THE TEST THAT TAKES YEARS TO COMPLETE

Who do you call father?

For many people it is not that easy of a question.  Simply donating part of himself in order for you to be created does not necessarily earn a man the title father other than on some governmental and ecclesial forms.  The coach that treats you well and teaches you how to be a man or woman might earn the title over the guy who gave five minutes of his time to see that you were conceived and then never had much of a positive role in your life again.

Calling someone your father or “father figure” implies a good and healthy relationship.  It means that there is a certain amount of trust and security between the two in order for one to call the other father.  It means that the title has been earned.

In today’s Gospel we are given permission to call God, “Our Father.”  We are called His children, brothers and sisters in Christ.  The ramifications are mind blowing.  In all of mythology, what other god asked to be called father?  In fact, most Muslims would find referring to God as Our Father as bordering if not downright blasphemy.  Yet we are instructed to do this by Jesus.

Jesus’ entire mission was to restore the rifts between each of us and between us and our Heavenly Father.  Original sin began the rift and His mission was to restore the relationship.  At the Mass, the highpoint of this unity with God is when we are present for the offering of Christ when the priest intones, “Through Him, with Him, in Him . . . all glory and honor is Yours Almighty Father for ever and ever” and the congregations cries out, “Amen!  Amen! Amen!”  At this point, assuming that we are in a state of grace, we are as closely untied to Our Father as we can be in this life.  And what are the first words out of our mouth after this moment?  We dare to say, “Our Father, Who are in heaven, hollowed be Thy Name . . .”

This Sunday is Father’s Day.  When you pray that prayer this Sunday at Mass realize the full import of that moment and that word and say it with awe, reverence, humility, gratitude, and love.

DOES THE EXISTENCE OF SUPERMAN PROVE THAT THERE IS A GOD?

So the story is that Superman comes from another planet.  Now I realize that his parents sent him as a baby when their own planet was being destroyed.  But think about it - would his parents send him to a planet where life was taken too lightly - where, if a baby were found in a field and the poor family was concerned about having another mouth to feed they might readily throw the child in the trash - or maybe eat it?

I would guess not.  I would guess they would choose planet that thinks along their same lines - whose ideas of right and wrong would be fairly similar to their own.  The Rockafellers don’t send send their kids to live with Crypts.  

Just as amazing as it is that everyone in the universe (according to Hollywood) speaks English at least as a second language, mostly the idea of right and wrong remain fairly standard (at least for the good guys.)  Assuming that we accept the legend of super heroes, especially those the likes of Superman, or of the morality of the universe (which is why you can have something like a Star Fleet or Jedi), that would mean that we accept that there are universal notions of right and wrong.

If there are universal notions of right and wrong, that means there is sense in the very fabric of the cosmos - that it is not a meaningless accident.  You can study the universe and understand a little better how we are to live and what we should and should not do.

Of course, that means admitting that there is some sort of intelligence in the universe.  People of faith, in sometimes different ways, call that intelligence God.

And, of course, that assumes Superman is real.  

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: THINK NOTHING OF IT

Dei Verbum paragraphs 5 & 6

Forget about converting anybody.  You aint gonna do it.

 

So stop worrying about it.

 

The Holy Spirit does the converting.  You may be a tool that the Holy Spirit uses so keep at it!  Trust God to work.

 

Funny thing that: You may have all kinds of tricks in your bag that you wish to employ to convert someone and it will be something you might consider so completely inconsequential that actually does it.  It’s like trying to figure out an Ipad for the first time.  You just keep punching it until suddenly something works right.  You might not even know what it was (as was the case with me) but it worked.

 

God is.  From Him came everything and all things will return to Him.  We can fight it, but it is the way of all being.  God desires you, reveals Himself to you, entices you with His love and glory as He wishes to bring you home where you have a place to be loved and belong. 

