As we approach election time, I thought it would be good to point out the importance of prayer for our United States and for elected officials. It's really, really, really important! I don't think I need to explain myself about why prayer is important; big, bold letters will suffice for now. So anyways, I stole a few nice-sounding prayers as recommendations during the election, though anything will do. Prayer is prayer, after all. A prayer for our country: Almighty God, bless our nation and make it true to the ideas of freedom, justice, and brotherhood for all who make it great. Guard us from war, from fire and wind, from compromise, fear, and confusion. Be close to our president and our statesmen; give them vision and courage, as they ponder decisions affecting peace and the future of the world. Make me more deeply aware of my heritage; realizing not only my rights, but also my duties and responsibilities as a citizen. Make this great land and all its people know clearly Your will, that they may fulfill the destiny ordained for us in the salvation of the nations, and the restoring of all things in Christ. Amen. A prayer for the president and other elected officials: God of power and might, wisdom and justice, through you authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment is decreed. Assist with your spirit of counsel and fortitude the president and other government leaders of these United States. May they always seek the ways of righteousness, justice, and mercy. Grant that they may be enabled by your powerful protection to lead our country with honesty and integrity. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. A prayer before voting: Gracious and loving God, let your Spirit be with us today. Hear our prayers, and increase in us the will to follow your Son Jesus. Help us to draw on the resources of our faith as we use the opportunities of our democracy to shape a society more respectful of the life, dignity, and rights of the human person, especially the poor and vulnerable. We ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Remember when you go to vote, if you're a follower of Christ, then that is your most important identity. You might be a registered Republican or a registered Democrat (or even a registered I'm-too-cool-for-mainstream-parties guy), but first and foremost you are a registered Christian in the Big Guy's book. When a Christian does anything, ideally he or she should let God guide his or her actions. This goes for voting, too. More likely than not, that means that neither side is gonna be perfect. So you have to have issues that are priorities. The law of God is non-negotiable, so some of your political beliefs should be, too. Vote for the guy or the party whose accumulated actions you honestly think will do the best for the country by God's standards. Edit (9/4/12): This article raises good points about the Catholic role in politics.
Since forgiveness is kinda the central theme of Christianity, it's gonna come up a lot on the Journey as well as on this blog. But how exactly does it figure in to our lives? We talk a lot about the Big Guy forgiving us in exchange for basically nothing. In a way, this concept of free forgiveness is the most uncomfortable and difficult thing to believe in Christianity. We feel far too unworthy to buy into this free gift sometimes. There's nothing wrong with trying to do the right thing by living a holier life; but oftentimes, when the offer of a clean slate seems too good to be true, we think we can balance out the bad with good instead of accepting God's gift. Make no mistake, there is a temporal debt for the effects of sin (more on that in the future perhaps), but no amount of good deeds or penance will make God forgive you. Christ earns your forgiveness, not you.
However, we humans like to put our own price tags on forgiving other people. Oh yes, we're almost always willing to forgive the people who wrong us... as long as they admit that they were wrong and by some act appease us. That's a big no-no. I used to be like this all the time. Not on accident, either. If you had asked me then, I would have described my forgiveness as something to be given only to those who ask. My view on forgiveness was so skewed that I had no intention of forgiving those who greatly wronged me without some form of apology. My justification for this? Well, I figured that if the Big Guy only forgave people who asked for His forgiveness, then maybe that's how people should be, too. I didn't sit around hating every person who wronged me, but I had no intention of offering my forgiveness without a "reason." Sometimes I marvel at how spiritually stuck up I was (and sometimes still am). Who did I think I was? Did I fancy my forgiveness some kind of luxurious commodity that all my peers craved? Like most big sinners (and I'm the biggest), I fancied myself in some way equal to the Almighty. Subconsciously perhaps, but nonetheless it's true. Anyone who sees their personal forgiveness as something valuable only to be given to the apologetic peons at their feet has some kind of God complex. Here's why my former philosophy was really stupid:
1. I thought God would only forgive openly sorry people. Well, this just isn't true. Yes, God asks for our sorrowful penitence, but He isn't limited to this if He doesn't want to be. For instance, in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus forgives the cripple's sins without so much as a word from the man (in fact, He seems to do this based on the faith of the paralytic's companions; maybe I'll return to Matthew 9 whenever I talk about infant baptism...). This isn't to say that we shouldn't confess our sins and apologize to God as much as possible, but it absolutely does mean that my faulty reasoning was limiting the scope of God's mercy.
2. I was ignoring the commandments of Jesus. When Peter asked the Lord how many times to forgive someone who sins against him, Jesus said, "... till seventy times seven times" (Matthew 18:21-22), figuratively meaning every time (although 490 times is a good starting point, I suppose). The old standby "Judge not..." envisions this unconditional forgiveness, as well (Luke 6:37). Jesus also said, "... when you shall stand to pray, forgive, if you have aught against any man; that your Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive you your sins" (Mark 11:25). And let's not forget the Lord's Prayer: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12). These last two, interestingly enough, seem to imply that the Big Guy won't be so eager to forgive us if we don't forgive others. Yikes.
