From: January, 2006
It was about one year ago I made a difficult change in my life. It didn’t affect many people. It was simply that I had decided to befriend and get to know a homeless person. I felt like St. Francis, I had an aversion to the destitute of society and I needed to break that association and come to know them as children of God.
It so happened that there was a colored woman who every morning would sit in front of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral gift shop on 51st street (right over a grate where heat would come up). I remember before the first day I approached her I used to look down at her. I remember there was always crumbled food next to her and I thought it was disgusting. I always averted contact with people like her believing that many are drug addicts, alcoholic etc. and that I should not give them money because I may be supporting their habit. So though I knew in my mind they actually have the same gift of life from God that I have, I treated them like lesser people.
Then I made the effort. It started at first I would just give her a few dollars a day, which made me feel better. However I truly did not change until she asked me my name. Her name was Ann. She had a beautiful smile when you spoke to her. The crumbs she placed on the ground where there to feed the birds. She was an avid reader and enjoyed science fiction. She smoked cigarettes, but only two or three a day. Every day I saw her brought me great joy. She would ask me about my family, my children, my weekend, and my business trips. I would ask her about her health and if she needed anything. She always said she was fine.
Then one week she was not in her spot for a few days. I was concerned and hoped she would come back soon. On Thursday morning she was back. She told me she has a heart condition and had been in the hospital. I told her I would pray for her recovery and I asked her to quit smoking. That was a few months ago.
Recently, I went to mass with a coworker who I had gotten a Mass said for his departed grandmother. I saw my friend enjoy the mass and feel close to his grandmother a year after her death. We came out of the cathedral and went across the street; I was sharing with him my morning routine and so I introduced him to Ann. Ann said to me, “You’re really happy this morning.” I said I was because my friend Gerry was with me. Gerry said hello and I gave her some money and we said goodbye. It was a special morning.
The week before Ann told me one of her favorite book collections is “The Lord of the Rings”. I was planning on bringing her the full collection in paperback as a gift. Then sadly the day after I spoke to her with Gerry she was not at her normal spot. It has now been almost three weeks since I have seen her. I looked for her at lunch time in different buildings with public parks where she told me she is often found. I did not find her. I have been praying for her everyday hoping that she is well and that I may see her gain.
Sadly I fear that she may not be coming back. I know she would have good and bad days with her heart condition and she often talked it down. Now I am thinking that I may not have done enough to help her. I should have tried harder. I know that I did not give to her as much as she gave to me. She opened my eyes and my heart to the love of God. Her concern for me, a person in a much better state in life, made a significant impression on me. She truly cared for me as a true friend. She had love, the kind of love that we should share and have for all people. She had a truly Christian heart and I will strive to be like her.
I still hold hope that she may come back. But if the good Lord took her I am certain that she is in the bosom of his love. I will continue praying for her everyday not knowing for sure what has happened to her. And if she is in Heaven I know that she prays for me to our Lord.
With love in my heart I say God bless you Ann wherever you may be
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
It’s the Culture
I’m back and this time I have so many different things I can write about. There are so issues that are coming into play. There are crises on the turn of every page of the newspaper. But the one I wanted to write about was the Elliot Spitzer saga.
Last week the tabloids were full of it. Every paper had something from how the former governors’ wife was reacting to the actual last call he spent $5,000 to sleep with. The media is eating it up and Hustler magazine is going to make the prostitute a wealthy woman with a cover page and story.
As I heard the news as much as I have never liked Mr. Spitzer and always felt he was an ill spirited phony, I never dreamed that this would be the way he would fall. I was hoping for him to be brought down but not at the expense of his wife and children. Now its too late he has humiliated his wife and his daughters nationally. Not to mention that he can never look anyone in the face again without shame. Why would a man who claimed to be such a stalwart individual have this kind of problem?
I will present my theory. It is the same thing that is driving the decay of our society at large. It’s contraception! “What?” you say? What does that have to do with it? I’ll tell you it has everything to do with it. Ever since the contraception has been made morally acceptable by our society we have slid down the slippery slope of death.
