Showing posts with label fasting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fasting. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Friday, August 11, 2017
Grace Can Pierce Stone
Driving my daughters to an appointment, we began a discussion about an article I read about a course where the students studied hate crimes, and in the process, encountered someone who had begun to repent, and who had from some, received the gift of forgiveness. As my friend who sent me the article said, "No matter what we think about other people, change is amazingly possible."
The thoughts, "Grace can pierce stone. Grace can pierce the emptiness of years. Grace, like water can seep through the tiniest cracks in the armor of the soul. Grace, like air, comes unseen, and we discover how necessary it is for life." kept running through my mind as I drove, and I repeated the thoughts as images in my head so I wouldn't forget.
The girls sat discussing how they'd write to someone who was incarcerated for hate crimes, and what they would say. They weren't sure it would be just to be generous or forgiving to people who committed such grave offense, when those who were injured by the offenses still might bear scars from the events. But God gives mercy to Cain, marking Him with a sign to all the world, this son I love, this son I will protect. Despite Cain's sin against his brother and God, God offers him not merely mercy, but ongoing mercy for his life. Grace is in essence, God's limitless love, manifested as mercy, upon us, His limited creatures.
Mercy remains, as Pope Francis constantly reminds us, amazingly possible for all who seek for it. This does not mean the grace is won in an instant, for always, God wants us to go deeper and deeper into relationship with Him. For that to happen, sometimes, we need the cross of time, so as to lean more solidly on God than ourselves. We do not receive mercy via anything but God's generosity. It reflects both God's heart, and the extent to which the soul of the person extending forgiveness or forbearance, is molded by God's heart.
Mercy manifested in this world by one person to another, remains to those who lack faith, hope and/or mercy, a mystery that amounts to foolishness. Mercy manifested in this world from one person to another, viewed by the outsider who knows love, hope, and/or faith, remains a mystery, but a celebrated luminous joyful wondrous one, It makes more sense than the sensible response the world would "understand," and thus is both impossible to explain, and more normal, more natural, more magnificent than what might be deemed just, fair or appropriate.
So today, as it is August 11th, the day I asked Catholic bloggers to offer penance and prayer for peace, both in their homes and hearts, and in the world both online and out there, I am praying for peace, for the whole world to be bathed in mercy, so that it might become more real and more natural, more what it was always intended to be. Such a reality would be amazing, all the more so, because it is possible.
The thoughts, "Grace can pierce stone. Grace can pierce the emptiness of years. Grace, like water can seep through the tiniest cracks in the armor of the soul. Grace, like air, comes unseen, and we discover how necessary it is for life." kept running through my mind as I drove, and I repeated the thoughts as images in my head so I wouldn't forget.
The girls sat discussing how they'd write to someone who was incarcerated for hate crimes, and what they would say. They weren't sure it would be just to be generous or forgiving to people who committed such grave offense, when those who were injured by the offenses still might bear scars from the events. But God gives mercy to Cain, marking Him with a sign to all the world, this son I love, this son I will protect. Despite Cain's sin against his brother and God, God offers him not merely mercy, but ongoing mercy for his life. Grace is in essence, God's limitless love, manifested as mercy, upon us, His limited creatures.
Mercy remains, as Pope Francis constantly reminds us, amazingly possible for all who seek for it. This does not mean the grace is won in an instant, for always, God wants us to go deeper and deeper into relationship with Him. For that to happen, sometimes, we need the cross of time, so as to lean more solidly on God than ourselves. We do not receive mercy via anything but God's generosity. It reflects both God's heart, and the extent to which the soul of the person extending forgiveness or forbearance, is molded by God's heart.
So today, as it is August 11th, the day I asked Catholic bloggers to offer penance and prayer for peace, both in their homes and hearts, and in the world both online and out there, I am praying for peace, for the whole world to be bathed in mercy, so that it might become more real and more natural, more what it was always intended to be. Such a reality would be amazing, all the more so, because it is possible.
Friday, April 7, 2017
Pray and Fast and Give Alms for Peace
Seeing people dying in a horrible quick fashion that is frightening, that makes us want to take action.
This sort of horror, like the picture of the boy washed up on the shore, like the picture of the boy in the back of the ambulance, somehow gets us more invested than say, this picture:
or this one:
Which makes us want to change the channel because we can't wrap our heads around it and don't have a symbolic action we could do which would let us go back to not paying attention.
So remember folks, you can kill with indifference, denial of humanitarian aid, bullets and bombs all you like, but if you do a chemical weapon drop, we'll send missles. Please, go back to killing and oppressing your people in less emotionally gripping and disturbing ways. To avoid further strikes, only oppress and kill in ways which are approved by other civilized nations.
I'm sorry if that sounds too sharp to some ears. I'll concede it might deter Assad from authorizing further flights from airbases he contols to drop chemicals on civilians who do not favor his regime, but it also might draw us into a high stakes conflict with Russia, since Russia suspended an agreement of military cooperation between the US and Russia, since Russia is an ally of the existing Syrian regime. Additionally, while surgical strikes provide symbolic relief, no one even pleased with the US response, believes this limited action will result in the regime having a change of heart.
While I hope the missles got the places that hold chemical weapons, no one should feel comfortable that the US sends drones or missles into countries where we have not declared war or been given sanction to act in a military fashion or that Russia has promised to bolster Syrian air defense systems and is sending a frigate to monitor Syria's port to the Mediteranean. It has the feel of brinkmanship, and not "the art of the deal." Military action, like all other things we do, ought to be the result of reflective, deliberate policy and thoughtful examination. This act, (in contrast with the talk up until last week), is reflexive and reactive. I didn't like it with the past presidents, I still don't like it.
So what do we do as we watch powers and principalities play out a game of live chess with real people?
If we remember, back when war with Syria seemed inevitable in 2013, Pope Francis asked the Church to pray and fast for peace. Somehow, the U.S. need to go to war which seemed unavoidable, evaporated...overnight.
Perhaps it is time to make that request again, and this time, add alms giving in the form of each parish taking on a family. If the Pope asks our fellow Christians and Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters to each take on a family at each church, each mosque, each temple, we will be able to whittle that picture of endless despair down, and perhaps help prove there is another way to address "such relentless hate," by riding out to meet them. Problems aren't intractable just because they're difficult to resolve. Problems remain intactable because people refuse to be moved or to move. What is required is embracing the cross. Somehow, we have to know, if we are Catholic, everything always requires embracing the cross. Somehow, we have to know, peace isn't the merely absence of conflict. Anyone who ever had a silent fight knows how a house feels when two people aren't getting along. On a global scale, we can't know peace when we wilfully ignore suffering so as to "get along."
What we keep forgetting, as individuals and whole peoples, is when we ignore a problem because it is hard, it gets bigger. It's true with weight. It's true with debt. It's true with education. It's true with politics. It's true with everything that matters in life. When we ignore problems because they are difficult, we eventually wind up ignoring people. We need to take on this crisis we've ignored.
How?
We can eliminate the humanitarian crisis by helping one family at a time, via one community at a time. Risk is always involved when we reach out to a stranger, to an other, whenever we offer love but to do otherwise, is indifference (which is the simplest path and what we've done as a world whenever we thought we could). We've tried indifference. It has lead to where we are now, with millions searching for room in the inn of the world, pictures of the dead and the dying and stories of suffering, waste and pain with no respite.
Here's some links to ways we can get involved.
Seven Ways to Help Syrian Refugees.
Here's one more, which has some of the same information but is still worth reading as I'm pleased it's from a secular source: How to Help.
