For the past few weeks I have been quietly working on a general tome reflecting on various things, politically, religiously, and I guess to some extent phycologically. Since this is the Fourth of July weekend, I thought it might be good to reflect a bit on where the country is at in general and how to bring this wonderful country of our back in line with a morality that served us well for 200 years and has recently escaped us. Much is due to global shifts in imperialism, and political shifts throughout the world. Some of it is due to those things that hinder us along the way though our lives and those are vices and sin.
Let us all gather together
As I have gotten older, I have found that there is generally more than one way to solve a problem. When we look at the world of mathematics there are a number of approaches to calculate an area of a circle. You can find it by using the radius, the diameter, determining the area of a sector, etc.
That is an example of something that is finite. Why would we think then that in the world of the infinite there would be only one correct approach? When it comes to religion there are many approaches. Now the reality is that when we die and head to our “eternal reward” we will find that we are all Catholic. There is one God, He is universal and loves each of us more than we can ever know. He sent His own son down to earth and gave us the Church, its Seven sacraments, its hierarchy, its teachings. Basically comes down to if Jesus said it or did it, it’s a dogma. There is our end.
But since we all agree that all of our end is universal and constant, we should call it what it is. Now of course many will take umbrage at this, but perhaps re-read what I just said… since Catholic means universal and God is universal it really cannot be anything but. And I do have to say, what I know about what the Catholic Church actually says. this makes even more sense to me.
Why not Catholic?
But, over the years I have heard many reasons that people are not Catholic, yet none of the reasons have anything to do with actually being a part of the Catholic Church.. ‘A priest didn’t listen to me’ ‘my father didn’t act like a “good” person, ‘I heard that Catholic abc did xyz’ ‘that teaching doesn’t make sense’ that list of “excuses” goes on and on.
Of course there are the bigger issues of abuse, rape, misguided attempts to force religion, horrific formation including the dumbing down of religion. Trust me I saw that first hand both as a receiver and even gave it a try as a teacher… talking to 7th graders who were learning all about scientific theory, advanced algebra, in their daily school routine… and then coming to CCD and hearing about cute little stories (that were actually trying to make a good point about Scripture or a teaching) but missed the mark completely as they spoke to the student as a 2nd grader.
Humanity is broken
I agree that all of that is a travesty, but also keep in mind, all done by broken human beings affected by the fall. Does that make everyone wretched… no a human being doing the very best he can with very limited resources. But all of the above happen everywhere. And perhaps most importantly none of these things have anything whatsoever to do with the Catholic Church.
We live in a world that is trying to destroy Christianity. A world run by the craziest of thoughts and ideas. And at their base is the removal of Jesus Christ from public discourse and public thought. Why? Same reason as always… Power and money. What is Jesus??? Humility and love. And there are probably close to 200 million people in the United States that claim to be Christian. But how many pull together? Oh sure we pull together to help a Soup Kitchen, homeless shelter, clothes dispensary. And these are all good.
A Bigger Picture
But what about the moral values of a society. We have in the history made some attempts to influence society. Prohibition was one such attempt. I think we all learned a lot from that one. The goal was a good one, the politics was not.
The Church says we should teach the children the beliefs and teachings to everyone throughout the world. But wisely doesn’t try to impose how to do that. There are things that will work in Chicago IL. but will not work in Tibet. We both need to know that Jesus is the 2nd person in the Trinity, but as I first mentioned there are many ways to go about doing it. Do you bring the students together at a school? Maybe the church? Does the clergy do the teaching maybe mom and Dad.
Bringing Society back
We in the United States are used to having our way. We at one time stood for the best things. However, relativism has brought with it that complete fall from any type of leadership role. We have, as man will want to do, taken things to an extreme, and become slaves to ourselves. We actually think we know better than everyone else. It’s our way or the highway. Well as mentioned before there are many ways to solving a problem or working toward a goal.
This text will continue, bringing up thoughts and ideas with John Chapter 17 firmly in mind. I know that bringing back the Greco-Roman-Judaeo-Christian ideals can indeed bring Christians together to make this world a much better and more just. I am not looking for great numbers (or any for that matter) of conversions. But those things which all Christians can stand together for should be. All Christians stand for the Common Good, or at least they should… that is what Christ taught.
I believe that working together for our common humanity we can stop the divisive nature of the political left and right and move forward in our Christian lives and bringing the Gospel of Christ to everyone in the world. The world likes us separated and thinking of only ourselves. Over the next few posts I will continue to explore. Where possible I will try to also have resources available at the rest of the Website giving additional information. I do beg for your time as this may take a bit of time to complete.
John Chapter 17
You can find the reading of Chapter 17 of John here… Please read it and remember these are the words of Jesus our Lord and Savior http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/17