Happy New Year!!!

I am very tired but I wanted to wish everyone a happy happy new year. I have a few resolutions but the one I'm really going to try and keep is to say a rosary every day! While my body may lack spiritual exercise, I will try and get some spiritual exercise !!!

God bless you this year and forever!

~OneCatholicGuy

PS my puppy wanted to write a blog saying happy new year too, but she fell asleep phone in pAWWWWW! An adorable sight to begin the new year with :)

Word to Our Mother, Patroness of America

JMJ

Just a quick shoutout to our Blessed Mother!  Thank you for your intercession and loving care for the Americas. We love you and love your Son, our Lord Jesus!  Keep us in your heart Mom and help us come more fully to your Son!

The Devil: "Wait- this isn't Georgia! What the Hell?"

JMJ

So tonight's post is about a phenomenon that I find always happens to me:

You're in a great place spiritually. You're praying a lot, doing good works, even being productive in your job or school.  Hey, things are going good!  You're feeling invincible, a saint in the making!  And then it happens.

Ususally it's something small. Something you overhear someone say, a sudden temptation to anger or gluttony or lust (any vice will do).  And it's there now, in the back of your mind.  You may even have forgotten about it later that day, but its still there.

A few hours or days later, another "it" appears.  This time it may be more envy/anger/pride inducing but you stop and notice it.  This one is no coincidence.  And then a third "it", and now you know this is not random. So many times, when I feel I'm in a fantastic place in my relationship with God, these its appear.  And they are small enough to ignore, so small in fact that you may forget to bring them to prayer and ask for help un "it"ing them.

These "its" have the same purpose: to knock you back on your butt and away from God.  And, though I usually shy away from saying this because it always seems weird to say, they do come, in fact from the evil one, from the devil.

There's a fantastic quote in The Usual Suspects where a character says,

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist"

And that is the truth.  There is evil in this world because there is sin and we see it and participate in it.  As Christians we are called to a life of grace, the opposite of sin.  But still we fall.  I feel that one reason is we sometimes don't name the antagonist in this battle for our souls.  There are two strongly opposed sides to this fight, a fight that has gone on since Adam and Eve and will continue to the end of the world.  We have to choose a side.

And the devil is scared.  Because he knows that he will lose.  We have a Victor already, Christ who gave us the power to overcome the ultimate effect of sin: death.  Christ has won the redemption of our souls by His ultimate sacrifice!  The devil has no chance to win, so his consultation prize is to drag us all down with him.  Hell is the absence of God and His grace.  We are built to love God and suffer when we are away from Him, that is Hell and in that way, sin itself is a taste of Hell- a separation from God.

These little "its" lead us to sin in a thousand inconspicuous ways.   And that's the devil's game- get you to sin and not realize why.  Even better for him is to get you to forget the concept of sin so you may fall more and more from God.  So brothers and sisters, when you fall don't let him bite at your heels like the cowardly snake he is!  Stand and run back to the Lord, ask for His mercy and continue on the right path!

I have personally been through a long cycle of this lately.  For the past year or so, I've been falling for these stupid traps and finding myself back in the confessional on a biweekly basis.  And its a little shameful and rightly so because that builds humility which you need to fight against pride.  but it is necessary and so good! God loves you so much and wants nothing more than for you to return to Him in the sacraments, that's why He instituted them!

Confession is fabulous and I thank God so much for it.  It is not just absolution but a restrengthening by grace, a revitalization of the corpse sin makes us.  Confession brings you back to life but you need the fullness of Christ to sustain it.  My problem I believe is that while I was praying every day and feeling pretty good about where I stood with God, I got complacent.  The prayers slowly got less time each day and my spirit and patience wanned.  And why?  Because I had no sustence in me.

I propose that, for those of us faced with its, after a fall we must make a conserted effort to get back to confession as soon as possible and thereafter make an effort to attend mass as often as our schedule allows. If I had attended daily mass and received the Eucharist, I believe that Christ would provide the strength to better handle these "its" and stomp them out of my heart.  Deprived of food, a soldier grows weak.  Deprived of God, a man cannot stand.  To survive this battle, we all need God.  He is our champion and without Him, we fall.

