The Crossroads, A blog by a Catholic Layman

Once again we come to Pro Life Week, and the March for life in Washington DC – This song is so powerful – One Lady, remembers the sad choice she had to make, another, reaffirms to the world that she is in control of her body, rather selfishly – Then we have the Juxtaposition, the source of life, the God- Man , Jesus Christ , who gave himself up for The first lady, the second lady, and all of us. Everyone one of those Holy innocents is greeted by him, those, who NO ONE ELSE wanted. Those who were deemed an inconvenience. Over 3500 a day, cast aside, not valuable to the race that made them, but they are Precious and dear in his Eyes. Thank God for God. Because of Christ, there is Balance in a world that is full of death.

Its important for us as Christians to always lead with love on this issue – Too many so called pro lifers have furthered the divide, by rather unchristian like behavior. Open arms is how the other side should be greeted, just as Christ greets all of us with open arms.

This “battle” will not be won in a courtroom – The enemy distracted us years ago by influencing the government to give it its blessing, by the legalization – No law can change a person’s heart – Only prayer can – So I ask all of you this month, to say a prayer for a change of people’s hearts on the matter, and for us as a nation to respect all life, from conception to death. An End to War, An End to Abortion, an end to the Death penalty. Let us trust in God’s mercy and love on the matter.

Let us remember the old Chant Sequence  “Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.” , Where Charity and Love are, There God is present.

To tag on to my post from ..well at this point earlier this morning – how do we fix things…how do we fix this so called broken society

Love is always the answer – Love, bids me stay. Today’s psalm says  “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” – The people of God spent 40 years in the dessert because they had hearts of stone – God wanted one thing in their lives, they had other ideas.

Sometimes I wonder if the past 40 years have been a new wandering in the dessert for us, the people of God – We are presented with ample opportunities to love, and we FAIL MISERABLY  with them -

For instance, The Homosexual community. You dont have to agree with the choices people make in their lives…. but you are required to love them, Just as Jesus loves you in all of your choices. They bear an incredible cross that many people just simply cannot understand

The Unwed Mother – Instead of Calling her a sinner..a whore.. etc – Maybe hug her.. let her know she isnt alone, because I guarantee she feels alone deep down – Something as simple as just listening to her, letting her know that there is another person in this world that , maybe they dont get it…but is willing to take 5 minutes out of their life to just listen – Just listening to people can be powerful.

People of different faiths – Get to know them – God speaks to ALL of us – and just because someone hasnt come to the fullness of truth (which, is a committment to Christ ), doesnt mean you cant learn from them – Even the Atheist can teach you about your faith, if your heart and mind are open to what God is telling you at that point – We Christians for instance always talk about Islam – we could stand to have half the average Muslim’s dedication. Roman Catholic’ s could stand to learn much from Eastern Orthodox Mysticism. Christians in general could learn much from the Transcendent understanding that Sihks have of God. God speaks through all walks of life after all.. and chooses the time and place that is most suitable to his judgement

I can go on and on – The key is Love… and to always lead with love. When we lead with love, our hearts and minds are open to what God is saying. Love is why we exist. Love is a choice…love is the right choice to make . Love is why we were saved and are still saved, by His Holy Cross. Love is what enables grace and countless mercies into our lives

Last night I had the opportunity to see “Zero Dark Thirty” a movie about our counter terrorism efforts in the world, which led to the killing of usama bin laden, the master mind behind 9/11 and other destructive terrorist acts.

Today – We witnessed our president hand down an executive order that essentially restricted the Second Amendment , in an attempt to combat violence.

Its also Pro Life month – Where a 40 year old debate, comes to a head with the march for life.

I have a few thoughts on it. Let me begin first and foremost — I am a patriot. I thank God every day for my country, and the freedom I have, especially because of the sacrifice of the brave men and women, like the seals who eliminated usama. That being said, I have some issues with our “place” in the world, and they are from a gospel perspective.

