Seized by Christ

Weary, limping, drained of energy, I fall into a clump on my bedroom floor. Tears flow but soon even they become too exhausting. I am spent. I don’t know how long I continue to lie there; no thought, no word, nothing is left.

Then, I hear them. They are coming for me.

For years they have stalked me. Their snarling whispers and laughter at every stumble have been my companions for as long as I can remember. They have been waiting for their prey to give up the fight and are giddy with excitement that today is the day.  I feel a tug at my ankles and slowly feel them dragging me closer to the edge.  I try to resist but am just too weak. 

A fire begins to flicker deep inside of me.  Where is it coming from?

Is it something beyond dread creeping up to the surface to stake its claim or something else altogether; a strategically placed trigger being tripped just in time? Whatever the source, it is ugly in its anger yet desperate in its plea as it escapes my lips, “I give up. What do you want from me? I am so tired. You just have to take over because I cannot do this by myself anymore. If you don't show up, I am finished trying!"

Images begin to appear; memories offered randomly. A question forms in my brain, “What is this?” Then swiftly I am caught up into two strong arms and held tightly. Like a corpse being hidden in a blanket, I am wrapped in a thick, warm covering that pins my loneliness and imprisons my despair. My Captor whispers in words so piercing they cut right into my heart, “You are exactly who I created you to be. I love you. I promise you will never feel alone again. I am with you always.”

I have been seized by Christ.

Peace is the blanket that comforts me and Love is the Stranger who has clutched me from the pull of the abyss. I hear the snarling, drooling complaints from the edge. They have worked so hard and for so long to just give up and let their prey be taken without a fuss. Surely they know they are no match for my Liberator, but I cannot blame them.  With an eternity of suffering, even just the brief second of victory in capturing a soul from God must be a relief worth pursuing.   

My Rescuer looks away from me for only an instance to face my enemies. He looks them directly in the eye and with a fearsome sound that shakes the ground He speaks, “She has chosen Me, now Go!”

And like St. Mary Magdalene before me, my demons flee trembling.

D'Jesus Uncrossed vs Jesus Crossed: The Ultimate Revenge

In my  life-long quest to be like St. Mary Magdalene’s “Constant Woman” and imitate her love for Christ, I feel impelled to weigh in on the D’Jesus Uncrossed debate regarding the Saturday Night Live skit which aired a couple of weeks ago.

Yes, it was sick and offensive, but the reason it hit so many nerves was because it was just so wrong!  The talking heads on the news channels argue the double standard of offending Christians with ease but hesitating to do the same to Muslims and Jews but I am sure members of both those religions can find many examples of the same type of persecution.

Perhaps the reason it strikes more harshly with Jesus is because the message of this skit flies in the face of Truth. It is precisely in being “crossed” that our Lord wreaks His revenge.

The Passion Cross, called so aptly a sign of contradiction, conquered violence by accepting violence. All of humanity's sinfulness past, present and future was heaped onto our Lord's body during His Passion as the price for our souls.  Instead of dishing it out, He simply took it . . . . for us.

Jesus Christ came down from His lofty throne at the right hand of God, the Father where He was glorified and worshiped 24/7. He willingly out of love for His Father and for us put Himself into the hands of His creatures for one simple reason: we had gotten it all wrong and needed to know that God desires charity not vengeance, even if waged in His name.  God wants us to know He loves us and as His creation we are also to love.

That is why this skit was just so wrong because though Jesus is fully man, He is also fully God and therefore incapable of the actions portrayed.  Our souls cry out in the face of such offense against God.

So instead of engaging in the same offense, let us Christians seek revenge by praising God for giving us His Son for our salvation. Let us forgive those ignorant SNL writers and actors because it is obvious they know not what they do. Let us admonish them in charity, pray for them in community and humbly draw them to God’s Mercy.  

And let us always boast of Christ Crucified and the reason for our hope.

