Monday Reflections

I am weak.  I don't know how to defend the honor of my Lord and my God.  I want to, but instead, I say nothing.  I pray in my heart, and frown, but it is little to defend the honor of His most Holy Name.  Perhaps if I suggested that my coworkers say "Oh Buddha" or the name of some other deity out of frustration, they would get the picture.
We could use the names of false gods "in vain," but would that help to bring about the conversion of those who believe in these false gods? (Hmm, perhaps I should add "o Bama!" and "governementdam" to that list of acceptable alternatives?) I don't think, though, that blaspheming their gods would really weaken their faith - it would only weaken their faith in us.
Our "charity" makes us a group of easy targets, you ever notice? We are easy to ignore and easy to offend without opposition. If a Christian criticizes anyone for their choices, they are told that they are judgmental, bigoted, and uncharitable.  Ironic, considering these virtues that we are so painfully short on weren't even considered virtues before Christianity.  It was a Christian idea that men didn't judge one another, rather that they leave judgement to God.  It was a Christian idea that we love our neighbor, regardless of his status, color, or gender, for the love of God. Before Christianity, equality was an idea unheard of.  True, Christianity did not do away with classes or slavery, but it taught mankind the equal dignity of every human in the eyes of God.
Bigoted.  Now there's an interesting word.  I actually had to look it up.  I had a fair idea of what it meant, but I wanted to be sure.  According to my handy-dandy iPod dictionary: Bigoted - "having or revealing an obstinate belief in the superiority of one's own opinions and a prejudiced* intolerance of the opinions of others." Hmmm.  Sounds like something that can go both ways.  Hey, I'll admit there are a lot of bigoted christians out there.  And I would say ALL of us have a streak of that in us somewhere - we like to be right, and we like to have our own opinions.  But see, there is this little thing called "truth" that not everyone recognizes as even existing.  I believe it does exist, and I believe that the Catholic church holds the fullness of it.  Therefore, I don't consider myself a bigot.  First, because I'm not talking about opinions, I'm talking about facts.  If it was merely my opinion that 1+1=2, and I refused to back down from that, I could be considered a bigot.  Or, to give a better example, if it was merely my opinion that 7+5-2 x 4 = 4, I could be considered a bigot.  However, math doesn't deal in opinions, it is fact.  And it is a fact that 7+5-2 x 4 = 4.  I could be wrong, though, and say that 7+5-2x4=40, and then I could obstinately refuse to listen to my math tutor explain the order of operations.  In that case I would be a bigot.
I would also like to mention that I am not a "blind sheep" following everything the Church teaches just because it says it is right.  I consider there to be sufficient evidence for what I believe.  I don't understand it all, I admit.  But when there is something that doesn't make sense to me, I look for an explanation.  After all, I want to make sure I'm understanding what I think I'm hearing. It's been said by many different people in many different ways, but to put it simply, most people hate the Church for what they think it is, not for what it actually teaches.  So far, I have found an answer to all of my questions. Prove to me that the Church is wrong, and there is nothing to hold me - I do not look for the honor and glory that comes man, only that of God.  Prove my God does not exist, and I have no reason to follow a Church that is false.  Ah, but you can't prove it.  I know it to be truth.
God Bless,
Rae

*Prejudiced: To quote my then-8 year old brother to my then-10 year old brother: "Your just prejujished.  You don't like cocoanut and you haven't given it a fair chance!"

Reflections on Adoration

  If we were able to truly comprehend the Eucharist, we would be unable to do those which we are commissioned, by God, to do. We would desire to never leave His presence, to never stop adoring, as is right and just.  Yet this is a privilege reserved for Heaven.  We know by faith that Christ is present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  We know we are in the presence of our Creator.  We know that He is all good, all powerful - He is everything.  We know that He loves us so much that He not only suffered and died for us - He humbled Himself to the point of allowing Himself to appear as a piece of bread.  Not only was He once a defenseless child, He now carries the form of an inanimate and defenseless piece of bread.  He wanted us to be able to receive Him, that He may receive us into His Mystical Body.  We know it all, by faith, but we do not understand it.  We cannot feel it.  Only once in a great while are we allowed that feeling, that brief glimmer of understanding.  

    We see the saints who knew this wonder intimately, and we wonder, “Why can I not have that faith!  Why can’t I see?” But what then would you do?  You, as they did, would spend hours adoring.  What of your responsibilities?  Your children?  Your work?  God gives each of us a task to complete here on earth.  Most of us will never know what that task is until we reach eternity.  For some, the job is to adore Christ and to pray.  A world without our cloistered nuns and monks would be lacking so many graces!  But for most, our job is in the world.  Essentially, we are to create new souls for Christ.  For some, this work is to convert those around us by our example.  Yet much of the work is in the family, and in the home.  I recently read a comment, I don’t remember where, that it used to be that the household produced most of its own needs.  Then, things became more specialized and the work moved outside the home, but it was still to provide for the needs of the home, and of the family.  What now is the purpose of our work?  We work to raise money to buy the things our family needs, yes.  But if you ask why we need more jobs, the answer is not “because it is good for the family” it is “it is good for the economy.”  What in the world is the economy?  And why should we care about it?  Have we perhaps lost perspective a bit?  I think so.  We have lost perspective because we can no longer see why the work that we do is a vocation from God.  It is our marching orders.  And it has a purpose in His quest for souls.  

   We cannot, must not, neglect prayer, especially prayer in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  No, we can’t understand its importance.  We can’t feel His presence.  But it is not because we are lacking, and it certainly isn’t because He isn’t there.  He hides Himself because He must.  He has work for us to do.  We go to Him for our marching orders, and for the provisions of grace that we need to complete those tasks.  And He is always waiting for us, always glad to see us, even when He is silent.  He is even more glad to see us when we come only on faith, and not from an emotional desire, because it is then that we prove our faith.  Someday we will see, and we will know, beyond faith, His presence; and we will have eternity to enjoy it.