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” … today … nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.”
Herman Hesse
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Yesterday I saw this fellow Beto O’Rouke on a midday T.V. show called The View. It was actually remarkable because it was so pathetic.
Here was a youngish looking man offering all sorts of self-hating criticisms to three overweight, unattractive women – two of whom are far past their prime. It was a dark and disturbed, inane act of confession. Confession about skin pigment (being White), gender (being Male), affluence (being the Son-in-Law of a man who is a wealthy Texan) and simply being Beto.
It is strange to see self-hatred or self-loathing but there is a fair amount of it among today’s liberals. Indeed, it seems to be a dreadful by-product of present day Leftism with their template of “identity” politics – and especially prevalent among Democrats vieing to become President.
It is, of course, self-loathing … and as such – utterly unhealthy. And, who, by God, would ever imagine that anyone would want someone with so such self-hated to lead a nation?
It appears the liberals have doubled-down on Mr. Obama’s nation-hopping “apology” tour that marked his early presidency. No one, by the way, attaches admiration to a head of state whose instinct is to grovel.
This strange liberal instinct of self-loathing brings to mind Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution whereby in the midst of Mao failed economics he unleashed hoards of young brain-washed Marxists to corner individuals and extract from them public “confessions” for their real or imagined “betrayals” of the State. Yes, the subjects were randomly selected for their “hatred of socialism” vintage Mao.
Some of those cornered were too “bourgeois.” Others were deemed to have courted “evil habits” of yesterday.
The Cultural Revolution is said to have resulted in 2 million dead, maybe more. The take-away is this: Mao understood that a fearful populace composed of people who carry self-guilt in order to avoid harsh treatment, imprisonment, exile or death is easier to control.
Yes, it is alarming to see people on the Left evoking such self-loathing as young Mr. O’Rouke willing presented for all to see. It is even more concerning that a political party seems to promote this sort of thing, expect it.
Cultures that separate from faith lead us to such states as self-hated. Those who display this are in no position to lead. A society were such illness is present had best rectify its disposition lest it decay and die a chaotic death.
Shalom.
The life of the spirit is not your life, but the life of God within us.
St. Teresa of Availa, in Life Written by Herself
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Spirirual growth is aided significantly when we allow questions to arise in us. What might that mean?
When something happens to us that we cannot quite understand, or when we experience something that is puzzling, even hurtful or disorienting – or something quite suprising and quite unexpected, it is good to pause and spend time asking yourself – what just happened? Ask – why did that happen and what does it mean or what does it tell or teach me about life, others, interactions, me and the nature and history of my personal journey and the themes that have thus far emerged in my life?
In becoming familiar with your spiritual journey, you become familiar with yourself, your potential, your present personal settings as they orient you (most likely) partially to what is within you, what is your whole and presently unlived story. And more to the point, in this questioning, you become wiser, more secure and find a relationship with God – your Creator.
Our journey is not so much about complete comprehension as it is about mystery – allowing the presence of mystery, and gaining stability in knowing not all things, but rather that – in growing in Spirit we need not know all things but only that all things are possible, even the things that we least expect and cannot predict. In this state, we depart from the common installation of those things that are not certain – our identity in politics, career, education, title, wealth, status, political party, ideology, possessions, habits, gender, sexuality “identity,” etc.
Remember as to the Spirit and spiritual development – we do not and cannot unilaterally craft a life; to attempt to do so is bound to lead to frustration, chaos, unhappiness and failure.
In parting, I remind you of Mother Mary: “[Mary] was deeply disturbed [by the words of the angel] and wondered what they might mean. Luke: 1:29 (Emphasis added.)
Ask questions. Aim them particularly at yourself. In this, you grow in the Spirit and peace, understanding and wisdom emerge.
Shalom.
After trips and computer problems, we are back to a more regaular schedule. Writing in the morning. Here we go.
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Man without God is no longer man.
Nicholas Berdyaev, in The End of Our Time
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I write about faith and culture – secular culture in particular, that is: culture hostile to God, culture that “glorifies” not God but man himself and herself.
Our nation was founded on liberty that relies on belief in God and the honor that accrues to those who realize that they have a sacred relationship with their Creator. As Berdyaev says so simply and accurately: “Man without God is not man.”
The relationship between God, and belief, liberty and the human person is vital to our success, freedom and security. Yet, alas we see the Democrat Party of the Left acting in opposition to our wellbeing because they do not appreciate and protect our legacy of God-belief-liberty-freedom-success-security.
What we see today in the lawlessness of Congressman Nadler’s attempt to discredit a good man and excellent lawyer in Attorney General William Barr as is expected. “Expected” you say? Yes, we have seen this Democrat disregard for law as the product of godlessness and its predictable by-products: chaos and destruction.