3. I thought I knew who needed forgiving. What human being can see into the soul of another (well, besides Christ obviously, but He's God. Hypostatic union and all that)? Not me. When someone does something I don't like, or something that negatively effects me, I have no right to condemn. The state of that person's eternal soul is a matter between him/her and God. There is no requirement that I like whatever this person did, but there is a requirement that I forgive them; because in the end only God knows if they're guilty, only God knows if they're sorry, and only God has the right to judge them.
Yep, I was a big moron, and once I realized what I was supposed to be doing, I felt like this at first:
However, this realization was one of the most central transformations of my Christian Journey. I wish I could remember how exactly it happened, but I can't. It was more of a gradual process.
Nowadays, I try to forgive unconditionally. There are some people that I occasionally falter in forgiving, but I try. We all face a failure to forgive sometimes. But fret not! Let's talk about what forgiveness isn't! It isn't the same as forgetting, reestablishing complete trust, or pretending nothing happened. God doesn't ask us to be naïve, He only asks us to give others the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the state of their souls (it wouldn't hurt to pray a bit for them, too). Also, I have to admit, I've found forgiveness to be a surprisingly healthy way to get rid of emotional baggage. I highly recommend it. Sometimes, I even feel like this:
One of my early intentions for this blog was to dispel misconceptions held by many about the Church. Thus, Don't Roman Catholics...? was born. Not intended for straight evangelization, these posts are purely for shedding some light on the many misconceptions regarding Catholic Christianity that I have heard and encountered from Christ's followers of different denominations. As the totally awesome Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said:
"There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church - which is, of course, quite a different thing."
Don't Roman Catholics...
... Pray to Saints?
Praying for One Another
Have you ever asked a friend or a relative (or even a stranger or entire church congregation) to pray for you or some intention of yours? Have you ever been asked for your prayers? If your answers were"No," then I highly recommend you start asking for prayers and start meeting people who are willing to ask for your prayers. Why? Well, the New Testament talks a lot about praying for each other and asking for prayers. Take St Paul, for example:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you help me in your prayers for me to God
Romans 15:30
or St James the Just:
... and pray for one another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.
James 5:16
So it seems pretty clear that the Christian community is to pray for each other. But who is the just man whose prayer is so efficacious? Well, obviously, that could be anyone, but it is still worth considering. In all of humanity, who is the most "just" (besides Jesus, of course)? Or rather, who is closest to God? Ponder that. What is the Church, and Who Do Catholics Consider Saints? Let's talk about what the Church is for Catholics. Is it a building, or group of buildings? Or perhaps just the vague concept of God's Will in the universe? Is it a bunch of robed men who make rules for the rest of us? Is it just the laypeople? Nope. The Church in the most accurate sense is the united people of God. Who are these people? Well, there are three states of the Church Universal (oh, by the way, that's what Catholic Church means). Each state compromises a different group of people, but all are in communion with the others as members of the unified Church. 1. Ecclesia Militans(the Church Militant) - That's us, the Christian people living on earth. We, who wrestle "against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness" (Eph. 6:12). When I talk about the travelers on the Christian Journey, these are the people I speak of. 2. Ecclesia Penitens (the Church Penitent), or Ecclesia Expectans (the Church Expectant) - The Christian dead who do not garner eternal damnation, but have yet to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. These are those whom "suffer loss" but are "saved, yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15). They still need to be purified of certain qualities before joining with God. This will be a good topic to return to in some future post about Purgatory and prayers for the dead. 3. Ecclesia Triumphans (the Church Triumphant) - Those who have entered into the victorious salvation of the beatific vision. These are the men and women who reside with God in Heaven, also known as Saints. Since a Saint is someone who is in Heaven, we also call angelic beings saints (i.e. St Michael, St Raphael, and St Gabriel). The righteous dead (particularly prophets like Moses, Abraham, etc.) who left the realm of the living before the victory of Christ, whom He rescued at the Harrowing of Hell (ah, another good topic for the future), are also considered Saints. Since "there shall not enter into [Heaven] any thing defiled" (Rev. 21:27), it can be assumed that the Church Triumphant are the most perfect creatures of God. They no longer sin, nor do they retain the inclination toward sin that the Church Militant have. These Saints are the most Christ-like of all created beings; thus, their lives are often a great example for us to live by. God wants us to be like them, because like them is being more like Christ. As the most perfect creatures of God, it can be assumed that the Saints in Heaven follow God's rules to a tee. If the New Testament is the real deal (yet another topic idea), then it can be presumed that the Saints "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17), like the Apostle Paul said people ought to. So let's lay all this out:
if we are to "pray for one another," as well as ask for the prayers of other Christians;
if the aforementioned "continual prayer of a just man availeth much";
if the most just of all men (and women) are the Saints, who are present in Heaven with Christ (the mediator between man and God); and