Petition your bishop, your pastor, and your friends to encourage everyone to do the same. As we prepare for Holy Week, we ought to ramp up our prayers, fasting and alms giving, storming Heaven, asking for the peace the world cannot give. If we show we are not living as this world would have us, but as the next, perhaps we can have better pictures and better stories to tell.
Fast as penance for all the pain we've created via neglect, indifference and not being willing to act,
and give alms, so they will know who we are.
It may seem unreasonable to pray for peace in such a wartorn and conflicted country. How could it possibly happen? That's okay. God loves unreasonably. We can be unreasonable with God in our prayers, and God wants peace for these people, for all of us, even more than we do. It may seem crazy to give alms when there are so many in need. How could our little be sufficient? That's okay. Give what you can. God will do the multiplying. He's done it before. It may even seem scary to take on caring for people of a different faith, people we don't know, and to invite them into our lives. Again, that's okay.
Love is always unreasonable, generous and courageous. So be unreasonable, generous and courageous. This week, this about to be Holy Week, be love.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Walk into the Desert
Today is Ash Wednesday. Liturgically, it's the anniversary of my father's death. The actual date is two weeks away, but nothing quite reminds one of the reality of ashes like the reality of an anniversary of a parent's death. It doesn't feel like so much time has passed.
The past few weeks, I've lost my computer. As a result, I've not quite known what to do with myself. My writing lay fallow more than I'd like and come this week, I felt apprehension as Lent approached. I didn't have some grand inspiration for the day or the 40 days. Normally, I have big plans. I'll do 40 bags in 40 days! I'll go to daily mass! I'll well, I'll do something big, important, holy. It's a zeal and enthusiasm I have naturally, but it is often without actual correct orientation. "Martha"-ing Lent is not the way to go. But it took 40 or so years of mucking up Lent to get to this recognition.
That recognition came with the other hard point, a personal revelation about my own tendency to do the same thing to Lent in everything else I do, to focus on the flash and sparkle and newness of whatever, rather than the reality of the work to be done. It allows me to flit upon the surface of things, relationships (my friendships suffer from this), and the home (man does it suffer from my cursory keeping), and my writing --which is fire and forget and seldom edited more than once. It's perfect for blogging style, but not for writing anything with weight or length.
It's an ugly and unsettling thing to recognize, you've spent the last 40 years wandering, still not getting it. I've churned through rosaries, read a daily devotional, done any number of things seeking holiness, without necessarily beginning where Lent demands we begin, with my own faults, my own faults, my own grievous faults. The temptation for me, and I'm sure for many, is to say, I'm not so bad...and list all those devotions, all those ways in which I've sought to live out an authentic life of faith. But all of those good things, as good as they are, do not change the fact, that even alone, I require my God to do this:
I cannot begin to fathom the ugliness. I only know Ash Wednesday requires I recognize my own dullness of spirit, and my own inability to "Get or Do Lent" correctly. I can't get an A or a gold star. I can either grow in faith, or grow duller. That's it. That's all.
The goal is to grow in holiness, to free ourselves at least in part from addictions, and to recognize however far we've come, we're not there. We're supposed to wind up at the foot of the cross by the end of this journey, to know we have crucified Him. We called for His crucifixion. We betrayed Him. We denied Him. What did He want us to do? Love Him.
Have a Blessed Ash Wednesday. Pray. Fast. Give Alms, and do it all with a smile and grateful heart.
Walk into the desert, and know when you do, you will find the one who loves you this much.
The past few weeks, I've lost my computer. As a result, I've not quite known what to do with myself. My writing lay fallow more than I'd like and come this week, I felt apprehension as Lent approached. I didn't have some grand inspiration for the day or the 40 days. Normally, I have big plans. I'll do 40 bags in 40 days! I'll go to daily mass! I'll well, I'll do something big, important, holy. It's a zeal and enthusiasm I have naturally, but it is often without actual correct orientation. "Martha"-ing Lent is not the way to go. But it took 40 or so years of mucking up Lent to get to this recognition.
That recognition came with the other hard point, a personal revelation about my own tendency to do the same thing to Lent in everything else I do, to focus on the flash and sparkle and newness of whatever, rather than the reality of the work to be done. It allows me to flit upon the surface of things, relationships (my friendships suffer from this), and the home (man does it suffer from my cursory keeping), and my writing --which is fire and forget and seldom edited more than once. It's perfect for blogging style, but not for writing anything with weight or length.
It's an ugly and unsettling thing to recognize, you've spent the last 40 years wandering, still not getting it. I've churned through rosaries, read a daily devotional, done any number of things seeking holiness, without necessarily beginning where Lent demands we begin, with my own faults, my own faults, my own grievous faults. The temptation for me, and I'm sure for many, is to say, I'm not so bad...and list all those devotions, all those ways in which I've sought to live out an authentic life of faith. But all of those good things, as good as they are, do not change the fact, that even alone, I require my God to do this:
I cannot begin to fathom the ugliness. I only know Ash Wednesday requires I recognize my own dullness of spirit, and my own inability to "Get or Do Lent" correctly. I can't get an A or a gold star. I can either grow in faith, or grow duller. That's it. That's all.
The goal is to grow in holiness, to free ourselves at least in part from addictions, and to recognize however far we've come, we're not there. We're supposed to wind up at the foot of the cross by the end of this journey, to know we have crucified Him. We called for His crucifixion. We betrayed Him. We denied Him. What did He want us to do? Love Him.
Have a Blessed Ash Wednesday. Pray. Fast. Give Alms, and do it all with a smile and grateful heart.
Walk into the desert, and know when you do, you will find the one who loves you this much.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Small Success Thursday
The other day I dug out an old humor piece for a writer's forum. I used to be funny. This blog has had few spats of funny in between being a soap box and hopefully, a source of Evangelization in recent years, it's moved away from being a humor blog, in part because my children have grown older. They're no less funny mind you, but they are of an age in many cases, where it might seem to them that I am laughing at, rather than through the experience of raising them. So I've curtailed my writing of stories about their lives as a result. Something was lost in that decision, memories that otherwise would be remembered, but now only are as hazy background. I've tried to start up again, but forced humor always sounds exactly that way, forced. I can write humor easily, but it started to feel more like a cry for attention than a desire to tell a story. I say this because I wonder what I'm supposed to do with this blog that I've tried twice before to shut down, and twice before, I came back to with a vengeance.
Writing is important to me. But does blogging keep me from writing what is important? I'm not sure. I've decided to pray about this, and to take a week to fast from blogging. Not much I admit, but I want to know, am I called to continue this little hobby, or is it time to stop. I'll be praying to discern how God wants me to use this gift of writing and I do promise to return next Thursday, to tell you my reflections on the week without. So my small success for today, is the surrender of this little corner of cyberspace for the next seven days. See you October 10th.
Writing is important to me. But does blogging keep me from writing what is important? I'm not sure. I've decided to pray about this, and to take a week to fast from blogging. Not much I admit, but I want to know, am I called to continue this little hobby, or is it time to stop. I'll be praying to discern how God wants me to use this gift of writing and I do promise to return next Thursday, to tell you my reflections on the week without. So my small success for today, is the surrender of this little corner of cyberspace for the next seven days. See you October 10th.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Calling Us To the Vineyard
Today is Saint Joseph's feast day.
It is also the day the Catholic Church inaugurated Pope Francis. Hearing this pope talk about how husbands and wives must protect each other and then their children, and from there, the community, and thus the world, it resonates so deeply. Then I read the main stream media tag line that emphasizes, Pope says serve the poor and protect the environment. The Pope said that, but he also stressed that stewardship started with the sacramental hearts involved in the most intimate of relationships, husband and wife, and from there, grew outward.
