Moving to a New Home

I have had my blog hosted here since 2014. With over 80,000 views in over 90 countries around the world, it is time to take this to the next level. Damascus Road Sojourner has a new home.

https://damascusroadsojourner.com/

Come visit me in my new home while it still has that new web site smell.

And to all of you who have read this through the years, you have my heart-felt gratitude.

The Most Beautiful Heart

A young man was proud of his healthy and beautiful heart. One day, standing in the middle of the town, he proclaimed that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered to have a look at his heart. His heart was smooth and shiny and looked very healthy. Indeed, the man had the most beautiful heart in the valley, everyone agreed.

The proud young man felt delighted and boasted his perfect heart, which everyone admired. Then, suddenly, a voice from the crowd said, “Your heart is not as beautiful as mine.” The young man searched for the person behind the voice, and an older man appeared in front of him.

“Show us your heart if you believe you have a more beautiful heart than mine.” said the young man. The older man carefully showed his heart. The crowd and the young man looked at the older man’s heart. The heart was beating strongly and healthily, but it was not smooth and shiny as the young man’s heart. Instead, it had scars all over it. It had places where some pieces of the heart had been removed, and other parts were put in. The other pieces didn’t fit perfectly, with several uneven edges. In some places, there were deep gouges where some pieces were missing.

The crowd laughed at the older man’s heart. “How can he claim that he has the most beautiful heart when it is all scared and uneven.” they thought.

The young man looked at the old man’s heart and laughed.” You must be kidding. Compare your heart and mine. My heart looks perfect and smooth, and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

“Yes, your heart looks perfect, but I would never trade your heart with mine”, said the old man. “Every scar in my heart represents a person I have given my love to. I tear a piece of my heart and give it to them. Often, my loved one gives me back a piece of their heart that fits into the empty place in my heart. Since everyone loves each other differently, their piece of the heart may not perfectly fit my heart, so you can see some rough edges. These scars and rough edges remind me of the love we shared.”, he continued.

“Sometimes I would give a piece of my heart, but the other person may not return a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges. But, although these gouges are painful, they remind me of my love for these people too. So do you now see what true beauty is?” asked the old man.

The young man and the crowd stood silently with tears running down their cheeks. Then, the young man walked to the older man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, ripped a piece out of it and offered it to the man with trembling hands.

The older man gratefully received his offering, placed it in his heart, then took a piece from his old heart and placed it in the young man’s heart.

The young man looked at his heart; it did not look shiny and smooth like it used to. But, it was now more beautiful because he could feel the love from the older man’s heart flowing into him.

Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. When we stand before the Eucharist, we stand before Jesus - body, blood, soul, and divinity. He offers himself to us and when we eat the Eucharist he dwells within us. This is the greatest gift we can receive on this side of heaven – to be one with our God.

But God does not stop there. Through the centuries we have been presented with something known as Eucharistic miracles. A Eucharistic miracle is when a consecrated host transforms into actual flesh. The Catholic Church has officially recognized over one hundred Eucharistic miracles throughout history. These miracles often serve to strengthen the faith of believers in the doctrine of transubstantiation.

Thanks to the advancements of modern science, many of the Eucharistic miracles can be investigated. In every case the conclusion has been the same. The Eucharist, once simple bread, has transformed into flesh, and not just any flesh. It has become heart tissue.

One of the most interesting Eucharistic miracles is the Eucharistic miracle of Sokolka, Poland. On Sunday, October 12, 2008, a priest dropped a host during the distribution of Holy Communion. The host was placed in water and put into the tabernacle to dissolve. A week later they found a curved, bright red stain in the center of the Eucharist. They notified their Archbishop, who ordered the incident be kept secret. For three years they kept the host locked away inside a tabernacle.

After three years, the appearance of the host had not changed, so the archbishop ordered studies be done. Two samples were taken to two different labs for evaluation. Neither lab was told what the sample was of. Both labs were in perfect agreement on the results. The samples were heart tissue taken from a living person who was near death. What made this miracle different from the many others before it was that the structure of the heart muscle fibers was deeply intertwined with that of the bread, in a way impossible to achieve with human means.

The samples were heart tissue mixed with bread. This is exactly what Catholics believe happens during transubstantiation. The bread literally becomes the body of Christ. Normally, the accidents do not change, that is the outward appearance remains bread. In this case both the heart tissue and the bread are present.

The heart of every parent is their children. God so loved the world that he gave his very heart for us. Jesus so loves us that when he offers his body for us to eat, he not only offers his body, but his very heart as well. When we hold the Eucharist, we hold the heart of the heart of God in our hands.

Jesus offers you not just a piece of his heart but his entire heart. Do you accept it and give yours back to him? Or do you boast of your perfect, shiny and smooth heart? The greatest of the commandments is to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My commands.

- Ezekiel 36: 26-27

The stunning Eucharistic miracle of Sokolka

Why I am Catholic

On July 19, 1970, I was baptized by Reverend Mueller at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Harvard, Illinois. I started attending the church’s Sunday school classes at three, spent two weeks in the summer in vacation bible school, and started going on Wednesdays when I reached confirmation age.

Confirmation years were tough to say the least. My parents had separated and then divorced. My mother listed her religion as Buddhist, although I think she cherry picked what she believed from multiple religions. The intellectual side of my brain was warring with the creative genius side of my brain, which resulted with me being one of the “weird kids". The church became a sanctuary where I could escape a strained home life, as well as the slings and arrows hurled by my normal peers.

On confirmation day we went from being children of God to adult members of the church. Mid-week school and vacation bible school became memories of our youth. We were now expected to actively participate in the adult service and were no longer allowed in the children’s classes. I missed the intimate instruction and really didn’t care for the service. My church life plummeted faster than a rock thrown down a well. Now an adult, church attendance was left up to me and I chose not to darken the doorstep of any church for a good eight years.

I stopped going to church, but I never lost my faith. Later in his life, my uncle became more and more of a Lutheran lay minister. It was even possible that he was being called to be a pastor. He asked me why I became Catholic.

The simplest answer is I was called to the Catholic faith by the Holy Spirit. My life was put on a path to intersect the life of the Church. The Holy Spirit softened my stubborn mind and hard heart enough to hear his truth. The more complicated answer is that I came to believe that what the Catholic Church teaches is true. I ultimately came to this conclusion –

If what the Catholic Church teaches is true, then no other religion in the world will suffice. If what the Catholic Church teaches is not true, then no other Christian religion will suffice and the only right religion would be Orthodox Judaism. Seeing I believe Jesus is the promised messiah and is the salvation and redemption of the world, Orthodox Judaism is ruled out.

If what the Catholic Church teaches is not true, no other Christian faith will suffice because all Christian denominations got their foundation from Catholicism and the faith’s founder changed the teaching of the Church that he disagreed with. It is just a fact that Jesus started the catholic Church. Luther started his church 1500 years later, replacing Catholic teaching with his own opinion. Did I want to be part of the Church that Jesus created or a church a man who disagreed with Jesus created? That cemented my choice and I sought to be part of the Church Jesus created.

When a protestant becomes Catholic, they lose nothing and gain everything. They gain more bible, more sacraments, sacred tradition that the Church believed from the very beginning, and they come into the Church that holds the authority of Jesus through apostolic succession. They gain a mother who loves them and intercedes with her son on their behalf, they gain a family in heaven in the communion of the saints, but most importantly they gain the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in his real presence in the Eucharist.