if the Saints are ceaselessly praying before the throne of God;
then, who better in all of creation is there to ask for prayers on our behalf than the Saints? Dead Guys "But Joseph," you might ask, "that's all well and good, but shouldn't we just ask for prayers from other living people? After all, the Saints are... dead." Without getting into the difference between "death" and "eternal life," I see your point. So I guess I should group the skeptical into two categories. Those who talk to dead guys, and those who don't talk to dead guys. 1. Those Who Talk to Dead Guys - Most Christians I know seem to have no problem talking to dead people (No I don't mean Ouija boards and seances, stay away from that unless you want a bad case of the Linda Blairs). Deceased friends and relatives? We talk to them all the time! It's comforting, and we have no problem saying and asking them things without expecting a direct verbal response. We even visit their grave sites or look at pictures of our loved ones because we feel closer to them that way. This is very much like praying to Saints. We talk to Saints, ask them favors through their prayerful intercession, look upon images or statues of them, and visit their relics or holy sites. So for those of you who have no problem talking to the dead whom you know, I have found it extremely beneficial to cultivate a kind of personal relationship with certain Saints so that speaking to them feels like speaking to a family member whom I believe to be in Heaven. 2. Those Who Don't Talk to Dead Guys - These folks, understandably, are not comfortable talking to the dead, whether they be Mary and the Apostles or their own great-grandparents. I would direct them to this classic yet confusing verse: ... the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints Rev 5:8 A bit confused? So was I. Revelation is a complicated book. So hopefully we can break it down. The four living creatures are traditionally recognized as the four evangelists (Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) by major early Church Fathers such as St Ireneaus, St Augustine, and big-time Biblical authoritySt Jerome. They are identified as such because back in Revelation 4 they are seen standing at the base of God's throne and carrying it, just as the evangelists carried the God to Christians via the Gospels. The four and twenty ancients are identified with what we now call "Saints" (we'll get to why those other "saints" are mentioned in a moment). Numbers being such a big thing all over John's Apocalypse, the twenty-four isn't random. It is believed to refer to Saints because twenty-four is twice twelve; there are twelve main Apostles and there are twelve tribes of Israel. In a broader sense, this refers to old Israel and the new Israel, both "peoples of God." Thus the number twenty-four represents the Church Triumphant, or the Saints. The Lamb is Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of the New Covenant. Don't need to go to far into that, its pretty straight forward as far as Revelation goes. The saints here (I'm using a lowercase "s" - I've seen it more descriptively translated as "the holy people") are actually the Church Militant. The New International Version of the Bible refers to them as "God's people." It isn't the only time that Scripture refers to the living Christians as "saints," it just isn't the same use of the word as is used to talk about the Saints in Heaven. So, rolling it back together, we get something along the lines of: the evangelists (who are undoubtedly in Heaven), the old Saints of Israel (in Heaven also), and new Saints of the Church (also in Heaven) are all offering up to Jesus the prayers of God's people on earth. If all those dead guys in Heaven know our prayers, then I guess God let's them hear our prayers. That sounds to me like a pretty concise definition for the Intercession of the Saints! Don't Forget the Big Guy Let me finish off by saying this: while it is highly beneficial to ask for the Saints' prayers, never forget to pray to God! Just like you shouldn't ask Mom to convince Dad to buy you a new iPod without also trying to convince him yourself, you shouldn't ask other Christians (saints or otherwise) to pray to God for you without also praying to Him some! If you're still skeptical about the whole praying to saints thing, I understand. Again, it isn't my intention to go waving a Bible around and converting non-Catholics. I just hoped to make the Catholic Church's view clearer to those who may have heard other things. If you've found that I said some helpful stuff, awesome! Like I say, we're all on the Journey together, so we should all be helping each other along the way, just like the saints help us! Maybe in the future I will touch on a related topic, the Veneration of the Saints. As always, have a good one!
Note: Do not worship Mountain Dew or any other beverage. Most mainstream faiths would consider this to be heresy and/or blasphemy.
"X isn't a religion, it's a way of life," or so I have heard about various mantras. It just seems like such an odd thing to say. It's kinda like saying, "Mountain Dew isn't a soda, it's a drink" (or, "Mountain Dew isn't a way of life, Joseph, it's just an inanimate beverage, grow up!"). Mountain Dew is a soda and a drink, because a soda is a kind of drink. In fact, it almost seems insulting to Mountain Dew to think of it as just a drink. Mountain Dew is more than a drink. Yes, plain water might be enough to keep you alive; and yes, Chik-fil-A lemonade might be delicious and excessively sugary1. But Mountain Dew far transcends the sweetness and drinkability of other drinks; it is, to me, the pinnacle of beveragedom2.
Some other people out there prefer Dr Pepper or Fanta; I've heard that in some far-off, backwards countries the people even drink Squirt. These may not be my all-time favorite drinks, but there are thirsty individuals out there who consider one of these sodas to be the carbonated beverage, and I respect that. And even though I personally disagree with the decision, I can respect those who opt out of soda all together (whom I deem carbonatheists). But to claim that, because Mountain Dew (or Dr Pepper or Fanta or Squirt) is a soda, it can't also be a drink like lemonade or water is... Well, that's just a failure to recognize what soda is.
