Catholic Hope

I am a hopeful person and I think part of it is because I am a Catholic and a rather ordinary person.  So why the hope?  My belief is that the Creator of all this vast universe, or universes, decides to reside in something as mundane and ordinary as a wafer of bread, and not even good healthy baked bread.  A thin tasteless wafer is fine for the Divine Presence.  I too am ordinary and mundane and have many a moment when my mediocre ways remind me of my state.  But if I can recall God in the wafer, then I don't spend time beating myself up.  As we age we do become "less" in several ways.  But I am still good enough, be it ordinary and mundane, for this Creator of the vast universe to dwell in me.  It is what I call the "God-With-Us" way of thinking.  It makes me incredulous at times, a real leap of faith, and to non-believers, a bit strange.  But I just have to stop now and again and say, "Thank You."  Thanksgiving Day, is in two days and God is on my list.  So who do you say "Thank You" for the wonder that is you?

Thanksgiving Day

In the USA Thanksgiving Day is coming up this week.  Canada had its Thanksgiving in October, so don’t go wishing any Canadian “Happy Thanksgiving” this week.  They get upset.  But I digress.  No one has to be alone on Thanksgiving unless they choose to do so.  Even if you just go to a bar, you are not alone and many bars will even provide some Thanksgiving foods.  But I would find bars depressing on this day.  For some reason, if you tell people that you will be alone on Thanskgiving, someone will invite you to dine with them.  No other day is like this for outreach, caring and sharing. Restaurants, places of worship, and clubs that are open will all have Thanksgiving turkey with all the trimmings.  So if you hear of someone who will be otherwise alone, maybe invite them to your feast, if you are having one.  We could all use a good meal to energize us, because the next day is Black Friday!  I will be shopping in LA and maybe seeing a first run movie that opens only in NYC and LA on that day.  And then there are turkey sandwiches.

The Later Stages of Growth

I am such a dummy.  I was teaching in San Rafael, California yesterday and thought I did a good job talking about the spiritual life.  But I forgot stuff.  I talked a lot about becoming all God meant you to be, fulfilling your gifts and talents.  We learn this, not from the culture, but from the interior life of prayer.  Fine.  But there is more.  Christians are supposed to become Christ.  Well, Christ is supposed to be God.  If so, then why did Jesus come and live the simple life of a lower class blue collar tradesperson, a carpenter?  He had so much talent.  He is God!  He could do so much more, right? The lesson God is teaching us in this Incarnation, God in human form, is that at some advanced stage we let go of even our talents, our accomplished life, and live a simple life, even seemingly ignored by “important” people, not trying to consume more than we need.  From this way, we become even more in union with the divine who let go of all to be close to us.  Maybe then we will understand the wisdom sayings of Jesus even more deeply.  I have a ways to go still.  Maybe I will let go of teaching!

Birthdays

I met a guy who got drunk because no one at the office remembered his birthday.  No one took him to lunch.  Nothing.  So he went out, got drunk, skipped work the next day, lost his job.  Wow! Resentments can be costly.  But feeling badly, lonely, forgotten, ignored, heart-hurting, over people forgetting your birthday is quite common.  If you are brought up like me, with family making a big deal about your birthday, you are not prepared for the grown up world where you may well be ignored on your birthday.  Now if a spouse forgets, you can make them pay.  But if work associates, the outside world forgets, you have to lower the bar.  We are not the center of the universe for most of the world.  Rarely has any priest with whom I have lived ever remembered my birthday.  So this coming year I may just go to the monastery, be in my cell, and thank God for another year of some sanity when my birthday comes around.  Don’t tell people when your birthday is because then you raise expectations.  People have lots of other stuff more important for them to do than remember your “special day.”  And don’t get drunk over it.

The Response

We cannot control a lot of things that happen to us, such as sickness, job loss, partner change of heart, loss of loved one, and car issues, as in crashes.  Lots of stuff just happens.  Poor guy, Job, in the Book of Job, in Hebrew Scriptures.  He was living with faith and moral uprightness, and he lost everything.  Did he curse God?  Did he whine?  Did he go into a funk?  Well, I guess you have to read all 42 chapters to see what happens.  But he shows that we can have some control as to how we respond to things that happen in life.  We can lie down and say, “My life is over.”  Or we can say, “Let’s get up and get moving to do the next right thing.”  Often, the next right thing for me is prayer and service.  I can be of service by finding people who might need me, or going where I can hear about a positive action in response to unexpected misery and loss.  I may not have a lot of choices about outside world issues and events, but I most often do have choices as to how I will respond.  Your Guardian Angel is ready and waiting!

Missing Out

Using addiction as an excuse misses out on a lot of good stuff.  If you say, “Oh, I cannot help myself. I am an addict,” then you shrug your shoulders, or maybe climb into remorse for a spell, but you don’t get to enjoy unconditional love, or mercy, or forgiveness beyond your wildest dreams.  The word, “Help” does not enter your mind or vocabulary.  Addiction isolates us until we admit we are hopeless, helpless and not a very good person.  Then we might say, “help.”  Don’t bother to exercise your weary and weird mind about who, or what is going to help you.  In a sinking ship of despair, theology is of no use.  Speculation about heavenly help won’t solve your present dilemma.  Excuses for behavior are no bouys for saving a drowning life.  I have never experienced unconditional love, mercy and forgiveness until I first said, “Help!”  The word help devoid of any sense of my own power to change, is the doorway to all kinds of good things and a better life one day at a time.  If your first prayer or word when you wake up is “help” then you have a pretty good chance of staying out of your own mess.  Even if you don’t think you are an addict to anything.  You “non-Addicts” might be the most delusional.

The Hug

In the musical. "Waitress"  the waitress, Jenna, who is in a loveless marriage, says that what she really dreams of is a long hug full of selflessness.  How rare such a hug was in her life, and maybe in the life of many of us, especially women.  Hugs often have "attachments" or "clauses" to them, unspoken but still thought and expected.  A person might hug you because they want something from you.  The hug is part of a silent negotiation.  After a while, the couple know what the negotiation issue is.  Hugs might be to get sex, or to be forgiven, or to get you to give or do something else, or simply because it is expected protocol.  But a selfless hug, that is precious.  Remember Olaf, the snowman, in "Frozen"?  He said that he liked hugs.  You cannot get much from hugging a snowman, so all his received hugs are rather selfless.  He gets hugged simply because the hugger likes Olaf.  We could all use selfless hugs to thaw a frozen heart.  Hmmm.  Chilly in here.