Originally the concept behind allowing contraception was to enable married couples to continue to have marital relations without the risk of having a larger burden of children for which they may not have the ability to care for. Sadly it would not be long before it became obvious that this tool actually interfered with marriages but also made the sexual unitive act no more than an act for physically pleasing one another. This took away the purpose of joining together in love before God with the possibility of creating life.
Suddenly sexual relations are no longer only for the marital bed. Now it is for anyone looking for a turn on. It is another drug. And just like all drugs once you get started it is hard to get off the train. But one major factor is that this particular drug has more legal dealers that would be a Cocaine dealers dream. The US government protects the rights of pornographers and protects lewd sexual advertising. All the girls and women’s magazine write about how to sell themselves to men. Many of the men’s’ magazine are pornography under another cover. The media tells are young men and women in movies and on TV it is all right to have sexual relations on the first date! Twenty years ago it was shocking to suggest for two adults to speak publicly about living together unmarried. Now young couples shack up left and right and no one, not even their parents have the courage to speak against it.
My point is this unbridled sexual desire is fed fuel that burns day and night. I will admit that I am far from perfect in this regard. But we learn from our mistakes and I hope by being outspoken that somehow I may save someone from this insanely sexual perverted society we currently live in. We have people from all walks of life succumbing and I believe the biggest cause of this is pornography fueled by the permissiveness that was born of the contraceptive age. This contraceptive age has also given birth to infanticide, which in politically correct circles is called abortion.
Trying to come back to come back to Elliot Spitzer. Here is a man who had everything and for his drug of choice he destroyed his life. Now there is always something valuable to learn if someone is willing to notice. His situation is not as shocking to our culture as the media makes it out to be. In fact I think most people were not that shocked it just was that he was a hypocrite.
So my final point is that his situation is nothing new. If we are real believers of Christ we must as men and women of the church turn away from such things. We must fight against pornography, contraception and abortion at every corner. Then and only then will the culture of life be able to be brought back. Women will not be looked upon as sex objects, children will not become prey to sexual perverts because their minds will be turned to God instead of to death. But we need to stand up for what is right, even in public places where some will try to humiliate us.
You know the enemy will try to make us out to be puritans. The big lie they spread is that the Church is against sexual intercourse. But we Catholics know the truth. The Church loves the sexual act and actually promotes it in the confines of the gift of love that God gave us in one only real union, which is the marriage of a man and woman.
PS: I could write a book about this.
Last week the tabloids were full of it. Every paper had something from how the former governors’ wife was reacting to the actual last call he spent $5,000 to sleep with. The media is eating it up and Hustler magazine is going to make the prostitute a wealthy woman with a cover page and story.
As I heard the news as much as I have never liked Mr. Spitzer and always felt he was an ill spirited phony, I never dreamed that this would be the way he would fall. I was hoping for him to be brought down but not at the expense of his wife and children. Now its too late he has humiliated his wife and his daughters nationally. Not to mention that he can never look anyone in the face again without shame. Why would a man who claimed to be such a stalwart individual have this kind of problem?
I will present my theory. It is the same thing that is driving the decay of our society at large. It’s contraception! “What?” you say? What does that have to do with it? I’ll tell you it has everything to do with it. Ever since the contraception has been made morally acceptable by our society we have slid down the slippery slope of death.
Originally the concept behind allowing contraception was to enable married couples to continue to have marital relations without the risk of having a larger burden of children for which they may not have the ability to care for. Sadly it would not be long before it became obvious that this tool actually interfered with marriages but also made the sexual unitive act no more than an act for physically pleasing one another. This took away the purpose of joining together in love before God with the possibility of creating life.
Suddenly sexual relations are no longer only for the marital bed. Now it is for anyone looking for a turn on. It is another drug. And just like all drugs once you get started it is hard to get off the train. But one major factor is that this particular drug has more legal dealers that would be a Cocaine dealers dream. The US government protects the rights of pornographers and protects lewd sexual advertising. All the girls and women’s magazine write about how to sell themselves to men. Many of the men’s’ magazine are pornography under another cover. The media tells are young men and women in movies and on TV it is all right to have sexual relations on the first date! Twenty years ago it was shocking to suggest for two adults to speak publicly about living together unmarried. Now young couples shack up left and right and no one, not even their parents have the courage to speak against it.
