It’s Time — Restore the Married Priesthood

Leave a reply

The Family and The Father Under Attack

Just watched another TV commercial that included a man and a woman.  As seems to have become the norm, the man was depicted as an idiot and the woman the smart single working decision maker.  Such commercials continue to support the secular progressive humanism objective to destroy and replace God.

In order to achieve this goal, long ago the secular progressives began a concentrated movement (political correctness) to gain power and control by destroying their greatest threat.  That threat is the “Truth” which is communicated through an openness to a power greater than humans which judges all thoughts and actions.  Now this power can best be described as a Creator God, the Spirit of God, the Lord God Almighty, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Therefore all religions must be undermined and minimized.  The secular progressive movement was underway before the day I was born back in 1943.  When I was in high school the movement had begun to make significant progress.  Prayer in school was being outlawed.  Abortion of the unborn became the law of the land.  The stage had been set to launch a subtle and stealthy attack to continue the attack to minimize and destroy God.

The Fundamental Most Basic Church = Family

The chosen path of destruction was to undermine the teaching arm of God, the church.  Television provided the first avenue to attack the social fabric of the most basic church, the family unit consisting of a mother and a father.  Now from antiguity, the most universal symbol of God and Christianity is the male and father of the family.  The concept of the First Born Son was another.  The Church which represents the Father another.

Universally accepted = The Father as Symbol as Head of the Church

The most visible symbols of God in the world are the “Holy Father – the Pope of the Roman catholic Church.  The Catholic Church (Universal), which can clearly claim the longest history of the Christian Church’s.  Destroy the Catholic Church and the remaining Christian Church’s will fall along side Her.  Any misstep by or within the Catholic Church is immediately magnified and disseminated world wide.  The Roman Catholic Church operates under a microscope being monitored 24/7 by the Secular Progressive Humanism cult.

I do not make excuses for the lack of character, failure of leadership or sinfulness that has occurred in the Roman Catholic Church.  Yet it is true (the truth will set you free), the sinfulness that has occurred in the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church pails in comparison to the rest of society with which it must live.

The Church is Built Upon Living Stones = Humans

The leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is susceptible to human failure to temptation and sin no differently than the rest of humanity.  The difference is the living saints within the Church throughout it’s history have called their leadership back to the Truth, The Way and the Life of their model Jesus Christ.  It is in recognizing continual need of Spiritual Renewal and Purification that the Roman Catholic Church is reborn and continues as the oldest Christian religion.

Now the Roam Catholic Church teaches the “Family” is the sacred building block upon which the Universal Church is built.  Every religious leader come from an physical intimate relation between a man and a woman.  It is the woman whose faithfulness is necessary for a man to be sure the child born from this relationship is his legitimate child.  Hence, the concept of the First Born Son has been recognized by humanity fro the beginning.

As such, it became obvious to the secular progressive humanist, the method of successful attack would follow the example as described in the Book of Genesis as originally in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Adam symbolized the first man who was mislead by the first woman.  The question was, how can this scenario be replayed in the world over the 60+ years?  Television offered the perfect method of invasion into the inner fabric of the Family.

Separate the father and the Mother leaving the children at home to be inculturated by those who produce television.  In the early days of television programming the family was portrayed closely in line with the traditional ideals and values of Christianity.  Every great advancement includes the potential for good and evil and television was no exception.

Unfortunately, society placed their trust in people who lived outside the family and home.  Moms and dads began to desire stuff.  What used to be a considered luxury was now becoming an expectation and in 2011 is considered a right.

The Secular Progressive Humanism Subtle and stealth attack has come a long way.  Perhaps it can best be observed in the black communities where the basic family unit has been rocked with division and denial.  There exists more black on black crime, drug usage, school drop outs and rape than any other community.  The secular progressive blame outside society rather than help the black comunity look in the mirror of truth.  This is just another tactic to divide by moving ones focus from Christian Judeo values to secular humanistic values driven by the lust for power and control which is most threatened by a heathy family unit consisting of a mother and father committed to the family unit as church.

So how do we begin to turn the Ship Around?

Every year professional Baseball has spring training for the purposes of practicing and re emphasizing the basic principles of the game.