When a Catholic leaves the Church and joins a protestant church they lose all of these things. They are not simply walking away from a man-made institution but they are walking away from Jesus himself. That is not only a lot to lose, it is a loss of everything that truly matters.

As I said above – if what the Catholic Church teaches is true, then all of these things are also true. If what she teaches is true, then the teachings on the Eucharist are also true. The truth of the Eucharist is the only reason to become Catholic, stay Catholic, or return to the Catholic Church.

Martin Luther disagreed with these teachings, teachings that the Church has believed since its beginning. He substituted his opinion in place of Church teaching and lead people away from the Church Jesus created to one of his own making. This wasn’t the first time the Church faced that problem.

“Some who had come down from Judea were instructing the brothers,
“Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice,
you cannot be saved.”
Because there arose no little dissension and debate
by Paul and Barnabas with them,
it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some of the others
should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders
about this question.

The apostles and elders, in agreement with the whole church,
decided to choose representatives
and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.
The ones chosen were Judas, who was called Barsabbas,
and Silas, leaders among the brothers.
This is the letter delivered by them:

“The apostles and the elders, your brothers,
to the brothers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia
of Gentile origin: greetings.
Since we have heard that some of our number
who went out without any mandate from us
have upset you with their teachings
and disturbed your peace of mind,
we have with one accord decided to choose representatives
and to send them to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So we are sending Judas and Silas
who will also convey this same message by word of mouth:
‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us
not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,
namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols,
from blood, from meats of strangled animals,
and from unlawful marriage.
If you keep free of these,
you will be doing what is right. Farewell.’” – Acts 15: 1-2, 22-29

In this account we see supposed Christian brothers imposing their opinion in place of Church teaching. “You must be circumcised to be saved.” This was not brought to the people by the authority of the Church, but by followers who believed their opinion overruled the Church.

This question was put to the magisterium of the Church who ruled that circumcision was no longer required. This is a clear demonstration that Christ’s authority to govern the Church resided with the Disciples to whom he had given it. This authority resides today solely in the successors of those men, namely the Pope and his bishops.

Like the bothers who were demanding circumcision, Luther rejected the authority of the Church and taught his opinion in place of established Church teaching. He believed the authority of Jesus resided in every person and that every person could come to the truth on their own, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit who inspires and guides and this had led to tens of thousands of denominations of Christians that no longer have the fullness of truth and the tools Jesus gave us to live a holy life.

I am Catholic today because the Holy Spirit revealed the truth of the Catholic faith to me. He could only do this when I opened myself to hear him. I had to step outside my stubborn mind and hard heart. I had to set my opinion aside and listen to what he had to say. That was the hardest thing to do and is still a struggle today. What I recognize now is that when my opinion differs from official Church teaching, I am not just disagreeing with a man-made institution, but I am disagreeing with Jesus himself. It is up to me to figure out where I am wrong.

Faith is a personal journey and we all do not walk the same road. Just because my road is right for me it doesn’t mean it is right for you. I do think many are on the wrong road and do not know it. Maybe not so much the wrong road, but one that is not as good as it can be. The Catholic Church has the fullness of faith; a buffet table of goodness. If you’re more an ala carte kind of person there is nothing wrong with that. The only thing that matters is that we love and serve the same Jesus.

Thou Shall Not Covet

Americans are overly competitive people. We live by our rivalries. We pit one group of people against another in almost everything we do. Even worse, often times it is not enough to be successful. We cheer when people fail.

I just watched a gem of a movie. It was School of Life and starred Ryan Renyolds. School of Life is a 2005 film about a teacher who moves to a town and shakes the old school ways up a bit. I will list this as a must see. No spoilers here except to talk about one scene from the movie.

The junior high where Renyolds’ character becomes a teacher had not won a single game in any sport, ever. The coach was horrible and begged Renyolds to take over coaching the team. He transformed the team in a way that I wish every team could be transformed. He did not take a bunch of no-talent kids and turn them into winners. He took a bunch of ‘feeling sorry for themselves’ kids and filled them with joy.

He knew the kids could not win. That did not mean they couldn’t have fun. What he did was to have the kids cheer every time they did something right or wrong. They also cheered for the other team every time they scored against them. There was nothing that could happen in the game that the kids did not cheer for. When they cheered, they were full of joy and when they were full of joy they had fun. It didn’t matter if they won or lost. They won because they were happy.

And their joy and happiness were infectious. Soon the parents were cheering right along side their children. The games became something the entire school looked forward to instead of something they dreaded. That is what joy can do for your life.

A joy-filled person can cheer when someone else does well. Your success does not matter to mine. I don’t need you to fail so I can do well. I have no reason to demand that someone in power come and take what you have away to give it to someone else.

I was sent to a management course many years ago. The instructor had us do a group activity where she tied a balloon to everyone’s ankle with a piece of string. The instructions were simple. At the end of two minutes, anyone who still had their balloon intact would be the winner. When she said go it was a flourish of chaotic activity. Every one tried their best to pop the other’s balloon while desperately trying to keep theirs from being popped. The ones who lost their balloons ganged up on the few remaining. At the end of two minutes not a single balloon remained.

Then the instructor asked us one simple question. What were the instructions? Anyone who still had their balloon at the end of two minutes would be the winner.

Who said anything about popping the other balloons? We all could have been winners if we had just stood there and done nothing. Instead, our competitive nature kicked in and we tried to win by making the others lose. Worse, those who had already lost ganged up to make as many others lose as possible.

This is the mindset of the devil and one of the tools he uses to separate us one from another.

Do not fear when a man becomes rich,
when the wealth of his house grows great.
At his death he will not take along anything,
his glory will not go down after him. – Psalm 49: 17-18

Do not be envious at another person’s success. Do not allow your heart to covet what they have. Do not celebrate when someone fails and never wish ill on anyone. Instead, be genuinely happy for them.

Let Down Your Nets and Follow Me

"He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking. But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and likewise also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him." – Luke 5: 4-11

"So he said to them, "Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something." So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea… And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me." - John 21: 6-7, 19

Both of these stories begin the same way. Peter spends the entire night fishing without catching a thing. Returning to shore with nothing to show for his hard work, Jesus tells him to lower his nets for a catch. Peter does as he was instructed and catches so many fish that his nets were beginning to tear. In the first story, Jesus tells Peter that he was going to make him a fisher of men. In the second story, Jesus tells Peter to take up his rightful place as leader of the Church. In both stories, Jesus tells Peter to follow him.

Like most parents, I get a great deal of joy sitting in the bleachers watching my children play their youth sports. We get to cheer for them when they do well and comfort them when they don’t. Mine is a position of observation and support. But when it comes to Team Jesus, we are not called to be just observers. We are called to be active participants.

Through our baptisms we become disciples of Christ. Jesus has a mission for each and every one of us. He wants us to lower our nets and trust that he will do the impossible. He wants us to trust in him and to follow him without fear.

Spoiler alert – Jesus is eternal. The past, the present, and the future are all the same moment for him. If he asks you to do something for him, he already knows the outcome and what you will need to succeed. There is nothing we need to fear no matter how difficult the request appears to be. There is nothing we cannot accomplish if we act in union with his will.

Let down your nets. Let go and follow him.

Guilty!

I woke as into a dream and found myself standing amid all of humanity, every person who had ever lived. We were in what appeared to be a courtroom. At the head of the room was the judge's bench raised high above the crowd. The son of man appeared before the bench shackled in chains. The devil entered the courtroom and took his place in the judgement seat. He sneered at the son of man who stood before him.

