The Bearable Lightness of Being

Employing a crude and wildly cliche Bunyonesque metaphor, I was just talking to hubbie about our Christian burdens. Let's face it, either by our rotten, immature or culturally-driven bad decisions or by being a victim of another's rotten, immature and culturally-driven bad decisions we all carry around burdens. Even when something happens to us like genetic-related health problems that had nothing to do with decisions at all, we carry burdens around.

And the older we become the heavier they get. Why do you think we have a culture of Peter Pan wannabes? Everyone wants the freedom to fly and its hardly possible when you have a couple hundred pounds of troubles on your back. We have all we can carry and with the extreme stresses of today's America, we are all stressed out and looking for someone else we can unload on. And as the Body of Christ we should expect others to help us.

[L]ove one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Rom. 12: 10-15

So, with everyone carrying more than they can possible carry (or at least it feels that way) how can we help others? Who isn't carrying enough and is calling out to us that they are able to carry some of our burdens? Any volunteers?

I want to volunteer but I'm telling you, it gets hard when I see so many and I am so weak. I might be able to handle a half-ounce more. Yeah, that's hardly helpful.

So what to do?

Get rid of your burden. Not all of us can, of course, but most of us can. How does one get rid of troubles and worries and expectations, etc? Well, the only way one can do it is through Christ. Get to confession. Get to mass and receive Christ, take advantage of the sacraments and sacramentals and live life close to Christ. He will carry your burdens for you so that you can then go out to those who have not yet been close enough to Christ to trust Him with their burdens.

As a Protestant, I learned to give my burdens to Christ, but when others needed help I pointed them to Christ. But, you know, often these people's burdens were SO enormous they blocked their vision and they couldn't see that far. They even tried, but it didn't work.

Sometimes we must be Christ to others. Sometimes some people are not close enough to Christ to trust Him and so we must be the go-between. We need to be Christ and pick up those burdens for them and then they will be able to see and more freely come to Him. (See-- the Unbearable Lightness of Being and realize that is really, for mankind, the Unbearable Heaviness of Being! Yes, yes--mixing of epistemological metaphors.)

We can't be Christ if we aren't close to Him ourselves.

If you are a Christian don't give your burdens to those who don't know Him. They are probably too overwhelmed to handle it. Seek to be so close to Christ that you can take other's burdens on yourself. Learn to lift up your troubles in such trusting sacrifice to Him, that you can, more and more, feel that peace and joy and lightness of being!

For Jesus said, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11: 28.

Time for all who are believers to be like Bunyan's Christian and leave our burden's at the foot of the cross and go and serve others. Get close to Jesus so that we can feel His Eternal Lightness of Being... 

Unity Vs. Conscience

Unity Part 2 from Arthur Beem on Vimeo.

"No Faithful Catholic Can Vote For President Obama"

This program is from ChurchMilitant.TV

Jimmy Aiken and Mark Shea

Does anyone get these two mixed up? I suggest that one of them shave their beard or die their hair black. The Catholic Blogosphere is confusing enough! (smile...)

Because I Wish It....

"Daddy, why must I come when you call?"
"Because I wish it."

Okay, before I get to the point I want to take a few meandering trails that all lead back to this, so pardon me as I come to the conclusion from several different directions.

Is Heaven What We Think It Is?
There is the general idea that heaven is an eternal place of getting to do what you want to do. Total, absolute freedom to pursue your own will.

Maybe.

But if it is total freedom then it is still not quite what we as Americans think of as total freedom.

Why Are Christians Here?
As a kid, I wondered why God didn't come right after the Cross. If, after all, it was finished, why keep us in this world of torturous sin and confusion? Why not just start the world over and bring into this new heaven and earth all those who accepted the cross without having to go through the sin? Many Protestants don't get the whole point of life after the Cross. I mean, once we're saved? If we were predestined?

In any case, God KNEW who was going to accept Him? So, then why are we here?

What if we are here on this earth to learn to love heaven? What if heaven doesn't really look that good to eyes clouded by original sin? What if heaven isn't what we think it is? And God is taking those who love Him through a process of changing us internally so that we WILL choose heaven, for those who do not love Him will surely hate heaven and find hell much more to their liking than an eternity with God.


Stages of Christian Development
First we learn to obey our parents, because they say so. We are in a sense, forced to trust them because they are bigger than us and can do what we can't do and we will die without them. This is a vital beginning point to understanding heaven.

The second stages would be that once we begin to reason, we want to know why. This is good. We demand answers that are logical to us. We begin doing certain right things that are personally sacrificial because they are logical. Then, as we mature, we do right things because they are an honorable duty and bring to us a sense of virtue by doing them.

These are good stages, but they are not complete. There is a final stage that we must come to in order to be prepared to enjoy heaven. It requires these stages as a foundation. We get a glimpse of this stage, in some instances, through marriage.

The final stage is when we trust someone so implicitly, we have walked with them and been in the foxhole of life with them, that we do not expect a logical response when asked to do something. We respond to their request with an utter sense of love. It goes beyond nobility and honor, beyond duty and a sense of virtue. We act out of total love.

That is where God is taking us in this life. That is the purpose of the Christian walk here and now-- To walk so closely with God that to obey Him is our greatest desire because our union with Him is love.

Perhaps you have discovered this with your spouse. After thirty years of marriage, your husband looks over at you and asks you to go with him on a weekend away hunting. Even though you hate hunting, and it's cold and it would be the last thing on earth you would choose, you go.

You lean over to your husband and say, "Why do you wish me to come?"

And he smiles and says, "Because I wish it."

