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Dedicated to My Son, His Wife and My Two Grandchildren … and All the Parents Raising Children
To be a good parent … we do not need to be people who have arrived; God simply calls us to be on the way, seeking, finding, and rejoicing in what we find. (Emphasis added.)
Catherine Stonehouse, in Joining Children on the Spiritual Journey: Nurturing a Life of Faith.
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My son and I recently had a very interesting conversation about providing for the spiritual lives of his two small children, ages almost three and almost one.
Yes, children have – as all human beings do – innate spiritual needs and desires.
Throughout the ages people are confronted with all sorts of probative “why” and “how” and “what” and “who” questions. Why do bad things happen? How can we be good? What is love? How do you forgive someone? Who made the world? Why go to church?
Yes, we are all bound by these questions. And, no – politics does not provide the answer. And, yes – by thinking all things are political as many do in this imploding secular culture we establish one thing for sure: life and cultures demand that individuals pay particular attention to our interior, the spiritual plateau in all human beings or court chaos and destruction, disintegration. Absent attention to the spiritual: cultures, societies, communities, families, nations, individual people are undone – destroyed – trapped in selfishness, error, hostility, destruction, conflict, injury and despair.
Frankly, we are inclined precisely in that destructive dimension in contemporary America and the West at this very moment.
We are, of course, not human beings seeking a spiritual experience, but rather – spiritual beings seeking a human experience.
Look around you. Do you see how costly denying God and spiritual reality can be?
Parents attend to your spiritual existence and invite your children to join you. Individually you will each be better – together you will be a family – a sacred, life-saving vessel in a world of choppy waters and occasional gales.
I wish you smooth seas – no matter the conditions you meet.
Shalom.
Moral Indignation. Been alive for seven-plus decades. Ain’t met a single perfect person, nor an angel. My conclusion: we are not perfect. Yet, now some (armed with moral indignation) are set on tearing down statues of people they find unsavory. With this approach the Democrat Party may find itself banished after their lengthy history of favoring the Klan and racial segregation.
In the language of Boston politics – what goes around, comes around.
The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. Fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future. (Emphasis added.)
Samuel P . Huntington
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Do not Islam and Marxism display the truth of Professor Huntington’s remarks? Is our national security not, then, contingent upon America and the West knowing who they are and who their rivals are – what is the bedrock of our identity and their identity?
American and Western identity rests on our classical legacy, Christianity, the relationship between church and state, freedom of religious expression, free speech and free elections, the rule of law, civil society and the peaceful transition of political power, free market economics, and our historic national footprint.
When cultures clash, as they do now, one must have a very clear understanding of who one is.
When cultures clash radical variation in basic identity within a society is a luxury that cannot be readily accommodated. That said, a political party like the Democrat Left whose identity is based on: perpetual radical social and economic “change,” the centralization of cradle to grave power in the federal government, creating conflict through “identity politics” which manufactures angry “victim classes” and enslaved government dependents – compromises the nation’s security. A state of perpetual internal flux puts in question one’s basic identity – it distracts and creates unnecessary and dangerous discord.
Indeed this is where we are today: division within while those within and without who wish our defeat grow stronger and more intent on our destruction.
To make matters worse, very few of those who occupy political office have any inkling of the challenge we face and the fundamental question it raises. The question? Who exactly are we?
In a clash of cultures not knowing who you are is fatal.
Shalom.
The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. (Emphasis added.)
Albert Einstein, in Out of My Later Years
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Do you remember the story of Jesus visiting the home of Martha and Mary? (Lk 10:38-42)
In that story Martha is busy preparing a meal for Jesus and others while her sister Mary is seated at Jesus feet listening to him. Martha asks Jesus if he does not care that Mary has left her to do all the preparations alone.
Jesus answered Martha – “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
This is precisely the wisdom Albert Einstein expresses. We all have the capacity to experience the mystical.
A life lived within mortal limits is a life not lived. It is a life without fullness. It is “the mystical” that makes a life, that alone completes a life.
Feodor Dostoevsky writes in The Brothers Karamazov this: “Much on earth is hidden from us, but to make up for that we have been given a precious mystical sense of our living bond with the other world, with the higher heavenly world.”
We have many like Martha. And few like Mary. Which are you?
Those like Mary possess calm, certainty. They see and they are not lured into all that is earthly. They are not worrisome. Addicted. They are not egotists. They are not trapped in the nonsense that prevails among the masses. They are not captured in the present day and all its false gods and endless foolishness.
Our culture is full of Martha in many forms. Ignore them. They have chosen the lesser things.
Are you Mary or are you Martha?
Shalom.
Russia and Us. It is interesting that for all the hubbub about Russia over the years, we have not been smart in dealing with them. We have been, because we have “leaders” who do not live life on a mystical plateau, unable to see the undeniable truth about Russians which is this: Dostoevsky reveals their core, their heart – their orientation to life (even as they try to supplant him with Marxist nonsense).