Getting back to the basics is the answer.  The basic include communicating the basic principle of church which was founded upon the family as the building block for the larger church.  The original Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ was constructed beginning with married men and the celebration of church in the homes of believers.

We left that model years ago and the organized Catholic church is losing members in record numbers.  Worse the Catholic Church finds itself with a major stumbling block to the original model.  It is named “Celibacy”.  Celibacy is a charism and a valued principle.  But Celibacy does not and should not define the Roman Catholic Church.  Celibacy was a concept that arose from a human and family dilemma over who owned church property.

Looking through the lens of 2011 one could say with Celibacy the church won one battle and is now losing the building blocks of the family.  Which is more critical to the Roman catholic Church?

I think the Holy Spirit is calling the Roman Catholic Church to restore the married priesthood so as to speak most powerfully the importance of the living stone building block foundation of the Church.  This is a prime example of actions speaking louder than any words that could be spoken.  Such action would simultaneously address multiple social and religious ills very much alive in the world of 2011.

 

 

 

 

Common Thread Occupy Wall Street Protesters and Tea Party Patriots

Leave a reply

Gut Level Instinct

The Occupy Wall Street Protesters are reacting to something that is troubling them.  Tough many wall street protesters would not admit the phenomena is the same which triggered the Tea Party Protests and marches around the Nation.  Something powerful is driving the Occupy Wall Street Protesters to action.  Fact is the same “Gut Level” reaction drove their parents and grand parents to begin the Tea Party Protest movement.   The main difference between the two movements is a more than a two year delay in reaction.  On many basic points concerning corruption both movements are upset with the same basic basic failure of human to avoid becoming corrupt.

The primary difference between the two movements is the Tea Party protesters due tho their age, experience in life and wisdom gained through failure and multiple wars against enemies from every sector of society, government and the world.  The Tea Party Protest “Gut Level” reaction happened much quicker and due to having been around the block more often the Tea Party detected and addressed the cause of the “gut level” reaction swiftly and succinctly.  The Tea Party folks instinctively they had to keep the solution to the problem simple and  clear while avoiding highly divisive issues.

The Occupy Wall Crowd is simply an unorganized crowd of young people with abundant energy that has to discover the secrets to effective articulation of their purpose and how to create leadership within a leaderless group.

The Good News is the Occupy Wall Street has awakened to the reality this Nation is on the wrong track and their future freedoms are in jeopardy.  The downside for the occupy Wall Street group is they do not have the worldly or spiritual maturity to recognize their greatest enemy lives within.

Waking Up is Critical to Beginning to the Beginning of Identifying the Problem and it’s Seriouness

The Occupy Wall Streets folks, as the Tea Party folks know, will begin to learn the people of this great nation, including themselves have long allowed corruption at every level of our society to flourish and grow.  They will also learn their own actions, belief’s and values have contributed to the decline.  The hardest lesson to learn – the enemy is looking directly back at you in the mirror.

Ever so slowly the Nation has been waking up the nightmare that is leading the nation down the pathway to self destruction.  And at it’s core is the acceptance of corruption by placing self interest above the Golden Rules and Principles upon which this nation was born.   The Wall Street Protest and Tea Party Movement were triggered by the same human instinct.

Yes something is seriously wrong which makes my gut upset enough I have to do something about it though many may not know exactly what initially.

Corruption, Corruption, Corruption to Obtain Power and Control

Wall Street, Main Street and GOVERNMENT

And what is Amiss???

A mirror image is what is amiss and the fact we have duped ourselves into thinking the problem is with everyone else, especially any without a face!  Look in the mirror and what do we see?  Denial!!!

Wall Street looks like Main Street, Main Street looks like the Government, the Government looks like Wall Street and on every street corruption has been accepted as the normal way of life.  We have lost our way when it comes to moral judgement, justice, sin, values and the core building blocks upon which this nation was built.

For years there has been a secular progressive movement in this nation to remove all of the above from the law of the land.  If it feels good it must be good regardless of the outcome or consequence.  Each human is their own God lies at it’s core.  father, family and religion must be sacrificed at the altar of the secular progressive humanism movement.

