The Definition of Insanity

Jimmy’s high school was known throughout the state as having the best football team anywhere to be found. It was a rare year that they didn’t win the state championship. Recruiters from colleges across the country often made stops to watch his team play and every year three or four players were offered scholarships. What made his football team so good? Practice.

The team started practices the week after the fourth of July holiday and went six days a week. Twice-a-days started in August which often became three-a-days if the team did not perform up to expectation. The only two excuses the coach would accept for missing a practice was that you were in the hospital or dead. The football players could not have summer jobs or go away on vacation with their families. Football was life and it was serious stuff.

What was all this practice done for? Eight games. The high school football year consisted of eight games. The players would practice six days a week, eight to twelve hours a day, for months to play eight games.

What is more important – a football game or the state of your soul? Do you practice your faith constantly or do you just show up for the “game” on Sunday? Doing something over and over again and expecting different results is not the definition of insanity as it is so often said to be. It is the definition of practice. We practice in the hopes that our repeated action brings about a change, a different result. Showing up on Sunday solely because it is an obligation or because that is what we have always done does not make one a better Christian. What makes a better Christian is the same thing that makes Jimmy’s football team so good. Practice. We must constantly practice our faith.

Many mistakenly believe that our Sunday services, be that a Mass or other gathering, is our game day. But when we gather in community it is not for the game but in preparation for the game. Game day for the Christian is every day of our lives. We gather together in community to give thanks, become renewed, and to prepare ourselves for the week ahead.

We perform the way we practice. If we actively participate in Mass, offering ourselves fully to God, we will perform better than the person just phoning it in. It is the difference between the championship team and the one that seldom wins a game. It is the difference between a scholarship to an Ivy League university or attending a community college. Where we spend eternity is so much more important than winning eight games. How we practice our faith should be equally as important.

Holiness

God alone is holy. God too, is love. The two words are so closely related that they can be thought of as the same thing. Holiness is love and love is holiness.  Holiness in a thing, in an action, in a place, or in a person is nothing more than a reflection of the holiness of God back to him. The greater the reflection the more holy something is.

Jesus was the perfect human but he did not have a perfect reflection of God’s holiness. Jesus is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit and therefore his holiness is not a reflection but the source of holiness and love. On the mountain during the transfiguration the veil of Jesus’ divinity was drawn for an instant to allow Peter, James, and John to see him for who he truly is.

Mary was also a perfect human and was able, through divine grace, to perfectly reflect God’s holiness and love. She is the model for the entire human race of what is possible. If we wish to be like Jesus we only need to imitate his mother. Mary’s holiness was a perfect reflection of God’s because she emptied herself fully and, literally as well as figuratively, became a vessel for the divine. Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Mary too said not my will but yours be done. More importantly she lived that way until her last breath on this earth emptied from her lungs.

Therein lies the secret to holiness. If one wishes to be holy one only need empty himself completely and align his will perfectly with God’s. Therein also lies the reason why perfect holiness is not possible on this side of heaven. The original sin of the first humans stained the souls of all human kind. Mary was spared this stain so that she would be a pure vessel in which our Lord could be born into this world. That was her reward for her yes to counter Eve’s no.

For the rest of us humans the best we can do is to be imperfect reflections of the perfect God. This endeavor is not in vain. Every Saint in heaven is the perfect reflection of God’s holiness but no human Saint besides Mary approached heaven that way. Purgatory is the place of perfecting, the place where the dirt on our souls is washed away so that we can be the perfect reflection. The closer we are to perfection when we go to purgatory the sooner we will be able to live with God in heaven.

If our lives on earth is like a marathon to heaven it makes sense that the more in shape we are in the easier that marathon will be to run. If I am a glutton who never exercises, a marathon would be agonizing and torturous to run. It would be so painful and difficult in fact that I would probably give up altogether and gladly accept my fate in hell. If however, my goal is to run the marathon well I will do things to make running the marathon as easy as it possibly can be. I will choose to eat right and exercise, to be in the best shape I can be in.

