Translating a World on the Edge

One of the first things I was taught about my faith, was that human beings were made in the image and likeness of God. I was a young child and had seen many paintings and pictures of Jesus, and since I was also taught that Jesus is God, I thought, then, that God looked just like us, only a lot more powerful.

Later, when I learned that God is also spirit, I remember being disappointed. I wanted someone I could feel, talk to, cry with. Someone like my father, my mother, my grandparents. They were not spirits. They were real.

And then came lessons about The Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I puzzled over this mystery of our Faith. In my young mind, I reasoned that any father could be a son, and any son could be a father, and the spirit could be the thoughts I had about any one of them. And all that served me for a while, because I was a child. I did not really understand that my Catholic Faith was actually that–faith.

True faith is where one steps out in total trust. Though there may be times in which we don’t feel God near us, we step out regardless because of Faith.

In the realm of faith, we don’t need to understand the specifics of God because no one can truly understand Him. He is the first cause of being itself; the eternal, ultimate entity, as far above us in power and intellect and reasoning as we are above a grasshopper. Yet, what a grasshopper needs is provided for it through the balances in nature. Certainly God provides for us, His children.

Gradually, we use our memory, intellect, and will, to determine our image of God, and then through it, express our Faith, Hope, and Love with those same God-Given human faculties. We put on the ‘mind of Christ.’

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ–1 Cor. 2:16

Then putting on the Mind of Christ:

We are not asked to develop a kind of spiritual amnesia—a blocking—out of everything painful. We are asked however to trust Him so our sins can be swallowed up in the ocean of His mercy. We are asked to develop a spirit of compassion so we can look at any person or incident in our past through His merciful Eyes. We are asked to transform our memory through the power of His grace, to sweep it clean of all cobwebs, dirt and superfluities that keep that faculty so cluttered up there is no room for God. –Mother Angelica

And finally, we come to the purpose of our Faith, and what God is really all about–Love.

There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives – the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.–Mother Theresa

All taking us back to our childhood and what we wanted God to be: Someone we can feel, talk to, cry with. Someone real.

Photo by dylanbonnerxti, 2008, MorgueFile.com

We all have people in our lives who’ve put us down, made us feel bad about ourselves, even made us feel worthless.

And we also have people in our lives who do exactly the opposite, build us up, make us feel we are worth a lot, make us feel loved.

No one loves us more than God loves us. He is madly in love with us, and we should never forget that.

God never bullies us though. He never makes us His puppet. He does not make us love Him back. We choose to do that, or not.

But always, in the eyes of God, we are His children. His beloved.

When we are maligned by others, God is there to comfort us.

When we are hurt by others, physically or mentally, we can turn to God, not only for solace, but for instruction through His word.

When we put ourselves on the wrong path, and hurt other people, we can be certain that if we ask Him, he will forgive us–and expect us to do something about our behavior.

Comfort, loving instruction, forgiveness and mercy. How can we NOT run to Him?

Aren’t these the qualities we’d like to see in the earthly eyes of those who love us?

And aren’t they the same qualities the ones who love us would like to see in our eyes, too?

What do we usually do when we’re in trouble? What do we do when we literally feel as if we’re drowning?

Thankfully, these emotions do not come daily, but there are periods in our lives when we go through great stress, or trauma. What do we do? Obsess? Cry? Make fast, and often wrong decisions?

We look around for someone to help us out, but we see the sand being pulled from under our feet until we’re left with only a hole that doesn’t seem it will ever be filled again.

When we’re in these sort of situations, we wonder if we can survive.

The truth is we can. But not alone. This is when most of us turn to God.

God is found in suffering for many of us–not that we desire it, not that we want it at all. But if we look deeper we will find Him. We will call out to Him. He will help us.

He will definitely help us. In the way we want? Maybe not, maybe in a way much better than we ever thought about.

God will help us. Trust in that.

