Christ's Faithful Witness

Merry Christmas from the Foxes

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 05:40:00 +0000

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:8-12)

Good News! A Savior is born!

Who knew first? A lowly group of ordinary shepherds. But the news was intended for everybody -- for all mankind for all time because those shepherds were excited. And they checked it out. They went over to Bethlehem to see this thing that happened, and found the Baby lying in a manger. And they told other people!

It must have been very rare to find a new born baby laying in a stable in a place where animals feed. But that is indeed how Our Lord Jesus Christ chose to come into the world. And those are the type of people He invited to His birth -- ordinary people.

When He exited the world, Jesus chose the cross as the means of his leaving. The cross became a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Muslims teach somebody else took His place on the cross because to them Jesus was a great prophet, and to die on the cross was a shameful death. It's too bad more people didn't pay attention to His birth because being born in a stable is a shameful birth. I mean who do you know who was born in a stable?

But Good News! God doesn't see things the way we do. He picked a lowly virgin to be Jesus' mother. He picked a carpenter to be his foster father. They weren't rich. The didn't have a car. And their status in life was bottom of the barrel. But God was excited because it was His Son -- the Word made flesh -- Who came to dwell among us. And He sent his angels with the Good News.

But he also invited kings from the East. They were led by a star. And they brought gifts, and so the tradition of Christmas giving began. For it is Jesus Who said, "It is better to give than to give than receive."

Whether you are led by a star or led by an angel, we are hoping you also find yourself in a stable this Christmas standing next to an Infant lying in a manger. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son. . .
-- Susan Fox

HATRED MAKES YOU STUPID: A Family Conversation

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:31:00 +0000

by Susan Fox

Imagine a super-intelligent creature, whose whole desire is bent on evil.

But every time he thinks of some terrible tragedy to inflict on mankind, the loving God brings great good out of his evil actions. He does evil, but good triumphs.

“Curses, foiled again.” That is the refrain of Satan.

Case in point: Roughly 2,000 years ago, he plotted against what he thought was a man named Jesus. He organized Jesus’ Jewish detractors to ask him tricky questions. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” Satan probably thought, “Yeah, answer that one.” But Jesus answered with a question, “Whose image is on that coin?” The answer being “Caesar’s” So He answered, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.".(Mark 12:17) And Mark goes on to say, “they were amazed at him.”

Jesus had an answer for everything they threw at him. The Sadducees, who said there was no resurrection, came to Him with another trick question. A woman was married consecutively to seven brothers and had no children with any of them. So at the resurrection whose wife would she be as she was married to all seven? He told them they were in error. “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead -- have you not read what God said to you, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matt. 22:30-33) And again the crowds were amazed at this.

Finally, Satan stirred up so much hatred against Jesus Christ that the Jews spurred Pilate to condemn Jesus to death on the cross. There is a striking literary image of this in the movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” During the scourging at the pillar, a twisted ugly figure with a monstrous baby circles the crowd as Jesus willingly submits to horrible torture by the obviously brutal Roman soldiers. Satan gloats.

But what a short time he has to rejoice! In three days, he finds out that Jesus has risen from the dead! He is again teaching and preparing His apostles for Pentecost when the Church will be born and thousands converted. The apostles will reach the whole world with Christ's message, going first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles and finally to the ends of the earth -- to peoples never even known in that time.

“Curses, foiled again!”

Christ’s death was Satan’s biggest blunder.

But he keeps making the same mistake over and over again. “Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20) And so the saints and martyrs in all centuries since have suffered through hatred and persecution.

This led to my family conversation. A very holy man died violently Thursday morning in a car accident in India on his way home for Christmas. The blows to his head apparently were quite awful according to eye witnesses. This priest was a dear friend of my family and friends, and he had started an organization that led many onto the path of holiness. His life was incredibly fruitful.

Father used to tell us that Satan often threatened to destroy him -- even when he was a little boy. But Father knew that if God ever allowed Satan to kill him, God would use his death and suffering to save many other souls. It’s called the communion of saints: united with the sufferings of Christ in love, our peril is helpful to others, redemptive in nature.

Given the sudden violence of this priest’s death at a fairly young age, my family and I reflected that it was like Satan finally got his chance to viciously end the priest's life. He must have thought, "I will put an end to that organization by killing the priest. The good they are doing will stop."

So Satan must have also thought when he agitated for the death of Christ. He thought, "His apostles will be demoralized. The work of Jesus will be at an end." If he had but known the good that would come from the tragedy of Christ’s death, Satan would have been stirring up the Romans and the Pharisees to save His life -- not destroy it.

But hatred actually makes you stupid. Think of Satan, probably the most intelligent creature God ever made, certainly one of the most beautiful. He should have realized that great and infinite good that would come out of the death of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. But hatred blinded him. Hatred confused him in his innermost thoughts.

How funny that a creature so bent on causing evil, succeeds and then finds his best efforts have unintended good results because God is in control and God is love.

We -- his family and friends -- will miss Father. Jesus' disciples were terribly demoralized for three days after his death. But on Pentecost they were up and at them -- busy preaching the word of God to the multitudes; exultant when they were allowed to suffer abuse and death for the sake of Christ.

Father used to say that dying was just a change of address. You go to sleep and you wake up somewhere else, and God says, “You are going to live here now.” It's the company you keep that is important. Father used to urge us to become PIGs (Planted In God). "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Matt 24:35) Anchor your heart in the Word. Father did. He always kept company with Jesus.

And now Satan must have realized it. “Curses, foiled again.”

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Ps 116:15)

Beautitudes are a Map to Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 03:21:00 +0000

by John Paul Shea, Tucson Seminarian
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

In Arizona, not far from where I am from, there is a mountain range called the Superstition Mountains. According to history, there is a fantastic gold mine that was discovered there. The mine is said to have been first discovered by the Apache Indians in the 1500s.

People have been searching for the mine ever since, but no one has found it. Over the years the mine has been given the name the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. Everyone who is said to have discovered the gold have either been found dead or have vanished. Just last year Arizona officials called off a search for three hikers who were on a quest for the legendary lost gold mine. The men disappeared into the sweltering wilderness with little camping gear or water. According to news reports, “They had one thing on their mind, and that was finding [the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine], and they didn't take into consideration the other factors."

In today’s Gospel we also hear about a mountain. Like the Superstition Mountains, this mountain also has a hidden trail that leads to gold. However, unlike the Superstition Mountains, this gold can be found. The map that leads to the gold comes from the mouth of Jesus Christ and is written in the scriptures. This map is the Beatitudes.

The map of the Beatitudes is a map to happiness. Everybody wants to be happy. We want what makes us feel good. We desire pleasure. We want prosperity. Although these things are not bad in themselves, they do not bring us the kind of happiness that Jesus gives us. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brings the notion of happiness to a whole new level. Jesus is telling us that happiness does not come from what we have. Rather, happiness is given through the way we live.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us a way of living that is radically different than what had ever been heard before. Jesus is asking us to change. He is not just asking us to make a few changes in our behaviors, but is asking us to change every aspect of our lives. These changes do not promise laughter, fortune, or even safety. What they do promise, however, is divine union. We all know that making changes in life is not easy. None of us can do it on our own. That is why Jesus gives us a series of steps. The Beatitudes is kind of like a twelve step program. However, instead of twelve steps, there are only eight.

In the first step, Jesus tells us to become poor in spirit. This first step is very important because it breaks the sin of pride. By taking this first step, we will empty ourselves of our self so that God can fill us with His self. When we become filled with God, we will then have the grace to take the following steps. By the time we reach the last step, we will see firsthand that no Christian will reach the top of God’s mountain without major difficulties. Yet, if we persevere, even to the point of death, we will find true happiness because we will have overcome the world.

If we look into the lives of the saints, we can see that many of these holy individuals have followed the steps of the Beatitudes in their own creative ways. For example, Saint Teresa of Avila climbed through nine mansions, taking each step of prayer and self-denial until she reached divine union. Saint Therese followed the steps in her “little way.” Saint John of the Cross, who climbed the mountain in darkness said, “The beatitudes are a marvelous chain of mountains of which each peak is a steppingstone in the sublime ascent that leads to God. Each one of the beatitudes is something perfect and excellent – a summit in itself; and at the same time it is a beginning of future happiness even in this life.”

My brothers, climbing the Beatitudes is not easy. But, Christ has assured us that he will give us blessings all the way. Let us continue to persevere on this Christian journey. Let us not fall backwards into the false gold of the world, but let us climb up the Mountain until we reach the true gold, the gold of divine union. On that day we will reach true happiness. We will hear the words, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

The Cross in Christmas, Not the Nightmare Before!

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:24:00 +0000

by Susan Fox
Larry, James and I celebrated the week before Christmas at Disneyland. Excessive rain and crowds made the trip a little tough and drippy. The Haunted Mansion ride has been redecorated as the Nightmare Before Christmas with Sandy Claws. What a parody of the truth! The ride is designed to instill fear within children about Christmas, while the true message of Christmas gives us hope and courage. So the highlight of the week for me was the sermon on courage at Sunday Mass at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim, Calif., on Dec. 19, 2010.

The sermon's setting was significant. I attended first grade at this school in 1959-60. It was two years after my father died, my mother had to work and I went to daily Mass so she could get to work early.

St. Boniface recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. It was 100 years old when I attended grade school there. I remember they said three Masses simultaneously on all three front altars in Latin. I always attended the left altar Mass. That sounds very funny now because Vatican II ended that practice. We have only one Mass said at one time. The left altar at St. Boniface has been replaced with the tabernacle and the right altar with the Nativity crèche.

The church had been redecorated since 1960. So in order for me to recognize it, I had to exit through the door behind the left altar and look at the steps as I remembered rushing down those, running for the bathroom when Mass was over. I suffered during those Masses as I always had to go to the bathroom, but I was too young and shy to realize it was okay to leave during Mass. Somehow the Catholic understanding of suffering had been explained to me at the age of six, so I offered my pain in union with the sufferings of Christ, and I embraced the cross. What a gift. In subsequent years, I sometimes fled the cross. It's never easy to face our fear and suffering.

When I attended St. Boniface, I'm sure that most of the people were white. Now they are mostly brown and of various nationalities. The priest who gave the sermon was Vietnamese. My husband greeted him in that language as he has made a point of learning some phrases from our Vietnamese friends.

Actually, the young priest was once a child who escaped Vietnam as a refugee in a boat. Literally, the man saying Mass at St. Boniface was one of those suffering boat people! The reading for the day was about St. Joseph. You remember he discovered that Mary, his betrothed was pregnant and he decided to divorce her quietly. Why? Because he knew he wasn't the father. But an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife as the child within her womb was conceived by God not by man. Hence the sign promised to King Ahaz was fulfilled: A Virgin shall be with Child.

Joseph overcame his fear and took Mary into his home, and hence he became the foster father and provider for the Son of God. And so there was suffering in that first Christmas, but Joseph overcame his fear and trusted in God.

The Vietnamese priest said when he was a little boy he was very afraid of the dark. And his family had a very dark cellar. One day his mother asked him to get a can of tomatoes from the cellar, and he told his mother he was afraid of the darkness in the cellar. She told him not to be afraid because Jesus was in the cellar. So the little boy descended the stairs and stood at the doorway of the cellar and yelled, "Jesus! If you are in there, please hand me a can of tomatoes."

He was trying to explain how we can be very afraid in certain situations, but we have to learn to trust God. Later, this priest as a young boy was in a boat escaping Viet Nam and there was a terrible storm. The waves were rocking the boat, almost overturning it. One little boy was almost dying with fear, and another was so relaxed he was almost asleep. The terrified boy asked the relaxed boy why he wasn't afraid. And he said, "Because my father is the pilot of this boat!"

If we could all realize that Our Father in heaven is the pilot of our boat perhaps we would relax more and enjoy this life. It is short.

But I was amazed that God arranged for a sermon on suffering in the church in which I had suffered! I felt like I died and came back to earth to see the changes. All the suffering seems to have paid off as the liturgy at the St. Boniface was absolutely lovely. The music and chant drew me into prayer instead of distracting me as it does in other local churches. That's why I enjoyed St. Boniface. In prayer, Jesus and I can return to the St. Boniface of 1959 and converse about old times. I always wondered what Moses and Elijah had to say to Jesus at the Transfiguration. I guess they were discussing the cross. The Bible says they were discussing Jesus' exodus from Jerusalem. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt in their Exodus. Jesus led us from the slavery of sin by His suffering on the cross - His exodus from Jerusalem.

I faced the dark cellar in 1959 when I attended Mass in suffering refusing myself access to a bathroom. The young priest faced his fears in a boat when he came to America to grow up and preach the gospel. St. Joseph faced his fears when he took a pregnant Mary for his bride. This year, I feel like I faced a similar fear when I nearly died and had heart surgery. This issue of fear and suffering plagues us our whole lives long. The solution is to trust in God and to realize He doesn't look at suffering the way we do. To Him, it's a means to fulfill our purpose in life - to know, love and be imitators of God, Who Himself suffered and died on the cross.

There is a famous Italian saint, called Padre Pio. He suffered the wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and head for 50 long years. He also fought with the devil - literally. One night as the devil was pummeling him yet again, he noticed his guardian angels were happily flying around the ceiling and singing. When the devil left he asked his good angel why he didn't help him fight the devil. The angel said he did fight -- by praising God. That's the difference between this life and the next. We glorify God with our suffering in this life and with our happiness and singing in the Presence of God in the next life. To believe otherwise would make us bitter, angry and resentful.

We adore thee O Christ and bless thee because by the Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world!