We are to care for the poor. We must. They are a pathway to Christ, because they make us live out the beatitudes. All service done properly is love. All love given to others, is given to the Father. If we serve others out of love, we serve the Father out of love. Saint Francis understood this, and Pope Francis does as well. He is harvesting, this pope, seeking to pull those who love the social justice component of Christ's teachings, to come into the liturgy more deeply. He is sowing, this pope, to push those who love the liturgy, to live out the word in the world around them, to spread and share God's love on every continent, and in every home.
There is no greater way to celebrate the Feast of Saint Joseph, than to be a steward of one's family. There is no greater way to honor Christ than to imitate his human parents in their devotion and stewardship of him.
The world needs to be peopled with Saints, who echo Saint Joseph, who imitate Saint Francis, who model themselves after Mary. We must cloak in humility, humor and gentleness, our deep devotion to the one who is Truth. We must compel with our words, with beauty, with kindness, with generosity, with mercy, with wisdom, the world that thinks all is sharpness and fire and politics and power, to wonder at a way that is decidedly holy, decidedly better.
How do we do this?
Prayer. You knew this right? Nothing works without prayer. Ask. Dare to ask. Ask for faith. Ask for discernment. Ask for a more luminous marriage. Ask for wisdom in dealing with a problem. Ask for self discipline in the silly things like diets and budgets and housework. Ask for self denial in big things, like forgiveness and service to others. Ask for knots to be untied, wounds to be healed, help with the most worldly and impossible of situations. Ask. Ask. Ask. God never tires or grows weary of our askings. We cannot ask enough. God does not give out grace today and say tomorrow, I already did you. Ask. Then watch. Your world will unfold and transform, unmistakably.
Fast. Give up something. Today. You can give up something else tomorrow, but give something up today, something that grips you, something that keeps you stuck in the mire of whatever it is. If you can't give it up for the day, try for an hour. Deliberately bend your will against your desire. This is the practice of great athletes and great scholars and great saints. Sublimation is the hallmark of our Blessed Mother and her most chaste spouse in their lives, and their son's. You cannot serve in love absent sublimation of the will. If we want a world that is luminous and awash in people living out the beatitudes, we must practice daily sublimation, daily humility, daily service.
Serve. The how of service is whatever surrounds you. God is terribly efficient in this matter. He uses wherever you are with whomever you are with to bring you closer. He may push you out into the world, but He will do the pushing. Everyone wants to somehow become the break out feel good story of the day, the one that becomes a motion picture that others want to emulate. That's not service, that's pop celebrity sugar frosted calorie free fame. Service is the hard stuff of taking out the trash and making phone calls, of doing what no one will ever cheer, but which is given because it is needed, and out of love. You know the cliche, character is what you do when no one is watching? Service reveals character, by what you do without getting credit, pats on the back or accolades. Service is to God the Father who sees, for those who need, it is about being the hands and feet that wash and carry, not the face or the name everyone remembers.
The poor are all around us, we need only start praying and fasting and the service will flow from there.
It is also the day the Catholic Church inaugurated Pope Francis. Hearing this pope talk about how husbands and wives must protect each other and then their children, and from there, the community, and thus the world, it resonates so deeply. Then I read the main stream media tag line that emphasizes, Pope says serve the poor and protect the environment. The Pope said that, but he also stressed that stewardship started with the sacramental hearts involved in the most intimate of relationships, husband and wife, and from there, grew outward.
We are to care for the poor. We must. They are a pathway to Christ, because they make us live out the beatitudes. All service done properly is love. All love given to others, is given to the Father. If we serve others out of love, we serve the Father out of love. Saint Francis understood this, and Pope Francis does as well. He is harvesting, this pope, seeking to pull those who love the social justice component of Christ's teachings, to come into the liturgy more deeply. He is sowing, this pope, to push those who love the liturgy, to live out the word in the world around them, to spread and share God's love on every continent, and in every home.
There is no greater way to celebrate the Feast of Saint Joseph, than to be a steward of one's family. There is no greater way to honor Christ than to imitate his human parents in their devotion and stewardship of him.
The world needs to be peopled with Saints, who echo Saint Joseph, who imitate Saint Francis, who model themselves after Mary. We must cloak in humility, humor and gentleness, our deep devotion to the one who is Truth. We must compel with our words, with beauty, with kindness, with generosity, with mercy, with wisdom, the world that thinks all is sharpness and fire and politics and power, to wonder at a way that is decidedly holy, decidedly better.
How do we do this?
Prayer. You knew this right? Nothing works without prayer. Ask. Dare to ask. Ask for faith. Ask for discernment. Ask for a more luminous marriage. Ask for wisdom in dealing with a problem. Ask for self discipline in the silly things like diets and budgets and housework. Ask for self denial in big things, like forgiveness and service to others. Ask for knots to be untied, wounds to be healed, help with the most worldly and impossible of situations. Ask. Ask. Ask. God never tires or grows weary of our askings. We cannot ask enough. God does not give out grace today and say tomorrow, I already did you. Ask. Then watch. Your world will unfold and transform, unmistakably.
Fast. Give up something. Today. You can give up something else tomorrow, but give something up today, something that grips you, something that keeps you stuck in the mire of whatever it is. If you can't give it up for the day, try for an hour. Deliberately bend your will against your desire. This is the practice of great athletes and great scholars and great saints. Sublimation is the hallmark of our Blessed Mother and her most chaste spouse in their lives, and their son's. You cannot serve in love absent sublimation of the will. If we want a world that is luminous and awash in people living out the beatitudes, we must practice daily sublimation, daily humility, daily service.
Serve. The how of service is whatever surrounds you. God is terribly efficient in this matter. He uses wherever you are with whomever you are with to bring you closer. He may push you out into the world, but He will do the pushing. Everyone wants to somehow become the break out feel good story of the day, the one that becomes a motion picture that others want to emulate. That's not service, that's pop celebrity sugar frosted calorie free fame. Service is the hard stuff of taking out the trash and making phone calls, of doing what no one will ever cheer, but which is given because it is needed, and out of love. You know the cliche, character is what you do when no one is watching? Service reveals character, by what you do without getting credit, pats on the back or accolades. Service is to God the Father who sees, for those who need, it is about being the hands and feet that wash and carry, not the face or the name everyone remembers.
The poor are all around us, we need only start praying and fasting and the service will flow from there.
Friday, March 8, 2013
7 Quick Takes Friday
1. Sorry about the Super Light Blogging.
My daughter has helpfully provided the motivation.
2. How is Your Lent Going?
Mine is oddly well. I know I'm turning to prayer more, that's for certain. The scary wonderful thing is, I can see the effects. The kids have always claimed I have an unfair friendship with Saint Anthony. They can cite many examples of things lost that he's found for me almost instantaneously upon request. My oldest daughter jokes that I have an unpaid internship upon my death answering his calls as restitution for all of his intervention. I told my daughter she could have a deeper relationship with a particular saint if she sought it. That day, she and her sister had been at odds. It was day three of deep dispute. Both had been lectured. Both were urged to reconcile. Both refused.
Frustrated at the level of discord in the family, I went to both of them and told them each to pray to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. Now I know she has that title, and I even understand that title, but I didn't know the origin, nor did I really know why that particular suggestion came to my mind other than, the Holy Spirit knew what we needed. Less than an hour later, the two who seemed so set in their grudges, so hard in their hearts, had made a real peace. Thank you Mary, Undoer of Knots.
