Guest Post – A Close Moment in India

The following was shared by our good friend Jim working in Mumbai, India this week. Thought we’d share with you. Altogether, I guess this makes Three Catholic Men and a Blog.


It was an experience of piety and a close moment with God. I attended Mass at Holy Family Church in Mumbai, India last Sunday evening. I had no customer visits that day, so after some much needed sleep and working in the hotel it was time to challenge myself. It is no challenge to attend Mass on a "home" Sunday, but being 9000 miles away in a completely different culture, it’s more of an effort.

I had to leave the comfort and security of the hotel compound and walk the half mile down the busy city streets to get to the church. The adventure is not the concern of safety, but it is being the minority and knowing it. The streets are filled with thousands of people and loads of cars, rickshaws and a few dozen stray dogs. Mass was filled that night with some 500 people and I was the only non-Indian that was walking the streets and at Mass (I am not exaggerating the word “only”) and I defiantly stand out in a crowd here.

The close moment was when I entered the church. I was home (God's home); I was comfortable; I was accepted (by God and the people at Mass). When Mass started, the opening hymn was a beautiful song that I had never heard in the comfort of my home parish in the Chicago area. The singing was loud and faith-filled. The mother next to me noticed my silence and kindly leaned over with her open song book and used her finger to help me follow along until I caught on (just like we do with the kids). It was a close moment. I felt the kindness of God. 

 

The only two differences in Mass were first, at the time of sharing the sign of peace instead of everyone shaking hands and saying peace, everyone turned to each other and bowed with hands in prayer position near their face, like when greeting someone with "Namaste", but saying the word peace instead of Namaste.  Namaste is a common greeting originating from the Hindu and Buddhist faiths (a mix of the three religions/cultures). The second difference was that there is NO comfort of AC at this church. It had to be near 110°F. No one was complaining, but I was concerned I was going to pass out like a catholic school child at a Wednesday morning Mass after not eating breakfast. God gave me the strength I prayed for, and I will never complain about the temperature at my home parish again.

Everything else about the Mass, structure, reading and prayers were the same – exactly the same. I guess this is an example of why the definition or meaning of the word "Catholic" is "Universal".

P.S. - God is Good!

 

I Issue a Challenge

I issue a challenge to pray for Kermit Gosnell (prefix “Dr.” intentionally left out) and all abortionists. Call them evil or blind or some combination of both, but Jesus died for them as much as anyone.

We tend to pray for the things that we want and the people we like. While this is not objectivity wrong, we should challenge ourselves to remain vigilant in asking God’s will and consider who needs our prayers the most, regardless of our feelings. In this way we can ensure our prayer life is not linked to our own selfishness.

Consider it like “fasting” from our favorite and most comfortable prayers to try a narrower path. I’ve heard it said that it is impossible to truly hate someone if you pray regularly for that person. Try it sometime as an act of the will. Of course, we should pray for all the victims too, who include the mothers as well as the children, but this is not very challenging to do. Prayer for the killer is uncomfortable, but being comfortable is not what Jesus promised us and is not the purpose of our life. I’ve also heard it said that a good Catholic will make many people feel uncomfortable.

Challenge Your Comfort Zone



O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.

If Fish Could Talk

One day two fish were conversing in the ocean. The first fish said to the other “I’ve learned of something astonishing called Water. Apparently, this Water is all around us, provides everything we need and we could not exist without it.” The second fish was intrigued, but skeptical and set out to learn more about this remarkable thing.

After being gone sometime, he returned to report back to the first fish. He explained, “I’ve been all over this ocean from east to west, north to south, top to bottom and I have not seen anything that remotely resembles this Water of which you speak. I’ve seen nothing that could possibly surround, support & sustain everything.”

He continued, “During my long and tedious swim, I have deduced that Water is a delusion which exits only in the imagination of fish. Furthermore, belief in Water evolved as a social construct from various fish cultures to help explain how we can swim, breath and live. Look, the ocean can be a scary and mysterious place, so fish just made-up different kinds of Water a long time ago to help explain things.”

“But if you won’t believe in Water, how can we discuss things like earth, wind & fire?” said the first fish. “What are those?” said the second fish, “More superstitions? I have no more evidence of the existence of Water (or earth, or wind, or fire) than I do of a giant swimming seaweed monster or ‘The Fairy of the Sea’. THERE IS NO WATER! We would get along swimmingly if you would just forget your irrational belief; you are on the wrong side of oceanography my friend.” With that, the second fish swam off.

The first fish was left floating there and thought, “Better to be on the wrong side of oceanography than on the wrong side of reality.”