God bless you.
Susan Fox

Mary's Role in Salvation: The New Eve

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 05:32:00 +0000

by Susan Fox
What an amusing time I had reading the web page run by the Evangelical Outreach on the titles of Mary.
They very correctly identified the fact that many Catholic titles of Mary like Morning Star and Help of Christians are identified with the actions of God in the Bible. “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Heb 13:6)
Furthermore, they concluded many Catholic titles of Mary like Gate of Heaven and Refuge of Sinners show that Mary has a role to play in our salvation. However, they erroneously decided that “Mary is never included with Jesus in the Scriptures as having even the slightest role in salvation.” I wonder if we are reading the same Bible!
By the very fact that the Bible says that God sent the angel Gabriel to a Virgin in Nazareth to ask her to be the Mother of His Son, God involved Mary in our salvation. What could be more obvious than that? No Mary, no Jesus.
Not that God needed Mary, but He wanted her cooperation and that is what she offered: “Behold the handmaid (servant) of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
Just because we recognize her role in salvation and have given her many titles that reflect what God does, Catholics still do not worship Mary. The Catholic Church teaches that all true devotion to Mary is Christ centered. If Mary were the end of our devotion and not the means, we would be idolaters. Christ as God has the power. It was His sacrifice on the cross that brought our salvation. We agree on that! Mary as human being and mother simply cooperated in our salvation. As such, she is the perfect model of a disciple of Christ. She is the Untarnished Image of the Church. “Do whatever He tells you,” she told the servants at the wedding feast of Cana. (John 2:5)
The Bible identifies Mary cooperating in our salvation in many other places. Her role was foretold in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
Some translations say, “he” shall crush your head and some say “she” or “it.” But the serpent crushing action comes from the Woman and her Seed. The Seed is Jesus Christ. He is God. He has the power. But the Woman is allowed to share in this crushing role -- this defeat of evil leading to our salvation. Her role is cooperative. And as our early Church Fathers remarked there is a justice in having Jesus and Mary joining together to bring about our salvation. For it was through a man (Adam) and a woman (Eve) that sin came into the world. Hence, a man and a woman were needed to repair the damage of sin. It was Eve’s “No” that brought sin into the world. It was Mary’s “Yes” that brought Christ and his redeeming sacrifice on the cross. Hence, Mary is called the “New Eve.” And Christ is called the “New Adam.”
You, who are reading this, are human beings. Yet you may be involved in raising children or some chore helping to bring God’s salvation to the world. God doesn’t need you to do this work. But He wants to share the joy of His work with you. "My Father goes on working and so do I," Jesus said. (John 5:17) And when the apostles brought food to Jesus after his conversation with the woman at the well, He said “I have food to eat that you don't know about." (John 4:32) She had just repented of living with a man after having five husbands, and she went to tell the village about Jesus: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (John 4:29) Jesus’ food, His joy was bringing salvation to the people! Why does He let you help Him bring the Gospel to all peoples? He doesn't need you. He can do it without you. But God delights to work with nothing. He lets us cooperate with Him in bringing His salvation to the world. And if us, then why not Mary, His mother?
Mary is simply the best model, the first example of the Christian disciple. She responded perfectly. And yes, she was without sin because if she had any sin she would have exploded the minute the Seed was conceived in her womb. Think about David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. What was the Ark? Containing manna, the rod of Aaron and the 10 commandments, it was the tabernacle holding the Real Presence of God among the Jewish people.
The ark started to slip from its pallet and fall and one of David's men tried to catch it with the motive of protecting it. But he died instantly. Why? He had sin. Nothing with sin can touch God and live. "Nothing defiled shall enter heaven." (Rev. 21:27)
But Mary is identified in the first chapter of Luke as "FULL OF GRACE." The angel Gabriel says, Hail (Hello) and addresses her with the title "Full of Grace." Why? She has no sin. She is all full of God alone. To be the mother of Jesus Christ -- true God and true man -- she must be sinless. So the Church calls her the New Ark of the Covenant.
How was Mary conceived without sin? Medieval Theologian John Duns Scotus explained it best. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was applied to Mary at her conception. How? God is outside time. He is in eternity. While she was redeemed like the rest of us by Jesus Christ on the cross, yet the sacrifice was applied to her before His death on the cross by God, who was preparing the Woman and Her Seed from the first moments in mankind's history to bring salvation to the world.
Revelation Chapter 12 gives you a replay of the same thing. At the end of Chapter 11, the Ark of the Covenant is seen in heaven. My goodness, the Ark hasn't been seen for hundreds of years. The Jews lost it. Then it appears in heaven at the end of Revelation Chap. 11. Then the next line is: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Ah, here again is the Woman of Genesis 3:15, a cooperative human woman doing feats that only God could accomplish by God's power not her own.
She is wailing in pain while she is about to give birth to a Son while a red dragon waits to swallow both of them. This woman is Mary, who cooperates in our salvation as a human being. But it is also the Catholic Church herself, and the pain is the struggle involved in our salvation – the salvation of the members of the Body of Christ. Mary -- being without sin -- probably did not suffer the pangs of childbirth in Christ's delivery. But in trying to bring the Body of Christ into eternity, there is a lot of suffering.
At the end of Chapter 12, the devil is very grumpy standing angrily on the beach. He goes off to make war against the Woman's other children; the one's who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
If this describes you, then God is Our Father and Mary is Our Mother. She is a human being, but as such she was given the opportunity to represent us, to be the one creature who said YES to God when Adam and Eve said NO, allowing sin and death to enter the world.
Another such figure as Mary is Abraham – a human being who said YES to God. He was willing to offer his son Isaac as an offering to God when asked. He was obedient to God. That is why he is called our father in faith. But Isaac hauling the wood up the mountain, asks his father Abraham, “Father where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” Abraham answers, "God Himself will supply the lamb for the sacrifice." (Gen. 22:8)
Without realizing how prophetic his words are, Abraham believes he is about to sacrifice his son, Isaac. But God intervenes and provides Abraham with another sacrifice, a ram. But those words -- “God Himself will supply the lamb for the sacrifice” -- those words resonate down through the centuries and we realize that God Himself so loved the world He gave His Only Son. There was no ram caught on a bush to replace Jesus' Sacrifice on the Cross. In the death of Jesus Christ, God the Father actually made the sacrifice that He symbolically demanded of Abraham.
Now if Catholics gazed adoringly at Mary just for the purpose of worshiping her, that would be idolatry. But no, we fully expect her to be a sinless means to a Great End. She will take us to God. And that is what we want. We want God with our whole mind, heart, strength and being! And Mary is a means to that end. Do you not ask your friends to pray for you? My goodness, who are they but sinful weak people like ourselves? Why not ask the Woman who gave birth to the God who taught us to "HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER?” Would not such a God honor His mother and listen to your request more readily than if you asked Him directly while in all your sins?
All the great titles of Mary, and there are many of them, express the idea that she is cooperating in God's action. So yes, they seem to be strongly related to God Himself, but the power is God's. He has simply allowed Mary to participate in His action, and because she did so perfectly without falling into sin, she is honored, not worshiped. For if she had failed, so would Christ not come into the world and we would not now have the opportunity to accept our salvation from God.
Abraham's faith was rewarded for his children are a numerous as the stars. Mary's faith is rewarded also because at the foot of the Cross, she is made the New Eve, Mother of Mankind, when her Son says to John, "Behold, Your Mother!"
New Eve, Virgin crushing the head of the serpent, pray for us.
And that, my friends, is a title for Mary.

Three Amigos: An Eclectic View on Angels

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 04:53:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox

Angel of God my guardian dear, to whom God’s Love commits me here. Ever this day, be at my side, to light and guard and to rule and guide.

Three Visible Amigos to the Rescue

My wife informed me that I was to meet her at the car dealer at 5:30 p.m. So after school, I adroitly got in my car and traveled off to meet her. While in transit, suddenly I picked up in my peripheral vision an impending scuffle on the opposite side of the roadway.

I slowed up the car, glanced left, and noticed about six or seven youths ready to pounce on two lanky looking youths. I pulled my car into the middle turn section of the roadway, sounded the car horn, turned on the emergency flasher, got out of the car and yelled, “Get into my car!”

And so they started to run towards my car along with their pursuers. I noticed that two of the ring leaders stayed behind. I wanted to help these youths and at the same time, I recognized the risk of getting into real trouble if someone started to throw fists. In other words, I was not really prepared to deal with the impeding situation. So while surrounded by several miscreants telling me to mind my own business, I prayed in my spirit: “I need a little help here!”

Immediately, three amigos ran up and started to wail on the two ring leaders who had stayed behind. I remember the enthusiasm with which the three amigos executed their task. It was like something out of a Marvel comic: “You want to fight? SMACK @#$% “You want to hit on someone?” POW $@#!

As a result, the miscreants scattered away from my car and headed towards bedlam. I gained my composure and instructed the two lanky kids to get into my car and off we drove. They were so relieved and I was so grateful that nothing else happened.
I cannot state with certainty whether the three amigos were angels or men but the timing was obviously supernatural.

One Invisible Amigo to the Rescue

Many years earlier while walking home from grade school, I was about to turn from the curb and head into the street. I must have been day dreaming or something. I was grabbed from behind and stopped one step from the curb. In a flash a metro bus zoomed past me. If I would have stepped into the street I would have been “food for worms.” Who grabbed me? I could see no corporeal person around. Again the timing was supernatural.

Should I be surprised?

Sacred Scripture time and again speaks of God’s intervention in the lives of men and women; sending his messengers both Angels and Archangels to protect, guide, instruct, and to encourage. The Catholic Catechism Article 336 states that from its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. With each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.

Sometimes these messengers appear and announce good tidings like the gift of a child as was the case with Abraham & Sara, Zacharias & Elizabeth, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Sometimes these messengers appear to execute God’s judgment like at Sodom, in Egypt during the Passover, and with the tribulations described in the Book of Revelation. Sometimes these messengers assist men in battle like the Prince of the Host of the Lord assisting Joshua after Israel crossed the River Jordan.

Sometimes these messengers provide sustenance and comfort to weary souls: like the angel bringing water to Hagar & Ishmael and the angels that came to minister to Jesus after his 40 days of fasting in the desert.

We easily remember these supernatural moments knowing that God has intervened and sent his messenger. Yet, God is always acting in our lives with every breath we take.

I have been told that the sure ticket to heaven is to demonstrate gratitude to God for his constant Love and Protection and to thank God for all the ways He guides and protects us through the various creatures and persons He brings into our lives.

Blessed be God in his Angels and His Saints.

One way that the Catholic Church helps us to live a life of gratitude is through our participation in her various liturgical celebrations: Solemnities, Feast Days, and Memorials.

Two such Feast Days are the Feast of St. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels on September 29th and the Feast of Guardian Angels on October 2nd.

Three Amigos in Heaven

We learn from the Deposit of Faith that St. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are Archangels (rulers or princes).

The Church identifies these archangels as saints. The term “saint” means holy and set apart. The Catholic Church sets these three angels apart in the liturgical calendar because they are set apart in Sacred Scripture for they are specifically named among the myriad and myriad of good angels which make up the nine choirs of angels (not in any order): angels, archangels, virtues, thrones, powers, principalities, dominions, cherubim, and seraphim.

Sacred Scripture specifically identifies these three archangels by name: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, incorporating the Hebrew expression of God “El”. There are three Hebrew names for God: El, Elohim, and Eloah. The proper name for God is Yahweh (IAM).

Note: Sacred Scripture also identifies by name certain bad angels but not for our curiosity but as a warning and that is for another topic.

“Who is like God?”

Michael's name is an interrogative expression, "Who is like God?" And his name seems to be based upon the fact that he fights against those who oppose God with his own brand of humility. His battle cry against Satan and his minions who rebelled against God must have been: “Who is like God that you dare to challenge Him?”

We find St. Michael spoken of by name in the Book of Daniel, the Letter of Jude, and the Book of Revelation. In the Book of Daniel it is the Archangel Gabriel who identifies St. Michael as the one of the chief princes in heaven and the great prince of the people of Israel (Daniel 10:7-21, 11:2, 12:3).

In the Book of Revelation (12:7) we learn of war in heaven between St. Michael and his angels and the dragon and his followers. The battle is fought and St. Michael and the good angels cast the dragon (the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan) and his demons out of heaven and to the earth. Pope Leo the XIII was given a vision of this battle and as a result composed the St. Michael the Archangel prayer.

St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. And may God rebuke him, we humble pray. And do thou oh prince of the heavenly host by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirit that prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen!

Our Pastor leads the congregation in the recitation of this prayer after Mass here at St. George’s Roman Catholic Parish in Apache Junction, AZ. I get the sense that God is pleased with this practice.

I remember reciting this prayer to my Baptist friend named Michael and he said: “Baptists do not pray to angels.” I asked him: “Does not the Bible state that St. Michael battles against the devil and wins? Do you not understand that God deliberately reveals to us this task of St. Michael’s in Sacred Scripture? And is not the devil still around harassing us? Then it seems that since God has assigned him this task, and we are God’s children by adoption, we would be fools not to encourage St. Michael to kick butt in our defense.

St. Jude writes that we are to be humble in our language even when dealing with evil. It is from the Letter of St. Jude (1:9) we read that when Moses died, the Archangel Michael disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. We learn from Sacred Scripture that Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab. And the people of Israel buried him in Gai near the house of Phogor; and no one has seen his sepulcher to this day (Deuteronomy 34:5).

It seems that God collected and transported the body of Moses but where we do not know. There are apocryphal books which attempted to provide some of the missing data: the Assumption of Moses and the Book of Enoch which may have been referenced in this Letter of St. Jude.

It is speculated that it is St. Michael who stands with his sword drawn and proclaims to Joshua that he is the Prince of the Host of the Lord (Joshua 5:14). The presence of this Prince of the Host overcomes Joshua who places his face to the ground.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 101

The Watchtower Society teaches that Michael was the word of god (a god) with the god (Jehovah) in the beginning. This is why Watchtower Society manipulates into their New World Translation John 1:1 (and the word was a god). That god (Jehovah) then changed this divine Michael into the human Jesus - from god’s (Jehovah) memory of Michael. This human Jesus did not have a soul since no human person has a soul [sic] according to Watchtower Society teaching. And after Jesus died on the cross and was buried, the god (Jehovah) took the lifeless body of Jesus away so his followers would not commit idolatry, worshiping the body of Jesus (similar to the reason given for the missing body of Moses). And then the god (Jehovah) created a new spirit being from god’s (Jehovah) memory of Jesus and this new spirit being is sometimes identified as Jesus and sometimes as Michael.

Like the followers of Mohamed, the Watchtower Society denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Fourth Century, the Gnostic presbyter and heretic Arius taught (like the Jewish Gnostic Ebionites centuries earlier) that Michael was the first creature that God created. And through this creature Michael, God then created all other creatures.

Speaking of creation, when did God create the angels?

After reciting the Canticle of Daniel 3:57-88, 56 (All you works of the Lord, O Bless the Lord..) over and over, I finally understood that the Jews identifying in Sacred Scripture that God created the angels before He created the material world.
The Canticle of Daniel describes the sequence of God’s creation starting with the angels, then the heavens, the clouds, the armies of the Lord, sun and moon, stars, showers, the earth, the land, the seas, sea creatures, birds, land beasts, men, priests, servants of the Lord, spirits and souls of the just, and finally leading up to his martyrs Ananias, Azarias, and Mizael.

Gabriel means “Strength of God.”

We find St. Gabriel spoken of by name in the Book of Daniel and the Gospel of Luke. St. Gabriel brings to the prophet Daniel many revelations about the people of Israel and the coming of the Messiah. Daniel is a Jew in exile and living in Nineveh. He was praying and confessing his sins and the sins of his people before God when St. Gabriel comes to him to reveal the events which were about to happen soon and much later. The presence of St. Gabriel overcomes Daniel who places his face to the ground while his heart is deeply moved to reverence.
St. Gabriel tells Daniel that he would have come sooner but was delayed twenty one days by the Prince of the Persians (another good angel). And this prince would not let St. Gabriel go until St. Michael came to remedy the situation. Then St. Gabriel tells Daniel that he is going back to fight with the Prince of the Persians and the Prince of the Greeks. This event shows that even good angels can make mistakes.

It is from the Book of Daniel that we come to understand that angels (good and bad so it seems) are associated with peoples and nations. I assume the good angels are assigned their roles from God and the bad ones simply attach themselves like a plague to a place (maybe due to a prevalent type of sin) or they are brow beaten into the task by Satan. It is a good reason to praise the name of God constantly so that the bad angels flee and lose influence over our homes, our land and leave.
We know from the lips of Jesus that each little child has an angel who beholds the face of the Heavenly Father. We also know from the lips of Jesus that when an evil spirit is swept from a soul and the soul remains empty (not filled with Grace and Truth) the evil spirit eventually comes back with many more leaving the person in a worse state.

From the Gospel of St. Luke we read that St. Gabriel brings to Zacharias the good news that his prayers have been heard and that his wife Elizabeth would bear him a son and they were name him John. We know this son to be John the Baptist. St. Gabriel reveals that the son would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. When poor Zacharias doubts the message, St. Gabriel lets him know that he is Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to him.

I always thought that Gabriel words were other worldly and then I realized that Zacharias was in the Holy of Holies offering incense (God’s dwelling place on earth) when the angel came to him. Here is Zacharias standing with Gabriel literally in the presence of God in the Temple and Zacharias suggests that Gabriel is telling a fib. The irony of the exchange is so Jewish.

There is a Jewish tradition that when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice (one time a year), a rope would be tied to his ankle in the event he perished as a result of some impropriety in the presence of God.

I can imagine St. Gabriel reminding Zacharias “Are you comprehending what you are saying? Who has the rope tied around his foot -- me or you? ” Anyway Zacharias got off with a warning ticket; he could not speak until his son John was born.

Note: Daniel while in exile was offering prayers to God on behalf of himself and his people before the Archangel Gabriel arrives. Zacharias was in the temple offering incense and prayers on behalf of himself and his people, before the Archangel Gabriel arrives.

From the Gospel of St. Luke we read that St. Gabriel brings good news to Mary, a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, and that she is “Full of Grace” and that she would conceive in her womb a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. And her child would be known as the Son of God and she was to give the child the name of Jesus (Joshua), which means "God Saves." Perhaps we can conclude that Mary was also praying before the angel appeared to her.

