No Sin, Only Sinners Denying Sin

It seems apparent to me.

Modern day people look at the Christian message and reject it for two reasons:

1) Their modern logic tells them that such a story, is just that, a story.

    Response: On the surface, it may seem that way, but when truly digging in the details, there is A LOT where logic can be used to substantiate Christianity.

 

  There was a book called ''Who moved the stone.'' It was two skeptics looking to disprove Christianity. One converted based on what he found. Link to Book

2) The second is sin.  People all over the place are denying sin, or if they are Christian, take part in a church that says: All of your sins are forgiven when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior! (Born Again-Calvinist-Baptist-Evangelicals)

 

   Modern people equate 'nice' as not evil, or as good.  I am nice to 90% of the people I know, therefore, I am good.

   It won't be rare to find me writing 'evil' like this: 'evil'

Because people do not like this term categorically, and so by putting the ' ' around it.  I am acknowledging that the word has a personal interpretation, but I by no means am trying to sugar coat it, I mean to use the word evil.

 

   In Morality, there is Good and Evil. Evil is usually interpreted as of the devil, mean spirited, an evil person as the devil themself, or to mean that if they are evil the they are DAMNED, going to Hell.

   But it is not the case, evil simply means against Good, and not a personal good, but the Great Good.  It would be 'nicer' to say, harmony.  Sin is against what is harmonious.

   In this very blog, I try to illustrate this in the post about 'Untamed Sexuality.'

  Modern day people are so offended by the word evil, they categorically deny the term, and then deny sin all together, or almost all together.  If not all together, then they only recognize those really, really 'evil' things people do like serial killers, or cruel world leaders.

   It shocks me that people want to deny sin, i.e. evil

   The hard truth, I think,  is that majority of people are not only sinners (as we all are sinners) but the majority do not want to hear about their lifestyles as being profoundly sinful.  And they then have a very simple solution for this, they take away the voices that say they are living in sin. 

  In other words, it is not a denial on evidential circumstances, it is a denial based on self-preservation and self interests.

  Also known as PRIDE, the deadliest of all sins

  Our culture is one of pleasure and release.  This release is typically either by violence or through an imprisonment of sexual channels

  Basically, we as a culture do not like sin, because we are sour pusses / immature in our nature / confused on what is a true good. Or as the pope says, maybe we are just idiots.

 WHAT modernity loses in Christianity is the answer to sin.  Not an answer by denying it, or a self-interested redefining of what sin is or is not, the Christian answer to sin is one of mercy.

  Mercy is what is not appreciated.  It is not appreciated that we are capable to recognize ourselves as sinners, but we have a calling to pursue the mercy offered to us despite our sinfulness.

  This is great, and this is harmonious! One can thrive in knowing that even with the pain of sin, we still have the advantage of recapturing/reconciling oneself despite sin. 

  When talking to modern people, they don't want to hear the words ''evil'' or 'sin.'' So instead. one can say disharmony, harmful, unhealthy, unwholesome,'troublesome'

  You have to soften the language as if to a child !!!!!!

   I wonder if it helps modern westerners to think of sin in a new way, sin as against liberty and justice. What is sin if it is not invading one's freedom? Freedom of living. Is a robber not a sinner? Is a rapist or a murder not sinful?  These people take away one's freedom, you see. Taking away the freedom of walking down the street safely, freedom of preserving their body,  freedom of meeting their own life end.   What is Justice if there is not sin? On what account can one claim injustice without sin?  I put it to them who deny sin, that this has to be sincerely re-evaluated!

Why did Lucifer Fall?

 The devil did not want to serve, He was envy of our creation.  The Devil is not trying to conquer God ( as that would be stupid) but conquer US!

Wisdom 2:24

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

²⁴ but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his party experience it.

Jeremiah 2:20

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²⁰ “For long ago ^[a]I broke your yoke
And tore off your bonds;
But you said, ‘I will not serve!’
For on every high hill
And under every green tree
You have lain down as a harlot.

Isaiah 14:12-14

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹² “How you have fallen from heaven,
O ^[a]star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
¹³ “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
¹⁴ ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

Seek and You Shall Find

  This is a pretty full disclosure.  I am first a child of God, and then a follower of God's begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

   Have I always been this?

   I have never struggled with the question, ''Is there a God.''

   To me it was evident, where else do we come from? What else explains a sudden creation of man, let alone the Earth and the Universe.

   Why aren't there more talking species in the world? How can it be that we even talk and build art and architecture?

   If all are natural, why aren't we thinking as the animals think, and living as the animals live? Why aren't we always hunting for food, resting after hunting, and all other primal behaviors of the animal kingdom?

  As I said, all was easy to see for me.

  I grew up in a Christian home, a Catholic home. I went to mass, went to Catholic school, and served as an altar boy.

  In my high school days, I was more influenced by American and Southern things than God things. Although, I was still a practicing Catholic, I would read more about America and history than my Bible or about my faith.