To consider soda and all other kinds of drinks mutually exclusive is to have a very close-minded attitude toward soda; and to call Mountain Dew just another drink because you like to take a sip of it now and again without setting down the other soda (or other drink) in your right hand is insulting to those of us that live and love Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is a beautiful and multifaceted beverage. Everyone has their favorite flavor3 - there's the classy Diet Dew connoisseurs, the energetic Voltage-drinking crowd, the Code Red folks that consider the rest of us gravely dimwitted for learning about Darwinism4... I myself prefer the original while respectfully disagreeing with the other schools of Dew-thought. But all of us true Dew fanatics would agree that it is degrading5 for someone to talk to us as if our beloved beverage is just a side-drink to be sipped on at only the most opportune moments between gulps of his or her preferred glass. And all of this applies not only to Mountain Dew, but also to Fanta, or to Dr Pepper, or to that foreign pop from Asia you find interesting and exotic.
It might surprise you to hear that during all of this, while it may have seemed that I had been hired by PepsiCo6 to advertise Mountain Dew (oh, by the way, try the White Out flavor - it's out of this world),I was actually talking about religion. "Religion" and "way of life" are not mutually exclusive terms. Then why do so many people hereabouts seem to see them as such? Well, it's a product of a certain mindset. Some people think that religion should be confined to an hour on Sunday. In turn, others feel afraid or embarrassed to live or express their religion outside of their homes or families or places of worship. This is an unfortunate development in our cultural way of life. For the follower of any individual religion, that religion should be his way of life. If it isn't, the he should strive to make it his way of life, or else abandon it entirely in favor of another religion or way of life. If (after diligent research, of course) you find yourself disagreeing with your faith or rituals, don't cut out pieces of it and replace them bits of another religion, a religion that you call a "way of life" so as not to feel weighted down by doctrine or rules.
I would never tell someone to leave their faith, I prefer encouraging them to learn more deeply about it to facilitate a more learned and serious decision. But if you have good reason to dislike Christianity as it is, don't adulterate it with incompatible foreign doctrine. Or if you truly disagree with Catholicism, don't intersperse opposing cultural or denominational morality into the pages of the Catechism. If Judaism, or Buddhism, or whatever isn't correct, don't mold it to your idea of correct. Go out and find what's correct. And, perhaps most importantly, never mix one part Squirt into three parts Mountain Dew, because the Dew is fine - no, perfect - as-is7.
1. Actually, I personally recommend the diet lemonade at Chik-fil-A. There is such a thing as too sugary.
2. Let me just take the time to say that any neologisms in this blog are free for the rest of the world to use as if they were perfectly cromulent.
3. Flavors - also known as Dewnominations.
4. This might be a bit of a low blow. If so, I apologize.
5. Or, in this case, Dewgrading. Yes, I'm hilarious.
6. Hint hint, PepsiCo
7. This extended metaphor was far too long, far too imperfect, and far too sugary. And for that, I also apologize.
Seems at first like a pretty simple question. But my last post (in which I critiqued a "Born-Again" Christian's perspective in that famous "Hate Religion, Love Jesus" video) caused me to stop and realize that, even amongst Christians, we all seem to have different answers to that question. You'd think that it would be obvious what essential qualities cause one to become a Christian, but it isn't. I would venture to say that, for those of us on the Christian Journey, the answer to this question is pretty important. So I figured I'd take a stab at the question from my standpoint, while addressing other views along the way. 1. Someone Who Believes in Jesus I'd wager that this would be the most common answer you'd receive if you asked this question. It's short, sweet, and to-the-point. However, it's also pretty vague. A better wording might be, "Someone who believes in Jesus' teachings." Anyway, this response leaves it up in the air as to what it means to "believe" in Jesus. For instance, Muslims believe in Jesus. They consider Him amongst the greatest of the prophets, second only to Muhammad, as well as the awaited messiah. But they do not consider Jesus to be divine in any sense. In light of this, ask anyone the question, "can a Muslim also be a Christian?" I think you'll find that the answer tends to be no. Time to expand our definition. 2. Someone Who Believes that Jesus is God Incarnate This obviously eliminates Muslims from the list of possible Christians. It also eliminates Jehovah's Witnesses, oddly enough, because they equate Jesus with Michael the Archangel but not God. Those who consider Jesus simply a wise, good man get cut from the roster by this definition. So we're getting somewhere. However, this answer forces us to define "God." Is there just one God? Many Gods? A few? Mormons (considered to be one of the fastest growing Christian sects) believe in a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. However, in the LDS Church, each person of the Trinity is considered to be of a distinct substance, mean not one God but three. Most folks would say that the Christian God is the monotheistic God, so... 3. Someone Who Believes in the Trinitarian God as Put Forth by the First Council of Nicaea One God, three Persons, sharing one substance but distinct in relation to one another, etc. etc. This definition makes us cross Mormons off of the list of Christians, as well as all those other non-Trinitarian sects of Christianity. Starting to see why the question is important now? It makes one consider the ramifications of defining one's beliefs. But now we're back to the question of what it means to "believe" in someone. If someone wakes up one day, decides to believe in the Triune God, and then goes about his life as usual, is he a Christian? Probably not, which means we now have to start treading in dangerous territory. 