This brings me to the final point I want to make. A few months ago, I went to confession and the priest made a very good point: ultimately, no matter how much you pray or ask God for help, the decision is yours to sin or not.  You MUST choose not to sin, to give in to temptations.  You have to make a choice: are you with God or not?  Do you want the temporary "happiness" of sin or the Eternal Joy of being with God in Heaven?

The question must be framed that way.  If you love God and desire to be with Him, you must choose to be there, to become the saint He means you to be!  It's a choice I think most of us want to make, we want to do God's will but we struggle deeply with living that internal decision out.  And that's where the support comes in.  That's why Jesus stays with us in the Eucharist, so we will still have Him to draw upon and to grow in a relationship with.

Most days it takes me three "its" before I fall, same as it took Saint Peter before the cock crowed.  I take solace in the fact that Saint Peter so often screws up in the Gospels because we're all like that.  And Jesus chose Him as the rock of the Church and our first pope!  We too, can be forgiven and come back to Christ!

I apologize that this is not a terribly funny or entertaining post but I promise the next one will be on a much more joy filled topic: BABIES!  And Advent..... and the need to be childlike to prepare for Christmas...and other stuff probably...but also BABIES!


Yours in Christ,
OneCatholicGuy

PS: Charlie Daniels sums up Jesus' victory speech pretty well (though I doubt Jesus would curse)

"I done told you once you son of a b*tch I'm the best that's ever been!"

Christ the King Sunday!

~JMJ~

Hi everyone!  One Catholic Guy here wishing you a happy new year!  

Some of you may be confused since it's still November.  Today, November 25, is Christ the King Sunday and the last Sunday of the liturgical year.  Now, technically I guess today would be new year's eve since next  week is the start of Advent and the new year in the church calendar.  But whatever, happy new year!

I thought I'd take a moment to share with you a reading I came across yesterday that I think fits well with today's feast.  This is from Isaiah 40: 12-14; 17

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?  

13 Who has forwarded the spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor, and has taught him? 

 14 With whom has he consulted, and who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

17 All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity. 

This verse from the Old Testament reminds us that God the Father had a real physical impact on our lives through the act of creation.  Not only did God plant the Garden of Eden but he measured all the waters of the world in his hands and put the mountains on a scale.

There I go again: Mountains and Molehills!

The Father is the Creator of the Universe and master of all.  As Isaiah 40:17 says, "All nations are before him as if they had no being, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity." What do nations of this earth matter to God, who Himself created the earth?  What does God care for sovereign nations or kings when all are subject to him?  

But from the beginning God planned for there to be a king that would unite the world and stomp out the division of sin.  There is a king in the waiting, an heir to the glory of all creation, one worthy to sit on the throne of God.  

when he reached the Ancient Oneand was presented before him,the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. ~Daniel 7:13-14

 I am at a loss for words in regards to Christs kingship.  It is such an awe-some (as in, worthy of awe) idea that it blows my mind.  King of the Universe?  That is a title I cannot even fathom to understand. The power and majesty of God the Father, lovingly given to Christ, His Son, because He is the Just man, the only human who could ever be king.  David and Solomon are both men and fell, no king is blameless but the Son of God.

Some days it is worth noting how powerful God is and how great His Mercy must be to deal with all of us unruly subjects.  We break the law of God constantly and, more painful to Him, we turn our backs on our Father, abandon His path, betray Him in our sin.  But He is not a cruel king who punishes us without chance of forgiveness.  He does not abandon us as subjects as we reject Him as king!  No!  God loves us and desires us to come home.  Not only does he invite us back into his kingdom by forgiving us but allows us into his court, sits us at our table, feeds us the Blessed Sacrament that we may share in Christ and become one body.

This love is so beyond us!  Jesus, the good shepherd, is truly the good king!  Redeemer and Ruler all in one! Lord Jesus, King of the Universe, thank you Lord for your kingship and for allowing us, your unworthy subjects, to participate in your kingdom.  We love you Lord and desire to love you more!