“You have volunteered to bear the punishment for the sins of all the people of the world.” The devil barked. “I demand them to plead for the crimes committed.”

“On the charge that you have failed to love God with your whole heart, how do you plead?”

“Guilty!” yelled all of humanity in one voice that rocked the heavens.

“On the charge that you have taken this man’s name in vain…”

“Guilty!”

“On keeping the sabbath day holy…..”

“Murder…..”

“Guilty!”

“Hatred….”

“Guilty!!!!!”

One by one the devil listed out every sin of mankind. One by one humanity cried out their guilt. When every sin had been listed the devil asked, “Does anyone wish to take this man’s place?”

The silence that followed was deafening.

“Does anyone wish to join him in facing the just punishment for these crimes?”

Again, not even a whisper was heard.

“Then he alone will bear the punishment due.” The devil was ecstatic. His joy could not be contained. “The punishment is death. How do you wish this punishment be carried out?”

“Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”

“Let it be done according to your will.” The devil slammed the gavel down and the trial was finished.

Jesus died for our sins. He bore the punishment for all of humanity. He did so out of love for us.

He did so because we demanded it from him.

Room or Tomb

The Resurrection

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in gleaming clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why are you seeking the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead.” And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. Now these women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe the women. Nevertheless, Peter got up and ran to the tomb; and when he stooped and looked in, he *saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.”

Luke 24: 1-12

The accounts of the resurrection in the various gospels have Jesus appearing to many people when he rose. Some say that Mary Magdalen was the first to see the risen Lord. He appeared to the Eleven, to five-hundred of the brethren, and to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The one person that scripture never says Jesus appeared to was his mother, Mary. Some naturally believe she would have been the first person he would have appeared to. Others use it as a jab at the Holy Mother to say that she wasn’t really that important in the grand scheme of things. There is much speculation as to why it is not written. I will offer mine. This is just a personal belief, not one taught by the Church, but I don’t believe it goes against any Church teaching or tradition. This is just food for thought and nothing more. Take it with a grain of salt.

Through the divine mercy of God, Mary was conceived without the stain original of sin, immaculate in body, soul, and spirit. The Church teaches that this freed her from the desire to sin and is how she remained sinless through her entire life. Having an immaculate heart gives Mary the capacity to love as God loves; to love sacrificially and without limit. It is through this capacity to love that Love himself became incarnate in the person of Jesus. Through the immaculate heart of Mary came the Sacred Heart of Jesus and through the Sacred Heart of Jesus came the immaculate heart of Mary.

Mary’s immaculate heart is what enabled her to say yes to the offer to be the mother of God. She gave no thought to herself or what saying yes to that offer would mean. She only wished to do the will of the Father. When she presented Jesus in the temple, she was told by Simeon that a sword would pierce her heart. The heart of every parent is their children and in hearing Simeon’s prophecy I am sure Mary pondered what his words would mean for the baby she held in her arms.

Twelve years later, Jesus would be lost for three days and then found in the temple. Losing a child is every parents’ worst nightmare. O the joy that must have filled Mary’s heart the moment she saw her son in the temple sitting among the teachers. Jesus returned home with her and she treasured all that was said about him in her heart. Scripture does not mention Jesus and Mary being separated like that again until his crucifixion. Everywhere Jesus was, there was Mary.

Mary had perfect faith in the promise of God. Like Abraham with Isaac, Mary believed that if her son were offered as a sacrifice, God would raise him back up. It is my speculation that Mary was not with the women who went to the tomb on Sunday morning because she was the only one who was there when her son was resurrected from the dead. She was the first person he saw when he came out of the tomb. She was the first person to hold him when he came back to this world, just as she was the first person to hold him when he first came into this world, just as she was the last one to hold his lifeless body after his death. The immaculate heart that was pierced by a sword was the first one healed by the risen Christ. Mary was there because she had perfect faith in her son’s promise.

Mary is also not listed as being in the upper room where the Disciples hid for fear of Jewish persecution. She was not there offering support or trying to ease the guilt of betrayal they were feeling. She was not there being comforted by them for the loss of her son. I believe that instead of cowering in the upper room, she waited in joyful anticipation for the promise to be fulfilled.

This is what makes Mary is the greatest example for the Church and for each of us. Mary is the pinnacle of God’s creation and the greatest member of our race. She is what God wants us to become. She shows us what we are capable of achieving. It is true that Mary received special graces that we have yet to receive, but instead of those graces we were given the Blessed Mother to model our lives on.

Not only can we do these things, but these are what we are called to do as Christians. In giving Mary to us when he was on the cross, Jesus made Mary our mother too. From her immaculate heart we receive unconditional and sacrificial love as she draws all her children closer to her son. And with a mother’s love she intercedes on our behalf with her son who intercedes for us with the Father.

In as much as a father is the head of a family, a mother is its heart. A father guides and leads. A mother nurtures and comforts. The immaculate heart of Mary is the immaculate heart of the Church and through it we learn to give a mother’s care to those in the most need. Being able to see others through the eyes of a mother, especially through the eyes of the mother who held the baby Jesus tight to her bosom, enables us to live fully Jesus’ command to love one another as he has loved us.

Where does your faith place you? Do you cower in the upper room with the Disciples in fear of what the world will do to you or do you stand with Mary at the tomb joyfully anticipating the return of the Lord?

My heart is full because the tomb was empty.

Choices

If the essence of God could be captured in one thought, it would be that of sacrificial love. God has power. God has knowledge. God is the source of all truth and all holiness. God is sacrificial love. For love to exist there has to be a choice. If I were forced to love you, I could not love you.

The angels were created out of love, but for the purpose of service. They were created with full knowledge of who God is. They did not have the choice to love or not love God. They were given the choice to serve God or serve themselves.

God went a different route when he created man. Man was created with no knowledge of who God is. God then courts us, revealing himself to us, so that we come to know and love him. God woos his beloved in the hope that we may come to love him as he loves us. The choice is always ours to make.

During the season of Lent and throughout holy week we will be given a number choices to make. Each choice is intended to draw us ever closer to God. Many of these choices will go seemingly unnoticed by us. In the end, the choices we make during this time will determine where we will spend eternity.

It all begins with the feeding of the 5000. Jesus miraculously multiplies the loaves and the fish to feed a multitude of people. This was done as a preconfiguration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist he would shortly institute. Jesus went off with the Twelve to rest and pray. The people followed because they longed for more.

This begins the bread of life discourse where Jesus tells us that his body is true food and his blood true drink and if we do not eat his flesh and drink his blood that we have no life within us. Jesus had just given them a preview on how he intended to do this, but they could not understand. Unable to accept his teaching, the people left him in mass numbers.

Jesus was heralded as a king as he entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The people looked for him to fulfill the messianic prophecy to return and free Israel from the occupying Romans. Many became disillusioned and disappointed when he didn’t fulfill this prophecy in the way they expected. Their hearts grew cold as even more turned from him.

Then came the night in the garden when Jesus was betrayed with a kiss by one of his closest friends. When the temple guards seized him the rest of his inner circle fled, leaving him alone and rejected. His closest friend, Peter, publicly denied ever knowing him. Pilate presented Jeus to the people, giving them the opportunity to have him released. The people chose Bar Abbas instead. Jesus was finally crucified along side two other criminals, one to his left and one to his right.

