Jesus taught people about God, even in the face of death! This may be a strange way to begin a blog, but it is accurate, and at the same time thought provoking. Today’s Gospel, Matthew 14, 1-12, reads like a satanic modern day novel. It addresses the lust of Herod for Herodias, the wife of his brother, Philip. An evil oath made and a horrible promise kept. All of this happens because a young girl, Herodias’ daughter, dances before him. And then, it speaks of the beheading of John the Baptist, the cousin and friend of Jesus.
Why would Herod do something atrocious like this? To a man, that he quietly admired? That is one thought that screams out at us. Another thought is how did Jesus feel when He heard the news and the manner of John’s death? He was a man. He knew fear and sadness, just as you and I. John had reprimanded Herod, telling him that it was not lawful for him to lust after Herodias. For this John’s head was severed from his body to satisfy the wrath of the woman.
Jesus was preaching a revolution within people’s hearts and minds. He was advocating peace and love, not war and lust. He did not seek out wealth and riches. He could be found with the sick, the dying, the sinner, and the wretched of the earth. He was not addressing just one evil. He was overturning the lives of everyone. His call was for each person to review their lives, to see what it is, inside them that is preventing them from honoring their Father in heaven. Jesus knew that all mankind was suffering. It was suffering then; and it is suffering today. If John was beheaded, how much worse would Jesus’ own death be? “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” Yes, Jesus knew fear. He also knew, and preached with His own life, that good shall not bow down to evil.
He tells us, here in the 21st century that our lives must be lived in a manner that has concern for all. We cannot judge others. We must not. Each person that we see riding the bus, or the subway, each parent pushing a stroller, each service provider, every person that we pass by…all are struggling, are searching, all are wondering, “why me?” No one can point a finger. Not you. Not me. ALL are struggling. We don’t like this person. We don’t like that action. That person annoys us…we don’t know why… but that person annoys us. We allow our feelings, our anger, our frustrations, and our hurt to rule our lives. We should know better. We have been taught how we should live, and yet we do as we please. And Jesus, our Teacher, still says, “Come, follow Me.”
Archive for July, 2011
There are many joys in this world. They happen every day. But, joys can slip right by us, if we aren’t paying attention to them. They still happen, it is just that we are too busy with dishes, or vacuuming, or our job, or worrying over bills to notice.
How many times in your life have you fed a baby? If you are a parent, then the answer will be “numerous”. If you have never fed a baby, you can still understand that that joy can be easily overlooked. During the feeding, look down at the infant cradled in your arms. The look on its face is one of total concentration on what is being done. He/she is oblivious to the surroundings; is not concerned about who it is that is holding the bottle. The focus is solely on… the Bottle and what is necessary to be done to get the formula.
The baby’s face reflects the peace of that moment. It does not have a care in the world. He/she trusts the arms that are holding it. The only interruption to the taking in of the nectar is the occasional pause necessary to regain its breath. After which, the baby continues its quest to drain the bottle.
And so it is. A joy bundled in our arms, a miracle taking place before our eyes, but our thoughts are elsewhere. We are thinking of what must be done next. We are picturing where we will be going tonight. We are worrying about the latest problem that has unfolded and causing us concern. Our thoughts are everywhere, on everything else, but not on the infant in our arms. And so the joy that is with us slowly disappears as does the formula in the bottle. And when the bottle is empty the chore is over. We move on to the next item on our list of things to do.
Our Father in heaven provides for us, protects us, feeds and nourishes us. His acts of love are as subtle, at times, as the baby drinking from its bottle. If as a parent we can provide for our children, how much more so will Our Father in heaven provide for us. The joys that He sends our way can be accepted, can be embraced, and can be sought out. Or, unfortunately, they can also be ignored, or not even observed. We, again, can be so caught up in the scheduled events of the day that the person’s smile, the baby’s laugh, the smell of the garden all go by unnoticed.
People can go through their entire lives convinced that God is an un-caring God that He is impersonal, or that He does not even exist. Because they have not seen His works in their life they decided long ago that He wasn’t real, that He didn’t care. But we know that what preoccupies our minds, what matters most to us will drown out everything else. We can be our own worst enemies. We pay no attention to God because of other things in our life, and so we don’t see God’s hand in our lives. And so we come to the erroneous conclusion that God must not exist.
When was the last time you didn’t have a care or worry in the world? Think back, when was it? It was a time when you didn’t worry about job, or salary; bills and debts did not exist; responsibilities and should’s and ought to’s were not part of your thought process. The last time I can remember I must have been five or six running down the street in North Philadelphia to see my playmates. How about you?
It is a shame since many times we put off thinking about God, praying to Him…because we have so many other things on our mind. I will start going back to Mass, soon, but not right now. I have so many things to do, so many thoughts in my head. Aren’t we really saying, “Mass isn’t the most important aspect of my life? God will understand, because He sees how busy I am?” What is more important than being united with our God? If we think this way, that God can take a back seat and wait, then maybe, we don’t really understand how important He is to our life. Period.