  I even had a remarkable occurrence in a dream, or rather, not in a dream, but while I was sleeping.

  Sleeping in the waiting room in a Vet hospital which happened to be adjacent to my sick grandfather's room, I heard a clear voice speak to me.

  And unfortunately, I recently forgot the exact wording. Was it, ''Matthew, He's gone,'' or was it ''Matthew, He's dead.''

  I think it likely to be ''gone.''

  This of course was amazing to hear, and it instantly woke me up, and I walked in the next room unconscious to the time or anything of what was around as I was still wiping away the sleep.

  As I entered, I saw my mother looking over my grandfather, I heard a funny sound repeat itself in the oxygen tube.

 When my mom looked towards me, I said, ''He's dead, isn't he?''

 She said, ''Yes,'' And confirmed to me that I walked in only seconds after he passed on.

  This was real to me, and I was very spiritual for a while.  I was intensely aware of my spirituality for at least a year, and even quit the wrestling team as those boyhood ambitions to be a champion and seek glory seemed trivial.

  It took a year or so before I was back to being completely distracted by sports, girls, parties, and teenage dreams.

  Off to college, and I was still partially faithful to my Catholicism, but more out of love of my Louisiana culture than out of the love of God.

  I didn't live like a believer, and you can really say I was agnostic, maybe a prayerful agnostic as I was somewhat practicing but it was not for any foundational belief in anything other than, ''Well I am not sure, but I believe in God, so might as well pray and keep my culture as that is the best I have anyway.''

  And agnostic to Jesus Christ more than God, or a god, a creator.

  And this agnosticism allowed me to live unsure and therefore inconsistent to any value I would say I had.

  Later in my college days, I was attracted to my spirituality again, I sort of convinced myself that I had a natural spiritual gift. I sort of impressed upon myself a notion that when I drowned as an infant, I was brought back to life and this happening gave me stronger feelings to the spiritual world, a stronger connection. I attributed the voice in my sleep and other mediation experiences I had to this.  That one of my talents is that I just might have a connection with the spirit world from my 'death' as an infant.

  Of course, I have no memory of drowning, but my parents tell me that I was basically dead and then came to.

  After a nice retreat with an uncle and my grandfather, I considered living this out, and becoming a priest.  It came from my uncle, he said, and I never knew what made him say it, but he said to me, ''Why don't you become a priest.''

  I was in college and although the thought was contemplated before in my life, it was never seriously contemplated until my uncle said those words.  It suddenly really struck me as a very interesting proposal.

  I told myself, I have this spirituality, maybe I am suppose to use it in that way.

  So I spoke to a priest actually, and I told him that I didn't want to be a priest, I wanted a family, but felt that I could be called to become a priest. He said that everything I was saying was a good sign that I was being called, because it usually is not in our will.

  But then, I was left only to experience something oppressive after that conversation.  I suddenly had a crux of faith, and I went back and told the priest that I didn't want to be a priest, the good Lord willing, maybe I would be a deacon.

  This oppressive feeling was one of emptiness and confusion, and felt that I was not even certain about the Catholic faith anymore.  I felt a bit ridiculous to feel this was for me and moments later be stricken with all kinds of doubt and confusion.

  It was not only confusion, however, it was also rationale, I was not going to sign my life away to something I wasn't sure I knew and understood.  And the pope was a huge sticking point for me, why the pope? And why would I join the pope?

  This left a lot off the table, and I continued my life as a regular student in college, and spiritually was in an insecure place, but still at peace with where things were.  I was happy to say as Socrates, ''I know nothing.''

  I would leave for Ireland, and I had a few religious talks in my first few months, however,  I really wasn't comfortable talking about my faith as I was unsure what to say in a world I heard more voices against what I was than voices that substantiated what I was.

  Then I met this lovely Danish girl on her own spiritual journey.  We would talk about things, and I was in my ''I know nothing'' stage, but she showed me how wonderful it was to be on a spiritual journey.

  She was also very intriguing as no one in her environment influenced her, she found this road on her own.

  She grew up with Lutheran sensibilities as a Dane, but was very persuaded by the Catholic Faith, and she taught me about a few saints and really opened my eyes to a beautiful spiritual journey.

  Even more, she would ask questions, and she inspired me to do what I really never actually did. Despite attending fine Catholic schools in my young life, I never really examined all the why's of my Catholic Faith.  Those questions weren't in my peripheral, only was there a God, and was Jesus him?  I suppose it was because I already saw myself as a Christian by name, and I had no reason to think what is all this stuff in Catholicism really about to its core. It was the way I learned to be a Christian, and that was that.

  I would marry this girl in a Lutheran Church.  I was not one bit concerned with marrying her in any certain Church.  I had developed my own rationales, that marriage existed before Jesus so any marriage is the same with the intent on it being with God.

  I had no inclination in me that a marriage in a Christian Church was not Godly.  It was the promise of the two people to God themselves which made it Godly.