The Triduum is the most powerful three days in all of human history. It starts with a simple Passover meal. Jesus teaches the Twelve how to serve each other sacrificially by washing their feet. He establishes the priesthood and institutes the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. He fulfills what he began with the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, and revealed to his disciples how he intended to feed us with his body and blood throughout all time. We are given the choice to eat of the flesh of the son of man each time we attend a Catholic Mass. We can take him at his word, or we can walk away from him because this teaching is too difficult for us to accept.

As we stand amid the crowd when Pilate offers the choice on who to release, we get the choice to make Jesus the Lord of our lives or if we want the world to be lord over us. Do we accept Jesus into our hearts or do we demand Bar Abbas with the rest of the crowd?

On Good Friday we are presented with the most important decision we will ever have to make. In a rock quarry just outside of the city gate, Jesus was hung upon a cross. He took upon himself the punishment for the sins of all humanity and offered up for us greatest of all sacrifices. On his right and his left were two men who were also being executed for their crimes. The good thief turned towards Jesus and sought forgiveness. The other thief turned from Jesus, mocking him.

On the cross of Christ hung the salvation and redemption of the world. Through this sacrifice the gates of heaven were opened and the offer of eternal life with God in heaven was given. This is an offer extended to us through sacrificial love and because it is an offering of love it comes with a choice.

The cross of the good thief represents God’s offer of mercy. To die upon that cross means to have a turning of the heart back towards God. One must be truly sorry for the sins they have committed. One needs to be contrite and ask for God’s forgiveness. That forgiveness depends on our willingness to forgive each other. Lord, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. If we want 100% of God’s mercy, we have to be willing to give 100% of our mercy.

The cross of the other thief represents the Justice of God. If we choose not to turn to the Lord with a contrite heart and choose love of self over love of God, we will receive God’s justice for what we have done in our lives. We will be given that for which we deserve. Hell is our final destination.

We get to choose which cross we get to die upon. Our choice becomes binding at our deaths. We will be asked one question when we are called to stand before our Lord at the end of our days.

“Do you love me?”

More important than our answer to that question will be the cross that we bear when asked it. Jesus said to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow him. We will be found carrying the cross of mercy for the love of God or will we be found being the cross of love of self and worldly things.

That is a choice only you can make.

The fiery crucible in which true heroes are forged.

If you ever get the chance to visit the holy land or a middle eastern city and venture out into the marketplace you might come across a silver or goldsmith working his trade. It is quite interesting to watch. They heat a crucible with an intense fire until it is glowing red. Then they drop the ore containing the gold or silver into the crucible and it begins to melt. As it melts some of the impurities in the metal float to the top and are burned off. Others drop to the bottom. What you are left with is pure silver and gold. When the time is right the smith pours off the liquid into whatever mold he is using. If you were to ask the smith when he knew the metal was pure and ready to be poured, he will tell you that when he can look into the liquid and see his face the metal is ready.

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

- 1 Peter 1: 6-9

It is no coincidence that there are many places in scripture that refers to our faith being tested like gold in a furnace. We are allowed to experience pain and sorrow, temptation and suffering, so that our faith in God may be purified. We all were made in the image and likeness of God. That image was veiled when sin entered the world. You could say that the image of God was covered over by the ore of sin. It has never been lost. It lies deep inside us waiting to be uncovered.

Just as gold ore needs to be purified before it can be made into a beautiful necklace, our souls need purification before we can stand before God. Nothing imperfect can enter heaven. Likewise, nothing perfect can enter hell. Life is the crucible in which we are placed to be purified. The trials and sufferings of this life are the fire of God’s love that slowly purifies us. When God can look into the crucible and see his image in us, we are ready to spend eternity with him in heaven. We have been given this life to reclaim that image in which we were made. Recovering that image always results in a loss. When we give up our earthly attachments we will be less than what we were going in, but what is left behind is far more valuable.

God does not delight in our suffering. It was not the plan he had for us. God allows us to suffer so that our imperfections can be known to us. He knows our imperfections better than we ever could. We do not know where our faith is weakest until we are tested. It is only then that we can reach out to God and ask for his healing hand in our lives.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

- Ezekiel 36: 26

Suffering is the currency of love. We only love someone in as much as we are willing to suffer for them. That is what makes the crucifixion the greatest act of love mankind will ever know. Currency is only as good as the thing it is spent upon. Money hoarded in a jar under the bed is utterly useless. Suffering, being the currency of love, is just as useless when kept for one’s self. Catholics believe in redemptive suffering. St. Paul said that he makes up in his own body that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ on the cross. What could possible be lacking in the crucifixion? Quite simply, our participation in it.

When we unite our suffering with Christ’s, it is taken up to heaven and offered for the salvation and redemption of mankind. The Father takes our offering, blesses it, and returns it to us as his grace. This gives our suffering far greater purpose than just the purification of our souls. We get to participate in the sanctification of the world. When done out of love this greatly pleases the Father.

Suffering is not something to be feared or avoided when it is understood properly. It is God’s loving hand trying to get you to heaven. Offer it to him as your personal sacrifice, united with Jesus’ crucifixion. If you are capable and willing ask God to allow you to bear the suffering for another who may not be able to bear it for themselves. It is a great act of love to suffer for another and love is never waisted with God. When you suffer ask God to help you bear the suffering with dignity so that you can be the example to others of what the face of redemptive suffering looks like.

May God look into the crucible of your life and see his image therein.

I Want

The Fall of Mankind

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.”

The sin of Eve was taking that for yourself that God did not freely give. Eve was not only the mother of all humanity but she was also the mother of all sin. She led her husband into sin, but Adam’s greatest sin was not so much that he ate the forbidden fruit his wife gave him to eat, but that he failed to protect his wife from the serpent. Adam’s greatest mistake was blaming God and his wife for his failure. Adam did not have a repentant heart. Instead of owning his mistake he blamed others for it. We may still be living in the garden of Eden if only Adam could have asked for forgiveness.

My mother claimed to be Buddhist. In the last week of her life, as she lay dying in the hospital, she asked to speak to a minister. I went to the Lutheran church of my childhood to ask the pastor there if he would visit my mother. The he was actually a she, a woman pastor. In our conversation I told her that I was in formation to be a Roman Catholic deacon. She scoffed at this and told me that she was once also Catholic. She chose to leave the Church because they would not allow her to become a priest.

“So,” I replied, “The sin of Eve then?” She looked at me quizzically. “Taking that for yourself that God did not freely give.” The pretty much ended our conversation.

Desire is one of the most powerful and the most cunning weapons in the devil’s arsenal. It is also one of the easiest he has to use. God put into the human heart great desire. The first desire is the desire to know, love, and be with our God. The entire purpose of life is to learn to love the way God loves so that we can reclaim the image of him who we were created in. We all were created in the image and likeness of God, but that image and likeness was veiled by Eve’s sin.

We were also instilled with a great desire to be in relationship with one another. We were created by Love, through love, for love, to be loved, and to love. Love longs to be shared and it grows when it is. In the slightly modified words of Obi-Wan Kenobi,

“Love is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."

Because desire is such a strong emotion, it can easily be manipulated. This is why we are surrounded by a constant barrage of advertisements. Advertisements attempt to manipulate your desire to make you believe you truly need whatever they have to offer. The devil manipulates desire in the same way to get us to sin. Anyone who loves God never wants to do anything to hurt him. Adam and Eve certainly weren’t looking to hurt God when they ate the forbidden fruit. The problem is that we are so blinded by desire that we can’t see the damage that will happen if we give in to the object of that desire.