Secondly – and this is the CORE of my thoughts tonight, ALL HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED. Life is a Gift from God, and its his to deal with. We are all made in the image an likeness of the almighty – there fore, in that concept itself, we are all made with a sense of beauty, sacredness, and holiness that MUST be respected – Rule of St Benedict “Great all as Christ” – Everyone of us has an inalienable quality of holiness. If we believe in the resurrection at all we MUST believe in that, else nothing else matters

So lets start at the top – Zero Dark thirty – If you havent seen it or are unfamiliar, it follows the events from September 11 2001, to the killing of Usama Bin Laden, in 2011. On Sept 11, over 3000 people were, point blank, murdered. This was done at the command of perhaps one of the deadliest terrorists ever to live – Sadly someone who in the 80′s, we helped to support, and use as muscle against the russians. As what happened with others, it eventually back fired on us.

Much of the Arab aggression towards us comes from our support of the state of israel, which is not scriptural by the way – In fact, many Jews would actually agree with this assessment, on the simple fact that when God decides there shall be a Jewish homeland again, it will happen – Sadly many fundamentalist Christians, also support the state as it is, in an attempt to usher along the Second Coming, due to a very poor understanding of the Sacred City being rebuilt, which is more a metaphysical understanding of the city of God, and not meant to be looked at literally. This in no way is an absolving of behaviors – I have my own reservations about islamic society in general. But it isnt my society, and I cant begin to understand it.

The movie in short, Saddened me greatly, as did the events the movie is based on – We met force, with force, very equally, very decidedly. I still remember what I did on September 11th. I went to my church, and I prayed like no other. I prayed for the lives of the people who died. But more importantly I prayed for wisdom on this country, that we would not start a war over this, thus more lives being lost – Sadly, very shortly after, we invaded first afghanistan, then Iraq – Neither of which to this day, I understand- It goes back to the thought. We killed others… to prove the point that killing is wrong. Worse, we sent alot of Bright, young men and women, on an almost futile quest – First to eliminate Saddam (who might I add, we also built, and used as muscle against iran ..and how about iran. The Current government we helped put THERE as well), and then eventually eliminating the Taliban, as well as Usama himself

The movie deals with the last of those items. Eventually the Seals would do their job, and kill Usama. I struggled with it then, as much as I struggle with it now, especially in light of the movie – at the base…there is no chance for repentance now – Again, the part of me that is a Christian, believes no one is beyond hope – Bin Laden and Saddaam are both tragedies. We created both monsters, and completely swept the details under the rug when it backfired on us

I was most disturbed at the amount of detail that was placed in the film – We know he was killed. 2 and a half hours of this not only showed a great amount of violence, with Car Bombings and such, but also the killing of the folks in the compound, up to and including Bin Laden – 2 hours and thirty minutes to show us how THAT happened. Why? Whats the point. The deed was carried out. Why do we as a people need to relive that? This movie should never have been made. Period.

Now I know people are screaming at my words right now “Your unpatriotic… Usama needed to die” – again – not our choice – Just like wars should never be thought of as an answer. Life is GOD’s alone to deal with, not ours – Usama should have been brought to trial, and then to justice – The world more then ever needs the light that the United states can be. Instead, all we showed is that we carry a very much larger stick. Does it make me un patriotic to think that killing a person to prove that killing is wrong, isnt the highest ideal? Am I unpatriotic because I believe we uselessly placed our best hopes for the future, in harms way? Killing Usama did nothing except enbolden an already desperate enemy – This enemy wont stop because one man is killed – I would fear this movie, more then anything, puts our country in a VERY dark light. No this enemy is charged by the fact for better or worse, we have our nose in the business of the world

Iraq is a whole other matter- In Short.. that was about oil – If you believe anything else, then quite frankly you are foolish – We are so strangled by oil.. that it has impaired our judgement – Alas I digress. We as the self appointed moral authority of the world, have determined the best way to teach the world about killing… is the go to war with them