3. A Miracle Every Day
This morning, my daughter came upstairs more chatty than usual, her heart was light. "I prayed last night to Saint Joan." She added. It's her favorite saint. She'd prayed it would snow. As soon as she said it, I saw flakes. There was a swirl of flakes, surrounding our home. A cloud had parked right over our house and it was snowing, really snowing but only here. I quipped, "You know, Saint Joan probably said, "This is not really my forte, I'm not normally associated with cold things." But it was an answer, and the answer was yes. It was silly and small and yet joyful. I'm becoming more and more convinced that if we had our eyes open and our hearts as well, we would see the miraculous in the world every day.
4. Editing is like purgatory.
All your writing sins are revealed, line by line, word by word. And you spend the editing process trying to fix all the writing sins, knowing because you do not have eternity, that your penance shall be that whatever you fail to fix, will be read by your friends and family. I'm suddenly regretting gently ribbing my sons for spell check errors like "The Dairy of Anne Frank" and Jesus visiting the sick leopards, and my daughter for the essay, "Why We Need a Book Club at Saint Martians." Hey Sherry, how's that Buck ov HELL AND coming?
5. Sin is Like McDonald's.
Wish I'd had this insight, it came from my daughter who has a particular weakness for their chicken nuggets and fries. She explained, "You KNOW it's bad for you. You KNOW it has long term bad effects. You DON'T want those long term effects. But it looks good and I'm hungry so I'm eating it now." Catechism through fast food...who knew?..well, I should have, because eating fish on Fridays at any of those places is penance..but then, I'm stupid enough to have eaten fish on a Friday at one of those places.
6. Not a Scouting Mom
Three of my children are currently in scouting programs. This is the emotional equivalent of existing for 40 days on Filet-O-Fish for me. One of my children was in the pine wood derby contest. We didn't go to the workshop so his car looked essentially like a block of wood with wheels. He made it, he painted it, he thought it was beautiful. Every kid at these things gets an award. His award said, "Best Block of Wood." He was still proud. He did not get the veiled insult/irony. However, this does not make me love scouting more.
7. Healthy Eating
I have two committed athletes who run or exercise daily. I have two others with massive amounts of misinformation but who are trying their darnedest. My doctor has requested a food diary. This too feels like confession, every day I'm having to write something like I confess I ate a bowl of cheese grits, a Wendy's spicy chicken and a free chocolate frosty, the leftover Frito's and washed it down with an extra large diet coke. I also snagged a peppermint patty at the gas station and ate half a Klondike bar because my daughter was full. It is not fun. It does explain why my diet is going nowhere fast.
Fortunately, my children have come to my rescue. There is a contest to fill the food pantry at the school. Yesterday I discovered as I hefted two unusually heavy backpacks into the car, half our can goods have been donated. How do I explain charity in moderation to an 8, 7 and 5 year old? I haven't. They're too happy giving away my soups and beans and pasta and tuna. Hopefully their generosity will translate to my sveltness.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Creating a Culture of Truth
The news about Notre Dame's Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend (a scheme that strung along the ND senior including her death of all things) should not surprise anyone who understands the great blinder that the internet is to genuine community. Here, one can be anonymous, one can become a whole other person with an avatar to match. One also can create an identity anew. The problem with the internet world is ultimately just that, it is not real. Lennay Kekua was not real.
We may never know the why of such a calculated and cruel deception, for the purveyors of this hoax behaved in a way that can also only be described as unreal. It doesn't make sense to the natural laws in our hearts, to lie over and over again this way to someone about something as important, as lovely, as vital as love.
The only one who is real in this story, is Manti, as he felt real feelings including infatuation, grief and possibly great shame at being duped. Even his complicity if there is any is real. He may have known and not spoken in an attempt to recover from what would be and now is, a public shaming for falling prey to people with evil intent. He will have to live with the public memory of being either part of a scam, or being the victim of a scam. If the first, he will have the hard road of remorse and recovery and the reality that some will never trust him again. If the later, then he will have the hard road of recovery with the reality that some will never believe him in the first place. Either way, it is a hard road.
Lance Armstrong also faces the road, a road known to be of his own making. Was any of his triumph story real? Did he win the first Tour de France without doping? Would we believe it? What is the proper response to such a protracted, calculated, destructive lying pattern? For a society? He now joins all those baseball greats eligible for the Hall of Fame that no one wants to vote for, because we don't know how much of what was accomplished was real, and how much was chemically enhanced.
We have before us two choices, life and death. If we learn nothing else from these famous figures falling in the lime light, it is that truth always matters. Truth even as unbearable as it might seem --I was scammed, I can't win it, is understandable in a way that a lie, even a reasonable one, (to protect self, to protect prospects, to protect whatever), is not. We can understand the reality of being fooled, of not being able to accomplish something and the heart break of both much better than the decision to rig the game.
So what can we do to create a Culture of Truth?
1) Pray for all of these men, because they will really need grace to get through this, this is a tough storm to be stuck in the middle of, whether of their own designs or not.
2) Take away what is good, discard the rest. Live Strong isn't a bad lesson. It is carpe diem so to speak for the modern age, but know what strength is. Strength is truth and strength is work. Strength requires trust that life is not all about our own orchestration of the events, but about our choices and reactions to things we did not control, and about knowing when we should not control outcomes.
3) Fasting. We are a culture addicted to approval and acknowledgement, so desperate for recognition, we've invented twitter so we may highlight to the world our every passing thought no matter how banal. Fasting from the spotlight, whether it is National television or the pre-school parking lot, we will step away from the addictive narcotic Narcissism that is so easy to inhale in today's world.
4) Do something real for someone else, something that takes thought, effort, energy and time. We live in a gift card world of email ease, write a real letter, cook a meal, set flowers on the table, cultivate beauty through the gift of your own creativity, rather than the flash of a credit card.
5) Practice something you stink at, allow failure to be ignored. (My guitar and piano sit lonely most of the time), so I'm making myself suffer through the process for twenty minutes a day. It is not pretty but there is an appreciation in the moment when I hear a section of it "getting better." Play a game you don't normally win, without cheat codes or extra lives. Learn to accept that all of this is a process and not a performance or a quest for perfection, it s a perpetual quest to become more real.
6) Engage in charity, both in deed and thought. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make the news, it shouldn't. Being a giver to others is the antidote to the smoke of narcissism that can lead to big and little lies, can lead to preferring the non real world to that which matters most. Make gratitude and generosity the norm in your family's life by constantly cultivating it in yourself. Let the Holy Spirit do the rest of the directing.
7) To grow deeper in love, we must be life long strugglers. If we would be life long learners and lovers of others, we don't ever finish or reach the pinnacle, there is no finish line.
Ultimately, the end result of all of this, will not stop everyone from being seduced by glory or their 15 minutes of fame, but it will help make the world a bit lighter than all the false glow of fake victories.
We may never know the why of such a calculated and cruel deception, for the purveyors of this hoax behaved in a way that can also only be described as unreal. It doesn't make sense to the natural laws in our hearts, to lie over and over again this way to someone about something as important, as lovely, as vital as love.
The only one who is real in this story, is Manti, as he felt real feelings including infatuation, grief and possibly great shame at being duped. Even his complicity if there is any is real. He may have known and not spoken in an attempt to recover from what would be and now is, a public shaming for falling prey to people with evil intent. He will have to live with the public memory of being either part of a scam, or being the victim of a scam. If the first, he will have the hard road of remorse and recovery and the reality that some will never trust him again. If the later, then he will have the hard road of recovery with the reality that some will never believe him in the first place. Either way, it is a hard road.