With desire God gave us the ability to discern. We are to use our intellect to determine if something we want is good for us or not. It is not enough to discern if something is good for us alone. We also have to be aware of how our choices affect those around us. We are called to be in relationship with one another so we also need to be concerned how our choices affect those we are in relationship with.

Vocation means to be called. We often associate it with the clergy and religious. I was called to be a deacon. In reality, we are all called to a specific purpose. Some are called to be teachers, some soldiers, others are called to be great leaders, and some are called to be mothers. Life is like a finely tuned Swiss watch. It runs perfectly when all parts are doing the tasks they were created to do. None of the parts are more important than the others. Even the smallest cog fulfills a great purpose and if it fails to do what it was created to do the whole watch fails in its purpose.

The trouble is that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit capable of calling a person to something. The evil spirit can do this as well. This is why it is so crucial to discern every calling. A calling from God will never go against something God has established. A calling from God is always for the betterment of the people he loves. Any calling that goes against something God has commanded is never from God no matter how strong it may be.

Take for instance our Lutheran pastor. She felt called by God to be a priest. She felt it so strongly that when it was denied to her, she left the Church that God created to seek that which a man-made church allowed her to do. God established the all-male priesthood. There is good theology as to why he did this but that will have to be a topic for another day. If God established the all-male priesthood and he wanted it to be an all-male priesthood only, he would never put the desire into a woman’s heart to be a priest. The devil, on the other hand, would put the desire to be a priest into a woman’s heart. Just as he used Eve to destroy man’s relationship with God in the garden, he uses women in an attempt to destroy the priesthood and, through that, the Church from within.

At the heart of every sin is the desire to take for ourselves that which God does not freely give. Sin always begins with, “I want.”

Sheep or Goat - Your Choice

The Judgment

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

-Matthew 25: 31-46

The United States is a country built upon the immigrant. The four years of the Biden administration has seen an influx of tens of millions of new immigrants from all over the world. Rolling the calendar over to 2025, we expect there to be a concentrated effort by President Trump to deport as many of these people as he can.

Every country has a duty to protect its citizens. Regardless of your political leanings, we all should be able agree that letting millions of unvetted people roam free in our country is not necessarily safe. Just from a health standpoint alone we have no idea of the diseases that our population has now been exposed to. There are diseases that we no longer inoculate for because we believe them to be irradicated that would wreak havoc upon our population if they were exposed. The call for mass deportation is not made out of fear or hatred for the immigrant. The safety of our citizens must be given priority.

But as Christians, that is not our top priority. In fact, unless we work for one of the many agencies whose job it will be to handle this situation, the legal status of a person in this country should not even be a concern for us. We do not reserve our love and care for those with legal status only. Jesus is very clear when he tells us that the place we will spend eternity is dependent to how we respond to those in need. He does not preface his parable by talking about the legality of a person in need. That is because sacrificial love knows no bounds. We are commanded to care for everyone in need regardless of who they are, where they are from, or why they are here, including those who wish to do us harm.

Yes, we are called to care for our enemies because even they have been made in the image and likeness of God and have been bestowed with the same dignity inherent in every person. That does not mean that we allow them to roam free and do as they wish. But it also means that we do not torture or abuse them either.

The coming years are going to put our faith to the test. The government is going to count on you to assist them in gathering up all those who came here in the last four years. I can’t help but to have the images of cattle cars full of Jews who were rounded up in WWII stuck in my head. No, we do not have an evil government and we won’t be sending these people off to their deaths, but back to their countries of origin. That is a distinction we have to draw. At the same time, it will indeed bring the deaths of some we do send back. That is a fact we have to acknowledge and accept.

During the covid pandemic some government agencies set up hotlines you could call and report your family or neighbors who had a gathering of people in their homes or other places. We can expect the same type of hotlines setup to report where those who are here illegally are hiding. We will be encouraged to do our part for the safety of our country. We, by all means, should be reporting any known activity that puts another in danger, like Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gangs that are terrorizing so many neighborhoods in our country. As people of God we should never call these numbers to report the immigrant family who wants nothing more than to have a better life for themselves and contribute to society.

The Holy Family were once refugees themselves, fleeing from their home country to another because the king of that country wanted to kill an innocent baby over fears that he would one day rise up and take his power. When we give aid to refugee families who are here for much the same reason we give aid to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. As Jesus said in the parable, “What you have done for the least of these you have done for me.”

Do not find yourself on the wrong side of this coin when you go to stand before Jesus to render an account for your life. A false sense of patriotic duty does not come before a command of God. We have been commanded to love and care for those in need around us. Failure to do so will have you grouped with the goats who will depart to the place created for the devil and his demons.

Duty vs Charity

In the parable of the sheep and the goats Jesus makes it very clear that we are to care for those who need our help. He promises heaven for those who perform the corporal works of mercy while warning that hell awaits those who refuse a person in need. To review, the corporal works of mercy are:

• To feed the hungry.
• To give water to the thirsty.
• To clothe the naked.
• To shelter the homeless.
• To visit the sick.
• To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive.
• To bury the dead.

For a Christian, this means doing more than just handing some cash to the homeless guy on the corner holding a cardboard sign. We have forgotten the difference between duty and charity. Duty is something we are obligated to do. Charity is something we do out of love. Suffering is the currency of love, so true charity involves suffering and sacrifice.

We have the duty to care for someone when we are able. For example –

You see a homeless man shivering in the cold without a coat. You remember that you have a spare coat in your closet at home that you are not using. You go home, get the coat, and give it to the man.

Although you may be feeling charitable for doing this, it is not charity. This is a duty we are obliged to do. We have something extra that someone who needs it does not have. We are giving from our abundance. The devil wants us to feel charitable because the more charitable we feel the less charitable we are willing to be. God does not want us to feel charitable. He wants us to be charitable.

True charity involves suffering and sacrifice. Charity does not rely on a feeling or look for anything in return. Charity is only concerned about the good of another. It is charitable when you give a homeless man the coat off your back, knowing that he needs it more than you do. You will have to suffer for a time until you can replace the coat for yourself.

It pleases God when we are willing to suffer for one another. We have been given this life to learn to love how God loves, which is sacrificially. The more we love without limit the more we reclaim the image that we were created in.

As Christians, we are called to be both dutiful and charitable with others. It does not matter who they are, where they came from, their orientation, they way they vote, immigration status, or any other reason you can conjure up. As Jesus says in the parable, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Who's Mom's Favorite?

One of the biggest debates between my sisters and me was which one of us was my father’s favorite child. The week before he died, he called all three of us into his hospital room and decided to end the debate once and for all. He told us the order of his most to least favorite child.

Most parents will say that they love all of their children equally. That does not mean that you favor your children equally. There are valid reasons to favor one child over another. A child may have a special need that requires more attention. Some favor their first born or their last born. Some favor a daughter over a son or vice versa. Some children are more independent and some more needy. Every child is different.

The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was a perpetual virgin. She did not have any children other than Jesus. We believe this because she stood at the foot of the cross with only friends and relatives. The last thing Jesus did upon the cross was to entrust the care of his mother to his beloved disciple. If Mary had any other children this, not only would have not been necessary, but it would have been scandalous for Jesus to do. Jesus fulfilled the command to honor thy mother and father and would have not violated Jewish custom by entrusting his mother to Saint John had he had any siblings or step-siblings.