My point is this unbridled sexual desire is fed fuel that burns day and night. I will admit that I am far from perfect in this regard. But we learn from our mistakes and I hope by being outspoken that somehow I may save someone from this insanely sexual perverted society we currently live in. We have people from all walks of life succumbing and I believe the biggest cause of this is pornography fueled by the permissiveness that was born of the contraceptive age. This contraceptive age has also given birth to infanticide, which in politically correct circles is called abortion.
Trying to come back to come back to Elliot Spitzer. Here is a man who had everything and for his drug of choice he destroyed his life. Now there is always something valuable to learn if someone is willing to notice. His situation is not as shocking to our culture as the media makes it out to be. In fact I think most people were not that shocked it just was that he was a hypocrite.
So my final point is that his situation is nothing new. If we are real believers of Christ we must as men and women of the church turn away from such things. We must fight against pornography, contraception and abortion at every corner. Then and only then will the culture of life be able to be brought back. Women will not be looked upon as sex objects, children will not become prey to sexual perverts because their minds will be turned to God instead of to death. But we need to stand up for what is right, even in public places where some will try to humiliate us.
You know the enemy will try to make us out to be puritans. The big lie they spread is that the Church is against sexual intercourse. But we Catholics know the truth. The Church loves the sexual act and actually promotes it in the confines of the gift of love that God gave us in one only real union, which is the marriage of a man and woman.
PS: I could write a book about this.
Darkness
Six months back I was reading quite often and having no problem writing reviews for books. It was almost effortless from mind to laptop. Then a strange thing happened I started to feel down and gloomy. Well, as down and gloomy as I can get. I couldn’t put a finger on it right away. Then it finally clicked. I was filling my mind with dark thoughts.
How was I filling my mind with these dark thoughts you are probably asking. Well I’ll tell you how it started.
One day I was having a conversation with my boss’s assistant. We now call them executive assistant and not secretary. I digress… I noticed she was reading a book and it looked to be interesting about magic and whatnot. We had a nice discussion about different novels and she swore to me that the last novel she read was something I had to read. I told her that if she brought it in I would read it.
A few days later she brought me the book. I can’t remember the title and I don’t want to.
It was a book about magic set in old England with a setting both in the real world and the mystical world. Now this mystical world of fairies was an evil dark place. Everyday I would read this book and everyday I would slip deeper and deeper into this dark mentality. It was forming a cloud on my mind. I was starting to feel miserable. The moment I perceived that this book was warping my whole sense of reality I put it down. I had to return the book so I needed to know what happened and I didn’t want to insult her so I read the first and last paragraph of the last 5 or 6 chapters. Then I gave the book back the next day and was able to discuss it with her.
I told her the truth I found it difficult to read because it was so dark and threatening. And as I write this I can still feel the distress I felt while reading that book.
So what is this to you? Well it dawned on me how often I have heard people say “it’s harmless, its just fiction” or “why should I be concerned about what my children are reading?” So I am writing to say it does matter what your children are reading and what shows they watch on TV and what movies they see. In fact it matters what books your spouse reads and what shows they watch. All the media we take in can affect us and if I, a person who I believe to be very discerning was emotionally and psychologically affected how much worse someone who is not paying attention.
So dark movies, books and TV will infect minds with dark thoughts. Pornography will infect minds with sexual perversity. Media that suggests that doing drugs are cool will make people more open to the idea. But the powers that be in this world want us to be ignorant of this fact.
I laughed today as I read that some auto safety group was up in arms because Molly Cyrus (Hannah Montana) and her dad were filmed in the back seat of a car without a their seat belts on. How much worse are the other things the media wittingly and maybe sometimes unwittingly promotes? These other things don’t risk killing just the body but the mind and soul as well.