Lance Armstrong also faces the road, a road known to be of his own making. Was any of his triumph story real? Did he win the first Tour de France without doping? Would we believe it? What is the proper response to such a protracted, calculated, destructive lying pattern? For a society? He now joins all those baseball greats eligible for the Hall of Fame that no one wants to vote for, because we don't know how much of what was accomplished was real, and how much was chemically enhanced.
We have before us two choices, life and death. If we learn nothing else from these famous figures falling in the lime light, it is that truth always matters. Truth even as unbearable as it might seem --I was scammed, I can't win it, is understandable in a way that a lie, even a reasonable one, (to protect self, to protect prospects, to protect whatever), is not. We can understand the reality of being fooled, of not being able to accomplish something and the heart break of both much better than the decision to rig the game.
So what can we do to create a Culture of Truth?
1) Pray for all of these men, because they will really need grace to get through this, this is a tough storm to be stuck in the middle of, whether of their own designs or not.
2) Take away what is good, discard the rest. Live Strong isn't a bad lesson. It is carpe diem so to speak for the modern age, but know what strength is. Strength is truth and strength is work. Strength requires trust that life is not all about our own orchestration of the events, but about our choices and reactions to things we did not control, and about knowing when we should not control outcomes.
3) Fasting. We are a culture addicted to approval and acknowledgement, so desperate for recognition, we've invented twitter so we may highlight to the world our every passing thought no matter how banal. Fasting from the spotlight, whether it is National television or the pre-school parking lot, we will step away from the addictive narcotic Narcissism that is so easy to inhale in today's world.
4) Do something real for someone else, something that takes thought, effort, energy and time. We live in a gift card world of email ease, write a real letter, cook a meal, set flowers on the table, cultivate beauty through the gift of your own creativity, rather than the flash of a credit card.
5) Practice something you stink at, allow failure to be ignored. (My guitar and piano sit lonely most of the time), so I'm making myself suffer through the process for twenty minutes a day. It is not pretty but there is an appreciation in the moment when I hear a section of it "getting better." Play a game you don't normally win, without cheat codes or extra lives. Learn to accept that all of this is a process and not a performance or a quest for perfection, it s a perpetual quest to become more real.
6) Engage in charity, both in deed and thought. It doesn't matter if it doesn't make the news, it shouldn't. Being a giver to others is the antidote to the smoke of narcissism that can lead to big and little lies, can lead to preferring the non real world to that which matters most. Make gratitude and generosity the norm in your family's life by constantly cultivating it in yourself. Let the Holy Spirit do the rest of the directing.
7) To grow deeper in love, we must be life long strugglers. If we would be life long learners and lovers of others, we don't ever finish or reach the pinnacle, there is no finish line.
Ultimately, the end result of all of this, will not stop everyone from being seduced by glory or their 15 minutes of fame, but it will help make the world a bit lighter than all the false glow of fake victories.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Why Fast?
Every year the Catholic high schools in our area have students collect canned goods for the local food pantries. Every year they also have the students engage in a day of fasting. They get a cup or so of rice and water. Every year I hear the same litany of questions/gripes/complaints.
"If we have to fast, how is it a sacrifice?"
"Are you complaining?"
"Yes."
"It is not easy even though they do it for you?"
"Yes."
"Then it is a sacrifice."
Or this one: "What is the point of my not eating? It's not like it gives someone else food. It doesn't make them less hungry."
"You get to understand that while you are temporarily put out, others have this ache without end."
I've heard similar rants against mandatory volunteer work, where the requirement in their minds, undermines the spirit or true purpose of the act itself. Now I know it is the contrary nature of children to fight and chafe at limits, at lessons, at lectures. I see the eyes roll when I launch into the "Sometimes not having helps you be grateful for what you do have...bit." All the reasonable reasons in the world do not penetrate the mind or heart if the mind or heart are more set on being annoyed.
But the deeper question of why fast flitted about and kept resurfacing. Why fast? Of what good is denying one's self a good or at the very least, a neutral item? How does that affect the soul? How is it a prayer? How is it important to God? Why is it important to God?
I'll start with why fast? Is it important for Catholics?
Yes. It is important. It is a vehicle of prayer that reminds one all day of the sacrifice. Mindfulness is something a full belly or sated appetite ignores. We are much more sleepy in our thoughts and words if our stomach is full. Fasting can take all forms, but it is always about self denial. It brings us closer to the virtue of humility, because our wants are not paramount.
How does fasting work? We live in a world of plenty, which is also filled with invisible want. Denying our own visible wants, allows us to see better, the invisible needs around us. Our vision becomes clearer. I could point out that in scripture, every time fasting is prescribed and tried, grace overflows. Who does not need overflowing grace?
We understand boycotts for justice, we understand Gandhi's hunger strike. If we can understand these worldly fastings to address worldly issues, we can comprehend fasting for others. If we understand fasting before receiving the Eucharist, then we can understand fasting in ordinary time as a means of making ourselves less attached to that which is not the Eucharist. We fast to grow our own souls, while becoming mindful of those tangible constant blessings we take for granted every day and the lack of them in others' lives.
So now we come to the means/spirit of fasting. If fasting is involuntary, is it still a means of grace? Yes. All suffering, voluntary and otherwise, is a path to grace. The issue is being open to that grace. Being fallen creatures, we constantly shut the doors of our hearts to grace, our ears to wisdom, our lives to miracles because it is much easier to stay angry, stay fearful, stay annoyed, stay focused on our own pain, our own lives, our own troubles. We do not understand how much good would come from being willing to suffer even the slightest of inconveniences to our lives, and we endure such trivial nuisances with poor spirit. You should hear me when I can't find one of my kid's shoes and we were running on time up until then.
But there is this image of fasting which denies reality.We understand setting ourselves during a diet, setting the will to refuse things which will sabotage our progress. This does not mean we don't crave or don't want or don't sometimes complain/rant about the lack. Holiness is not the absence of want in our heart, it is the soul being willing to override that want, even as it wrestles with the wanting. Fasting is a training of the soul to be more capable of enduring want. Fasting involves allowing one's self to endure want, even when it would be soooooo much more comfortable/pleasant in the moment, to indulge or submit.
Finally, Jesus fasted. If the Son of God understood the need not to be ruled by the appetites of the body in order to do battle with powers and principalities, then why do we not get that being lesser beings, we would need to do this more, not less.
"If we have to fast, how is it a sacrifice?"
"Are you complaining?"
"Yes."
"It is not easy even though they do it for you?"
"Yes."
"Then it is a sacrifice."
Or this one: "What is the point of my not eating? It's not like it gives someone else food. It doesn't make them less hungry."
"You get to understand that while you are temporarily put out, others have this ache without end."
I've heard similar rants against mandatory volunteer work, where the requirement in their minds, undermines the spirit or true purpose of the act itself. Now I know it is the contrary nature of children to fight and chafe at limits, at lessons, at lectures. I see the eyes roll when I launch into the "Sometimes not having helps you be grateful for what you do have...bit." All the reasonable reasons in the world do not penetrate the mind or heart if the mind or heart are more set on being annoyed.
But the deeper question of why fast flitted about and kept resurfacing. Why fast? Of what good is denying one's self a good or at the very least, a neutral item? How does that affect the soul? How is it a prayer? How is it important to God? Why is it important to God?
I'll start with why fast? Is it important for Catholics?