Mary’s perpetual virginity was a gift to her. It allowed her to dedicate her life and her love solely to Jesus. Imagine the jealousy that being the brother or sister of Jesus would have caused. Mom loves you best because you’re God. Of course you’re mom’s favorite!

But this doesn’t only apply to Mary. It causes issues for Joseph as well.

There is a (t)radition in the Eastern Church that Joseph was an older man and a widow. The thought is that he had children with his first wife. This is a belief that the Western Church does not hold. Personally, I believe we can use the same logic we use to say that Mary had no other children with Joseph as well.

The infancy narrative in the gospel of Luke tells us that Joseph had to go back to his ancestorial home of Bethlehem to be counted in a mandatory census. He traveled there with Mary when she was ready to give birth. If Joseph had any other children, they too would have had to go to Bethlehem to be counted in the mandatory census. If this is true then one of two things would have happened. The first is that Joseph and Mary would have stayed with Joseph’s other children. But this wasn’t the case. They tried to find room at an inn. If Joseph had other children and they had no place to stay they would have stayed in the stable with Joseph and Mary. The gospel does not say that either of these things happened.

In fact, no gospel ever mentions Joseph having other children in any story of the infant Jesus. They were not mentioned when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had to flee to Egypt. They were not mentioned when Jesus was presented in the temple. They weren’t mentioned when Jesus was lost and then found in the temple at the age of twelve. Joseph and Mary’s only concern was finding him. There is no mention of other children until late into Jesus’ public ministry when scripture talks about the brethren of the Lord. Protestants, who want to believe that Mary was just a normal person with a normal life and a normal marriage, read this out of context to support their desire that Jesus had brothers and sisters. If Mary was just another schmuck like the rest of us there would be no reason to pay her the honor she deserves.

Now imagine being Joseph and having other children, either with a first wife or with Mary. He would have been just the foster father of Jesus while being the actual father to other children. It would have made it very difficult not to favor those children who came first or biological children who came after. This would be especially true if Mary dedicated herself to Jesus and the other kids relied more upon their father. Joseph was not created immaculately and was subject to the same concupiscence we all are. Having only one child, a child that God asked him to care for as his very own, would have been just as much a gift to Joseph as he was for Mary.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. Mary so loved God that she did the same thing. She gave her only son for the salvation and redemption of the world.

Thank You!

When I first entered into formation one of the people in my class asked me to tell my conversion story. Because he was not alone, I created this blog. My family and the majority of my friends were not Catholic, so when I finished telling my story I decided to use this blog to explain why Catholics do the things they do.

What started with just a handful of people reading has now been read by people in over seventy-seven different countries. I am amazed at how one small voice can reach people in every corner of the globe and I am truly humbled by it.

To all of you who have taken the time to read something on this blog I would like to say thank you. You are the reason I continue to write. If you are reading this, take a moment to leave me a comment with your first name and where you are at in the world. I will offer a prayer of thanksgiving and ask for you to be blessed.Please pray for me that I be inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit to always be a holy man who serves God's people with love and humility.

Topics for new blogs are always welcome. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions feel free to email them to me at DeaconBobCollins@gmail.com. Perhaps you can inspire the next blog entry.

THANK YOU!

Is Purgatory Necessary?

Catholic belief is that purgatory is a state of being between this world and the next where a person goes when they die if they warrant heaven and is not yet in a state of perfection. Non-Catholic Christians reject the idea of purgatory and believe a person goes directly to heaven when they die. I am going to explain the Catholic teaching on purgatory so you can better understand why it is not only a very beautiful teaching, but a very necessary one as well.

In The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, senior tempter, Screwtape, refers to humans as amphibians-half spirit and half animal. As spirits we belong to the eternal world, the supernatural world, but as animals we inhabit time. This means that while our spirits can be directed to an eternal object, our bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change.

Heaven is eternal or outside of time. If time is the measurement of continual change, and there is not time in heaven, there is no change in heaven. Those in heaven do not change. God is perfect, sacrificial love. Nothing imperfect can exist in the direct presence of God. For a person to be in the direct presence of God he must be perfect as God is perfect.

When God created the angels, he made them perfect, with full knowledge of who he is. They were given free will to worship and serve God or to serve themselves. Because angels can enter heaven and stand before God in timelessness, they have to be in a state of non-change. Once an angel makes their choice it is binding on them for all eternity. This is why angels who were cast out of heaven can never receive salvation and redemption. They are cursed to hell forever.

None of us achieve perfection in this life. We are given this life to work on our perfection, that is, we were given this life to learn to love the way God loves. When we die, we still have work to do. Non-Catholic Christians believe that when we die God takes us where we are at and automatically brings us to the fulfilment of perfection. Perfected, this person is now able to enter into the presence of God in heaven.

The problem with this idea is that it nullifies free will. God respects our free will above all else for not to do so would violate his very nature. God is total, sacrificial love. Love can never be forced. For love to exist there must be a choice. Free will exists so that we can choose to love or reject God. No free will, no ability to love God in return.

This creates a dilemma with the non-Catholic Christian understanding of what happens at our deaths. When we die, we cannot stay here. If God cannot automatically bring us to the fulfillment of perfection, we are unable to behold him in heaven. If we cannot stay here and we cannot enter heaven, where do we go?

The Jews believe in a place called Sheol, or the shadow world known as the Shades. Sheol is a place of stillness and darkness. If you lived a righteous life you would go to the part of Sheol known as the Bosom of Abraham. If you lived an immoral life your soul was consigned to the abyss, or the pit of hell reserved for the devil and his demons.

The Catholic belief of purgatory is similar to Sheol. Purgatory is a place of purgation where we learn to let go of our attachments to this life. This is a place where our love is perfected until only sacrificial love remains. Purgatory is more of a state of being than a physical place. When we die our souls are separated from our bodies and it is our souls that enter into purgatory. Because there is still change there is still time but time is experienced differently. In purgatory we are transitioning from time into timelessness.

Imagine being in a completely dark room with no light. Your eyes become a custom to the dark. Then imagine that you are sudden cast into the brightest light you have ever seen. The light would be so painful to your eyes that you would clench them tightly shut. You would be in agony until your eyes had the time to adjust to the light.

Going from this world into the presence of God is much like that. We are going from the darkness of this world into light itself. God’s light is so bright that we are blinded by it no matter how tightly we try to clutch our eyes shut. Purgatory is a place that allows us to come slowly into the light, only as fast as our eyes can adjust to it.

Purgatory is a very beautiful teaching of the Church. God allows us to continue to grow closer to him even after our time here is complete. It would be so much easier if God could just snap his fingers and make us perfect like him so we can be with him in heaven without having to do a thing ourselves. But if he could do that there would be no purpose for this life. If I have to be perfect to enter heaven, and God cannot just automatically make me perfect when I die, purgatory becomes a very necessary place.

An Army of One

There once was a young man who wanted to serve his country. When he was of legal age, he joined the army and went off to boot camp. After finishing all of his training he was stationed at an army base in Germany. There he went about his day doing all of the things a soldier does, obeying the commands of the officers above him.

The young soldier, however, did not agree with the way the base was being run and with some of the things that they were required to do. He thought that he knew a better way and made suggestions to his superiors on how they should be doing things. He was reminded that he was in the army and that the army had a particular way it did things. Unable to be obedient to the oath he took when he enlisted, the young man decided to leave the army.

But the young man still wanted to serve the country he dearly loved, so he started his own militia. He modeled his militia after the army. It looked like the army. It did army things. It even used the army manual which the young man modified, removing the sections he did not agree with, and changing others to align with his personal opinion on how an army should work.