Let us always be yours Lord God!

~OneCatholicGuy

PS: Its also worth noting that it is exactly one month until Christmas!  Remember that the King comes humbly as a poor child in a manger, just as he remains with us now humbly in the Eucharist.  I pray that we can all imitate Christ by being meek and humble of heart!

 

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I'm very sorry I haven't been blogging or posting videos this past month.  The aftermath of Sandy and some other obligations threw this Catholic guy off course.  I'm also still trying to figure out this thing so in the future look for shorter blog posts that hopefully are more on point :P

So here is a short one simply wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends and I pray thanks to God for my life and yours!

Remember to say grace, eat well, and I'll see y'all on the other side of the mashed potatoes.

~OneCatholicGuy

Sainthood for you and me!

JMJ

Happy All Saint's day everyone!  I'm very sorry about the delay in blogging and tweeting and video-ing lately, I was without power because of the hurricane for a few days but now am back online! We've all been on misery along the East Coast and I'd bet good money many of us have had this song stuck in our head for at least a week:

But with power restored, and our hearts and prayers going out to all those devastated by Sandy (especially in New Jersey and Long Island), we continue forth with our Year of Faith!  And today is especially special (and that special kind of special!) because it is the feast of all saints!

We celebrate today not only the saints that can fit on this tiny icon, or in our relatively tiny Church calender, but all the holy ones of God, recognized and unrecognized by man, from all time.  

These are our brothers and sisters in Christ: Martyrs and Mystics, Clergy and Laity, People from "every nation, race, people, and tongue" (Revelations 7:9). 

We are called too to be saints and today we are going to peer into the Mass readings and learn how we can start our path to sainthood this very day!

Saints: Hair Metal and 1 Hour Dry Cleaning?

In the first reading from Revelations, we see the saints in heaven praising God before his throne.  It's quite an amazing sight as St. John describes it: 

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,which no one could count,from every nation, race, people, and tongue.They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.They cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,and from the Lamb."
All the angels stood around the throneand around the elders and the four living creatures.They prostrated themselves before the throne,worshiped God, and exclaimed:
"Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen." Rev 7: 9-14

 I bet it sounded a lot better in heaven and less 80's hair metal than this version:

But nonetheless, still awesome to praise God in song in Heaven!  John is asked by the angel who all these people are to which John says, come on man, you're an angel, you tell me! (paraphrasing of course).  The angel obliges and replies,

""These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." Rev 7:14

This tells us what we already know from the examples of saints we are familiar with: all saints endure hardships and are born out of times of "great distress". When life is easy and we go with the status quo, there is no saintly action required.  All peoples face hardships and saints are those who heroically step up to God's call and "Get 'er done" for God, no matter the consequences.  

Now the image of washing the robes in blood can be a bit disturbing and, frankly hard to understand sometimes.  We understand Jesus' sacrifice and His Precious Blood being the sign of the New Covenant that we celebrate in mass but this laundry business often confuses me.  That is, until I saw the theme of today's readings, a bond I never noticed that ties them together.

                           FACE-OFF!

Moving past the first reading and onto the Psalm we hear a great refrain that also confuses me:  Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.

Seeing the face of the Lord is a concept that occurs several times in the Old Testament, most notably with Moses who asks God that He may see His face.  God denies his request but passes before Moses blocking him with His hand (Ex 33:22-23) We, the faithful (for the Psalmist, the Israelites) want to see God face to face.  We desire to know who our God is but we are left at this time seeing only the back of His Head, which ain't too bad because it's God's Head.  

But the Israelites still want to see God face to face.  And who can, according to this psalm?

One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain. PS: 24:4 

So those who can see God face to face don't sin, have good intentions, and no vain desires.  Makes sense, those all sound like saintly things.  For some reason, at Mass today, the "clean heart" line stuck out to me.  And then even more so during the second reading:

Beloved, we are God's children now;what we shall be has not yet been revealed.We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,for we shall see him as he is.Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
 as he is pure. 1John3:2-3

We are God's children through Christ.  God's gift of His Son allows us too to become sons and daughters of God.  This second line about us being what we will be and being like God because we shall see Him speaks to the confusion about seeing God's face.