How many times a day do you use you cell phone to take pictures? If you’re a new mother or father, it’s many. And as our children grow we take many more of those precious moments that won’t be repeated. We constantly keep our cell phones or cameras charged up so that we don’t miss anything.

I wonder if we realize that at the same time, our children are taking pictures of us. They’re taking pictures with their own eyes, pictures that will be remembered, re-charged, and most definitely repeated. In many ways, we’re playing the lead character in our child’s mental movie, or the subject of his personal painting about how to react to life, love, pain, or joy. And eventually, our children will show their pictures to the world in a myriad of positive, or negative. ways. (more…)

When is the last time we asked ourselves this question: What is the purpose of life?

Maybe we’ve never asked it—-although we wouldn’t begin a task or a trip, consider a movie or read a book, without asking what those things were about.

Our life is the most personal and important thing we possess. Shouldn’t we wonder about why we have it? Why are we, each one of us individually, here on Earth? There has to be some reason for our being here, some meaning to our existence.

Maybe you’ll say it just happened; some fluke of nature that caused a very particular ME.

Except, in itself, nature is orderly. Things that happen in nature are purposeful. A bee flies to a flower to pollinate it and to make honey. Trees produce oxygen so that animals can breathe. The Earth has an ozone layer to protect it from UV light. Even hurricanes have a purpose, the same purpose as winter storms, they vent off heat from the lower levels of the atmosphere. Each segment of nature is programed to accomplish a purpose.

As human beings, we have a purpose, too. I would suggest that our purpose is to love, in the fullest sense of the word.

Matthew 22:36-40:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The wrinkle is, though our purpose is ‘intended,’ we do have a choice in whether we carry it out. We can choose to love, or not.

Those of you who’ve read my novel, A Hunger in the Heart, know it’s about a hunger for love. Each main character strives for love. Often, they don’t put a label on it, but nonetheless the urge to have it is within them, pricking at their hearts.It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the novel. You know the characters. Maybe you even live, or have lived, with people like them.

You may have been the child of an alcoholic mother whose attention you desperately needed, but didn’t get. Or you may be that mother, a woman who at her core, wants to love, but uses an addiction to get through great sorrow and disappointment in her life.

You may know the father who loves enough to fight in a war that forever changes him and the lives of those around him. Or a family patriarch who uses his position to manipulate the ones in his care.

You may have been unfortunate enough to see and experience evil in a person so shallow that he would defame goodness itself just to satisfy his own desires.

Or you may know the personification of integrity in a man who has suffered, but still loves; or in a girl whose presence alone communicates hope.

Yes, our purpose in life is to love. And love can be prickly as a cactus. It can hurt. It is painful to be vulnerable, to allow ourselves to suffer for another. After all, we might be crucified for it.

But the bee on a flower might be swatted to death. The tree producing oxygen might be cut down. The ozone layer and the hurricane might be impeded by climate conditions. No matter, their purpose remains; it is not changed.

So even if we live in a world that is often unloving, even if we must go through suffering to love another; our purpose as human beings is not changed. It remains. The reason we are here, the reason we exist, is to love.

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. –John 15:13

Are there times when you’ve chosen to suffer for the love of another?

When was the last time I argued with a spouse, child, friend, or business associate? What tactics did I use? Were they strong-armed with a my-way-or-the-highway feel?

When we argue—and all of us do at one time or another—our goal is often to break the spirit of our opponent with relentless words until he/she gives in. We use the bit and bridle, the saddle and spurs technique to control him or her. Mostly, because we want to get it over with quick, or we just want to vent. Venting is not arguing.

Attempting to break the spirit causes a lack of ongoing trust, and sometimes even fear. It can destroy the connection or bond we might have had with the person, when what we’re really after is that bond or connection.

Winning an argument can be done with no harsh words, and sometimes with no words at all. It can be accomplished with only touch and body language. Try getting down to the level of your young child. No, do not throw your own childish tantrum–but stoop to a squat where your eyes meet his. Open your arms as if to hug him or her and see what happens.

