Breathe

“Father,
may everything we do
begin with your inspiration
and continue with your saving help
Let our work always find its origin in you
And through you reach completion.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.”

The modern definition of inspiration is the drawing in of breath. A more exact meaning is to breathe into something. The Greek word used for Holy Spirit in Holy Scripture is  pneuma.  Pneuma deals with the movement of air. It is also translated as wind or breath. Anywhere in Holy Scripture you see the word wind or spirit you can substitute breath, as in the breath of God. It really gives scripture a new feel when read this way.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the breath of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” – Genesis 1: 1 -2

“But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused his breath to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.” – Genesis 8:1

“And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing breath, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Breath and began to speak with other tongues, as the Breath was giving them utterance.” – Acts 2: 2-4

There are two parts to breathing, inhalation and exhalation. We breathe in, we breathe out. Kids often threaten their parents with holding their breath until they turn blue. If they hold their breath long enough they will pass out and begin to breathe normally again. The opposite of inspire is expire, to breathe out of the lungs.

When God inspires us, that is, when he breathes into us his Holy Spirit we must expire this breath for breathing to be complete. We cannot hold it in. It is not ours to keep. God fills us with his spirit so we may accomplish his will. He gives us talents and gifts to serve him and our fellow man but he also fills us with the breath we need to do this. We do not get inspiration to serve ourselves. Inspiration is always given for the service of others.

A body that has no breath within it is dead. Likewise, a person without the Holy Spirit is also dead. We receive the Holy Spirit at our baptisms when God breathes into us our new life in Christ. We rise from the font of baptism as a baby emerging from the womb. As we suck in that first breath of our new life the Spirit of God fills our lungs anew. And like the baby just from the womb there is little more we can do but breathe. We must learn to use this new spirit within us. We must continue to grow in faith until we are mature enough to use this breath for the purpose God gave it to us. Baptism is not just a onetime event where we get pictures with a man in funny robes and then go home, have some cake, and return to our lives lived the same way. We have just received God’s Holy Breath and have been made into new creatures with new life.

                “Father, may everything we do begin with your inspiration,”

Breath into us Lord your Holy Breath,

                “and continue with your saving help”

Lead us and guide us throughout this day,

                “Let our work find its origin with you”

Not my will but yours be done,

                “and through you reach completion.”

Use me, Lord, as an instrument of your will.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Breathe in – breathe out – repeat.

The Death of a Culture through the Culture of Death - Part III

“But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it.” – Wisdom 2: 24

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned –“ – Romans 5:12

What does the devil have to be envious of from us? He is an immortal angel so much above us. But God shared with man something we did not share with the angels. God shared creation with man. We co-create with God new life. God gives the flesh an immortal soul so man, woman, and God create new immortal souls. Husband, wife, and child share the same type of connection as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Angels are created through the same love we are and share love but do not have the type of special union a sacramental marriage has.

The devil is envious of this. So much so that he rebelled from God and fell from grace. Now he spends eternity trying to destroy that which God created and he was not part of. He has attacked God’s creation at every level. Contraception gets us to walk away from our special gift of procreation. New Saints aren’t made. Abortion gets us to murder the children that do get created. The marital act went from being about unification and procreation to being a selfish act of pleasure. Marriages have become sterile and have gone from a sacramental covenant to a contract were each person gets something from the other for a designated period of time. When each no longer get what they want the marriage dissolves and they move on to another contract with another person.

As time feminized the man the role of father was trivialized and diminished. More and more the empowered woman took on the role of both mother and father. You cannot pass on what you do not have so children became less and less formed as they grew older. The model family that God designed began to decay to a bunch of single parent households where kids are often left to fend for themselves while the sole parent works to barely pay the bills.

The family, not the individual, is the primary building block of society. As the family decayed the society quickly followed. Things that were once taboo became common place as all boundaries were pushed. There was a time where you wouldn’t see a toilet on TV and married couples slept in different beds. Today you can easily see what could be considered soft porn during family hour. We have grown numb to it. In generations past people used to court another, that is, date someone with the intention to marry. Today there are apps that allow someone to swipe left or right in order to find a stranger to hook up with for the night.

When I was a teen our video games were Pacman, Pole Position, and Super Mario Bros. The most violent they got was having an animated ape throw barrels at Luigi or Mario stomping on a turtle. Our cartoons always had a coyote getting blown up but never dying. Today nine out of ten video games involve realistic killing, stealing, or other morally questionable conduct. You can’t play for very long before you are steeped in vulgarity, even from the kids as young as eight.

We have trivialized the father, masculinized the woman, feminized the male, destroyed tradional marriage, glorified violence, made women objects of pleasure, and instilled a culture of death. We have drilled into our kids a sense of entitlement to any and everything they could possibly want, including the ability to choose a gender to identify with. Few things are off limits and then we are surprised and shocked when a person has a fit of rage and does something tragic like shoot up a school. What is the big deal? Twenty-two people were shot and killed in the city of Chicago yesterday and no one cared. Over 3500 babies were murdered through abortion on the same day. No national outrage. No candlelight vigils. No sobbing teens on the nightly news demanding someone do something to stop the senseless violence. Just 3500 Americans who have been denied a voice because they didn’t have one to cry out for help with.

America is at a crossroad. When we have a city leveled by a hurricane, a tornado, or a wildfire we don’t sit back and wring our hands and say, “Why oh why? Why us, oh why us???” Americans come together, roll up our sleeves and get to the work of rebuilding that which was lost. That is exactly what we need to do now. Rebuild.