It is St. Gabriel who reveals to the Virgin Mary the mystery of God as Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 102

It should be noted that the followers of Mohammed believe that Gabriel revealed the Koran (Recital) to Mohammed. “Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from clots of blood. Recite your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who by the pen taught man what he did not know” (Sura 96:1-5). Mohammed taught that the Koran corrects the errors which crept into the GOSPELS and the BOOKS of MOSES and rules over them (Sura 4:48). It is worth noting that when Mohammed told the angel Gabriel he could not read in order to receive the Koran, the angel squeezed him three times until he could read. Mohammed then read and his followers committed the recitals to memory and wrote them down.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 103

It should be noted that the followers of Joseph Smith believe that an angel named Maroni revealed to Joseph Smith the location of the golden tablets onto which were inscribed the contents of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith unearths the golden tablets and uses a peep stone in order to translate the golden tablets into the King’s English. This King’s English translation is the text which the Church of Latter Day Saints identifies as ANOTHER GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST which corrects errors which crept into the GOSPELS and BOOK of MOSES and as such rules over them [sic].

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 104

In the Third Century, Jewish Gnostics known as Elkesaites taught that Gabriel was the personification of the word and in some cases the personification of the Holy Spirit.

How does one discern the good angel?

There are many encounters described in Sacred Scripture between angels and men. It is certain that when angels appeared in their glory, their presence was overwhelming. When they appeared as men, they were approachable. Whenever they identify themselves as the Angel of the Lord, the recipient of the visit would fall to the ground and worship God. In almost all cases, the angel would respond: “Fear not...” For example: Daniel demonstrates a deep sense of reverence in the presence of the Archangel Gabriel and bows to the ground. Zacharias is troubled and overcome with fear by the Archangel Gabriel’s presence. Mary on the other hand is troubled by the angel’s words of salutation and considers what they mean. In all cases the Archangel Gabriel eases their minds and tells them not to be afraid.

This led the Church Fathers to understand that in the presence of the Angel there is awe and reverence and a natural fear but that the good angel is able to comfort and encourage the soul by his words “Fear Not.” That is because their words are from God who encouraged his disciples with the same words “Do not be Afraid," and "Fear Not it is I.”

Sacred Scripture at times shows men testing the message of the angels as in the case of Gideon.

St. Paul says to the Church in Galatia that if anyone -- including an angel -- brings to them a gospel which contradicts the Gospel which he delivered to them, let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8). What was the Gospel that St. Paul delivered to them? Man is justified by God’s Grace through the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and not be the works of the Mosaic Law. That Jesus gave himself up to death so that man may be delivered from wickedness.

St. John recommended that we test the spirits: Every spirit that denies the Incarnation (that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh and dwelt among us) is of the Antichrist (1 John 4: 3). And who is a liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2: 22). John then says that whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God lives in God and God lives in him (1 John 4:15).

The other option to test a spirit would be to ask the Angel to pray the Divine Praises: "Blessed be God, Blessed be His Holy Name, Blessed Jesus Christ True God and True Man." I was approached in the airport by a member of a cult. Before the man even could speak, I said firmly, "I believe in Jesus Christ, True God and True Man." And without saying anything he immediately turned and ran away.

Angels and Non-Catholic Theology 105

A tradition recounts that when Mohamed encountered the angel Gabriel in the beginning he suffered much pain and his face turned dark red (like taking too much Niacin). During these first encounters, Mohamed said he did not know if the revelations were from an angel or a demon. These encounters almost drove him to suicide, not a good sign. Visitations from good angels do not tempt one to suicide. A mechanism for determining if the visitor was an angel or a demon was proposed by his first wife. She instructed Mohamed to sit on her lap when he had a vision of the angel. If during the course of his vision, she removed her veil and the vision left, then it was the good angel. If the vision remained, it was a demon. This act of discernment stemmed from a Muslim tradition that angels would not remain or take the prayers of men before God if in their presence there were unveiled women. I suppose this tradition stemmed from an interpretation of Genesis 6:2 in which the sons of God (misinterpreted to be fallen angels) viewed the daughters of men as beautiful and lusted after them. It would be interesting to determine if within this Islamic tradition, the messengers of God are still prone to temptation. The tradition of women wearing a veil in respect for the angels is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:7-10. I would think this idea of respect should not be construed to mean that the angels are prone to temptation. In the Jewish tradition, there is the practice of men covering one’s head before praying from the Sacred Scriptures.

Raphael means “Healing of God”

We find St. Raphael spoken of by name in the Book of Tobit. Tobit is a saintly Jew who is in exile in Nineveh. He is engaged in an act of charity that endangers his life. He is burying his fellow Jews and in doing so making himself ritually unclean. Tobit is married to Anna and they have a son named Tobias. Tobit is blinded by bird dung. In the meantime, there is young virgin and future daughter in-law named Sara who was being persecuted by a demon with the name Asmodeus. – who killed seven of her newly-wedded husbands.

Tobit and Sara pray to God (each in their own far away locations) to be set free of blindness and the curse of the demon Asmodeus. God hears their prayers and sends St. Raphael to heal Tobit and then sends St. Raphael to bind the demon. The story then continues with the angel leading Tobias to Sara. The two find out they are related and become betrothed. Because of the death of the previous seven husbands, the wedding night comes with much anxiety. On their wedding night, Tobias recites the beautiful prayer that he is marrying Sara out of love and fidelity and not out of lust. They did not know at the time that the demon Asmodeus was already bound by Raphael. Things work out for the two of them, so it seems.

It is from the Book of Tobit and the lips of St. Raphael we learn that the angels receive food and drink which cannot be seen my man (Tobit 12:17-19). Seemingly like Jesus at the well – who said I have a food you do not know – and that food is to do the will of My Father.

In the book of Tobit, St. Raphael reveals that he is one of seven holy angels who take the prayers of the saints to God, and goes in and out before the glory of the Holy One (Tobit 12:15). The reference to seven holy angels finds its way into the Book of Revelation where we read about the seven churches and their seven angels and the seven lamp stands and the seven spirits of God and so forth. In particular there is the reference in the Book of Revelation Chapter 8 verse 2 in which John sees the seven angels who stand before God and God gives to each of them a trumpet. At that point each angel sequentially blows a trumpet and seven woes come upon the earth. Some traditions and texts such as the Book of Enoch and the Pseudo-Dionysius have attempted to identify these seven angels as seven arch-angels with the names of Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Jegudiel, Sealtiel, and Barachiel. There are other variations but again the Catholic Church recognizes as part of the Deposit of Faith the three Archangels: Michael, Raphael, & Gabriel.

Prayer: St. Raphael, loving patron of those seeking a marriage partner, help them (me) in this supreme decision of their (my)life. Find for them (me) a helpmate in life, the person whose character may reflect some of the traits of Jesus and Mary. May (he) she be upright, loyal, pure, sincere and noble, so that with united efforts and with chaste and unselfish love they (we) both may strive to perfect themselves (ourselves) in soul and body, as well as the children it may please God to entrust to their (our) care. Amen

This prayer can be directed for self (if single) and for others, who are single.
THE END

Pentecost: Why were there 120 Jews in the Upper Room?

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:46:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox
In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers - a group numbering a hundred and twenty... (Acts of the Apostles 1:15).

Ascension to Pentecost
Prior to Jesus’ ascension to the Father, he instructed his apostles to return to Jerusalem, to pray, and to wait for the promise of the Father. As Jesus ascended to the Father, his apostles looked intently into the sky and waited. Suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “Why do you stand there looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back to you in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

And so these “Men of Galilee,” return to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, which was a Sabbath day’s walk from the city of Jerusalem. When they arrive in Jerusalem, they then go up stairs to a room where they were staying – a room large enough to hold 120 brethren. This room is the large upper room in which Jesus and the apostles gathered on Holy Thursday to celebrate together the Passover (Last Supper) and the room in which the Eucharist was instituted by Jesus Christ.

“As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house. ‘The teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, all furnished, Make preparation there” (Luke 22: 7-12).

It is from this large upper room that the apostles and Jesus walked to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane on Holy Thursday. There was a very young lad who followed them to the garden wearing nothing but a linen garment. And when he was grabbed by a guard, the lad ran off naked leaving only the linen cloth (Mark 14:51). Some speculate that this young lad was Mark the human author of the Gospel - who is the only one who records the embarrassing event.

Of these “Men of Galilee” there were the remaining 11 apostles:
• Simon, son of John, who was given the name of Cephas (Aramaic) by Jesus. Cephas which means rock is translated as Petros in Koine Greek. The English rendering of Petros is Peter. In the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, St. Paul addresses Simon as Cephas and not Petros, which I believe maintains the true significance and meaning (ROCK not stone or pebble) as derived from the Aramaic expression and as intended by Jesus Christ. You wouldn’t know that from the English translations.
• James and John the sons of Zebedee both identified by Jesus as the “sons of thunder.”
• Andrew the brother of Peter.
• Philip who was from the town of Bethsaida as were Andrew and Peter.
• Thomas also known as Didymus (the twin).
• Bartholomew also known as Nathaniel and who was identified by Jesus to be a true Israelite without guile.
• Matthew also known as Levi and the son of Alphaeus.
• Simon the Zealot.
• James the son of Alphaeus.
• Judas (Jude) son of James and also known as Thaddaeus (from which we get St. Jude Thaddaeus).

There was also present a man identified as Joseph also known as Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and there was Matthias. The person missing was of course Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus and subsequently hung himself and did not write a gospel as certain Gnostics profess.

Jesus by choosing the twelve apostles to his inner circle of disciples demonstrated that his mission was to shepherd all of Israel. The twelve apostles represented the twelve tribes of Israel. In fact, the symbolism is so much so, that when the twelve tribes of Israel are identified in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 7: 5-8), the original tribe of Dan – one of the 12 sons of Jacob – is missing and is replaced by Manasseh, a son of Joseph. The tribe of Dan persecuted the tribe of Judah. Here in the large upper room, Judas - one of the original twelve - is replaced by Matthias.

Of all the many women that were present, St. Luke specifically identifies Mary, the Mother of Jesus. I believe in doing so Luke is not minimizing the other women but emphasizing Mary for the following reasons:

1. Mary is an integral character within the diptych that he is painting which shows on the one side the dedication of the New Testament Temple (the Church) and on the other side the dedication of Old Testament King Solomon Temple.

2. Mary is a source for the Pentecost story (birth and infancy narrative of the Church) as she is a source for Jesus’ birth and infancy narrative.
In the realm of speculation, the other women could have been Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary the sisters of Lazarus, Joanna, and Mary, the Mother of James the younger and Salome, and Mary the wife of Clopas, and maybe Rhoda the servant girl.
Since I am sticking my neck out, the other brethren may have been Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Zaccheus, Bartimaeus the Son of Timaeus, James the younger and Joseph and brothers to Salome and possible John (Mark).

For nine days leading up to Pentecost, the apostles constantly prayed together in accord (as with one voice) with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and his brothers which St. Luke says was about 120.

I asked myself a number of times, what is St. Luke attempting to signify by this number 120?

120 Priests and Solomon’s Temple
King David wanted to build a Temple so God would no longer dwell in a tent but in a great and magnificent building of stone. I suppose there was an element of self-importance in King David’s words since God gently reminded him that everything even his very life was given and preserved by God and that He (God) had no need of a house. Still, in absolute humility, God tells King David that he was not to build a temple for his hands were covered in blood but that his son would build the Temple. I suppose this should be a quick reminder that while God permitted King David to execute wars to defend his people Israel, eternal piece is not gained by the shedding of another man’s blood. In that sense the blood of all men is like Abel’s blood calling out to God for justice from the earth. Jesus’ blood speaks with more eloquence than Abel's. And Jesus' blood brings justice and mercy together to embrace and to kiss.

King Solomon at this point represents a “type” of Christ in that King Solomon (a son of David) builds an earthly temple made by human hands, and Jesus (a son of David) builds a heavenly temple not made by human hands (Hebrews 8:1). This brings me to my first understanding of the number 120.

In the second Book of Chronicles (Paralipimonen), the temple in Jerusalem is constructed and the young King Solomon is overseeing the dedication of the temple and there is assigned 120 Priests to perform the required rituals of purification. Into the temple and the inner sanctuary of the Holy of Holies comes the Arc of the Covenant. The only thing which remains in the Arc of the Covenant are the two tables of Moses, seemingly representing the Laws of Moses. (It once contained manna and the rod of Aaron)

As the assembled are singing God’s praises with cymbals, lutes and harps, the 120 leave the Holy of Holies and the cloud of the Glory of the Lord (the presence of God) fills it, and the priests can no longer minister in the inner sanctuary lest they die touching God's presence in the cloud of glory (2 Chronicles 6: 1-18).

After a long prayer, King Solomon then asked the following question to the people assembled: “Will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? If the heaven and heavens above the heavens will not suffice thee, what then is this house that I have built?” (II Chronicles 6:18).

The answer is YES and much more!

Couple of things to correlate: Solomon’s Temple and the Large Upper Room

In the Temple there were 120 priests leading the people and praising God while waiting for God to dwell in the Holy of Holies. In the Upper Room there are 120 brethren praising God and waiting for the Promise of the Father, The Holy Spirit to come down upon them.

In the Temple 120 priests are trumpeting, singing, praising God with one voice. In the Upper Room the 120 brethren are praying with one voice (one accord).

In the Holy of Holies is the Ark of the Covenant which is a “type” in the Old Testament. In the Upper Room there is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the “anti-type” of the Ark of the Covenant. An "anti-type" is a theological expression meaning not the "type" but the real thing.

In the Temple, the Glory of the Lord fills the Holy of Holies.
In the upper room, the Glory of the Lord (the Holy Spirit) rests upon each of the 120 brethren in the form of tongues of flame.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:1).

Note to the perplexed: Jesus promised to send the Paracletos, the Comforter, and the Gift of the Father upon his disciples. This promise was fulfilled by the descent of God’s Holy Spirit upon the 120 Jews in the upper room on Pentecost in Jerusalem. This remains the Church’s infallible experience and God’s historical fulfillment. The Islamic argument that this promise was later fulfilled by the person of Mohamed is another lamentable demonstration of complete ignorance of the Gospels and church history.

In the Old Testament, the priests could not minister while the Glory of the Lord was in the room. Only one priest, once a year could enter the Holy of Holies. With the death of Jesus on the Cross, the curtain in the Holy of Holies is torn asunder making way for God’s Cloud of Glory to rest upon the 120 brethren in the upper room. With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon those present in the upper room, they become the temple of the Holy Spirit, members of the Mystical Body of Christ and through them Christ’s Universal (Catholic) Church is manifested to all of humanity.

As you come to him (Jesus) the living stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him, you also, like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4).

With this said, it is possible that St. Luke under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit identifies these 120 Jews with the dedication of a New Temple (the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ) not made by human hands but by the Person of Jesus Christ? A wider Diaspora (Dispersion and Exile of the Jews from their homeland) is coming to an end. Now both Jew and Gentile are being gathered by Jesus Christ into one place to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel:

I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed. I shall cleanse you of all your defilement and all your idols. I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a new heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you and make you keep my laws and sincerely respect my observances (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Ark of the Covenant
St. Luke - who is painting a picture of these events on Pentecost - is picking up from where he left off when he wrote the orderly accounts in the Gospel. Going all the way back to chapter one, there are several events which have their pattern in the Old Testament (which I believe he assumes the reader knows) and which completes the painting of the Pentecost story.

In the Old Testament, after the people of Israel entered the desert, God commands Moses to build a sanctuary so that He could appear among the people (Exodus 25:8). And in this sanctuary, there would be set aside an inner tabernacle separated by a curtain, and within this tabernacle would be the Ark of the Covenant, an altar, candlesticks, and various other furniture all patterned upon the instructions which Moses received up on the mountain. The Ark of Covenant and the carrying poles were to be made of incorruptible wood and gilded with gold inside and out. After the sanctuary was assembled and the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the tabernacle, the cloud covered the tabernacle and was filled with the glory of the Lord. And by day there was a cloud and by night a fire to show God’s presence amongst his people (Exodus 40: 31).

St. Luke in the Gospel recounts the words of the Angel Gabriel to Mary that God’s Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the most high God would overshadow her and she would conceive in her womb the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

Jesus, who is the Living Law of God, the Bread of Life which came down from Heaven, and the new High Priest, would be conceived and be carried in Mary’s womb for nine months. And even after giving birth, the Spirit of Jesus would remain in her mind, heart, and soul as a pattern for her whole life. When Mary pondered the words of Jesus and treasured them in her heart, Jesus was carried in her womb.