Try stroking a spouse, or a friend, while making your point in a soft and steady voice. Don’t attack your business associate with what he might have done better by using words such as “You should have . . .” And literally, don’t stand over him. Always assume the same posture as his.

Successfully winning an argument, where respect is sustained on both sides, is like riding a horse bareback–no paraphernalia in between your skin and that of the horse. No reins or bit. No bridle. And no harsh words. Only a very gentle feel, an emotional exchange.

The American Indians never broke a horse by breaking its spirit. They did not ride and ride it until it gave in. Instead, they handled it with care for many days, whispering to it, feeding it, and stroking it to gain its trust. Then and only then did they very, very gently get on his back.

I choose gentleness… Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself. ― Max Lucado

I don’t know many people who would say they want someone to lie to them. Yet today is a time of mass deception by one political candidate.

And what are we doing about it? We say we want truth from our leaders, but we’re going for the reverse. We’re going for her lies.

We may cover it over and say that her lies are best for us. Well, we’re fooling ourselves. Lies are destructive.

We may even admit her lies are wrong, but we don’t want to hear the truth out of some self-serving motive. We even become defensive. We use her brand of political correctness to define what is true because–why? I want what I want, and in politics it’s okay??? And then we might even attack the messengers of what is actually true.

We are going down the road of ME with this political candidate, where truth is relative, because no one else is as important as she is. Why do we take this?

Hers is a Pontius Pilate deception. She uses clever words. She washes her hands, so she won’t be blamed, and she allows the real truth to be hung on a cross.

Sadly, some of us barely notice the hanging.

The general population seems more concerned with the newest electronic device, or the latest reality show. Don’t we care about the ethics, morality, and honesty of our political leaders? Don’t we care if they lie?

Many must not care, because they react to her lies like G.K Chesterton says, as dead fish floating with the current.

All sorts of clever ‘talking tools’ are used and passed by a silver tongue to make her misspeak to seem correct.

BUT–no matter what she does to put a mask on it, the real Truth is still there.

Truth is the light that truly leads.

And if no attention is paid to it, Truth will be the light that follows–until it grabs the necessary attention of all of us.

Let’s fix this, and fix it now!
Let’s follow the real light of TRUTH, and let it guide us home to the America we love and respect and are proud of.

Each of us has our particular flaws. We may be disposed genetically or environmentally to certain behaviors that take us down wrong paths that don’t make us happy.

Inside, we may want to change that behavior, but can’t seem to actually do it.

How long will we go on like that?

Unless we make a difficult commitment, we may stay on that path for the rest of our lives.

If you don’t behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.– Fulton J. Sheen

So how do we avoid the evil that is in this world? Well, we can’t. At some point, good and evil touch in each life. Two opposite forces confront each other. And that causes an action. And action takes energy and that produces growth. From physics to psychology to spirituality, opposite forces cause action.

BUT sometimes that action causes change.

When we want to change our undesirable behaviors, we are facing the opposite force; we are in battle with it. We are confronting the ‘self’ we are, and the ‘self’ we really want to be. But we need help in doing it, and we need mercy.

Catholics love mercy, so we make good use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation; Confession.  And how happy we are once we have been!

Here’s why:

First comes knowing that we can be forgiven. Second is reconciliation with God and those we have hurt through honest sorrow.  Third is recommitment–our personal recommitment to change.

Why a Sacrament of Reconciliation?

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation–2Corinthians 5:18

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1441-1442

Only God forgives sins, but since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: “Your sins are forgiven.” Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.

Christ has willed that in prayer and life and action his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the “ministry of reconciliation.”The apostle is sent out “on behalf of Christ” with “God making his appeal” through him and pleading: “Be reconciled to God.”

When we are reconciled to God, We are happy, and even more. We have a real peace, so that no matter what comes, or what we do to ourselves, we get through it, and rise above it, with His merciful love.

