Thoughts On God, Saturday Vigil, April 28, 2012

A few days ago I went into the kitchen for water but instead of pouring myself some I picked up an orange on the counter.  I looked at it, it was like most other oranges that have been available at the markets lately, thin-skinned, brightly colored, fragrant, sweet and juicy (no, it was not organic).  I cut it up and ate every single slice and found it to be exceptional, probably because I do not usually eat an orange when I am thirsty and I was thirsty and the fruit was tender and sweet and juicy.

While I was still eating the orange, my desire to have my thirst quenched gave way to thoughts of gratitude, thinking how lucky I was to be able to have this orange, eat it, taste the deliciousness of its juicy bits and to have it satisfy my thirst.  I was momentarily in a state of bliss.

The totality of this experience ought not to be taken for granted for every step of the way was a gift from God.  First was my existence, then my move to the Bay Area with seasonal fruits grown locally in Mexico and unseasonal fruits grown in Chile.  I was also given good health so that I was able to move about, to go from place to place, to come across this orange, to be able to pick it up, to be able to pay for it, to be able to eat it, taste it and enjoy it.  I also thought about the orange, its shape, its color, how it can grow and hang from a green and leafy tree and the miracle of its existence for human consumption.

In our busy lives in this multi-faceted world, we not “stop to smell the roses,” we simply assume that everything we can do and all that we have are what we are entitled to without giving any of it any second thought or being thankful in the least.  I do not think that is right.

Every moment is a moment that is forever gone from our lives and every moment that we are whole is a moment that we are being cared for and loved by a force greater than our own.  Each of these moments is a miracle because without these continuous moment-to-moment miracles, life can be very, very difficult.

I have a compelling urge to digress here.  I write this passage without a scintilla or conceit or condescension and if I have not been successful in doing so, please accept my sincere and humble apology.  The whole time I am writing I am mindful of those less fortunate than me.  I am one person and as much as I would like I cannot level the quantitative scale of equality for those whose world I share.  Perhaps on the qualitative scale of equality, my life is not as sweet as the orange that I ate compared to another person who did not have the occasion to pick up that orange.

I suppose each of us can compare ourselves subjectively to those who appear to be more fortunate or less fortunate than us and become bitter or vain, but I do not think that is what God intends for us to do.  I think God intends us each to see the miracle in every moment and be thankful for that one wonderful moment even in the midst of tribulation.

I always believe that none of us is given a cross that is heavier than what we are able to carry for if the burden turns into more than we can bear, we would perish immediately.

In the end, we all are on a journey, a journey to find our better selves and to perfect our spirit, whether we are in the White House, Bill Gate’s house or the poor house.  One thing is certain, we all eventually end up in the dirt.

I love you all.  God Bless.

Tweets

This evening I was on a roll on Twitter and here are my Tweets:

Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF  

Will any electronic gadget in 2020 be as collectible as 1 of Van Gogh's original artwork, none of which was deemed valuable during his life?

5m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF  

How much more happiness will be gained & how will lives be more enriched with the next generation of smart phones, note pads and tv's?

14m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF 

Isn't chasing after the newest technology a form of insatiable greed under the umbrella of Gluttony?

18m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF 

Every company that supports, sells or otherwise distributes an electronic product must pay a recycling & an earth material replenishment fee

32m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF

Hypocrisy, the interminable termite of righteousness.

38m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF

Tech gadgets become obsolete quickly while they are not as quickly biodegraded but the same ppl who use them are demanding sustainability?

 42m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF  

Something's amiss when ppl spend more on the latest tech gadgets & serv providers than on the food from farmers & fishermen that feed them.

51m Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF  

Is it possible that technology is the main culprit contributing to the ever widening gap between wealth and poverty?

1h Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF  

Al's thought: The best gifts we can give are freedom, support, encouragement, forgiveness and love.

1h Al in SF Al in SF ‏ @Al_in_SF

 Als thot:The most valuable asset we own is our character, the biggest debt we owe is ourselves our truth & the best thing we can do is love.

No Thoughts On God, Sunday, April 22, 2012

None because I visited a friend in San Rafael and actually participated in the living of life, even if my participation in his was somewhat vicarious. This is the friend that I think is one of the best people I have met, an angel amongst us. Perhaps that is why I had not the need to think of God yesterday because I was with one of God's angels on earth. In hindsight, yesterday was a Sunday that God took a vacation away from me as opposed to the Sunday before when I took a vacation away from God.

