Man wants to be free, but always looks for a king to rule him. A strange contraction in human nature. The truth is, when things are great and seem to be under our control, we just want to be left alone. We don’t want anyone to tell us what to do when we have what we want, and we gladly take credit for our own fortune. However, when things get bad, we cry for a savior and blame anyone but ourselves for the troubles we find ourselves in. (Hmm… I think I just defined both political ideologies) Everyone has varying degrees of each in their lives, but this article is about the latter: Our search for a messiah to save us from our troubles. The sad truth is, we had one, but we didn’t like what he had to offer.

There is another prevalent contradiction of human nature. We so readily look to the mystical, the divine, and the spiritual to solve our material, carnal, and temporal desires. God gave us freewill, and yet we take every opportunity to convince ourselves and others that we are helpless victims and without the power of choice. We blame society, circumstances, and other people for our lives and then look to someone or something to swoop in and save us from our persecution.

Jesus encountered these paradoxes frequently during His time in our reality. As people confessed Him to be the Messiah, they then turned to Him to solve the troubles and conflicts of their own world. While Jesus did many miracles of physical healing and material provision during his ministry, He stopped short of what people really wanted from Him… political and social conquest.

The Crucifixion was a bewilderment to the disciples. When Jesus tried to tell His disciples of His rapidly encroaching tribulation, Peter responded saying, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” As what was surely a shock to such a passionate expression of concern, Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan! you are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Why did Jesus react this way? It was because Peter, like many of his time, were looking at Jesus as a “material messiah”. Peter was looking for Jesus to free the Jews from Rome and establish a great earthly nation of which Jesus would reign over. Of course, this did not happen, nor was it supposed to. Instead, Jesus gave us something else… individual redemption and spiritual freedom.

It is not hard today to see that we are born as slaves to sin. Any Alcoholics Anonymous councilor, or rehab specialist, can tell you that man is often lacking “something” needed to take control of his own life. Jesus knew this, and offered man redemption through repentance. Through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and then later gift of the Holy Spirit, God gave us the chance and the power to became the individuals He created us to be in the first place.

Jesus came, and then left, and He left us with nothing more or less than what we needed to truly live. And truth be told, most of us hate HIm for it. We didn’t want “spiritual” redemption, we wanted physical redemption. We wanted someone to give us a steady income, a worry-free life, a safe home, and good health.  We didn’t want to have a path open to begin a relationship with God, we wanted path open to a new car (Ok, nerds… would ” new chariot” be more historically accurate for you?). Jesus and the disciples tell us to look at life’s sufferings as a challenge and gift unique to this life… but we would have preferred Jesus left the receipt so we could have exchanged it for a new expresso machine.

Now today, we still have our many problems and troubles, all of which we brought on ourselves with our own greed and selfishness. Instead of looking at our own failures, we look once again for a leader, a savior, a messiah to fix it all for us and make our lives better. Little do we realize the only way that will ever happen is if we do it ourselves. We must repent, face our sins, and seek forgiveness. Only then will we see clearly enough to fix our own mess.

Technorati Tags: Christian Mysticism, fake messiahs, Jesus Christ, material messiahs, political saviors

“If you want peace, work for justice.” – Pope Paul VI
“If you want justice, work for chastity.” – Pope John Paul II

This begins a serious of articles I have decided to write in defense of the Catholic Church and her controversial teachings in our current post-modern culture. I have entitled this series “Catholisense” because this is a mystical apologetic rather than a theological one. It is my belief that the presence and teachings of the Catholic Church are not outdated or irrelevant but rather necessary. Indeed, I will argue it is the very presence alone of the Catholic Church and the Vatican that is preventing our society from falling off a cliff of self destruction.

The first argument I am presenting is the need for “Moral Idealism”. There is an ever growing outrage toward what people are calling “unrealistic” morality in the Catholic Church’s teachings on monogamy, sex, abortion, and birth control. Even other religious institutions of morality, such as the evangelical community, find the Vatican’s positions on these issues to be extreme. Even within the Catholic Church itself, many members have given up or refused to follow Church teaching on the grounds of it being “unrealistic” in contemporary society.