Nobody talks much about the devil anymore. In fact, nobody talks much about evil at all, as if it doesn’t exist, as if anything we do is A-Okay as long as we think it is.

So NOT true.

Like a spider, the devil has many eyes, many ways to get to us.

The devil attacks us in our complacencies, where we are, through what we love. And sometimes the devil has a very attractive face–one that’s hard to resist. He lures us by our addictions, the things we think most about, the things we’ve tied ourselves to. He yanks on the chain of those addictions, leading us further and further away from what is good, to what is evil–until we become his devoted ‘pet.’ Then he’s got us just where he wants us.

No, we don’t want to hear this. We say, “Look, I am who I am, and who I am is okay.”

Well, that depends. Because we weren’t given life on earth in order to fulfill ourselves. Believe it or not, each of us has a greater mission than our own existence. There is a reason for our having been born. God knows our mission even if we haven’t yet discovered it. And it has nothing to do with evil, and everything to do with good.

To determine what is good for us requires an informed conscience—an objective conscience, based on what we know to be true. We have to be able to stand outside of ourselves and look into the mirror of what we are becoming. And then, we have to (pardon the expression but I can’t think of a better word)… ..we have to have balls enough to admit it.

The Devil is a liar, who will use any means to get to us–flattery is one of them. That misguided axiom we hold to–“I’m okay, you’re okay no matter what I do, or what you do” is one of his tools. We see it growing day by day in our present society. I think this children’s rhyme sums it up pretty well:

“Will you step into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly;
“’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to show when you are there.”
“O no, no,” said the little fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”
“Come hither, hither, pretty fly, with the pearl and silver wing:
Your robes are green and purple; there’s a crest upon your head;
Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead.”
Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little fly,
Hearing his wily flattering words, came slowly flitting by.
With buzzing wings she hung aloft, then near and nearer drew
Thinking only of her brilliant eyes, and green and purple hue;
Thinking only of her crested head — poor foolish thing! At last,
Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlor; but she ne’er came out again!
And now, dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne’er give heed;
Unto an evil counselor close heart, and ear, and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.

Will we allow the devil to lead us wherever he wants to? Does he have us where he wants us right now?

Sometimes we’re concerned only about appearances; the outside of things. We stuff closets with things we don’t want any visitor to see. We cover our faces with make-up, and our bodies with just the right clothes to make a favorable impression. We say all the things people want to hear whether we believe in them or not.  We all do this to some extent.

On the surface it may be harmless–unless we are covering-up–and yes, hiding– an ugliness going on inside us. When we are concerned only with what others think about us, we have no principles. When we say one thing in daylight when everyone is watching, but do another thing in the dark when no one sees us, then we are hypocritical, self-serving, and false human beings who should not be trusted.

Isn’t this what we despise about politicians? Their dishonesty. Their hypocrisy. Their self-grabbing. Politicians polish up the outside of themselves so that they appear to care for the downtrodden, when the downtrodden are only a means to votes.

We see this today, as far as I’m concerned, in the Democratic Party candidates for President and Vice President, when nothing is too sacred to use toward for their own gain. Where are those principled stops that ought to be there?

There are times when any of us may consider an action that is completely self-serving, BUT we don’t, because some life-principle we believe in, stops us. However, there seems to be no life-principle to stop the Democrat candidates self-aggrandizement. No lie they will not tell, no people they will not use, no person they would go out of their way to honestly suffer for.

In the last forty-seven years, a lengthy time in which Joe Biden was in a position to actually help, the people who depended on him are not better off, but worse off.

Inside each of us, is the potentiality to do right, or to do wrong. By our life principles  we choose the path for one or the other. And before doing so, we make must make judgments.

If there is no judgment, then evil is good and good is evil.–Fulton J. Sheen

I must judge these candidates. As an American Citizen, Catholic, and voter, I must ask: where are their principles?  Which path are they taking??

I suggest it is not the right path. I suggest that time and time again it has been the wrong path of plunder and self-indulgence.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.”  –Matthew 23:26-27