Bottom-line; make entertainment things that will lift you up. Hold fast to our Catholic faith and let that it be your guide and soon you will be turning off TV or movie more often and putting away a book that someone else told you was good.
How was I filling my mind with these dark thoughts you are probably asking. Well I’ll tell you how it started.
One day I was having a conversation with my boss’s assistant. We now call them executive assistant and not secretary. I digress… I noticed she was reading a book and it looked to be interesting about magic and whatnot. We had a nice discussion about different novels and she swore to me that the last novel she read was something I had to read. I told her that if she brought it in I would read it.
A few days later she brought me the book. I can’t remember the title and I don’t want to.
It was a book about magic set in old England with a setting both in the real world and the mystical world. Now this mystical world of fairies was an evil dark place. Everyday I would read this book and everyday I would slip deeper and deeper into this dark mentality. It was forming a cloud on my mind. I was starting to feel miserable. The moment I perceived that this book was warping my whole sense of reality I put it down. I had to return the book so I needed to know what happened and I didn’t want to insult her so I read the first and last paragraph of the last 5 or 6 chapters. Then I gave the book back the next day and was able to discuss it with her.
I told her the truth I found it difficult to read because it was so dark and threatening. And as I write this I can still feel the distress I felt while reading that book.
So what is this to you? Well it dawned on me how often I have heard people say “it’s harmless, its just fiction” or “why should I be concerned about what my children are reading?” So I am writing to say it does matter what your children are reading and what shows they watch on TV and what movies they see. In fact it matters what books your spouse reads and what shows they watch. All the media we take in can affect us and if I, a person who I believe to be very discerning was emotionally and psychologically affected how much worse someone who is not paying attention.
So dark movies, books and TV will infect minds with dark thoughts. Pornography will infect minds with sexual perversity. Media that suggests that doing drugs are cool will make people more open to the idea. But the powers that be in this world want us to be ignorant of this fact.
I laughed today as I read that some auto safety group was up in arms because Molly Cyrus (Hannah Montana) and her dad were filmed in the back seat of a car without a their seat belts on. How much worse are the other things the media wittingly and maybe sometimes unwittingly promotes? These other things don’t risk killing just the body but the mind and soul as well.
Bottom-line; make entertainment things that will lift you up. Hold fast to our Catholic faith and let that it be your guide and soon you will be turning off TV or movie more often and putting away a book that someone else told you was good.
Sexual Truth
It is so difficult to do the right thing all the time. It is even worse when we fall, knowing full well that we are doing wrong. We of course know right and wrong. Our parents taught us and theirs before them. And also the Lord has it written in our hearts.
There are so many people in these times that want everything they do justified and accepted. Did you ever notice how strongly they push their position and if someone objects they scream even louder. Like spoiled children, they scream and shout until they get their way.
But unfortunately many of our social problems are getting bigger because we as a society are failing our children. The homosexual revolution has created a society with a complete lack of honesty and truth. Everything has become now about instant gratification and pleasure. If you don’t have these things and anyone gets in your way then they are evil.
Since when has personal gratification become the arbiter of justice? I personally believe it has been happening for years now and probably started in the 1970s. I remember growing up back then and many of the TV shows and movies were centered on “Love”. But the love they were professing was not a real love but a perverse self gratification. I believe this is a manifestation of sexual intercourse without responsibility of an outcome.
Contraception is in all actuality the beginning step of this mentality. It was not until the late 1930s that any protestant churches started to say that contraception was morally acceptable and since that time the slope has become slipperier. Since now the sexual act was no longer confined to the marital life or at the very least the creation of new life, it became a pleasure seeking vehicle.
Now that sex is about pleasure and not about self gift to the other and/or creation of new life we could no longer accept any responsibility for any outcomes from our selfish act. The next step became abortion. Abortion is the contraception if the original failed, even though it involves the killing of human life. Because we can’t ruin our pleasure seeking with caring for a new life! If the sexual act has become about self gratification then in all actuality when a couple is contracepting are they making love? I say they are not. They are performing mutual masturbation. There is no gift of self of which exists a reward of possibly a new life. Instead they are denying each other the true intimacy of which God gave us. It would be like kissing with saran wrap over our face, would you think that bizarre? Yet our society now accepts it as normal.