Have we and are we cutting off our own legs as we grope about in the darkness of our self created and centered mess?  Have we compromised the most sacred and valued principles for which our founding fathers were willing to sacrifice blood, property, wealth and life?

Ask yourself!!!!!!  What are the values I am willing to sacrifice my life for?

Ask yourself!!!!!  Have I been willing to compromise the values of my family, my own values, those of my religion or those of the founding fathers of this Nation where I am supposed to be free?  Am I really free or does my government own me?

Perhaps many no longer even know the values and principles which made this Nation a Light unto the world!  Ask yourself – do I know the values and principles of the founding fathers?

The 99 versus the 1.  People not Corporations.  Anyone know what a Corporation is?  Does a Corporation exist without people and laws created by people before it an exist.

Is this a nation of the People, by the People and for the People?  Could it be the secret to solving the crisis of 2011 resides in an awakening of the people that they have rights which must be balanced with responsibility.  When responsibility is passed on to some other to take care of us we place our rights in their hands.  Who is ready to hand their rights off to a government or corporation obsessed with political correctness?

People have God given rights and with those rights come equal or a balance of responsibilities!

The Wall Street Protesters are protesting the greed of corporations as if corporations do not represent regular people and impact lives!  Has anyone asked who or what a corporation is?  Could a corporation be a group of factory workers, school teachers, private persons, retired persons who worked all their life, fire fighters, police, people who fought in wars, civil servants local, state and federal????

Perhaps what folks are really upset about is who, why and how are the winners and losers in life decided.  A better definition might be corruption at every level of society.  On Wall Street, on Main Street and yes in the Government.

Look in the mirror of truth – one might find corruption there!

The founder and framers of our constitution understood well the power and influence of corruption.  So they worked to create and yes they prayed for guidance to create documents, statues, laws and a constitution that would balance corruption.

Is anyone awake in 2011 as cries go out across the nation complaining about greed which is more accurately and clearly defined as corruption.  Corruption that will take up residence at every level of society and will `.

To solve the self made crises we encountering in 2011 this nation, as a people must begin the task of looking back at the principles which bring corruption back in balance.

Want the answers to our Nations self made crises?  One will not find it in Political Correctness.  Where does one need to look?

Perhaps the founding documents of this nation hold the secret formula we are so desperately searching for?  When is the last time we the people studied those documents?

Could the solution exist within the people, particularly a people willing to balance their individual rights with their individual responsibility.

When responsibility is removed from the equation, it is replaced with an entity that begins to operate as King and Lord over all.

Wall Street Protestors

Leave a reply

It is very interesting to watch the Wall Street Protesters.  The good news is they are out there because something does not seem right to them and they know it is time to do something about what they sense is not right.

In fact I would say the cause of their unrest comes from a reaction taking place in their guts that something is very very wrong and doing nothing will not satisfy their gut level unrest.  Human natures gut level reaction is a result of one’s mind sensing one’s true values in life are at risk of being lost.

A Gut Level Reaction = a Gift from the Creator Himself

This gut level reaction demands attention and causes the human being to begin searching one soul to determine what it is that has so upset the apple cart of their life.  As such, a gut level reaction of this sort is nothing sort of a gift from God.  It opens the door for a person to dig up their core values and examine them again as if for the first time.  It offers the possibility one can decide which values they want to retain and which values may not have been founded upon solid truths.

This may not sit well with Wall Street Protesters but they are delayed reaction and are following the foot steps of Tea Party Patriots who are essentially the Wall Street Protesters elders and maybe parents or grand parents.

Long ago the Tea Party Patriots went through the gut level reaction of questioning why their level values where yelling at them.  Something was amiss and needed to addressed quickly.  Perhaps because the Tea Party Patriots were older, wiser and had developed more problem solving skills the cause and solution to the Gut Level Crises was asked, articulated and the primary values and principles that were triggering the reaction where addressed in an unprecedented method which opened the doorway to all citizens who were willing to take the time and participate.

Hence the Tea Party Movement with millions of participants articulating simple and clear Principles mushroomed almost over night more than two years ago.  The Wall Street Protesters needed the crises to begin to effect them personally before the Human Gut Level to begin to kick in for them.

