I am more than fifty pounds overweight. I have suffered with
high blood pressure and gout since I was about eighteen. I am also a type two
diabetic and have the beginning stages of neuropathy and vision problems
related to that. I have heart disease and had a quintuple bypass at the age of
forty-five. My heart was over 90% blocked. Needless to say, I am in poor shape.
Sadly, I am not alone. Over 40% of the American population is in the same boat
and that number grows every day. As the American lifestyle spreads throughout
the world so do our health problems.
Yet, there is hope. I have found a cure. I have found a pill
that reverses every disease that I suffer with. It has been medically proven to
end obesity, reverse diabetes and heart disease, and even clear my blocked
arteries. There are doctors screaming at the top of their lungs trying to get
the news out. People in my predicament either haven’t heard, don’t believe, or
choose not to accept the cure. My brother in the diaconate told me about it and
I have seen this miracle work in his life. I’ve done my research. I am a
believer.
What is this miracle pill you may ask? Well, it’s not really
a pill. It is a whole foods, plant based diet that concentrates on starch as
the primary fuel source. Whoa, hang on a minute. That’s code for vegan. Well,
yes and no. A WFPB diet does qualify as a vegan diet but many vegan diets don’t
qualify as a WFPB diet. It’s a square-rectangle sort of thing.
Now, I know that I have lost over half the people reading
this blog. There is just no way they are willing to look at giving up eating
meat and oil and fat even it is the key to having a long healthy life. They are
unwilling to listen even if it means saving their life. They want their
hamburgers and bacon and steaks more than they want a healthy life. The desire
for something pleasurable today outweighs life in abundance tomorrow.
And that is exactly the nature of sin. Christ offers us life
in abundance if we love him. What is the proof of love?
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
– John 14:15
So, we show our love for Jesus by following his teachings.
Only the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth. Jesus passed his teachings
down to his Disciples, who passed them on to their replacements, continually through
time, until we end up with the Pope and the Magisterium. The Catholic Church is
the pillar and bulwark of the truth today (1 Timothy 3:15). When people
disagree with the Catholic Church when it comes to faith or morals they do not
disagree with the Church, they disagree with Jesus.
We sin, that is, we choose to disobey one of God’s commands
for one of two reasons: desire or fear. We choose to disobey God because we
desire a temporary pleasure that we are not allowed or because we fear some
sort of pain or suffering. Our society is not only physically obese but we are
spiritually obese as well. Our society, which once claimed to be predominantly
Christian, is leaving the mainstream Christian faiths for a more “spiritual”,
personal relationship with Jesus. Of course that relationship is more like the
one you have with a neighbor you never talk to and only occasionally wave at if
you happen to see them taking out their trash.
People claim they love Jesus yet have no desire to follow
his commands because, well, they are just too restrictive. I want to sleep with
anyone I please, marry whomever I desire for any amount of time I deem long
enough, lie, cheat, steal, and kill offspring I am not ready to care for. As a
matter of fact, I don’t even want to follow the natural law and define my
gender for myself solely based upon what my feelings are today. God created
them man and woman in his image. Man and woman pushed God out of the picture
and recreated themselves in an image of their choosing.
We are physically obese because we choose our desire to eat
what we please over what we are designed to eat. We are spiritually obese
because we choose to sin through desire over loving Jesus. Both types of
obesity lead to death. Physical obesity leads to a poor life and mortal death.
Spiritual obesity also leads to a poor life but ends with eternal death.
For some of us it takes a near death experience, like a
clogged heart and a quintuple bypass, to wake us from our slumber to make the
changes necessary to live. It is not too late to throw out that bacon and pick
up an apple. If you are reading, this it is also not too late to start actually
loving Jesus and begin following his commands. God desires obedience more than
sacrifice – 1 Samuel 15. Turn to him with a contrite heart and take that first
step to spiritual fitness.