His militia attracted many people to it who wanted to serve as he did but believed that the army had gone astray and no longer served the purpose for which it was created. They believed themselves to be the true army.

And then, one day it happened. One of the men who had enlisted into the militia and was trained by the militia thought he knew a better way to run the militia. When he was told that this was the militia and that the militia had a particular way of doing things, he too, decided to set out on his own and start his own militia and run it according to his own option on what was right and true. This quickly became a trend as more and more people broke off to start their own militias based upon their own opinions on how best to serve the country. What started off as a few became hundreds, then thousands, and eventually tens of thousands.

The only thing that all of the militias can agree upon is that the army is wrong. Many believe the army to be the true enemy. Some have pulled so far away that their militia no longer resembles the army at all. On occasion, someone reads the actual army manual, the one without sections removed or pages changed, and begins to question why it is thought that the army is wrong. Seeking understanding of the truth, many leave their respective militias and join the army.

Disclaimer - This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Or is it?

The Meaning of Life

One of the oldest pursuits of man is to find the meaning of life. Why am I here? What difference does any of it make? The Baltimore Catechism, which originated at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 asks the question,

“Why did God make me?”

It answers the question with,

“God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world, and to be with him forever in heaven.”

God brings every person into this world because he wishes to be with that person forever in heaven.

When God made the angels he gave them all knowledge of who he is. Who is God? God is pure, sacrificial love. Love can never be forced upon another. Love can only be offered. This means that all persons, angelic and human, must be able to accept or reject God’s infinite love. To be able to reject God’s love there must be something other than his love to choose from. Hell exists as a choice so that love can therefore also exist. Because the angels were created with full knowledge of who God is their free will choice, once made, is binding upon them for all of eternity. The devil cannot repent of his pride and reenter heaven.

God went a different route when he created us. Mankind was created with no knowledge of who God is. God put into our hearts an infinite hole only he can fill, which creates within us the desire to know our creator. Then he slowly reveals himself to us over time. In a way, this allows us to court our God and fall in love with him. Our free will choice to accept or reject God’s love becomes binding on us at the moment of our death. God sends no one to hell. We choose hell by rejecting God’s infinite love for us. This makes the ultimate purpose of our lives to know our creator so we can freely accept the love he has for us and spend all of eternity with him in heaven.

We were created in the image and likeness of God. If God is sacrificial love, then that is the image we were created in. Because of the disobedience of our original parents, we are fallen, broken creatures. We no longer conform to the image we were created in. We have been given our time on earth to reclaim that image. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. If heaven at the end of our lives is the goal we desire, we need to spend our lives configuring ourselves as closely as we can to the image of Jesus. Does that mean we have to swing a hammer for a living, walk on water, or cure lepers? What does the image of Christ look like and how can we conform our lives to look like his?

The answer is three-fold.

Sacrificial love is the highest form of all love, a supernatural love. It is a love that puts the good of the other above all else. This is the love God has for the world –

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

This is the love Jesus has for us –

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13

And it is this love that Jesus has commanded we have for each other –

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” – John 3:34.

How did Jesus love us? He gave up his life as a sacrifice for us. This is the kind of love we are called to have for one another. We are to sacrifice for the good of one another. What a different world this would be if we all could put the needs of the other before our own selfish desires.

In 1 Samuel 15:23 we read,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the word of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Obedience is more pleasing to God than sacrifice. In fact, sacrifice would never have been necessary if our first parents were obedient to God. Sacrifice, and now penance, is only necessary because we are disobedient to God’s commands. Jesus’ obedience and sacrifice on the cross repaired the damage that is done by our disobedience and makes it possible for eternal life in heaven to be offered to us. But eternal life is only possible if we obey God’s commands. We cannot be disobedient to God and think that he will allow us to live with him in an intimate union with him for all eternity.

God gave us the Ten Commandments, commandments that flow from the very nature of God, which is sacrificial love. Jesus summarized these commandments down to two; Love God above all else, and love each other with the same love God has for us. When we follow these two commandments, we are obedient to God and our obedience is more pleasing to him than any penance we can offer.

Through his death on the cross Jesus won for us the salvation of the world and opened to us the gates of heaven. But if this is all he did for us it would not have been enough. Through the disobedience of our first parents, we became slaves to death. As slaves we needed to be ransomed back from death. Jesus’ suffering and death redeemed mankind. Redeem means to buy back. Jesus bought us back at the cost of his suffering and death. Suffering is the currency in which love is measured. You only love someone as much as you are willing to suffer for them. Ask any loving parent who has had to watch their child suffer and they will tell you that they would gladly take their place if it were possible.

Through Adam’s sin we were sold into slavery. The ransom for our freedom was set so high that no mere human could every pay it. It required God to become one of us, to offer his blood of infinite worth to free us from the bonds of slavery. As Catholics, we believe in redemptive suffering. If suffering is the currency of love, God can use our suffering to give love and grace to ourselves or others in need. Saint Paul teaches that, through the Mass the crucifixion is made present to us so we can make up in our bodies that which is lacking in crucifixion of Christ. What could possibly be lacking in the crucifixion of Christ? Quite simply, our participation in it. We are allowed to unite our suffering with that of Jesus’ and share in the redemption of mankind.

The purpose of life is therefore this: to conform our lives to the image and likeness of Jesus, to be obedient to his commands to love God and each other with sacrificial love, and to demonstrate that love through our redemptive suffering for the good of each other.

Time is a Mystery

Time is a mystery. When we hear the word mystery we think of a who-done-it. The actual meaning from the Greek is ‘a thing whispered’. This is what the Church means when she says that something is a mystery. It is not so much a secret as it is a thing whispered. Time is a mystery.

For us, the past is locked in time. What has happened has happened. We are powerless to change it. The future is yet to be written. We know not what it holds. The present is the current moment where time intersects with eternity. One moment later it is the past and one moment to come is the future. We are stuck in the eternal moment of now.

Things are much different for God. God is in the what we call the eternal now, not the eternal moment of now. That means for God every moment of time, from the very first moment to the very last moment, is the same moment. Everything is now. Being omnipresent, everywhere is here for God. Every place that has ever existed, exists now, and will exist are the same place for God.

The Church teaches that Mary was conceived without the original stain of sin. She was immaculately conceived. It is taught that God borrowed from the salvation won for us through the crucifixion of his son and applied it to Mary at the moment of her conception. For us creatures stuck in the eternal moment of time, it would appear that God took from the future and applied it to the past. But for God in the eternal now this happened at the same moment. The moment that Mary was conceived is the same moment Jesus was crucified.

It has been said that the Catholic Mass acts as a conduit through which time and space are connected and we are brought to the actual crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary. Through the Mass, we enter into God’s eternal now and Jesus’ crucifixion is made present to us. The supernatural reality of this is veiled to our eyes so we can come to believe in it by our own free will. Love can never be forced and the crucifixion is the greatest act of love that will ever happen. The Mass is made present to us so that we can participate in it. We have to die with Jesus if we are to rise with him to eternal life. We have to choose the cross of mercy or receive the cross of justice.

To God, all people are alive in the eternal now. This means that every person who has ever lived, is living, or will live in the future is alive to God now. We pray for those who are in need of our prayers in our time. We pray for the repose of the souls of those who have passed. We pray for those in purgatory. We limit our prayers based upon our understanding of time.