4. Someone Who Agrees with 1-3, Believes in an Earthly Church We're starting to get exceedingly dogmatic here. Now, I don't mean to say that to be a Christian you have to believe in the (uppercase-C) Catholic Church, or any other particular church for that matter. It stands to reason, however, that if we've gotten so far as accepting a Triune God (not something one just comes up with), then there must be some divine inspiration directing the beliefs of the unified faithful, also known as the "Church." But since there are so many different individual conceptions of what "Church" means, we must find something that more closely unifies us in belief. 5. Someone Who Accepts the Christian Bible as the Inspired Word of God. And All that Other Stuff Above, Too. This relates to number 4 because the Canon of Scripture as we now have it was compiled by the earthly Church with varying degrees of completeness until the Reformation era. It's worth noting that not every denomination has the same Bible. For instance, Catholics have more books than Protestants, and the Eastern Orthodox have more books than Catholics. So even belief in the Bible is not quite enough to initiate one as a Christian. If only there were some Biblical ritual that was used to initiate Christians in the first century that all mainline denominations practice today! 6. Someone Who Receives Christian Baptism At the Great Commission, Jesus said to His Apostles, "Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). Though beliefs on what exactly Trinitarian Baptism does or to whom it should be administered differ, essentially all mainstream Christian denominations practice it. This again eliminates groups that either don't Baptize under the Trinitarian formula, or don't believe in the Trinity as a single being (i.e. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses). It also eliminates groups that do not practice Baptism at all from mainstream Christianity. However, Baptism seems to clearly be the preferred form of initiation over the past two millennia. It seems to me that one could also make the case that someone who intends to Baptized as soon as possible but cannot yet do so could be considered a Christian by desire, though I won't push the limits into hazy territory. Let's just keep it at Trinitarian Baptism. I think we have a winner! However, there's one more question to ask...
Can Someone Cease to Be a Christian?
Now, obviously from the standpoint of someone leaving the faith, of course you can. But to those that remain Christian, does the ex-Christian actually become "less" Christian? I would venture to say no.
1. If Baptism, not strict belief, is what initiates someone into the faith, then a person who ceases to believe does not necessarily cease to be a Christian.
2. Baptism may be the initiation, but is there any un-initiation? In short, no. One does not formally become de-Baptized.
3. Central to the Christian Journey is the forgiveness of sins - all sins. And like with all sins, a repentant lapsed Christian is free to return to the faith at any time. Committing a sin doesn't make someone less of a Christian, and leaving the faith is no different.
I hope this post made you think as much as it made me think, even if you disagree with my assessment. Have a good one!
I know that I'm late in the game with this video, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus," but I've been itching for ages to say my piece about it. I apologize in advance if I ever sound insulting or uncharitable... It's just very hard to critique something and remain perfectly kind. I'll post the video here, and then the lyrics (with my comments throughout):
What if I told you, Jesus came to abolish religion?
I would direct you to Matthew 5:17, in which He makes it quite clear that abolishing religion is the last thing He wants to do. I would also point out Matthew 16:18, in which Christ states that He intends to establish a Church.
What if I told you getting you to vote Republican, really wasn’t his mission?
Because Republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian,
I'd agree with you. However, giving your opinion on a modern-day American political party two lines into a poem that's supposed to be about Jesus really doesn't make me have high hopes about your message as a whole.
And just because you call some people blind, doesn’t automatically give you vision.
This is a very fair point, but to be perfectly honest, this entire video felt like you were telling me that I was blind and you knew something I didn't.
If religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?
People start wars in the name of religion. People also start wars (just ones and unjust ones) in the name of justice and human rights, etc. Yet I'm pretty sure God had no problem with the concepts of justice (Romans 13:4) or human rights (Mark 12:31). Just because someone starts a war, horrid or not, does not automatically mean that the concept being fought for itself is a bad thing.
Why does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor?
Well, this one is flat out wrong. Catholic Charities, for instance, is one of the largest charities in the United States, and that doesn't even cover all of the hospitals, schools, missions, etc. associated with the Church. The Catholic Church as a whole is arguably the largest charity in the world. And just so I'm not biased, if you take into account the charity work done by all the rest of the Christian denominations - hell, let's just throw in all the other religious organizations out there, since we're talking about how bad religion is - I'd wager that more mouths are fed due to religion than just about anything else.
And talking about huge churches, ask the poor man or woman praying in a beautiful cathedral if they'd like to have everything there melted down and sold for food money and see how they react.
Tells single moms God doesn’t love them if they’ve ever been divorced
As the child of someone who once was a single mother and the grandson of another single mother, I find this highly offensive. In all honesty, the only organized Christian group I ever hear actively talking about who God "hates" is Westboro Baptist, and they can hardly be taken as the poster boys of Christian religion.
Yet God in the Old Testament actually calls the religious people whores
I assume this is talking about Jeremiah 3. Upon closer investigation, it turns out the religious people whom God called whores were actually people that went against the Law, and for this God rebuked them. Seems like the Big Guy is actually quite pro-religion here to me...