God's Profile Picture?

We know Christ intimately, as a brother, a friend, a saviour, and a life source in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  We have seen Him as the man He was, the son of Mary and Joseph, the Carpenter, the Teacher, the Crossbearer.  But we do not "see him as he is", as God, the King of Glory, the Transfigured Christ in His Heavenly Kingdom.  We can imitate Him in His earthly life, as all the saints do but we must go beyond what we have seen to truly enter Heaven and see the face of God.

We have to have a great hope to enter Heaven.  That hope is the hope that we have done well on earth and have fulfilled our call to sainthood and be able to see God on His Throne. John says here that it is from the hope of Heaven, of seeing God and *(CRAZY VERBIAGE WARNING)* who we are to have become in reflecting His Holiness, that we must make ourselves pure as God is pure.  


                                          Closer To The Heart
The Gospel today was a familiar one to all of us: the Beatitudes. And, I find, when the Gospel is one you are extremely familiar with, it is easy to zone out and overlook what God is trying to tell you today.  But today God REALLY hit me over the head with the sixth Beatitude

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

Huh.  So the first reading says all the saints are wearing pure white robes washed in Christ's blood, the Psalm says that the clean of heart will see God's face, and the second reading tells us to be pure.  Add the Beatitudes, the New Testament's Sainthood Checklist and I think I'm being told something about the link between purity of heart and how to be a saint.

The Catechism (WHOOP WHOOP YEAR OF FAITH Y'ALL!) says that the pure of heart are those "who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith." (2518).

Purity is a conscious choice we have to make but cannot make alone. Love (charity), chastity and love of the truth are gifts given us by God that are replenished and redoubled the more pure we become.  It is a struggle though.  Purity of heart is in some ways antithetical to our human nature in our Original Sin.  Our hearts are inclined towards evil because of this sin (Genesis 6:5) and are the source of evil actions Jesus says, " For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." (Mark 7:21-22).

But that was before we were baptised; that was before we were called to be saints.  God's law is written on our hearts, they are made for Him alone and are meant to be pure and blameless before God.  If we wish to love God deeply, we cannot let anything get in the way of Him having our whole hearts.  Sin is the division of our hearts, their retreat back to a sinful past, to the false promises of vain desires and empty existences.

Purity is a lifelong quest, the quest to see God face to face and to honor Him in eternal joy in Heaven.  Today, I pray that the saints guide you and me to a closer imitation of Christ, that we may become who we are called to be: God's holy saints.  Holy Spirit, Spirit of Faith, Hope, and Love, grant us a desire and a strong will towards purity, helps us return to God contritely when we fail, and keep us always in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.

Happy Feast Day all you future saints! Pray for purity, and please, show some saintly behavior this week, especially in any way you can to help the victims of the Hurricane.  Charity starts at home and ends at the heavenly throne (New catholic bumper sticker?). Anyway, see you next time.

~OneCatholicGuy

Read the Bible and Catechism in a Year! AND A Short Video to show I'm Alive

JMJ

Hey everyone, just a quick late night post to share my latest video and prove I'm alive !

And here is a link to the catechism and Bible schedule i was referring to, check it out: http://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf

I look forward to seeking, knowing and loving God with all of you!

~OneCatholicGuy

And became man...Jesus in Mark's Gospel

~JMJ~

This has been a tough week for this guy spiritually.  I felt a little dry, a lot tempted, and almost gave up the mission I maybe too ambitiously laid out for myself to do a blog and a video post every week. But then earlier today I saw this quote from a saint we honor today, one of the first martyrs in North America, St. Issac Jourges:

My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings" (from a letter of Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in France, September 12, 1646, a month before he died)...

now this dude was tortured and had some of his fingers chewed off and still had the bravery to not let his spiritual, or physical, dis-ability (his "shortcomings" in doing God's will) stop him from living out what God wanted for him.  He got a special dispensation from the Pope to celebrate mass with his missing fingers then RETURNED to the Americas where he was martyred preaching the gospel and baptizing Native Americans.

