Prideful

    For some reason the issue of pride and humility keep entering my mind these days.  It is a struggle that I have been fighting for some time now.  It feels like it is one of those "one step forward, two steps back" kind of process.  It is truly one of the more irritating things I have ever had to deal with.  However, I know that I am making progress.  Not much, but some progress is better than none.  The reason I want to talk about this today is because in the past week or so, I have truly seen a lack of humility as a scourge of society.  

    Satan in his trickery offers us all the kingdom's of the world, just as he did Christ in the Gospel.  However, our human frailty allows Satan to warp us into something we are not.  I was talking to a friend recently, and they said that they could not stand their image to be anything different than what it is now.  Satan has successfully won that person over.  Satan now has the ability to twist and mold that person into a worldly person.  Someone who is solely concerned about themselves and affairs of the earth.  We must combat this brothers and sisters.  This person is not out of the fight yet.  Most people in this situation hate themselves, and this person is no different!  They want to change, but Satan has convinced them that their image of themselves is far more important than how God views them!  How can this person feel anything but despair!?  The Satan in his wise ways has completely separated this person from God.  The person is their own God in their own mind.  Hope is not lost though.  We have a God who loves us so deeply that he sacrificed his only son in order that Satan may lose the grasp of our souls.

    Friends, we must fight Satan through our humility.  Through striving for perfection, and being humble in heart we can crush the evil one.  We can help this person too.  It is not impossible to overcome this incredibly ensnaring sin of pride.  Pray friends, pray hard for this person, and for yourselves that may not become victims of this deception.  I was victim of this same ploy a few years ago.  I did things that I seriously regret even unto today.  I am proof that through Christ alone we may win the fight.  We cannot rely on ourselves.  When we do this, pride takes over.  Satan conquers our souls.  It is only when we submit ourselves to Christ that we are delivered.  This is the problem.  This is the solution.  The solution we seek is not in ourselves.  No matter how hard we look we will not find it.  We must overcome our pride and selfishness.  We must humbly approach Christ and let him know that WE ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THIS ALONE.  Through this act, we can be delivered.  We can be healed and started anew.  We can crush Satan in his own game.  Fight the good fight brothers and sisters.  Pray for each other.  Help each other, but above all, love each other with the love of Christ.

The True Beginning

     Praise be to Jesus Christ!  I just arrived back in Bloomington after a wonderful weekend at Destination Jesus.  I did not have the opportunity to spend as much time as I would have liked praising the Lord, but I still feel spiritually satisfied.  Now on to business.  This blog entry will be directed for a friend who is going through intense struggling, but, I feel as if this is a topic that everyone will go through at some point or another.  I will be sharing about dealing with earthly death.  This is an incredibly sensitive topic, and I pray to God that I can address this topic with prudence.  Now I will move into one lowly man's thoughts about death.

    My friend is (at some point in the undetermined future) going to lose a very close loved one.  The thought of this is causing this person to hate God.  I have seen this as a very typical reaction to the loss of a loved one.  "Why would God take this person away from me?"  "What did I do to lose this person?"  These questions seem to come up.  They put God in a light that screams "Unjust!"  How far from the truth!  Our God is a very just God.  If a person dies in a state of grace (which the person my friend is losing must be, the person is one of my role models), then the reward of Heaven is theirs!  How can we be mad at God for making our loved one eternally happy?  The only injustice I can see is that this person gets to taste heaven!  I am going to quote St. Therese of Lisieux's mother on this one, for I have never read or seen anything that better describes the mindset we must have about death.

Baby [Therese] is a little imp;  she'll kiss me and at the same time wish me to die.  "Oh, how I wish you would die, dear little mother!" When I scold her she answers "It is because I want you to go to heaven and you say we must die to get there!"  She wishes the same for her Father in her outbursts of affection for him.