The truth of who they actually are is their soft underbelly and, not being well and fully formed, our “leadership” cannot see it.
When the blind confront the blind – it is always an “eye for an eye.” Endless folly. “Clowns to the left of us, jokers to the right.”
” … God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead … I cannot know for certain where it will end … But I believe that my desire to please you does in fact please you.” (Emphasis added.)
Thomas Merton, in Thoughts in Solitude
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If a devout monk can experience uncertainty, imagine the state of confusion and error of those who do not believe.
Yes, in a godless culture godless figures emerge to “lead.” Of course, they cannot lead. Why? They have no clue what has value, what is good and just and honorable. What they have is simply the idiocy of unbelievers and their abundant foolishness and guarantee for destruction.
In a culture of unbelief blind squirrels might find acorns, but not men with sight who lack belief in God.
Look around, we have endless public figures who are lost and do not know it. The rule of thumb today is this: if a public figure dons a raincoat, you can leave your umbrella home.
In a culture of chaos, you are better off to do the exact opposite of what the “powers that be” would suggest.
Let’s be plain here: if you wish to have a life of value, and joy – desire one thing: to desire to please God.
Yes, set all the fools aside.
Shalom.
Sad – Godless pagan culture claims another life. Singer Chester Bennington committed suicide yesterday at age 41. He leaves fatherless children. This is the real cost of the secular culture, the fruits of the failure of elites, the intellectual, political, media and celebrity classes. Some legacy. Yes, there are more suicides in the United States each year than homicides. Sad. It need not be this way.
“Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”
Jn 5:8
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These are the words of Jesus speaking to the sick man at the pool at Bethesda who had been unable to enter the pool for its healing benefits.
While these seem like harsh words, Jesus makes this point – it is best not to concede all of your welfare to others, not to disgorge yourself of yourself, of your own effort and power, your own autonomy and dignity.
It is so easy in society today to assume someone will assist you, do for you, “make things better” for you, cater to your needs. But there is a disempowerment that comes from this attitude. Yes, this is an attitude that concedes power to others.
Jesus saw the dispiriting nature of this. He said as well in verse 21 of Chapter 5 in the Gospel of John:
” … just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.”
When relying on others is our way of life, we deflate – we die a little when this reliance is habituated. Jesus seeks to give us life, to show us life, to tell us we have a life that the Father called us to live fully.
Of course, from time to time one needs help here and there, for we are not omnipotent and exclusively self-reliant. However, we are often capable of more than we think we are. Do not let others consign you to less than you are.
Shalom.
INDEPENDENCE DAY – 2017
The place of religion in our society is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, the church and the inviolable citadel of the individual heart and the mind. We have come to recognize through bitter experience that it is not within the power of government to invade that citadel, whether its purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard.
Justice Tom C. Clark, U.S. Supreme Court, 1963
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May it thus always be so. One Nation under God.
That government which governs least, governs best.
Shalom.
” … an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and it truth; such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (Emphasis added.)
Jn 4: 23, 24
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The above words are those of Jesus from his remarkable conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
This exchange is, in my view, one the most instructive and revealing stories in the Gospels. I say this because of the candor and clarity with which Jesus speaks and the manner in which the woman so readily hears and sees who Jesus is. Likewise I look at the content: we are called to live in spirit and in truth. Our faith is an inside out proposition – it is the spirit which governs … that completes the law, animates truth in daily life.
Each of us should be as the Samaritan woman: we listen to Jesus, experience him and our life is radically changed – certainty emerges and faith is our new and concrete foundation, a spiritual foundation.
We have strayed far from faith today and we are far worse for it. Partisanship replaces friendship, accuracy in the press and media gives way to falsehood and bias, untruths. Individual personal demands are asserted over the common good, budget deficits hasten the risk of economic calamity and few relinquish their own desires at the expense of our children and grandchildren and our immediate national security in an increasingly hostile world. We are without a faith foundation – without the Spirit … and we suffer badly from this absence.
Frankly, if we believed as the Samaritan woman believed we would be more certain, more secure, stronger, more confident, more content and happier, wiser and more greatly blessed by God.
Listen to the public discourse. Is there anyone whose words tell you that they drink of the living water that Jesus offered this peasant woman?
“… whoever drinks of the water that I will give … shall never thirst; but the water I will give … will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
Jn 4:14
Shalom.
Father, lead me to drink each day from The Living Water that I may be closer to You and a source of witness to others in need of You. Make of us a faithful and courageous nation, a source of light and love to others.
“How full the days are, full of slow and quiet … Only here do I feel that my life is authentically human.“
Thomas Merton
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Merton’s words in a journal entry of November 1964 when he moved into his hermitage – a place to dwell alone surrounded by nature.
In my solitude on the ridge I know what he means. Never have I felt closer to reality, to God, to the ground of being … or more at peace.
I am away from disorder, chaos … and the flood of bad behavior, routine deceptions and the idiotic chatter – its self-destruction.