In the Old Testament, when King David recovered the Ark of God from the house of Aminadab, he thought to bring it to his own house. But since one of the bearers of the ark dies after touching the ark (He tried to prevent it from falling off the cart), David is afraid to bring it home. King David -- taken back by the event -- asked: “How does the ark of the Lord come to me?” He decides instead to take the Ark into the House of Abeddara (variation on Obededom) the Gethite. And the Ark remains in the House of Abeddara the Gethite for three months (2 Kings 6: 1-12). David identifies the Ark as “the Ark of the Lord” and not “the Ark of the Covenant.”

Mary -- carrying the Incarnated Word in her womb -- approaches the house of Zacharias. Elizabeth hears her voice. The babe leaps in Elizabeth’s womb and she is filled with the Holy Spirit and says to Mary: “How is it that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” “For the moment your voice reached my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed the words spoken to her by the Lord would be accomplished in her” (Luke 1:41-45). Elizabeth addresses Mary as “the Mother of my Lord” and not “my relative.” Mary enters the House of Zachariah and stays for three months (Luke 1:56).

The New Ark of the Covenant: Mary, Mother of Jesus
In the Old Testament, God overshadows the Sanctuary and the Ark of the Covenant which contains the two tablets, God’s Word written on stone. In the New Testament, God the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary and she conceives in her womb the living and eternal Word of God.

King David filled with a natural fear of the Lord that day speaks to the Ark of God with the words: “How does the Ark of the Lord come to me?” Elizabeth filled with Holy Spirit rejoices and speaks to Mary who is carrying the Word of God, “How does the Mother of my Lord come to me?”

King David dances (leaps) before the Lord who dwells in the Ark of God. John the Baptist leaps (dances) in Elizabeth's womb as Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice.
The Ark of the Lord stayed in the House of House of Abeddara the Gethite for three months. Mary stayed in the House of Zachariah for three months.

Mary as Source
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.(Luke 2:19).

St. Luke when addressing the Most Excellent Theophilus records in Luke Chapter 1:1:
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things which have been fulfilled amongst us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the WORD. Therefore since, I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

St. Luke states that he carefully investigated everything. St. Luke twice mentions that Mary treasured and pondered events surrounding the life of Jesus (2:19, 2:51). I believe this is meant to say something about the veracity of the infancy stories and that Mary is his source. For how else would St. Luke know that Mary pondered and treasured these things unless Mary told him? Besides, who else was an eyewitness from the beginning except Mary?

St. Luke was not present during the events of Pentecost but records in some detail the events surrounding the infancy of the Church. When he is an actual witness to an event such as when he accompanied St. Paul he uses the first person plural, "we," unlike the infancy narrative of Jesus and Pentecost.

Looking at Luke's language, we can conclude that Mary was a source for the Pentecost story (the birth and infancy narrative for the Church) as she was a source for Jesus’ birth and infancy narrative. This explains why the apostles and Mary are named. Mary identifies the apostles and St. Luke identifies Mary to the reader.

I recognized one other event in Sacred Scripture in which someone is identified as pondering mysteries and that is Jacob, who is pondering the words of Joseph, his son. Joseph revealed his dream of the moon and the stars bowing down before him to Jacob and his brothers, and Jacob was a little perturbed that his son would have a dream in which even his father bowed down to him. But his father pondered the saying (Genesis 37:11). I conclude there that Jacob is the oral source of Joseph’s dreams as captured in the Old Testament.

Notes
• New Testament Quotes: Revised and New International Version (NIV).
• Old Testament Quotes: Septuagint as translated by Sir Lancelot C. L.

OVERCOMING SCRUPLES: God and Mammon

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:30:00 +0000

By Susan Fox

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon”
(Luke 16:13)

Lake Quinault Lodge in Washington State used to have the best Tempura Salmon I’ve ever tasted.

I often sat at their picture window overlooking the tranquil Lake Quinault, and enjoyed conversation with my husband and mother while eating this incredible dish.

But one year – when the lodge was acquired by a large corporation – the salmon changed. It clearly did not taste as good as it used to. When I asked why, I was told that they used to buy their salmon from the local Quinault Indians. They thought the Quinault Tribe was charging too much money and they could get inferior salmon somewhere else, so they completely sabotaged the quality of the food in order to cut costs – not to mention selfishly ignoring the local businessmen, the Indians.

Little did I realize that I was experiencing the fruits of “serving” mammon.

This is the crux of today’s Gospel: The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. (Luke 16:10)

The large corporation that took over Lake Quinault Lodge was serving profit at the expense of their customers, a form of idolatry and a lack of charity. Also it was short-sighted as once you ignore the customer, the profit very often disappears.

I put “serving” into italics because I used to think the Scripture referred to choosing mammon (idolatry) and not God. Hence, when an individual “desired” something that was not God --- brownies, clothes, ice cream, shopping, a beautiful person of the opposite sex, they were choosing mammon. They were idolaters.

And so any list of innocent desires became a form of idolatry. This is what is known as “scruples” – seeing evil where there is none.

I had forgotten the full context of today’s Gospel reading. The rich man had a steward – a servant – who was squandering his property. He was stealing from him. So he fired the steward and demanded an accounting from him. The steward very craftily called in the master’s debtors and cut their debts in half so that he might be welcome in their homes after he was fired.

The master thought this was acting prudently in a worldly sense.

But he gives us this discernment principle: “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon”
(Luke 16:13)

Wait. This was a revelation to me. We are not talking about choosing innocent pleasures in moderation. We are talking about working for and pleasing two separate and very demanding masters. That would be like having two husbands!

Is my life lived to serve the glory of God and the salvation of souls? Or is my life lived to serve profit, pleasure and idolatry? This is the choice we are given. And in the context of serving God there can be many innocent pleasures enjoyed.

But worrying about our "desires" when we are "serving" God, can lead to discouragement and exaggerated anxiety -- the two chief obstacles to holiness according to Jesus' words to St. Faustina (Diary of St. Faustina).

Think about St. Francis of Assisi – the son of a wealthy cloth merchant who lived in the Middle Ages. Francis dreamed of becoming a noble knight who would accomplish fantastic deeds and bring honor to his family. He entered the war between the Italian cities of Assisi and Perugia with high hopes for glory, but the reality of war and imprisonment made him long for a better purpose in life.

Going back for a second assignment in warfare, he was given a new suit of armor, sword and shield by his father, but meeting a knight with very poor armor, he impulsively gave him his new suit, believing he had more right to it as he had earned it in battle.

Then that night Francis had a vivid dream. He was in a hall full of armor with colored banners hanging from the walls. He heard a voice ask him, "Francis, who is it better to serve, the Master or the Servant?" He answered, "The Master". The voice then said, "Go back to Assisi and all this will be yours." It was such a powerful dream that Francis acted on it and went back home.

In time, the same voice asked him to “Rebuild my Church.” And so Francis found that he was serving the Master (God) and not the servant (earthly authority). He had made a finer choice of masters. He really couldn’t serve both. And thus he gave up wealth and privilege to become the beloved figure of poverty and love for Christ that we all admire today. That whole hall of armor and colored banners became his. It is the glorious company of men and women who have followed him into poverty and service of Christ in the succeeding years – the Franciscans.

And that is the real meaning of today’s gospel. If a life is at the service of profit and selfish pleasure, then indeed it is serving the cold dish of mammon. But a life lived for God and others is not an idolatrous life.

So enjoy the brownies in moderation and just be faithful in little things.

A Stumbling Block For Some and Folly For Others: The Holy Cross

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:01:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox
We proclaim Christ – yes, Christ nailed to the cross: and though it is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Greeks, yet to those who have heard his call, Jews and Greek alike, he is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 23-24).

St. Paul tells the Church in Corinth that the cross of Jesus Christ is received in various ways by people depending upon theological and cultural foundations which may at times create openness or ignorance, and limit or enhance a person’s receptiveness to God’s Grace; “..If today you hear God’s voice harden not your heart..."Psalm 95.

St. Paul is identifying two such extremes of resistance to the message of the Cross: “God would not ask the just man to die” and “Justice is built from strength; Might makes right.” We still have variants of these philosophical views with us today which prevent many of us from seeing God’s Wisdom, Mercy, and Justice in the Cross of Jesus Christ. But as St. Paul writes: “God’s folly is greater than man’s wisdom.”

There is an even deeper mystery here, for the cross of Jesus Christ can be a stumbling block for all people under trial and persecution; in other words, we are all tempted by the desire for justice as was the Sanhedrin under Roman occupation. Trial and persecution can drive a wedge in a person’s heart preventing the soul from grasping the virtue of forgiveness, or hearing the message “love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you.”

Caiaphas the High Priest of the Sanhedrin said it best: You know nothing at all. Do you not realize that it is better for one man to die, then for a whole nation to perish (John 11:49).

But a soul receptive to God’s grace is able through trial and persecution to live the virtue of forgiveness, and hear the message “love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you.”

As St. James writes:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance…Blessed is the man who perseveres under trail because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who live Him (James 1: 2, 12).

As for the issue of folly, what St. Paul seems to be saying is that the cross of Jesus Christ is incomprehensible for all people who live and think like the world and are under the influence of the devil; in other words, we are all tempted by status, success, efficiency, and the basis of indifference “to seek the common ground.”

“The fool has said in his heart there is no God,” so says the psalmist. Therefore humility, virtue, goodness, sacrifice, suffering, and laying down one’s life for his friends are ideas that seem foolish; and Christians whose manner of life gives Exaltation to the Cross of Jesus Christ are seen by the world as very foolish indeed.

Jesus before He died prophesied that when (He) the son of man is lifted up, He would draw all men to himself (John 12:32). Jesus Christ who said “heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away,” must be drawing all men to himself and all men in some fashion are hearing his call. And yet as then and today, a remnant are standing beneath the cross with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Beloved Disciple, and the Women, while some of us are still dragging our feet, some of us are running away from the cross, and some tragically live in a culture which prevents them from knowing that Jesus actually died on the cross for their sins and on the third day rose from the dead.

Events in the Old Testament as “Types”

I want to consider three (3) events in the Old Testament which I will identity as “types” since they prefigure the Cross of Jesus Christ: 1) the sleep of Adam, 2) Moses and the Bronze Serpent, and 3) God commanding Moses to speak to the Rock. There are of course many more “types” in the Old Testament which prefigure the Cross of the Jesus Christ: 4) Isaac carrying the wood of sacrifice on his back while being led by his father Abraham up Mount Moriah, 5) the Passover in Egypt when God commanded the people of Israel to place the blood of the unblemished lamb on their door posts and the angel of death would pass-over, and 6) Elijah the Prophet stirring the bitter waters with his wooden staff and making the waters drinkable.

In the first event from Genesis we find the story of God casting a deep sleep upon Adam and drawing from his side a rib and forming Eve from the rib. In doing so, Eve became the companion (helpmate) and bride of Adam. Church Fathers identified this event as a “type” that prefigured Jesus’ very deep sleep (death) on the Cross and from his side came fourth water and blood (Baptism and Eucharist) which gives birth and life to His bride the Church. “This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the Church” (Ephesians 5:33).

The expression of death and sleep were used synonymously in the Old Testament and by Jesus.

For example: And David slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David (III Kings 1:52).

When the word came to Jesus that his friend Lazarus was dead, Jesus told his disciples that “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” The disciples took Jesus literally and said that if he was asleep let him sleep. Jesus explained to them plainly: “He is dead.”

In the Office of the Reading for September 14th, there is the writing by St. Andrew of Crete which states: If he had not been nailed, the streams of everlasting life would not have welled from his side, that is both blood and water, for the cleansing of the world; and the record of our sins would not have been canceled.

From the Book of Revelation, St. John sees the Lamb of God slain on the altar and under the altar the souls of those beheaded for the Word of God and the testimony which they maintained (Revelation 5: 9). As part of the temple sacrifice, the blood of the lambs and goats would pour forth and collect beneath the altar. The imagery here in the Book of Revelation is that the Blood of Christ (The Lamb of God) which poured forth from his side became the strength and life of the martyrs. In turn, the blood of the martyrs becomes the seed of the Church which is the Bride of Christ.

St. John captures this event in the Gospel with something of an exuberance (it is true it is true!!) so it reads to me. The soldiers therefore came and broke the leg of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scriptures would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

St. John is quoting twice from the Old Testament: Psalm 34:20 and Zechariah 12:10.
Church Fathers see in John’s advocacy 1) that Jesus truly died on the cross 2) that blood and water truly poured from his side 3) and that Jesus’ manner of death fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. (When the Gospel of John was written there was a false movement that attempted to latch on to Judaism and Christianity and that movement was Gnosticism. Various strains within Gnosticism denied the death of Jesus Christ.)

Run to Jesus on the Cross and in the Blessed Sacrament and let Him be the spouse of your Soul!

In the second event from Exodus we read the story of how the children of Israel grumbled against Moses about their wandering in the desert and their disgust with the food they received (manna in the morning and quail in the evening). God sends upon the children of Israel serpents which bite them and many of them become ill and die (Numbers 21:4-10). The children of Israel cry out to Moses and ask Moses to intercede for them. Moses intercedes and God commands Moses to fashion a brass serpent on a staff. God tells Moses that those who are bitten by a serpent and look up at the fashioned brass serpent will be healed; “and it came to pass then whenever a serpent bit a man, and he looked on the brazen serpent, he lived.”

It seems that this was not a onetime deal. Just as God fed the people of Israel with manna for 40 years in the desert, the brazen serpent staff served as a medical station for the people of Israel.

What an obscure event to say the least and apart from the Cross of Jesus Christ it would remain obscure. God seemingly commands Moses to violate the Second Commandment to fashion an image of a creature so that the people may look upon it and in doing so be healed. With a little bit of imagination, we can consider a person about to die from such an illness and being told to gaze at the fashioned serpent. That person would not simply look at the brass serpent but probably make a good act of contrition and a good act of faith and hope. In other words, God maintained his people throughout the journey with bread from heaven (manna) a “type” of the Eucharist, and the fashion serpent on the staff a “type” of the Exaltation of the Cross. But what else does the fashioned serpent represent: 1) the scandal of sin 2) God is able to bring life from death.

For the apostle states: “He who knew no sin was made to be sin for the life of the world.”

Look at Jesus on the Cross and in the Blessed Sacrament and be healed!

The third event is a little more tedious and rooted in both Jewish written and oral tradition. The people wandered in the desert and were in need of water. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take thy rod and call the assembly, you and your brother Aaron and speak to the rock before them and it shall bring forth it waters and you shall bring forth for them the water to drink out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and the cattle. And Moses took his rod that was before the Lord, as the Lord commanded. And Moses said to them “Hear me you disobedient ones: must we bring you water out of the rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice and much water came forth, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed me to sanctify me before the children of Israel, you shall not bring this congregation in the land which I have given them” (Numbers 20:6-13).

St. Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians writes that this spiritual rock accompanied the people of Israel in the desert and that this rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10: 1-5). St. Paul in essence identifies this rock which was struck by Moses (two times) with the Person of Jesus Christ. Note: Throughout the Old Testament God is identified as Rock.

God remember, asked Moses to speak to the Rock so that water would come forth for the people. Moses in anger strikes the Rock (two times). St. Paul by identifying Jesus as the rock captures a new “type” in as much as the Rock is struck by Moses (who represents the Law); then again by the Sanhedrin representing the Law of Moses when Jesus -- the Rock -- was condemned to death. Remember it was the Sanhedrin that stated to Pilate: “We have a law, and according to that law he (Jesus) must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God” (John 19:7).

In the Book of Numbers, when the Rock is struck out of disbelief and strife, water flows forth to give life to the people of Israel. And again in the case of the cross, Jesus is struck out of disbelief and strife. And blood and water come forth redeeming the world; which we read from the Gospel of St. John.

Mark captures in his Gospel that when the Roman soldiers (out of disbelief and strife) were mocking Jesus, “again and again and struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him” Mark 15: 19. While “again and again” normatively means many, the (two times) use of the expression reflects Moses striking the Rock (two times) with his rod. Again we find God demonstrating his power to bring good from something evil. God asked Moses and Aaron to speak to the Rock. Mark shows the Romans mocking him and at the cross the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him amongst themselves (Mark 15:31).