Our society is in shambles and if we are to rebuild we need to start with the primary building block, the family. Men need to reclaim their manhood. They need to accept the job of father. We need to accept that, although man and woman are equal partners in raising the next generation, there are two distinct genders with unique and required roles that one cannot do completely for the other. This is by design from a loving God or evolution. Take your pick. I am Christian so I recognize that God has designed us and without him we fail. If you are an atheist who believes strictly in evolution and you get to the same point so be it.

Pope Paul VI said four things would happen if contraception use became wide spread:

1: There would be an increase to marital infidelity.

Marriage has gone from a lifetime covenant to a limited time contract. Husbands and wives can easily cheat on each other without fear of pregnancy. Divorce among first time couples is well over fifty percent. We have entered an age where people care more about the hook-up, even with a complete stranger, than finding a spouse they will be with forever. It is rare for kids these days to graduate high school in an intact, non-blended family.

2: There would be a general lowering of moral standards.

We live at a time when moral relativism rules the day. Few believe there is one standard given to us from above for all to follow. The question no longer is, “Is that moral?” The question now is, “Am I good (by my standards)” Things like cheating and lying are no longer viewed as wrong but as expected. I am going to cheat on this test. If you catch me you can’t do anything about it. Everyone does it so it must be ok.

3: There would be a loss of respect for women.

All you have to do to see this is listen to just about any rap song. Pornography addiction is epidemic, even among women and girls. Girls as young as eight are sending naked pictures of themselves through social media. Now we have had a flood of women in Hollywierd who have come out with stories of abuse. Women who aspire to traditional roles like motherhood are often chastised and attacked even by those women who claim to be fighting for the betterment of women.

4: Governments would use contraception to forcibly intervene in citizens' sexual relationships.

This is easier to see in places like China, India, or Japan where people are punished, forcibly sterilized, and sometimes even executed for violating the country’s child birth policies. Luckily we have not had these types of things happen in the United States, yet.

For an old, white, celibate, Italian man I think he pretty much hit the nail on the head. Hopefully it is not too late to reverse the damage that has been done but it will take everyone to embrace life to counter the culture of death that has destroyed our culture. We cannot do this secretly in the privacy of our own homes. We must become a living witness to the truth and stand up for life wherever it is threatened or robbed. Don’t allow yourself to be fooled into believing the lie that death is better than a low standard life. One of those is permanent. There is always hope that the other can improve.

If we want to end the culture of death we have to embrace life from conception to natural death and restore the dignity that is due to every person.

The Death of a Culture through the Culture of Death Part II

The sexual revolution gave birth to the modern feminist movement, although it really wasn’t about feminism at all. A real feminist movement would have exulted the virtues and beauty of women. What we got instead was the masculinization of women and the feminizing of masculinity. The woman power moment measured its worth against that of the male. They demanded to do everything a man did, wear what a man does, and yes, even have sex like a man, with no attachment.

At the same time they tried to reduce the role of men as much as possible. Even today we see the more radical of this group call for the total abortion of male babies. It is in a man’s nature that where we don’t perceive a need for us we will step back. As more and more women stepped up and demanded to be treated as totally equal to a man more and more men stepped aside. This included the role of father and head of the family.

Then on January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision that would result in the murder of over sixty million Americans; a number that grows by the thousands each and every day. That was of course the historic Roe v Wade case on the legality of abortion. SCOTUS did not rule that a woman had a right to an abortion, nor did she have complete control and say over her body. What SCOTUS said was that we, as a society, have never officially stated when a life begins so they cannot say that a fetus is a life. If it is not in law that a fetus is a human life they cannot rule that it cannot be terminated. They did say that the state does have an interest in that fetus and may restrict abortions at some point, generally around the third trimester. If we, as a society, define by law when a life begins the abortion debate becomes null and void. The murder of the most innocent among us will continue until we are brave and sane enough to define by law when a human life begins.

Christians believe in a triune God, that is, one God consisting of three persons. These distinct persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. At the very heart of God is agape. Agape is sacrificial love. It is the total giving of one’s self for another without expectation of anything in return. It is the truest sense of love. It is love perfected. It is through this love that all creation came into being and because of this love that God took on flesh and became like us to die for our salvation and redemption.

When perfect love is shared perfectly it wants to create and create is what God did. God made man in his own image and seeing God is a family he made man into a family. The family is also modeled in the triune fashion – father, mother, and child. At the heart of every family is God and at the heart of God is sacrificial love. At the nucleus of every family is agape. To quote and correct Obi Wan Kenobi agape surrounds us. It penetrates us. It binds all creation together. To quote a woman I met on a flight once, agape is what occupies the space between atoms and between the particles of atoms.

God created father and mother to be equal in authority but different in function. The tie that binds a husband and wife together is supposed to be sacrificial love. It was designed to be the total giving of one to the other without the expectation of something returned. This is called a covenant and lasts until one of the two dies. The love between father and mother is so strong that it manifests itself as a new creation that you have to give a name to – children. Father and mother then pass along the attributes unique to their gender and purpose, infused with agape, to create the next generation.

Marriage was designed by God with two purposes. The first is unification. Agape between husband and wife unifies them as a one flesh creation. The two become one that no one is allowed to separate. The second purpose of a marriage is procreative. This union of man and wife brings about the next generation. We join with God to co-create new life so that we can fill heaven with Saints. That is the meaning of life in a nutshell.

So the pill led to feminism and feminism led to mass shooting. Time to fill in the missing pieces.

Next up – Romans 5:12 and the reason why there is so much hate in the world today.

The Death of a Culture Through the Culture of Death - Part 1

A lazy doctor treats symptoms without concern for their cause. A good doctor uses the symptoms to lead him to find the true cause of the problem. The lazy doctor can relieve you of the symptoms for a time. A good doctor can get you on the road to better health.