Now I am going to be VERY clear – have NOTHING but the utmost respect for our men and women who are fighting for yours and my freedom. But this war (which is still going on) is stupid – our “Goal” , was to stop the taliban, and to stop Usama at all costs. That has occurred, yet 2 different presidents, with VERY different ideologies, have propogated this war further. Our troops should have come home in May. They shouldnt by any means still be over there. Every day we keep troops on the ground in Afghanistan at this point, is a diservice to their sacrifice. The response that is given “We are preventing insurgencies, and the country from imploding on itself” – No offense… maybe we shouldnt have invaded it, and crippled it to begin with – The same goes with current efforts in Egypt and Libya. You would think we would learn from our mistakes, especially in particular with the arab world. They dont need our help – More importantly they really dont want it – Every effort we make to bring “Democracy” to them, is a step back in the direction that we have been in, a political circle. Again, the so called arab spring I believe will eventually be our undoing in the middle east – We need to bring our troops HOME – lets fix the problems we have HERE with poverty, and society, before we go and dork someone else’s life up any further

Guns – Weapons – Rifles – today the president signed into law an executive order – There are some items in it I DO infact agree with .. However a great many I do not , on the fundamental level that we are giving up our rights, under an assumed security and protection – Here is the BOTTOM line – at the end of the day, Criminals DONT FOLLOW THE LAW – and everyone of these tragic situations, Columbine, Hartford, the theater in colorado , were all illegally obtained guns. No amount of legislation, no amount of tracking who buys guns legally is going to help us with the people who buy them illegally – Again we miss the root of the issue.

Much the same way we miss the solution to the Pro Life/ Pro Choice issue – Pro Lifers call the pro choicers murders. Pro choicers call the Pro Lifers Fascists who want to tell them what to do. We march peacefully most of us.. and tell people their decision is wrong, but we also dont realize the roots of those decisions. We have a society that glorifies in the objectification of women – So men end up not respecting women at all, impregnate them, who many of which are left feeling desperate and alone – Why wouldnt the poor woman feel that she had any other choice? Especially when sadly many so called Christians are Screaming “Murderer!”, when we should be embracing her, and greeting her as Christ – We DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to change how women are treated by men BEFORE the pregnancy happens. In Fact…we fund the whole thing – On any given night on television, you can see shows with women dressed and acting little better then a common street prostitute – One show even has two people saying “I am glad we are pregnant together…because now we can be milfs together …..” I wont translate what a “milf” is – but its another example of how we think its perfectly okay to objectify women . So we miss the root of the issue, and instead fight with each other, rather then fixing the problem – what happens to women who go through an abortion is a tragedy. many are left with no other choice. Many are put in that position by men… who lack any semblance of manhood, who tucked tail at the first sign of trouble, or insisted on the abortion happening. Are there women who are ill equipped to handle a child. I would tend to agree with that assessment – but at the same time, nothing was done to try to help them make the right decisions. We turn our backs on the inner cities…hoping that one day they just wont be there – Surely even in st louis, 5 miles from the worst parts of town, in the suburbs that Include Ladue, Frontenac, and even Kirkwood, we have mansions and a society that forgets that 5 miles away, are the poorest of the poor, the very face of Jesus Christ we should all be seeking.. the very perfection of God’s image.

Whether we talk about gun violence, or terrorism, or abortion , this all comes back to a degredation of the fundamental human right to LIFE – we all have a right to dignity of life – Until that has been taught again, there will be no end to wars, no end to violence, no end to abortion. We arent going to solve our problems with laws. Criminals lets face it… break the law. We will only fix our society with understanding that All men and women are beautiful creations of God. And we need to believe in it and show the world we believe in it – Not Kill our unborn, not turn a blind eye to the trials of the Single mother, not try to legislate our people into behaving for us – Why should ANYONE believe our so called moral authority, when we do the things we do in this country.