I would like to introduce a radical idea for prayer. One not restricted by our understanding of time. We are not limited to praying for only those in our time, or the ones who have recently passed, or the one in purgatory. Because we pray to a God who is in the eternal now, we can pray for any person who has ever lived or will live in the future.

Yesterday was June 6, 2024. We remembered those who died at the invasion of Normandy eighty years ago. I urged my brothers in my Knights of Columbus council to take a few moments and say a prayer for those men who died that day and the days to follow on both sides of the line. Our prayers cannot change the past but God can use them to deliver his grace to those who need it at that time. Prayers are offered in love and love is never wasted with God. Love knows no bounds, including the bounds of time and space.

In the same manner, we can also pray for those who will come. We don’t know who they will be but we can still pray for their good. God will use these prayers to also give grace. We can pray for our children’s children. We can pray for our world. We can pray for those who will face their death. That love we offer will be used for their good. Love is never wasted with God.

So pray as it you had all of the time in the world because we pray to a God who does.

Hope

After Mass one Sunday I was approached by a parishioner with a question. She wanted to know if our resurrection is a given. When I said it was if we trusted in the Lord, she asked why then we say we hope for the resurrection in the Mass. Why would we hope for something we know will come?

The answer is that we have two types of hope. We have natural, or worldly hope, and we have supernatural hope.

Natural hope is the longing for something that may never be. I hope that the Cubs will win a World Series again in my lifetime. That may or may not happen. Chances are it won’t, so I hope all the more.

Supernatural hope is not the longing for something that will never be but the anticipation of a promise fulfilled. Jesus has promised that if we trust in him we will have everlasting life. We hope in the resurrection or we wait in anticipation for Jesus’ promise of everlasting life to come to fruition.

My hope is that the Cubs win the Series before my real hope in the resurrection is fulfilled.

Communities that play together pray together

Attendance in the Catholic Church in Europe and the United States has been in decline for decades. A lot of ink has been spilled on the reasons for this and a lot of thought has been put into how we can reverse this trend. The faith is on fire in places like Africa where people will literally put their life on the line to attend Mass. What is the difference between there and here? Why is the faith on fire in Africa but waning here?

At one point I would have answered that question with the word relevance. The Church in the US is getting smaller because a relationship with God has lost its relevance in our lives. We have replaced the one true God for a multitude of false gods that we give priority to. Ironically, the devil has used free will to lure people away from God by giving them an overabundance of choices. There is not just an overabundance of Christian religions to choose from, but an overabundance of things we can spend our time on. We no longer need to gather at a church to spend time with people. We no longer even need to actually gather with people to fulfill our need for social interaction. We can now do that from the safety of our phones and computer screens without actually meeting someone face to face. This gives us the ability to appear loving, caring, and compassionate when, in reality, we really don’t give a hoot for others. The more I think about this, the more I realize that it is not relevance or choice that has pulled people away from organized religion. The true root of the problem is love.

God is love, agape or sacrificial love. Sacrificial love is the highest form of love. It is a supernatural love that puts the good of the other before the self. We were created in the image and likeness of God. We were created in the image and likeness of sacrificial love. But we are fallen creatures who love imperfectly. Love must be learned. We are given this life to learn to love as God loves. Most have a difficulty getting past love of self.

There are three rules for love that even God with his infinite power and knowledge respects. The first rule of love is that for love to exist there has to be a giver and a receiver. Sacrificial love could not exist if there was nothing to sacrifice for. If God had to depend on his creation to receive his love, he would cease to be God, for there would be something greater than himself. This is one of the reasons we have a Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share an infinite, sacrificial, agape love between themselves. God needs nothing from his creation.

The second rule of love is that love has to be freely given. Love cannot be forced. There is a particular term for forced love that it comes with a prison sentence. God cannot force anyone to love him or anyone else. Love is a gift freely offered. It is not always accepted or returned.

The third rule for love is that for love to exist there has to be a choice. If there is no choice but love then love is being forced. This is why the tree of knowledge was put in the Garden of Eden. This is one of the reasons there is suffering in this world. Suffering exists so that love can exist.

I have no memory of my father ever attending a church service other than for a wedding or a funeral. I have no doubt the love my father had for God. I can look back now and clearly see the goodness of God working through my father. He required that his children have a religious upbringing and the family church was Lutheran. My “official” religious training started when I was three years old. I was enrolled in the Sunday school program and never missed a week. I went two weeks a year for vacation bible school and added Wednesday nights when I got to confirmation age.

On confirmation day, we went from being children of God to adult members of the church. Mid-week school and vacation bible school became memories of our youth. We were now expected to actively participate in the adult service and were no longer allowed in the children’s classes. I missed the intimate instruction and really didn’t care for the service. My church life plummeted faster than a rock thrown down a well. Now an adult, church attendance was left up to me and I chose not to darken the doorstep of any church for a good eight years.

I was a fallen-away Christian. Why? I had spent all of my youth to that point in church. I was taught all about God and the bible. Jesus loves me, this I know. Cuz the bible tells me so. Hopefully many of you now have that song stuck in your head. If I was asked back then I think I would have told you that I knew God loves me. I would have probably also said that I loved God too. So why then did I get as far away from Church the second it was my choice?

Growing up, Church was an obligation. I did not have a choice in the matter. I was going and in that there was no debate. Love cannot be forced, so when you are forced to do something, you cannot truly love it. When you cannot love the church, you cannot truly love God either. When you separate the church from God you are left with nothing more than a building. You love the church because she is the bride of God and inseparable from him. You cannot love God and despise his bride.

The Catholic Mass acts as a conduit between space and time. The Catholic Church teaches that the Mass re-presents Jesus’ crucifixion on Calvary. I think a more accurate statement is that the Mass makes the crucifixion present to us in our time and place, although the supernatural reality of that is veiled to our eyes. To see the supernatural reality unveiled to us would remove all doubt and our faith would become knowledge. Another word for faith is trust. Trust in Jesus is what saves us, not our knowledge of who Jesus is. To see the supernatural reality of the crucifixion removes trust and leaves us with knowledge.

The Catholic Church teaches that attending Sunday Mass is an obligation; it is a requirement for being Catholic. Again, love cannot be forced, so when you are forced to do something, you cannot truly love it. Being forced to do something you do not truly love many times has the opposite effect and drives you away from it. Mass was not an obligation for me as I was converting from the Lutheran faith to the Catholic faith. The more I came to understand the faith, the more I came to love it and the more I came to love Christ’s bride, the more I came to love him.

That is the secret to bringing people back to the faith. The early Church was united in a common life. Because of the number of choices we have, we no longer share a common life. We gather together for forty-five minutes each week to worship God and then we go our separate ways. The first step to restoring the Church is restoring the communal life we used to share. We need to gather as a people for more than just worship. Bible studies and faith talks are great but they only bring in those who enjoy Mass and they do nothing to attract the youth who long to be anywhere but church.

Before covid happened, my parish offered coffee and donuts after all Masses. People from all walks of life came to this gathering, most notably were the young families with children. The parents gathered to talk about parent things while the kids played together. When covid hit all of this ceased. When we closed the churches, young families also ceased to come. We have never recovered from this. We have brought back donut Sunday and people are slowly starting to trickle back it. If the Church is going to have a future in the United States, we are going to have to get creative in finding ways to reestablish our community. Jesus is the head of the body but he is also center of our community. As the community grows the opportunity to fall in love with God also grows. When one is in love with God Mass is never just an obligation. Mass is an opportunity to be with God and with a family that we will be spending eternity with.