Black Friday - Alleluia?

It's that time. There have been so many commercials on TV lately calling out "black Friday" promotions it boasts that the only thought this time of year brings is an opportunity for manufacturers and retail chains to go for the biggest dollars they can while they can, and the public falls right in line. Banks want you to use credit and take loans and the manufacturers want to push their products. That is business, right? But many today are out of work if not homeless most profoundly due to greed of banking and lending institutions and the bludgeoning of the public by the oil industry which has dramatically "fueled" the outrageous increase in the overall cost of living. Of course many larger retailers have come accustom to the over inflated profits they use to make when times were "good", now feeling they too are hurting financially. Perhaps their profit per item was too high compared to value to begin with and now they can't sell enough to compensate. But lets be realistic; anyone who claims in addition to their income they "need" a quarterly or annual bonus of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars needs a reality check, not a bonus check. If major chain retailers can reduce prices as low as they do for black Friday, just how much of a profit is there or was there being made before on individual items in comparison to their cost and the value of what we purchase?  Most ironic of all, this retail season is specifically meant to target Christmas, yet many retailers do not allow their employees to openly say "Merry Christmas".

A recent attempt by a charity group to acquire blankets with defects from ten manufacturers for those who have no means to keep warm this upcoming winter brought one response of refusal to donate from the most prominent of the ten manufacturers and the remaining nine refused to respond at all. During another public charity drive which took place outside local major supermarkets to collect non-perishable food goods for over stressed food banks, it was overwhelmingly clear that the greatest number of people who donated were those who had the least to give or who have experienced poverty in their past. Many local business owners offered nothing as they passed by. A gentlemen who owned a local "upper end" restaurant charging the highest prices for his foods in the community passed twice without so much as donating a can of peas while another who was unemployed purchased and donated two bags of non-perishables specifically to donate for the hungry. If every person who passed those donation tables donated just one canned or boxed non-perishable food item, there would have been more food for the hungry in their own communities than could have been stored for a year in the food bank alone. This is reality, not fiction.

But as individuals, let us approach our shopping this year with the heart first. Suffering is all around us and for many it includes us or loved ones. The greatest gift is not the most expensive if our heart is open to those around us. Whether buying gifts for others or taking advantage of sales for yourself, let's think as we buy. Consider needs before the wants. 

Let's use this season to help others who need it as well as share with those in our personal lives. Let's not buy to impress those around us or to show how giving we are but to express our love without seeking recognition and help those in their needs. For those in our personal lives who may not need much, Let it express our happiness for their being in our lives. Let go of the judgments we may place on others because we do not understand things they may have said or done in the past, but see them for today and what's left of our tomorrows. Use the heart and forget the ego. Thanksgiving is now and begins what should be the preparation of the celebration of the birth of Christ who gave the ultimate gift for you and and for me, yet His gift was not purchased but of Himself. Give from the heart to those in need and then to those who have... but to each out of the love of Christ. 

Matthew CH;25:

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Blessed are the Meek - What will come of the abortion society?

Blessed are the Meek - for they shall inherit the Land.”
The second of the eight Beatitudes preached by Our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew CH5; v4)

In our current times we may find a much deeper message in this proclamation than has ever been considered before. “…for they (the meek) shall inherit the land.” Could it be that in the literal sense and without most of us realizing it, through the power of God’s justice and love for the meek and in answer to their cries, they are about to begin collecting their inheritance? Are those Christians who live the true sense of faith actually witnessing the beginning of the meek inheriting the land today?

In the most profound way, the unborn child is the quintessence of meekness of human life. Yet, torn from their mother’s womb, they have been violently and grossly victimized having life itself literally ripped from them before ever having had the chance to experience God’s light of day. Infanticide; not only supported by but promoted by a presidential advocate, legalized by the majority vote of government and in many ways financed with tax payer dollars including the salaries of those elected officials who vote in legal support of it. A government founded upon and once held accountable for the safety and security of man’s unalienable right to life. But then, the majority of the voting population of this country voted for these men before they held positions enabling them to enact such laws and pass such spending bills. Therefore, most of us can not stand innocent on our part. Can we claim a split personality that boasts to be Christian but can separate itself from moral Christian obligations to faith in matters of our social life or conveniences? We each know the answer to that.

In less than forty years (since 1973), the United States alone has increased its abortion rate to an average of 1.2 million recorded individual slayings performed per year. Millions upon millions of the meekest of human life have been terminated by choice. Recorded history has already begun to reflect the society we’ve become over the last few decades but now perhaps history may also reflect more than what many could have imagined; the power of the meek.

For those who believe in God and the teachings of Scripture, these meekest of human beings have been gifted before all others the power of God's justice by their innocence, never having had the exercise of free will or to become defiled by temptation, pride, ideology or any other moral corruption. Yet they fell the victim, subjected to horrid deaths at the hands of our society that in and of it self became defiled by temptation, pride, ideology and moral decay years ago. By their greatest numbers they were and are conceived and killed out of our own moral decay and lost self respect. Is this all that history will reflect of our society for future generations to remember us by, or will there be something else? Could it be that the power of God reserved for the meek has ignited a part of society that has not made it self heard loudly enough before?