It could be said that St. Issac Jourges was kind of the saintly Jerry Garcia of his day, at least in that both continued going with hand-some hardships and it will make a good transition point for the blog.  Though it is tough to  do this OneCatholicGuy blog/videos/twitter knowing that I am not necessarily good at any of these social mediums, I know that I will get by.

 SO that brings us to today's topic: Jesus as a man in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark has always been an interesting gospel to me.  These past few days I've been listening to a dramatized version on an app called Truth&Life, a free bible reading by celebrities bringing the Bible to life.

As I've listened some old recollections of Mark's gospel came to mind. Two moment always stand out to me from this Gospel and both have to do with Jesus on the sea.

Fist is the instance in Mark 4:37-41 where Jesus is asleep on the ship and the apostles freak out because a storm threatens them.  Here's the scene:

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled. 38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, does it not concern you that we perish? 39 And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm. 40 And he said to them: Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet? 41 And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (do you think) that both wind and sea obey him?

One thing that is immediately striking is Jesus' command to the wind: "Peace, be still"! The fact that He commands nature is one thing, a question the apostles themselves ask later on.  But, the fact that He urges peace to the appease the wind is also pretty cool.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the world recognizes this authority even down to the winds.  This peace is the same as Jesus says in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, do I give unto you. " This is a topic to be fully explored later I think.

The other cool thing with this scene is Jesus' wondering why they are afraid.  It's almost as if He is asking, "How can you be afraid? Don't you understand?  Don't you know who I am? "  This question too will be asked later in the Gospel and tells us something of the man Christ is and His dual nature being both fully God and Man.

The second sea scene is Jesus walking on the water.

 Now I don't quite understand this scene and never have but I know in my heart it is very telling of our Lord's nature.  The quote about the walking is as follows: And seeing them labouring in rowing, (for the wind was against them), and about the fourth watch of the night, he comes to them walking upon the sea, and he would have passed by them. (Mark 6:48- my emphasis).  The Lord approaches them seeing them struggle but it says He would have passed them by.  Is this perhaps because His presence on the sea would have calmed it, as he commanded the wind before?  I cannot understand the Lord's mind but here, He intended to pass by and then had to reassure the apostles that it was Him walking and they had no reason to fear.

For me, these passages both raise the question: How does Jesus think similarly or dissimilarly to men? We have to remember that Mark has no genealogy of Christ or nativity story.  When we first see the Lord, He is a grown man being baptized by John.  It is soon after this that He is led away by the Spirit to the dessert to be tempted for 40 days.  His baptized humanity begins immediately with temptation.  And why must Jesus be tempted?  Because He is a man, because that is truth of humanity, that we are all tempted.  No one can look at Jesus and say, "You don't know what it's like" because He has been through all the results of humanity's fall: temptation, suffering, even death.  But He is God, Jesus never sinned so why does He have to be baptized even?

He is baptized, interestingly enough, to take on our sins.  Pope Benedict says this quite elegantly in his book, Jesus of Nazareth where he describes Jesus submersion into the water as a moment where the Lord actually is taking our sins onto himself.  After that, he is reaffirmed as God's Son, I'd like to think to give Jesus strength through the temptations He is about to face in the desert,

 " And there came a voice from heaven: You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased." Mark 1:11

We all need to have this encouragement to have the temptations of sin.  Jesus perhaps knew this and that is one distinguishing mark in Mark of how He thinks.  He has the same human experience but cannot understand our struggles to believe or hear God's word.  This is a theme prevalent in Mark's gospel in several spots:

• The people in the synagogue not understanding "this new doctrine" of Jesus having authority to cast out demons despite the demons understanding his power (Mark 1:23-28)
• Jesus having compassion and healing the leper (Mark 1:41)
• Jesus healing the paraplegic after seeing his friends faith in cutting open the roof.  The Scribes questioned him and couldn't understand the truth of what had happened spiritually so Jesus had to give them a physical sign, the man walking. 