  This is where I was, I was an American, everything could be answered this way.  I was a Catholic, but I was not a papist. I was a Matthew, and my Catholicism was that of my conscious not of the law or of the pope and Church teachings to the inscription.

  I also allowed my son to be baptized in a Lutheran Church, but this was more so because I knew the Catholic Church recognized all Christian baptisms and being in Denmark as we were this was convenient, and I also made an agreement to allow my wife's brother be the first sponsor which he could not do in a Catholic Church, and my brother as another, but I am still not sure what position this is in Lutheranism, but seemed fair enough so my own twin could claim the title of 'parain' in some way.

  But I was still on a quest which my wife help inspire, although after these early years, our spiritual lives took us on different courses. I was actually intrigued by Lutheranism as I still hadn't answered the question for myself why they pope? I also understood the arguments which would question any need to pray to the saints or Mary.

  So the essentials of Lutheranism actually made sense to me for a while, and I examined them.

  My examinations ever so slowly, however, led me back to the Catholic faith.

  The story of Fatima really got my energies going in understanding that in Catholicism the Word of God is alive.  Catholicism is a living tradition and is not one where we are only to look in a book centuries old.

  With Protestantism, of course people have experiences of God in their own lives, but the foundation of the religion is back in time.  Prophets and miracles are what are read of in the Bible.  A greater sense of God's mystic body is lost in the textual based faith.  Catholicism moves with the world, as God is not stagnant but also involved.  For many Protestants, if something happens that is not in the Book, it is rejected.  The Catholic Church is very open to God's mysticism at work even today, and there are some wonderful stories which seem to reflect this view as a true one.

  And this lead to much more, and then I discovered the vast and amazing resources to me in understanding the existence of God and the existence and Truth which lies in Jesus Christ on the world wide web, specifically youtube.

  This blog is all from these moments where I began to get answers I didn't realize they were there all along, and my twin told me to stop sending emails, and start a blog where people could go to if they wanted.

  I still send emails :), but they are shorter because I have links to share with what it is I have to say ;)

  I should like to speak more to Luther, LINK
 

People of God

  All are people of God, whether they know it or not, because all people are from God, and we are His.

  Lumen Gentium is the Vatican II document which reinforces this idea, that all are God's people, not just believers.

  With this, I want to focus on my Protestant friends. They must be on the verge of cursing my existence by now with all the links I send their way and seemingly to attack them as people.  That is what I can imagine lying in their hearts, a cringe when they see my name attached to something.

  I don't blame them, I actually would like a response every once in a while, but of course, disregard is the greatest insult. So I suppose they can claim that for themselves.

  And for the record, a couple have replied.

  There are several reasons this is the case. One lies in convenience, one lies in distaste, and one reason lies in a loss of the sense of what is Good and True.

  Sharing one's heart is the greatest thing to do, there is very little anything else anyone should want of another than the sharing of their heart.
  But when a sharing of the heart is ingested as a sharing of one's mind, people object more substantially.

  It is not in my interest to make people uneasy.  It is not my interest to make people think ill of my intentions.  I have no greater value mentally then they do, I just am in the instrument of sharing knowledge. Sharing truth.  Do we know what truth is today?

  It may seem as though I am living in the Reformation Age to them.  It may seem this way certainly, but I am not I would like to assure them.  I believe the Holy Spirit works in each human being, and only in sharing am I opening them to my soul. It is a great honesty I write to them and I share things with them.

  I am not out to show them what is wrong with them as people, I love them as people, and I love them as Christians.  It is this love which I want them to understand what the Word is.  That is in loving their ideals, I want to share with them more completely what their ideals stand for.

  I would love to engage the atheist just the same, but they are a different breed of man. The Protestant is believing, so in theory, they should believe in what Jesus said and did.

 1500 years went by before foundational elements of the Faith were changed. Of course, there were always people practicing the Faith contrary to the Faith, but the Reformation was one where the crisis of Faith grew far and wide.

  How does one explain 1500 years of remarkable accomplishments towards congruency and just accept that it needed to be changed when speaking of what we speak of, God became man and revealed himself to us.

  Of course, there was the East-West schism, but foundationally the teachings are the same, differences would come later.

  And I think it would be greatly proper to disclose several things to my Protestant brothers and sisters about myself, about my spiritual journey.

  
LINK: My Spiritual Journey

 

 

The Disharmony of Untamed Sex

  This is a post that is long overdue, but it is not a popular subject, and it will be shared with people it may hurt.

  I am fully conscience of the idea if I point one finger, four point to me, and I can handle that in my environment of repentance.

  But I am not on the stand today.  I am not the one claiming the right to anything.  I am on the side of glorifying God, I am on the side of submitting my will to His.

  It is not my desire to say what is wrong or right, it is the desire of God that I choose what is right over what is wrong. 

 It is not I who says this is the way the world is, this is the way nature says and thus the creator of the nature says it is as should be.


You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." - 1 John 4:4-6

 Too many people mix Divine Truth with opinion and preferences.