Yes. It is important. It is a vehicle of prayer that reminds one all day of the sacrifice. Mindfulness is something a full belly or sated appetite ignores. We are much more sleepy in our thoughts and words if our stomach is full. Fasting can take all forms, but it is always about self denial. It brings us closer to the virtue of humility, because our wants are not paramount.
How does fasting work? We live in a world of plenty, which is also filled with invisible want. Denying our own visible wants, allows us to see better, the invisible needs around us. Our vision becomes clearer. I could point out that in scripture, every time fasting is prescribed and tried, grace overflows. Who does not need overflowing grace?
We understand boycotts for justice, we understand Gandhi's hunger strike. If we can understand these worldly fastings to address worldly issues, we can comprehend fasting for others. If we understand fasting before receiving the Eucharist, then we can understand fasting in ordinary time as a means of making ourselves less attached to that which is not the Eucharist. We fast to grow our own souls, while becoming mindful of those tangible constant blessings we take for granted every day and the lack of them in others' lives.
So now we come to the means/spirit of fasting. If fasting is involuntary, is it still a means of grace? Yes. All suffering, voluntary and otherwise, is a path to grace. The issue is being open to that grace. Being fallen creatures, we constantly shut the doors of our hearts to grace, our ears to wisdom, our lives to miracles because it is much easier to stay angry, stay fearful, stay annoyed, stay focused on our own pain, our own lives, our own troubles. We do not understand how much good would come from being willing to suffer even the slightest of inconveniences to our lives, and we endure such trivial nuisances with poor spirit. You should hear me when I can't find one of my kid's shoes and we were running on time up until then.
But there is this image of fasting which denies reality.We understand setting ourselves during a diet, setting the will to refuse things which will sabotage our progress. This does not mean we don't crave or don't want or don't sometimes complain/rant about the lack. Holiness is not the absence of want in our heart, it is the soul being willing to override that want, even as it wrestles with the wanting. Fasting is a training of the soul to be more capable of enduring want. Fasting involves allowing one's self to endure want, even when it would be soooooo much more comfortable/pleasant in the moment, to indulge or submit.
Finally, Jesus fasted. If the Son of God understood the need not to be ruled by the appetites of the body in order to do battle with powers and principalities, then why do we not get that being lesser beings, we would need to do this more, not less.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Meditations on the HHS Policy, Why it isn't JUST about Contraception
First, the Administration wants to utterly dictate the extent to which we practice our religion, that it be limited to our thoughts, not spoken, not lived out in the minutia of our lives.
The HSS mandate has upset a lot of people, a lot of Catholics, a lot of individuals on both sides of the political aisle. This is a good thing. We should be uncomfortable. Catholics are not supposed to be comfortable in a singular political party, we're supposed to call the Democrats to be champions of the unborn, and the Republicans to recognize the dignity of the poor that survive the womb. There isn't a party in which a Catholic should feel wholly comfortable, indeed, if one feels wholly comfortable inside a party, one is probably ignoring some tenet of one's Catholic faith. God didn't say "I favor the GOP or Jesus would be a Democrat." Man makes that affiliation to flatter himself and demean his political opponents and their followers. He is wrong in either case.
The protest against the HHS policy isn't just from the USCCB. Douglas Kmiec, who was one of the most prominent proponents of this Administration thinks this is a violation of religious liberty, Over 135 bishops in the US, a number of Imams, Episcopal and Orthodox clergy have expressed concern that this policy overreaches. Even Chris Matthews, hardly a Fox News sycophant for the GOP, felt deep concern at this federal policy.
While the Friday announcement of "accommodations" was supposed to make everything better and certainly there were sycophantic pundits and even Catholics willing to carry the water for this administration, sober judgement of the new/old HHS policy indicates that the administration is (as is typical of this administration), doubling down.
Not only will I not alter the policy in your favor, I will tighten the restrictions and speed up the process by which you must comply (6 months and all will provide free birth control --it's just the insurance will pay). So we're all morally free of blame because we're not buying it, we're just purchasing the Insurance. The Insurance is providing it....Free...like tortilla chips and salsa at the table. Calories consumed by those free chips still count. Providing the service is immoral. Relgious institutions and organizations have refused to purchase such plans that provided those services in the past because they don't want to provide such services period. They don't want to provide them as an added bonus feature! It was never about the money, it was always about the morality stupid!
It is coercion via government fiat. Obey or be destroyed. Bow willingly or be forced to kneel via heavy fines. Give out policies that provide free birth control, abortion drugs and perform sterilizations because we say so, or watch as we take over. Pay to play or go home.
In places where the religious exemption is narrow, (up to now) universities and school districts that wanted to hold true to the faith in their practice as an entity, gave extra money to allow individuals to purchase a prescription plan which would provide if necessary. That is the change. That self insured approach that would relegate the decision to the individual, has been removed. There is no out. If the government declares you must purchase a product you deem immoral, then purchase it you must or face swift steep fines. You can comply or we can drum you out of business. Hardly the actions of a free people, or of a government that respects the rights and liberties of a free people.
I have good friends who have told me, "Hey, what's the big deal? We already fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of 33 million to pass out birth control (or so we've been told), we already do this if we work for a secular business and pay into insurance." And I know the arguments, that we already pay for everything. If I go to a discount store, I'm exploiting cheap labor. If I buy pink ribbon yogurts, I'm supporting Planned Parenthood. If I work in a business that is non denominational and for whom this is not a morally troubling issue, my premiums also pay for products like birth control pills and sterilizations and abortions and Plan B's and RU486ing baby medications.
But this is different.
This is the government demanding that people pay for what they deem immoral and in violation of their conscience even if they are in the business of trying to live out their faith. That should matter, even if the violation isn't considered a big deal by some. We should protect the Amish and the Quakers and the small time churches that hold things dear we disagree with, just as surely as we should the mega churches and the Jews and Mormons and the Muslims and the Atheists and the Catholics. It is not okay for the government to dictate to a church or to people who take their faith seriously that they must violate their faith. The government cannot give dispensation from one's faith. The government cannot give us forgiveness for our sins or tell us what is and is not a sin. This is Caesar trying to render what is God's and demanding that we swear allegiance to Caesar first.
To those who say it makes no difference, it is a drop in the bucket, it is a nothing to get upset over issue:
We take stands all the time, not because they are popular or guaranteed to come out in our favor, but because we believe them to be important. If on occasion, we should boycott Starbucks or Coca-cola because as corporations they engage in practices we deem objectionable, (divestment for South Africa in the 80's was trendy as I recall, and now free trade and fair trade) then we know that sometimes simply speaking up changes the landscape, changes the argument, changes opinions, informs the public. The USCCB and others who spoke out, did so because the Government suddenly and abruptly demanded a new level of civil obedience that required religious disobedience. It was wrong. It still is wrong. It should be fought, regardless of how it plays out, because it is right to fight this ruling. It is right to say the Government should not be in the business of defining religion or the practice of religion or the limits of how one may conduct one's self in accordance with one's religion.
In this case, why would we talk about such things ever? They are personal private decisions, none of the Church's business. Stick to God and serving the poor and stuff like that. Catholics are not supposed to compartmentalize their faith and take it out for special occasions like Christmas and Easter
Our religion says God loves us as a father does his child. My dad cares what I read, what I think, what I do, what I don't do. God cares for me more than my dad does. I believe that this is so for everyone. God cares about how we conduct ourselves in all things, not simply if we serve the poor. He cares how much we love, He cares that we do even the littlest things with great love, and He cares if we enable sin when we could stop it.