And I want to wrap up because a storm looms and threatens another loss of electricity.  There is a phrase repeated throughout the gospel, "Anyone with ears, let him hear" that never really made sense to me.  But one instance in particular helped me to understand today.  It is in Mark when the Apostles start to freak out on the boat when they realized they only brought ONE loaf of bread with them for the whole journey.

Paraphrasing here but basically Jesus was like,

"yo,  remember those 5000 folk I fed like 20 minutes ago? Come on guys!"

But the point is the apostles despite having seen Jesus perform this miracle twice already! still doubted and worried.  And Jesus' reaction shows us His humanity as well as His Divinity: 

16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying: Because we have no bread. 17 Which Jesus knowing, says to them: Why do you reason, because you have no bread? Do you not yet know nor understand? Have you still your heart blinded? 18 Having eyes, see you not? And having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember?...21 And he said to them: How do you not yet understand? (Mark 8:16-18; 21)

Jesus know the apostles and their concerns, He understands their hunger and has felt it Himself greatly for over forty days at a time.  The fact that this is about bread shows a deeper meaning in Jesus' mind: He already knows He will institute the Eucharist out of love.  He has prefigured it twice in this Gospel by feeding the 5000 and another 4000.  He is the Bread of Life and they, His closest disciples, His chosen 12 who will become the foundation of His Church on Earth, cannot but fret over their starvation.

"Haven't you heard what I've told you? Don't you see?  Didn't you taste the bread I gave you?  Do you not know that is only the beginning?  That I will lay myself down and give myself wholly for you, my beloved apostles?  "

Jesus is upset that they cannot understand in His humanity but knows they cannot yet in His Divine mind.  He speaks as a father tortured that His children cannot understand the depths of His love for them.  In time they will know but cannot yet.  Jesus became a man precisely to show them this love, to give Himself, the Father's only begotten Son, to do His Father's Will and save mankind.  He has come into their physical world as any other man would: He was born of a mother, cared for by an earthly father, mocked by His townsfolk for being a man, a carpenter and a carpenter's son and nothing more (Mark 6:3), He hears and sees and loves and is tempted as all men are.

But, at the same time, He is the Son of God. The wind listens to His commands, He can forgive sins and drive out demons.  He can give life-giving bread in impossible circumstances. He knows they cannot yet understand but is eager to tell them, as any man is to tell His friends good news.  But Jesus is patient, meek and humble of heart.  Completely void of the sins within that can allow the apostles to doubt (Mark 7:14 ff).

~OneCatholicGuy

Jesus, I pray that we may all see Your goodness, know Thy peace, and seek to understand as those first apostles did, to take courage in You despite our struggles and disability in belief.  Heal us Lord and help us to follow and love You always.  Amen

Counting Sheep....98, 99...wait, where's Tim?

So last night I had a weird dream that I can't recall all of but a major part involved me and some friends rescuing a hijacked sheep that was hiding under my car.

Now I've never really been one who cares or particularly likes sheep.  I can't really look at them without thinking of this

But this sheep was not as animotronic or accented.  It didn't speak at all actually.  It was just helpless, trapped under the car, dirt covering its wool, turning the sheep a dusty brown color. It didn't baa even, just looked up helplessly. As I looked up from the sheep's eyes, I saw a pack of wolves surrounding the car, hungry for lunch.  They were menacing but almost looked playful, like a dog on its back.

Imagine 12 Wolves like this...minus the chew toy

I pulled the lamb in the backseat and shut the door.  Eventually that part of the dream drifted into another but the symbolism was clearly there. My mind had something about sheep in it, even if its just a reminder I need to unpack sweaters for winter.  

So for this blog post I wanted to refer to a Gospel parable Jesus tells us about sheep.   It is one we've all heard before, coming from Luke 15:

And he spoke to them this parable, saying: 4 What man of you that has an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after that which was lost, until he find it? 5 And when he has found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing? 6 And coming home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? 7 I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance.

Jesus is our good shepherd who gathers the lambs in his wake (so as the songs go).  This is not new to us.  But it might be worth unpacking this quote,  much as those sweaters of mine must be.  So here it goes.