 

I think one of the most brilliant things God did was to give Himself the formal name, “Father.”  Think about it: when a baby is born, it pretty much knows “Mom.”  He just spent nine months of 24/7 with her.  All of a sudden then there is this hairy being that wants to hold and feed and play with him.  We may have an innate idea of “Dad,” but you’ve got to get to know him.  The way you do this is by spending time with him, conversing and communicating, and growing in love.

 

We also have to get to know The Father.  We get to know Him too by spending time with Him, talking (praying) with Him, and spending time with Him.  That innate idea that He exists in the first place is the movement of the Holy Spirit within us – that grace already at work to bring us to know Him.  These burning coals of the Holy Spirit need to be fanned to grow to a flame.  This comes by way of paying attention to them, and having them fed by His self-revelation so that it grows to a mighty flame.    

 

There is a joke that goes like this:

 

The pastor of a parish went before the altar in the church, knelt down, and began to pray, “Lord, have mercy on me.  I am nothing in your sight.”

 

The parochial vicar observing his pastor and being impressed knelt down next to him and also began to pray, “Lord, you are everything.  I place myself at your feet.  I am nothing in your presence.”

 

The janitor seeing the two clerics set down his mop, walked over to the sanctuary step and knelt down next to the priests and also began to pray, “Lord my God, only in you do I live and move and have my being.  You are all.  Have mercy on me since without you, I am nothing.”

 

The parochial vicar, on seeing this, elbowed the pastor and whispered out of the side of his mouth, “Look who thinks he’s nothing.”

 

(insert laugh here)

 

God is completely other.  Some would say supernatural.  There is an argument to be made (not all agree) that God is the natural and we the supernatural since we are only held in being by His will – but I digress.  In any event, God and we are completely other – kind of like the matter/antimatter in the 1960s Star Trek series.  But that does not make God unknowable.  Through His inspiration and revelation, and through human reason, we can come to know Him if we choose. 

DO NOTHING WITH ME

One way to know if you are in love is if you waste time with the person.  Nothing is accomplished, no project finished, no true destination reached, maybe even no meaningful information exchanged, but just the same there is joy for having spent time together.  Lovers and friends can sit in a field and watch the clouds pass or the sun go down and just enjoy being in each other’s company.

 

It may just be a personal hang up, but this idea is why I become annoyed (very much so) when I am with someone and they spend their time checking and sending texts with invisible people whether or not we are in the depths of a meaningful conversation.  A ten hour car ride is one thing, the period of time while awaiting your turn at a board game is another.  Perhaps I am greedy, but I am here to spend time with you, not with a board game, and I want you to waste it with me.  If I am not enough, then let’s quit the pretense if the game and either do something else, or I’ll grab my book while you decide to engage others.  I do not want to be “fit in.”

 

The idea of wasting time is also a great definition of the prayer of contemplation or adoration; “Wasting time with God” Who deigns to waste time with us.  Our entire relationship with God is not one of attacking and subduing the world, or carrying on a conversation while we are also power walking or driving, but having, in this world’s eyes, completely unproductive time just to sit and be with the other.  “Be still, and know that I am God,” is so beautiful when we think that we have a God Who will be still and know us. 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE - DOES IT MATTER?

THE FOLLOWING IS A STUDY OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE TELEVISION IS NOT WORKING. BE WARNED. THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU.

(Written before election results know.)

There is a theory out there that says if you have a million monkeys typing randomly on a million typewriters they will eventually produce the entire works of William Shakespeare in Church Latin with footnotes. I suppose it is possible that this is true but probably impossible to prove because of the difficulties in finding a million typewriters these days and no computer’s shelf life lasting long enough to put this theory to the test.

This is the same theory that is used to say that human life came about. Without any Divine plan (some would say) and through absolutely random occurrences life began and developed into what has become millions upon millions of people typing on millions of computers randomly hoping to reproduce something as spectacular as William Shakespeare’s writings. Good luck.