There is nothing more that needs to be said. Your years of love have brought both of you to a place where you know your husband would never hurt you or ask you to do something you would despise. Your relationship has gone past blind obedience, or logic or honor or duty.

You know somehow your husband will keep you warm with something he has concocted in his plans. And you go, you obey his wish, just because he wishes it. For that wish is based in love for you and your answer is based in love for him.

Because I Wish It
To say that God wants us to come full circle back to a child's expectation of doing something just because daddy said so, doesn't really express what happens. While some theological discoveries just seem to recycle in our experience, it doesn't mean we go back to where we once were. Wisdom is like a theological spiral reaching up to the heavens, each time you come back to where you were before you are so much higher and can see so much more. Even the simplest of thoughts grow excitingly new and complex as we journey through the Kingdom of God.

God gave us parents to obey, that we would learn obedience to Him. It is the most simple of matters. When you are too small to reason, obedience is simply because your parent tells you to. From our young perspective, we cannot see how it is for our good, only that it is what our parents wish. It is their arbitrary choice for us to obey them. But eventually, God says that same thing to us. We obey Him simply because He wishes it.

That is what Heaven is going to be like. We will not demand answers of God. He will not give us explanations of why. He will ask the questions, like He did with Job. "Where were you when I was creating the fountains of the deep?" God expects total obedience and He expects us to come to a place where we accept what He demands without explanation. In heaven, we will just know, because we know, because we know Him. We know He is good and that is enough.

Heaven is an eternity of loving obedience to God. That is why we are here now and not in heaven. We are to be developing that loving trust. Then, and only then-- when our wills are perfectly aligned with His that His desire is our pleasure, obedience is our joy and peace--will we choose heaven.

Heaven WILL be total freedom, for our choices will be His choices. Unity with Him will be supernatural freedom.

We are learning that type of love now:

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. I John 4: 20

Do you wish an eternity of obedience to God? Does that idea sound marvelous in your heart?

Our hearts naturally reject this, for we thought heaven was an eternity of getting to do what we wanted, not what God wanted. Yikes. All of a sudden, just how much you love God is made clear.

Fear not, this love and trust of God will come if you continue giving your will to God now. Obey Him now and it will become habit. Then, as He floods you with grace and glory, you will suddenly, surprisingly begin obeying from trust. And then love. As you open yourself up in obedience, His love pours into you, breathing life into you, awakening that perfect love that sin marred. It is HIS power, His glory given freely to you. All you must do is make Him Lord of your life and humbly obey.

I'm not saying it's easy. Your part stings at times and even feels like an act of sheer will. But keep praying and staying close to Him and His love IN YOU will come through that journey of faith with God.

God bless you all.

Why Many Catholics are... Rotten Catholics

This has bugged me, really bugged me since I began studying Catholic theology--way before considering becoming Catholic. .... Most Catholics are not religious or even moral people. At least my experience with them made me think this growing up.

As I was studying Catholic doctrine, and found it to be the most surprisingly astounding stuff I had ever encountered, it still dug at my soul. Why are Catholics, who have the Eucharist and have all this fabulous doctrine.... so.... against all I believe to be good and right? Why are Catholic girls the sluttiest? Why are they the ones getting divorced and remarried and feminists and pro-choice? Why do nuns today look like radical lesbians? Why do they promote Communism and Marxism?

Even though I had a limited experience with Catholics, the ones I did meet were scary! And not very nice.... and used the Lord's name in vain and cussed like a sailor and drank like a fish, etc... etc... etc.

RCIA did little to change my opinion, and my husband and I walked into Catholicism with love for the doctrines and our radar up against these reprobate Catholics.

So, through the years I pondered and prayed upon the subject. While I think I might have an answer to explain some of these people; the heretical priests and nuns--I'm still baffled.

My Answer:

I think the conclusion I am coming to is that Catholicism isn't something you add to your life, like a hobby or being a fan of a sports team. Catholicism fails utterly when it doesn't become who you are. It is a totalitarian belief system that takes control of everything or it is ineffective.

While Protestantism can succeed with a partial dedication to it, Catholicism collapses. Protestantism is malleable and personal, you can kinda make it up as it goes and decide for yourself; true Catholicism is a take it or leave it covenant. You are not being employed by God and if you don't like the working conditions--you can quit or just be lazy. Being Catholic means you are adopted as a child and can never renounce it. Well, technically, you can, but it is that type of commitment--there is no divorce between God and His Bride and those who wish to be His Bride are full time wives, not part-time help.

Kinda like being overweight. If you wish to be successful and lose weight, you can't have just a one morning a week health plan. Dieting once a week and eating what you want the other six days will get you no where. Your lifestyle has to change completely, every day.

Kinda like working up to running a marathon. You can't expect to make it and be a success if you only practice running once a week.

Catholicism is like that. Catholics who don't make it their life, who they are, live it moment by moment and have it permeate every thought and action--will eventually fail. Catholicism is not something added to you, it is who you are totally.

We can't be Christians one day a week, we have to let Christ be our dictator. We are to be utterly obedient to Him in every single aspect of our lives. We have to be "all out" for the Lord--reading scripture, daily prayer and communion with Him, researching our faith and living it in our actions. Those who have the mindset that it is a hobby, or something you advocate or cheer on like a favorite sports team-- will fail. They will never be the players but only the fans onlooking and shouting from the stands.

Christ demands that we die daily and live with Him, in Him. This is total devotion and obedience. Most Catholics don't make Catholicism their lives, even when they claim to be Catholic. They wear the team jersey, but don't play for the team.