Assuming, for the moment, that developing and legislating societies of people based on Catholic morality is unrealistic, does that make the ideal irrelevant? There is so much anger directed at the Vatican for maintaining a seemingly unachievable stance on morality, but have we ever stopped to think what would happen to societal development if those standards and ideals of morality did not exist?

Think about this for a minute: even though fornication, adultery, and divorce are so rampant in our society it seems impossible to stop, what would happen if the ideal of monogamous marriage did not exist? What would happen to our society if we felt no guilt, no obligation, and no responsibility to attempt monogamous and stable marriages? Think about how much good the remaining population of healthy families and stable households does to preserve society and keep peace in our world. If there were no families, no stable marriages, and no obligation for family unity, how would even the most basic of social services be possible?

Let’s look at birth control as well. While persuasive arguments can be made for restricting the birth rate in impoverished regions, encouraging “family planning”, and preventing pregnancy in the unprepared young, what would happen if we stopped seeing the harm in preventing life to serve the living? What if we no longer saw human life as sacred or special, and became completely unhindered in controlling new life? What would happen if we only allowed the birth of people who we, in our own frail understanding of the universe, felt were worthy or deserved of existence?

More than morality, the Catholic Church presents us with an ideal. It gives us a vision of a society of self-sufficient families. Families full of love, commitment, strength, discipline, and charity. Families capable of successfully raising their own children. Families who contribute to society, as opposed to burdening it. Families strong enough to absorb the pains and injustices of life.

The Catholic Church gives a society where sexuality is a wonderful force of new life and blessing, rather than a burdensome drain where such a large portion of social resources are dedicated just to containing and dealing with the consequences.

The Catholic Church shows us a world where each and every human life is a blessing and a source of joy, rather than the anxiety filled gamble modern parents face as to whether or not their child’s existence will be “acceptable”.

The strongest argument for the Catholic Church’s ideal teachings on morality is that it is not an unachievable ideal at all. While it may seem like so few, there are still many families who live out the ideals of the Catholic Church every day. They are blessings to society because they prove the ideal is real. Their children grow to be productive and beneficial members of society, and their households become safe havens to all who know them from the chaos and darkness of the rest of the world.

The Vatican is the “city on a hill” not just in the real world, but in our collective subconscious. If it were not for the presence of this one remaining organized bastion of moral consciousness, we would be left unhindered to topple into amoral chaos. Even for those of us (myself included) who fail to live up to the standards and ideals set forth by the Catholic Church, having those standards preserved in the world today creates an anchor for our minds. We all, Catholic or not, benefit from those ideals.

Technorati Tags: abortion, birth control, Catholic Church, Catholic Mysticism, Catholisense, Christian Mysticism, moral idealism, sexuality, Vatican

In light of the upcoming holidays, (Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day), I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the nature of death and how it applies to Christian mysticism.  The dead and departed has been one of the areas in my thinking which has undergone the most change since entering the Catholic Church.   It has not changed much from a doctrinal or theological perspective, but rather from the perspective of awareness.  Where I once divided my world view into the world of the living and the afterlife, I now realize the present life and the afterlife are intertwined within the Body of Christ.

The Communion of Saints

One of my favorite teachings in the Catholic Church is that we have spiritual solidarity, not only with other believers, but with the souls of our brothers and sisters who have passed on.*  The Body of Christ is not simply the community of those presently with us, but a community of all those who have come before us as well.

This is practiced not only in thought, but in praying the to Saints for intercession.  Just as we ask our brothers and sisters to pray for us, we also ask those who have finished the race to pray for us as well.  While many may feel the practice of praying to Saints is silly or even heretical, I find this practice creates a great feeling of strength and encouragement.  It is so empowering to know and experience the cheering-on and lifting-up from those who have already lived and died for Christ and know what we are going through.

