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Yesterday, my family went to the movies to watch “You Gotta Believe.” It’s a baseball movie based off a true story.
One of the coaches of the team comes down with brain cancer and it’s serious. He has to step back from coaching while he does chemo.
At one point in the story, this coach’s son, devastated that his father isn’t getting better, runs out on the ballfield at night and yells out to the sky, “I hate you! I hate you!”
That was enough to make the tears flow hot on my face because I once did just about the same thing, except it was a football field and I was 17.
After my night on the football field, I went on to “wrestle with God,” much like Jacob in the Bible for years.
Yesterday, after I got home from the movie, I read a comment on my post from the other day that was wildly misunderstood. So many people missed the point of my post on burdensome rules.
Anyway, a woman, still missing the point, commented that respecting Christ in the Eucharist means that we dress up for church and women cover their heads. Boom. End of discussion.
Part of me wanted to defend my deep love of Christ, but the Holy Spirit kept saying, “Stay. Just stay. Don’t do it.”
While I was standing there at the stove with tears in my eyes, I asked, “Why not? Why not let me defend my love for You?”
What I heard was, “Because for some, it will never be enough what you do. Let me handle it. I know your heart.”
I realized how true that is. Because we humans are always trying to one up each other and prove we are better, sometimes, it will never be enough for many.
I have been to the depths with God and fought my way back to a relationship that I never thought possible after that night on the football field. Nobody but God truly understands my love and respect and nobody ever will.
There are a million and one ways, Catholic Pilgrims, that we can practice our Faith. And even if we did all those ways, there would still be someone who comes along and says, “Not enough.”
Of course with God, we can never give Him enough, but the only one we need to prove anything to is Him. He knows our hearts and His understanding of our hearts is all that really matters.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Tuesday.
*Picture is from the synagogue in Capernaum from our Gospel reading today.
Many months ago, I saw a video of Allie B. Stuckey debating in the Jubilee forum. If you are unfamiliar with Jubilee, it's where one person with one set of beliefs gets debated by a room of people that are from the other mindset. Anyway, Allie B. Stuckey, a very faithful Protestant, was debating, I believe, a very progressive pastor. At one point he says, "Jesus would have been seen as a progressive as it related to Second Temple Judaism. He had a posture of, look, there are some things that have gone astray. You have heard it said, but 'I say to you.' So there's a part of Jesus that I see that had a posture of a progressive or being progressive." By "progressive" he meant all the ""progressive" talking points that we hear in Christianity today. Allie B. Stuckey does a really good job of defending the faith by saying that Jesus wasn't being a progressive, He was teaching about how things ought to be and that goes back to the beginning, to Genesis, to what the Word Made Flesh had always wanted. As I was listening to her talk, all I could think about was where Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it." And so, all I wrote in the comment's section was that. Jesus was not a progressive, nor any other modern label. He came to restore. He did not abolish any of the Ten Commandments, but instead, went even further. Killing isn't just bad, but even being angry with your brother. Adultery isn't just bad, but even lusting after a woman. Divorce, in Jesus' eyes, is an act of adultery, if another is married. Making a false oath isn't just bad, but swearing to God at all is wrong. These are not my words, but Christ's. We see that Jesus never takes away the law, but fulfills it by asking us to seek an even more perfect way of living. This is restoration of the perfection that was initially found in the Garden, not a "progressive" path meant to include all modern sensibilities. Jesus did not call us to whatever our heart desires, but to what His heart desires. And His heart never desires us to do anything contrary to what He taught. Have a blessed Sunday, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingIn the Gospel reading from Mark today, Jesus lists off a bunch of actions which defile: unchastity, theft, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, etc. He is basically covering the Ten Commandments. At one time or another, I have broken all Ten Commandments in one way or another. I haven't murdered anyone, but I have raged so hard against a person that I'm afraid I aided in their leaving Christianity behind. I haven't committed adultery, but before marriage, I wasn't chaste. Sadly, though, I have blasphemed God, used His name in vain, neglected church, dishonored my parents, cut people to the quick, been unchaste, lied, stole, been greedy and envious. I am not usual, humans tend to struggle to follow the Ten Commandments. One reason that we struggle is because we all like to think we are a "good" person. How we decide this is we take the Ten Commandments and follow them out to the worst possible outcome. We will say to ourselves: "Well, I've never denied God." "I've never murdered anyone." "I've never cheated on my spouse." "I've never robbed a bank." "I've never lied under oath." We take everything to the extreme, conclude that we've never been "that bad" and therefore, we are a "good" person. "Sheesh, better than that guy over there." With the declaration that we are a "good" person, we slowly stop looking at our behaviors and keeping tabs on them to check ourselves. We feel we don't need Confession because that's for the big sinners. Sure, we'll acknowledge that we are a sinner just like the next person, but that's just something you're supposed to say. And yet, all the while, those small sins that we pay no attention to or brush aside, start to pile up and weaken our souls. They defile us and cloud our judgment and before we know it, we've slipped into mortal sin. I don't write this to be a downer. All that I've written here is what I know to be true in my own life and, for love of God, I don't want to be that way. So, stay close to Christ, recognize your need for Him and His grace, frequent the Sacraments, and be honest with yourself, Catholic Pilgrims. Live the faith boldly and travel well this Wednesday. *Santa Rosa Catholic Church, Lone Pine, CA
Continue ReadingLet's continue looking at the Sierra Nevadas today, shall we? This past weekend, my oldest daughter and husband got into a theological discussion that I thought was very interesting. My daughter was wondering that since we will get our bodies back after the Second Coming, and since time and matter are connected, will that mean there will be time in Heaven? We know from Einstein that time, space, and matter go hand-in-hand. So, my husband said: "Well, matter is something that changes and because it changes, time is part of the equation. God gave us free will. A lot of people don't see this as loving, but it is loving because it means that we aren't programmed robots built to "love." But, because we have free will, that means that we will make imperfect choices and do imperfect things, yet, God gives us time to change. Time is actually such a blessing because without the opportunity to change for the better and become more perfected and more Christ-like, we'd be doomed. Angels didn't get time, their decision to be with God or not was a one "time" decision. So, the greatest gift God gave us was existence itself and with that comes His love. Then, He gave us free will. And, He gave humans the gift of time, to learn to change and come to love Him, our Creator. What can be tempting then, and many of the great philosophers of the world have believed this, is to think that we can perfect ourselves. But nothing imperfect can perfect itself. This means, we need a Savior, and we need grace which is the Divine Life given to us. We can only get so far on our own. In Heaven, we will be perfected. Once we get our bodies back, they will be perfected and there will be no change. They won't decay, get old, need food, need sleep to recharge. They don't need time to change. So, while we don't know for sure what will happen in Heaven and how it will be, change will not be part of the equation and if there is not change, there is no time. Thought you might like to read this these thoughts from my husband, Catholic Pilgrims. And, I thought you might want to thank God that He gives us time. Have a good Tuesday.
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