Today is COFFEE TUESDAY for those of us who are available to go for that. Outlet Mall Food Court at 10am.
Angie Brown who is the Adult Server usually at 11am mass, works at the mall. She said to swing by for the butter tarts they make (pretty sure she said butter tarts). She works at Pearson’s Berry Farm by entrance #6.
Last meeting we talked at length about the Lenten Mission and what Fr. Julien shared with us. We had some really great talks about a ton of things. For example, the structure of forgiveness, what it is and what it isn’t. Here is that Fr. Mike video about that to reenforce it. I’ve watched this one about 10 times.
Saying things out loud, even in private, helps us formalize and clarify and accept them better too. Its a good exercise
We talked briefly about how we need to try to have enough forgiveness in our hearts to allow other people to recover from mistakes instead of just writing them off permanently. There is a fine line between exposing yourself to further debt or injury with someone who is just untrustworthy, and still giving them the invitation to repent and reconcile. As for how that applies to ourselves, Jim mentioned that constant self-reflection allows us to ask the question “Did what i just do bring me or others closer to God?”. If not then change it.
We dug in just a little bit to the concept of MAID in Canada. Matt brought the article from Columbia Magazine and shared with us what was written about it. If we look at what Fr. Julien said about the assumptions of the secularized world (Science can do everything, The power of the media and social media, The power of money and consumerism, Instant gratification of our personal freedoms, Open hostility to Christianity), the MAID program lines up exactly in step with that. It starts as all moral decline does, in that it presents itself as a merciful compassionate duty. And very quickly the bar gets moved to accommodate a little more. Then more again. And more again. Until suddenly we are so far over where our previous moral lines were drawn that we cant even see them anymore and wonder how we got here. This isn’t a pattern I am making up or something new to the world. It is a consistent march in decline we have seen forever. I recently learned that there are social engineering books from the mid 20th century that describe use of these tactics in accomplishing larger social goals, normally more socialist types of targets, but its not exclusively that way.
Our compassion and empathy for others tends to lead our hearts sometimes into reckless places if we are not aware of what our moral boundaries are, and more importantly why they are. It can be like a hand we are reaching out across a fence to help someone out of an alligator pit, and in the process the fence gets moved and we in turn move with it not realizing that we end up standing in the center of the alligator pit, leaving us to wonder how that happened. That isn’t to say that we should not have compassion or try to help others. It simply is a cautionary metaphor that implies we cannot be careless while we do that. People need love and care, and to achieve that we cannot allow the ends to justify the means or it isn’t really helpful or loving.
In the end we are looking at the sanctity of life and changing that to reflect the value of life instead. A value is something we can measure and weigh, leading us to ultimately determine its worth. Once you start applying a measurement of worth to someone’s life, then they become a piece of property. I have heard some of my favorite people talking about facing their end-of-life decisions from the perspective of “how much of a burden will I be to my family at that point.” This reduces you to internalize a concept that you may not be worth your families time to keep around or care for when things get tough. If you think that way about yourself, what will you think when its about someone else? This often comes from personal experiences where someone they knew or loved went through difficult suffering or long term decline before they passed away. “I don’t want to do that to my family,” is often the justification. You can see how it seems to come from a compassion or mercy. You cannot deny someone’s negative experience and how they are formed from it. But it completely ignores the sanctity of life, the right of God to determine your time, and the value of suffering in life.
We live in a world where suffering seems to be the cost that we should not be willing to pay. But I keep reminding myself that God never promised this life to be easy. He never said we would not suffer. In fact, outside of the healings that Jesus did, He often would tell us that we would suffer greatly in His name. If we buy into the concept that this life is all there is and there is nothing beyond this, then of course we would want to maximize our pleasure and comfort here and now. This desire is a motivating factor behind the dominance strategy of those who seek power and control. But as Christians we are blessed to have the knowledge that something greater awaits us. Its scary because we cant see, touch, taste, document or prove it. So its on faith we accept it. We accept it because Jesus told us so. Its been part of the message from God from the beginning. Don’t be afraid because Heaven awaits us.