 I prefer that the world never experienced the loss of a child, the loss of a mother, or war in any capacity. But it does. I can either wish it was different, or try to understand why it is why it is this way.  And we do this by searching for higher meaning, and when we find it in God, then by listening to God, and God alone.

 I am not trying to manipulate anyone or anything, I am only trying to be a lover of Truth, no matter where Truth leads me.

 There are several cases for God, and just as well for Jesus Christ.

  I will not deliver the arguments fully here, as there is something else to deal with for the time being, but here are some rather solid cases where no one has ever been able to disprove.

 GOD's Existence:  Nothing comes from Nothing. Every creation requires a creator, art an artist. and the precision of the universe is so precise for life that the smallest fraction changes the ability of life to persist.

JESUS's Existence: Didn't come out of the blue, He was announced several times and once again by John the Baptist. Despite attempts of a few, he existed and has a better track record of existence than most figures of His day. Nothing has ever been disproven of what is attributed to Him (the case of He being in err regarding the second coming has been shown by recent study not to be the case: here) The Gospels are written as biography not legend or myth. Only explanation of the growth of Christianity is that His followers truly believed in what they saw as other Messiah movements just died out after the leader died. After His time, His Christians defeated the Roman Empire (the conqueror the Jews expected) and the Shroud of Turin recently shown to be for all intents and purposes real, and the story of Fatima is too probable than it is too hard to conceive as proof of the miracle professed before 70,000 gathered to see the miracle come true.

   So this is the case for the Divine Revelation through the Judo-Christian tradition, and one should reflect and ask themselves, should I reject this, or genuflect and give myself to God on High.

  If one accepts Divine Revelation, than anything against God is evil, or a sin.

  It is a topic of light versus darkness, we see not by light but from light.  That is, our eye mechanisms are what we use to see, it is not light. But still, it is light which allows our eye mechanisms to work. So it is, indeed, light which supplies our ability to see, but it is not 'by' light we see, but from it.

  We are ourselves, we can eat and sleep, that is, we can exist in mechanics without God (the Light).  But from the Light of God, we see His will and His way.

  This is Jesus's message,  "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

  So one can live in darkness, but without light, without life. That is, True Light, True Life.

  Such is the case with sin, when we live in sin, we can live, but in the darkness we will miss the True light and the True life.

  When one lives this way, no matter how fun it may be to play in the dark, they will fail to walk straight and will feel more pain in the dark than when seeing clearly in the light.

  Everything in the dark, can hurt us, and when we live a life of pain, we miss True life in True happiness (what every psychiatrist and philosopher agree is man's greatest desire).

 Today, I will discuss the darkness of sexuality. That is, the sexuality which prevents us from True life and True happiness.

  The world is full of lies, lies live in and love the darkness.  It is not by choice the Church has its teachings against sexuality outside of marriage.  Marriage corrals sexuality, marriage caresses sexuality, marriage tames sexuality.

 Sexuality outside of marriage is untamed, and thus very harmful.  The world would be a much happier place if so many hearts were not broken as they are in the modern West.  We all are striving to find the love of our lives, and most of us feel pain in getting there.

  I truly believe in the devastation of the heartbreak, it has led to a culture of isolation and hurtful relationships in trusting and loving one another as we are supposed to do as Christians.

 We deny ourselves the true love when we live by such lustful ideas of love. It is all lies. 

  Not only will I show how these ideas are harmful, full of disease as we have faced and seen since the 60s, but how it is a lie which tells us that we have a ''right to love who I wish.''  How this culture we live in which allows for the marriage of same-sex couples, wants to tear down the ideas of gender and wishes to reverse all that is Good about retracting these claims, are all based on lies and deceits.

 It is a bit natural to start with the cheater, the adulterer, afterall the sin of adultery is commonly identified with the cheater.  It may even be readily forgotten that adultery refers to any sin of lust, i.e. any lie of lust.

  I am trying to really put it to the reader, that it is not just a sin, it is a lie, as all sins are lies! All sins tell one it okay, it is justified, it is true, when in fact it is harmful, against the truest nature.

  This is where relativism lives, it is true for me, so it is therefore true. 

  Where has it ever been said that one may decide for themselves what is sin?

   The lie of the cheater, and the lie of the homosexual is the same.  They both lay a false claim in the reality of a 1-1 relationship. 

  The cheater lies that he respects this 1-1 relationship, the homosexual believes that this 1-1 exist for any 1 and 1. 
  
  They do not, and let us examine a little exercise to show why.

  As a culture, we are starting to criticize those who criticize the act of homosexuality, but the criticism of the cheater is, more or less, well and alive.

  If we have one woman, and she is married to a man, and this man is having an adult, mutual relationship with another, society will still by in large crucify the man for doing so.

  But why the cheater and not the homosexual?

  Because he was involved with someone else they say, because he was married.  he chose to be married and so he chose to break his marriage, his fault.

  What if he decides that he is an adult and has a right to love anyone he wishes? So he not only loves another, he marries another.  He solved the issue of cheating, now he is married to both women, therefore, not a cheater, but a polygamist.