Today we are witnessing a sudden growing number in society ignited in the recognition of evil, the repulsion of abortion and the grace filled motivation of moral conscience including many of our youngest adults who previously had not really been taught or devoutly practiced a particular faith but have found their own way in good conscience. The growing number of these militants of Christ is most impressive, whether aware or not that they stand for the taking back of the land from the powerful; the influential; the egotistical; the greedy and the self indulgent. Such is the innate  power of God the meekest of all possess. Those in defense of life now growing to take back from the powers in this world the control and influence they perverted for so long. 

One can believe this may be the beginning of the current authorities relinquishing their power back to the meek through those who by the power and grace of God will stand on their behalf as our government should have done had it kept to the values this land was established upon. God bless and empower those who seek to regain what has been lost... and thank God for allowing the faithful to see this begin and to be a part of it... Praise Almighty God, we are seeing just a part of the good Christian fight.

Spiritual but not Religious - commentary

Note: In the previous posting we offered statistical information provided by an independent source. This is a followup commentary to the subject of "Spiritual But Not Religious".

If one is to be truthful, “spiritual but not religious” (SNR as it may be referred to here for brevity) is a status a person adopts based on a personal view in opposition to the participation in an organized Christian faith or system of beliefs, but firmly absent of credible consideration to both the essence of true spirituality and theology. Sadly, the adoption of SNR is most commonly determined by and reflects one’s own significant lack of true knowledge in the theology of their faith if they had previously been a practicing Christian in their past. Others who have adopted this status may have been raised in the practice of their faith but have since determined the responsibility of that practice inconvenient or too much of an interference with what they perceive as enticing “self gratifications” available in today’s liberal society. Some just refuse to acknowledge the responsibility of what is good and evil claiming "God loves us all and does not judge" and "there's no such thing as sin or hell". In all cases the significant lack of knowledge and understanding of the presence of God, Scripture and the Christological teachings of His Church remain the factors most notorious in the adoption of SNR as a standard ideology. It is this lack of awareness that permits one to adopt SNR with minimal conflict in the quieting of conscience.

Man was created with the ability to rationalize and make determinations of feasibility yet in today’s society in matters of theology it is not uncommon for one to abandon rational thought for self contrived notions. The adoption of such a notion as SNR serves well as an example of such a condition in that it can have no credibility at all when compared to the devout practice of one’s Christian faith if properly founded upon an accurate theological understanding grounded in the fullness of Scripture and the teaching body that provided The Holy Bible to the world, the Catholic Church.

A mature person will acknowledge that in order to enter into a truly intimate relationship with someone, he or she must seek to learn about the other person in order to come to know them. In matters of a lasting, loving relationship this becomes a life long commitment with faith as a necessary investment. It is our degree of interest that determines the level of attention we invest in pursuing a relationship. The same is true when seeking a relationship with God. Our initial interest in God comes from our likeness to Him as He created us but it is subtle and must be pursued in order to flourish. Through Jesus Christ we have been provided the direct means to come to know Him to the level of intimacy we pursue.

Some who hold the position of SNR claim their spirituality to be grounded in one of many philosophies offered by various men throughout history. Other adopters of SNR claim to derive their spirituality through nature, some the universe, and so on, rather than in God Himself. Some claim to believe in a higher “spirit”, “being”, “source”, “entity”, “force” “intelligence” or other non-authoritative designation adopted to avoid the use of the designation of “God” as though we are so intellectually advanced today it would be embarrassing to acknowledge we could claim to be intelligent and believe in the existence of God at the same time. Then again to acknowledge the existence of God we must also acknowledge the importance of a relationship with Him. To develop a relationship with God we must come to know Him and that leads to learning Him from the recorded historic relationship between God and man in Scripture, hence back to organized religion.

Finally we would have to acknowledge there is good and evil, sin and repentance. Could SNR be as simple as a denial in accepting responsibility; a denial in the existence of good and evil and an accountability for how we live and relate to others? The fact remains that spirituality has no valid foundation when removed from God. Spirituality has no history separate of a relationship with God other than what is contrived because it has no direction or source. Nothing would exist had God not created it and man can not create but only derive from God’s creation. We can utilize and manipulate what we have available to us and nothing more. Man would not have the capacity to philosophize had he not been created in the likeness of God. We know that all elements have a source and must trace back to an origin but many of us refuse to accept that sooner or later that trail leads to one source, a Creator, God.

Today we find more scientists in advanced fields of study such as astrophysics and cosmology adopting such theories as the “Final Anthropic principle” contending the universe must have been intentionally brought into existence to support mankind and that there is no way we came to exist by chance occurrences. In trying to determine the source of origin, we come closer to recognizing that only a “higher being”, God, could have set forth from nothing the process and design of the universe and all physical elements. Nature and the life of the universe reflect God in their very creation inspiring a thoughtful man to seek truth. Truth can only be recognized when pride and bias are eliminated and truth can not be changed to anything else.

(Wisdom CH13; v1, v7-9) “Foolish by nature were all who were in ignorance of God And who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan...

...For they search busily among his works (the universe and all of creation), but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair. But again, not even these (distractions) are pardonable. For if they (man) so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its Lord."