How to choose God . . . even in a zombie apocalyse

Author's Note: This blog was originally published at the Pilgrim Log blog for the Pilgrim Center of Hope   (http://pilgrimcenter.wordpress.com/) under the title: Simple and Complicated: Thoughts on John Paul II and the Walking Dead

G. K. Chesterton, English writer, thinker and Catholic convert wrote many books and essays on the nature of man, God and life. On his death bed he summed it up in one sentence:

“It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side.”

A friend of mine once spoke of how complicated our Catholic faith is. I have come to realize that both Chesterton and my friend are correct. The Catholic faith is both complicated and simple.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Jesus gave us the eight beatitudes and two commandments,

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "

We Catholics turned these commandments and beatitudes into the Catechism of the Catholic Church and libraries full of documents, writings and studies on our faith. Our Catholic faith is both complicated and simple because humanity is complicated and God is simple. In fact, God can even reduce His twelve commandments and eight beatitudes into one word: Love

God is Love.

So what is our response to this love? This is where we like to complicate things.

After watching Witness to Hope, a film about the life of Pope John Paul, II, I became intrigued with this man of God who has given the world, Theology of the Body – teachings on how the human body is created to respond to God. As someone who always hated her body; his teachings have turned my Catholic faith inside-out, upside-down and set it on fire.

A few weeks ago I bought the book,  Witness to Hope written by George Weigel so I can learn by reading what I should have learned by living through.

This book is not light reading. It is thick with facts, but the gems of wisdom are so precious they compel me to painstakingly read every word for fear I will miss one.

A few weeks ago, I am huddled in my corner chair reading the book while my sons and husband watch their favorite show, the Walking Dead. This show set amidst a zombie apocalypse pits a small rag-tag group of survivors against a majority population of walkers; dead people who somehow are still able to walk and eat.

As I’m reading, I find one of the gems of wisdom: Person and Act, a study by JPII. George Weigel writes about it (emphasis is mine):

Our personhood, he argues, is constituted by the fact of our freedom, which we come to know through truly “human acts.” In choosing one act (to pay a debt I have freely contracted) rather than another (to cheat on my debt), I am not simply responding to external conditions (fear of jail) or internal pressure (guilt). I am freely choosing what is good. In that free choosing, I am also binding myself to what I know is good and true. In this free choice of the good and true, Wojtyla suggests, we can discern the transcendence of the human person. I go beyond myself, I grow as a person, by realizing my freedom and confirming to the good and the true. Through my freedom, I narrow the gap between the person-I-am and the person-I-ought to be.

I sit back contemplating this, when I realize it is being played out on the TV:

The leader of the survivors, Rick, has to deal with a situation: A member of his group has been bitten by a zombie walker, but not killed. Fellow group members are yelling at Rick to kill the man before the inevitable occurs. He looks around and sees his wife, son and the others with terror-stricken faces. Rick knows this man will eventually become a flesh-eating zombie, but for now he is still a man and member of their group.


He turns to the bitten man trying desperately to decide what the correct response is. A scuffle begins as some of the others attempt to take matters into their own hands. Rick makes his choice and shuts it all down with the words, “We don’t kill the living.”

In a complicated situation, Rick chooses a simple good.

Our Catholic faith teaches various way to obey God’s simple command to love. It is why our faith is often described as a web because no matter where you land, you can take intricate strands back and forth, up and down but they all eventually reach the middle . . . . God is love.

I have been making a conscious effort to decide how I “should” respond in the decisions and choices I make every day. To know the simple good, I have to know my faith. Because of God’s simple love for us, He provides it in as many complicated ways as we humans need, by way of Scripture and the Catechism.

Though I will never have to encounter zombie life or death, I may face issues in my family of unwanted pregnancy or removing life support. It’s comforting to know that our Lord will provide the simple answer to these complicated decisions. I trust my Catholic faith to narrow that gap between the woman-I-am and the woman-I-ought to be, and show me how to simply choose the good.

Jesus, I Trust In You - How Practical!

Sometimes, I just don't know what to think.  I try to be well rounded and read and watch both sides of an issue.  Both sides seem so confident in what they say, they both have facts, figures and statistics trip off their tongue. They all seem just so sure;  but their views are completely opposite!

So who am I supposed to believe?  On the recommendation from an email I received encouraging everyone to say, "Jesus, I trust in You" ten times a day, I have begun to notice a tiny voice cutting through the chaos.

I just love the way God works!  He takes me at my word and answers my prayer.  I find myself cultivating a new habit asking Jesus,  "What is reality here?" when I read divisive issues.

I  am noticing already that I am becoming more intuitive about searching for character and for seeking in me what wants to believe one side over another.  I find I am more at peace and not immediately jumping to one side or another and getting dizzy in the process.  I feel engaged, but apart.