I think of ISIS. North Korea. The American Left. The media, the press. Iran. Russia’s global antics and Europe’s passivity and foolishness.
When good falls victim to evil has not the ground under you shifted? Is it not wise to seek Eden once again?
In Eden there are no pagans, no herds of selfish people making unwise and suicidal demands.
Merton and the Ridge.
Shalom.
Remarkable Reception for President Trump in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are to be applauded for the warmth and dignity they display. This could be a significant turning point. So much for the notion that President Trump is the Devil incarnate.
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… the state threatened to become not only militarily and politically triumphant but psychologically so: the custodial Superego for millions … their Egos an instrument, pure and simple, of the state’s bureaucratic manipulation.
Robert Coles, M.D. in A Secular Mind
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Dr. Coles, an esteemed research psychiatrist, is commenting on Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz’s observations in his book entitled A Captive Mind in which he explores the consequences of (Communist) centralized state power over the individual person.
Doctor Coles ends his book about the secularized mind by focusing on the apparent need for the modern state to secure social and psychological control over its population. And, Coles focuses on the prospects of neurochemistry and medical science in doing so.
As to the latter point, Coles draws on advances in neuroscience, biology and medicine – particularly on developments in pharmacology – reminding us that Sigmund Freud thought that in time the mind itself might be reduced to simple matter and ministered to (and perhaps altered substantially) by medications. That is to say, that the experience of being human would change rather significantly.
This, by the way, has been a theme expressed over time by a number of people from Orwell, to Huxley, to Stanislaw Witkiewicz and others, and displayed in Phillip Dick’s 1968 movie Blade Runner.
The notion of centralized control over the person leads me to think more critically of the divisions between those who despise Donald Trump and those who voted for him.
In thinking about this I see Trump as an unimportant focus. It is not he himself that matters but rather the significance of the divide between those who voted for him and those who are clearly threatened by him, and seem to hate him.
It seems to me that the divide is what is important.
That said, I think one can make a reasonable observation that the difference is in part the distinction between those who favor centralized power and those who do not. In effect, we are talking about those who favor government control over the social and psychological nature of the human person and those who oppose the same.
Illustratively, the Left favors imposing their “views” on others – i.e., forced “tolerance.” Some in the middle ground default to continued growth in government to the extent that sovereignty and national identity and nation itself is devolved to international organizations and competing cultures (i.e., globalists).
In opposition to this, of course, are those who favor less government and preservation of nation, individual freedom and continued American economic prosperity and ethos, and constitutional Federalism.
We have simply stated: globalists vs. nationalists.
So the question today is not Trump but what underpins the divide? Why his adversaries violently oppose him? Why the hatred and effort to drive him from office?
My view is that it has to do with a very fundamental question: Will we live in a country where control over the human person expands as the power of the central government and international organizations expands or will we not?
Shalom.
… in order to integrate himself anew, man must submit himself once more to a higher power … We must now experience immanently what the Middle Ages experienced transcendentally.
Nicholas Berdyaev, in The Meaning of History
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Surveying the American political landscape can be pretty dismal. The common liberal refrain is to say, “Ugh, Donald Trump” as if he alone warrants disfavor.
Good God: Al Franken, Nancy Pelosi, Chuckie “Hair-Plug” Schumer, Slap-Happy Tim Kane, Susan Collins, Maxine Waters, Bernie “Never Had a Paying Job” Sanders, Little Harry Reid … The list is endless.
Is it any wonder that the policy process is disordered as it is?
Which brings one to Nicholas Berdyaev.
Berdyaev seeks the full development of the human person and includes in that his and her spiritual development. He sees that asceticism plays a part in the fullness of the human person.
From his quote above, he sees that without a relationship with God, man cannot flourish. I would add: nor can peace be realized, community established and sustained, and wisdom prevail.
If there is one thing about the present political and cultural landscape that strikes me it is this: it is flat, material, quarrelsome, often foolish and distasteful, wasteful, counterproductive and utterly uninspiring.
Placing Berdyaev’s words on today’s landscape makes me wonder if those of us who are faithful might shift gears ever so slightly. Our habit is to focus on The Father, and The Son – but less so on The Holy Spirit. In the former we sit more materially than mystically.
Imagine the re-orientation if one and one’s culture and politics were to accommodate immanent experience.
In such a turn, people would live from the inside out – concern would shift from a collective culture of “free stuff” to desire that all might grow in individual responsibility and dignity. Indeed we might pass from dependent serfdom to sacred being.
Imagine if each thought of himself, herself and others as sacred beings. Yes, living in the The Spirit – life is recognized for the mystical experience that it is.
If you want to jump the curve from a nation of people who seek that others might care for their every need, accommodate their strangest infantile whim, ask yourself this: if we all felt that we were sacred beings responsible to live fully, in dignity and in joy, would we not cease the foolishness we now exhibit and enjoy the leadership of the wisest and most faithful among us?
Shalom.