There many gut level issues the Wall Street Protesters have in common with the Tea Party Patriots though this may upset some members of each group.

Who are we as a nation?  Who do we say we are?  Who did our founding Fathers say we were?  Who have we become?  Are we happy with who we have become?  The answer to this last question is “NO” for Wall Street Protesters and Tea Party Patriots.

There is Hope We Can believe In — The Wall Street Protesters are Awakening !

It is clear listening to the Wall Street Protesters that they do not have or share a common principled action plan for the turmoil taking place at the Gut Level.  Further they demonstrate far less maturity than the Tea Party Movement which is clearly demonstrated in behavior and cleaning up after oneself.

Not to despair, their is great hope because the most critical and essential human step has begun – they are opening up.  They have awakened and know there is a major problem and have now begun to struggle to articulate an answer and begin to reach unity of purpose through consensus.

 

 

 

25th Sunday Ordinary Time – September 18, 2011

Leave a reply

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time – September 18, 2011

In the Gospel of Matthew, when did the landowner go out to hire workers? The landowner went out at dawn.  What time did he need to get out of bed?  What time of day does dawn occur?  Dawn is the time when sun light first begins to break over the horizon.  Deer hunters know dawn occurs thirty minutes before the sun actually peeks over the horizon from the east.

Dawn is also a term we use to describe the moment there is sufficient intellectual understanding / light so one can see.  Could it be Jesus is teaching His disciples and followers with this parable to give them the spiritual light they need to understand the point of this gospel!  How about you and I?

One of the realities is our human, social, political and even religious experience is they often serve as automatic emotional stumbling blocks, rather than receptors for spiritual insight and truth.

Individual rights, the idea of basic human fairness, the usual daily wage, fair pay, workers and union’s rights, equality of race, gender, and age can all capture and sometimes hijack our ability to listen with an open heart and mind.  How do we sort through the tsunami of images and sound bits of crises of human social and economic images being streamed at us at “4G” force 24/7 in our world of 2011?

How we counter act, the worlds cry to unsettle and over power us with artificial crises and hidden agendas.  Sometimes, we just need to sit down, open our mind, spirit and soul and pray for the graces we need to achieve spiritual insight!

Today’s Gospel provides such insight.  Jesus addresses an audience beyond the community of his disciples – an audience opposed to Jesus himself.  A community upset, because of his open and public reception of the “scoundrels, tax collectors and sinners” from all walks of life.

Jesus teaches using parables.  He does so because parables rob the listener of the ability to create an opposing argument while Jesus is still teaching.  The listener is not only forced to listen but must digest the message before sufficient understanding can occur for one to begin to express an opinion for or against.  The human process of digesting parables provides the spirit of truth a window of opportunity to penetrate ones soul.

This is a moment of truth for you and I!

Jesus cannot be locked up and kept in a limited human created and conceived convenient box by religious or civil authority.  As for me – Silly me, in the past I discovered I had locked Jesus up in my own conceived box without the benefit of the wisdom to know our God is a Big God and escaped before I could close the lid.

Jesus telling us this story to open us up?  When the work day is done, the land owner turns the tables on us and pays the last hired first and finally the first are the last paid.  What did the land owner pay them?  Each received the usual daily wage.  Each received a denarius or enough!  The land owner provided what the world considered the exact amount to satisfy the worth, dignity, shelter, sustenance of each laborer.

But what is this story really about?  Isaiah says my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts, says the Lord.  This wage they received must have communicated much a higher meaning.

What is the just and usual wage Jesus is teaching about.  Each receives enough – enough to meet their needs – enough to fill them full – light sustaining enough.

Each and everyday we enter a spiritual market place with the opportunity to work in the vineyard.  But most of the time we are like the laborers in the story – we are idle for some reason and perhaps even unaware of the vineyard that surrounds us.

Like the laborers, we are waiting upon the lord to supply us with what we need to survive each day.  But what is the ingredient we need?  Grace?  The good news is God’s grace is always available.  The good news is God’s grace is always enough.  The good news is it doesn’t matter if we decide early or late his grace is enough to save us.  The good news is God’s grace is enough for those who had been righteous all their lives and enough for the scoundrels and wicked who messed up their lives completely.