In the wake of yet another act of senseless violence we have seen the typical knee-jerk reaction we have come to expect. If we had only had better gun laws and background checks this could have been prevented. This party or that party is to blame for doing nothing. The truth of the matter is that no gun law or background check can prevent a person with evil intent from doing harm. Even if every gun in America had been confiscated decades ago these tragedies would still be occurring. Cain did not need a gun to kill Able and neither does the modern day monster. The gun is nothing but a means and violence a symptom of a much darker disease.

So what is behind the increase of violence in America? A godless academia will never be able to find the root cause because they view the contributing factors to all be good things for a free people. We have an increase in violence because we have embraced a culture of death in this county. This did not happen overnight. We had to slowly embrace death as a way of life for the better part of a century. We have become boiled frogs. If you take a frog and throw it into a pot of boiling water it will instinctively jump out. If you put a frog into a pot of cold water and slowly increase the heat it will stay in the pot until it is boiled to death. That is America. We are boiled frogs.

The tale on how we got to this point is a long one. For sake of time I am going to start at chapter six, where things really get going. In May of 1960 the FDA approved Enovid to be sold in the United States. Enovid was the first legal birth control pill. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and Enovid was on that road. The pill was created to assist with prudent family planning and as a method of population control. The pill had been in the works since the depression. The thought was that if we had smaller families we would have more resources available for each child. This was a strategy to combat poverty. A motivating factor for one of the pill’s creators, Margaret Sanger, was eugenics. In short, eugenics encourages certain races to reproduce while attempting to stop other races from reproducing. For Sanger, the pill was a way to reduce the black and Hispanic populations in this country.

What the pill did was allow women to start having sex like men. Up to this point when a woman had sex she did so at the risk of her own life. Medical science still wasn’t all that advanced and there was a majority of women who would die from complications with or leading up to delivery. Sex for a woman was an all in proposal. The pill allowed women to have sex without the fear of getting pregnant. This sparked the sexual revolution which led to the predicament we are in today.

On July 25, 1968 an old, white, celibate, Italian guy by the name of Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini released a prophetic paper that was met with great controversy. That man was better known as Pope Paul VI and the paper his encyclical Humane Vitae (Of Human Life). In that encyclical Pope Paul made four predictions on what would happen in society if the use of birth control became widespread and common place. His predictions were:

1: There would be an increase to marital infidelity.

2: There would be a general lowering of moral standards.

3: There would be a loss of respect for women. They would be reduced down to mere objects used for satisfaction of desire.

4: Governments would use contraception to forcibly intervene in citizens' sexual relationships.

One does not have to look very far to see how hauntingly accurate Pope Paul VI really was. So how do we make the leap from free sex to mass shootings? For that you will have to continue reading.

How to dress for success

Parable of the Marriage Feast

 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’ “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. 7“But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. “Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ‘Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ “Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.

“But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22: 1-14

The Messiah was first offered to Israel. Salvation was the plan for the entire world but it was to start with God’s espoused people. When they rejected him the Messiah was offered for all who would believe.

So what about this guy who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for the wedding feast? Surely God doesn’t care what I wear when I come to see him. He is just happy that I came right? In actuality this isn’t about the clothes you wear in as much as it is about the disposition of your heart. Royal weddings in Jesus day were much like a high end restaurant is today. There is a proper way to dress for one. If you show up to the Chez Paul to dine without a coat and tie one will be provided for you and you will be expected to wear it. So too was it at a royal wedding. The wedding garment was provided. What angered the king wasn’t that the man wasn’t properly dressed but that he chose not to wear what he was supposed to.

How often are we like that wedding guest? How often do we choose not to robe ourselves with the proper attire proved to us by God? As Catholics we are called to be obedient to the Church’s teachings. They are the garment handed down to us from Christ for us to wear when we attend the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Yet, we live in an age where all authority is challenged whether it is proper authority or not. There is a call in this world, even by Catholics themselves, for the Church to change and get with the times. Divorced and remarried Catholics want to receive the Sacraments, same sex marriage wants to be accepted on the same level as traditional marriage, 97% of Catholics use or have used artificial birth control, and by some estimates only about 30% of Catholics still believe in the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. These are but a few places where we have refused to wear our wedding garment.

Accepting the teachings of Christ is non-negotiable. Those who refuse will find themselves bound hand and foot and thrown into Hell at the end of this age. The devil is doing a great job at turning our focus on ourselves further hardening our hearts. We scoff at the Church and her outdated ideals. Take your wedding garment and beat it. I will wear what I choose to wear and you have to accept me.

Jesus taught his disciples who in turn taught their disciples who eventually became the Bishops we have today. When my wife and I go away one of our older children get the responsibility to watch the younger children. The younger children know that their older siblings have been given our authority and to disobey them is the same as disobeying us. God, the Father passed on through the Son his authority which was given to the Church. To disobey the Church is the same as disobeying God.

But disobeying God is something us humans have gotten very good at doing.

“Hey, I pray every night and thank Jesus for saving me and forgiving all of my sins.”

“Are you Catholic?”

“No, of course not. I am Lutheran.”

“So you belong to a church that was started out of disobedience to the Church God himself created and gave all of his authority to?”

No matter what the answer is to that question the fact remains that they have chosen not to wear the garment provided for the wedding feast. Like so many of us, they have chosen to wear what they want to the wedding. Maybe there is protection in numbers. When eternity is at stake is hoping for mercy the best bet or is trying your best to be obedient a better option?

Obedience is more pleasing to the Lord than sacrifice.

Dreamer Go Home! Part II

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” – Paragraph two, Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776

Henry Collins, my great ancestor, was the first Collins to step foot in what would become the United States of America in 1635, one hundred and forty-four years before the Declaration of Independence was written. He migrated here from England with his wife, children, and servants in search for a better life. He was a dreamer and I am a product of that dream.