Speak kindly to Jesus on the Cross and in the Blessed Sacrament and comfort Him!

The fourth event comes from the crucifixion itself. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother there and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby he said to his mother: “Woman here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time forward on, this disciple took her into his home (John 19:25).

Note: The four women standing beneath the cross represent an admissible and valid testimony in a juridical proceeding at that time. In other words, we do not only have St. John’s testimony to the events, we have the testimony of the four women.
St. John – the brother of St. James and son of Zebedee - already had a mother. Jesus as such is not conferring a task of care but confirming a relationship within the body of Christ between his mother and the beloved disciple, one that the disciple can have confidence in.

Origen writes: “A disciple cannot comprehend the mysteries of the Gospels unless they like St. John first lay their head at the breast of Jesus (reference to last supper) and take Mary into their home” (reference to the events at the cross) – (Quasten Volume II page 81).

St. John Chrysostom writes: “Have you seen the wonderful victory? Have you seen the splendid deeds of the cross? Shall I tell you something still more marvelous? Learn in what way the victory was gained and you will be even more astonished. For by the very means by which the devil had conquered by these Christ conquered him, he defeated him. Listen how it was done. A virgin, a tree and a death were the symbols of our defeat. The virgin was Eve she had not yet known man, the tree was the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the death was Adams’ penalty. But behold again here was have a virgin and a tree and a death those symbols of defeat which become symbols of victory. For in the place of Eve there is Mary, in the place of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there is the tree of the cross (the tree of life); in place of the death of Adam, the death of Christ (Liturgy Volume III page 529).

In a number of references in the New Testament, you find Jesus speaking of His Mother in a way which seems abrupt or harsh to the modern listener. For example: “Who is my mother and my brother?” “Why were you searching for me everywhere?” "What is this matter to you and to me, my hour has not yet come?”, “Rather blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”

Some mistakenly latch on these sayings in order to argue, that Jesus purposely intended to mitigate any solidarity between his disciples and Mary his Mother. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

God the Father revealed to Mary through the devout Simeon that her Child was destined to cause the rise and fall of many in Israel and would be a sign spoken against and that a sword would pierce her heart (soul) so that the hidden thoughts of many would be exposed (Luke 2:34). When God asked Mary to be the Mother of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God (through the power of the Holy Spirit), God was asking Mary to share in Jesus’ whole Life, Death, and Resurrection. Jesus spent 30 years hidden in the house of Mary and Joseph and then 40 days in the desert as a means of preparing for the hour of His death.

Jesus was also preparing Mary for the hour of His death. This preparation we identify in the spiritual life as the Precautions.

God the Father revealed to Mary that a sword would pierce her heart so that the hidden thoughts of many would be exposed. I often wondered what the dynamics of that statement were: "hidden thoughts exposed." It was not until I came across the following three writings that I think I now understand.

The first is from the Book of Leviticus which describes in detail the various forms of sacrifice which are meant to atone for the various forms of sins: public, private, ignorance, deliberate, serious, and not so serious. In Leviticus 4:27-5:1 we read that an unblemished female lamb or goat be sacrificed for sins which were performed unwillingly and seemingly privately (not known). If the sacrifice of the male unblemished lamb or goat was a “type” of Christ, what was the “type” of the female unblemished lamb or goat?

The second is from the writings of Bishop Melito of Sardis (second century) about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. This is he who was flesh in a virgin, whose (bones) were not broken upon the tree, who in burial was not resolved into the earth, who rose from the dead and raised man from the grave below to the heights of the heavens. This is the lamb that was slain, this is the lamb that was silent, and this is he that was born of Mary the fair ewe (Quasten Volume 1 page 244). So the Bishop of Sardis sees Mary that fair ewe as a type in the Old Testament.

The third is from the writings of St. Paul to the Church in Corinth. Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all Comfort, who comforts us in all out troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort flows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort (2 Corinthians 1: 3-7).

While meditating on these three writings I came to understand that Mary was predestined and called by God the Father, preserved and sanctified by God the Holy Spirit, and prepared by God the Son to be the mother and source of comfort for the Mystical Members of His Body. When Mary stood beneath the cross of Jesus and the sword pierced into the heart of Jesus, her heart was pierced as well. And the great gift of Redemption which flowed from the Heart of Jesus entered her heart so that she too could share this gift with others who are not afraid to take Mary into their homes (hearts). Mary’s suffering and prayers, opens the hidden hearts of men so they see and Exalt in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Listen kindly to Jesus on the Cross and in the Blessed Sacrament as He calls you the Beloved Disciple to Take Mary as your Mother!

The Cross and Unbelief

When the disciples were with Jesus on their way to Jerusalem, Jesus said to them: “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise” (Mark 10:32-34).

I mentioned before that there was a false movement that attempted to latch on to Judaism and Christianity and that movement was Gnosticism. Various strains within Gnosticism denied the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is because Gnosticism rejected faith and the idea the eternal creator could have anything to do with the material creation. The material creation was the result of demiurges and one of the demiurges came to redeem mankind but not by flesh and blood and sacrifice, but by conveying a secret knowledge (gnosis). Gnostics generally believe that the “god” of the Old Testament was a demiurge and not a benevolent one. As such Gnosticism is anti-Jewish as well as anti-Christian. From the very beginning, the Christian Scriptures was the Old Testament; the difference being that the Old Testament was now interpreted based upon the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. With the writing of the epistles and then gospels, the Canon of Catholic Christian Scripture included both the Old and the New but never the Gnostic revelations.

Ignatius of Antioch third Bishop of Antioch (died 107 AD) wrote in his letter that the docetic (Gnostic) sect denied the death of the Lord Jesus. Their denial was based upon the belief that Jesus did not really have a mortal substance. Ignatius while being taken to Rome to suffer martyrdom for his faith in Jesus Christ writes the following to the Church at Philadelphia:

And suffer He did, verily and indeed; just as He did verily and indeed raise Himself again. His passion was no unreal illusion, as some skeptics aver who are all unreality themselves. For my own part, I know and believe that he was in the actual human flesh, even after his resurrection. When he appeared to Peter and his companions, he said to them, Take Hold and me, touch me, and see that I am no bodiless phantom. And they touched him then and there and believed for they had contact with the flesh and blood of reality with him (Staniforth page 101).

Basilides (120 – 145 AD), a prominent Gnostic, writes that Jesus was not crucified but made Simon of Cyrene take His place: "Wherefore he himself did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man from Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him (Jesus) that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified through ignorance and error while Jesus himself received the form of Simon and standing by laughed at them" (Quasten page 258).

Such a tale promotes the concept that sorcery and deception are compatible with the nature and will of God.

St. Mark in his Gospel identifies this Simon of Cyrene as the father of Alexander and Rufus. The reference to a father in relation to sons, strongly suggests that the readers are aware of Alexander and Rufus (they are Christians). This is a possible case since we find St. Paul, when writing to Rome, mentions Rufus.

Gnostic influence is still with us in a very prominent manner through the faith of Islam.This Gnostic teaching that Jesus did not die on the cross made its way into the Qur’an: Qur’an 4:155-159: They denied the truth and uttered a monstrous falsehood against Mary. They declared: “we have put to death the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of Allah. They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but they thought that did. Those that disagreed about him were in doubt concerning his death, for they knew about it was sheer conjecture; they were not sure they had slain him. Allah lifted him up to his presence; He is mighty and wise. There is none among the people of the Book but will believe in him before his death; and on the day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them.

This is understandable since within Mohammad"s extended family there were Gnostics. His uncle was a Nestorian (Gnostic Christian). A number of Gnostic followers were force out of the Byzantine Empire as a result of secular leaders becoming enforcers over religious disputation. As such, a number of Gnostic followers headed further east into Arabia. As a result of this Gnostic teaching the cross of Jesus Christ is a scandal in Islam and an impediment to understanding the Gospels.

Look at Jesus on the Cross and His Mother beneath the Cross and ask them to convert the hearts of all men and especially the people of Islam so that one day all men may Exalt the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Bibliography
• New Testament: Zondervan Parallel New Testament & New International Version (NIV)
• Old Testament: Septuagint Sir Lancelot Brenton
• Maxwell Staniforth, Andrew Louth Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers
• Joahnnes Quasten: PATROLOGY Volume: 1 and Volume 2
• N. J. Dawood: Koran
• Hugh J. Schonfield

Forgive us our trespasses -- Please!

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:10:00 +0000

By Susan Fox

“I will rise and go to my father.” (The Prodigal Son, Lk 15:18)

Last week, I watched a rerun of the PBS series Inspector Morse. I wasn’t paying too close attention until Morse was standing at the altar of an Anglican Church begging a female character to forgive someone.

She responded, “I cannot forgive him. I want to be forgiven, but I cannot forgive him.”

My ears perked up. It was a sort of an anti-Our Father for in the prayer Jesus taught us, now called the “Our Father,” we pray “Forgive us our trespasses (sins) as we forgive those who trespass (sin) against us.”

I wonder how many times we recite that prayer without realizing the implications. We really can’t expect God to forgive us our sins if we are not willing to forgive our brother his sins.

And yet very often that is exactly what we expect.

Today’s Gospel readings were all about forgiveness, repentance and intercession.

One thing you learn in the Book of Revelation is that Satan and his evil spirits are accusers.

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.” (Rev. 12:10)

Judging and accusing is a satanic activity. Satan literally spends his time before the throne of God trying to make God hate us because of our sins. He might as well save his breath because while we were still in our sins and unrepentant, God so loved the world, He sent His Only Son to die for us!

In today’s reading, Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14, Moses shows us the role of good Christians -- the saints. Our role is to intercede or plead for sinners. The Israelites have just made the golden calf and are worshiping it. God seems to want to destroy them. He asks Moses’ permission to go ahead and make a great nation of Moses and his children, but eliminate the rest of the Israelites.

"I see how stiff-necked this people is,” continued the LORD to Moses. Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.

But Moses pleads instead for God’s mercy on the Israelites, reminding Him of his promises to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to make of them a great nation. Saints try to think like God and that means when they are persecuted, they pray for their oppressors.

So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.

That is always the role of the saints-- to pray for others, to pray for the dead, to pray for sinners, to pray for our enemies and friends! To pray, pray, pray with our hearts. The whole purpose of the Divine Mercy Chaplet is to pray for God’s mercy on the world – all peoples whether good, bad or indifferent. It doesn’t matter. When St. Faustina was given the chaplet to pray, she saw a terrible angel about to wreck destruction on the world. She prayed and prayed to God to spare the world, but her words accomplished nothing until she was given the words of the Divine Mercy Chaplet: “Eternal Father I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world!”

Suddenly, with those words the angel of destruction was turned back and unable to complete his mission. Why? Because Faustina was uniting her intentions to the intentions of the Holy Mass -- the intentions of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ on Mt. Calvary. Christ’s sacrifice on the altar of Calvary has infinite everlasting value!

At today’s Mass, we also read the story of the Prodigal Son, (Lk 15:1-32). The priest who gave the sermon on this Gospel reading urged us to be like the father in the story – to be waiting and watching for the repentant son and go out to meet him and welcome him. The father is the figure for God the Father Who so loved us He gave His only Son. He is the figure for the Christian warrior intercessor, who putting on the mind of Christ, prays for his enemies.

But the story of the Prodigal Son also gives us a clue as to how we can forgive our enemies. For it is not an easy thing to do especially when you are hurt. Put yourself in the place of the younger son. Having taken his inheritance and squandered it, he wakes up and remembers that the lowliest servant in his father’s house has more to eat than he does.

Coming to his senses, he says to himself: I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers." So he got up and went back to his father.

While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was moved to compassion. He embraced him and kissed him, killed the fatted calf and put a ring on his finger. Do you realize that God the Father welcomes you the same way every time you turn to him?

Even if you haven’t been wasting your inheritance on wine, women and song, God still welcomes you in the midst of your persecutions, trials and sufferings.

I remember once coming home to visit my mother, and my step father treated me like the dirt under the carpet. It was a very depressing experience. But while I was suffering through this, God the Father reminded me that when I came to His house, He would give me a fine coat, put a ring on my finger and kill the fatted calf for a nice meal. In short, I was welcome at my Father’s house! Suddenly, my step father became my brother, whom I could forgive, and God the Father became my true Father. And the Kingdom of God became my true home in this life and the next. I was standing in my brother’s house, not my Father’s house, and what a difference that realization made!

Understanding who we are in relation to God heals us so we can forgive. God the Father delights to be among men. “Your heaven, My creatures, is in paradise together with My chosen ones, because it is there that you will contemplate Me in an everlasting vision and will enjoy eternal glory. My heaven is on earth with you all, O men! Yes, it is on earth and in your souls that I look for My happiness and My joy.” (God the Father to Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio in an approved apparition of the Catholic Church).

So turn to Him often. Make your soul a resting place for the Father -- where He can put up His feet, smoke a cigar and in fact find His delight with you. Then you will find the courage to forgive and intercede.

The world needs prayer not more accusation. After all, that is the devil’s job.

St. Bernadette and the Immaculate Conception

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:23:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox

