Sunday, September 18, 2011

chastity crash course p.3 // what's lust and love got to do with it?

"All we need is love", sang the Beatles. "Love makes the world go round", said another song. Everybody says "I love you".

But what do we really mean when we say "love"? Mary Beth Bonacci observes the following...

"I love pizza. I love my parents. What’s the difference? What am I really saying with these last two statements? When I say I love my parents, it means that I want the best for them, that I’m willing to sacrifice to give them the best. When I say I love pizza, I’m just saying I love pizza. Do I have a relationship with pizza? Am I saying that if pizza has a problem, I’ll be there for it? (What?! No pepperoni?! I’ll get there!) Once I’m tired of pizza, I pretty much don’t care what happens to it."

Pope John Paul II explained, "Love is not merely a feeling; it is an act of will that consists of preferring, in a constant manner, the good of others to the good of oneself." In other words, love is more than a feeling and not judged by the intensity of the emotion. We must strive to know what’s best for others and decide or commit ourselves to bring this "good" to others.

Pope John Paul II clarifies that the opposite of love is not hate, but using. So what does it mean to love, and not to use? Let’s read what God said, "Love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 13:34). So how does God love us? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son..." (Jn 3:16). What did Jesus say in the Last Supper? "This is My Body which is given up to you..." Love seeks to lift the other person up towards his/her good, not bring him/her pain, depression, loneliness, anxiety or addiction.

So how can we find real love? When we sincerely give ourselves for the good of others. The Church said "Man cannot fully find himself, except through a sincere giving of himself (Gaudium et Spes)". Real love is focused on the other, pizza love is focused on self. Isn’t that beautiful?

Let’s try to see how much we understand it:

LOVE
= committed or uncommitted?
= faithful or unfaithful?
= live-giving or life-less?
= life-long or temporary?

PIZZA LOVE / LUST
= generous or selfish?
= deep or shallow?
= sensitive or insensitive?
= pure or impure?

Of course, love equates to the left options, and lust equates to the right options.

So...
Loves gives to the other. Lust uses the other.
Love treats another person like a person. Lust treats another person like an object.
Love cannot exist apart from its source, God. Lust is sexual desire apart from the love of God.
Love is honest and life-giving to all persons involved. Lust is devious and ultimately destructive to all persons involved.
Love seeks to do what is best for the other. Lust seeks to please the self.


Next in this series...
What does chastity mean and where does it place in sex and love? Why is abstinence not necessarily chastity?

i was not in a homicide

I think the distinction between murder and homicide, and how the court differentiates their degree of seriousness is remarkable.

Murder, which is pre-meditated, is definitely more serious than homicide, which is somewhat more of a spur of the moment type of thing.

But it also makes me worried, for it makes me realize that I am a murderer and not a homicide participant. Why? Because I am fully aware that with the sins I am committing, I am putting God on the cross to die. And yet, here I am, falling into sin time and again.

So yes... it was me... I murdered an innocent man!

My restitution is to die to my old life, and live the new life that God gives me. I wonder how many more years it will take before I finish my sentence.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

prayer of st. francis of assissi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

Monday, September 12, 2011

better than french bread

Ever wondered how things would be if we lived in the time when Jesus walked the world? I mean, how would it be talking to Him, touching Him, and listening to Him right then and there, face-to-face? Even a song that's not really religious asks, "What if God was one of us?"

What if He's within one-meter radius? Would you ask Him who His favorite actor is, or what his favorite show on TV is? Would you ask Him to heal you, or fill you with water that will never make you thirsty again? Or how about asking Him to feed you a million breads from one loaf? Whew! Now that would definitely be something.

But wait a minute! Hasn't your neighborhood priest or anyone told you that Jesus is still hanging around? I know you'll probably think he's speaking of God's spiritual presence in every place you go to, but have you ever considered that what he/she is speaking of is God's physical presence? I mean not just Jesus looking over you, but Jesus truly beside you? - Jesus "with" you?

Well, if no one has told you that, let me be the first one to tell you - God is still here on earth, available for all of us to look at, listen to, and touch more than we can imagine!

Now some may say, "Hey, I never see Him on TV. All I see are actors who portray Him. I'm sure CNN, ABC or even Fox News would be talking about Him if He were here. Where the heck is the presence you're speaking of?"

Well, the presence that I am speaking of is talked about daily, at almost all points in the globe and at any time in your watches. If you really haven't heard a lot about it, "You're missing a lot!"

As Saint John Chrysostom said, a lot of people are asking about where Jesus is, or what does He sound like, but He is here, for you to touch, to listen to, as a source of nourishment and healing.