President Trump’s grandparents immigrated to this country from Germany dreaming of a better life.  He, too, is a product of dreamers. There are fifty-one men and women currently serving in Congress who are African-American. Their ancestors were brought here as slaves. There are only two Native Americans serving in all of Congress, Tom Cole, a Chickasaw, and Markwayne Mullin, a Cherokee, both from Oklahoma. Everyone else serving in Congress at this time is a product of an immigrant, someone who came here dreaming of a better life. In fact, very few of us can claim indigenous ties to this land. I think that after three hundred and eighty-three years I should be able to claim an honorary status.

Our great nation now stands, once again, at a cross road. We have millions of undocumented immigrants living among us. They came here, not to steal our way of life, but to share in it and to make it richer with the contribution of their culture. Some of these “illegals” were brought here as infants. They have known no other life, no other country, than the United States. They are every bit as American as I am. They only lack a piece of paper saying they were born on this side of the border. They are known as the “Dreamers”, only they don’t dream of a better life in this country, they dream of keeping the only life they have known.

DACA, or Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals, is an immigration policy that allows about 800,000 individuals who were brought here as minors to have a two-year differed action of deportation while they attempt to gain legal status. It is not a blanket amnesty bill that automatically grants citizenship to anyone. It is a bill designed to help those who are Americans in every sense of the word become so legally.

As with many things, this country is greatly divided on this issue. One side wants to automatically make the Dreamers, and their parents, citizens. The other side wants them deported without consideration. They are here illegally so they must go, period. And as always, the right solution falls somewhere in the middle.

Let’s consider for a moment what happens to a Dreamer who ends up in an ICE detention center facing deportation. This particular scoundrel was brought here at two years old and has only known life in America. We stick him in a van, with no money or means to provide and we usher him to the other side of the border. He is now in a country he has never been in before in his life. He doesn’t know the people or the culture. He doesn’t have a job, money, food, or a place to sleep. In many of these circumstances he is not documented in that country either. He is as much an illegal there as he is here.

But who cares? He is not our burden any more. Of course he wasn’t a burden to begin with. He was just another guy who believed that all men are created equal, that all men are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights. He believed the line we fed him in our school system that he had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Then he found out that he can only do that here if he has a piece of paper saying he was born on the right side of an imaginary line on a map. Go home Dreamer. America is reserved for the descendants of Dreamers from Europe or those of slaves.

America, we are better than this. This is the land of Dreamers. We have traveled to the bottom of the deepest ocean and to the far depths of space. We can figure out how to make 800,000 Americans really Americans without tearing apart their lives and sending them to a land they do not know.

Christians, we are called to be better than this. In fact, our salvation demands us to be better. Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me. If Joseph and Mary were named Jose and Maria would you be so quick to want to deport baby Jesus back to Mexico? If you would be willing to fight to keep Jesus here you should be willing to fight just as strongly for any immigrant trying to make a better life for him or herself.

I have been called to care and love my neighbor without knowing their immigration status. Every Christian has been called to do the same. Turn your backs on the least of these and you will find yourself likewise deported one day.

Dreamer Go Home!

I have a friend who was born in New York City on the 4^th of July. His parents were foreign nationals who were visiting at the time his mother went into labor. He spent the next thirty years living in his parents’ country. When his company wanted to send him to America to work in one of their offices  he applied and was granted a US passport. He was able to come here, work, travel, and live as a US citizen. He knew next to no English.

I have another friend who was born in Havana, Cuba. At the age of twenty-two he wanted a life he couldn’t have in Cuba. He constructed a makeshift raft out of trash and set out upon the sea. He was one of the lucky ones and made it across ninety miles of ocean to the Florida coast. Once feet dry he was welcomed to the United States, given a green card, and eventual citizenship. He lives in a Cuban part of Miami. Spanish is still his primary language.

I have a third friend who was born in Puebla, Mexico. At the age of two his parents also wanted a better life for themselves and their son so they migrated north. With the help of a coyote, a person who specializes in smuggling people from Mexico to the United States, they came to this country. His parents spent the next twenty years doing demeaning labor for next to nothing while giving their son a life he could not possibly had in their home country. My friend’s first language is English. He has a good job and pays taxes. He has never asked for anything from anybody. He has married and is raising two children who are in the top of their class. America is the only country he knows and the country he would die for if asked to.

Of my three friends, which do you think is the most American? One was born here but never lived here. One came here as an adult and was granted citizenship because he was from a “special” nation. The last was brought here illegally when he was too young to know better but has become an American in every aspect of his life except for having that one paper.

I have been fortunate enough to have spent a part of my life in and around some of the undocumented people in my area. My step-father was here illegally. I never met a single person with malice in their heart or one who was trying to steal your way of life away from you. All they wanted was a chance to share in the richness you have been afforded by being born on this side of an imaginary line. They were some of the hardest working, loving, generous people I know. I cannot say the same for some who have passed down generational welfare as a way of life.

I have seen the tragedy when a provider doesn’t return home one night because they had been detained and sent back to a country they do not know simply because they do not have the correct piece of paper. We are the United States of America and God has blessed us abundantly. We were not given these blessings just to horde them away and keep them for ourselves. If we don’t learn to properly use what we have been given it will be taken away and given to someone else. We can do better. It all starts by being able to see the person instead of hating a faceless group we do not know.

I have a question for all those who wish to see the dreamers, Americans in every sense of the word, rounded up and exiled to a country they have never known. How have you been personally affected by any undocumented person trying for a better life? How has their pursuit of happiness diminished yours?