For those who question this characterization of the Democrats – I sight an article by Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post from August 16, 2013 (when it used to be a relatively serious and somewhat reliable newspaper). The article was entitled “The Lawless Presidency” aimed at Barack Obama and his lawless actions – actions that discredit the U.S. Constitution and show us man shrunken to miniture when he acts without God.
Doctor Krauthammer reports the following – Mr. Obama’s Justice Department unilaterally deviated from federal drug laws so as not to punish otherwise punishable crimes. Likewise, the Obama administration waived portions of the dubious Obamacare law without any provison of the law allowing this. He personally directed a “70-plus-percent subsidy for insurance premiums paid by congressman and their personal staffs – under a law that denies subsidies for anyone that well off.” Likewise he lawlessly suspended a cornerstone of Obamacare “the employer mandate.”
Krauthhammer further reveals that Mr. Obama granted exemptions from the law to preferred businesses, unions, and “other well-lobbied, very special interests.” Krauthammer also reports Mr. Obama unilaterally eased immigration law and exceeded his authority and gutted the legislative process in doing so.
The point to be made is this: Mr. Obama (a man of no particular achievement or work record) acted unilaterally – acted far outside his lawful authority – and no one protested and no one stopped him. Congressman Nadler is proceeding in the same manner.
So we come to this: man unrestained and without God is far less than man and the problems he creates are utterly destructive. A moderately faithful man would know this – alas this is the Democrat Party of the Left today. No God, no man.
Today Democrats are a lawless and destructive cohort. Our silence and acquiesence will be our demise.
As Doctor Krauthammer notes acts such as we saw with Mr. Obama (and like we see with the Democrats today) are “banana republic stuff.”
Shalom.
Greek religion was a set of stories belonging to the entire community, rather than a set of well-bounded statements about ultimate moral and philosophical values … Within the common Greek culture, then, was an urge to understand and create a systematic structure of sacred knowledge which ordered everyday life.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, in Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
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If you want to understand why we are in the mess we are in, why the state of affairs in our nation are troublesome (indeed self-destructive) you need only know that those who would command our attention have no idea of our inheritance – the place Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews played in the development of Christianity and, in turn, Western Civilization.
You see we license all manner of poorly educated public personalities to speak to us without them knowing much at all about who we actually are.
Yes, we listen to people with no claim on our attention but that we listen because they are presented to us on television, in the media, among the intellectual or celebrity or political class, and the “special pleaders” who push one or another foolish idea or idiotic claims.
In short, we have an extreme deficit when it comes to the wise and broadly read, experienced and insightful whose knowledge runs to our origins and the process of human development dating back two thousand years before Christ.
Think I am wrong? Ask youself who among our public figures might be able to explain the connection between Greece, Rome, the Hebrews and the development of Christianity and the laws, institutions of governance in the West or identify the distinctions and similarities between Greeks, Romans, Hebrews and Christians when it comes to the Divine and our relationship with God or gods.
When is such a fundamental conversation ever been expected of those who seek to lead or “share” with us their opinions and desires for radical change?
Get serious. Those on the public stage subtract from the sum of human knowledge when they speak. This, of course, is taking its toll on us and our long term existence.
Shalom.
… it is difficult for churches, government, and leaders to move beyond ego, the desire for control, and public posturing. Everything divides into oppositions … vested interests pulling against one another. Truth is no longer possible at this level of conversation.
… you can lead people only as far as you yourself have gone …
Richard Rohr, in The Naked Now
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Richard Rohr writes of two monks of the 11th and 12th century – Hugh of St. Victor monastery in Paris, France, and Richard of the same monastery. He tells us that these monks wrote that humans have been given three different ways of seeing. One way arises from the eyes that produce thoughts. The second way of seeing leads to reason, and to reflection and meditation. The third way of seeing leads to true understanding and contemplation.
It is the third way of seeing that is the rarest and most evolved. Whereas the first way of seeing is common, it produces little depth of experience, is more concrete and binds one to the immediate without nuance. The second way of seeing allows one to relish his or her power to conceive of the material disposition of the world. Ah, but the third way of seeing allows one to do more – it allows one to “taste” existence, to be in awe before the underlying mystery, coherence, and spaciousness that connects one with everything!
The third way of seeing is seeing as a mystic sees – seeing as God has designed us to see. This seeing exceeds the senses, does not rest on knowledge and intellect alone – but rather sees in a manner that expands his or her consciousness – and in this is transformed, made whole, lives in and above at the same time, is mortal and immortal, contented, whole and wise in ways that neither the senses nor intellect can offer.