Religion preaches grace, but another thing they practice,
As a regular recipient of the Eucharist and sinner that frequents the confessional for God's absolution, I'm not even quite sure how to go about addressing this line. I guess there are some religious groups that don't practice what they preach in regard to forgiveness, but it isn't a part of my experience with religion.
Tend to ridicule Gods people, they did it to John the Baptist,
I'm not really sure how the actions of King Herod, the political king of the Jews, against St John the Baptist are supposed to reflect on actual organized religion.
Cant fix their problems, so they try to mask it,
Not realizing that’s just like sprayin perfume on a casket
I'll hazard a guess to say that this has something to do with the pedophilia scandal, though I'm not sure. Either way, I still don't see how people being stupid means that we must hate religion.
Because the problem with religion is that it never gets to the core,
I've found that my religion, being 2000 years old and filled with a history of some of the most brilliant and faithful Christian minds, gets to the core quite successfully.
It’s just behavior modification, like a long list of chores.
Yeah, anyone who tells you that to be a good Christian you have to change the way you act and follow rules is just a mean old fuddy-duddy. Like this one guy named Jesus that says in John 14:15 to follow His rules or you don't love Him. How dare He try to modify my behavior.
Let’s dress up the outside, make things look nice and neat,
Its funny that’s what they do to mummies, while the corpse rots underneath,
Clever rhyme does not equal clever message. I guess this is supposed to mean that people who follow religious "rules" are faking being faithful Christians...
Now I ain’t judging (Right.) I’m just saying be careful of putting on a fake look,
Because there’s a problem if people only know that you’re a Christian by that little section on your Facebook
In every other aspect of life you know that logics unworthy
Its like saying you play for the Lakers just because you bought a jersey
I actually kind of like this part. No major complaints.
But see I played this game too; no one seemed to be on to me,
I was acting like church kid, while addicted to pornography.
Sad, and all too common, but I still don't see how this means that organized religion bad.
I’d go to church on Sunday, but on Saturday getting faded,
Acting as if I was simply created to have sex and get wasted.
Still sad, but I'm still not getting it. Wouldn't it stand to reason that the problem here isn't organized religion (the reason we go to church on Sunday) but the sinful lifestyle outside of church? I don't mean to be rude, but if I was spending all my time having sex and drinking, my first thought would be that I needed to correct this problem, not that the problem was caused by religious rules.
Spend my whole life putting on this façade of neatness,
But now that I know Jesus, I boast in my weakness.
So do I (or at least I try to), but I learned this through my religion. I'm pretty sure Paul, the original "boaster of weakness" who founded a whole slew of regional churches, was a pro-religion guy, too.
If grace is water, then the Church should be an ocean,
Cuz its not a museum for good people, it’s a hospital for the broken
Again, as a sinner and a regular participant in the redemptive sacraments, I find that the Church is exactly what you think it should be, and more.
I no longer have to hide my failures I don’t have to hide my sin,
Because my salvation doesn’t depend on me, it depends on Him.
Entirely true, but I find that rejecting authoritative religion leads to more self-dependence, while humbling oneself before the Church of God makes one more Christ-centered.
because when I was Gods enemy and certainly not a fan,
God looked down on me and said, “I want that man!”
Fun rhyme, and no particular problem here.
Which is so different from religious people, and why Jesus called 'em fools
This is probably talking about guys like the Pharisaic Jews of Christ's time. It's a pretty common misconception that Jesus condemned them for their "rules." In fact, in Matthew 23:1-3, Jesus commanded His disciples to follow the Pharisaic rules and condemned the Pharisees for not doing the same!
Don’t you see hes so much better than just following some rules?
Again, on the surface, of course; but it would actually be quite wrong to say that following Jesus doesn't involve some rule-following. He did give us a whole bunch of commandments, after all.
Now let me clarify, I love the Church (but hate religion...), I love the Bible (but misinterpret a lot of it, it would seem), and I believe in sin (that's good, since Christianity is only useful to mankind because it focuses on the forgiveness of sins)
But my question, is if Jesus were here today, would your church let Him in?
Not to be snide, but we already did. He's kinda sitting in the tabernacle of every church I attend.
But if that's not good enough, I'll say, "Yes, because we let everyone in, and would do no less for our savior and the man that founded our religion."
Remember He was called a drunkard and a glutton by “religious men”
The Son of God never supports self-righteousness, not now, not then.
I hate to use this cop-out again, but this whole video feels really self-righteous to me.
Now back to the topic(hallelujah!), one thing I think is vital to mention,
How Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums,
Jesus was a faithful Jew, you know, and he had no problem chatting it up with other religious folks about religion (Luke 2:46).
One is the work of God one is a man made invention,
I'm of the personal bias that God actually founded my religion. Also, calling Jesus a "work of God" seems to fall under a heresy known as Arianism, which states that Christ was created by the Father, making Jesus an inferior, created being. I know I'm getting nit-picky now, but it was a pretty major heresy...
One is the cure and one is the infection.
I have yet to see how religion is an infection upon the faithful.
Religion puts you in shackles but Jesus sets you free.
Religion makes you blind, but Jesus lets you see.
This is starting to get a bit insulting.
This is what makes religion and Jesus two different clans,
Religion is man searching for God, but Christianity is God searching for man.