Imagine where this world would be today if when Joseph and Mary, carrying the baby Jesus, ran into a wall keeping them out of Egypt. Egypt has every right to protect their sovereign borders from people fleeing from their native home.

“What you have done for the least of these you have done for me.”

Few Christians would say that they wouldn’t have accepted Joseph, Mary, and Jesus with open arms, especially knowing today who they are. How many Christians are willing to accept Jose and Maria fleeing from Mexico today?

“What you have done for the least of these you have done for me.” We were not there to give aid and comfort to Joseph and Mary. We are here today. Let us provide aid and comfort to those who need it now.

Have Hope

In the episode, Informed Consent, of Chicago Hope one of the male characters was in a relationship with one of the female characters. As the relationship progressed they started to have feelings for each other and eventually took their relationship to the next level. Knowing where the relationship was headed the woman had to tell the man that she used to be a man, not just any man, but his friend from school.

The male character acted with revolt and disgust. He felt betrayed and lied to. No matter what his feelings may have been prior to that point he now wanted nothing to do with this person.

How many of us would be willing to court someone who is transgendered? For those too young to have heard that word before, to court means to date with intention to marry. It is not dating hoping to hook-up. It is not dating to have someone to hang out with and do stuff with. Marriage is the end goal of a courtship. I don’t know the numbers but, I would guess that very few people, including many of the most vocal supporters, would be open to courting someone of the same sex who believes they are the opposite sex and have gone as far as to modify their body as to look the gender they long to be.

But this blog isn’t about being transgendered, although it is as equally provoking. Using the same principle as courting a transgendered person, would you consider being part of a church that someone other than Jesus created? The main stream Protestant churches look like the Church Jesus started. They act mostly like the Church Jesus started. They believe and teach many of the same things as the Church Jesus started. The more you get away from mainstream Protestantism the less and less the church looks, acts, or teaches the way that the Church Jesus created does.

Doctors altered the woman character in that episode of Chicago Hope, so convincingly in fact, that her male partner couldn’t tell even during the most intimate of times. The founding fathers of the Protestant Reformation did the same thing to the Church Jesus founded to create new churches that taught, not what Christ taught, but what their opinions were instead. They did such a convincing job that millions through the ages have preferred these churches over the one that Holy Scripture tells us is the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Are you willing to give your life and die if necessary for an opinion of someone other than that of Jesus? Martin Luther and John Calvin may have been fine men with good hearts but I am not willing to be martyred for their beliefs. I do not have this problem when it comes to Jesus and his Church.

I am against neither the transgendered nor the Protestant. I can disagree with both and still love and respect them. Spirituality and sexuality are both journeys we have to make individually. There is truth, partial truth, and lies. God is truth and can only be truth. The father of lies, on the other hand, can present partial truth. These partial truths can be very strong and persuasive, but partial truth always leads away from real truth. I pray that everyone’s individual journeys lead them back to the full truth of God’s love even though I know that far too many will believe the partial truths so strongly that neither heaven nor earth will convince them otherwise. For those I have a great deal of pity.

A Rising Tide...

A rising tide lifts all boats. That’s how the saying goes.  Of course it is only partially true and any partially true statement is a false statement. A rising tide doesn’t lift all boats. It only lifts the boats above the water. A rising tide does nothing to a boat under the water.

One of the reasons the Jews rejected Jesus as messiah was that they were looking for the messiah to be a great king and military leader. Although Christ is the King of kings he didn’t meet expectations of the time. He was so…ordinary. Jesus preached this himself.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” – Matthew 11: 28-30

The Greek word translated as humble is tapeinos. It can also be translated as lowly or ordinary. The phrase ‘humble of heart’ means that he is someone reliant upon God and not himself. Jesus was ordinary. In fact, even his name was among the most common of the day. Perhaps the only name more common was Mary.

Jesus was born in a barn to your common, run of the mill, parents. He was raised and worked as a techton, a laborer. There is a tradition that he was a master yoke builder, making his statement about taking his yoke upon you a bit funny. Nothing about Jesus made him stand out for who he was about to become until he turned water into wine at a wedding reception. There is a reason why we know nothing about his life from the age of twelve until he started his public ministry at the age of thirty. He was off doing ordinary things.

Jesus came to be the salvation and redemption of the entire human race. But, just as a rising tide does not lift all boats, Jesus could not lift up all of humanity by starting out as a great king. He had to be among the lowest of us so that he could raise all of us to salvation.

Moses preconfigured Christ. Moses was born of a slave at a time that all male slaves from the tribes of Israel were put to death. He was raised as royalty, identity hidden. He had to become a slave again before he could lead the slaves on their exodus. Jesus was royalty. He hung his divinity up and was born a slave so that he could lead all mankind, lost in the slavery of death, to an exodus of rebirth.

Most of us long for greatness. We strive to become rich and famous. We want to be on top of the tide on a luxury yacht high above as many as possible. Yet the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the tide, the ones who lower themselves to raise up the rest. The greatest are the ones who lower themselves to the position of slave to serve others. The truly great are not the ones raising boats that float but the ones who reach down and pull up the boats sunk on the bottom.

Do not strive for greatness. Strive to be tapeinos, ordinary. Live in the ordinary. Love in the ordinary. Lift up others in the ordinary. This is the path to true greatness.

How to Accumulate Great Wealth

Mavis Wanczyk was the winner of the largest single lottery payout in United States history. She won a whopping $758.7 million dollars in August 2017. The single, lump sum payout was $480 million or $336 million after taxes. With a drop of a ball Mavis’ life changed in an instant.