This marvelous saint teaches us what Christian life really is.  Christian life is not about life on this earth, it is about attaining life for the next.  The losses we suffer in this life, when united to the Cross of Christ, fuel the intense fire that leads us to the gates of Heaven.  It is a long, arduous journey, but we all can make it!  The largest problem that gets in the way is pride.  We all want things our way.  This has been the hardest obstacle I have to overcome in my spiritual journey.  I do not want this wonderful person my friend is losing to die.  That is not my will for him to die, however, it is God's.  And in this way, in humility, I must accept the fact that this person is so important to God, that He must take this person earlier than any of us would like.  It is SO difficult to have the humility to accept something in God's will that is gravely contrary to our own.  However, true, pure happiness comes when our will is united with God's will.  God is all-knowing and all-powerful.  He knows infinitely better than we do what will make us happy.  No matter how intense the struggle is, God knows the end result is worth the pain.  The union with God in Heaven is the greatest reward any of us can ever attain.  It is greater than any title, greater than any material good, and yes, even greater than our own will.  We fall into sin for Satan knows that our will is easily twisted.  This is where Satan wins, and where we crush him.  In the tough times when it is hard to trust that God's plan is the best plan for us, Satan slithers in and plants lies in our head that tell us God is wrong.  God is not wrong.  God is pure love who manifests his love in even the most painful of situations.  Overcoming the lies that Satan has placed in our minds about death is where the fight is.  The antidote to the poison of these lies is humility.  

So Lord I humbly pray that your will is united with our will.  Through this we have the power to destroy Satan.  Your humble son, Jesus Christ, went through human suffering in order to show us what it takes to get to you.  He humbly accepted his cross and led us up the hill to calvary.  Let us humbly pick up our crosses and follow you.  Let Jesus not rebuke us as he did Peter when Peter tried to talk Christ out of the cross.  Satan is at work in those lies, and we must realize our Christian duty to follow your son up the hill.  Through humble hearts, may we destroy Satan and seek the everlasting joy of Heaven.  No joy on earth can possibly equal the joy of Heaven.  With this idea in mind, let us cast our sin aside and focus on you love and Peace.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.

God's peace to all.  Do not be afraid to struggle.  Do not be afraid to seek a friend to help you bear the load of your cross.  Even Christ needed help carrying his.  Pax Christi.

SSA

     It has been an AWFULLY long time since I have had the motivation to write on these pages.  For a multitude of reasons that I will not get into I had to let the blog go for a long while.  Anyway, as always, there are many issues to be discussed on these pages.  Today will be an issue specific blog, seeing as it seems to me this issue has been coming up a lot lately.  Today's topic for reflection will be the very controversial issue of gay marriage.  My reflection points and comments are not meant to be hateful, or inspire hate.  This is meant to be charitable and compassionate, as everything should always be.

     The issue of gay marriage is a hotly contested issue in American today.  The debates on the issue quickly strip down into unaffective Ad Hominem attacks from people on both sides of the issue.  The Catholic Church is on one side of this fight, the side that is against a law allowing gay marriage.  Many people call the Church hypocrites on this issue.  Since the Church is supposed to be compassionate and all-loving, how can it reject the love between two people of the same sex?  The answer is simple, the Church is very compassionate in defending the truth She teaches.  The Church does not downplay the love shared even between same-sex couples.  The issue is that the Church holds marriage to be something more than a love shared between two people.  Marriage is about the full gift of oneself to another person that invites Christ to create a new life in those people.  Marriage is about bringing life into the world and raising it to know the truth of Christ.  In these terms, gay marriage can never be a real marriage at all.  Just as two heterosexual people who get married, but are against accepting life.  In both cases, the people who are "married" are rejecting what marriage even is.

Everyday I am on Facebook and I see a page that says something along the lines of "1,000,000 people for same sex marriage!"  I must say that these groups disturb me.  The people in the groups get angry at anyone that has an opposing viewpoint, calling them homophobes and prejudice.  I fit into neither of these groups, yet hold a viewpoint that is against same sex marriage.  I hold the Church's view on the subject.  The people in a same sex relationship do not meet the definition of marriage.  No matter how often they try, the love they share in private will never allow God to bring new life into the world.  The only sin in being gay is acting on same sex urges.  These people fall into the same sins as heterosexual people.  People of all religions need to realize this point.  The sin lies not on their sexual temptation, but lies in the acting out of said temptations.  Love the sinner, hate the sin.  We are all called to chastity according to our state in life.  There are groups out there for people with same sex attractions who want to seek living out the Church's teachings.  The Church is indeed a Church of compassion, not one with a homophobic agenda.  The Church will continue to show people in these tough situations as much compassion as necessary, assuming the people show compassion back.  This is a tough issue.  Writing about it is not easy.  I just wanted to share a fair honest assessment of the situation without the personal attacks.  I hope this adds some understanding to the situation at hand.  Pax Christi.