I have been given a range of tools to survive. To varying degrees, I excel in using some of them but just as certain, I am deficient in my ability to use others. Evil capitalizes on these deficiencies, amplifies them then uses them against me every chance it gets. As soon as I am caught up in these deficiencies, I am driven to obsession, itself a deficiency. Then I become overwhelmed by a rapid succession of ever increasing crescendos of mental agony, resulting in actions that are exaggerated, unnecessary and later regrettable.
It is critical that I need to recognize my deficiencies immediately every time they start to destroy my inner peace, preventing me from doing good work and disposing me to injury to myself and others. I must STOP what I am doing or thinking immediately and PRAY. Praying to God will arrest the progression of evil and, within moments, end the agony and allow me to be in peace. Will alone is not enough for it had already been captured by evil in its weakened state and immobilized.
Since evil acts without warning but with absolute accuracy every time, preventing it from ever destroying good is not possible because I cannot be continuously vigilant in the same way I cannot be continuously praying. If one could, one would be an even more challenging, tempting and desirable target for evil to destruct and own. I know that God will save me from evil by prayer for every prayer and every moment spent praying strengthens God against evil.
I wrote the previous three paragraphs last night and edited them just now after getting back from Easter Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. These thought were echoed by Monsignor John Talesfore's sermon today. He said that God is most effective when we are at our weakest and have the humility to accept our weaknesses.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
On the fast track to sainthood – will JP II get there?
No sooner than a moment since I have posted my Good Friday blog, telling of my prayer earlier in the day asking for forgiveness of sins and a cleansing to begin a new year which ended with the crucifixion of Christ, I am compelled to commit a sin, despite my compunction.
Good Friday had passed and it is now Easter Sunday. My obsession with my judgment or perhaps more appropriately, misjudgment or prejudgment was compelling me to write about my unhappiness with fast-tracking John Paul II to sainthood. I have never found him to be particularly pastoral or holy in life, so how could I agree that he be elevated to sainthood after his death? How possibly could he be on par with Francis of Assisi and be in “communion” with him?
Regardless of the supposed miracles he was responsible for, the one that mattered to me was his utter failure to convince George Bush Jr. not to invade Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He could have gone to Iraq and stood with the Iraqi Christians to underscore his point but he did not, not that such an action would have prevented Bush Jr. from invading Iraq but would likely have caused him to delay executing his order lest he found it appropriate to injure or kill a Pope via collateral damage. In the time since the invasion were death, continual suffering and exodus of Iraqi Christians.
And if JP2 were so saintly, why did God not permit him to have his voice in the last days of his papacy? He wanted to but could not speak to the crowds gathered in front of St. Peter's square. He was silenced even though he was supposedly the mouthpiece of God. Having his voice back suddenly when he popped his head out the window to address the crowds would have been a miracle but that did not happen.
Perhaps the biggest miracle was the fact that he survived a gunshot wound but so did many, many others around the world for generations who survived gunshot wounds. Are any of them saints?
Finally, if he were to be elevated to sainthood, would he be the patron saint of acting because he was an actor? Or, would he be the patron saint of pedophiles as one writer suggested in his comment on the internet?
Good Friday had passed and it is now Easter Sunday. My obsession with my judgment or perhaps more appropriately, misjudgment or prejudgment was compelling me to write about my unhappiness with fast-tracking John Paul II to sainthood. I have never found him to be particularly pastoral or holy in life, so how could I agree that he be elevated to sainthood after his death? How possibly could he be on par with Francis of Assisi and be in “communion” with him?
Regardless of the supposed miracles he was responsible for, the one that mattered to me was his utter failure to convince George Bush Jr. not to invade Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He could have gone to Iraq and stood with the Iraqi Christians to underscore his point but he did not, not that such an action would have prevented Bush Jr. from invading Iraq but would likely have caused him to delay executing his order lest he found it appropriate to injure or kill a Pope via collateral damage. In the time since the invasion were death, continual suffering and exodus of Iraqi Christians.
And if JP2 were so saintly, why did God not permit him to have his voice in the last days of his papacy? He wanted to but could not speak to the crowds gathered in front of St. Peter's square. He was silenced even though he was supposedly the mouthpiece of God. Having his voice back suddenly when he popped his head out the window to address the crowds would have been a miracle but that did not happen.
Perhaps the biggest miracle was the fact that he survived a gunshot wound but so did many, many others around the world for generations who survived gunshot wounds. Are any of them saints?
Finally, if he were to be elevated to sainthood, would he be the patron saint of acting because he was an actor? Or, would he be the patron saint of pedophiles as one writer suggested in his comment on the internet?
Friday, April 22, 2011
Good Friday, April 22, 2011
Kneeling at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco before a huge cross flanked by two smaller ones on either side, praying: Cleanse my sins. Starting today, may my years begin and end with Good Friday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