The great news in this story is, each of us live in this market place and can step into the vineyard without moving our feet.  All that is required is an open heart!  The vineyard is connected to the location we inhabit no matter where we go!  This is the message of hope all us long for!  No matter how lowly we think we are, how wicked we may have been or untrustworthy or even been a scoundrel there is hope for us.  If we have fallen, crashed and burned there is hope for us!

People of God, we call this hope God Grace!  It is everywhere and it is free!

To obtain Salvation the objective is to be last — Listen to the reading from Isaiah.

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.

Note did we hear the scoundrel and the wicked were called to seek the Lord.  Are they the ones we would think of first?  Now is the time while the Lord is near.  Turn to the Lord for mercy!  God does not act according to human standards, ways or thinking!

God does not work on a rights or deserts scale, but simply on loving scale because that is what is at the heart of God’s being.  We are each called to open your hearts, enter the vineyard with confidence, where God will provide enough to each, so we can be a light unto a world in desperate need of an encounter with love.

Have we locked God in a Box?  And if we have, will be let Him escape?

It is not merely the time that we put in. It is the heart that we put into the time we have.

In God’s kingdom people are treated according to their spiritual needs, not according to their deserts.  People are treated with love regardless of their status or time they show up.

God does not work on a rights or deserts scale, but simply on loving scale because that is what is at the heart of God’s being.  We are each called to open your hearts, enter the vineyard with confidence, where God will provide enough to each, so we can be a light unto a world in desperate need of an encounter with love.

Mr. President Are You a Uniter or Divider????

Leave a reply

Dear Lord – Help us hear the “truth”!

Barack Obama ran on a platform of being a new kind of political leader who somehow would bring the left and the right together and reunite and transform the Nation.  “Hope and Change we can  believe in” was his motto.  “Hope and Change” words that mean nothing when they stand alone.  Yet words that human beings can easily translate into the hope and dreams that live in ones heart but not necessarily in the heart of the deliverer.

The word “Hope” when it stands alone is proving to be false “Hope”   And even the uneducated are beginning to learn one needs a description what chnage means when they use the word “Change”.

But let’s look at the words the supporters of the President are using to describe his “Hope and Change” motto!  The people who do not agree with the president are routinely referred to and called Racists (though many are black, Hispanic and have supported EEO), Homophobics (tough many have ministered to those with HIV and AIDS), Terrorists (tough many are veterans of war – Viet Nam & the Gulf Wars), Astro Turf (tough many assist in cleaning up the mess they make when they gather),  Teabaggers (tough many didn’t even know what that term meant),  Barbarians at the door (tough many are or were members of unions and participated in strikes), the Rich (tough by today’s standard $250,00 is the near minimum profit a small business can earn and still stay in business), Corporation are evil and should be taxed (Yet the CEO of GE is the presidents right hand man, GE pays no taxes, is on the presidents job committee while GE is actively moving jobs and building it’s business in China), oil companies are evil (while the president has shut down the nations off shore oil exploration while simultaneously encouraging and funding off shore drilling by neighbor nations to the south.

What kind of “Hope” and “Change” does this president have in mind for “We the People”?

This president has created a new technology – it is a technology that uses modern day imagery and language to divide in an effort to destroy the very founding principles this nation was built upon!

The question for the people is really very simple!  Who are we as a nation?  Who did our founding fathers say we were?  Who have we allowed ourselves to become?  Who do we want to be?  And finally are we willing to make the sacrifices our founding fathers made to to stand for the fullness of truth in our day and our time?

Will the people of this nation rekindle the fire to remain the land of the free and the brave with liberty and freedom for all or will it fall to division being propogated by an elite ruling class interested in entenching power and control into huge central government?

Every generation must confront the truth and decide the future of it’s children and grand children.

My choice is clear.  Restore God and the nation will be restored as a Beacon on a Hill, the Land of the Free shinning for all the world to see and follow.

 

 

Leadership “or” Not

Leave a reply

Do we have any humor left at all?

Let’s imagine there is this huge corporation that is in the midst of it’s worst labor and financial crises.  Not only is the corporation in trouble but the people, whose lives depend upon the decisions of the corporate leadership, are scared and have become alarmed.

