use to get a glimpse of what was, is and is to be.  God has provided sacred scripture, the prophets and saints and the universe itself to help us do a little imaginative preview of this massive knowledge dump to come.  Since we are presently creatures that are limited to the five physical senses and eons of natural and cultural ‘common sense’ we learn based on taking what we experience and what we are told (by sources we put our trust in) what we hold as the truth.  To borrow from C.S Lewis: We may have never been to Siberia, but we ‘know’ that Siberia exists because we may have seen pictures, or had one or more trusted sources tell us that it does.  We placed our ‘faith’ in the veracity of that source.  The very same ‘logic’ applies to our faith formation.  Whether we be the most ardent of atheists or one of Christ’s 12 disciples our knowledge of God is most likely developed by what we have been told, or read or seen in our everyday lives.  My point here is that we must choose our sources carefully.  For unless we do have some sort of miraculous vision or visitation from one of our Lord’s holy messengers, where we place our faith for this most important decision is going to stick with us for a very long time.

Now, this isn’t the first time that I have argued the importance of ‘doing the research’ and checking the facts.  I’m of the opinion that most Americans do more research in purchasing a car or big screen TV that they do on their faith based beliefs.  This is sad, because once you do vet the sources and get into the details it can be quite comforting to know that the most important thing in your life rests on solid ground.  Now on the other hand, there is a lot of misinformation out there that has kept millions of people from fully embracing their personal relationship with God. For instance, take the canon of Grace.  Many otherwise staunch believers pull up short from a total commitment because they believe that they may have done something, or will do something that makes them ‘unworthy’ of that relationship.  They believe that God’s Grace is meant only for a special few.  This is the product of perpetuating our own human mantra of ‘you get what you deserve’.  But I strongly implore you all to do the research and dig into God’s Grace because it will change your life.  You will find that through God’s grace we truly DO NOT get what we deserve. So again, make sure that your sources are bible based because that is the only true source of God’s intentions.

The other day I was flipping around the dial (remember when TVs had dials?) I came across a re-broadcast of the Mother Angelica Show. Not sure of the real name but basically this older catholic mother superior takes calls and questions from the audience about the catholic faith and does her best at answering them with some very straight talk and at times a little sarcasm and humor.  (Now she’s someone that I would like to have dinner with.)  The question was, ‘How can God be love, but also be a jealous God as it is stated in Exodus 20:4-5, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…”

Mother Angelica went on to explain that God is not jealous the way we are (of course!).  When we are jealous it is normally because we want something that someone else has.  God on the other hand, as our loving Father, is ‘jealous’ for what we will miss if we make other creatures, things, or our selves more important than Him.  (I use quotations because there are often some nuances lost in translation when you are talking about scripture.)  He is ‘jealous’ when He considers what one of his children loses when they turn away from Him – the life that they could have.  He is jealous, not for anything that we may have – God needs nothing and does not desire anything but our love.  He is jealous for what could have been – like a parent when they see the full potential of their child misdirected or lost.  He knows us and how He created us.  He knows that we cannot be fulfilled with anything but what He provides – He is ‘jealous’ for our fulfillment.  Now as a parent I can get that.

So you see, it is important to get the facts, but it is absolutely critical to get the facts from the experts on the subject matter.  Thanks Mother Angelica.  (BTW – Mother is still alive at age 92.)

Be comforted

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Jesus comfortingOur greatest fear is death…for the mostly obvious reasons.  But, I am learning that as you get older the fear shifts from fear for yourself to concern about those that you are leaving behind.  We worry about them being sad or lonely or mourning.   But thankfully we Christians are also familiar with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes.  One particular blessing speaks to this in a way I just now figured out with the passing of a dear family member.

Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the mourners for they will be comforted’. I always wondered about that because I have lost a brother and have seen my mother lose a child.  I am pretty sure that my mother has not received true comfort from any of the heartfelt condolences offered, as sweet and well intended as they were.  And then, how is it possible to bring comfort to someone that has lost a spouse?  What could anyone say to comfort me in that situation?  Then it struck me – I’m a Christian!  The knowledge that I am saved, and that it is God’s will that all be saved.  That gives me comfort – the only comfort that lasts.  Spending eternity together with God and the rest of His children including those that may have already passed from this world is the definition of comfort I am now seeing.

Of course, any separation is horrible.  But what is the only real comfort we have when we are separated from a loved one, regardless for how long?  Only the knowledge of reunion is consolation.  Just the realization of seeing again those departed brings the joy of that expectation.  This is the good news – this is what Jesus meant – it is the promise of the Kingdom of God that brings ‘true’ comfort to the mourners.  None of us were made for this world, but our eternity will be spent in God’s presence with the rest of His children.  That is the blessing that we have been given, and can only come from a God that loves us as His own.  Be comforted by that…

(In loving memory of a good man – Tom Manaskie)