This of course lead to its ultimate end of which if sex is simply about sexual gratification why does it matter whether it is with a male or female? Hence the homosexual’s have every right under this belief system that what they should be allowed and accepted in any way, shape or form. This of course has lead to transsexuals, transvestites and bestiality. Recently there was an article I read where a woman married a dolphin!
So what is my point? My point is that we live in an insane world where churches that call themselves Christian are really bastions of perversity and indifference to the gift God has given us. Only the Catholic Church which loves “sex” for its God given purpose and use truly professes the proper understanding of sexuality. And only when this proper understanding of a loving, caring couple giving of themselves to each other completely, and by the way as much as we want in marriage, is understood will the institution of marriage be restored to its proper place. Unfortunately we have a long way to go, our society has a very long way to go and so do many even within the church.
When this understanding of real “Love” and sexual relations start to come about we will see a decline in the divorce rate. I believe in many divorces it is said that many wives feel they were being used and not loved. Unfortunately and unknowingly by many of their male counterparts that is exactly what was happening and the women themselves were and are willing participants as they give themselves to this use through the unloving mutual masturbation that is contraception.
There are so many people in these times that want everything they do justified and accepted. Did you ever notice how strongly they push their position and if someone objects they scream even louder. Like spoiled children, they scream and shout until they get their way.
But unfortunately many of our social problems are getting bigger because we as a society are failing our children. The homosexual revolution has created a society with a complete lack of honesty and truth. Everything has become now about instant gratification and pleasure. If you don’t have these things and anyone gets in your way then they are evil.
Since when has personal gratification become the arbiter of justice? I personally believe it has been happening for years now and probably started in the 1970s. I remember growing up back then and many of the TV shows and movies were centered on “Love”. But the love they were professing was not a real love but a perverse self gratification. I believe this is a manifestation of sexual intercourse without responsibility of an outcome.
Contraception is in all actuality the beginning step of this mentality. It was not until the late 1930s that any protestant churches started to say that contraception was morally acceptable and since that time the slope has become slipperier. Since now the sexual act was no longer confined to the marital life or at the very least the creation of new life, it became a pleasure seeking vehicle.
Now that sex is about pleasure and not about self gift to the other and/or creation of new life we could no longer accept any responsibility for any outcomes from our selfish act. The next step became abortion. Abortion is the contraception if the original failed, even though it involves the killing of human life. Because we can’t ruin our pleasure seeking with caring for a new life! If the sexual act has become about self gratification then in all actuality when a couple is contracepting are they making love? I say they are not. They are performing mutual masturbation. There is no gift of self of which exists a reward of possibly a new life. Instead they are denying each other the true intimacy of which God gave us. It would be like kissing with saran wrap over our face, would you think that bizarre? Yet our society now accepts it as normal.
This of course lead to its ultimate end of which if sex is simply about sexual gratification why does it matter whether it is with a male or female? Hence the homosexual’s have every right under this belief system that what they should be allowed and accepted in any way, shape or form. This of course has lead to transsexuals, transvestites and bestiality. Recently there was an article I read where a woman married a dolphin!
So what is my point? My point is that we live in an insane world where churches that call themselves Christian are really bastions of perversity and indifference to the gift God has given us. Only the Catholic Church which loves “sex” for its God given purpose and use truly professes the proper understanding of sexuality. And only when this proper understanding of a loving, caring couple giving of themselves to each other completely, and by the way as much as we want in marriage, is understood will the institution of marriage be restored to its proper place. Unfortunately we have a long way to go, our society has a very long way to go and so do many even within the church.
When this understanding of real “Love” and sexual relations start to come about we will see a decline in the divorce rate. I believe in many divorces it is said that many wives feel they were being used and not loved. Unfortunately and unknowingly by many of their male counterparts that is exactly what was happening and the women themselves were and are willing participants as they give themselves to this use through the unloving mutual masturbation that is contraception.
