KNOCK, KNOCK. "WHO'S THERE REALLY?"

A priest recently said, “people do not know how to suffer.”
That was a rather provocative statement to say the least.

Suffering has been the age old question mark concerning God. Why is their suffering? Why do good people suffer? Great minds have tackled this problem with varying degrees of satisfaction. I like C. S. Lewis’, “The Problem with Pain.”

Others have said, “God’s wrath and God’s mercy are two sides of the same coin.” That is, if there is suffering God is trying to use it to bring a person closer to Himself the only way the person might listen.

But what this priest was saying is that suffering, desiring, yearning, are all finger posts pointing us to God. We want something (or want something to stop) and so we can imagine something greater – a better world – a better way of being that seems to, yet seems to not quite exist here – but does exist somewhere. What our desiring is pointing to is God and heaven.

For example, the explosion of porn and porn addiction in our country, what is that really about? Men (mostly) are yearning for something. Is that something really just images? If you ask (most) men if they feel fulfilled by porn – especially after they are finished, you will receive a very mournful and emphatic NO! But there is a deep yearning there and porn can be a quick fix; empty calories to fill the stomach so to speak. The only problem is that it fails to satisfy. Afterwards men are left feeling even emptier (which may lead them back to the porn for more consolation, which make them feel worse – and a vicious cycle has begun.)

No real man really wants porn; they want something greater – something to fill a great need inside of them. They desire love, and communion, and a sense of self worth. Marriage can help this need. It will never completely fill it but it can last us for this life. That is why we have celibates in the Church – to point us toward something even greater. Ultimately these men sho use porn and all of us want – yearn for – that greatest good where we are completely and utterly loved and accepted for who we are and Who we can love back so completely and with utmost trust. As Chesterton said, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.”

When we yearn, our eyes should turn from the thing we think we desire and realize what we want most deeply is God. Stare at the piece of chocolate cake for which you are not really hungry, and realize that you want the goodness of heaven which is far sweeter, far more comforting, and infinitely less fattening.

This is not a complete answer but gives us something to think about when we are tempted or are suffering.

RANT - COUNTER RANT: THOSE PESKY STRAW MEN AGAIN

Every time the Church appears in the paper it requires faithful members of the Church to hold their collective breath. Is this false, mostly false, misleading, mostly true, absolutely true, and is it good or damaging and if so did we do it to ourselves? Nothing hurts more than damaging, absolutely true and we did to ourselves. And this last scenario happens often enough that you wouldn’t think that any false or misleading scenarios would need to be invented but they are.

Appearing last week in the Cleveland Plain Dealer was an editorial that appeared in the Los Angeles Times written by Michael Kinsley concerning John Paul II’s beatification this coming May. Most of the article is the kind of writing that his author likes to see in secular media. I had no idea of he was for it or against it through most of the reading. There was a healthy balance between a positive an accurate reporting of facts, the Church’s perspective, and a healthy asking of questions that I would expect of a paper that does not purport to be Catholic or a proclaimed defender of the faith.

Then one hits the last quarter of the article and it falls apart. Using techniques reminiscent of 1970’s values clarification, a misleading proposition is presented with implied solutions that leaves the reader siding with the author in a, “of course I couldn’t possibly accept the other position” stance. Limit the possible answers to my good one and the terrible one that I assign to my opponent and I win followers. A sneaky, disingenuous, and unhelpful technique.

A quick background: A nun was miraculously cured of Parkinson’s disease, a malady shared by both the author of the article and John Paul II. The cure was attributed to intercessory prayer made through JPII. The first question, one that is asked in every high school religion class, is why doesn’t JPII or God just eliminate Parkinson’s disease all together. This is a fair enough question and worthy of theological discussion. Nobody has the definitive answer to this question though I think C. S. Lewis made an excellent shot at tackling it in his book, “The Problems of Pain.”

But then Kinsley starts to go off course. The first false statement he makes is that the Church opposes stem cell research. Not true. It does however oppose embryonic stem cell research. It is clear he does not think there is a person in the early stages of human life. “They are not fetuses; they are clumps of a few dozen cells.” To his credit however he does add, “Of course none of this matters if you believe they are full human beings like you and me.”