No Thoughts On God, Sunday, April 15, 2012

I was out and about, occupying my time with activities a normal person might do, like getting a haircut, taking a walk in the Golden Gate Park and grocery shopping. I did not sit in front of my laptop to say a prayer, with hopes that I might be inspired to write something interesting about God.

Sunday, April 15, 2012, is in past. I would not have the chance to go back, to re-live it, to think about God and to pray for an inspiration. Even as I was conscious of the time that was passing, even as I was feeling a degree of guilt that I had not forced myself to meditate on God, I continued to deny God my time, my thoughts, my concentration and as much as I would hate to admit it, my love on that day (most of that day). Yet on that day, like any other day and any moment of any day, He would be there for me to rely on if I needed help. I would perish if God were to shut me out had I called out to God and that all I would see is a wall of darkness. I would be devastated.

This hour, I hope to have made up for my defiance, for in this hour I have acknowledged the weakness in my will, the gap in my love and the need to take a vacation from God when it is God who has given me free will, the capacity to love and the grace to know and experience divinity in all its glory. And I wanted to take a vacation from that which is perfect?

More Thoughts On Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday would have been a regular Sunday without the Resurrection of Christ but it is precisely the Resurrection of Christ that confirms Jesus as the Son of God. The Resurrection is, in my opinion, the last of three events that showed Jesus to exist both in the flesh and bones of man and in the realm of God. [1] The first was Jesus' birth. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary so even when He was a fetus, Jesus was part God and part man, and on the cross where He died, He had let out blood and water when His side was pierced by a sword. [2] Between His birth and His death, Jesus' entire human body was transformed during the Transfiguration. It was a momentary departure from the human form where Jesus assumed a divine appearance on earth before a few of his disciples. Whether the transfigured Jesus had both characteristics of human and God simultaneously is uncertain even though I have included in my count that The Transfiguration is the third time Jesus existed both in the flesh and bones of man and in the divine realm.


[1] I have omitted to include the opening of the heavens after the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and all the miracles (even one as amazing as the raising of Lazarus from his death) as events that showed Jesus was both man and the Son of God because in none of these events was there a direct nexus between the composition of Jesus' physical body and Jesus' divinity.

[2] I could have counted the flow of blood and water from Jesus' pierced side as a separate event with a direct nexus between the body of Christ and His divinity but I did not because I consider this union between man and God to be part of Jesus' body from birth.

Thoughts On God - Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

This is the third day on which Christ arose from the dead, ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.

While on earth, He led a group of twelve. He was their Savior, teacher, leader, peer, friend and brother. Had I been there as an observer, I would likely have noticed that the disciples were not in agreement with Christ at all times and that they retained their individual personalities. Even though they all were chosen by Christ, Thomas, for instance, remained a skeptic and John remained Christ's favorite since it was John to whom Christ entrusted His mother before He died on the cross. Despite the differences the disciples had among themselves, together they stayed until Judas Iscariot, the weakest of them succumbed to the power of Satan and left the group during The Last Supper.

They were a family just like any family bound together by a certain love but this love could be different from the love that shares common strands of DNA. [1] The first thing that came to mind was that it was an ideal love, a kind of love that is not exactly immediate or passionate and one that is easy to claim that he/she has it in him/her. However, on second thought, that cannot be right. The disciples' love for Christ was not a distant and idealized love that was low-maintenance; it was an immediate and passionate love that required constant attention which was simultaneously exhausting, frustrating and unrewarding at times, like loving and caring for a relative who is always right.

Thus, for the love for Christ to be real, it has to be as equally passionate, immediate and high-maintenance as the love for someone who is near and dear. In other words, to truly love Christ is not easy. Christ is not someone with Whom we share the same mind (we have more in common with the Devil in that way) just as we do not think like our parents even though we love them to a certain inexplicable degree.


[1] Because I did not come from a family with adopted children and have never been married or partnered, I do not know whether the love between a parent and an adopted child or between spouses or partners is equally as passionate and difficult as the love between a parent and his/her biological child.