In commenting on this Rohr says “I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the separation and loss of these three necessary eyes is at the basis of much of the short-sight-edness and religious crises in the Western world.” Hence the above quote that leads into today’s blog.
The view that Rohr shares, Dear Friends, highlights how and why “identity politics” is so destructive, so wrong-headed, so primitive, tribal, hostile, aggressive, hateful and unappetizing. Those with greater depth of human experience cannot abide that which pits one against another in a death struggle. We are, after all, not made to be enemies to one another but rather brothers and sisters to one another.
This historic moment requires us to see as the mystic sees.
Shalom.
“Shall I tell you where the men (and women) are who believe most in themselves? … The men (and women) who really believe in themselves are all in a lunatic asylum.”
G. K. Chesterton, in Orthodoxy
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“Tis quite a thing to see the Democrat/Socialist Party of the Left looking like it has something in common with the thought process of the late Charles Manson. But alas it seems so.
Where does one start? Well, Joe Biden is a good place. He was in Boston recently talking to labor union members and claiming that he was one of them – one of the middle class, working men who build this country by their sweat and labor. Only one problem – Old Joe has never worked a day in his life in a private job. No, he has been on the government payroll as an elected politician for his entire adult life. Never had a private pay check – not one … but he is a millionaire-plus. Lunacy.
Then we have the ever-strange Mad Uncle Bernie who advocates that all imprisoned convicts have the right to vote. Bernie (another guy with no history of work in the private economy but with accumulated substantial wealth) never says how he will explain this “convicts can vote” idea in the small towns and sparsely populated counties where the prisons are usually situated. Uncle Bernie never explains what he’ll say when those small towns of 1500, 3000, etc. law-abiding citizens are governed by a town council and mayor who are convicted murders, robbers, sex offenders and the like. Lunacy.
Then there is Democrat Mayor of New York City who announced yesterday he would present legislation to forbid (or banish) skyscrapers from “The Old Big Apple” because he opines that nothing does more damage to the environment and “global warming” than skyscrapers. Yes, lunacy.
Then we have the young Congresswomen Cortez (sans an accomplished life in the private economy) who advances the Green New Deal which will (in the name of saving the planet) dismember the American economy by banning all sorts of things like airplanes because they and all other free-market objects and activities are (for her) a central cause of “global warming.” Lunacy, again.
Then you have the female Democrat candidate for President who slept her way up the political ladder. With no embarrassment whatsoever she seeks to occupy the Oval Office – becoming the first occupant of said office who has been a dedicated courtesan. How quaint! Lunacy, again.
Then you have the press/media and activists going somewhat bonkers for the Doogie Howser candidate in the form of young Mayor Pete of South Bend who has a “husband” to accompany him to the White House. Who among us thinks that his election will strike fear in the hearts of our adversaries? Lunacy, once more.
Alas there is not time enough to extend the list to the “pretend” Indian Princess and the fellow Democrat presidential candidate who fancies himself Spartacus. Lunacy.
We have the asylums in plain view, Friends. Yes, we have an open-air asylum. The residents can be found within the Democrat/Socialist Party of the Left.
More over Venezuela!!! Here we come.
Shalom.
Most people, quite sadly and with disastrous consequences, do not know that the gift is already given.
Richard Rohr, in The Naked Now
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We are given the Divine Presence of God and within that and residing with us is faith, hope and love. Yet, many ignore this gift and some of those who do not know this gift, this experience, are by their words and deeds telling us that they are disordered, that their ideas are ignorant of the gift and in that ignorance they advocate behaviors and policies and world views which are antithetical to faith, hope and love.
You see this in political candidates who advance abortion to the new-born child. Not satisfied with taking the life of a child within the womb, they see killing a newborn as a “choice!”
Think, too, of those who wish that felons may vote while in prison or that all manner of souls have welcome access to this country without regard to their conduct, misbehavior – even when it is unlawful, sinister, or intended to destroy this nation or engage in criminal conduct. Think, too, of the elected and aspiring politicians who seek to create a climate where all is “free” and no one is accountable. Think of those who wish to dismantle free enterprise, the U.S. Constitution or the Electoral College because their side did NOT win a presidential election. And think too of those among us who wish to accommodate all manner of sexual deviancy.
People are known by their words and deeds. Many among us tell you that they do not know of the experience of the God within and that they are hostile to the idea of God and those who espouse this belief. This is both a shame and very dangerous in a world where Christianity and Judaism are under increasing attack while the West stands by and does next to nothing to defend itself. Serious business, Friends.
Shalom.