We're not supposed to limit our love to when it is convenient or popular or publicly approved. We're supposed to be seamlessly Catholic. Ergo, we cannot stay silent and we cannot pretend that it doesn't affect our souls. Silence on moral issues invites presumed allowance, leading to greater demands for more silence. Even if 90+% of Catholics do not follow the teaching, it is still the teaching. Truth does not evaporate because a false argument is more popular, it is merely ignored.
But, as Galadriel says, "Some things that should not have been forgotten, were lost."
What we practice, what we say and what we do, what we do not say and what we do not do, defines us. What we allow, what we ignore, what we pretend isn't, and what we hope is, reveals who we are in our limited capacity to affect and understand the world. Dorthy Day understood that her actions of serving the poor stemmed from her love of Christ, and that the acts were a manifestation of her internal faith.
Likewise, Catholic hospitals are created from that same core, as are Catholic schools and Universities. They were founded by orders, they are designed to teach children with the faith, all of the subjects infused with the faith, and as such should not be considered somehow compartmentalized from the rest of one's faith. . Organizations that at their core and beginning and inspiration and purpose, are Catholic --revealing Catholicism via acts educating --University of Notre Dame, serving and living out the beatitudes --Catholic Charities for example, should not have to violate the source of their corporeal actions in order to be allowed to exist by the state. To my mind, this is secular puritanism and it is as unforgiving of non-believers as the Puritans ever were. Catholic Charities closed up their adoption agencies in Massachusetts because they were told to violate their religious beliefs in order to stay in the business.
But to the HHS point itself; So Catholics should just go along? Should just shrug their shoulders? At any point should Catholicism or the faithful say we won't do this? If not, then Sir Thomas Moore and all the Martyrs of the Church were the greatest bunch of saps ever. Imagine, standing up to the popular and powerful all for one's faith! They didn't do it all in one sweep, most of them started by simply speaking out or refusing to go along to get along. Their lives and writings often reveal a deep struggle to hold true which (if it is unnecessary), seems a fool's decision at best, if not the actions and thinkings of madly insane people. Ultimately, they had before them Christ and the State; Jesus and Caesar; the Church and the King. The saints chose one way. The same choice is before us now, perhaps not to the extent of martyrdom, but that makes any cowardice on our part all the more shameful. We don't fear the prospect of death as they did and still, we won't speak.
The thing is, we've (Catholics/the Church) often failed to stand up in the past and even now. We are still indited for those failures. We will always be held accountable for those failures. The Catholic Church and its body is supposed to be courageous, is supposed to speak out, is supposed to know right from wrong and always side with Christ, and to be luminous in its acts of mercy, it's daily business, its everything and all things. Because we are sinners, because we are fallen, we often give a dim reflection of what should be blinding light.
We're supposed to serve lavishly, give lavishly, hope lavishly, pray lavishly and love lavishly. We are often misers on this point with all of our gifts, burying them in the yard for fear of reprimand, for all sorts of reasons. We're called to recognize that we must not let ourselves be afraid, we must not be misers of our gifts, we must speak, we must act, and we must follow Christ first in all things. We're supposed to Be Catholics first, not Americans. We're supposed to be Catholics first, not Liberals or Conservatives. We're supposed to be Catholics first, not Republicans or Democrats. We're supposed to be Catholics first, last and always. Alas, we are fallen and often put those other labels first, when what we should do is speak "Friend" and enter.
Thanks for reading. I have taken a few hits lately for speaking out in the writing community. But as I said to another friend who disagreed, if we can't ever have a discussion about hard issues about which we disagree, then why do we bother talking? If we can't say what we think without being called names or calling names, we don't have an argument of ideas, we have a fight of emotions (See Beck and Olberman) --and that proves/improves nothing.
One last thing, to those who think the Bishops have no business speaking out because the Church in recent years has failed to be a good steward of its people; The Church, like her people, is an imperfect vessel. I see components of her beauty and I agonize when she is less than what she is called to be.
That we fail sometimes does not negate that we are right now. The Church is speaking with authority and truth. We must stand with her stewards and princes.
As for the rest of it, I have few answers. I recommend prayer and fasting and petitioning for intersessions from Blessed Pope John Paul the Great and Blessed Mother Teresa. They embody the whole of the Church, the male and the female, the call to deep prayer and evangelization and profound knowledge of the history and the Church and her teaching and her great wisdom, and the need to feed the hungry, the poor, nurse the sick and sell everything and follow Christ. Neither compromised their faith or their actions. They understood the deep mystery of suffering, both physical and spiritual, they got the hard reality of service and the need to sit at the feet of Christ in Adoration. We need the strength of both, the clarity of both, the wisdom of both, and the intercession of both.
We should be doing this anyway, but I'm asking for deep prayer not for the outcome of healing, health, wholeness for all. Lastly, we need to act.
So first, we need information.
Here is the actual HHS "Fact Sheet" put out by the White House. It is what they want us to believe.
Educate yourself with this, and this and if you want more, this and this and this.
Arm yourself
Get involved.
https://www.stophhs.com/
The HSS mandate has upset a lot of people, a lot of Catholics, a lot of individuals on both sides of the political aisle. This is a good thing. We should be uncomfortable. Catholics are not supposed to be comfortable in a singular political party, we're supposed to call the Democrats to be champions of the unborn, and the Republicans to recognize the dignity of the poor that survive the womb. There isn't a party in which a Catholic should feel wholly comfortable, indeed, if one feels wholly comfortable inside a party, one is probably ignoring some tenet of one's Catholic faith. God didn't say "I favor the GOP or Jesus would be a Democrat." Man makes that affiliation to flatter himself and demean his political opponents and their followers. He is wrong in either case.
The protest against the HHS policy isn't just from the USCCB. Douglas Kmiec, who was one of the most prominent proponents of this Administration thinks this is a violation of religious liberty, Over 135 bishops in the US, a number of Imams, Episcopal and Orthodox clergy have expressed concern that this policy overreaches. Even Chris Matthews, hardly a Fox News sycophant for the GOP, felt deep concern at this federal policy.
While the Friday announcement of "accommodations" was supposed to make everything better and certainly there were sycophantic pundits and even Catholics willing to carry the water for this administration, sober judgement of the new/old HHS policy indicates that the administration is (as is typical of this administration), doubling down.
Not only will I not alter the policy in your favor, I will tighten the restrictions and speed up the process by which you must comply (6 months and all will provide free birth control --it's just the insurance will pay). So we're all morally free of blame because we're not buying it, we're just purchasing the Insurance. The Insurance is providing it....Free...like tortilla chips and salsa at the table. Calories consumed by those free chips still count. Providing the service is immoral. Relgious institutions and organizations have refused to purchase such plans that provided those services in the past because they don't want to provide such services period. They don't want to provide them as an added bonus feature! It was never about the money, it was always about the morality stupid!
It is coercion via government fiat. Obey or be destroyed. Bow willingly or be forced to kneel via heavy fines. Give out policies that provide free birth control, abortion drugs and perform sterilizations because we say so, or watch as we take over. Pay to play or go home.
In places where the religious exemption is narrow, (up to now) universities and school districts that wanted to hold true to the faith in their practice as an entity, gave extra money to allow individuals to purchase a prescription plan which would provide if necessary. That is the change. That self insured approach that would relegate the decision to the individual, has been removed. There is no out. If the government declares you must purchase a product you deem immoral, then purchase it you must or face swift steep fines. You can comply or we can drum you out of business. Hardly the actions of a free people, or of a government that respects the rights and liberties of a free people.