Likewise, if my goal for this life is to become the Saint I was created to be I will do what I can to better reflect God’s holiness and love here on earth. I must actively and constantly resolve to align my will with that of God. I must look past the person to see Jesus dwelling within that person. I must strive to love that person Jesus is dwelling within with the same perfect sacrificial love God has for me. I must recognize the dignity each and every person has regardless of their lot in life because they were created in the image and likeness of God and intended to live in heaven with him forever.

The better I can do these things the better I can reflect God’s holiness in my life and the closer I will become to being the person I was created to be.

Love Thy Neighbor

While driving through the countryside I came upon a house where someone had transformed various objects into planters. There was an old boot with a bright yellow flower growing up from it. There was a claw-footed bathtub and the rusting body of an old truck with different plants growing in them. The thing that caught my eye the most was an old console TV that had a fish tank where the TV tube used to be.

How often do we use an object for something other than its intended purpose? I am always grabbing a large screwdriver when I need to pry something open. The back of a wrench often doubles as a hammer. My teeth show the damage from using them to strip far too many wires.

We do this to people as well. We use people to get ahead in life. We use them to take the blame for something we have done. We use them as places to direct our anger or hatred. We use them for sexual pleasure. We use them for forced labor. We use them.

People were not created to be used. People were created to be loved and to live with God forever in heaven. We commit a grave sin when we use people as objects. God gave us the Ten Commandments so we could know how to live in a right relationship with him and each other. Jesus condensed these commandments down to just two: Love your God with your entire being and love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving your neighbor starts with seeing your neighbor as a person. Take the time to get to know those around you. You cannot get to know someone and love them if you don’t listen to them.

On a recent journey I rode in many taxis throughout the week. I met many interesting people, each with a story to tell. There was Cho the Okinawan. He started driving cabs when the need for Japanese tour bus drivers waned. There was Timmy from Vietnam who came here as a refugee fleeing persecution. There was Chu from South Korea who had three daughters and was greatly worried about what is currently happening in the north. My last driver was Peter, whose given name was Duk. He was a Catholic, also from Vietnam. He had two sons and a daughter.

Each taxi ride began with a person typically viewed as nothing more than a servant. Each ended with a smile and a handshake and a person happy to be treated like a person. I came away with new friends and a wealth of new experiences. I would have never met these treasures if I had sat in the back and simply used them as lowly taxi drivers.

This world is in a sad state of affairs because the devil has convinced us that what the other has to say is of little importance. We have lost the skill of listening and replaced it with the art of screaming. He who yells the loudest is the winner. We seldom extend the hand of friendship but are quick to pump a fist in anger.

On the doorpost of the home of every observant Jew hangs a mezuzah containing the great commandment from Deuteronomy. The great commandment does not begin “Love your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength…”  The great commandment starts with the words, “Hear O Israel,” Love begins with the ears before it reaches the heart.

People are not boots we use for vases. They are not screwdrivers used for prying. They are not just the things driving our taxis, cleaning our hotel rooms, or ringing our orders in at the fast food joint. They are people created in the image and likeness of God and they were made to be loved. When objects are loved and people are used a great tragedy occurs. Reverse that and great treasures are found.

Love your neighbor as God has loved you.

This is not a drill!

It was 7:45 on a lazy Sunday afternoon in Hawaii. Sailors were either sleeping or quietly going about their daily routines. Ten minutes later the air raid siren would begin to sound and the General Quarters alarm would blare throughout the ship, causing all to wonder why. This never happened in port, especially on a Sunday. Then came the words no one wanted to hear. “This is not a drill.”

9800 feet above a squadron of ten Nakajima B5N “Kate” torpedo bombers readied to release their specially modified 406mm armor piercing artillery rounds, made into bombs. Out of the ten bombs that rained down, only four hit Arizona. One of those penetrated the armored deck between the main gun batteries of turrets one and two. The round exploded amidst one million pounds of black powder the ship was carrying. The explosion nearly tore off the bow of the dreadnaught. The fireball it created instantly incinerated men where they stood. The ship sank in nine minutes trapping more men below decks. At the end of that fateful day the USS Arizona lay at the bottom of Pearl Harbor with 1177 of her 1511 crew dead.