I fail to see why "man searching for God" is a bad thing. God can seek us out all He wants, but if we don't reciprocate, where have we gotten?
Which is why salvation is freely mine, forgiveness is my own,
Not based on my efforts, but Christ’s obedience alone.
The only reason you are aware of this (overly-simplified) theology is because it was passed through organized religion for two millennia.
Because he took the crown of thorns, and blood that dripped down his face
He took what we all deserved, that’s why we call it grace.
While being murdered he yelled “Father forgive them, they know not what they do”,
Because when he was dangling on that cross, he was thinking of you
I hear this and experience this grace every time I go to Mass. I legitimately feel sorry for anyone that can't find the grace that Christian religion is supposed to put forth.
He paid for all your sin, and then buried it in the tomb,
He certainly did, but He asks us to cooperate with His grace. This is what we Christians call "free will."
Which is why I'm kneeling at the cross now saying come on there’s room
In my line of thinking, to outright reject religion is to reject the Church Christ founded, whatever you think that Church is. If anything says, "I don't need grace, there's no room here," it's that.
So know I hate religion, in fact I literally resent it,
"Now let me clarify, I love the Church..." Talk about operating on different ends of the spectrum.
Because when Jesus cried, "It is finished," I believe He meant it.
Recently I was confronted, like most of us on the Christian Journey are from time to time, with the confusing concept of the Divine Will. Which events in our lives happen due to the Providence of God, and which ones just... happen? As with all things of faith, such straightforward categories can hardly tell the whole story; nonetheless, I still felt that this was a worthy topic for stepping out of my comfort zone... During my freshmen year of college (at Virginia Tech), I spent a lot of time and emotional energy on the drafting, re-drafting, completion, submission, and stressing over of a transfer application to another school (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). UNC had already rejected my first-year application; however, its department for my major (Classical Studies) is considered one of the better ones in the country, it is closer to my home and loved ones, and I even know quite a few people, including close friends, who go there... Okay, admittedly, I also like their basketball team quite a bit. At any rate, I knew that I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn't even tryto give it a second shot. Carolina could have been the perfect place for me, for all I knew. Throughout the academic year, from the moment I decided to apply until some time after UNC replied with their decision, this potential transfer and its consequences were often at the forefront of my mind. From the get-go, I had made a promise to myself that I wouldn't make up my mind about which school I wanted to attend until after such time as UNC informed me I was accepted. I admit, though, that if someone had asked me the old "If you had to pick" question, my answer would have changed every two weeks or so. Even then, I had to admit that my problem was far from the worst kind. After all, VT is a high quality institution at which I quickly made many friends and developed solid relationships with several communities and professors. But, as I said before, there was certainly good reason for me to abandon these friendships and relationships in pursuit of certain academic advantages and closer proximity to loved ones. In a way, this inner debate was more of an emotional strain than might be expected. If I was accepted, then I would have to make a choice between two places I loved; a choice between two sets of people that I care about. It would be an understatement to say that the constant mental reminders regarding my unsure future had an emotional effect on me during my first year of higher education. After a time, being the genius that I am, I realized that this was the kind of situation that it would be beneficial to pray about (as if there could be such a thing one ought not to pray about). In fact, I would say that this was exactly the kind of thing that our Lord was talking about when He told us by command and by example to pray to the Father, "Thy will be done." So that's what I did. I often asked God for the opportunity to choose my school, but more importantly for the clarity to accept a four-year experience at Virginia Tech as God's will for me in the event that Carolina's decision should come back negative. Thus, after more than several weeks of drafting, paperwork, and meetings with the right people, I submitted my application and waited. Come mid-April, when transfer decisions were finally released (after several stressful delays), I found myself staring at a computer screen bearing the words, "We are sorry to inform you..." I can honestly say that, outwardly, I took the news quite well. I wasn't unhappy to stay where I was with my good relationships and my well-adjusted new life. But as time caused the finality of my rejection to sink in, I became somewhat bitter, particularly toward those faceless men and women at UNC Admissions. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't a shoe-in, but I personally knew people at UNC that (in my certainly biased opinion) perhaps didn't deserve to attend as much as I thought I did. I had good grades in high school, and in my first year at Virginia Tech I was a Dean's List student with quite a lot going for me in regards to my major. This rejection stung my pride (that most central yet most subtle of the Seven Deadly Sins). Whether or not my feelings were accurate, it is clear that I was paying lip service to the Big Guy during this time, claiming that I accepted VT as the "place I was meant to be," yet still resenting the fact that my choice had seemingly been "taken away from me." Lately, I am rarely bothered by this lack of choice that once felt so undeserved. Only recently, though, did I start to truly consider the higher meaning behind all this. In a conversation over dinner with my girlfriend, the subject of my schooling came up. She, being a student at UNC (and trust me, if anyone deserves to be there, she does), asked me if I would ever apply there as a transfer again. Other people have asked me the same question, and my usual answer goes something like this: "No, probably