I have good friends who have told me, "Hey, what's the big deal? We already fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of 33 million to pass out birth control (or so we've been told), we already do this if we work for a secular business and pay into insurance." And I know the arguments, that we already pay for everything. If I go to a discount store, I'm exploiting cheap labor. If I buy pink ribbon yogurts, I'm supporting Planned Parenthood. If I work in a business that is non denominational and for whom this is not a morally troubling issue, my premiums also pay for products like birth control pills and sterilizations and abortions and Plan B's and RU486ing baby medications.
But this is different.
This is the government demanding that people pay for what they deem immoral and in violation of their conscience even if they are in the business of trying to live out their faith. That should matter, even if the violation isn't considered a big deal by some. We should protect the Amish and the Quakers and the small time churches that hold things dear we disagree with, just as surely as we should the mega churches and the Jews and Mormons and the Muslims and the Atheists and the Catholics. It is not okay for the government to dictate to a church or to people who take their faith seriously that they must violate their faith. The government cannot give dispensation from one's faith. The government cannot give us forgiveness for our sins or tell us what is and is not a sin. This is Caesar trying to render what is God's and demanding that we swear allegiance to Caesar first.
To those who say it makes no difference, it is a drop in the bucket, it is a nothing to get upset over issue:
We take stands all the time, not because they are popular or guaranteed to come out in our favor, but because we believe them to be important. If on occasion, we should boycott Starbucks or Coca-cola because as corporations they engage in practices we deem objectionable, (divestment for South Africa in the 80's was trendy as I recall, and now free trade and fair trade) then we know that sometimes simply speaking up changes the landscape, changes the argument, changes opinions, informs the public. The USCCB and others who spoke out, did so because the Government suddenly and abruptly demanded a new level of civil obedience that required religious disobedience. It was wrong. It still is wrong. It should be fought, regardless of how it plays out, because it is right to fight this ruling. It is right to say the Government should not be in the business of defining religion or the practice of religion or the limits of how one may conduct one's self in accordance with one's religion.
In this case, why would we talk about such things ever? They are personal private decisions, none of the Church's business. Stick to God and serving the poor and stuff like that. Catholics are not supposed to compartmentalize their faith and take it out for special occasions like Christmas and Easter
Our religion says God loves us as a father does his child. My dad cares what I read, what I think, what I do, what I don't do. God cares for me more than my dad does. I believe that this is so for everyone. God cares about how we conduct ourselves in all things, not simply if we serve the poor. He cares how much we love, He cares that we do even the littlest things with great love, and He cares if we enable sin when we could stop it.
We're not supposed to limit our love to when it is convenient or popular or publicly approved. We're supposed to be seamlessly Catholic. Ergo, we cannot stay silent and we cannot pretend that it doesn't affect our souls. Silence on moral issues invites presumed allowance, leading to greater demands for more silence. Even if 90+% of Catholics do not follow the teaching, it is still the teaching. Truth does not evaporate because a false argument is more popular, it is merely ignored.
But, as Galadriel says, "Some things that should not have been forgotten, were lost."
What we practice, what we say and what we do, what we do not say and what we do not do, defines us. What we allow, what we ignore, what we pretend isn't, and what we hope is, reveals who we are in our limited capacity to affect and understand the world. Dorthy Day understood that her actions of serving the poor stemmed from her love of Christ, and that the acts were a manifestation of her internal faith.
Likewise, Catholic hospitals are created from that same core, as are Catholic schools and Universities. They were founded by orders, they are designed to teach children with the faith, all of the subjects infused with the faith, and as such should not be considered somehow compartmentalized from the rest of one's faith. . Organizations that at their core and beginning and inspiration and purpose, are Catholic --revealing Catholicism via acts educating --University of Notre Dame, serving and living out the beatitudes --Catholic Charities for example, should not have to violate the source of their corporeal actions in order to be allowed to exist by the state. To my mind, this is secular puritanism and it is as unforgiving of non-believers as the Puritans ever were. Catholic Charities closed up their adoption agencies in Massachusetts because they were told to violate their religious beliefs in order to stay in the business.
But to the HHS point itself; So Catholics should just go along? Should just shrug their shoulders? At any point should Catholicism or the faithful say we won't do this? If not, then Sir Thomas Moore and all the Martyrs of the Church were the greatest bunch of saps ever. Imagine, standing up to the popular and powerful all for one's faith! They didn't do it all in one sweep, most of them started by simply speaking out or refusing to go along to get along. Their lives and writings often reveal a deep struggle to hold true which (if it is unnecessary), seems a fool's decision at best, if not the actions and thinkings of madly insane people. Ultimately, they had before them Christ and the State; Jesus and Caesar; the Church and the King. The saints chose one way. The same choice is before us now, perhaps not to the extent of martyrdom, but that makes any cowardice on our part all the more shameful. We don't fear the prospect of death as they did and still, we won't speak.
The thing is, we've (Catholics/the Church) often failed to stand up in the past and even now. We are still indited for those failures. We will always be held accountable for those failures. The Catholic Church and its body is supposed to be courageous, is supposed to speak out, is supposed to know right from wrong and always side with Christ, and to be luminous in its acts of mercy, it's daily business, its everything and all things. Because we are sinners, because we are fallen, we often give a dim reflection of what should be blinding light.
We're supposed to serve lavishly, give lavishly, hope lavishly, pray lavishly and love lavishly. We are often misers on this point with all of our gifts, burying them in the yard for fear of reprimand, for all sorts of reasons. We're called to recognize that we must not let ourselves be afraid, we must not be misers of our gifts, we must speak, we must act, and we must follow Christ first in all things. We're supposed to Be Catholics first, not Americans. We're supposed to be Catholics first, not Liberals or Conservatives. We're supposed to be Catholics first, not Republicans or Democrats. We're supposed to be Catholics first, last and always. Alas, we are fallen and often put those other labels first, when what we should do is speak "Friend" and enter.
Thanks for reading. I have taken a few hits lately for speaking out in the writing community. But as I said to another friend who disagreed, if we can't ever have a discussion about hard issues about which we disagree, then why do we bother talking? If we can't say what we think without being called names or calling names, we don't have an argument of ideas, we have a fight of emotions (See Beck and Olberman) --and that proves/improves nothing.
One last thing, to those who think the Bishops have no business speaking out because the Church in recent years has failed to be a good steward of its people; The Church, like her people, is an imperfect vessel. I see components of her beauty and I agonize when she is less than what she is called to be.
That we fail sometimes does not negate that we are right now. The Church is speaking with authority and truth. We must stand with her stewards and princes.
As for the rest of it, I have few answers. I recommend prayer and fasting and petitioning for intersessions from Blessed Pope John Paul the Great and Blessed Mother Teresa. They embody the whole of the Church, the male and the female, the call to deep prayer and evangelization and profound knowledge of the history and the Church and her teaching and her great wisdom, and the need to feed the hungry, the poor, nurse the sick and sell everything and follow Christ. Neither compromised their faith or their actions. They understood the deep mystery of suffering, both physical and spiritual, they got the hard reality of service and the need to sit at the feet of Christ in Adoration. We need the strength of both, the clarity of both, the wisdom of both, and the intercession of both.
We should be doing this anyway, but I'm asking for deep prayer not for the outcome of healing, health, wholeness for all. Lastly, we need to act.
So first, we need information.
Here is the actual HHS "Fact Sheet" put out by the White House. It is what they want us to believe.
Educate yourself with this, and this and if you want more, this and this and this.
Arm yourself
Get involved.
https://www.stophhs.com/
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