Why is it important that we try to stay in a state of grace? Like the crew of the USS Arizona you never know when you will take your last breath. Some that morning never even made it out of their racks. Mortal sin is like a cancer that kills the soul. It separates us from God. We are left with only the hope of God’s great mercy if we die outside of his friendship.

God does not want this for his children. He wants every one of his creation to live forever with him in heaven. Jesus gave us the cure for mortal sin. It is one of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, one of two Sacraments of healing. It is the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Jesus gave the Twelve the authority to forgive or retain sin. There are some faith traditions that believe Jesus’ sacrifice alone forgives all sins no matter the disposition of the sinner. Jesus does not forgive sins. He forgives sinners. His sacrifice covers the debit the sin incurred. We all have been given free will and that free will extends to our sins as well. What is the only sin that cannot be forgiven? The only sin that will not be forgiven is the sin we refuse to let go of. Jesus will allow us to keep our sins if we wish to do so. For a sin to be forgiven a repentant sinner has to seek forgiveness. All you have to do is to have a humble heart, be truly repentant, and ask Jesus, through the proper authority he established in his Church, and you can be forgiven.

Why would God condemn someone to hell? The simple answer is that he doesn’t. God doesn’t send us to hell, he finds us there. Every person, angelic or human, is in hell because they have chosen, through their free will, to be there. They are in hell because they have been separated from the friendship of God through mortal sin that they will not seek forgiveness for. They want something more than they want the love of God.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the greatest thing the Catholic Church has to offer, second only to the body, blood, humanity, and divinity of Jesus in the form of the Eucharist. The Sacrament of Reconciliation cures the cancer. It forgives the sinner and restores him to full communion, full friendship with God. Those who die in a state of grace do not have to hope for the great mercy of God. They have already received it.

So why do so many look at the Sacrament of Reconciliation the same way they look at going to the dentist? Why do so many wait until their teeth are painfully rotting out of their head before they seek help? For most of us that is because of shame. We are so filled with shame over what we have done that we do not want to admit it out loud to another person. It is so much easier just to give it to Jesus in the private of our heart than to say it aloud to a priest in a confessional. What would the priest think of me if he knew I wasn’t perfect? News flash – the priest knows regardless. Another news flash – the priest himself is not perfect and also receives the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The devil will make good use of your shame, amplifying it, to keep you from going to reconciliation. Your mortal sin is his lifeblood. Those who die outside of the friendship with God are his to consume. He will do whatever he can to keep you from restoring that friendship. He will use your unconfessed sins against you to increase your guilt and shame and to keep you as his possession.

If you were dying of cancer you would do whatever it takes to beat it and to live. The state of your soul is much more important. Do not spend eternity as food for the devil. Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation often. Death finds most of us like a thief in the night, or in the case of the poor men on the USS Arizona, like a well-placed bomb on a Sunday morning.

Driving Blind

Atheists often accuse Christians of having blind faith, in believing in something they can’t possibly see, hear, or feel. In reality it is the atheist himself who is blind. They only believe in things that can be proven through empirical evidence. They believe in only the natural, not the supernatural, and therefore limit themselves to only half of existence.

Life is like driving a car in the darkest of nights. We can only see for the short distance that our headlights illuminate. Beyond that is the black void of the unknown. We can look in the rearview mirror and see for even a shorter distance. Things past are quickly out of sight and easily forgotten. We all, at times, overdrive our headlights making it impossible to react quickly enough to changes in the road or dangers that suddenly appear in front of us.