We seem to glory in death in this country  – Wrong us… we’ll bomb the hell out of you – Have a child that isnt convenient… kill the child. Kill someone… and we’ll throw you in the gas chamber so that come hell or high water… you learn that killing is wrong

We need to get back to realizing all life is sacred. Without that… people wont stop and think before they pull the trigger. Without that, immature young men wont stop and think about how they are shaming the women they are with, thus leading to a very sad, desperate situation. Without that, our freedoms will continue to erode. Once you reduce a personhood.. the necessity for rights diminishes. We partipated in 400 years of such oppression, and it all began with saying a person didnt matter…there fore they had fewer rights. Again, all life is sacred.. we are all made in the image of the ONE TRUE GOD – its time we starting teaching that as Christians, but most importantly ACTING LIKE IT -

Dont call yourself pro life and support a death penalty – Jesus said he who is without sin, cast the first stone

Dont call a woman a whore, a sinner… when you enable the society that encourages her to use something that is a treasure as a means for her to desperately hang on to someone that is beneath her, only to be left cold and alone.

Dont say we have a Gun violence problem, and scratch your head why, why we by our actions demonstrate that people are simply a number…and nothing more

most importantly we all need to start praying… and we better start meaning it – Judgment is coming soon for the world, and to those who much was given, much will be expected. We as Christians will be held accountable for not only advancing the gospel, but how we advanced it. Until we realize the words of Paul “The Greatest of these is love”, we stand no chance of hope, no chance of societal correction.

Today I went to the 9 am mass – For the most part, I am blessed with a well balanced parish – Our pastor is absolutely brilliant, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, is one of the few pastors I have had for a while who I feel is actually making an effort, and is theologically more intelligent then me- Please remember I am child of the 80’s, and the seminarians of the 80’s for the most part were catechized as well as most of us from that time (many of whom have left the church, might I add, and half of those are the so called “Free Thinkers” now, alas I digress).

However, one thing bothered me today – I usually am not one to complain about what happens at a mass, age and wisdom have calmed me in this. However something became clear to me today – We have lost the sense of the sacred space that the Mass itself creates – Not the building, not the music, but the Mass, and what happens there, a meeting of Heaven and Earth – I have the Ushers to thank for this clarity – Yes they were only doing their  “job”, but for the first 10 minutes of mass, I watched 2 roam up and down the isle, flagging people here and there – incredibly disruptive – Priest Absolves us of our sins before the Gloria… Usher flags someone down – Deacon blesses faithful with Holy water, Usher almost gets in his way, and so forth

I don’t blame the ushers so much for this, again, this is a much needed ministry in the Church, and is a modernization actually of one of the Minor Orders, The “Porter” (though many of the duties are actually of the Sub Diaconate now, thus again, I digress)  – The Chief responsibility of the Usher, is to help folks to their seats, and to help with the collection – (as the old joke goes, where two or three are gathered, there shall you find a collection) – What I do blame is all of us, and over 40 years of poor, dismal catechesis. The mass is NOT about us, in the sense of it being for us- So certain things are really luxuries – Especially at a very full mass – If you CANNOT get there early enough to find a suitable seat, then you shouldn’t disrupt the sanctity of the mass by expecting people to just move over and such for you- Many times I myself I have been perfectly happy to find a corner of the church to stand in, and such, so that I can be unnoticed by my presence – After all its not about me, but about praise to Almighty God.

When we celebrate Holy mass, regardless of what “form” or even what rite we might celebrate ,(whether maronite, Dominican, Ambrosian, Ruthenian etc) – Something truly miraculous is occurring – Heaven and Earth are meeting in a great wedding feast, referred to in revelation as “The Lamb’s High Feast”, and The God Head is made present for us in the Second Person of the trinity, present under form of bread and wine – Let me repeat  – GOD is truly present – This is why where are such things there as kneelers, we remember from Indiana Jones that the “Penatint Man Kneels before God” – And there are certain things that help to remind us of this sacred space, For instance Bowing, Genuflection, etc, but first and foremost – GOD is present before us mortal men and women – And as we believe in the communion of saints – Those who are now in his full loving presence, also participate, celebrate and behold right along with us – Yes, the mass takes us out of time and space, and Lifts us up to the Almighty, even for a brief instance – If only we would get back to teaching this –