I began fantasizing about what I would do with so much money. I could live a life of luxury. I would of course make all of my family members immediate millionaires. Then my mind drifted to imagining how much charitable work I could do with such abundance. How many of us have secretly tried to bargain with God? If you would just let me win this lottery I promise to feed the poor and cloth the naked…

In Matthew 25: 14 we read the parable about the talents. A master is going away on a journey. He entrusts large sums of money to three of his slaves so that they can earn him more while he was gone. When he returned he found that two of the slaves doubled what they were given. To these slaves he entrusted even more money and responsibility.

The third slave had taken what he had been given and buried it in the ground. He returned to his master exactly what he had received, no more or no less. The master became enraged over this, stripped the slave of everything he had, and threw him out of his house. The slave was now less than he was before for he had nothing. He was naked and starving.

How many of us are like that third slave? How many of us take what we have been given, even if that is just a tiny amount, and bury it in the ground of our personal desires? I would do more for those in need but I haven’t anything left after making my two car payments, my house payment, and the payments on my large satellite TV package with the football network. Plus the latest I-Phone just came out.  If that weren’t enough the dock at the cabin needs repairs…

It is easier to be charitable when we have an excess of everything. It is far harder to be charitable when we are just getting by or worse. Yet, we are called as Christians to be charitable at all times. No matter what our financial situation we all have something we can give, even if that is nothing more than a smile or a kind word.

The master has given us talents and he expects us to use them do multiply the good in this world as much as we are able. If we are good at it we will be given more responsibility and more to do good with or we will be put in a place where our ability to do more with less is in great need. If we are like that third slave, well, we will have our reward here on earth.

I don’t need $759 million dollars to make a difference in another person’s life. For that matter, I don’t need money at all. But if I give of my time and treasure I will be given more to do more with. Do not build up treasure here on earth. You can’t take it with you. Give it away freely and build up treasure in heaven. You have been given talents from the master. How will you double them before he returns to collect on his investment?

The Glow of Grace

You wouldn’t want to run a marathon while in the middle of a fast. You would lack the energy to go very far. Marathon runners carbo load their bodies with energy so they can successfully run the race.

Many of us think of grace in much the same way. It is a mystical fuel that we can store up in our spiritual gas tanks. When we do something right or partake in the sacraments, God gives us his grace which strengthens us in our day and helps us to live a good Christian life. We take God’s grace and deposit it into our spiritual bank accounts for a withdrawal later.

But grace is more an effect than an object. Grace is what happens to us when our wills and our actions are in harmony with God. When our wills are aligned with God’s the light of God’s loves shines through us, making our souls glow brightly. This glow is veiled to us who can only see the natural world but it is spectacularly visible to the supernatural world.

There have been occasions when the veil has been lifted and man has been allowed to see what grace looks like. The most notable was Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain. When Jesus was visited by Moses and Elijah on the mountain top Peter, James, and John were permitted to see what the angels could. Jesus took on a glow, a light emanating from within that had no apparent source. Jesus, being the second person of God, is always full of grace. On this occasion we were allowed to see him as the angels do.

Mary, mother of God, was conceived without sin and lived a sinless life. Her life was in communion with God’s will from the very moment she came into being. When the angel Gabriel addressed her he refers to he as ‘full of grace’. Mary’s glow of grace is the brightest of all creatures, second only to that of Jesus. She is a guiding light for all humanity and the epitome of what a human can become if we could only say yes to God’s plan for our lives.

When we are in communion with God we are in a state of grace. When our wills are aligned with his the light of God’s love shines through us. As we separate ourselves from God through venial sin that glow starts to diminish. When we commit mortal sin we separate ourselves completely from God and that glow no longer exists. The glow of grace acts as a beacon to all creatures supernatural. Joy filled is the guardian angel whose assignment glows brightly. The glow of grace is a light that hurts the devil’s eyes. No demon can tolerate being in the presence of Mary. Her cooperation with God’s will casts her in such a light that demons flee from her. Having Mary by your side is one of the best protections from evil you can get.

But woe to the man who is not in a state of grace. Just as a bedroom light scares monsters from under a child’s bed at night the glow of grace helps keep demons at bay. When this glow is faint or does not exist at all it is like ringing a dinner bell for those who look to devour a weak will. Fearful are the guardian angels whose assignments lack the glow of grace. They must work harder for those they protect to ward off the roaming lion looking to devour the weak or lost soul.

It would be so much easier if we could see the supernatural. We could see the angels that surround us and the demons that lurk in the shadows preparing to pounce. We could see Mass for what it really is. We could see all of the Saints who have gone before us. We could see those who are in a state of grace and we could see those who are struggling. We could aid the angels and the Saints to help those who were struggling.

But we do not need supernatural vision to do that. We aid those around us by being in a state of grace ourselves. Our glow can help those who don’t. The light of God’s love shining through us can be a beacon and offer protection to those still in darkness. It all starts with us. Partake in the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Align your will with that of God’s so your soul glows brightly with grace. Help make this world and the supernatural one a brighter place.

Happy Anniversary Protestants

It was Halloween, 1517. A defiant Catholic monk nails a paper to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg and shakes his fist defiantly in the air. The Protestant Reformation had begun. At least that was the story taught to me when I was growing up in the Lutheran Church.

For the most part that story is a fable. Luther did write his Ninety-five Theses where he protested the sale of indulgences. He did not intend to challenge the Church but offered the paper as scholarly objection. For years prior to this Luther had begun teaching things more in line with his evolving personal beliefs than what the Church held true and had taught for fifteen hundred years. The Church responds to these things slowly because the charge of heresy is extremely serious. They took time to review each line of the Ninety-five Theses and other of Luther’s writing and teaching. Eventually a case of heresy was cast at Luther who was then called in to be examined.  The hearings broke down and Luther directly challenged Church teaching. An order for his arrest was issued but Luther snuck away in the middle of the night to avoid it. Luther was ordered to recant forty-one sentences from things he had written. When he refused to do so he was excommunicated in 1521.