Our Extended Family

As many families have experienced, my wife and I went through a miscarriage.  My perspective at the time was still very much on what was living and physical, so while disappointing, I didn’t really know how to digest the early loss of our child.  My wife, of course, felt the loss much more than I, but I was unable to relate.

My time and reading in the Catholic Church eventually allowed me to realize that our child was a member of the family from the moment of conception, and still is.  While not able to get to know her (our child) in this world, she is a new life and a new soul that is now a permanent part of the Body of Christ.  I was finally able to have an emotional connection to a soul I was previously unaware of.

Honoring the Dead

While many Christians see Halloween as a pagan holiday, All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day are embraced by the Catholic Church as a time for acknowledging, honoring, and connecting to our brothers, sisters, and family across the veil.  We take time to reflect on the absence left in our lives by those we have lost.  We meditate on their very real presence in the Body of Christ.  And we remind ourselves of our true hope in the inevitable return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the the new earth.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
- 1 Cor. 15:55

Death is an event to be embraced by those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.  It is our victory, and it just makes sense to take time out during the year to celebrate it, remind ourselves of it, and even to reflect and make sure we are prepared for it.

If you have never taken this holiday seriously, or have been on of those families who turn the lights off and take cover from the “scary devil children” asking for candy and treats waiting for it all to pass over, I suggest a different idea.  Take this time of year to celebrate it’s original intent: to connect with the whole Body of Christ.

Reference:

* http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p5.htm#958

Technorati Tags: All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Catholic Mysticism, Christian Mysticism, communion of saints, Halloween

The Catholic Church has become the center of attention aggression in the global discussion of, not just abortion, but birth control.  To stand against birth control isn’t just unpopular in the secular world but also amongst modern day Christians and even many Catholics themselves. Considering the arguably more urgent concerns such as abortion, genetic engineering, and embryonic stem cells, birth control seems trivial by comparison.  The stance against birth control seems futile, not because it is a petty concern, but because we have already lost so much.  As the other boundaries of the sacred womb fall, what we are really loosing is our own humanity.

Our unchecked consumerism has led mankind to a place where we have to choose between our standard of living, and our families.  In America, it is almost impossible for new families to live on one person’s income alone.  The now old-fashioned idea of the stay-at-home mom is becoming nothing more than a fantasy or relic.  We don’t raise our children ourselves anymore, the government does. Even in independent organizations like day-care, strict government regulation determines what we can or cannot teach children.

I think our point-of-no-return as a society was when children changed from being blessings, the center of joy in the family, to burdens and inconveniences. If you are well-off or middle class, children simply interrupt our careers and materialistic lifestyles.  If you are poor, children are a source of desperation and panic (part of why most abortions are amongst the poor).  We send our kids to day-care, school, sports, camp, and maybe, if we are lucky, see them a couple hours a day.

The most popular argument people have against the Catholic Church’s teaching on birth control is that it is “unrealistic”.  And you know what.. they are right.  Not using birth control in today’s world is unrealistic,  but the not because it is naturally so, it is because we have made it so. Large families are a burden to our modern society.  A woman can’t pursue a career if she is constantly pregnant or nursing.  Plus, the financial strain of the medical industry’s cost of giving birth is nearly impossible for anyone without great insurance coverage to afford.

We have traded the natural blessings given to us by God for artificial ones.  The joy of the family has been replaced by the stress of the commercialism. Birth control is our way of forcing our way of life to change in the way we think is best.  We have told God that we prefer money and luxury to family.  The problem is that it doesn’t stop there.  We are now fighting against abortion, genetic engineering, and the harvesting of the unborn for stems cells.

Children are humanity’s constant chance for renewal.  It has always been the role of the younger generation to take the reigns, and try in improve upon the generation before.  However, instead of seeing our responsibility to the younger generation, the world is promoting a new mindset where the younger generation exclusively serves the older generation.