While at work, I received a phone call from a concerned mother who confided that her child’s cognitive skills were tested and the results were less than promising. “My child is several years behind a normal child of the same age and her condition may not improve,” she said.
What could I say? My response was honest: “Know that your child will never offend God the way I have offended God with all my intelligence.”
I then had the wits to say: “Give your child the Miraculous Medal and together develop a relationship with St. Bernadette, a young strong spirited girl who loved God with her whole heart, mind, and soul and whose obedience remains the instrument through which great comfort and healing are brought to many souls.”
Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we received from God. For Just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows (2 Corinthians 1:3-6).
St. Bernadette was born in Lourdes, France, on January 7, 1844. She was a deeply honest, strong spirited and hard working girl. Her father was a miller by trade but in order to remain employed worked at various odd jobs. Her mother worked doing laundry for neighbors and picking crops in order to manage additional support for the family of five children. As a very young girl, St. Bernadette cared for the smaller four children, and helped in their moral and religious training. St. Bernadette endured along with hard work, respiratory problems her whole life.
St. Bernadette as a young girl was gifted with several visions of "a “Beautiful Lady” as she relates in her memoirs at the rock of Massabeille beginning on February 11, 1858. St. Bernadette received persecutions and humiliations as a result of these visions. And as St. Margaret Mary of Alocoque explains: “In that great fear which I have always had of being deceived among the graces and favors I received from my sovereign Lord: here are the marks which He has given me whereby to know what comes from Him and comes from Satan, self-love or some other natural movement…these favors and particular graces will always be accompanied in me be some humiliation, contradiction or contempt from creatures.”
The servant is not above the master and St. Bernadette was misunderstood by neighbors and her family, who feared the local authorities: the impudent students of the French Revolution demanding “fraternity, liberty, & equality” for the atheistic masses but no room for God and His Catholic Church. St. Bernadette received a request from the "a “Beautiful Lady” to return to the rock of Massabeille every day for fifteen days.
During one of the visions, St. Bernadette requested from the “Beautiful Lady” – at the request of the Parish Priest Dean Peyramale – her name. The “Beautiful Lady” responded, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
This revelation was beyond the imagination of the young St. Bernadette, who never related to anyone that the “Beautiful Lady” was the Blessed Virgin Mary. It seems that the St. Bernadette was not sure who the “Beautiful Lady” was and the Blessed Virgin Mother never confided as much to her; instead allowed the Church judge the revelation to her.
Jesus prayed: “I thank you Heavenly Father for revealing these things to the little ones and keeping them from the wise and the learned.”
The Parish Priest Dean Peyramale, who was very skeptical of the authenticity and the holy origins of the visions, asked St. Bernadette if she understood the words or if she heard them from someone else in another conversation or alike. St. Bernadette responded with a negative on both counts: she did not know what they meant, and she had never heard the expression “Immaculate Conception.”
The priest’s doubts and resistance were removed and from that moment forward became her arch defender.
The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854 several years before the visions at Massabeille.
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege or almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human Race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin (Ineffabilis Deus).
The Blessed Virgin Mary waited for the Catholic Church to Proclaim the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Her actions are reminiscent of the disposition of St. John the Evangelist when running to the empty tomb of Jesus Christ - and although reaching it first - did not enter until Peter first entered.
John deferred to Peter out of Love for Jesus Christ the miracle of the resurrection and the empty tomb. John saw this deference in the Blessed Mother who sought to remain hidden within the Mystery and Glory of Her Son Jesus Christ. Now that the Bride of Christ (the Church) proclaimed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – the spouse of Mary – the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Mary asked for permission to comfort the Church with a special vision to St. Bernadette and a continuous sacramental of healing.
The location of the visions is well known in Catholic circles as the Grotto in Lourdes, France. There remains in Lourdes, a spring of flowing water which is a sacramental of healing – as evidenced by many written testimonies of healings and the crutches and wheel chairs left behind at the site.
St. Bernadette entered the order of the Sisters of Charity, where she hoped to remain hidden from curious attention. St. Bernadette -- so it seems -- received the gift of prophecy and used this gift to encourage her fellow sisters. The Lord continued to prune and protect St. Bernadette through those He brought into her path, including those strict members of the order. Suffering and humiliation preserved St. Bernadette from the sin of pride - due to her many revelations - and increased in her the virtue of a single hearted love of God and neighbor – the whole of the Law.
To keep me from being conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 7-9).
St. Bernadette died on April 16, 1879. Her body placed in a casket, and buried near the chapel of St. Joseph in the convent grounds. When the casket was unearthed in 1908 as a result of a commission responsible for the examination of Bernadette's life and character, it was found to be intact and uncorrupted. Pope Pius X conferred the title of Venerable upon her on August, 1913. Her beatification was completed on June 1925. Today, the un-corrupted body of St. Bernadette lies in a glass coffin within the convent Chapel.
St. Bernadette’s life and un-corrupted remains are God’s visible mark and declaration to the sanctity of the little saint, the historicity of the vision, and the infallibility of the Dogma concerning Mary’s Immaculate Conception.
St. Bernadette’s love of God and obedience to the requests of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are the instrument through which great comfort and healing are brought to many souls.
This brings me to another story as told by a Mr. Noah Lett on the Journey Home program on EWTN. In his story, Mr. Lett related how as a young child he was lead to a belief in God and His Son Jesus Christ. He advanced in grace and eventually became a clergyman within the Lutheran Church, and related that one day while entering through the doors of his rectory; he was translated to the tomb of St. Bernadette. Mr. Lett knew nothing about St. Bernadette. Standing before the un-corrupted body in the glass coffin in the convent chapel, he heard a voice ask the following question three times, “Noah what do you see?” Noah attempted to answer logically on two (2) occasions but remembers that on the 3rd count through a gift of knowledge responded: “I see that the sacraments of the Catholic Church give what they promise.” Mr. Noah Lett is now a Catholic and to hear him speak is a treasure to say the least.
My wife stood by the incorrupt body of St. Bernadette on one of her pilgrimages, and all she could think about was this was the place that Noah Lett had stood when he was bi-located from his Lutheran rectory to France.
Going back to the episode of the mother’s young child, we know that through Baptism, confession, and reception of Holy Communion her child lives as a temple of God’s Holy Spirit, a precious stone in the edifice which Almighty God is erecting upon the foundation of the Apostles, with Jesus being the corner stone.
The sacraments of the Catholic Church give what they promise for they were instituted by Jesus Christ and administered by the Catholic Church His Bride, which shares with all her children the Promises of Jesus Christ.
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the Name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you and know that I am with you always to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28: 19-20).
And Jesus breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, the sins you forgive are forgiven and the sins you retain are retained” (John 20:22).
“Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6: 54).
We see as in a mirror darkly, the mind of God who reveals His providence, His justice, mercy, and goodness over all of creation at every moment in time and eternity. God in his infinite Wisdom deigns to dwell in such little souls - which the Worldly Wise can only measure, quantify, and then categorize. “God confuses the proud in their deepest thoughts,” said Mary to Elizabeth.
We know that God bring all things to good for those who love him. This truth is born out in the lives of the saints, which all of us by God’s grace regardless of our physical capabilities or limitations are called to imitate.
The story of St. Bernadette is beautifully presented by three (3) movies that I am aware of:
• Song of Bernadette
• Bernadette distributed by Ignatius Press
• Passion of Bernadette distributed by Ignatius Press
Rent and enjoy them and see that God is truly glorified in His saints.

Adam was a White Man from Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:37:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox

People come to me from time to time with stories of woes within their relationships.

When God brought the Woman to Adam, he responded: “THIS IS NOW BONE OF MY BONE AND FLESH OF MY FLESH. I SHALL CALL HER WOMAN FOR SHE CAME FORTH FROM MAN.”
Well, that was the situation before they both put their hands to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• Adam: “Eve, this marriage thing is wonderful.”
• Eve: “Honey, look at the tree in the center of the garden!”
• Adam: “What tree, my love?”
• Eve: “Oh the one that the talking snake is pointing out?”
• Adam: “Talking snake? I named all the animals in the garden and I do not remember a talking snake.”
• Eve: “Well then, you missed one.”
• Eve: “He is hissing something about being equal with God.”
• Adam: “I don’t know. I came out of the dirt, but your origins are more nobler.”
• Eve: “Thank you for the compliment, but don’t you want to know good from evil?”
• Adam: “This talking snake sounds like trouble and good for nothing.”
• Eve: “Sigh, sigh, sigh”
• Adam: “Okay, I will listen to what it has to say.”
• Adam: “Speak up, snake.”
• Snake: “I already gave the woman the skinny. The deal is that you put your hand to the tree and you will be like God.”
• Adam: “Sounds too easy. Besides I have to work this garden, and God seems to have to work everything else. Not sure I want more work.”
• Snake: “I will throw in an AC/DC and Black Sabbath record.”
• Adam: “Decisions, decisions. Honey, what do you want?”
• Eve: “Oh! Oh! I want the red one over there!”
• Adam: “Too high!”
• Eve: “Okay the green one down below!”
• Adam” “Got it and here you go!”
• Eve: Bite. “Hmm, I feel strange.”
• Adam: Bite. "Hmm . . . You look really great!”
• Eve: “Adam you are looking at me kind of funny.”
• Adam: “.” “.”
• Adam: “Sorry, must be the start of a mid-life crisis.”
After the tree and fruit incident, Adam and Eve start to forage and decide to open a clothier store.
• Eve: “These fig leaves are kind of ruff to work with and not much color variation.”
• Adam: “Well it is a little awkward for me too. Besides you already have six outfits hanging on the branch over there.”
• Adam: “Where is that snake anyway, it would make a great necktie.”
• Eve: “How’s this look?”
• Adam: “I thought the first one looked great!”
• Eve: “I did not like the way it made my hips bulge.”
• Adam: “Oh.”
• Eve: “What about this one.”
• Adam: “Hmm, too green”
• Eve: “They are all green.”
• Adam: “Oh.”
• Adam: “I am hungry.”
• Eve: “We just ate a little while ago.”
• Adam: “I forgot, not much of a meal. The effects were okay.”
• Eve: “Adam, you are just a white man from Baltimore.”
• Adam: “I hear company -- someone calling our names in the cool of the evening.”
• God: “Adam, why are you mulling around in the vines?”
• Adam: “I noticed I was missing some accouterments. You did not tell me about cover.”
• God to Adam: “What accouterments? You put your hand to the tree which I forbade you to touch?”
• Adam: “That woman you placed in the garden tempted me.”
• Eve: “So that is it, Adam, you are playing the blame game.”
• God to Eve: “I see you have six green outfits. What is your excuse?”
• Eve: “The slithering necktie over there tempted me!”
• God to snake: “For that you are going to crawl on your belly and eat dirt and someday the woman is going to smash your head.”
• Snake: “I will throw in an AC/DC and Black Sabbath record, ‘If you give me 3 steps, give me 3 steps Mister and you won’t see me no more.’”
• God: “Here is some leather outfits just fitted for the both of you. Free of charge.”
• Eve: Squealing, “And they are not green!”
• God: “Well you are going to have to leave the garden and rough it outside.”
• Adam: “Sounds terrible, where are we going to live?”
• God: “Well there is an HOA a couple of miles down the road. The dirt is no good, only produces weeds.”
• Adam: “Please don’t tell me a bunch of talking snakes operate the place?”

Adam and Eve are now parents, gardeners, and sheep herders.
• Adam: “Looks as if we will be having another wedding to attend down the road.”
• Eve: “Yes, our third daughter is finally leaving home in search of another brother.”
• Adam: “What is it with Cain and Abel -- they never seem to get along?”
• Eve: “Ever since I taught Able how to barbecue, Cain has been really jealous. All he does is burn portions of his crops.”
• Adam: “He needs anger management classes.”
• Eve: “If you just laid down the law around here, he would listen better."
• Adam: “Sorry, I'm not very good at the law thing. All I do all day long is sweat from my brow.”
• Eve: “Here he comes now, say something to him.”
• Adam: “Look if you would just be nicer to your younger brother Abel, I will throw in an AC/DC and Black Sabbath record.”
• Cain: “Where’s the flint and stubble, I have something to burn.”
• Abel: “Hello everyone!! Well I just barbecued another unblemished goat and the smoke is rising very very high!!”
• Cain: “UGGGGG. I cannot take this anymore.”

Adam and Eve Living in Retirement
• Adam: “Well, life has sure had its ups and downs and some very sad moments.”
• Eve: “Yes, some decisions did not turn out so well.”
• Adam: “Eve, I am sorry for all my shortcomings. Do you forgive me?”
• Eve: “I do and that is okay. We both have them.”
• Eve: “Besides, we know there will be a great, great, great, grand daughter who is going to smash that necktie of a snake.”
• Adam: “What is your greatest memory?”
• Eve: “When God introduced me to you, Adam, and you reacted with such enthusiasm.”
• Eve: “What is your greatest memory?”
• Adam: “Yes, that was great moment. I suppose the other great moment was just after I ate the fruit from the Tree and you looked so…..”
• Eve: “Adam, you will never change. You will always be my White Man from Baltimore.”

The Love of Wisdom (philo-sophy)

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:14:00 +0000

by Larry Fox
Wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the God’s Holy Spirit poured upon the man and woman of Faith. Wisdom is the gift which brings order to all things including the other six (6) gifts (Fear of the Lord, Piety, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, & Fortitude).
Wisdom is the gift which enables man and woman of faith to grasp the purpose of things as intended by their Creator.
O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who made all things by your word, and by your wisdom formed man to have dominion over all creatures that you have made and to rule the world in holiness and righteousness and to pronounce judgment in the uprightness of soul, grant to me the Wisdom that sits by your throne and do not reject me from among your servants… Book of Wisdom 9:1-6, 9-11.
A person with the Gift of Wisdom recognizes the order and purpose of earthly and heavenly things and judges what is good and what is evil accordingly:
• And God said: “Let us make man in our own image and likeness.” – Genesis 1:24.
• “God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth.” – Genesis 1:28
• “A man shall leave father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” –Genesis 2:24.
• “Let your love be sincere, hate what is evil and cling to what is good.” – Romans 12:9.
• “Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ Crucified: a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” – 1 Corinthians 1:22.

Without this Gift of Wisdom, man and woman are prone to live in foolishness: both in theory and in practice:
• Foolishness in knowledge, understanding, and the practice of counsel.
• Foolishness in fear of the lord and the practice of piety.
• And foolishness in the practice of fortitude.
For the fool perseveres in acts of chaos, invents gods, and practices superstition and witchcraft, and judges things based upon mal-adjusted emotions leading to the malpractice of judgment: teaching GOOD to be EVIL and EVIL to be GOOD.
For into a malicious soul, wisdom shall not enter; nor dwell in the body that is subjected by sin. For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and be remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not live in the soul of man when unrighteousness enters in (Wisdom 1: 4).
The Gift of Wisdom comes to those moved by the Holy Spirit to Faith in God. [Reference Topic on Faith]
The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and there is good understanding to all that practice it. Piety towards God is the beginning of discernment; but the ungodly will not tolerate wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1: 7).
The Gift of Wisdom is manifested within the Deposit of Faith (Oral and Written) which is preserved and guarded by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ and His Cross is the Wisdom of God, foolishness to the Greek and a Scandal to the Jew.
God chose us in Jesus Christ before the world began to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined us to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ; such was his will and pleasure, that all might praise the glorious favor he has bestowed upon us in his beloved son. In him and through his blood, we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven so immeasurable generous is God’s favor to us. God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan he was to decree in Christ. A plan to be carried out in Christ, in the fullness of time, to bring all things into one in him, in the heavens and on earth (Ephesians 1:3-10).
So the purpose and ordering of human life is to live in a holy communion with God as adopted sons and daughters – and that is what we are in Christ Jesus. To order one’s life as an adopted son and a daughter of God is to Live and Love Wisdom.
Virtue, Justice, and Wisdom
On the natural level, Virtue is the art and practice of governing one’s actions, and the ordering of one’s passions. On a supernatural level, Virtue is the art and practice of goodness. God’s Grace and Gifts build upon nature not destroying it. As such, through God’s Grace and Gifts, virtue becomes the art of governing and ordering one’s passions for good and not vice or evil. A person of faith is tutored in the practice of virtue while reading Sacred Scripture and the Lives of the Saints. The heroes of virtue are the Saints- who received the Crown of glory at journey’s end.
There are moral virtues and theological virtues. Four pivotal virtues for moral behavior and the governance of societies are prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude.
The three theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity.
The Gift of Wisdom is foundational for the development and practice of virtue. Actions based upon wisdom promote virtuous habits. Discernment and counsel which flow from wisdom promote the common good.
All of man’s actions are moral and directed towards either virtue or vice. Conscience - the director of man’s actions - is the exercise of judgment based upon knowledge. But what knowledge: God’s Revelation, the World, the Flesh, or the pomp’s of the Devil?
It is sophomoric to say, “My actions are based upon my conscience” as if conscience was the canon for validating one’s actions. Conscience - if free and truly exercised - is objectively the cause of one’s action and as such the condition for being properly judged. If conscience is not free, then the cause of one’s actions is subjective.
Jesus said: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but since you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41).
Without the Gift of Wisdom, vice builds upon the foundation of foolishness. Actions based upon foolishness promote habits which are destructive. Discernment and counsel which flow from vice, decrease the common good and society moves toward moral anarchy.
If there was a phrase which most aptly described the “progressive movement” in the Church and in Secular Society it would be “vice progressing towards moral anarchy.” Moral anarchy flows from rebellion, which is described in Divine Revelation as Witchcraft (Sorcery). It is the opposite of Order, the opposite of Wisdom, the opposite of Divine Revelation and Satanic in origin. The fruit of the progressive movement in the Church is evidenced by the very many and costly scandals.
The Gift of Wisdom is critical for those who teach, judge, and govern in the home and in secular and religious society. Without wisdom the foundations of the soul, family life, communities, and societies will crumble and be destroyed.
In the Lord I have taken refuge. How can you say to my soul: Fly like a bird to the mountain. See the wicked bracing their bow; they are fixing their arrows on the string to shoot upright men in the dark. FOUNDATIONS ONCE DETROYED, WHAT CAN THE JUST DO (Psalm 10)?
The key stratagem to the progressive movement is teach and to legislate that there is no purpose for things, no virtue, all ideas are equally valid, nothing can be distinguished, and the bulwark of their abuse is “Civil Rights.” Observe those who speak of justice and civil rights, while at the same time despise moral truth, natural law, and Divine Revelation. Strange to hear from people who lie and break the laws of entry into this Country, the cry for Civil Rights.
How does Justice support Virtue?
“God said let there be light and saw that is was good.”
Example 1: On a natural level, the function and therefore the virtue of the eye is to see. The doctor who supports the virtue of the eye practices justice. The doctor who diminishes the virtue of the eye practices in-justice. Read Plato’s Republic!
Example 2: On a supernatural level, the virtue of the eye is to see the beauty and providence of God in all His works and to be a window of goodness and truth to the soul. In order to Glorify God with one’s eyes, the sense(s) need to sanctify. The person who teaches the soul to sanctify their senses by fasting, prayer, and the reading of good literature practices justice.
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent and praise worthy – think about such things (Philippians 4:8).
The person who diminishes beauty with profanity, stirring up the concupiscence of the eye with lust, greed, avarice, murder, sloth, anger, and deception practices in-justice. The person who strives against sanctity and sanctification practices in-justice.
NOTE: Religious teaching which diminishes the role of sanctification as something peripheral to salvation and justification promotes in-justice.
Virtue, Goodness, and Human Life
My friend once asked me, what is the nature of good? The rich man called Jesus good and Jesus replied: “Why do you call me good, only God is good. “
God is the origin and nature of good. If one’s actions have their origins in God then they are good. Since God is immutable, then good is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). As such, what was good in the beginning (Genesis) remains good and what was identified as not good is today (SHOCKING) not good.
Creation, order, generation of life, marriage between man and woman, fruitfulness in marriage, friendship with God and obedience to God’s word were identified as good in the beginning.
In a phenomenological sense, when Adam and Eve put their hands to the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” what they set into motion was the disastrous notion that THEY (WE) COULD DISCERN AND KNOW GOOD AND EVIL APART FROM GOD’s WORD. Is that not the perverted standard for today, the litmus test for progressive and unwise judgment?
God is love (agape) and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. This love is good for its origins are in God: Love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7).
But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5: 22).
In opposition, we find disordered love to be impatient, unkind, envies, boasts, is proud, is rude, is self-seeking, and is easily angered, it keeps record of wrong, delights in evil and rejoices with the lie. Evil always destroys, always promotes infidelity, and always leads to despair, and always takes the easy road towards death.
The acts of sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live this will not inherit the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5: 19).
I responded to my friend: “God is good, Human Life is good, and everything which seeks to promote and preserve human life from natural conception to natural death is good. Everything which deviates from this simple path leads to eventual evil and is not good. Tiny and continual steps away from the proven and revealed path of goodness, eventually leads to being lost.”
So simple and yet apart from God’s Gift of Wisdom and His Word impossible to grasp and live.