Now the CEO (a politically savvy person) has been telling the people for the last couple of years his priority is to address and resolve the financial labor crises.  “Let me makes this clear” is one of his routine statements made to the people – of course to assure them their great CEO leader has a handle on the problem and is on the job!

During the past two years, altough the CEO has supported unprecedented spending while running up the corporation debt, nothing the CEO has done has resulted in an improvement of the financial or labor crises.  In fact the future for the corproation as it was founded is in doubt and the crises looks worse.

Now to assure the people, the CEO provides them time and again images using prompters that the labor and financial crises is his highest priority.  Usually this done just before he participates in a golf and team game outing with his groupies.

The CEO does recognize the people have grown more skeptical and so to demonstrate his concern, the CEO announces a redoubling (a really interesting word that means nothing) the focus on solutions.  In fact the CEO will personally give the people an update on the new plan to resolve the current labor and financial crises.

In fact to demonstrate the serious nature of the crises the CEO will address the people immediately after he takes another long needed vacation!  And Oh by the way, at a luxury location most of the people could never afford to visit.  And Oh Oh Oh Oh, he doesn’t tell the people, he will be taking this expensive, lavish vacation at their expense.  After all the CEO position is the “Leader”!  Golf and recreational games for the CEO obviously are a high priority – the current labor and financial crises will just have to wait.

Oh Oh Oh Oh, I almost forgot and so did the CEO, to top things off, the CEO calls the Board of Directors to hold an immediate meeting so the CEO can address them with his plan.  And to add spice to the CEO’s demand to the Board of Directors, the CEO calls for the meeting to be held on the same date and time has long been planned for a Board of Directors debate of the corporations labor and financial crises situation and what kind of leadership was needed.  No savvy politician could let that opportunity slide!

Surely this will convince everyone this CEO is on top of things????  Yes????  The image of leading is everything????

Could it be the CEO who has had over two years to address the crises, granted every wish by the former Board of Directors, and say what – now the CEO needs a vacation, could it be the corporation, Board of Directors and the “peoples” worries are secondary????

Let’s see if we can articulate this circumstance!  If the CEO walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, leaves droppings like duck droppings, and the droppings taste like duck droppings one could conclude the CEO must be a duck!?!

“TRANSLATION” = If it drops like shit, sounds like shit when it stops falling, has smells that permeate the air when it first hits the air like shit, yuch yuch and tastes like shit, – a reasonable person could probably figure out one is being fed a line of shit!

“Yes Mr. CEO let’s try and make this clear — bull shit is still bull shit – no matter how pretty words are you wrap around the shit – careful where you step Mr. CEO”!  Chances are increasing you will step in your own (*#*#)  cause you sure are able to manage spreading it around like one who continuously campaigning for the position of the first “American Idol”.

Imagine for a moment the effort the CEO is willing to put into feeding ones own ego!

How’s that saying go?

You can fool some of the people all of time.  You can some of the people all of the time.  But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Time’s up Mr. CEO, our sense of smell is overwhelming us and the stench you have created put us in a position where we must ask you to vacate the premises soon!!!!

Can anyone explain what the word “servant” means.  Then perhaps, by golly we will have an idea who would make for a good CEO replacement.

 

 

 

 

E – What???

Leave a reply

A young mother was teaching her 3-year-old the Lord’s prayer.  For several evenings at bedtime she repeated it after her mother.  One night she said she was ready to solo.  The mother listened with pride as she carefully enunciated each word, right up to the end of the prayer. “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us some e-mail, Amen.”

 

Discouraged

Leave a reply

Two cowboy’s riding the range came across two buffalo’s.  I think they are the ugliest creatures I ever saw in my life said one cowboy.  As they rode away, one buffalo said to the other: I think I just heard a discouraging word.

22nd Sunday Ordinary Time

Leave a reply

The job of the Christian is to overcome evil with good.  In 2011 recognizing evil has become much more difficult.  The evil of untruth is routinely propogated aned camafloged within a language context which may contain some truth, but is designed to avoid the real truth in the hopes of escaping being recognized as an outright lie.  Tell an untruth enough times and the untruth may be accepted by some as the truth.  We Christians are called to reshape culture with the truth rather than submit to culture.