Right now, in our culture, this generational selfishness has already manifested itself in drastic ways.  When a child comes along who interrupts a would-be parent’s plans for life, we kill it.  When a child doesn’t learn the way we think they should, we medicate them. Now certain organizations are trying to make it legal to grow fetuses like crops to harvest for stems cells for our own use.  This is only what is going on now too, I haven’t even gone into what some foresee in the future.

I say all this because birth control, not just contraception but all attempts to dominate the womb, is not an issue of theology, or even just morality, we are talking about losing our own dignity and freedom.  To assume control over the womb is to assume control over, and potentially wipe-out, all God-given chances for renewal. Our children are here to fix our mistakes, improve on our successes, and challenge our ways.  When the next generation has lost all power to change us, when we enslave our own children from birth for our own selfish wants, what hope is left for humanity.

This article has a much darker tone than I usually post, but I can’t think of anything funny about this.  What I can say to end this on a lighter note, is that there are still many who have the faith to follow God at His word.  I am proud of every family I meet that has chosen to live as God commanded. I experience great joy when I meet a family who still feels that every child is a blessing.  Not only that, but the blessing of God are made obvious through their families.  In today’s world, I believe those who leave the womb in God’s control are living saints.

Technorati Tags: abortion, against birth control, birth control, Catholic Church, contraception

I joined the Roman Catholic Church about 2 years ago, after living as an “out of place” mystic in the evangelical world for over 17 years. I am compiling this list out genuine thankful reflection and I have no intention of being provocative (and every intention of being funny). I am very much of an ecumenical mindset and know full-well the Holy Spirit works outside the Roman Catholic Church, that is why I use the term “Christian mysticism” instead of “Catholic mysticism”. Indeed, much of Christian mysticism comes from the Eastern Orthodox church. Anywho… I felt compelled as I have greatly enjoyed my new life in the Catholic Church and wanted to send out some kudos.

#10) Social Drinking - Seriously, I love being able to go out after a parish event with fellow parishioners and know I can order a drink without worrying about offending the “Jesus turned water into grape juice” guy.

#9) Cool Accessories – I admit, I love accessories. Rosaries, medals, scapulars, etc. add a textile elements to religion I enjoy. What I really like is that I feel less stupid holding a Rosary during a prayer, which has generations of history and meaning, than a “Prayer of Jabez” lucky coin.

#8) Art and Style - I love great art (like art that requires hard work, not that “my kid could paint that” stuff). The Catholic Church is stuffed full of centuries of art. I am always surrounded by works of expression by those who love Jesus Christ.

#7) Bigger Bible – I always wanted a sequel to Proverbs.

#6) Catholic Radio – This is probably one of the major factors that lead me to the Catholic Church. I listen to the American Catholic Radio podcast every week as well as Catholic Answers and my local station. I virtually never hear a word about Iraq, Hilary Clinton, or the real estate crash. Catholic Radio is timeless, talking about things that are relevant to our souls and everyday life instead of fads and temporary issues.

#5 ) Knights of Columbus – Great life insurance! I’d tell you more, but then I would have to kill you… (just kidding… or am I?)

#4) Blessings – I have been using blessings and purifications for years. Most evangelicals consider that “voodoo”, but now I get the bonus of having a priest who can do it with the whole authority of the Church!

#3) I Can “Come Out” – Many evangelicals think you attend Hogwarts and ride a broomstick when you say you are a “mystic”. When I tell Catholics I am a mystic, they usually know what I am talking about and start talking about St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.

#2) Saints – It is like collecting baseball cards as a child. The Catholic Church has a vast history of people who broke the norms and rose above the world they were in. It is hard to find role models these days for genuine faith, so having a well documented history of thousands of individuals who overcame the world and achieved the miraculous is an inspiration. It is also nice everyone has a “Patron Saint” that relates to their particular circumstances.