"but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:14

The preceding was posted in the early days of this blog and was inspired by a talk given by a Franciscan Friar named Fr. Albert Haase. I thought I’d re-post it with a few changes since we have more followers now and it’s such a fun story to share. Besides, I recently got a new fish tank and it all came flowing back to me.

The Wrong Side of Reality

It’s been said that the key to joy in life is to keep the following acronym in its proper order.

J-O-Y:

Jesus First

Others Second

You Last

It also helps at times to look at things in different ways, from different angles, completely upside-down or backwards.

Y-O-J:

You

Obey

Jesus

Each year I have discussions with my confirmation class about the importance of obeying God’s laws and how this translates to joy in our life. It’s a discussion about the reality of God’s spiritual laws (Moral Law/Natural Law/Divine Law). The kids find it easier to understand if I open with an analogy using physical laws.

 

Gravity pulls us down and we attune our life and safety around it. The law of gravity does not change regardless of our opinions of it or how well we understand it. It also does not change if we choose to ignore it. No matter what, it still keeps us stable on the ground. Living in harmony with the law of gravity allows us to live a joyful life. Disharmony with gravity will hurt us or even kill us. We really never break the law of gravity, it breaks us!!

 

I run through this pseudo dialog with the class between two fictitious people referring to our classroom window, up on the second floor:

Person A: If I jump out that window, I will fall UP.

Person B: No, you will fall down.

 

Person A: That may be true for you, but it is not true for me. I truly believe with all my heart that I will fall up; it’s what my conscience tells me.

Person B: I hear what you are saying, but there is something called gravity that is not controlled by your conscience, so when you jump out that window, you will fall down.

Person A: I know about gravity too and I can see that you are very closed-minded about gravity, thinking it goes only ONE way for EVERYONE. Gravity can move different people in different ways.

Person B: I am open-minded. My mind is open to reality and if you jump out that window you will fall down.

Person A: You need to respect the beliefs of others. Not everyone sees gravity the way you do.

Person B: I do respect you, but you are wrong. Please do not jump out of that window and please do not lead others to jump out.

Person A: You had better change your “downward” way of thinking. You and your kind are on the wrong side of history about gravity and you are dragging down the rest of us.

Person B: Better to be on the wrong side of history than on the wrong side of reality.

It’s the same type of thing when we discuss God’s spiritual laws, which are inescapably linked to our faith and morals (and our joy). Whether it’s about respecting human life at the moment of conception to natural death or defining marriage as one man and one woman, God’s laws do not change regardless of human understanding or a lack thereof.

Another analogy the kids understand well revolves around sports. Let’s take basketball for instance; it has rules and officials. There are boundaries on the court as well. Does all this take the fun out of basketball? No, the rules, officials and boundaries make the game of basketball possible and make it exciting. Without them, no basketball player could ever fulfill his or her destiny as a basketball player. It’s the same with God's rules, God’s boundaries, and God’s officials (The Church). They make us free to find our destiny as human beings.
 

Spiritual laws are not meant to take the fun out of life; they are really laws of love and the boundaries are more like an embrace. The Good Shepherd tells us that if we live within these boundaries, He can protect us, guide us and love us; when we go outside of this embrace, He can't promise us these things. When we sin, we refuse God’s embrace in our life and then we wonder why we feel abandoned, depressed, prayers not answered, etc.....

Although this post was actually written a few days ago, it just happens to coincide well with the gospel for May 2nd that I read today by “mistake”. This was not planned, at least not by me. ;-)

“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” (John 15:10-11)



True Freedom

The Tree of Being

There is theology that says if God were to stop loving you or thinking of you for one instant, you would cease to exist. This is difficult to comprehend since we may think of God as puppet maker, and we His puppets.

A puppet maker will make a puppet (or a clay man) and do what he wishes with it. If he leaves it alone and forgets it, the puppet surly continues to exist, although it may be rather unanimated. This kind of thinking is based on human imagination, and the limits of our imagination impose limits to reality which are not really there, for God is being itself and continually holds everything in existence; makes sense considering He calls Himself “I AM” (see Exodus 3:14).

 

Analogies are most helpful…

When you stand in front of a mirror, what do you see? You see your image & likeness. If you leave the mirror even for an instant, what happens to your image & likeness? It ceases to exist! You “being” in front of the mirror continually holds your image & likeness in existence.

Fr. Spitzer gives a more complete analogy in his book “New Proofs for the Existence of God” with something called the Tree of Being. The Tree of Being relates to the more formal concept of Simplicity. What is simpler (or less restricted) is more capable of being in unity with what is more complex (more restricted) and God is infinitely simple. How can God be “simple” and how can something simpler help hold something more complex in existence? Just think of a cat.

Ø  What makes a cat act like a cat?

Its cells; if the cat’s cells stopped acting like cells, the cat can’t really be a cat and would cease to exist.