Meditation: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Good Friday April 2, 2010
As I sit this morning at my kitchen table pondering the title of this meditation it struck me quickly the direction of thought I must go. This topic is not something I am unfamiliar with and in fact in a way I may call myself an expert.
Now I am not being arrogant when I lay claim to this expertise. I am but stating a reality that the Lord chose me and sent me on a path that eventually led to my gaining the experience needed to lead such a discussion.
Often when discussing the faith people have difficulty realizing the connection of everyday life to the gospel. I have been blessed all my life with a simplistic and accepting view of the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not to say that I have always done the will of the Lord. I have failed and fallen often. I am but a simple man trying my best to follow “The Way” or “El Camino” of Jesus Christ just as the early Christians.
In the light of the pressures of our everyday life we become consumed with concerns of this world. We get wrapped up in the minutiae and overly worried. Also then there are the greater things as well where we also get absorbed to the point of losing all our focus on the one thing that we should always keep before us.
That one thing of course is our faith in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ. Over and over again in the gospel he tells us of the care that our God has for us and that we need only to have faith in Him and all will turn out as it should. In listening and obeying our Lord in His teachings we are set free to have joy and happiness in this world while preparing for the next. But the truth is that we are weak and it is a constant that we will be tempted not only to despair but to reject our faith to the point that we look and seem like we never even heard the Gospel.
I put forward to you the real teachings of the Gospel are not the popular moniker of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”. The teachings of our Lord are “Don’t Sweat Anything” if we have to put it into a phrase in our common vernacular. But now I am getting preachy so instead I would like to share with you a very personal story.
A few years back I was going through a very real and desperate struggle. I had my own business importing and exporting precious metals. The business turned south and I started to lose money. I had to find some other income. So I began to sell Life insurance as well to supplement what little income there was at that point. I was working hard but there seemed to be some cloud over my eyes. I was losing all hope as I couldn’t make the payments on the now ever mounting debt.
It was a dark October evening in 2004 I was on my way to an “Evening of Recollection” at an Opus Dei center. It still seems like yesterday and the pain so real and suffocating. I pulled my car over to the side of the road. I was exhausted. I thought to myself, if I kill myself my family would get the money they need, I can’t go on, I don’t know what else to do. I am worthless. This is the end. A small voice crying out from deep inside me told me not to stop. So I started the car and drove to the South Orange, NJ where it was being held.
A reminder, all this time I believed myself to be a faithful Catholic going to church regularly, adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and other pious acts. But this night my eyes were to be opened.
I arrived in time for benediction and the meditation. My mind was not there. I was totally lost to the darkness. But I had one last thing to do, go to confession.
I walked into the room. It was face to face confession. My confessor and also spiritual director was Fr. Bob Connor. As I said the words “Forgive me father for I have sinned………” it all came to me. I was in the presence of our Lord’s Servant in the person of Christ Jesus. And like a child with his father I began to cry. The pain of my struggles began leaving me; the darkness over my eyes was being lifted away. My greatest sin yet, despair. Then Christ spoke to me through Fr. Bob. He told me that all I have gone through is to build me up but now that I have hit bottom I can only go up. I was destined for greater things if only I have a true and certain faith in Our Lord.
That was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. In the short time following that night I was offered a job at the company I am currently employed at. The work I had been doing in my company and the life insurance field prepared me for the new job I came into. My struggles were not totally over but now I had the confidence of the love of the Jesus Christ in my life which enabled me to face anything and keep on moving forward.
There is a Hard Rock song I love by a band called Evanescence. It is called “Wake Me up Inside”. The reason I love it is because it reminds me so much of that night, of course I also do love Hard Rock. In one verse she sings “save me from the nothing I’ve become”. This song is essentially about a person on the precipice of despair and they are begging to be saved. It is a cry for help for someone who knows her intimately. I know the closest person on this world is our spouse but even that does not bring you as close as to the one person who truly knows us, Our Lord. So that cry for help is a cry for the Lord Jesus Christ, God. Once we realize this and go to him all our cares are simply washed away.