We amass all of these worries and concerns, and then parade them around in our mind as justifying reasons as to why we cannot go to Mass. They become the mechanism why we cannot see good in others, why we should not help those less fortunate. “I am too busy. I don’t feel comfortable around people like that. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.” And on it goes, our excuses build up and soon we actually believe these excuses to be real, to be formidable. So, when we say, “I will go back to Mass, as soon as these concerns are over…,” realize that the last time we were free of concerns was…when??
It is the nature of man, to worry, to fret. It is part of our life. It is almost innate in us. So there must be another way around this issue. Why must our worries be over before we speak to God? Why do all the items in our to-do list have to be checked off, before we can focus on our union with our God? They don’t have to be. It is us! We want order in our lives, so much that we are willing to put off the most important relationship for our lives. But of course, we don’t think of it as so, because … there are so many other things in our life that concern us.
At the end of chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel, verses 28-30 speak directly to this point. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.” Don’t wait until the trials, and problems and money worries, and sicknesses and everything else that oppress us, end. Don’t wait. Run to Him; Seek Him out. Lay these burdens that are suffocating you, at His feet. “Lord, I can’t bear them any more. I am so troubled by all of this.” THIS IS your prayer. This is how you seek Him out. In two small sentences you present yourself, as you are. A person that is seeking, troubled, weighed down, and confused. There are no pretenses here. This is who I am right now, Lord. Help me. Don’t expect the troubles and problems to magically disappear. Don’t expect magic. Expect peace. Your prayer is for peace, not solutions. Solutions will solve one problem. Peace will be your strength in all of your battles. Christ, who loves you, who hears you, who has told you to do just so, will flood your mind and soul with peace. The problems may still be there, but they are no longer insurmountable. You have peace within. And in that peace, in that calm comes the realization that our life is truly meaningless without Jesus, without God in our lives. And with this realization, we know that all of life’s burdens are not mighty majestic mountains, but merely speed bumps that crop up from time to time.
I can understand the manipulation of speed limits from 45 mph to 35 mph. If the federal government wanted to change all the stoplights from the red, yellow and green to purple, pink and gold, it could do so. It can do so, because these are laws and customs that were initiated by the state, by the government for the safety of its peoples.
Just when did the concept of marriage begin? Hmmm. Let’s see, who was the president at the time? In what jurisdiction was it first instituted? Oh wait, it was around before the United States. That’s odd it was even around before people travelled to the land across the Atlantic. For that matter, people were bonding in unions and having children before Jesus walked the earth. They were doing that from before history was ever recorded.
But with a vote of 33 – 29, the state of New York proclaimed itself, to be the grand master, the director of all. “You say you’re not satisfied with the current situation. Hey, no problem, will vote it into being illegal”. And so, with that pronouncement, it is now legal to be married and of the same sex.
But WAIT… it doesn’t end there. Carry that out to its logical conclusion. If it is legal to have same-sex marriages, then those institutions (churches) who do not agree will be eventually prodded and banned for claiming something other than what these statesmen, these mental dwarfs, have just awarded.
What pomposity, what arrogance fills these elected officials. Do they think that they have the right to re-define what has stood for eons? Whether you believe in God, or nature, or some higher intelligence that remains nameless, you must see the audacity of these people. “Hey, I am an elected official. If my constituents want this, then I must serve their needs.” Is this what they hide behind? What about truth? What about the need to protect principle?
Let’s try a different tact. Not all of my constituents can afford a loaf of bread. But we have plenty of rocks on the ground. With a vote of 33 – 29, the state of New York has made it illegal to call rocks, rocks. From now on, rocks are bread. My constituents will now have full stomachs. They can eat … this bread. This obviously is absurd. But so too, is the redefinition of a natural occurrence that has stood the test of time.
Regardless of what the makeup of your backers, your voters are you have the responsibility to pursue principles of right, of reason. If you value your office so highly that you will compromise your reason, your intelligence so as to not offend your constituents, then you are worse than a prostitute. You are not worthy of the office to which you were elected.
Human nature has and will continue to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The purpose of this union is to bear offspring. Marriage is NOT something that has as its GOAL, the satisfaction of one’s longing for another person. The goal of marriage has been, and will continue to be, the union of two persons so in love with each other, that their love will NATURALLY produce offspring.
The supporters of same-sex marriage will immediately jump all over this and say that a husband and wife, who cannot have children naturally, will adopt children. They will claim, “If they can adopt, then so also, should adoption be allowed to people of the same-sex”. That is where the wheel falls off the wagon. Loving couples can adopt to compensate for physical inabilities. Their love for each other moves them to fill a void that existed unbeknownst to them when they married.
Same-sex partners, on the other hand, want to adopt so as to assume the trappings of normalcy, where there is none. There was never a possibility of having a child with them as parents. Their loving wishes no matter how noble, cannot, and will not produce offspring by this union. Affection for another person of the same sex can be both beautiful and wholesome. To grace it with the term “marriage”, however, is both offensive and ludicrous. The state could and should define it as a same-sex state bonding. To that then, the state can attach whatever financial and tax breaks deemed appropriate. But to call it a marriage, the 33-29 vote accomplished nothing but the inflation of political egos that were already too inflated.