RE: HOPE

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:57:00 +0000

Dear Larry and Susan,

I just read Larry's post on hope. Yes, we must always remember that hope is a virtue, one of the three theological virtues, and the most misunderstood and under appreciated. Hope has always been difficult for me. Only in the last few years, as I approach old age, have I begun to understand how important it is. How I wish they still taught about virtue and vice in school. Faith, hope, and charity, the theological virtues. Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, the cardinal virtues. How can you cultivate something if you do not even know its name, what it is, how to define it?

Alas, virtues are mostly derided in our culture. Try talking to the average American about chastity and see how they react. They will think you are a religious nut case, if they have ever even heard the word.

Still, since hope is a virtue, we must seek it wherever we can, and nourish it, cherish it. Thank you for your post.

And I completely understand what you mean when you say that "violence is the modern cultural method for preventing and spacing the birth of children."

But I would not always have understood that statement so well, not even after my conversion to the Catholic faith.

When I think how deeply I was immersed in the ocean of lies that is the culture of death, it gives me, paradoxically, hope. Hope because I now begin to understand, comprehend. Only now, as I approach 60 years of age. Yes, when I converted at age 23 in 1974, God gave me the grace of contrition for my sins and a fervent desire to believe all that the Catholic Church holds and teaches. When he sent me my husband I wanted to live the sacrament and promised to accept children from God. We practiced natural family planning and had three wonderful children. I thought abortion was a great evil and sometimes sent money to pro-life groups like Human Life International. But I never went beyond that.

The culture of death is our ocean, the ocean of lies that we swim in, and fish are not aware of water. Most people in our secular culture are like the blind fish in the deepest part of the ocean; the weight of the waters of death keeps them in the dark. If they tried to swim toward the light they would literally explode. Only an infusion of grace can transform them, give them eyes to see and ears to hear and bring them up toward light and life. If I may continue this analogy, I think that God has completely transformed the living saints, the apostles of life like Fr. Frank Pavone and Mother Angelica. They are no longer fish, struggling to understand the water they swim in. I think of them as dolphins. They are still swimming in the ocean of lies, but they understand that trying to breathe in that water means literal death. They can swim to the surface, grab a lungful of life-giving air, and swim back down to communicate with the denizens of the deep. They are trying to help us grow lungs to breathe in the Gospel of Life.

Thanks to these modern apostles and their use of the media I am slowly beginning to understand the immensity of the evil of the culture of death. But because I am beginning to understand, and many other people are beginning to understand, I have hope. If someone like me can change, even a little, I must have hope. God can accomplish all things. Christ has overcome the world. What does that mean, exactly? I don't know, but I believe it. That must mean I have faith. Now if God would only instill in me the virtue of charity, I would have the big three!

Phoebe Wise

PERFECTION AND IMMORTALITY: Mary's Fidelity to God

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:52:00 +0000

by Sally Govea

Aug. 15, 2010 --When God created man he was perfect and when something is perfect it does not corrupt. Therefore, man was immortal in body and soul. When Eve came along she was perfect as well, that is, before sin came into the picture and everything changed. Perfection is a perfect blending of our will with God’s We abuse our free will when we pull away from God’s will to do our own will; thus our free will is corrupted and this deterioration seeps into our life and our body is no longer immortal.

When Christ took on a human body, though He is perfect, He allowed His Body to die so it could live in a most mysterious manner in the Holy Eucharist.

Next to Christ, Mary was the most perfect in body and soul. She lived on earth, not in an earthly paradise, but in a spiritual paradise. Even before the Annunciation her soul welcomed the life of God within it and her soul never lost that Life—God’s will was Mary’s will. Because of this, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven by his infallible pronouncement in these words: “After frequently praying to God and invoking the light of the Spirit of truth, to the glory of Almighty God Who enriched the Virgin Mary with special favor, to the honor of her Son, the immortal King of ages and victor over death and sin, to the increase of the glory of His august Mother, to the joy and exultation of the whole Church, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and by Our own authority, We declare and define as a revealed dogma that the immaculate Mary ever Virgin, Mother of God, when she had finished the course of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.”

By Mary’s fidelity to God she remained perfect and therefore, God granted her, according to His creation of the perfect man, immortality of both body and soul.

The Loss of Hope in an Obama Era

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:17:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox
Hope is the Theological Virtue of Expectation; an expectation rooted in a Promise. For the Christian, Hope is rooted in the Promises of Christ, such as the promises found within the Sermon on the Mount. Hope as a virtue is like a muscle, and the exercise for this muscle is fidelity to one's calling in life. Hope brings about the freedom from self. The opposite of Hope is despair which is rooted in self and self desecration and self destruction.
Despair (spiritual not chemical) is the opposite of Hope, and is the fruit of presumption and lack of fidelity. Lucifer exists in absolute despair...something to be grasped. A person of Hope gives of themselves. A person in despair demands things for themselves, like entitlement on steroids or like pundits who demand and call people bigots for seeing the wisdom and natural and created reality of male-female marriage for which there is the potential of real giving.
Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher) wrote a gifted essay titled: "Sickness unto Death." In this essay he describes hope and despair in relation with promise and fidelity. Pagan society (before Christianity) lived in a form of despair as evidenced by the practice of suicide so often clothed under a cultural virtue of dignity, and abhorrence for suffering.
But pagan society was searching for a promise.
With the Gospel and the promise of Redemption and Resurrection, the culture changed and Hope entered the vocabulary as a Theological Virtue. 400 years after the confusion stemming from the "Reformation" things have reversed. Society is in a worse state; now advocating for a culture of bareness, a promise of wealth without children, and commitments which cannot produce children naturally, and of course the promise of a safer planet which will be populated by people living in despair and demanding entitlement provided by the STATE which will be a tyrant run by leaders in greater despair.
Despair inflames fear which so often leads to violence. Violence let it be known is the modern cultural method for preventing and spacing the birth of children.
Sounds like HELL.

From Ground Zero to the Supreme Court Bench

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:32:00 +0000

By Lawrence Fox
America got hit with three (3) punches this week from New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC. NYC leadership demonstrated no sense of remorse over 9/11 by supporting the building of a Mosque to near Ground Zero – which was made possible by multiplicity of persons who attended Mosques; A Fellow Practicing Judge in San Francisco rules that 7 million people who supported Proposition 8 in CA did so solely upon “Moral and Religious Sentiments” and therefore their actions were Unconstitutional even if the process was Constitutional; and the U.S. Senate gave a pass to an unqualified professor, who will now sit on the Supreme Court for Life and shows every sentiment to Rule with the Judge in SF Against Prop 8.

NY Mayor Bloomberg - who know for certain that a Tea Party Member upset with Obama Care was responsible for leaving a car loaded with explosives in a car in Times Square - is in desperate need of jobs and money and for sure the money will come pouring in from Saudi Arabia.

Oh yes Saudi Arabia that bastion of religious freedom unless of course if you are a jew, christian, bahia, sufi,and shiite muslim.

This Mosque has nothing to do with Mayor Bloomberg’s sense of religious freedom, the 1st Amendment and the sentiments of religious. No! the ever shameless Mayor Bloomberg attempted to legislate (maybe successfully)in NY the law that persons of moral pro-life faith who want to practice OBGYN in NY must first be educated in the finer practice of fetal removal from a woman’s womb. How the fetal (“Latin for little person”) got into the woman's womb no one knows. Yes, so much for religious and moral sentiments.

On the other side of the Country, the CA Court legislated the same sort of Bloomberg-ian sentiments (did I say legislate) when the court ruled that a doctor and pharmacist could not refuse to provide contraception to a minor nor refuse to perform in-vitro on non-married couples based upon their moral and religious sentiments. The one thing the CA Court did do right was identify “Catholic Charities” as a Secular Institution. To bad the CA Court has not ruled that the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) is a Secular Institution. Can someone please tear up those worthless “Faithful Citizenship” pamphlets!

Image someone deciding something based upon moral and religious grounds? Not surprised by this decay of logic since U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun while deciding “Roe vs. Wade”, pontificated that since previous cultures - which were not impeded by moral and religious convictions - allowed abortion, there was room under the penumbra of the 14 Amendment to strike down State Laws which addressed moral issues based upon moral and religious sentiments. And besides, as he muses in his memoirs: “It was regrettable that my daughter while in College did not have the freedom to abort my grandchild [sic].”

Elana Kagan, who never sat on a Bench – except a park bench while eating Chinese Food on Christmas Eve will work hand and hand with U.S. Federal District Judge Vaughn R. Walker on the demise of Prop 8 and the 20+ states who have amended their State Constitutions and DOMA. Why? They are based upon "moral and religious sentiments."

I have been asked to FAST and make reparation for the things in my life which contributed to this demise of common sense and sensibilities.

Hope and Change or Expedited Terror?

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:03:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox

When viewing the 1973 thriller Soylent Green (in which the sick and elderly are killed and turned into food), I asked myself, "What steps would a country have to take in order for a country to slip into mandatory euthanasia for the sick and elderly?"

Answer: Redefinition of the human person (defined as less than a whale), utilitarian definition of quality-of-life versus a God-centered definition, the legalization of abortion and infanticide, increased government control of medicine, legalization of assisted suicide, redefinition of the family, advocacy of population control, indoctrination that human's are the cause of climate change, governments increasing national and global debt, media demonization of people who resist these trends, and a lack of vigilance on the part of the free and the religious. There are others but for certain we have been seeing these incremental "hope and changes" locally and globally for sometime.

EYE HAS NOT SEEN, EAR HAS NOT HEARD . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:03:00 +0000

By Susan Fox

March 3, 2010 --- Today I emptied the dishwasher and loaded it.

No doubt my accomplishment does not impress you. But two weeks ago I was looking down a barrel of a gun, facing open heart surgery or certain death.

Such an experience is certainly frightening, but very beneficial. I had to face the fact that the timing of my potential death was disconcerting because I was not good enough to go -- yet. I guess I thought I had some benchmark to reach and I’d failed to get there. I was conscious of all my sins of omission.

What one has failed to do is very important when facing a deadline -- like death.

It was a very sudden and unexpected deadline as I’ve struggled with illness for 15 years, but I thought it was my mundane stomach that troubled me, and I never realized that it was really a silent killer -- my heart.

Thankfully, I poured out my fears to the Lord and He reassured me. Though my sins were indeed scarlet, He Himself would make up what I lacked.

I could trust Him.

So I went into surgery in that frame of mind after receiving the Catholic sacraments of Eucharist, Confession and Sacrament of the Sick.

And here I am recovering my health, with the sole desire to just live and experience life in whatever form it takes – spending time with my family and friends, doing dishes, daily walks, eating and resting.

But don’t imagine that grace of trust came out of the blue without years of preparation.

Eight years ago, I joined a group called the Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy.

We study the Diary of St. Faustina, the Catholic Catechism and the Scripture. St. Faustina was the first saint canonized in this millennium, and Our Lord called her the Secretary of His Mercy. Our Lord said that His Mercy was His greatest attribute. He said the greater the sinner the more he had the right to God’s Mercy. Now I can attest to that. But until two weeks ago it was just intellectual knowledge.

I remember when I first joined the group, I was not much attracted to the concept of God’s Mercy, St. Faustina, her diary or the picture that was painted based on her visions. It shows the resurrected Christ coming out of the dark with two rays of light coming from his side, one red and one white for the waters of Baptism and the Sacraments of Eucharist and Penance.

The Church is a bride conceived on the cross from the blood and water that poured from the side of Christ. “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” (John 19.34) And such a bride has to resemble her husband in suffering. That’s why children are baptized to be priest, prophet and king. Priest means victim. Christ is the Suffering Servant and so is His Bride, the Church. The triumph of each Christian life is the cross.

Now while I am part of that Church, and that does make me a bride of Christ, that part about suffering and dying, I just wanted to leave that job entirely to Jesus Christ. I wanted to be comfortable. But two weeks ago, that state definitely eluded me. The cross has a way of sneaking up on you.

And so it was with Divine Mercy. Eight years ago I was not attracted to it. But I joined the Eucharistic Apostles anyway because when I looked at my daily experiences and asked God, “What are you teaching me?” the word mercy came up repeatedly.

In fact, it seemed like His plan of Mercy would play a big role in my life – whether I liked it or not.

So for eight years I went to a weekly meeting to discuss God’s mercy. I read St. Faustina’s Diary multiple times, all the Scripture passages about God’s Mercy and the Pope’s encyclical on Divine Mercy. Like Jacob wrestling with God all night, I struggled with His Mercy up until two weeks ago.

Suddenly, facing death I understood His Mercy. Yes, I wasn’t ready. In fact, NOTHING I could ever do could prepare me for death or suffering. But He would take care of everything.

I stood at the foot of the cross as the soldier pieced his side and blood and water came out. And I caught the grace of that blessed moment. “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

The Lamb for the Sacrifice

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:35:00 +0000

By Susan Fox

What Child is this who, laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping? (William Chatterton Dix, 1865)

Dec. 24, 2009, Gold Canyon, Arizona -- At Christmas time, I recall fondly Abraham’s prophesy. “God Himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.” (Gen. 22:8)

In obedience to God, dear Father Abraham with much grief took his son, Isaac, to a height in Moriah to sacrifice him. Isaac, who was conceived in Abraham’s old age, was his only son by his wife Sarah – also well past her child bearing years. God had promised them that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars.

But God tested Abraham, telling him to take his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and offer him up as a holocaust. (Gen. 22:2) This seemed to be the end of all Abraham’s hopes and dreams.But he obeyed. He put the wood for the fire on his son’s back and proceeded to Moriah.

On the way, Isaac suddenly realized they had wood and fire, but no animal for the holocaust, so he asked his father, “Where is the sacrifice?”

“God Himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice,” Abraham responded.

God did stop Abraham from offering Isaac. And He substituted His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ -- Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

We celebrate the birth of the Father’s Beloved Son in Bethlehem on Dec. 25.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son.”(John 3:16)

“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

“My daddy gave me a name, then he walked away.” (“Father of Mine” by Everclear)

The sad lyrics of “Father of Mine” show us how our current generation views fathers. Many broken families and a high divorce rate have made people afraid of the commitment of marriage. Thus children are born out of wedlock. And more unhappy people are raised in single parent homes.