We need to focus on the person of Jesus and what he has promised. There is nothing to fear. Not even death for this is only the doorway to heaven in the eternal presence of our Lord. Jesus tells us “do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.”(Luke 12: 22-23) “Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides.”(Luke 22: 27-31).
The “O you of little faith” of course was referring to me at that desperate time in my life. We need to remember how great our Lord is and even though there are literally billions of people His omnipotence is certain and true. He cares for us all and knows what we need. So in the end analysis this is the real practice of our faith.
To know that doing the will of the Father is what will set us free. Free from all worries of this world. For if we know that our just reward is coming and that the Lord cares for us then how can we be concerned?
This of course does not mean we sit on our buns and do nothing and be waited on. It is actually the reverse this means that we do all good and righteous actions for the love of Christ Jesus and our neighbors. That we strive everyday to take care of things we must and what we can’t, well that will be left for the next day.
I have to recall the event of this day over two thousand years ago, that to God is most likely only like a second. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and gave us an example. He showed us how to love God by loving each other and our neighbor as he gave the ultimate sacrifice of His human life. He spent time here on earth to speak to us directly and show us “The Way”. Enduring suffering that most of us will never have to face. But even so we should be ready even to face this kind of suffering because knowing as we do our ultimate reward in heaven nothing should be able to shake us from our goal.
My wife’s uncle who converted to the Catholic faith told me of his conversion. He was converted by the simple witness of a dying friend. She was a Catholic and he was amazed at how she was always at peace and never fearful of death. He had asked before she passed what brought her that peace. Her answer was simply her faith in what her Catholic faith has taught her that was handed down from the apostles of Jesus Christ for all time.
We must carry our cross and not be concerned. For we know what Jesus Christ has promised us. Once we have accepted this, how can we possibly sweat the small stuff, when we don’t even have to sweat the big stuff? I leave you with one of the most profound things Jesus said to us but at the same time so simple. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10: 39) Leave your worries behind and live for Jesus Christ and life will only get better.
Happy Easter!
As I sit this morning at my kitchen table pondering the title of this meditation it struck me quickly the direction of thought I must go. This topic is not something I am unfamiliar with and in fact in a way I may call myself an expert.
Now I am not being arrogant when I lay claim to this expertise. I am but stating a reality that the Lord chose me and sent me on a path that eventually led to my gaining the experience needed to lead such a discussion.
Often when discussing the faith people have difficulty realizing the connection of everyday life to the gospel. I have been blessed all my life with a simplistic and accepting view of the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not to say that I have always done the will of the Lord. I have failed and fallen often. I am but a simple man trying my best to follow “The Way” or “El Camino” of Jesus Christ just as the early Christians.
In the light of the pressures of our everyday life we become consumed with concerns of this world. We get wrapped up in the minutiae and overly worried. Also then there are the greater things as well where we also get absorbed to the point of losing all our focus on the one thing that we should always keep before us.
That one thing of course is our faith in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ. Over and over again in the gospel he tells us of the care that our God has for us and that we need only to have faith in Him and all will turn out as it should. In listening and obeying our Lord in His teachings we are set free to have joy and happiness in this world while preparing for the next. But the truth is that we are weak and it is a constant that we will be tempted not only to despair but to reject our faith to the point that we look and seem like we never even heard the Gospel.
I put forward to you the real teachings of the Gospel are not the popular moniker of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”. The teachings of our Lord are “Don’t Sweat Anything” if we have to put it into a phrase in our common vernacular. But now I am getting preachy so instead I would like to share with you a very personal story.
A few years back I was going through a very real and desperate struggle. I had my own business importing and exporting precious metals. The business turned south and I started to lose money. I had to find some other income. So I began to sell Life insurance as well to supplement what little income there was at that point. I was working hard but there seemed to be some cloud over my eyes. I was losing all hope as I couldn’t make the payments on the now ever mounting debt.
