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The land beyond the Sea of Galilee in this picture is the Golan Heights and it’s over in this area that our Gospel reading from Mark takes us today. You are looking eastward.
This passage today about the unclean spirits and the swine is a curious one. The response of the people after seeing the salvation of the tormented man with the unclean spirit is a bit mind boggling.
They’re scared and want Jesus to leave? These people who have had to struggle to keep this madman chained and bound away from civilization are upset now because some swine tumbled into the sea?
You’d think they’d be relieved. You think they’d be laying gifts at Jesus’ feet, but no.
The swine were their livelihood and now 2,000 of them drowned into the sea. “If this is the price of salvation, who the heck wants it?” They were fearful of how else Jesus might disrupt their lives. They’d gotten used to the way things were.
It’s hard for us to sympathize with these pig herdsmen because, after all, these were just pigs. You can get more.
But…
What if Christ came and tossed our phones in the sea? What if He came and tossed our cars and we couldn’t get them back? What if He tossed all the coffee in the world with no hope for more? What if He tossed anything we idolized as the price for our salvation? Would we understand the people now? I think we would.
We all say we want salvation, Catholic Pilgrims, but are we really and truly ready to accept it at the price of losing our idols?
It’s a good question to honestly ask ourselves.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
One of the greatest dangers for the soul is the belief that God would never send anyone to Hell. This is to ignore the many warnings in the Bible of Hell. And, I'm not sure what would be the point of Jesus coming and stressing over and over again the need for repentance if Hell wasn't real. I mean, what would be the point? What would be the point in an active belief in God at all? Usually, people who believe this way point to God being compassionate and, therefore, that means, He will just let us all into Heaven. If that is true, then why did Jesus have to come, die as the sacrificial lamb, resurrect, and open the gates of Heaven? Why close the gates in the first place? If you are just gonna let everyone in, what is the point of any of this? The danger is in this thinking is monumental to a degree I can't stress enough. God is perfect mercy AND perfect justice. I get why people would want to think this way. It essentially means that you can live however you want and God will still let you in. You can just be a "good" person because that's what civilized people do and you can ignore the parts of Christ's teaching and His Church that put you at odds with secular culture, thereby leaving you free to roam with little-to-no friction. This way of thinking will always leave you standing outside the edge of Sainthood and fully realizing who God made you to be. Saints will actual seem stuffy, and rigid, and overboard to you and, instead, you'll be more in awe of modernists who progress with the times. Hell is a place that we choose and God respects our wishes. If we have lived a life where we have chosen to ignore God and His teachings, if we choose mortal sin over repentance, we have told God that we don't really want Him. The Church and Jesus teach about the last four things: Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. If Heaven is the only option because God is just so nice, then there would be no point in all the judgement talk in the Bible. For love of God, may we always strive to show Him that we want to be with Him and not just presume we can live however and He'll just be nice to us in the end. Live the faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingToday we hear the parable of the sower and seed. For me, it's the rocky ground that best represents what I experienced in my life. "Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots." Christ goes on to explain exactly what this means. This is the person "who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. but he has no root and lasts only for a a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away." In my younger days, I believed that Christianity was insurance that nothing bad would ever happen to you. I was under the assumption that being a Christian meant you'd live a perfectly happy life. There's a couple of reasons I thought this. 1. I was not given any history of what the early Christians went through and how so many died for the faith. 2. I never heard one sermon on suffering. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about why Catholics have, for the most part, crucifixes instead of bare crosses. A lot of Protestants commented that "Jesus isn't on the cross anymore" and "we need to think of the Resurrection not the Crucifixion." I agree with St. John Paul II when he said, "We are an Easter people!" However, we still need to understand suffering and persecution. When we strip the cross of Our Suffering Lord, we can easily forget that Jesus gave meaning to suffering. Not that we should go looking for it, but when it comes our way, if we unite it with Christ's suffering, it becomes more than just dumb suffering. It can be redemptive. I didn't know any of this. So, when tragedy came my way and I suffered greatly, those shallow roots of mine in the rocky soil were scorched. I was livid at God for allowing evil to happen to me. How could He? I was a Christian and didn't that mean nothing but sunshine and happiness all the day long? Thankfully, I found my way back and upon my conversion to Catholicism, seeds were planted in better soil because I got a better understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. I pray you have a blessed Sunday, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingHave you ever gotten snagged by a headline like this on a video? "See what this former childhood star looks like today!" The other day, I saw a short video that had a picture of an emaciated, drug-addicted woman as its thumbnail and it said, "This 80s Beauty Now On the Streets!" Well, I bit and started watching. I quickly noticed was that the lady on the cover and the lady actually in the video were not the same people. They had put an AI generated homeless woman on the front to lure people in. The actual "80s beauty" was a different person. I stopped the video and thought to myself, "What an utter waste of time. I was so curious about something that's so insignificant, so pointless that's it's a bit embarrassing that I got suckered in." Then, about a week later, I started watching a long video on what dog breeds not to buy. This is utterly stupid for me to watch because a. I'm not a dog person and b. I'm not even remotely considering getting a dog. But..I was curious. Yesterday, while I was reading St. Augustine's book "Confessions" for my podcast, he was talking about the sin of curiosity. He was talking about how when our senses want something beautiful they know where to find it. Our eyes look at a beautiful work of art, our ears will listen to a harmonious tune, our nose seeks out fragrant perfume, and our sense of taste seeks something delicious. He goes on by saying that oftentimes to satisfy our curiosity, we seek out things that are in the reverse of the beautiful. People will look at a corpse, they will go to the theatre to see disfigured people put on display, they will read about something grotesque. None of these things add value to our lives or draw us closer to God. The information age can easily cause us to slip into the sin of curiosity. It's not bad to be curious, but what we are curious about is the problem. Or, if what we are investing all our time in leads us away from valuable time spent with family, friends, or God then it is a problem. The good, the true, and the beautiful are the things we should seek, Catholic Pilgrims. Nearly everything else is noise meant to distract us. Have a blessed Thursday.
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