During this outing,
there was a picnic and my mother had carefully packed my favorite lunch
including a Little Debbie chocolate cake for desert ("Ho
Hos"), and my very own, 12 ounce can of Coca Cola to drink, wrapped in
aluminum foil. Here I was, loved, cared
for, secure, outside God's green earth, beside myself with so much beauty,
creation and fascinating creatures.
Duck pond somewhere in Albany, Oregon.
Now remember with me
guys, go as far back as you can, to your earliest "day of
innocence." Was it when you were
out on the fishing pier of your family's coastal vacation home, just you and
your brother? How about when you were
under the family Christmas tree, you and dad holding onto your first real
fishing rod? Maybe it was during your first Dallas Cowboy football game with
your dad, mom and sisters?
Except for perhaps
disobeying our parents or not sharing with our siblings, here we were, innocent, free of any kind of
major "sin," full of joy and wonderment. If you've got the correct time period locked
in, you were still quite distant and free from any kind of heartache or
struggle: bullying, poor athletic abilities, bad grades, speaking or
performance gaffs, etc. Even further
away were you from the inevitable loss of job, financial crisis, major illness,
failed relationship, death of a loved one, loss of faith, addiction, etc.
It feels good to go
back there doesn't it? This childhood memory, this joy. Why do we lose this joy? In it's place, we begin regretting life, the
failed opportunities, missed relationships, things that we should have, could
have, might have done.
Why do we lose
God?
- I can't explain electricity….but it exists.
- I can't explain TV reception….but it exists.
- I can't explain international cell phone conversation either….but it exists.
- I can't explain air travel....but it exists.
- I can't explain Miss Universe….but she exists.
- I can't explain Ferrari...but it exists.
- I can't explain "Albert Einstein like" intelligence...but it exists.
- I can't explain the beginning of the universe….but it exists.
- I can't explain God….but God exists.
Maybe you've never
believed in God even though the principles of God exists all around you. Though the principles of electricity have
existed since the beginning of creation, we didn't learn how to "turn the
switch on" until the 19th century.
Or, maybe you really knew God all along but now, no longer know
joy. "You were within me while I
had gone outside to seek you. In my
unloveliness, I fell heedlessly upon all those lovely things you had made. Always you were with me, but I was not with
you. Created things kept me far from
you; yet if they had not been in you, they would not have been at all."
said St. Augustine.
That which
"attracts" us, that which stirs our hearts, is but a foretaste of the
more everlasting love to eventually envelop us for all of eternity. Every good childhood memory, the events that
frame them, the core goodness, comes from God!
Miss Universe, did she really get away, NO gentlemen! Her core goodness and beauty comes from
God! Lusting after anybody, same sex,
opposite sex, is just counterfeit for the core love that your heavenly soul
really seeks but that the earthly flesh tends to corrupt; this core love -
"is a gift" from God explains Christopher West in his John Paul II
Theology of the Body seminars. The
astounding human creativity and workmanship behind every Ferrari or Mercedes
S Class that you may never afford, don't worry, the core goodness comes from God. The ingenuity behind the iPad
- this too comes from God; the great scientific principles and discoveries - all coming from God. The greatest vacation spots in the world
also come from God and to think you're destined for God! "... yet if they had not been in you,
they would not have been at all."
The Church on earth, comes from God,
Mary's yes. Jesus Christ, born of human
flesh, eternally begotten of God, dying out of love for us, resurrected and ever present through the Holy Spirit, IS God.
What if this
childhood joy is just a taste of what eternal joy is like in the light of God;
times 10 raised to the 100 power; a little bit of heaven now? Every small and fleeting joy on earth then
being just a foretaste of what's to permanently come in life eternal. Reclaiming this joy we would be reminding ourselves of what we are
moving towards, that in itself, a cause for joy in the here and now.
I believe praying
and fasting allows one to receive God's
grace and with grace, one is able to go even further in the pursuit of the
truth, of things of God. Over time, an
even deeper form of praying evolves: the
"contemplating" of God's mysteries as revealed in Scripture and spiritual books. With patience, an
effective contemplative prayer will yield consolation. A consolation is a brief "touch" or
feeling much like this childhood experience of peace, joy and security; the same feeling that one's joyful childhood
memory invokes, experienced briefly in the present moment! It is a revelation, if you will, of things to
come, of this eternal, never ending joy.
Jesus Christ said,
"Let the children come to me. Do
not hinder them. The kingdom of God
belongs to such as these." And he
laid his hands on their heads before he left that place. Matthew 19:14
I think we need to
allow our hearts to become childlike again if only to rekindle this taste of
heaven on earth. Don't you?
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new. Too late have I loved you! You were within me while I had gone outside to seek you. In my unloveliness, I fell heedlessly upon all those lovely things you had made. Always you were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me far from you; yet if they had not been in you, they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, you broke open my deafness. You blazed, you gleamed, you banished my blindness. You lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I long for you. I trusted you, and now I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and now I burn with desire for your peace." - Confessions (X, 27, 38) St. Augustine of Hippo
Ferrari 458 Italia
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