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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.
Ekklesia (Greek word meaning church) … signified the assembly of citizens of the polis (a city or small state in ancient Greece), who meet to make decisions.
Dairmaid MacCulloch, in Christianity: The First Three Thosuand Years
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The history of Western Civilization aligns faith or church with governing – ekklesia with polis. But we live in a time (a treacherous time) in which that nexus is lost … and that loss makes for a far more errant society and culture – a government more prone to chaos than tranquility, distain and division than gratitude and unity.
This is where we are now in the West and in America.
If you want a source of our problems in government, in law and in public affairs – look no further than the disconnection between church and state and the hostility and sickness that arises when this nexus is ignored, or worse yet – attacked, disparaged and forbidden.
Really, there is not much more to say except – when you listen to public discourse ask yourself one simple question: Does this man or woman speaking convey any sense that he or she knows anything at all about who we are and who we have been for centuries, or for the tenets which have provided our foundation, survival, peace and prosperity?
If you answer in the negative – stop listening – for that speaker deserves none of your time or attention.
Shalom.
“The devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic’ … or he will cease to be anything at all.”
Karl Rahner
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Have you ever asked yourself how Jesus might have experienced life, and faith, and His relationship with The Father?
Our life is more a question of fully experiencing the human and hence divine experience of being a human being than anything else.
Yes, our completion and fullness relies on the full experience of human experience for in that our gift is made for completion – for a joining of mortal and immortal reality.
We are made to know fully – from Aplha to Omega. In this we enter the Mystery. There is: Truth, identity and relationship with God and all others, all things. Therein is contentment, peace, traquility and the absence of fear and doubt, and uncertainty, anger and hostility. Therein is love – the all surpassing love that is of God, that is God.
But alas, we do not see and opt to divide one from another. The lesser among us divide so as to control, claim authority, impose narrow views that they alone conjure up or acquire from some favortite figure whose wandering defied God. Marx comes to mind.
In lesser “gods” is foolishness, conflict, ignorance and illness.
The land is littered with those who foolishly chose ideology over God and doing so they close the mind and heart, and alter all opportunity for wisdom, faith, tranquility, peace, truth, compassion, humility, understanding, the experience of human experience – and the transcendence that is available to all.
Yes, we are an odd lot – given fullness, we seek division and hostility.
It is far better to know how to know than be told what to know. It is far better to know how to see than be told what to see. This is the difference between the curse of ideologues and Christ, between the rote “believer,” and one who believes because he sees and knows from the experience God in the experience of human experience.
When we settle into division – the proclaimation of “me,” “me vs. them,” “us vs. the others” we are the antithesis of fullness in being, we are less than we are made to be, blinded not sighted. You see we are of the Whole, nothing less.
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.
Happy Easter!!!
“… dying he has destroyed our death, and rising her has restored our life.”
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There is no human life on earth that is not subject to sin and death. Sin fractures relationships with others and indeed fragments our very self. Death is “that ubiquitous reaper.” But Christ changes that default setting that bedevils man and woman, child and adult.
Christ on the Cross redeems each of us from sin and neuters the dread of death, the pain of this mortal exodus. In Christ we are upright in soul and being – sin does not imprison and death does not threaten.
In Christ we have a whole new existence – human wholeness, spiritual expanse, contentment, strength, truth, humility, certainty amid the unknown, community, friendship everlasting. In Christ, all troubles teach and insight and wisdom abounds, patience too.
In Christ, love prevails as love is practiced in all manner of life’s encounters.
Imagine a culture in which consciousness of Christ was for each of us – the substance of each daily transaction, each moment, each idle hour, each day month after month, year after year. Imagine Western Civilization restored to its formative reality – Imagine America and Americans at their historic best – humble, compassionate, brave, sacrificial, honorable, hardworking, strong, independent, dignified, sober, gentle, just, forgiving, confident, grateful for each day and each breath, faithful and kind.
The worm, Friends, is turning. We have gone too long divided, disgruntled, angry, joyless, self-serving and without Christ.
The truth of the matter is quite simple – we need not “fundamentally alter America.” Those who think this are mistaken, ignorant of many things – and in need of faith. For them we might pray.
Shalom.
Spirlaw 