not. I could maybe do it if I really wanted to, but I'm just not willing to go through that business all over again." I stand by that answer; it's entirely true. But it's also a blatant cop-out, and my girlfriend deserved more than the standard I-don't-feel-like-applying-again response. So I decided to explain to her something that I myself didn't fully understand: my belief that God wants me at Virginia Tech. The big, fat mistake I made was prefacing my explanation with something to the effect of, "Now, I'm not that sissy person who says it was meant to be every time something seemingly bad yet bearable happens, but..." My advice? Never offhandedly throw a comment like that into a conversation with my girlfriend unless you can back it up, because she never misses a beat. She's very perceptive, and will immediately call you out if you deserve it. And I definitely deserved it. Who am I, that I claim to know what the Big Guy influences or intends? Seriously, I'm always saying stuff like, "American Christians think they can afford to put serious devotion to a Higher Power on the back burner because they fancy themselves 'self-sufficient' and 'independent.'" That may be true, but it looks like I unwittingly proved myself right, because it took several months of bitterness and a well-deserved calling-out from my awesome girlfriend for me to find the log in my eye this time. We aren't merely "a planet of playthings [that] dance on the strings of powers we cannot perceive," as the holy trinity so aptly put it (no, not that Holy Trinity, but the great prog rock power trio Rush). Yes, we human beings have free will. Nonetheless, we aren't entirely incontrol. It would be futile for me to try and pinpoint an exact moment at the admissions office or a specific sentence in my application that the Almighty influenced so as to keep me at VT; in fact, I highly doubt that there was ever an obvious divine snap of the fingers that changed the course of things. God doesn't always work in ways that we understand, because to fully understand the Divine is to be the Divine. We can never understand as God does, no matter how much we like to be in full control. The point is that, even if the will of God seems complicated to us, He does have a will for all things - even things as mundane a college application. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
Today, Latin Catholics such as myself celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (our Eastern brothers celebrate the similar Feast of the Dormition, but seeing as how I'm much less familiar with theology from an Eastern focus, I'll stay in Rome this time).
The Assumption, like a great deal of very old theology, seems a curious belief today. How could even Catholics, though they hold the Mother of God in the highest esteem, believe that a mere human woman was raised into Heaven like Jesus Christ? In fact, I'd be willing to bet that most folks, even Catholics, confuse the term Assumption with the more well-known Ascension of Jesus Christ. Rather like the confusion of the Immaculate Conception with the Virgin Birth, a large pet peeve of mine. But I digress.
Like all doctrine, dogma, and devotion concerning St Mary, the Assumption is most important because of what it tells us about Jesus Christ. We are commanded to honor our father and mother; and as no man lived the Christian life better than the Lord Himself, it is safe to assume that He honored His mother greatly. Therefore, since Christ is the example we ought to live by, it wouldn't be so absurd to think that we should try to honor her just as much as He did. All this is to say that, when us Romish fellas celebrate seemingly odd Marian beliefs, we are doing so ad maiorem Dei gloriam, for the greater glory of God. So let's find out what this event tells us about the Big Guy... Let's talk about the Ark of the Covenant. Yep, of Indiana Jones fame. Way back in the day, the Jewish people built the Ark at God's command. Without getting way deep into Jewish history and rites, the Ark was immensely important to Temple-era Judaism. The Ark, kept in the Temple's veiled Holy of Holies, held the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the High Priest Aaron's Rod (Isn't Jesus the new High Priest?), and a jar of manna (which, to Christians, prefigures Jesus as the Bread of Life), and was lidded by the kaporet, the "mercy seat" upon which God was believed to become present. Because of the association with the presence of God, the Ark and the Holy of Holies were considered highly sacred and only entered into once a year (for the Yom Kippur atonement rites) by the High Priest. The Ark was the dwelling place through which God entered into the world at a time associated with the atonement of sins.
Sound like anything (or anyone) we know?
There is a lot of other theology, tradition, and Scripture associated with the Assumption, particularly where St Mary is implied as the New Eve, but to address all of that would take a lotof posts. All I've been trying to get across is that, if God wanted His spiritual dwelling place (the Ark) to be honored above all else in the Temple, would He not then desire all the more honor for His own mother, the Ark of His physical dwelling? The Assumption of Mary, as a gift of honor from the Lord to His mother, serves as a reminder of the Glory that God offers to those who love and follow Him wholeheartedly as St Mary did.
Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the Ark of your might. Psalm 132:8
Welcome to the premier post of Unashamedly Romish, a Catholic blog that will explore the Christian Journey by means of thoughts, stories, experiences, Scripture, and "armchair" theology. I am your Papist host, Joseph! This blog was born as a self-indulgent means of getting my own thoughts down, but I hope it will also be a source of edification in faith for all who read it. Just as I am on the never-ending Christian Journey, so too do all of you who read this with an eye towards growth join me! All men and women are called by God to accompany each other on the Christian Journey. This is indeed a personal Journey, but also a communal one in which we join together in prayer and deed, not just for our own individual satisfaction but for the greater glory of God. Therefore I hope that you will pray for me as I pray for you, and together as we leave whatever spiritual place we currently reside on the eternal Christian Journey, we will travel with God, toward God, and for God! Arise, let us go hence. John 14:31