The difference between the Christian and the Atheist is in who is driving the car. Through faith, a Christian allows God to do the driving, knowing that no matter what the road ahead may contain, God will never fail to see us through. An atheist, through lack of faith, refuses to let go of the wheel. They are in control wherever that control may lead. The atheist lives in only that small part of the world that can be seen in the dim headlights. They use the car’s “brights” or science to try to see just a little bit more. Christians living their faith can see just as much as the atheists but live in confidence that the One who is driving can see everything, present, future, and past, as clearly as on the brightest day. That gives a Christian a certain confidence an atheist simply cannot have. For an atheist the end could be around the next bend. A Christian knows that Jesus has conquered death and that the road ahead, although maybe rough at times, always goes on.

Faith is synonymous with trust. A Christian who refuses to let go of the wheel and trust in God is no better than the atheist who trusts his own hand to drive the car. Both are only as good as what their headlights allow them to see. Empirically speaking, blind faith has the advantage over dim headlights even in the darkest of nights.

A text without its context...

“A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text.”

In other words, if you do not know the story behind a text it can be used to prove an idea the text doesn’t actually support. A good example of this in Holy Scripture is when St. Paul tells the women of Corinth to sit down, shut up, and be subservient to their husbands.

“The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only?” – 1 Corinthians 14: 34-36

This has lead people to believe through the ages that St. Paul was just another one of those old white guys who wanted to oppress women. This has been used as a proof text by men who wish to justify their domination of women and by women libers looking to break the bonds of male oppression.

In reality St. Paul was one of the great feminists of the time and did more to make women equal to men than those around him. Without the proper context what other conclusion can you come to? And now a lesson in history….

Corinth was a major seaport located on narrow strip of land that separates the Corinthian Gulf from the Saronic Gulf. It was an important and bustling trade city. The city had many pagan temples that employed the services of temple priestesses in the oldest profession known to man. These priestesses were known as honey bees and their job was to raise money for the temple by providing their services. It was considered good luck and a noble thing to employ these honey bees.

Because the land was narrow it was faster and easier to pull small trade ships out of the water at Corinth and portage them across to the Saronic Gulf than it was to sail all the way around Achaia. There were companies that employed slaves to land ferry these ships across. The sailors on these ships enjoyed an extended liberty call and like sailors have done through the ages they engaged in all sorts of drinking, festivities, and debauchery, which included visiting the honey bees. The streets were filled with all kinds of deplorable activity.

The Jews are a people set apart by God. They have the Torah which tells them how to live in a right relationship with God and each other. Jews were easy to pick out in Corinth. The women were silent. They were veiled (we veil what we hold sacred) and they were subservient to their husbands. This made them stand out as being different.

Along comes this new religion, Christianity. Women were viewed more as equals. They no longer had to be veiled or be silent in church or public. They did not act like slaves to their husbands. The problem was that they fit into the Corinth pagan society a little too well and became hard to distinguish from their pagan counterparts. This led to the mistaken belief that the Christians were nothing more than just another pagan cult.

But as Christians we are called to be more like the Jews. We are called to be in the culture but not part of the culture. People should look at a Christian, as they can a Jew, and know that there is something different about them.

The context behind St. Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians was basically this;

“To avoid creating a scandal and leading the city to believe you are something you are not go back to acting the way the Jews do while you are in public and in church. It is far better to be mistaken for a Jew than it is to be mistaken as a honey bee.”

This is the same kind of thought St. Paul had when he said that he could eat anything he wants when questioned about the Torah’s dietary restrictions. It is not what goes into a person that makes him unclean but what comes out of a person. However, if eating meat brings scandal upon me I will refrain from doing so when I am with you.

How much more love and respect can you show someone than to change your ways when in their presence for their sake?

St. Paul never intended his instruction to be justification for domination over anyone and he certainly did not see women as second class people who should sit down and shut up.

Context means everything. It is something talking heads no longer concern themselves with.

As Christians we are called to be set apart from society. People should be able to tell us apart by the way we act, the way we speak, and the way we dress. Look around you. Can you tell who the Christians are or are more and more people starting to look like drunken sailors and honey bees.