Ø  What makes the cells act like cells?

The molecules; if the molecules stopped acting like molecules, the cells can’t really be cells and they would cease exists.

Ø  What makes the molecules act like molecules?

The atoms; if the atoms stopped acting like atoms, the molecules can’t really be molecules and they would cease to exist.

And so it goes…

Ø  What makes the atoms act like atoms? The protons.

Ø  What makes protons act like protons? Quarks.

Ø  What makes quarks act like quarks? The most fundamental conditions (time? space? energy?)

Ø  What makes the most fundamental conditions act like the most fundamental conditions? A unifying field (UFT)?

Ø  What would make a unifying field act like a unifying field, and where does this end?!

It ends at the top of the Tree of Being. Logic demands that it end with one thing that needs nothing else to “act” for its own existence; one unconditioned reality that would be infinitely simple, and therefore completely unrestricted, and therefore unifying in all things.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE:

It is said that God has “no parts” when referring to His simplicity. If there are no parts, then nothing can be added or taken away, not even knowledge, power or love.

God is at the top of the Tree of Being and if He were to stop “acting” with regard to us, we could not be. God acts through His will and intellect and the action of the will is “to love” and the action of the intellect “to know”. So as we said on the onset, if God were to stop loving you or thinking of you for one instant, you would cease to exist. If God stops acting (loving/knowing), we stop being.

Given all this, it should come to no surprise that humans seek things that are simple, unifying and ordered to their proper end like love, truth, goodness and beauty; all these things flow down from the top of the tree. We seek well-being and so we journey on in hope, focused on the tree top, moving towards the oneness and simplicity of God. As we journey we can take confidence that His being is with us, continually holding us and constantly sustaining us. For it is written…“And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

 

The Flowering of Evangelization

In speaking to my wife about evangelization, we were comparing how other people either drew us closer or pushed us away in the way they embodied the gospel to us. Whether it was in the way they spoke to us or in the way they acted toward others; both their deliberate and unintentional actions spoke volumes of how they perceived and lived their faith. There were those who claimed the title "Christian" and wanted us to be saved, but disparaged our Catholic faith because they didn't think it was "Christian" enough. There were others who appeared to live uprightly, but spoke badly of others under their breath.

These people didn't live the faith they professed, yet somehow thought since, it was "right," we ought to give them a hearing. We were actually pushed away from their faith by such poor ambassadors. How ought we ourselves witness to our faith?

The Catholic tradition teaches three "theological" virtues: Faith, Hope and Love (or Charity). They are often metaphorically depicted as a flowering plant. Faith in God is the root of this plant. It is where the bedrock of mundane knowledge and the upward stretch of faith meet. It is a departure point and a return point, a place from which strength is drawn and growth begins as well as a sure center on which to "ground" oneself. Faith in God looks upward while non-faith is content to stay on the ground where all seems secure. It is often said that the stirrings of faith is that yearning for ultimate meaning or purpose which, of necessity, cannot be found on the ground.

Hope is the virtue that allows us to leave the ground and push upward. It is a strong belief that we are on the right track and we can trust the path we are on. Trust is another word that describes Hope. We trust that the faith we have will not fail us. It is Faith being put to the test. We cannot clearly see the end to which our faith leads, but when we rely on it, slowly at first, then with stumbling steps, leaving the safe and secure behind, we trust that there is another stepping stone out there in the dark on which to place our feet. As we become more confident in that hope, as we trust more and more to the promises of faith, we grow. It's a positive feedback loop. Hope, then, is the stem of the plant. It is the strong branches and spreading leaves that both uphold us and allow us to take in more and more of the sunshine.

Love is the flower. It is both the culmination of faith and hope and the means of reproduction. It is the beauty of the soul and the passion of sexual love. It is the fulfillment of the promise, the telos (goal) of our existence, the way we become all that we were meant to be. It is beauty, firstly, because others can see that beauty. It makes visible the invisible potential within us. It does not simply dress up an otherwise ugly plant, it actually shows the reality of that plant. The plant is a beautiful thing in itself, but the flower allows the merely physical senses to know it as well. It is the means of reproduction because a flower that has germinated, is ready to spread its seeds of faith.

This is where the discussion on evangelization comes in. If I want to share my faith with someone, I don't tell them about my faith first. I don't tell them how much theology I know or how wrong their ideas are for not believing in God. Nor do I tell them how much trust I have in God, how I left my job hoping God would make it all work or how wonderful I think heaven will be someday. I show them the flower. I show them my love. I give them the flower of my love and let them know I trust them with it and that they may have it unconditionally.

I simply love them.

From that point, it may be that they want to know from where this love comes. What is the reason for this abundant love?  What is it inside me that makes it grow?