  Is is it wrong for anyone to say he can not marry anyone he wishes? I mean he loves her! Don't you understand this! Can't you understand he is a man, he can not help himself, he was born this way, he loves having female partners, and he has two in his life.  Who is to say he is wrong?

 To take down his argument, you have to argue for the 1-1 relationship and why it is important to the world.  Otherwise, you have no claim to say the man can not marry his mistress while still married to the first wife, the argument for 1-1 relations must be made.

 It is hard to do so when you use the homosexual rationality, that one has a right to an adult mutual relationship, because the polygamists does have this and does claim this, it just so happens to claim multiple mutual relations.   

 The argument crumbles, you can not tell the man who he loves, and that his way is not the right way, but my way is right.

 This is the only way to do it! You have to use the same exact positive arguments for polygamy as for homosexuality, you can not escape it.  

 So in this scenario, the homosexual and this certain 1-1 relationship crumbles, as any claim made by the homosexual must be differentiated from the polygamist, and it is not.

 Am I thus saying, marriage and the 1-1 relationship are defeated as claims of truth?

 No, I am saying there is more to it than what is being said, I am saying what is being said are all lies, and in ways hypocritical.  As the homosexual use the argument, ''One can not tell me who I love, and one can not deny me the right to marry who I love.'' it would then be just as good an argument for the polygamist.

 Divorce, by the way, is also in this discussion, as one then decides who they are no longer married to as easy as they decide who they are married to.

 Which leads to a society of claims on sexuality which allows for people to have as many partners as they want and for as long as they want them.  

 Can you imagine this being a healthy society?  Marriage essentially de-valued, and people living off the ideas of romantic love for relationships?

This society will fall apart, and heartbreak will abound!

 And much of these claims on the 'Right' to their own sexual preferences are squandered when the negation of sexuality also exist.

  See, any innate 'right' anyone has to claim, has to be a right which can not be taken away by their own decisions.

  That is the right to life (one did not choose to be alive)

  The right to liberty (one can not choose not have a will, a free will)

  And all things which protect the innate rights of one are also Human Rights, that is to say, private property as there is no freedom of will without it, as one needs to possess the land to act out their will on the land, otherwise their free will is restrained.

 Freedom of speech and freedom of religion also protect these rights to of the will.

 But sexuality, is not in this conversation. Sexuality is an ethic, shown by as one can self chose not to be sexual! A monk, anyone taking an oath of chastity choose to be non-sexual, therefore, sexuality alone is not a Human right!

  Okay, so where is sexuality a Good? a Light of Greater Good?

  In the life it gives. Sexuality's right is tied to the right of life, not the right of pleasure.

  It is not only a personal right, but a necessary right as it promotes society as only in procreation will humanity go on.

 So not only does it create the the right of life, but it creates a Greater Good for society at large.

 Untamed sexuality is not Good, it serves no one more than the immediate participants, and their action creates the potential of a harmful separation and disunity when terminated, and not to mention disease to others when repeated.

 Tamed sexuality requires chastity (sexual restraint) which abolishes the impulses which are the harms of untamed sexuality. 

  Harmful sexuality is not just one of heartbreak and disease, it is also a type of human slavery, as one has a hard time learning to respond to the impulses of sexuality, and thus gives in to it, which opens the world to sexual abuses and rapes.  Dreadful things. The importance of a society which promotes a healthy and tamed sexuality, thus, goes without saying.

 Adultery, the cheating, is against the harmony of sexuality, so is homosexuality, and polygamy.  

 Harmonious sexuality is only possible when restricted to a man and woman in marriage.

 Solves issues of disease.

 Solves heartbreak of separation after the engagement, whether fragile partner, girlfriend, or through divorce.

 Alleviates jealousy and sexual inhibitions which exist in multiple partners such as in the case of polygamy.

  Provides a natural result for one's love and sexuality, by celebrating the life which is created, and is not engaged in sexuality for the sake of sexuality as in the case of homosexuals.

 Sexuality for the sake of sexuality is no good, as it distorts sexuality as sexuality becomes a need without any end and it opens up to the ability to change partners, and the ability to change partners is a catalyst for greater evils.

  Once we establish these arguments, let us take all arguments and outline them:

1) No one has the right to claim sexuality as a right since one self can deny their own sexuality.  

2) No one can deny one's sexual and marital preferences if one believes adults have the right to choose their own relationships.  Can't have it both ways, give me mine, you can't have yours (Same-sex versus polygamy)

3) Sexuality untamed is harmful to the mental and physical health of members in society.

4) The Good of sexuality, is one of procreation and family, all disasters of sexuality are avoided when tamed.


  Sin is all about disharmony.  Untamed sexuality is very disharmonious.

  The Good and Beauty of sexuality is exacerbated in the man and woman who share a life mission and commitment together, a marriage.  Which protects them from any jealousy and any shame.  A husband simply does not mislead a wife to bed just to leave her in the morning, when married, he comes back ''home.''  