It was a dark October evening in 2004 I was on my way to an “Evening of Recollection” at an Opus Dei center. It still seems like yesterday and the pain so real and suffocating. I pulled my car over to the side of the road. I was exhausted. I thought to myself, if I kill myself my family would get the money they need, I can’t go on, I don’t know what else to do. I am worthless. This is the end. A small voice crying out from deep inside me told me not to stop. So I started the car and drove to the South Orange, NJ where it was being held.
A reminder, all this time I believed myself to be a faithful Catholic going to church regularly, adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and other pious acts. But this night my eyes were to be opened.
I arrived in time for benediction and the meditation. My mind was not there. I was totally lost to the darkness. But I had one last thing to do, go to confession.
I walked into the room. It was face to face confession. My confessor and also spiritual director was Fr. Bob Connor. As I said the words “Forgive me father for I have sinned………” it all came to me. I was in the presence of our Lord’s Servant in the person of Christ Jesus. And like a child with his father I began to cry. The pain of my struggles began leaving me; the darkness over my eyes was being lifted away. My greatest sin yet, despair. Then Christ spoke to me through Fr. Bob. He told me that all I have gone through is to build me up but now that I have hit bottom I can only go up. I was destined for greater things if only I have a true and certain faith in Our Lord.
That was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. In the short time following that night I was offered a job at the company I am currently employed at. The work I had been doing in my company and the life insurance field prepared me for the new job I came into. My struggles were not totally over but now I had the confidence of the love of the Jesus Christ in my life which enabled me to face anything and keep on moving forward.
There is a Hard Rock song I love by a band called Evanescence. It is called “Wake Me up Inside”. The reason I love it is because it reminds me so much of that night, of course I also do love Hard Rock. In one verse she sings “save me from the nothing I’ve become”. This song is essentially about a person on the precipice of despair and they are begging to be saved. It is a cry for help for someone who knows her intimately. I know the closest person on this world is our spouse but even that does not bring you as close as to the one person who truly knows us, Our Lord. So that cry for help is a cry for the Lord Jesus Christ, God. Once we realize this and go to him all our cares are simply washed away.
We need to focus on the person of Jesus and what he has promised. There is nothing to fear. Not even death for this is only the doorway to heaven in the eternal presence of our Lord. Jesus tells us “do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.”(Luke 12: 22-23) “Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides.”(Luke 22: 27-31).
The “O you of little faith” of course was referring to me at that desperate time in my life. We need to remember how great our Lord is and even though there are literally billions of people His omnipotence is certain and true. He cares for us all and knows what we need. So in the end analysis this is the real practice of our faith.
To know that doing the will of the Father is what will set us free. Free from all worries of this world. For if we know that our just reward is coming and that the Lord cares for us then how can we be concerned?
This of course does not mean we sit on our buns and do nothing and be waited on. It is actually the reverse this means that we do all good and righteous actions for the love of Christ Jesus and our neighbors. That we strive everyday to take care of things we must and what we can’t, well that will be left for the next day.
I have to recall the event of this day over two thousand years ago, that to God is most likely only like a second. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and gave us an example. He showed us how to love God by loving each other and our neighbor as he gave the ultimate sacrifice of His human life. He spent time here on earth to speak to us directly and show us “The Way”. Enduring suffering that most of us will never have to face. But even so we should be ready even to face this kind of suffering because knowing as we do our ultimate reward in heaven nothing should be able to shake us from our goal.
My wife’s uncle who converted to the Catholic faith told me of his conversion. He was converted by the simple witness of a dying friend. She was a Catholic and he was amazed at how she was always at peace and never fearful of death. He had asked before she passed what brought her that peace. Her answer was simply her faith in what her Catholic faith has taught her that was handed down from the apostles of Jesus Christ for all time.
We must carry our cross and not be concerned. For we know what Jesus Christ has promised us. Once we have accepted this, how can we possibly sweat the small stuff, when we don’t even have to sweat the big stuff? I leave you with one of the most profound things Jesus said to us but at the same time so simple. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10: 39) Leave your worries behind and live for Jesus Christ and life will only get better.
Happy Easter!
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