The big picture comes to mind and I see myself now wondering what is the agenda here and what is the motivation?  Is it pure or self-serving?

 Don't you just love it when you realize you asked the right question?

Anticipating Mary's Yes

Imagine the nervous anticipation in Heaven in that few seconds between the time Gabriel says, "For nothing is impossible for God" and Mary responds, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."


How the legions of angels  must have held their breath, not daring to move for fear they would miss her response. Surely Gabriel returned to a Heavenly celebration filled with cheers of praise and thanksgiving for God's sweet mercy and generosity.

Music and laughter fills the skies as they recount that moment when man's salvation arrives and their Queen is crowned.

War on Women: Knowing the Enemy

The close knit group of female advisors to President Obama (Valerie Jarrett, first lady’s chief of staff, Tina Tchen, etc.) convened a meeting with women’s groups at the White House. Their aim was  to urge more women to speak out in support of the president’s decision regarding religious institutions being forced against their conscience to provide free contraceptives and abortion to their employees. An official at the meeting insisting on anonymity told a reporter that participants discussed framing the debate as a war on women. 

There is a war on women and, either out of evil or ignorance, the women mentioned above are the enemy.

CONSEQUENCES OF WAR: 

We in South Texas read almost daily about tortured and maimed bodies of Mexican men and women dumped in mass graves by drug cartels aided by corrupt police and politicians.

The consequences of this War on Mexicans.

Today's newspaper had an article about yet another dumping; improperly disposed of fetuses dumped in a landfill by two Texas women's clinics and an Illinois waste disposal company. 

The consequences of this War on Women.

KNOWING THE ENEMY:

We women have to ask ourselves who is really on our side.

• Is it women and men who push reproductive rights for women so that we have the so called freedom to terminate our God given gift to procreate, to nurture, and to love?  

• Who demand that we be provided cancer causing, clot risking chemicals as the only answer to determining when we or if we have children? 

• Who tell us that if these chemicals we ingest fail to stop a pregnancy we should freely terminate the life within and dump it?  

• Who tirelessly work to discredit the religion founded by Jesus Himself; our Creator who during His Earthly ministry treated women with equality and respect?

Women are created to love, to teach others to love and to lead from the heart.  People who are led by the heart do not kill life, especially not life within their very being.

We women are being duped by the very people who should be looking out for us. Women are equal to men, but they are not the same. The War on Women will only be won by their side when women no longer value their femininity and feel empowered to lead through love. Women's  power comes from our femininity not in spite of it.  

So ask yourself, who is the enemy?

Warhol Seeks the Individual

I confess I am no art fan. 

I know I should be and go to museums with the best of intentions but usually am in and out in less than an hour. 

 

Art such as Andy Warhol and his Soup Can, don’t even get the Clark Griswold’s Grand Canyon “nod and run”  So I was surprised at my interest in Steve Bennett’s article, Warhol’s Reality Show, in San Antonio’s Express-News, S.A. Life section of the 2/5/12 Sunday edition.

In it he mentions Warhol’s devout Catholicism, of which I had no idea, so I had to give this Studio 54 going, Factory legend and 1960s culture darling another longer look.

Since Catholicism teaches that Jesus seeks the individual; His living stones, I interpreted Warhol’s “Big Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot), as our human desire for God and how we should seek to shed American culture’s love of sameness and uniformity. 

Don’t know if that was his intention, but what I do know is that art is always up to individual interpretation.  So, I guess I’m safe.

I look forward to seeing the rest of his collection, “Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune,” at the McNay Art Museum this spring and drawing closer to God. 

Being "Constant" Every Day

Today's Gospel reading (John 1:35-42) is a perfect example of how we can spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist, says "There is the Lamb of God."  Andrew hears him and spends the day listening to Jesus. Convinced he is the Messiah, he runs and tells his brother, Simon.  Simon comes to see for himself and decides to leave his everyday life and follow him.  Simon becomes Peter, the first Pope.

Now, had John the Baptist kept the knowledge he had to himself, Peter may very well have never gotten the call.

Catholics in San Antonio are sad this weekend because of a couple in Helotes.  They walked into a Church, walked up to the altar and in front of the tabernacle committed the sin of murder/suicide.  Our Archbishop Gustavo wondered how these people had fallen through the cracks.  Had no one reached out to them?  We will never know.

What we do know is the power of that one remark, that one touch, that one answer to a call that can change a life or that can save a life.

We hear this call by being close to Christ.  Daily say the same prayer that Samuel speaks of in the First Reading (1 Samuel 3) for  today, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

Then, where you are, who you are, with the people you come in contact with . . . . speak the Good News!