On Good Friday, April 6, 2012

On Good Friday, April 22, 2011, this was my blog:

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.

At St. Dominic’s church, the huge cross was there before me but the two smaller ones were not yet in place even though I did not notice or care about them not being there. Later a pair of acolytes in white vestments carried out one of the smaller crosses followed by another pair carrying out the other. They placed them in their respective stands but took them away after a fitting and centering the main cross between the two.

After saying the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, I reflected on the purpose of the crucifixion of Jesus. From occasional church attendances over the years, I learned that Christ died for our sins, and that the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world, but I have never questioned the validity of the statements. Today, however, I thought how could that be since I am still sinful and I am pretty sure a lot of others are as well, which brings me to this blog entry.

The first thing I did after coming back from church was to open up my Bible, to find out if Jesus said Himself that His death would take away sin. Since I do not read it much, I researched the issue on the Internet. A website directed the reader to Matthew 1:21. [1] In my Bible, that passage reported that an angel told Joseph that Jesus would save His people from their sins. [2] The angel did not say that Jesus had to die on a cross to do so.

The website also referred the reader to Matthew 26:28. [1] This was the scene of The Last Supper where Jesus took a cup and told His disciples to drink from it “for this is my blood of the covenant, which shall be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” [2] These words of Jesus, together with the bloody scourge at the pillar and Jesus’ blood from the thorny crown and the five wounds inflicted upon His body on the cross are all the evidence I need to convince myself that the lessons I have learned are not unsubstantiated extrapolations.

Perhaps it would be well to stop here.

But I will not. What entered my mind while I was kneeling in meditation before the large cross was new to me and certainly unorthodox as it relates to the forgiveness of sins (to put it mildly).

So here goes it: Death of Jesus on the cross was definitely not enough for the forgiveness of my sins unless Jesus’ death is a continuous remission of sins continuously committed.

Is Jesus’ death a continuous remission of sins continuously committed? How can that be true, thinking that one can go on sinning and sinning and Jesus’ blood will keep on cleansing and cleansing the stains of sins to save one’s soul, even though I have faith that it is true?

What if it is not true? Have I deceived myself into NOT believing that experiencing the death of our own sins is necessary for the salvation of the soul and that relying solely on the blood that Christ has shed during His torture and His crucifixion is not enough?

Perhaps it is easier to live with the fiction that the blood of Christ is the detergent for sins than to look at Christ and the forgiveness of sins another way. Perhaps it is time I do.

Was the death of Christ not also the death of temptation, of greed, of pride and of vengeance? Is it possible that Christ was showing us the path to salvation by His refusal to prostrate before Satan and accept Satan’s offer of the world’s riches and by His humility in accepting Judas’ betrayal, His haters, His false accusers, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the taunting and the unjust death sentence? Could therefore the blood that Jesus Himself said He would shed for the forgiveness of sins is not to be taken literally but illustratively?

I think so. Accordingly, we cannot expect automatic salvation but need to shed our weakness for temptations, our greed, our pride, our desires for vengeance and justice just as Jesus had in order that we may save our own souls. [3]


[1] http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/WhatDoesTheBibleSayAboutSalvation.html

[2] The New American Bible. NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. 1990.

[3] Note: Why didn’t God simply write on another tablet the recipe for salvation and hand it to someone? The Ten Commandments have not proven to be effective since neither Jew nor Gentile has paid them much heed. Why did God make Jesus the sacrificial lamb? Perhaps man is only capable of recognizing the road to salvation by seeing the Son of God Himself suffer profoundly and only able to have salvation by living purely as He had and dying humbly as He did.

Thoughts On God - Palm Sunday, April 1, 2012

Palm Sunday.

Man is unable to bestow upon another (or himself) an honor more lasting than the Crown of Thorns man forced upon the Son of God. [1] He wore it in humility while suffering from painful wounds, thirst, hunger and exhaustion and He carried a heavy wooden cross to Golgotha where He would be crucified alive. At His death, He was a man without guilt and without sin.

For believers, Jesus was God's son Who had died to redeem the sinful; for non-believers (those who know about Jesus but do not believe that He is the Son of God), he was a just man who once wore a crown of thorns whose life's story remains a thorn in their lives.

[1] From my "tweet" this morning @al_in_sf