The Game of More.

Recently my wife bought a Nintendo Switch for the family to play with. One of the popular games out there right now is a game called Animal Crossing. In Animal Crossing you move to your very own island to live. The island is run by three raccoons. You are given a tent and allowed to pick a place to put it and start your new life. You spend your days gathering things from around the island and the sea and then sell those things to the raccoons for bells, the island form of currency. You can exchange these bells for the various things the raccoons sell. You can upgrade your tent to a house and then build rooms on your house, making it ever bigger. You also use the bells to buy stuff the raccoons sell. You fill your house with furniture, decorations,  toys, and the comforts of life. Everything comes with a price and you spend the game trying to make more and more bells to pay off your debts and buy as much as you can.

Sounds a lot like real life doesn’t it? And just like real life the game gets addicting quickly. The first day I played for fifteen minutes. The next was four hours straight. Time stands still as you run about gathering, selling, and buying things. Everyone in my family is addicted to playing and we fight for time to build our wealth. We all live on the same island together and find ourselves competing with each other to have the most or the nicest stuff.

Last night I looked at all of the stuff I had gathered in my house. I had a bed, some furniture, a freezer, and a variety of other things. Sitting there looking at it I realized that it really had no meaning in the game. I didn’t use any of it and my life on the island wasn’t affected one bit if I had the stuff or not. It doesn’t even matter if I had a house or not. I took every possession I had and sold it back to the raccoons. My bank account soared but I had no real purpose for the money either. There was nothing I had to buy to continue life on the island. Too bad there wasn’t a virtual charity I could donate it to.

And then I realized how I had been played by the devil with this seemingly harmless game that imitates real life. The point hidden in this game is that enough is never enough and there was always something bigger and better I could get if I worked for it. For example, you can fish and you can sell the fish you catch to the raccoons for bells. At first you catch little fish. Gradually they get bigger, making you want to fish more. Soon I was catching whale sharks and giant ocean sunfish. It instilled the desire to keep fishing to see what I would catch next.

That is exactly the temptation the devil presents us in real life. So many of us get caught up in the game of ‘more’. I need more; more money, more things, more sex, power, and influence. Like in the game, we trade our time for currency to get the things we thing we need. One of my favorite lines from a Jimmy Buffet song goes –

“Need is a relative thing these days
It borders on desire
The high tech world is full of bright
shiny things
We think that we really require”

– Tonight, I just need my guitar. Far Side of the World.

It has been said that you never see a U-Haul attached to a hearse. I don’t think it is said enough. We take nothing with us when we die. We go to a place that contains that which we built up for ourselves when we were alive. I may be judged in this world by the things I gather for myself. I will be judged in the next world by how much I gave away in this one.

Arthur Ashe once said,

                “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give; however, makes a life.”

A funny thing happened when I sold all my possessions back to Timmy and Tommy, the raccoon shop keepers. I suddenly lost all desire to play the game. I saw the game for what it truly was; a mindless distraction from doing the same thing in real life. I took a long look around my house and saw all of the things I have traded my time and my health to obtain. Things that seemed important at the time now sit in a corner covered in dust. I have three grown children who will one day tell people that their dad worked a lot and played with them a little. Hopefully my younger two will be able to say that in reverse. I want to be remembered as the dad who played with my children and worked only as hard enough to give them what they really needed in life. The love of a father is worth more than all of the Nintendo Switches of the world.

If by ridding myself to all of my possessions in the game broke the addiction to the game perhaps letting go of all the worthless stuff in my life will do the same there as well. There is only one way to find out. Is anyone interested in a vintage vibrating belt exercise machine from 1968?

I think Saint Francis may have been on to something.

God Wins, God Wins!

There once was a guy who has a huge Chicago Cubs fan. The strange thing about him was that he would never watch a live game. He taped every game. When he got home from work he would call his friend and ask, “Did the Cubs win today?” If the answer was no he deleted the game without watching it. If the answer was yes then he would pour himself an Old Style, plop down in his favorite recliner, and joyfully watch the game.

No matter how far behind the Cubs got the man was happy. He never cursed a bad play. He cheered for the opposing team when they did something well. He enjoyed the entire game because he knew what the outcome was before he even turned on his TV.

This is what a Christian should be like. I have read the end of the book. Spoiler alert – God wins in the end. Jesus has defeated death. It doesn’t matter what happens in this life because I know what awaits those who love the Lord. I can be joyful in the face of oppression. No one needs to be thought of as an enemy. There is no need for anxiety over anything. There is no need to worry about this culture, our society, or the direction it looks like the Church is going in some days. God wins in the end. This should be a source of great comfort and joy.