 The Catholic sacrament of marriage is all about bringing the two genders, the two sides of humanity and making them one. It is harmonious, it is poetry:

  It is poetry, it is the union of humanity, as humanity has two crucial elements (namely man and woman), and there is nothing more to the fundamental interest of all people than procreation, having more people. And plus, come on! Children just make the world that much bearable with all the joy they have. And what an instrument we have to grow and prosper than a wonderful union which unites humanity for the purpose of improving humanity. Making two different elements of humanity ONE, one flesh, into one creation , a baby. POETRY. 

  This is so special, and should be special to all. That we have a common experience, and we all were born of this union of man and woman, and we all have a special reality in which we can all partake in it to truly give the world the greatest gift, a new creation, of our own blood and love. Nothing more could be more special. Nothing more powerful for one human to have a hand in, and the fact that we are allowed to bring the two different elements of humanity to do this together, is what has always been loved by lovers of beauty!

  Let us not overlook as well, studies show the disharmony which breaking a household has to the kids. A healthy society can only be one which protects the kids, unprotected kids lead to distasteful adults.
  Marriage is meant to be forever as it is disharmonious when there are children, and opens all diseases of an untamed sexuality when broken.

  I hope one not only sees the Truths and Beauty in life lived out as the Bible says, but that sin is seen in a different light, that the word evil has a different connotation. Not one of the devil, but one of harm and disharmony.

 
Chances are, majority of people still reject these premises and theology of the body, but ask yourself:

  Has the heartbreak or pain of one relationship affect or change the next relationship?
  
  The mental weight is just as real as the physical weight, as biologists stand united in saying, that we carry all our sexual experiences to the next partner biologically. Lovely thought! Not the way it is suppose to be!


  
 

   
 

 





 

Why Suffering

   Jesus did not die on the cross, and Jesus did not suffer, so we wouldn't suffer. He suffered and died so our suffering and death would be salvific in Him.

  This post will feature some videos and make a reference to Jesus on the cross, saying, ''My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?''

  Both suffering and this line are misconceived.

  One could say, how is Jesus 'god' when He says this? Why would the One True God say such things to seemingly another? Or to Himself?

  One can also understand it as simply, Jesus never claimed to be God, or Allah, and this is proof as say the naysayers, and namely the Moslems.

  One who denies a God who is active in the world, a Living God, would say, why is there suffering to begin with. Why would anyone feel forsaken by a Living God of love if He existed, much less one who claims to be him. Why does anyone suffer?

  All legitimate propositions, but only when not seen in the right light.

  The quote of Jesus is actually found in Psalm 22.  One can say Jesus is praying. But there is more! And there is also a video: 

    So why would Jesus recite this prayer and in that way?
 First, it is how the Jews of His day referred to a passage in scripture, by the first verse.  At the time, the BOOK CHAPTER: VERSE method was not used, it did not yet exist.  So the Jews of the day would go to the scribes and ask to read them by the first verse, it was a way to identify the passage without numerical chapters and verses assigned.

  Kind of like quoting a book today, we wouldn't necessarily say the first line of a chapter, but we wouldn't use verse numbers either.  The system was different in those times.

  Second, and more pointedly, it is a Messianic prayer:

''They pierced my hands and my feet... They divide my garments among them,
And for my clothing they cast lots.''

  Interesting to say that the hands and feet were pierced when this passage is older than crucifixion itself! 

 http://carm.org/questions/about-jesus/why-did-jesus-cry-out-my-god-my-god-why-have-you-forsaken-me

  So, now you know Jesus was not claiming to be forsaken by God or the Father, so then what does this line in the passage mean? Is it even one of despair?

  Benedict explains why it is not one of despair.


   Okay! So that would be the explanations why Jesus was not actually forsaken.  

   Then, if one knows his or her Bible, one can try to circumvent this revelation by pointing out that Jesus suffered in Gethsemane (''Agony in the Garden'').

  This too shall be answered, as we are discussing both suffering and Jesus's suffering and how to make sense of our own suffering and that of a God.  Jesus is typically understood be feeling a sense of loss at the knowing of the Passion to come and of the loss during His Passion.

  When does Jesus go to the garden?  The Bible is clear, after the third cup and before the fourth.  What is this third and fourth cup? Jewish tradition at passover, and each cup represents something:

   Brant Pitre from the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans explains all: 
http://www.brantpitre.com/documents/printable_outlines/fourth_cup.pdf 

 Once again, Ladies and Gentlemen, He is praying, and again fulfilling the prayer actively !!

FOURTH CUP

What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?

I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD

... Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his holy ones.

O LORD, I am your servant I am your servant the son of your handmaid

. You have loosed my bonds; I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving

, and call on the name of the LORD. (Psalm 116:12,13, 15-17)

Out of my distress I called to the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free...

I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation

.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.

This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:5, 17-22)

 Jesus truly suffering in despair? Think again! Everything done was intentional.