So how's that? During the Last Supper, Jesus uttered the words that made all who believe in Him receive Him more fully. "This is my body...This is my blood," He said. No mere symbols there. It's really Him! He didn't say "This bread is my body, or this wine is my blood." They were no longer bread and wine, but body and blood! Now if you know who Jesus is, you know He can't possibly lie about that.

And you know what, He asked His Apostles to do what they have done, which is receive God's body and blood, in remembrance of Him until the end of time. After all, Jesus said, "I will be with you always." And so through Apostolic succession, or through handing down the authority God bestowed to His Apostles, we are able to see, hear and touch God's Real Presence here on earth. We can be sure that until He "returns", He is still with us in a very real sense.

Want to see Him, tell Him something, or touch Him right there and then, face-to-face? Chances are, you do! You even place Him inside of you each time you go to communion.

Now if you know that what you receive during the Holy Mass is Jesus Christ Himself, not any mumbo-jumbo symbols, would you not do everything to prepare and receive it? I mean, if that would mean the greatest ever you can have, would you still take a billion dollars in exchange for it? After all, Jesus said that unless we eat His body and blood we could never be saved.

Or would you not treat it with greatest respect and reverence? If you've been wishing all your life to show and tell Jesus everything you've ever wanted, what you know He is worthy of, isn't this your chance? No sense asking those silly questions again now that you know God is still physically present to you.

Now how about the way you treat your closest friends? Ever noticed how easier it is to get along or be closer to those people you don't just talk to through phone or letters, but be with physically? Or ever noticed how much easier it is to get to know or understand those which are with you in the physical sense?

While it is true that God is everywhere, God is not physically present everywhere. God understands how much this presence is important that He gave us the Holy Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist. Knowing this, would you say you'd just talk to Him anywhere although you have the opportunity to do so? Would you tell your neighbor that you'd always just talk to each other on the phone though you're free to visit him?

While prayer outside the real presence is great, praying to God face-to-face is far-out! Just as the saints say, the more you expose yourself to the Eucharist the more graces you receive. And I don't find that hard to believe since almost all, if not all, of the saints and holy men place special reverence and devotion to the Eucharist.

I can't possibly over emphasize how great this gift is. I'm even sure I didn't say enough about it. I just hope that each day you're made to choose between God and the world, between the Eucharist and any bread, you'll choose God, you'll choose the Holy Eucharist. After all, it's far better than French bread, even if you put some cheese on it! So don't just stand there. Go to Jesus already. Tell Him or ask Him something. Better yet, listen to Him.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

a sign of contradiction, the light of the world

When Jesus was still walking our world, people kept asking, “Who is He that He does those things? Who is he to say that? How dare him?

To most people, He was a sign of contradiction. For them, He was someone who didn't conform to what the world was saying. He was someone who spoke against the world even if it meant death.

In that regard, yes... we can call Jesus a sign of contradiction, but not because He was childish enough to pick a fight with those who didn't get Him. It was because He was showing us what it means to be a light to the world.

God has given us infinite love, He has given us grace... and with this comes the responsibility of sharing the light. Again, not because we want to start a fight, but because we want others to see, to understand the love and the light that we have received from Him.

God is not asking you to punch those who choose to live a different life, but He is asking you to always live your Christian life, to tell others of His greatness and to stand up against evil even if that means being unpopular... That even through these small ways you will be a living witness for Him... And together with Jesus, be a light of the world.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

empty or rich?

Growth in spiritual life requires continuous sacrifice, for it is sacrifice that gives us grace... and it is grace that brings us closer to God. As St. Teresa said, the more we sacrifice, the more we open ourselves to God's grace. And let us not forget, God's grace is infinite.

But these sacrifices sometimes leave us with a feeling of emptiness, of being stripped down of what we have.

We may lose our friends for standing up for God when they are choosing to live a different life. We may find ourselves hungry when we give what we have to those who need more than we do. We may find ourselves feeling empty when we see everyone around us living a grand life in materialism. Everyone around us may have all the material riches of the world, and we may find ourselves having none.

But let us not forget what we gain in our sacrifice. Let us not forget the grace that we receive. Let us not forget God, who enters our lives. If we forget, then we have gained nothing with our sacrifices. If we lose sight of the reason of it all, all of the sacrifices are in vain. And that is a greater loss.

So press on. Continue to run the race. For even if you have losses, what you gain is infinitely more than what others offer. You may feel empty, but you are actually rich, for you have the source of all richness in you.