How to Cure a Sick Society with St. Mary Magdalene

The FIRST station of the cross: Jesus is Condemned to Death

Mary Magdalene’s heart must have felt it had broken in two when she heard these words. Her Lord who had scooped her up from the dirt both literally and figuratively was going to be killed. He was the one man who she learned to trust completely and who she knew deeply loved her and now He was being forcefully taken from her.  What is her response?

The response of any of us is a sum of what we have been taught and what we have learned. At the feet of Jesus, Mary Magdalene was able to discard the lies of the seven demons because these lies were no match to the Truth that pierced her heart. She could now see the lies for what they are. How did she respond?  A true character of a person is how he or she responds to the information given. Are we quiet in the face of persecution or do we speak out? Do we act in anger or forgiveness for the wrongs done to us?

For the individual and for the society this is a life-long process and can only be done if we are informed of the best practices that yield the most good. We modern people think that we are smarter than our ancestors but I propose we are stupider than ever. Why? Because though we are inundated with 24/7 information; it is all opinions and agendas.  We have no arsenal from our collective education to know either how to discern fact from propaganda or how to properly respond to the information that is provided.

I read today in an article by George Weigel that democracy as a way of self-government depends on the character of a people. If the collective character has no virtue, has not learned how to think but only what to think, is distracted from what really matters to what only excites the senses, than so goes the society.  We spend more money on education than ever before and yet are more ignorant  than ever before.

The missing ingredients from the debates on gun control, violence, drug abuse, immigration, economic solutions, etc. is a people steeped in a liberal education that teaches “how” to think and children raised in the art and science of the virtues. With each generation lost, we become a people more pliable and more willing to comply with the power at hand.

My in-laws were purging items from their house recently and asked us if we wanted a set of books they purchased when my husband was young. It is a set of encyclopedias from Britannica Great Books titled, The Great Conversation. Included in the set are books by Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, St. Augustine and Sigmund Freud just to name a few.  I am intrigued since these have always been names I recognized as great, but never read what they actually wrote. I have made it my New Year’s Resolution to read the entire set of books.  I’ve started with the introductory book written by Robert M. Hutchins which explains why these books were compiled. This introductory was written in 1952 and posits that a liberal education is a must in a democratic and industrialized society like the United States.  Without it, people will have too much leisure time and no way to fill it except with idle pursuits. Sound familiar?  He says that if every citizen was taught a liberal education based on the writings of great thinkers then leisure time would be spent debating and putting into practice great thought. This set is based on Western Civilization but he says upfront that Eastern Civilization is just as important but not the scope of this particular set. He lamented what would happen if our (this is 1952 remember) current educational system would be left intact that rather keeps children busy until they are adults and tells them what to know instead of teaching how to think.

I sat back and realized his worst fears have been realized.  We are that stupid society that spends more time talking about the antics of the Kardashians than what is the best response to quashing the evil raining upon Southern Sudan.  We are idiots being molded into whatever the current powers want us to be.  If you have ever watched The Matrix, you can imagine that instead of Neo – we are the dupes in the barrels with probes screwed into our heads.

So how do we reverse this? How do we stand up to this propaganda and say, “My mind does not belong to you?”  We have two ways and they are all at our fingertips thanks to the internet: We teach our children and ourselves the virtues and we pick up these great books by the great thinkers . . .  and we read them!

We put into practice what we discern as Truth.

The virtues, which by the way are the antidote to the seven demons also known as the vices that so plagued Mary Magdalene, build character and teach how to respond in all situations.  They are prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. These four are the human virtues that are rooted in the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.  I leave it up to you to research how each is defined but just by looking at them you can see that our society is sorely missing their influence.

The good news is that rising from a lump of putty - or out of the barrel - into a thinking and discerning person of character is very do-able.  Just as St. Mary Magdalene had the good sense to sit at Jesus’ feet despite the chiding of her sister (Luke 10:38-42), we can take charge of our own education and the education of our children.  Turn off the television and put down the fashion magazines and learn how to be the change that you want to see in the world.

So how did St. Mary Magdalene respond when she heard the news that our Lord was condemned to death?  She persevered. She remembered what Jesus taught her and relied on His Truth to keep faith in God and hope in His promise.  In other words, she practiced her virtues.