  Okay! So of course Jesus feels human emotion, and He can be broken hearted, as the Father can just as well.  But Jesus was on a mission, knew His mission, knew what was said about the mission, so He obliged. 

  What about us?!

  What about human suffering then? How could a Loving God allow for suffering to start with?

   Well, the best answer to this is, what is God to us if we do not suffer?  How would we ever know that there is more to this world if we do not know to look for something more? That is to say, if everything was nice and wonderful, how would we ever think of thinking that we weren't already in Heaven, in a sacred place? 

   Suffering and pain is God's CRY, saying you are not alone, there is more to you.  In order for you to realize this you must feel loneliness, anguish, suffering in your soul so you know that there is one who can heal you.  One must be sick before healed, one must be lonely before comforted. 

  It's no wonder in a culture, which seeks to take away all suffering and blames religions for most of the suffering and affliction, is not hearing the cry. With no God, one will never make sense of suffering. Suffering will always hunt us, if we live in the 'feel good' society, where do we turn when we find out that this way of life is not true? We can not always feel good, we will suffer.  In religion, especially Christianity, we acknowledge suffering, we work within it, and not against it.

  There is only one way to be happy, not by a 'feel good' culture, but by one at peace with the very existence of existence itself.  And in our existence and experience of pain, we hear a cry from God, saying 'I am here, You have nothing to fear.'

  Is this not God's message? I love you! so fear not! Love me and you will find true happiness.

  God wants us to love Him, and know that this world is not the end.  This world is not Heaven, and therefore we ache, and sometimes greatly.  But remember His mercy!  His mercy and love is so great He also came down to suffer with us.  He suffered tremendous suffering in His Passion, by the wounds and blood, by the rejection of His people, and through the agony of those crying for Him. 

  Why does God let us suffer? Well, He allowed Himself to suffer.

  Who are we to curse a God who has also suffered? Who knows human suffering in the flesh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJUJpWI4xDk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgJUJpWI4xDk&app=desktop



JESUS' LAST  SEVEN WORDS
http://www.mycatholiccds.com/seven-last-sayings-of-jesus.php  

Give Life Your All

I love, the gritty and the jest, the beauty and distress, and everything in between.
I love Jesus Christ, because it is He, that told me what this means.
He laid His life on the line, and caressed death.
Making it a gate, to a universal renew, to peace and love and happiness.
Removing the old view, and besides what the body becomes of.
Drawing us near to the life which awaits, and made real foreverness.
Brashly unlatching Heaven's gates!

So when I feel alone and dreary from the weary.
I remember I was called, to stand upright and tall.
Despite it all.
To wave at fate, with eternal grace.
And to live boldly! And not wait.
Set aside my fears of loss.
My long tears of knowing us.
And take up a life with feeling either way.
And feel the depths of inequity and pain to stay.
Triumph! Is the call! Whether man is large or falls!
Because He said and done it all!
He opened the gates from a perilous fall!
Behold, I am with you!
Give Life Your All!

Untying our Knots

Pope Francis’ Prayer to Our Lady, Untier of Knots

Holy Mary, full of God’s presence during the days of your life,
you accepted with full humility the Father’s will,
and the Devil was never capable to tie you around with his confusion
Once with your son you interceded for our difficulties,
and, full of kindness and patience you gave us example of how to untie the knots of our life.
And by remaining forever Our Mother,
you put in order, and make more clear the ties that link us to the Lord.
Holy Mother, Mother of God, and our Mother,
to you, who untie with motherly heart the knots of our life, we pray to you to receive in your hands (the name of person),
and to free him/her of the knots and confusion with which our enemy attacks.
Through your grace, your intercession, and your example,
deliver us from all evil, Our Lady, and untie the knots that prevent us from being united with God,
so that we, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, may have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.

A Gathering of Humanity

  This message is short, but hopefully resonates.

  IF any one were to have a dinner, and invite the following for a conversation: 
   Einstein, Socrates, the pharoah Ramses, Confucius, Simon Bolivar, Martin Luther King, Jr., Napoleon, Shakespeare, and Nelson Mandella

  Which topic could you possibly talk about to all of them together without teaching them anything about the modern world? What could you speak about so they understood your positions and influences?
  
  Hydrogen? Social Justice? Communism? Genetic engineering?

  NO ! As far as I can think, we can talk about, responsibility, simple mechanics, ideas of community, ideas of the differences of men and women, cute babies, and DEATH and RELIGION.

  These things are UNIVERSAL, AGELESS 

 But it is not what we seem to talk about these days, we seem to talk about things we love which are things that come and go through the ages.

   

   

Human Population: Just cause for Abortion?

 I once got into a conversation about overpopulation in Africa with a student.  They apparently watched a documentary which talked about the need for family planning, suggesting that religion has allowed the poor people to have 7-16 kids at a time.  And of course, as documentaries are good at doing, they introduced them to a man who had 38 kids from 6 wives. He was muslim and apparently was only allowed to have 4 wives at a time, and so divorced two of them.  The student went on to talk about how it was dumb to have kids you can not feed, and how having TOO MANY PEOPLE WAS A PROBLEM FOR AFRICA.