From within this loving friendship, I can then talk about the reason for my hope. I can explain how it springs from my faith. I can explain how my faith is rooted in the world and how I got here. However, it is all made possible through the flower. We all meet and make true contact with each other at the point at which we love.


Flowers in a field blow in the wind all together, the flower tops swaying and touching, reveling in the release from the ground. Dancing in the breath of air that animates them, which carries the seeds where it will.

Reasonable & Responsible

Continuing some reflections from the book “New Proofs for the Existence of God” by Fr. Robert Spitzer, let’s consider the significance of infinite vs. finite past time and why the discussion might matter.

Most scientists accept and that our universe is 13.7 billion years old and that the big bang actually happened as the beginning point. When Fr. Spitzer refers to “the universe”, he does not mean only our universe as in one of many, he means ALL physical reality (time, space, matter, energy, etc.); anything that is not nothing.

There are several speculative scenarios about the universe where “something” was supposed to have happened or physically existed before the big bang, so the big bang is not really the beginning of the universe or the beginning of time. These scenarios are called Past-Extended Big Bang models or PBBM’s. In the book, Fr. Spitzer runs through many arguments for the Standard Big Bang model as the most reasonable & responsible model; where the big bang IS the beginning of time and of all physical reality (you’ll need to read the book for all the excruciating details).

The discussion reminded me of the problem analysis method we use where I work. Specific inputs about a specific problem (data, experience, judgment, knowledge) are used in a specific troubleshooting process. Before using (or wasting) company resources testing random possible causes, we first determine the most probable cause via reason alone; this becomes the cause we test first without any absolute proof that it is actually correct. The most probable cause is the proposed cause that has the most reasonable assumptions, the fewest assumptions and the overall simplest assumptions given ALL the inputs available; reasonable & responsible as Fr. likes to put it.

He says:

“In view of the extensive applicability and preponderance of evidence for a beginning of the universe (and the narrow and tenuous path which must be taken to get around it), it can be concluded that the evidence currently supports a reasonable likelihood of a beginning – a point at which the universe came into existence.”

Other interesting discussions revolve around the odds of an anthropic universe (one that will allow the emergence of ANY life form) materializing by itself as a random occurrence. What are the odds of all the necessary physical constants being set precisely as they are? An analogy was given in the book to demonstrate something that is physically possible, but might be called statistically impossible; it involved a monkey and a keyboard. What are the odds of a monkey randomly typing at a keyboard and outputting a perfect transcript of Shakespeare’s Hamlet? There are no laws of physics that will prevent the monkey from hitting all the right keys, but to think this will happen by itself is unreasonable & irresponsible. If we did see it happen would we say, “That’s one lucky monkey” or would we suspect an intelligent agent was influencing the monkey somehow

What else is physically possible, but might be called statistically impossible? How about a game of pool? What are the odds of you breaking a pool rack only to find that the balls settled back down (randomly) to reform the same exact triangle? Again, there is nothing in the laws of physics to stop it from happening, but it won’t. If it did happen would you say, “What an interesting coincidence” or would you be spooked out of your mind?

 

Think of winning the lottery, but not just once. What would be the odds of winning one thousand times is a row? There is nothing preventing you from picking all the right numbers every time, but to think this will happen is unreasonable & irresponsible. If somebody won that often would you say, “Lucky-bum” with a shrug of the shoulders, or would you say the game was rigged. The same is true with the remarkable fine-tuning observed in the universe. To think it can all happen randomly is something unreasonable and irresponsible. Creation must be rigged in our favor so to speak.

So back to why contemplating infinite vs. finite past time might matter. Things happening BEFORE the big bang obviously bring back discussions of infinite past time, space, matter and energy. This is a very helpful assumption to hold on to if we are to say there is no God because an infinite universe brings infinite possibilities, which makes improbability disappear. This explains away the analogies of the monkey with the keyboard, the spooky pool rack and the mega lottery winner.

Even with the big bang as the beginning of time, an infinite number of dimensions to our universe (a multiverse) will still bring back a discussion of infinite possibilities, but Fr. Spitzer explains in the book that a multiverse cannot currently be verified through evidence. Of course, one might find it easier to believe in an infinite array of universes than an infinite deity, but this would rest on FAITH and not observation.

Seems to me, Fr. Spitzers' book is all about intellectual honesty coupled with reason's responsibility. Using reason alone, we can construe that an intelligent unconditioned reality must have been the cause of every conditioned reality, or in other words, there must be something beyond "the physical" which caused "the physical" and that something must be intelligent. Even with no absolute empirical proof and no faith, this becomes the most reasonable & responsible conclusion given all the inputs we have, including the new inputs from contemporary physics and philosophy.

Today's Gospel was appropriate:
"I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?"
John 3:12