Gratia Sanans

Is it easy to live the life of a Christian today; you know avoiding sin and all?

How can anyone be sure that one can even stay on the right course, go the right way, the way of the Christian?  "The Way."

This world is full of temptations and the earth's so called "ruler", albeit weakened in defeat since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is still "diabolical" as Biblically revealed to us, and does not appear to be the sort of candidate looking after our spiritual welfare  (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; 6:12; 1 John 5:19).

Fortunately, a whole lot better news than this is also Biblically revealed to us.

In the meantime, in the day to day struggle against sin we all want to know how to persevere:  "What is the remedy? Not nature, only grace." writes  Benedict Baur in Frequent Confession: Its Place in the Spiritual Life. 

So where does one inherit such grace? 

For me and millions of other Catholics around the globe the answer is found in the sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ.

What are the sacraments?

They are physical manifestations, they are outward signs, for sinners and pious alike, instituted by Christ, to give grace. These are called sacraments. 

The sacraments I have personally received through the Catholic Church are:

• Baptism,

• Penance,

• Eucharist, (scroll down after clicking the link)

• Confirmation,  (scroll down after clicking the link)

• Matrimony  (scroll down after clicking the link)

Catholics believe there are only two others:  Anointing of Sick (for the gravely or terminally ill) and Holy Orders (for men consecrated to the priestly life).

Are these sacraments really for sinners?  Yes especially sinners. 

Remember the gospel story of the prodigal son?  The great love the father had for the prodigal son returning home after squandering the family inheritance during a life of debauchery and licentious living? (Lk 15:11-32)  The father lavishes his repentant son with gifts and a feast.  This is how much God loves you and me! 

 "The Beat Goes On" is my own personal testimony to exactly this: God's unqualified love for the repentant sinner.  Unqualified meaning "no strings attached!"   Despite my long spell of sinful transgressions and separation from God, I am not only accepted back into the fold but abundantly blessed with mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and all the while, showered with life renewing grace.   

 

In the sacrament of Catholic confession, one tells one's sins to a priest.  One keeps a contrite heart and a sincere resolve to change ones ways so that "what is above all given to us is an increase of healing grace, what theologians call gratia sanans." writes Baur.

Otherwise, says Baur, left to our own devices, one can only "rely on his own proud and egoistic interpretation of his experience and the events of his life.  He has to trust his own covetous self-seeking and his boundless self-centeredness and his hatred for everything that contradicts his own will.  He is the unfortunate man of whom it is written:  "To will is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good, I find not.  For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do….I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me….Unhappy man that I am!" (Rom 7:18-24)

I don't know about you but probably like me, in pursuit of happiness, we've both already tried, God help us, the many different alternatives our modern heathen society offers: lifestyles, material acquisitions, career ambitions, you name it.  

But I hope one day too, you can testify along with me, in light of the truth found in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, all the rest is just emptiness and injury at worst and back to the starting point at best -I pray that our confessions may be testimony to posterity!

What other way is there?  None!

Stage Addiction

If people have paid a cover charge at the door or have paid to come in and eat a meal, to dance, etc. this then is what we would call a "professional gig."  Forgetting our high school performances as a teenage band, up to that day,  June 20, 1997 - the closest I got to a "professional" musical event stage, was as a roadie/sound and light guy for my brother's band, the Titans.  I would get to walk on stage, introduce the band, and then walk off the stage, to the back of the room, where the sound and light controls were located. 

That all changed one day when my brother Marc Geraci called me up to "sit in" with the band he was in called Carrie Dell and the Time Piece.  I think Marc had even agreed to split half of his pay with me.  He had told the other musicians in the band that he had a brother who had recently started playing the congas.  They were like, "Sure, man, call him over."   I had never even sat in with this band, didn't know what songs they would be playing - all I really knew -  Marc was a rock solid time keeper and I could follow him on the drums.

What's it like being on a "professional" stage, playing a "gig?" 

The feelings I had were both of terror and of having finally, so-to-speak, arrived musically, even though, I had just only recently embarked on this whole hand drum pursuit.  I think at that time, Marc and I had practiced together only a few times ourselves, mostly just me showing him rhythms I had learned from my drum lessons,  probably demonstrating them on a tabletop during family get-togethers.  

Prior to all this, a co-worker of mine, Dan Archer, had heard about my new conga interests and had encouraged me to pick-up "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye an ultimate, conga-centric work of music.  He wasn't kidding!  So I asked my drum teacher to write out the dominant conga rhythm in "What's GoingOn" and I saw that I could apply this same rhythm to just about any rock-n-roll piece with a 4/4 time signature. 

Having a band himself, Dan called me out to some musician's practice hall where his band regularly met.  I agreed, secretly with reluctance, and when I got out there, to my horror, I learned there was no trap drummer in sight!  I would have to keep time for the band!  Imagine that, a drummer being asked to keep time (and I hadn't even thought to bring along my metronome.) "Exposed as a fake!" was my dominant line of self talk but, despite all this, I got through it, come to find we were all "struggling" musicians that day.

But now, there we were, Marc and I, playing together in Jonestown, Texas, my first "paid gig," my first "professional" stage, just letting it flow song to song, set to set.  The band must have liked my contribution, imperfect as it was, because they asked me out to several more shows and we played until Marc decided to disband, looking for a new project.

What's it like being on a "professional" stage, playing a "gig?" 

It's a thrill, an exhilarating, tiring, experience.  One literally drains oneself to play the correct parts at the correct times yet, at the same time, one is fueled to the limit in concert with the crowds reaction and enthusiasm to what is being performed.

Taken the wrong way, it's a head inflating experience, a high, an addiction borne from perhaps a misguided perception of the audience's adoration.  Leaving the stage between sets one is even conscience of the eyes following you, perhaps clouded eyes, resulting from copious consumption of alcoholic beverages.   The attention elevates the psyche, boosts the self worth, at least temporarily.  

Following the long tear-down and late night arrival to home one asks why would anyone in their right mind want to make their living this way? 

But the next day, ears still ringing from proximity to the cymbals the night before, all is forgotten and one can’t wait to repeat it all over again and play the next gig.  

Granted one knows that most won't make a living with music alone and so one finds just enough work to keep one immersed in one's music.

For the next thirteen plus years this is exactly what I lived for, elevating and idolizing this experience above any other ideal or object.

"Denying oneself means refusing to be the centre of one's own attention.  The true disciple must be centred on Christ, to whom must be directed all thoughts and cares, so that our entire day truly becomes an offering to Christ." writes Fr. Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God