  My instant response was ---- It is just stupid to complain that peopel are alive.  I am actually digusted with that mindset, that someone who is only here because they themselves have been given a life, dares to say that others shouldn't be around.  There are ''too much'' of others. 

  Without too much knowledge, I proposed that there is enough food in the world.  Then the student countered with it is not the world's obligation to take care of people's children (I then said you just layed out a perfect argument against Socialism), but continued by saying that, of course not, providing for your children is a problem. But without life itself, there would not be hunger.

   Life is the first, Life is the way.  So is the problem indeed that there too many people? Or that there is life? 

   From the start, people have always have had big families, and under-fed children.  Is it a problem? Of course it is, but it is human anyway, and the response to it shouldn't be to prevent more humanity!

 Where is the sense to say, I should not have a life because it will hunger, so I will dispose of the life.  When if born, it will always have a potential to be saved or fed, but in death, it is robbed of this potential.

 So does it make any rational sense to decide the value of life based on taking away its potential to either be hungery or to be fed, when without life it has no chance for hunger or feeding? 

  The world is what it is today because of the way people procreated and lived.  So to say that Africa is wrong to have so many kids, is to say that humanity was wrong for the first hundreds of thousands of years.  And if the first man was told about 'overpopulation' and that it was a problem, then the vast majority of us wouldn't be here today.

It is ANTI-HUMAN, to think that overpopulation is WRONG!

Secondly, I came to discover: There are more reason to see that this anti-human position as just false and misguided:

 

ONE THERE IS IN FACT ENOUGH FOOD:  NOW  (STUDENT'S ANSWER TO THIS WAS THAT IT WAS THE PROBLEM IS FOR THE FUTURE)

     http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/is-there-enough-food-for-a-world-of-7-billion

FROM FINANCE.COM:

    The problem isn't even explained as a problem of Family Size:

Causes of poverty in Ethiopia:

Some of the causes of poverty in Ethiopia are:

• Arid conditions leading to irregular production in the agriculture sector.
• Improper marketing strategies of agricultural products.
• Degrading ecology
• Technological know how being poorly developed.
• Transportation facilities are poorly developed.
• Failure of the rural people in participating in awareness programs meant for them
• Absence of sufficient rainfall
• Shortage of food products owing to several conditions.
• Absence of proper socio economic infrastructure. This includes lack of potable water, proper education and health programs.
• Unstable political scenario.

  THIS IS THE PROBLEM: 

1)   SHOULD IT BE OKAY FOR PEOPLE TO HAVE KIDS WHEN THEY CAN NOT PROVIDE FOR THEM?

     It is dead travesty that people don't think about what they can do for their own kids (who do not choose to be born), but there could be prosecution on child abuse and then adoption.  Adoption is an option, so the first step could be said that the authororites can make sure the children are fed

  But there are more ways to do this than adoption and state involvement, the state has a responsibility to develop itself to meet the needs of hunger, as outlined here

There are several solutions to this problem -- NONE OF WHICH IS OVERPOPULATION!!!  In fact, Europe is in trouble for the opposite reasons -- de-population

The DATA IS OUTSTANDING!

Indian economist Raj Krishna estimates that India alone is capable of increasing crop yields to the point of providing the entire world’s food supply

http://www.nolanchart.com/article6112-old-myths-die-hardespecially-overpopulation.html

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/29/overpopulation-is-a-myth-plenty-of-food-and-space-exists/

UNITED NATIONS SAYS IT WAS WRONG ABOUT OVER-POPULATION

Overpopulation

UN admits it was wrong about overpopulation

Vatican (CWN) -- In an unprecedented admission, the United Nations Population Fund has acknowledged that its previous frightening predictions about a "population bomb" have been inaccurate. And the organization has also acknowledged that its latest estimates have also exaggerated the growth of world population.
In 1994, the Population Fund estimated that worldwide population growth would be approximately 94 million each year, until easing back to 85 million around the year 2020. But last year, world population growth amounted to only 81 million-- 20 percent below the UN estimate. In 1989, the Population Fund predicted that by the year 2000 the world's population would be 6.25 billion; the latest figures suggest that that estimate is high by at least 160 million-- a figure roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil!
The latest statistics, published this week by the UN, demonstrate that Pope John Paul II and his allies were correct when they said, in preparation for the Cairo conference on population growth, that international agencies were grossly exaggerating the trends in world population.


FINAL COMMENTARY:  THERE ARE SOULTIONS... AFRICA MUST DEVELOP ITSELF, AND THEN THE FOOD PROBLEM WILL GO AWAY, AND PEOPLE HAVE THEIR CHILDREN...

IN FACT, THE MOMENTUM IS THERE, IT WAS REPORTED BY THE UN, THAT THE AFRICAN UNION NOW STATES THAT EACH AFRICAN COULD HAVE 20 DOLLARS A DAY!