In the gospel we hear Mathhew tells us Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Were you paying attention?  Let’s see!  How did Jesus tell them?

One day, while I reading a book, my 3 year old grand daughter told me she had learned the Lord’s prayer.  She asked, do you want to hear it?  I said sure, as I continued to read.  My grand daughter asked again, do you want to listen to me Paw Paw?  Sure I said, go ahead I am listening!  No Paw Paw, I want you to listen to me with your eyes.

Jesus was teachiung his disciples to listen with more than their eyes so they could learn to discern the truth – listening with one eyes is the secret to discerning the truth hiiden within behavior – does behavior match the spoken word.  Jesus was teaching his discples to use the whole essence of their being, spirit, mind, physical eyes and ears and yes yes yes their spiritual eyes and ears!

It is very very difficult not to conform to the wonder and image of this age!  The techonological advances in our world has lead people to work overtime creating pleasing language and visual images designed to support an agenda rather than address truth.  Should we look closely at behavior, we often discover ones behavior does not support the images and the words spoken.  The truth is always the truth.  A lie surrounded with pleasing words we want to hear is still always is a lie.

One who seeks and speaks the truth will encounter what Jesus encountered in His day!  We cannot separate Jesus from the Cross.  The way Jesus taught was through the example he set for his disciples!  Jesus knew he must walk the walk for the lessons to be heard with the physical and spiritual eye to be fully understood.  When one lives the truth one may expect to suffer.

The Catholic Cathechism teaches in the process of conversion; one must recognize the Lord exists, one must suffer and then become converted.  We don’t get to skip the suffering.  Modern day Americans seem to have lost the wisdom of Jesus teaching for so many will sell their soul to escape suffering.  Listen – Learn & suffer!

(The following is sung)

Oh Lord – set me on your knee.  Oh Lord won’t you set me on your knee.

Though I scared, tired and worn, it’s on your knee that I’m reborn.

Oh Lord set me on your knee.

On your knee is where the stories are told, that give me courage and make me bold.  Oh Lord won’t you set me on your knee.

From your knee I can clearly see you are the only source of truth that sets me free.  Oh Lord set me on your knee.

To be discouraged and yet find beauty in the fire of the spirit buried within suffering, trial and discouragement, paints the picture of one who accepts a prophetic call.  The Lord calls each of us by name to transform the world.  His call causes us to search our hearts to the bone for the truth.

Are we content where we stand?  Are we who we want to be?  Are we communicating the truth in how we act and speak?

In the reading from Jeremiah, we hear the prophet Jeremiah loudly lamenting his situation in life.  Jeremiah was in the midst of an internal crises.  We hear him complaining bitterly about being duped by the Lord.  All of his prophetic skills and talents at this point had been used only to root out and tear down.   Jeremiah had become a prophet of doom.  Can’t you hear Jeremiah asking the lord, “When Lord, do I get to play the part of the good guy prophet?”   Perhaps Jeremiah was a little incredulous himself.  When do I get to rejoice in the pride of my prophetic calling?  When do I get to be recognized and accepted as the good guy by the people around me?

This pericope from Jeremiah is a passionate soliloquy.  It’s as if Jeremiah is being goaded by the despair of his day.  Though Jeremiah is lamenting, he admits that God’s word is like a consuming fire rising in his bones.  This disclosure speaks to us about the nature of inspiration that merges from within the discouragement and hardship of the prophetic calling.  And the actions of Jeremiah shout to a suffering world the spirit of Hope revealed in the words of truth flowing from the heart of the speaker amplified by by actions mirroring the word spoken!

One does not need a prompter to sing a message of hope that spring from it’s home in the heart of truth.

 

Morning & Prayer

Leave a reply

Dear God, so far today I’ve done all right.  I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper.  I haven’t lied or cheated.  I haven’t been grumpy, greedy, nasty, selfish or over indulgent.  I am thankful for that indeed.

Help Me Lord:

In a few moments Lord,  I’m going to get out of bed.  From then on, I’ll need your help.