When I was in navy boot camp one of the things I feared the most was being mashed. MASH is an acronym for Make Any Sailor Hurt. If you messed up you brought down the wrath of your company commander. He would go get the company commanders from the other companies and they would harass you until you broke down. They would PT (physical training) you until you either passed out from exhaustion or puked.

I witnessed the mother of all mashing one day. I had a friend named Kevin Wood from Texas. He messed up and our company commander opened the entire can of mash on this poor fellow. He went and got three of his friends and the four company commanders went non-stop all at once on poor Kevin.

What was remarkable to all of us was as the four had him run in place holding all of his belongings in his arms, do pushups, flutter kicks, eight count body builders, and every assortment of physical torture they could devise Kevin was joyful. He was more than joyful. He was exuberant. He laughed the entire time. All that did was fuel the rage even more.

When the torture session was over and the company commanders left the company gathered around an exhausted Kevin, still with a wide smile on his face. We asked him why he laughed and brought even more punishment upon himself. He looked at us and said, “I knew that they would have to leave sometime and I would still be here. In the end I win.”

Again, this is the same attitude all Christians should have. We can be joyful in the face of opposition and persecution because we know heaven awaits us and it doesn’t matter what they do to us here on earth. Our time here is short compared to an eternity in heaven. Any sufferings we have in this life should be offered up to be united with the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

St. Paul tells us that he suffers on earth to make up for what is lacking in the crucifixion. What could possibly be lacking in the crucifixion of Christ? Our participation. We can suffer with Christ on the cross by bearing our sufferings here on earth in the same manner Jesus bore his. He prayed for those who tortured him. He asked for their forgiveness.

Do you pray for those who cause you hardship? Do you pray for those who are protesting, looting, and rioting? Do you ask God to forgive them for the evil things they are doing? Do you love those who scream and yell hateful things because of the political party you support? You should. That is what Jesus did. That is what he told us to do as well.

No matter how dark the day or the challenges you face be joyful in all things. We know the score at the end of the game. We know who flies the big blue W after the third out in the ninth inning.

Fish Eaters

There was a time when Catholics were known as the fish eaters because we ate fish every Friday. Why did Catholics always eat fish on Fridays? There is many a myth and conspiracy behind this but the truth is quite simple.

Christ was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. Good Friday is a holy day of obligation for Catholics where they are required to fast and abstain. We are allowed only one full meal on that day and we are not allowed to eat meat. The nitty-gritty detail is that we cannot eat the flesh of a warm blooded animal. Fish are not warm blooded therefore they are ok to eat. Bugs and reptiles are also not warm blooded so they are always an option but, short of John the Baptist, not many people like eating bugs or reptiles. Fish it is then for Catholics.

To a Catholic, every Friday is Good Friday and every Sunday is Easter. We are called to do special penance on every Friday. The Church is called to be united in this penance and the penance the Church chose was abstinence. Catholics are required not to eat meat on Fridays.

But that requirement has been lifted and we can now eat meat on Fridays, right?

The Second Vatican Council simplified many of our Catholic laws and customs. It was recognized that there was an over emphasis on sin and sacrifice to the point it was bordering superstition. Many of the practices were rather involved and ridged and many people believed that breaking the Friday abstinence was a mortal sin that would lead you to hell when abstinence is really a pious act directing your heart to God. The requirement of abstinence on Fridays was changed to a requirement of doing penance on Fridays.

The unified penance we are supposed to do on Fridays is to sustain from eating meat whenever possible. If someone forgets and has bacon at breakfast or finds themselves in a situation where eating meat is prudent then that person has the ability to do some other additional form of penance instead. Of course people hear what they choose to so when the Church said that people no were longer required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays the part about doing another form of penance was drowned out by the cheers of the people. Today many Catholics believe they have no requirements they are obligated to observe on Fridays.

So does that mean that Catholics are no longer fish eaters? Like Peter, let us put our nets down into the deep and see what we come up with. The Greek name for fish (the New Testament was written in Greek) is Ichthys or ΙΧΘΥΣ. Ichthys is an acronym that stands for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

·         Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for "Jesus".

·         Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for "anointed" (of the Lord).

·         Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for "God's", the genitive singular of Θεóς, Theos, Greek for "God".

·         Upsilon (y or u) is the first letter of (h)yios (Yἱός), Greek for "Son".

·         Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for "Savior".

Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus and that we eat his body and blood when we receive the Eucharist. We eat Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, which is the acronym for fish.

Catholics are still the fish eaters, only now instead of getting the name from abstaining from meat on Fridays (which we are still required to do) we are true fish eaters when we receive the Eucharist in Mass.