.png)
Love, for it to be true, must be like a refiner’s fire. It must help burn off weakness and purge you of sin. If God is nothing more than a distant deity that asks nothing of us, we will never become who He created us to be. If your spouse never tries to raise the bar for you, never calls you out of sin, they do not really love you. Real love cannot stand to see you sink and be stagnant. If a parent refuses to discipline, guide, and lead their children, there is no real love. Parents are called to help “burn” off the selfish inclinations of children and teach them to be productive, caring, giving people. If a friend is fine with seeing you fall into sin, if they encourage sin, or join you in sinning, they do not love you. We have confused in our culture the idea of what love actually is and what it should do. For many, love is blind tolerance to any behavior or belief. However, Love is never indifferent to sin. Love always should call you higher. Love should make you want to be a better person. Love should burn off weaknesses within us. Will we always like to hear that we aren’t perfect people? No. More often than not, it will anger us and cause division. Jesus said as much. However, we cannot expect people who love us to stand by and watch us lose our souls to mortal sin. That would be the most unloving thing a person could do, but we see people do it all the time. True love will and should cause some friction within you, Catholic Pilgrims, as it calls you out of complacency and selfishness into a life of holiness. Have a blessed Sunday.
Continue ReadingToday is my favorite Marian Feast Day and this painting is my all-time favorite of Mary. It is found in The Cathedral of San Pedro de Los Milagros in Colombia by Juan de Jesus Munera Ochoa. About a week ago, I was watching a Catholic respond to Allie B. Stucky's attempt to debunk the Assumption. In true Sola Scriptura fashion, she dismissed the Assumption because it's not in Scripture and there is no historical evidence for it. As for historical evidence, well, that's right. There is no tomb, no bones, no body, no nothing. Because...of the Assumption. For all the ridicule Catholics get over their devotion to Mary, one would know that there is no way on earth that Catholics would have let the knowledge of the location of her tomb just fade away like the Beatles on "Hey, Jude." We Catholics are pretty darn good at knowing the location of Biblical people's graves and placing a church over it. So, back to the video. I watched it and I commented, "Well, is there any precedent for people being taken up into Heaven in the Bible? I think so." To this, a guy responded with a very lengthy response about her Assumption not being in the Bible. I responded back, "But, could it be possible? Do we have precedent?" He wrote out another long lecture, but didn't answer my question. So, I asked him to answer my question and he said that he did. He didn't. Then he proceeded with another lecture. Here, I was done, because at the very end of the last lecture he declared that "Catholics were wrong and he knew better because he studied Scripture." Basically, it was the I'm-my-own-pope-and-magisterium argument and when people claim that, well, I'm out, because he has no claim to authority other than his one man show. There is no definitive verse that declares that Mary was assumed into Heaven, this is true. But, there is precedent for it in the OT and it is not outside of God's power. Mary did not ascend by her own power, as Christ did. She was assumed into Heaven--Body and Soul, by the power of God. It makes me so happy to know that Mary did not see bodily decay here on earth. The Mother of Our Lord--the woman whose Body carried Jesus Christ--deserved to join her Son, Body and Soul at the end of her earthy life. What a beautiful grace. Have a blessed Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, Catholic Pilgrims. Get thee to Mass!
Continue ReadingMy maternal grandfather served in WW2 in the Army. When I was a little kid, neither one of my grandfathers spoke of their time in the war. It made sense, they weren't going to burden a small child with the horrific things they witnessed. But, as I got older, both of my grandfathers began to open up. At the old country dining room table in my grandparent's home, my grandfather started to tell stories of his time serving under General Patton. At the end of the war, we were surprised to hear him talk about how he liberated a concentration camp. He closed his eyes, as if recalling the scene in his mind. He quietly said through tears, "You just can't imagine the evil that people can inflict on others." Even with all the pain he carried through the years of what he saw and dealt with, he was a wonderful man and a top-tier grandpa. I miss him dearly. We often wonder why God allows evil to exist. It's one of the strongest arguments atheists have against the existence of God. There is no slam-dunk argument to counter it, but I think the answer can be found in Christ and His Saints, like Maximillian Kolbe. Where we find terrible evil, that is where you will find the greatest stories of supernatural love. I only know what light is because I experience the absence of it--darkness. I only know what warmth is because I experience the absence of it--cold. I only know what truth is because I experience the absence of it--lies. I only know what love is because I have experienced the absence of it--hate. If you ever read the book "The Giver," you will understand this better. Now, God didn't want evil to be in this world, but He had to give us free will, otherwise, we'd be robots programmed to "love" Him. As we know, that is not real love. Through our fallen humanity, evil entered the world. It is devastating and tragic. But, when terrible evil shows up, great love always shows up, too: Christ on the Cross, St. Maximillian Kolbe giving up his life in Auschwitz for another man. It is that immense love that moves us to tears, the only way our bodies know how to express such intense feelings of awe and gratitude over people that have the courage to face evil and remind us of what our humanity should look like. The paradox of this life is that we know love because we know the absence of it, Catholic Pilgrims. We know Christ loves us because we understand the evil that put Him to death. Thank you, God, for giving us people that know how to love like Christ. St. Maximillian Kolbe, pray for us!
Continue Reading.png)
.png)
.png)