There are those who believe that God created the world and then abandoned it -- sort of like a Powerful Watchmaker, who wound up the clock and then left it alone on the mantle.

But the Incarnation speaks of a very different kind of Father. He is not an impersonal, “leave-Me-alone” Father, but a Father very passionately involved in the lives of His children -- so involved He sent His Son to become man, live with us, and then die for us on the cross that we may be freed from the slavery sin, that we might be happy. Jesus gave us the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount to show us how to live happily (Matthew, chapter 5). Blessed means happy. Blessed/happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for goodness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and yes, the persecuted.

Who was present at the Birth of the God-man Jesus is also very telling.

God was so excited about what He’d done, He sent a host of angels to announce the birth of His Son to a group of lowly shepherds. The angels brought “good news.” “For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. . . . Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:10-14)

The shepherds got excited also, and decided to go see this wondrous thing that took place in Bethlehem, and when they saw Mary, Joseph and the child, they became the first evangelists. They revealed the message they had received about the child. All who heard were awed.

From this story, some may conclude God only cares about the poor.

But the rich also came and worshiped the little God man child.

Three kings from out of the East came to worship Jesus. How did they know that a great ruler had been born among them? They were awake. They were looking for the signs. And they saw His star at its rising. “Where is the newborn King of the Jews?” they asked.

So we may also ask the same question this Christmas, and find ourselves standing at the feet of Mary and Joseph, marveling with the shepherds and asking, “What Child is This?”

But just as today, millions of unborn children and many elderly are crushed beneath the “pro-choice” philosophy of convenience and I-have-the-power-so-I-can-kill-who-I-want, so also the Birth of the Savior of the world unleashed a terrible persecution. King Herod knew he was not the rightful heir to the throne of David, and he feared that the child born in Bethlehem was this king. So when the Magi failed to return and tell him where to find Jesus, he ordered the death of all boys in Bethlehem age two and under. Jesus escaped into Egypt when his faithful father Joseph received a warning in a dream. But all the other baby boys in Bethlehem – the Holy Innocents -- were slaughtered: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children and she would not be consoled since they were no more.” (Matt. 2:18)

So many women, who have been deceived by the mores of our culture and made to have an abortion, bitterly weep for their children once they realize what they have done.

So we stand on the eve of Christmas about to make a terrible mistake in passing a health care reform bill that will again unleash a murderous attack on our children and our elderly. The Democrats who stood against this bill and proclaimed their firm resolve to stand for human life are apparently abandoning our children and elderly for the price of some trifling benefits for their states.

But we know that such people -- like King Herod -- have lived side by side with the faithful many times before throughout history. And yet in the midst of persecution and terror, the shepherds and the kings managed to find their happiness in the tiny arms of the Infant Jesus Christ.

And perhaps there, some of us may be called to help supply the lamb for the sacrifice.

A Global Warning Meeting in the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:04:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox
I recently discussed with my diverse array of garden plants: Tomatoes, Basil, Lettuce, and Bok Choy (which do understand a little English) that I had to limit sharing my carbon dioxide (C02) with them since the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday December 5th, 2009 designated Carbon Dioxide as a dangerous pollutant.

I knew I had their collective attention, when the Bok Choy (which do understand a little English) bellowed a very long sigh of OXYGEN (O2). I am assuming they were sharing with me a very important teaching moment: NO CO2, NO PLANTS, AND THEN NO OXYGEN.

As I left the garden, the tomatoes were giggling and sharing with their peers: “Humans categorize us as FRUITS and treat us like VEGETABLES and they LEGISLATE like FOOLS.”

“To see at last, to see at last, oh Lord I can see at last!”

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:10:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox

I am not sure why I was heading down the road with my Uncle Jack to the Optometrist but I think it had something to do my second grade teacher Sr. Nicholas telling my mother her 2^nd grade son was squinting and making faces when looking at the front black board while sitting 10 rows back behind Algae Lynch and Bobby DiMartino and 8 other more interesting characters.

I can remember a number of similar excursions with my Uncle Jack - who was the legendary singer in the family, something of an untamed Caruso – and while sitting in the passenger seat he would sing and whistle the classic, “Ghost Riders in the Night”. And on that day, the ambience was no different as we drove into the West Baltimore Sunset in his 4-Door Black Rambler.

I had never been to an Optometrist’s Office and I never took an Eye (I) exam. The only I (eye) exam I got at home was when my mother asked “Who made this mess” and I would reply “Not I (EYE).”

I was told to sit in a high back chair which faced a white chart with a jigsaw of consonants and vowels A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. Well I learned something in the 2^nd Grade.

The Optometrist instructed me to identify each letter by going from left and right and then row by row. First with the left eye and the right eye covered and then vice versa. “A Piece of cake, these eye exams are not so bad,” I thought.

I then wondered to myself, “Maybe people who did not learn these scrambled letters in the 2^nd grade were the ones who ended up wearing glasses.” Then the Optometrist asked me to READ what was on the exam chart with both eyes.

Now at this point in the story you may ask, “What could possibly go wrong? “

Well a lot.

You see I remember when I was young taking a flight of stairs down into the basement of the grammar school and sitting in Sr. Ascension's music class - a very diminutive nun and the school’s music teacher. She would start her class the same way by having the students warm up their throat muscles by singing a series of words up and down the scales and NOT the standard “Do, Re, Mi Fa, So La Te,” but instead “new, New, NeW, & NEW”

I can not tell you how many times I sat in that class and wondered why she would ask us students to annunciate - in rising scale no less - that her classroom was NEW. It was NOT new it was OLD, and the walls were painted robin’s egg blue, and there were big fat insulated steam pipes, waxed smelling tile floors, and in the front of the room another one of those black boards - which made a 2^nd grade boy squint while he sat in his chair behind Algae Lynch and Bobby DiMartino and 8 other more interesting characters.

Well now you can imagine the rest of the story.

When then Optometrist asked me to READ the chart with both eyes open, I thought the real exam was starting and all those letters made up words and sentences, and well, I could not READ them.

“I can not read them, I said.”

I am not sure what if any logic reasoning went on inside the head of the Optometrist after my response; for he was soon dropping fluids in my eyes to make my pupils dilate, and was fitting me for glasses. I was then given shades and then told to go home and to NOT look into the sun for I could go blind.

Oh boy was I confused. I was now one of those people who needed to wear glasses until he learned to READ those scramble letters. This was going to be rough since my dad and uncle – both geniuses – were not able to figure them out since they still wore glasses.

Well I had glasses and some dark shades and my eyes hurt and my head hurt, and I was driving back to East Baltimore with Uncle Jack in his 4-Door Black Rambler away from the “OK DONT GO BLIND CORRAL.”

Uncle Jack –who paid $20 for the glasses was not singing “Ghost Riders”, but instead something like “Get out the way oh Dan Tucker, your too late to eat your supper.”

Well a week later while still blurry eyed, I lost the glasses in some bushes. My mother and uncle were not pleased with my carelessness but for myself all I could say was:

“I can read at last, read at last, oh Lord I can read at last!”

Praying Near the Holocaust with Moses

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:50:00 +0000

by Susan Fox

Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to power in Egypt. He said to his subjects, “Look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves! Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they to may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country.” (Ex 1:8-10)

And so the new king of Egypt reduced the Israelites to slavery and ordered the midwives to kill all Hebrew boys born to Jacob’s descendants.

Thus it came about that Moses – like many unborn children today -- was marked for death at his conception. But his mother hid him for three months and then placed him in a basket on the river bank. Pharaoh’s daughter found him, and was moved with pity. She saved the life of the man who would someday save his people from slavery in Egypt, through the great Exodus.

So I stood Friday praying at an abortion death camp in Tempe, AZ. And I asked Moses to pray for the children intended to die that day and their parents.

How ironic that the Hebrew people, who were supposed to see their race exterminated, should instead see their descendants become more numerous than the stars in heaven. In fact, without a physical country for almost 2000 years and despite a new holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1900s, the Jews have retained their cultural and religious identity to this day. Can you name any other ancient civilization that has done the same?

Then in the early 1900s, there appeared another great murderer. She had the same agenda as the Egyptian King. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and a proponent of forced eugenics, segregation, abortion and birth control, had the goal to eliminate the poor, the feeble and the mentally disabled members of our population – as if they were responsible for their own suffering. This took the form of encouraging abortion and birth control centers among the poor Irish Catholic and the black populations as well as sterilization of the mentally ill and retarded.

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…"
Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood

And so I stood Friday at an office of Planned Parenthood in Tempe, AZ, on the day that the abortions are performed.

Ironically, the once-enslaved black population remains as 12.9 percent of the American population in 2000, compared to 10 percent in 1920 when Margaret Sanger began to spread her disastrous ideals. But white populations in Europe are gradually disappearing as families reproduce at less than replacement level due to abortion, birth control and the ideals espoused by Margaret Sanger.

“Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all living things that move on the earth.” (Gen 1:28) I admire the Muslims for this one thing: they are obeying God. They are raising large families. And the populations that are disobeying God in this commandment are disappearing. Germans, French, Spanish, Italians, English and Norwegians are going the way of the dinosaur. As one friend of mine, said, “Kiss your white hiney goodbye.” But it’s worse than that. Kiss goodbye to the whole of Judeo-Christian civilization in its birthplace. Islam and its populations are slowly and inexorably overtaking Europe. What they couldn’t get by war in the Middle Ages, they are taking now by family planning and immigration.

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."
Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood

And so, with such a “progressive” goal, Margaret Sanger ate of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and gave birth to an abomination – a disastrous population implosion wherever her ideas take root. It is said that Hitler and Stalin killed millions, but Margaret Sanger has killed billions and the toll is still rising. Who would believe that the world would be destroyed not by global warming or an asteroid hitting the earth, but instead by the “choice” of its own miserable population, the choice to kill, the choice to die. Why doesn’t the Sci Fi Channel create this disaster movie for Saturday night television audiences?

Recently, we had little ants all over our vegetable garden in the back yard. So the guy who takes care of my bugs came by and gave me a birth control spray. I only had to spray a few ants from the colony, and within a day or two the whole population ceased to exist because they couldn’t reproduce. This is what is taking place in decades instead of days on the world scene with the widespread use of birth control. And the people disappearing aren’t just poor, ill-educated and black. They are white, well-to-do and very well educated.

And so I stood Friday at an abortion mill in Tempe, AZ, and prayed.

“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14) God took on the humanity of man and was born into the world He Himself created. Yet His own people did not accept Him. Learning from the Magi where and when the Messiah had been born, King Herod “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” (Matt. 2:16) “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled since they were no more.” (Matt. 2:18)

50.9 million children have been killed by abortion since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973

But behold, God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” (Matt. 2:13) Joseph rose and took the child and his mother that very night and departed for Egypt.

And so I stood Friday at an abortion mill started by Margaret Sanger, and prayed to St. Joseph to protect the innocents for whom Christ’s life was threatened. Jesus so closely allied Himself with these children by His conception in the womb of a human mother and His birth to a poor family. Jesus Christ was exactly the kind of child that Margaret Sanger was trying to eliminate from our population when she started Planned Parenthood.

And so on Good Friday, Jesus Christ mounted the cross and allied Himself with all innocent victims of abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.

Yet Jesus Christ did not mount the tree of life just to save the innocent. He came for the guilty as well. He loved them while they were still in their sins. He came like Moses to lead His people out of the slavery of sin. He came to cancel the debt of murderers like Margaret Sanger -- should they repent.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:43)

That was the voice of Our Lord and Savior interceding as He died for the abortionist and all who participate in the sin of abortion be they grandparents, father, mother or legislator.

And so on Friday, I walked and prayed on a sidewalk near an abortion mill in Tempe, AZ, with a sign that said, “His mercy is to generations and generations to them that fear him.” (Lk1:50) And I am happy to read there are only 730 abortion clinics left in the United States. There used to be 2,000. Source: Life Dynamics

A Somewhat True STory

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:12:00 +0000

by Lawrence Fox
Okay so I have been a little slothful lately dealing with my garden in the back yard. I excused the bare limbs and stripped leaves to the hot weather and soil neglect.
But all wishful thinking comes to an end; which brings me to the following life and death event of EXODUS proportions.
You see, one night I heard from the back yard a whispering sound – nothing mind you like the perturbations of air that Moses and Joshua heard while up on Mount Zion and upon closer scrutiny (coming down the mountain that is) found their tribal family dancing gleefully around a golden calf.
No it was a sneaky tinny song something like:
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite….”
As I moved closer to the back door and then outdoors the words of the song became more distinct:
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite...”
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite..”
“Vegetables in the moonlight, they don’t run and so we bite…”
With a crescendo from 100+ SNAILS!!
“Vegetables in the ..Belch.. moonlight, they don’t .. Belch…run and so we ...Belch… bite.”
Hey these critters are singing gleefully about the denuding of my vegetable garden!
Eggplant and basil have become the golden calf for a WIGGLY TRIBE which just had their EXODUS from the Gold Canyon common area into my back yard.
Okay maybe my tribe was related to them a millions years ago but who needs new in-laws and out-laws eating for FREEE!.
Well if anyone remembers the story from Exodus, Moses ground up the golden calf and mixed it with water and made his tribe drink the contents – giving them pretty upset stomachs.
I was not so merciful and instead pulled out thee (3) full containers of MORTON SALT and sang gleefully:
“Dancing in the Moonlight, were there’s salt, snails don’t bite…”
After a couple of minutes of salting the little vermin; I heard a sound from inside the house.
It was my wife singing a different tune: “LARRY WHERE IS ALL THE SALT.”

The Lunchtime Perils of Lawrence Fox

noreply@blogger.com (Lawrence and Susan Fox) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:44:00 +0000

This is a light note from Lawrence Fox:

Another Not so Embellished Lunch Story

"Names have been changed to protect the sensitive."

From time to time Mr. Ed and I have been alternately picking up the tab for lunch.

These lunch time socials have been an opportunity to first briefly exchange the formalities of life: "How is you family?", "How are you feeling?", "What did you do this weekend?" and so forth and secondly to discuss work.

In all honesty no one really shares everything about what they do during the week, let alone the weekend, but the general intent is prudently understood and responded to.

After the very brief formalities (a digression), we then regress into the issue of work; or should I say what does not work at work when there is work for which your are responsible for the work even though you did not scope the work.

Another digression is my lack of local restaurant selections - it is always the Claim Jumper since with their menus you can go pretend you at a different restaurant without having to travel to them.

But not today by golly!! We are going to do something different.

Mr. Ed says "How about Thai Food?"

I say okay but where?

We then drive off - Mr. Ed knows the way.

We head down Broadway and turn into a parking lot and park right in front of the TAILGATE BAR AND GRILL.

"Mr. Ed," I retort, "this it not THAI but TAIL -- GATE. Maybe they serve good Bumpers and Headlights?"

Mr. Ed recognizes that of yes wrong parking lot.

We head further down Broadway and pull into another Parking Lot.

There she is, the THAI LEMON TREE Restaurant.

We go in and sit down.

Mr. ED says; "The Service is VERY SLOW here."

"That is okay", I said. "it gives me more time to complain about something."

Old age and I am really trying to overcome this habit.

We get the menus from a very petite person.

Mr. Ed asks "What would you order here?"

"I have never been here (HERE) but at other Thai places I order the MASAMON (curry chicken, coconut milk, potatoes, peanuts, basil, hot peppers, onions all stewed together)."

"did I mention you can get rice." a little joke!!

Mr. Ed asks; "What should I order."

I suggest the Phad Thai. "It seems to be a staple Thai fixin'," - staple like fried chicken and french fries in the Baltimore, so I tell Mr. Ed.

We get our order, we eat and then I ask Mr. Ed what does he think about the Phad Thai?

"TOO SWEET, ALL THAI FOOD TOO SWEET AND OR TOO HOT."

"Oh I am sorry to hear that, I thought you wanted to go to a Thai Restaurant and now you say you do not like the food?"

"NO, MY WIFE TOOK ME TO THIS THAI RESTAURANT."

Moral of the story

So you see ladies, men do not even communicate well with each other.