Finally we get to end of the article and the part that wrinkles my liturgical underwear. (“Finally” I hear you saying.) Here is his statement: “The famous test of belief goes something like this: Suppose there was a fire destroying your house and you had the choice of rescuing either one real 1-year-old baby or two test tubes containing an embryo each. Would you really go for the test tubes and let the baby die?”

The implication is a) embryonic research really does show potential for curing anything (it hasn’t) and b) that to slavishly follow Catholic teaching means that you absolutely must rescue the test tube humans and not the 1-year-old. So let’s offer a similarly ridiculous scenario back. You are able to go back in time to the Circus Maximus and three unidentified men are being fed to the lions and you, somehow, have the ability to rescue either one man who is running and screaming away from the lion or the two other men who are unconscious. You have no idea if the two unconscious men will live or not, they will feel no pain, they are not as in immediate danger as the lion is chasing the conscious one (and a one year old is breathing smoke – not so a person in a test tube) and since they would survive longer in the situation in which they were placed, they are not immediately suffering, we do not know if they will survive already, and there is the slimmest chance that they could be rescued yet, who would not go for the man running from the claws of the lion or the child breathing in smoke? (Similarly would we be able to get the test tubes to a place that would preserve them in time? I have no idea how to preserve rescue or preserve them. I do know how to save a one year old and make sure that he is Okay.) NOBODY is less or more worthy to be saved - but one senario seems to have the best chance of succeeding with the most people.

This may not be the best answer (it most likely isn't) and there are probably moral philosophers out there cringing at these words. This was the best I could come up with fifteen minutes on my vacation, but the point is that there are other options (don't accept the one falsely assigned to you) - we do not need anyone assigning a false absolute position to the Church (a straw man) and then pointing out how ridiculous that (false) assertion is.

Manipulating emotions fails because that does not make the problems or the questions go away. Deal with the facts and grapple for a solution. It is only then that real answers begin to appear.

GRACE AINT CHEAP

GUEST BLOGGER TODAY! THANK YOU CK FOR GIVING ME A DAY OFF OF BLOGGING DURING THESE BUSY DAYS. IT IS A GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT.

I’ll never understand those types of people who want supernatural signs from God. I’m with the Blessed Mother on this one: if you see and angel, the proper reaction is fear! What could a supernatural experience from God mean except that He’s got important work for you to do and it’s going to cost you.

Grace can’t be bought, but it appears that it still needs to be paid for. When you look at the lives of St. Bernadette, St. Pio, St. Faustina, or the children of Fatima you see how much their special graces cost them. Every one of them knew poverty, abuse, rejection, illness, and darkness of soul. And that is in addition to the prayer, penance, and work that they voluntarily took on.

Everyone has those long stretches of suffering in life: a family member is sick or self-destructive, we are spiritually desolate, we are rejected by our peers, a big sin won’t stop tempting us, or we are physically or mentally ill. It is only when I have emerged from the end of such tunnels that I realized how much grace was bought with these sufferings.

In hindsight I can see the precious fruits of such pain. Rejection gives us humility to use our gifts to console others who suffer rather than to puff up our own egos. Our traumas toughen our spiritual muscles to help lift the heavy crosses of others that would make the less initiated turn away in fear. When we experience pain or ignorance firsthand, God tattoos His lessons on our hearts in a way that no amount of study could teach us. God has personally taught me spiritual empathy, the meaning of sin, and the power of the rosary, but only at the end of many years of pulling my hair out and crying, “Why me?!”

I remember someone speculating that the reason Jesus emitted a groan when He healed someone was because he was engaging in some redemptive suffering right on the spot. If someone comes to me with a terrible problem and I do what I can to comfort the person, I am shocked at the number of times that the person says, “Wow, I feel so much better!”, but I end up depressed for a couple days. It’s like that grace is being paid for.

I always try to remember that God is not a divine vending machine. If I have an intention, I try to remember that I have to put my heart into that request. I have to invest the prayer and sacrifice, or even have to bear whatever involuntary sufferings he has in store for me. My personally experience has always been that God surpasses all expectations in generosity.