The same applies to the abortion issue. Are we honoring the sanctity of life or the value of life? Its easy to see how both the abortion and MAID issues move from a shallow compassionate looking intent, quickly to a robust and corrupt system of continual decay and rot. Recently I was involved in a discussion about the failures of the ProLife movement, specifically in that the people who promote and champion the issue, fail to find ways to care for and support young mothers who are in need after not having an abortion where they would have seemingly been better off the other way. There is truth behind that statement. It is difficult to find the care and support inside of us to help provide for those who don’t have care and support otherwise. Twice this week I was asked if I had even been to the March for Life event, which I haven’t sadly. It is important to show support for something you believe in. I don’t normally understand how that applies to protests or marches though. Its a flaw, I know it. And God works in whatever way he deems to work, so of course there would be value in attending those things on behalf of God. But those are not the only things available we can do to support the available programs. Heck, nothing is really stopping us from starting new support programs. There are many ways to participate.
None of this changes the original question of right and wrong though. Are we honoring the sanctity of life or deferring to what we perceive as measurable value? If we discern that first, then our path is clearer. What we do with it from there might be easy, difficult, expensive, embarrassing, empowering, or filled with mistakes. But none of it matters if we ignore the first question. Is it right or is it wrong. We can tackle the issues from there and be as angry or supportive as we want, but we cannot step backwards and apply the value statement to the issue just because its harder this way or we are unhappy with how its going. This becomes the-ends-justify-the-means, and the whole moral or ethical foundation falls apart from there. Which is what the secular or even Satanic strategy wants. Similar to a courtroom where all the defendant has to do is cast doubt, that is where we are in our secular world. A little doubt on our morals and we collapse in favor of what seems compassionate, then falling to corruption and destruction. This is why its so important to do what we can to make sense of things before we allow ourselves to take those baby steps into the alligator pits.
So can and should we all do more? It doesn’t matter what the topic is, the answer will always be ‘yes’. But we cannot be everything to everyone. We cannot do it all. And we are not expected to. God is responsible for the big picture. Not us. I will defer back to something Russ says a lot. We are called to save the world. That’s a pretty big daunting task. Can we do that ourselves? Probably not. Can we save the whole town? Still pretty big task. Probably not. Can we save the whole parish? Still too many to tackle. But can we save the person next to us? Is that something bite sized enough that we can do? Just the person right in front of us at any given time? That is enough. Just one at a time. What you can, with what you have been given, when you are faced with it. That’s it. Don’t let yourself despair that you or those around you are not doing enough. Trust God, do what you can, and follow where He leads you. That’s more than enough.
Paul mentioned hearing once that we could look at the ten commandments less as a set of rules and more of a promise to us from God. For example – If you focus on having only one God, then you will not need or desire other Gods beyond Him. These things transform the meaning and practice into something for us rather than something to restrict us. I love that concept.
We looked at 3 verses.
– Matthew 6:22-23
– Luke 11: 33-36 (related to first verse)
– Matthew 23:11-12 “call no man Father”
Here are a couple videos and links about why we call priests Father and how the church approaches this verse.
The book of Haggai is two pages long. Haggai is one of two prophets in Jerusalem about 520bc receiving messages from God about rebuilding the temple. As I was reading it I was struck by some parallels to our own building project and efforts. God kinda chastises the Jewish people for focusing too much on their own personal lives and treasures while His house lay in ruin. He tells them that from the time they start building, He will spread blessing and wealth through the temple, but until then he will keep blowing their houses away as they keep rebuilding for themselves. In comparison to our own project it occurs to me that He may be speaking more about rebuilding in a spiritual way and bringing people back to the church that have scattered along the way. It spoke to me in layers that as much as physically rebuilding would result in His showing of gifts and support, that rebuilding the body one stone (one person) at a time may do the same. I wonder if it suggests maybe instead of thinking that people will come back if we rebuild, that we will rebuild if people come back. Maybe we need to also be thinking from that point of view. And whose job is that, to rebuild or restore the body of the church? To collect those who have scatters and add those who are seeking? It’s on all of us. Through prayer and capitalizing on the opportunities presented to us through the Holy Spirit. When He gives us a chance to talk to someone about coming back then we need to be willing and ready to do that. Once the first stone is laid, I believe He will shower success upon us. Maybe that means He will give us more and more people to recover once the first one is back. This of course all ignores that we already have some recovery already. So maybe its not as boldly clear as this. I just wanted to share it because it spoke to me in this way as I was reading it. What are your thoughts?
Next meeting is Wednesday, March 18 at 7pm. Looking forward to it.