This blows our minds – the Shakespeare part - that such incredible order would be wrought out of such randomness. But of course it is not randomness. Not entirely. There is already the substructure of letters and a limited number of ways which they can be put together because of the mechanics of the typewriter. For this theory to really take off, we would have to say (and in essence we do) that left to itself, primordial ooze will eventually reproduce the Bard’s complete opus.

You know, I could almost buy this theory for the creation of humans if we only had the power to see, or if we only had the power to hear. But we have the power to see, to hear, to smell, to feel, and to taste. But that is not all. These also work in concert and we have cognitive abilities to put them together and come to conclusions based on the information. “I see a threatening sky, I hear thunder, I feel rain, I better seek shelter.” Have you ever thought about this? How absurdly incredible this is? I can’t even get my computer to talk to my printer. The sheer magnitude of the genius of the human person astounds me. The mathematical probabilities verge on the unimaginable that it is all a random fluke. (Although I am assured that we are dealing with almost infinite time and infinite situations which makes it possible for primordial ooze to create Elizabethan literature. At this point an infinite God seems a more sane possibility.)

But if a fluke, it is also sad. Existence is a fluke. What greater good is there to appreciate it? Why recycle that water bottle? To save life for the next generation? Why? It really would not matter if the next generation existed or not. Who cares? They can't. As soon as my body temperature drops a few degrees and there is six feet of organic matter piled on top of a box holding a once fluke of life, I will not rest assured that I did good for future generations. I won’t care. As a matter of fact, I won’t be able even to not care. And there will be no cognitive force to think, “Gee, isn’t that too bad?” It is not good to exist and evil not to. There just is existing and not existing. But statistically, with enough time, primordial ooze will congeal back and “I” will exist again given enough sub atomic particles are given enough typewriters.

Extreme rationalism can explain this whole un-mess including our desire for our God. “We invented God in order to be able to handle life.” Actually any explanation for our desire for God is permissible except for the easiest: That there is God – and if nothing else, He guided the million atoms on their typewriters.

In the end I accept the wager that there is God that gives meaning, direction, hope, and joy to us in this life, especially this month in which we remember the Poor Souls. Beauty must have meaning outside of me or it isn’t beauty. It is a card shark’s game in which we will all lose and it won’t matter.

THE WAGES OF SIN

It seems that most people limit their understanding of the commandment “Though shall not take the name of thy Lord and God in vain” to using His name when they hit their thumb with a hammer. But it is much broader than that and the damage done by actions covered under this commandment is much more destructive than dropping the JC bomb when you see your cell phone bill.

One aspect of this sin is teaching in God’s name that which is not of God. An example of this in the news this past year tells of those who hold up signs at funerals that say, “God hates gays,” or “God hates military personnel.”

In like manner God and religion has been used to start and been blamed for so many wars throughout the centuries. Yet there has not been one war waged in the name of God. But God and religion has been used as a smoke screen for men’s greed, anger, and thirst for power. True Christianity is antithetical in most incidences of violence and hate. But if one looked back on the carnage caused in the supposed name of God it is understandable why the following 3 minute clip seems so meaningful to people.




glumbert.com - Fox News does a smear piece on The Netherlands

Religion is seen as dangerous and toxic. Yet the alternative has led the Netherlands to legalized drugs and prostitution, gay marriage, polygamy, euthanasia, abortion, and it seems, soon to legalize the offering of a suicide pill. (Is it not interesting that in much the same way that abortion proponents will speak of choice and not abortion, the man promoting suicide procedures says that it is not about ending life, it is about ending suffering.)

Trying to avoid a “toxic and dangerous” atmosphere has led them right into the depths of toxicity and danger in less than a century. That is the hazard of taking the Lord God’s name in vane. We cannot allow this sin in our own lives nor can we accept our leaders waving God’s banner to manipulate the good faith of people or putting their agenda in God’s mouth. The consequences are too high.