WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DO AGAINST THE PERSISTENT PERVERSION OF MORALS?

All seems lost, when I look at the total ridiculousness of both Democrat and Republican parties at all levels of government. Having a political party and its platform (which no one ever uses) as a basis for my morality is like walking on Jello or peanut butter. Both parties seem to love the smell of impeachment burning in the morning. There has got to be more to life than lifeless rationalism. Recent comments by our Magister Noster, the Holy Father, indicate caution to the tendencies of the American (and worldwide thinking) that paints the dogma of the Church into the same corner as the expression of its single issue of social justice. My own observations of spirituality are that, like the teachings of St. Benedict in Chapter 4, I “prefer nothing to the love of Christ.” Observers of the current whirlpool of Church opinions forget that the Holy Spirit is at the center of nudging the Church to make new skins for the new wine of each age. Dogma never changes but in the Rock, our interaction with the Holy Spirit, both with the Holy Father as our designated Magister Noster, and the Bishops having authority from the Apostles. The Magisterium (teachings of the Councils plus the Monastic councils of religious orders, guide us to put Christ first before serving others in ways peculiar to each age. The fact that so many, according to the press, are falling away from the Church might be seen as the corruption of the foundation of Catholic teaching, were it not for the fact that we are, and always have been, a Church of martyrs, both of blood and of ordinary living. The Church is on a journey and is known for its dings and bruises as it careens down the path from righteousness to ridiculousness. Dying to our earthly self is not popular, even for professed Catholics. My thinking is that the Holy Spirit is with the Church, with the Holy Father, even when he must give us tough love, and especially with me, as I lower my eyes in the presence of Christ in the inner sanctum of my inner self and bathe in the presence of knowledge, love, and service. Each day is a lifetime. Each moment is a NOW experience.

What we need as our foundation is THE ROCK. Most will think of the movie actor, Dwayne Johnson, as THE ROCK, and so he is. I watch all of his movies, but is he THE ROCK on which I want to rebuild whatever semblance of morality I try to find left?

THE SAINTS AS HALL OF FAMERS

All of us are saints who are Baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, who allow ourselves to place the will of God ahead of our own, only to find that our will fulfills what it means to be human as nature originally intended by creation. Not all of us are Saints, or those raised up by the Church Universal as worthy of our veneration and as heroes and heroines of living with Christ as their Principle of existence. Each saint and each Saint is uniquely different from each other in how they try to “Have in themselves the mind of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5), yet, like spokes in the wheel with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the hub, they reflect with their lives what it means to “prefer nothing to the love of Christ.” (RB: 4)

Saints are those in the Church’s fall of fame, the major leagues, those we venerate for being a rock in their lives to place Christ as their center and sustain it through trials and tribulations, even being martyred for it in blood or in the martyrdom of living each day with Jesus as our centers. We live in a society where the default is original sin, the fulfillment of human needs (as defined by Abraham Maslow in his hierarchy of needs).

Because God has accepted me as an adopted son and given me the gift of the Holy Spirit and the real presence of Christ in my heart, I am tasked with loving others as Christ loved me. This is no small feat, because original sin, the cloak of flawed humanity is the default, not automatic. I must learn how to be spiritual by practice, trial and error (mostly error), and how to use this adoption to achieve my destiny in heaven. Saints are those lifted up by the Church Universal as being worthy of our emulation as intercessors in heaven to join in our prayers as we together go to the Father, in, with, and through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. No one can or does pray TO the Saints, but because the church has made them role models of how to love others as Christ loves us, we can be Christ-bearers in our hearts.

Saints are not like the Norse Gods or Roman or Greek deities. They are all sinful, ordinary people who allowed Christ to enter their hearts and then did wonderful things for others. Only Jesus and Mary were without sin, and Mary only because the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. We honor Mary for being a unique representative of our species.

SAINTS IN OUR TIME

Each age has a cadre of saints who stand vigil before the Blessed Sacrament until Christ comes again in glory. Saints come from saints. Flawed and wounded by original sin, they do God’s will, as they see it, to help others.

What can one person do to affect the darkness of rationalism and casustry? Here is the story of what one person can do to light up the darkness.

http://www.thesistersofmary.com/en/

You and I are saints. By adoption, we must love others as Jesus loved us. The question is, “What does that mean, even if you must go out of your comfort zone?”

uiodg