Luther determined that the Church had fallen into error and that only he knew the truth. He founded his own church based upon his opinions, translating the bible into common German. He took out seven books of the bible that had been in the Catholic Canon for over a thousand years. He even added the word “alone” in Romans 3:28 to support his concept of Sola Fide. Other reformers, like Knox, Calvin, and Wesley, also agreed with Luther that the Catholic Church had fallen into error. They disagreed with Luther that Luther knew the truth and each founded their own denominations of the Christian church. Luther lived long enough to see his own church splinter into denominations of Lutheranism when other Lutherans believed Luther was in error and formed their own churches. As the world becomes smaller and smaller through immediate and electronic communications the splintering of the Christian faith continues at an ever increasing rate. There are currently over 40,000 different flavors of Christianity in the world today, each teaching what they believe to be the one truth passed down from Jesus.

The one thing the Catholic Church can claim that no other church can is that they have the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus physically present in their Church at all times. The Catholics believe that when a priest consecrates a host Jesus becomes fully present in that host through transubstantiation. The hosts are no longer bread and wine but are actually body and blood. Lutherans believe in substantiation, or of the same substance. Jesus exists within the bread and wine but for only as long as communion takes place. Then he leaves from the leftovers.

If what the Catholic Church believes is false there is little reason to be Catholic. Almost any Christian church would work at that point. But, if what they say is true there is little reason to be anything but Catholic. I am Catholic because I do believe what they claim to be true is actually true. God has given us signs and miracles so that we may know that the Catholic claim is true. As with every sign, God gives us enough room to not believe. When we are blessed with a sign the Church investigates it. They will rule if the sign can be believed or should not be believed. They never require that a sign be believed.

So why do I believe the Eucharist is the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus my Lord?

Mystics exist who can tell the difference between a consecrated host and an unconsecrated one. When they look at the hosts a consecrated host had a glow to it. They have been tested time and time again by placing a consecrated host among hundreds of unconsecrated ones. They can always successfully pick the consecrated host.

A consecrated host is needed to perform a proper black mass by Satan worshipers. When we are trained as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion we are taught to be on a constant lookout for those who pose as Catholics to obtain a consecrated host. This happens in no other church. A Lutheran communion wafer does not cut it in a black mass. If they are all the same what would it matter?

Probably the strongest evidence to me are the Eucharistic miracles. There are several well documented cases where a consecrated host has changed in to flesh and blood. When this happens the Church launches a thorough investigation by an independent third party investigator. If the miracle is found to be what it appears to be the Church will rule that it is worthy of our belief. We are still given the option to disbelieve if our hearts are not moved by it.

One of the most recent Eucharistic Miracles happened in Buenas Aires, Argentina in 1996. The short story is that a host was dropped on the ground. It was placed in some water to dissolve. After a few days it started to change. The Archbishop, a man named Jorge Mario Bergoglio, ordered an investigation be done on this host. You may know him by his new name of Pope Francis. (See linked video)

Two samples were taken to laboratories in California and New York.  The scientists looking at the sample were not told what it was a sample of. One of the scientists was an expert in cardiology, pathology, and biochemistry. He said that the sample was heart tissue taken from a man who had been tortured to death. He had no idea that this was taken from a consecrated host.

Then the scientist asked a question. How is it that this heart tissue is alive? It is moving. It is beating. This was three years after the sample had been taken.

You can believe this or not. I do not require proof that what the Catholic Church claims is the truth. I believe it with all of my heart. I believe it to the point that I am willing to die for it. How could I ever consider going to a another church, a church that does not have the physical presence of Jesus in it?

This year the world celebrated the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The world celebrated the anniversary of the beginning of the Church Jesus created being torn apart, shredded into over 40,000 pieces by men who thought they knew more than the Church Christ promised to stand by until the end of the age. Is this something that should be celebrated or a tragedy that should be mourned? Did Luther reform the Church or revolt from it?

Lost in Translation...again.

When I took over doing international support on my company’s products I was asked to go to England. I came home and told my brother that I was going to London. The first thing he asked me was, “Do they speak English there?”

I couldn’t resist. I replied back, “No. They are sending a translator with me.”

In the end the joke was on me. Although we both spoke English many words and phrases don’t hold the same meaning. The first night I was there we went for kabobs, which to me meant meat on a stick. To my London coworkers they were gyros. Over there you can shag and suck on fags. To me the first meant to dance and the second was quite offensive. To them the first was offensive and the second means nothing more than to smoke a cigarette. When my Australian coworker came to the US and went skiing he was told by the female instructor that if he had problems with a run to go down on his fanny. To an Australian that refers to a body part a man does not have. Imagine the look of shock that was on his face.

The fact of the matter is that languages rarely translate smoothly. Words do not hold the same meaning and the best we can do is to get as close as we can when we translate. One of the problems with a casual read of the bible is that we are reading a translation of a translation using modern understanding of words without a historical context or frame of mind. Before the scriptures were written it was passed on orally. Very few people could read or write and paper was made of papyrus and animal skins that were very expensive. It will come as a surprise to some to learn that ancient Jews did not speak English.

Jesus would have spoken Aramaic, the common language of the Jews, and Hebrew, the religious language. He would have also spoke Greek, which was the common language of business, and if he didn’t speak Latin, the language of the ruling government, he would have at least understood some of it. The oral history and stories would have been told in Aramaic and scripture would have been read in Hebrew. When the early Church told the story of Jesus to the Jews it would have been in Aramaic but when it was passed on to the Gentiles and finally written down it was done so in Greek. Not all words translated easily when written in Greek.