What stands out to me is that Jesus teaches this to the Pharisees and scribes in the form of a question.  "What man among you wouldn't search for this one sheep?"  These are the leaders of Israel he is speaking to, in the Lord's mind there is no reason they should not already be trying to help the lost sheep find its way back to the flock!  But, as it says in other parts of the bible, He knows their hearts.  They question His dining with sinners and feel it disgusting that this holy man, Jesus the rabbi, is seated with the filthy "unholy" crooks, prostitutes, and bad men.  These Pharisees don't understand because they're hearts are hardened and not open to receiving God's word.

Jesus tells them the great joy that is to be had by one sinner converting. All sheep are supposed to be in the flock for their own good and care.  Alone they are helpless, can easily be injured or trapped by wolves....I don't imagine Jesus necessarily meant under a car as in my dream but I'm sure He thought of it sometime throughout all eternity, otherwise I wouldn't have dreamed of it.

Now why did I have to rescue this sheep in the dream?  I think that is the point of Jesus' question: we all are called to help each other.  We are all sheep following the Lord, our Shepherd.  But Jesus sets the model for us by becoming a human, by becoming the Lamb of God who comes as a sacrifice for all of us for all time.  Though He is a sheep, He is also the Shepherd. Just as we are all sheep, we are all called to share in Jesus' shepherdhood and to protect those in our flock who need it.    "What man among you wouldn't search for this one sheep?" We all are tasked with protecting our brothers and sisters from the wolves of the world; we all are called to help the poor, defamed, and defenseless. We are all called to sacrifice ourselves for our fellow sheep as Jesus does for each of us in taking on our sins.

Now Jesus' sheephood is much more sacrificial than we can imagine.  It is the greatest act of love to lay His life down for the us (John 15:13) and that the Father sends Him to do so (John 3:16).  But this does not mean we should not help our sheep brothers and sisters.  The Lord insists upon it and implores us to. Our sacrifices may mean small and like nothing compared to Jesus' but we are to do whatever small part we can to help bring back the sheep who are lost.

I invite you to say a little prayer with me now: God, we love you very much and rejoice in You as our Shepherd.  Help us to act as Jesus taught us and to guide His flock back towards You Father, in any way we can.  We look forward to the unfathomable joy of their coming home party in Heaven!  Amen.

BTW: I want to make a note here to come back to this passage (Luke 15) later because there is a second hypothesis laid on us by the Lord about a lady searching for one goat missing out of ten that might be cool to examine for gender differences in spirituality.

Peace and Love in Christ,

Just a sheep, OneCatholicGuy

Get pumped for the Year of Faith!

JMJ

Hi Everyone!

I'm One Catholic Guy and the name kind of says it all.  I'm not a priest or a religious brother.  I'm not a husband yet either.  For now, I'm just a young Catholic guy trying to learn a little more about the Church, the Bible, and our Lord.

Now I am by no means a blogger, videographer, social media expert or anything like that. I decided to create this blog and this youtube page as a way of exploring the Catholic faith with sharing some ideas with fellow Christians online.

I have had the idea to do a religious blog and some corresponding videos for a little while but I kept pushing it off.  There's always a reason to say no when we feel any inclination towards soemthing that might be prayerful or bring us closer to God: "I'm too busy", "I don't have the write words", "Who would want to listen?".  And while those second too most definitely may be true, I trusted God put this in my mind for some reason. And then I saw this: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/

The Year of Faith is an exciting new mission of New Evangelization called by the Pope from tomorrow (10/11/2012) through November of 2013.  It is started on the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism and is an opportunity for all of us to walk through the "door of faith" (Acts 14:27) and to help our brothers and sisters in Christ do the same.

I am hoping to do one or two blog posts and videos a week. There will be a range of topics: Prayer, the Bible, Saints and a special focus will be on the Catechsim and the Vatican II documents. I am relying a lot on the Holy Spirit to guide me with this stuff because I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. But here goes nothing.

I hope that you'll join me in this year of faith!  I will be praying for y'all.  Follow me on Twitter for the latest info on new posts and videos @OneCatholicGuy

Peace and Love,

One Catholic Guy