Some of you might say “But Patrick you’re just being fanatical..people pray in their own way” – Great – Wonderful, Super – But treating the mass as a movie theater or bingo gathering (even if you don’t mean it), at very least shows to the world that WE as a people, don’t understand what we are doing, thus, the world wont understand..and at best, wont care- A chance for evangelization lost. Churches have always been decorated with Icons, Statues, Paintings, to remind us FIRST and foremost that we don’t worship alone, but also that we are there to worship, along with our brothers and sisters the saints and angels. Again, we have entered sacred space, that exists outside of time.

So next time you are at mass, take that minute… and look beyond what is there, try to see the mystical that is going on around you , just like the old English hymn says (and if Anglicans can get it right…so should you… you catholic who haven’t LEFT the church) –“Let all mortal Flesh Keep Silent, and stand in fear and Trembling”.

“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

This weekend’s gospel, speaks about Baptism, the first of Sacraments (or as our brethren in the east term, “mysteries” . This moment in our journey is crucial. We die to ourselves, so that we can live in Christ. Baptism, from the Greek  “Baptismos”, translates to  “Washing” . We’ve always understood baptism as just that. People are either immersed or sprinkled in water, and that’s the sign that something is changing – Water baptism goes deeper though. Its commonly understood that John was at very least had ties with the Qumran/Essene community. It was common ritual for them to perform a water baptism. He would have followed suit when he began his own ministry, not far from there, along the banks of the River Jordan. Even Jewish temple life in general had ritual baths that were part of various rites, and times of the year. But its an incomplete cleansing – It only got the dirt on the outside.

In the Gospel, we learn of something deeper. The perfected Baptism, comes from Jesus Christ, a man so perfect, so Holy, that we aren’t even worthy to help him with his shoes. We know he’s the real deal. Just to be sure, the Father says THIS is His Son. As such, he holds all authority of the father. That being said, the only true Baptism, comes through Jesus Christ, as he is the only man with authority to truly remove our sins, not just with water, but with the Fire of the Holy Spirit. God’s love is so immense for us, that he wants us to not be separated from him, but to do that, we need to undergo a radical transformation. We need more then to simply be “washed”, but refined with fire, the fire of His love for us. As the Holy Spirit is pure love, He is often interpreted as fire. This is the Fire that Christ brings to our lives, a life changing rebirth, that if we let it, will burn into our very soul, and seal us to Him.

Tonight its raining in St Louis. I suppose its very fitting on the eve of the Baptism of the Lord , one of the “Mysteries of Light”, or those moments where Christ is revealed to us, or illuminated. Its reminding me how things can be washed, cleansed. But more importantly, that everything in Nature, Just like our own spiritual lives are a work in progress. Baptism, so crucial. But its two fold – We HAVE to want to change. We HAVE to want to be cleansed. Its not enough for someone to just sprinkle a bit of water on our head.

The Above Video… I cant even begin to deal with – First there is an Assault on our Lady…  no the statue isnt Our Lady…but of St Therese of Lisieux – Who is holding a Crucifix, the image of our Salvation, a reminder of the Price that was paid for all of us, including this so called preacher.

Second…  He Destroys an Image of Our Lord , and when he is done with all of this, Says Praise God… Long Live God  – I wonder which god he is referring to.
So sad the events of the last 400 years – This is NOT Christianity – This is Iconiclasm – The Destruction of Sacred Images and items – But this isnt new..it happened very much so during the Reformation  – It Happened again during the Nazi Occupation of Europe – It happens NOW in this country,

I feel great pity for this man. Let us hope our Lady of Mercy intercedes quite heavily for him  – For an Assault on our Lord’s mother…is an Assault on Him

If people only would bother to learn history…. The Mother in Jewish Tradition was always the queen of the Court…not the King’s wife – Jesus was after all THE King of the Jews..and all men.

I leave this up to your own further thoughts