#1) The Real Eucharist – No more Welch’s and saltines for me! Reading letters by the Early Church Fathers lead me to realize just how much they cherished the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church’s dedication to keeping the sacred and divine nature of Eucharist in tact is probably the greatest driving force for myself, and many others, to convert.

Technorati Tags: Catholic Mysticism, Christian Mysticism, funny, roman catholic church, why I love being catholic

In the world of mystics and mysticism, these virtues set Christian mystics apart: mourning and the perseverance of suffering. Much of “pop-mysticism” is about avoiding suffering and “thinking happy thoughts”, while Christian mysticism takes a more head-on approach. The perseverance of suffering is required because much suffering is caused by our own misplaced desires and worldly attachments, so therefore, much suffering takes place as God purges us of those attachments. Secondly, if suffering is not being caused by our own sinful state, then it is caused by the corruption of the world around us, in which case we endure to show the love and light of Jesus Christ. This virtue is related to my previous article “Being a Masculine Mystic” (I tend to write in streams of thought), as those who refuse to suffer cannot continue the mystic life.

The other virtue I mentioned, mourning, is a part of the Christian mystic mind. Unlike suffering, which comes and goes, mourning is ever present in the mind of those who walk with God in this life. Mourning and Joy walk hand-in-hand as rain and sunshine work together to grow crops. A Christian mystic maintains a constant vigil of the heart by keeping his eyes open to the evils in the world around him, and the sinfulness of his own heart. Sometimes, those who open their eyes to the world become overwhelmed and shut them forever living in a self-maintained delusion (usually one that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting). Mourning builds strength of heart, allowing a mystic to look at the world head-on and in all reality. Mourning then produces Joy as those with the strength of heart to see the world as it is become capable of seeing God work in it.

The world tells us that sadness and pain is an unnatural state of being that we must escape at all costs (Prozac anyone?). The mystic heart knows that sadness and suffering are often the gateways to discovering the light of truth. Don’t run from the darkness, for it brings the light.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, youLament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and double-minded. your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” – James 4:8-10

Buy “Dark Night of the Soul” – http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-books/1003227/Dark-Night-of-the-Soul

Technorati Tags: christian mystic, Christian Mysticism, dark night of the soul, mourning, st. john of the cross, suffering

Next Wednesday, September 5th is the 10th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa. My local Catholic newsletter asked readers to submit a letter of explaining what Mother Teresa meant to them. Below is what I submitted:

Mother Teresa was one the major influences which lead me to join the Catholic church. When looking for role models or heroes in this world it is pretty hard to find anyone else who better manifests the commands and virtues of Christ. However, so many people have raised her to a super-human level, like a myth or a legend, because it is so hard to believe that we could be held to the same standard. Her recently discovered writings, while they have been used by some who wish to discredit her, have made her more real and more human to me.

For someone who has done so much good in this world, Mother Teresa has a lot of critics. Especially in the evangelical world I grew up in, people were always trying to attribute her actions to anything other than charity. I have heard everything from “She is nieve and confused” to “She is just insane.” to “She is a devil in disguise trying to promote evil Catholic doctrine.” Those criticisms actually lead me to respect Mother Teresa more and more as I looked into her history and personal writings.

I think some people will do anything to discredit Mother Teresa because people like her set the bar too high for the rest of us. When Christ said that we are to be like Him, we don’t really believe it, but Mother Teresa did. Mother Teresa shows us how far we ourselves can go, and how much good those who truly believe and obey the teachings of Jesus Christ can accomplish.

When I first heard saw the reports of her writings about her inner struggle of faith and pain caused by the darkness around her, I cried. Not because I was disappointed, but because it hit me just how human she really was, and how genuine was her work. I myself am tempted to think of Mother Teresa as an exception to the human condition, but that report reminded me that she was a human just like me. She was an imperfect person who faced the full brunt of the darkness of this world and overcame it. If that doesn’t define a saint, I don’t know what does.

Technorati Tags: mother teresa, saint