One example is that Jesus referred to God, the Father as “Abba”.  This was translated to Greek as πατερ (pater) which was also pater in Latin, père in French, padre in both Italian and Spanish, vater in German, and eventually father in English. The word father often leads one to think of the adult relationship one has with the man responsible for his parentage. When we think of God the Father this is usually how we think of him.

Yet, Abba had a much deeper meaning than father. If we were to translate the Aramaic straight to English we come closer to the actual meaning of Abba with our word daddy. Daddy is a much more intimate term used between a small child and a father. It signifies a different type of relationship between the two.  A small child needs much greater care and has a more innocent love for his daddy than an adult does for his father. So the prayer Jesus handed down to his Church really begins, “Our Daddy, who art in heaven… “

The English translation of the bible we have comes from a Greek text. There are many examples where the Greek does not translate the full meaning to English. For example, Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”

Peter answers three times, “You know I love you.” And then Peter gets upset. When read in English it doesn’t make much sense.

We have only one word for love. I can love my wife. I can love my children. I can love my squirrel. I can love my pencil. The word love is used in each of these but we can assume that it is a love of a different type or level for each. The Greek has many words depicting a different type of love. In this passage Jesus is asking Peter if he loves him above all else, with sacrificial love. Peter is answering, “Naw, I love you like a brother.”

This demonstrates the danger of trying to read and gather meaning of the bible on your own. We are reading a translation of a translation of a translation using modern definitions and understanding. It is very easy to miss what is actually being said and receive the wrong message from the text. The devil uses this to direct man into using Holy Scripture to justify every type of evil. We can end up on the wrong road and create our own misguided ad incorrect theology. This is the primary reason we have over 30,000 different flavors of Christianity in the world today.

As a Catholic I am very lucky to come from a faith tradition rooted in an oral history. The Church passed down scripture orally long before it was written. The meaning of a passage was handed down through the ages and I have the Magisterium to teach me that meaning. This does not mean that I don’t read scripture. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. This also does not mean that I can’t gain a personal inspiration from scripture. What it does mean is that I cannot redefine for myself what the actual teaching of scripture is based solely on my opinion. I do not get to disagree with the Magisterium on the meaning of scripture.

Read scripture. Learn from it. Refer often to a competent guide that can direct you to the things that have been lost in translation.

No Wives Allowed

I love each and every one of you reading this blog right now. I would like to have a personal relationship with each of you. I would like to hang out with you and be BFFs. The issue is that I can’t stand your spouse. They are flawed. One has an attitude problem. One isn’t a good house keeper. One has really bad halitosis. We can hang out and do things together but they are not invited.

How good of a relationship do you think we will have if this is how I truly felt? I can tell you from personal experience that we won’t. I have destroyed some of the closest, dearest relationships in my life because I couldn’t accept my friend’s spouse. When you attack a person’s spouse you attack that person.

Yet, this is exactly what millions of Christians do to Jesus each and every day. One of the most used metaphors to describe Christ and his Church is that of the bride groom and bride. The Church founded by Jesus is his bride and he is her groom. The entire book of Revelation is about the wedding feast in heaven.

So many people today have turned their backs on the Church. The Church has no relevance in their lives. They don’t need the Church. All they need is a personal relationship with Jesus. They have Jesus and they have the bible. They have no need for the Church. The Church is flawed. The Church makes mistakes. The Church is human. Jesus is God. Jesus is perfect. Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so.

When we attack the Church we attack Jesus himself. When we cast the Church away we tell Jesus that we love him but want nothing to do with his bride. There are some who believe that Jesus is all sweet and gentle and full of love. They conveniently ignore the passages that talk about justice and wrath. That’s the Old Testament God. He has mellowed through the years. The First commandment tells us that God is a jealous God. He is a God of love, and although he loves all of creation, his bride holds a special place in his heart. So does his mother, but that is another blog entry.

So is just any church the bride of Christ? Is the Lutheran church? Is the Presbyterian church? How about the Jehovah Witness church? I have heard them all make claim to be that church. They are all part of the universal church and therefore it doesn’t matter which church you are part of. Even the people who only want a personal relationship with Jesus are a church. They are just a church with one member.

But scripture is pretty clear that Jesus is referring to the Church he created. That can’t be the Lutheran church. That church was created by Martin Luther in the year 1517. He created this church because he disagreed with the Church Jesus created. He felt that Church had fallen into error so the best thing to do was to cast her aside and begin again in a church of his making. Sorry Jesus, your bride is messed up so we are going with her second cousin.

It can’t be the Presbyterian church. John Knox started that church in Scotland in 1560 for much the same reason that Luther started his church. John didn’t like Christ’s bride either and replaced her with one more to his liking.

And then there is Charles Taze Russell, a Restorationist minister, who founded the Jehovah Witness church in 1931. He believed that the mainstream Protestant religions of the day had also fallen into error and that only he knew the way.

The buzz word of the day is Ecumenism. Ecumenism is recognizing that all Christians belong to the body of Christ and finds a way that we can pray and celebrate Jesus together. Ecumenism is everyone looking for a way to become more unified and grow closer together no matter how far we grow apart. In the end it really comes down to the great mercy of God towards those who have attacked and maligned his bride. I know how I would respond to someone who has attacked my bride in the vicious way the world has attacked Christ’s. But then again, I am a fallen, sinful human. His ways are so much greater than my ways.

If you love God and live your life the best you can trying to love, honor, and serve him we have some common ground to stand on. Faith is a personal journey we each have to walk on our own. We are all on different parts of this Road to Damascus but we all are trying to reach the same destination. This is where ecumenism starts.