"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" #25

 

CUSTODY OF THE EYES

Custodia occulorum, or custody of the eyes, is a practice with a long history, exhorted by St. Francis of Assisi and, in its recent past, used as a penance by those pursuing a rigorous spiritual life. But to the rest of us, it just means holding ourselves accountable for what we choose to look at. As an old saying goes, one I remember almost weekly, "It is easier to put on slippers than it is to carpet the world." I try to adapt it this way, "It is easier to change what I choose to look at, than change everything outside myself that I am able to look at!" However, sometimes you just have to look at things you should not look at. Who can resist, for instance, looking at a car wreck on the highway. You can't seem to resist slowing down to get a better look, even though you know you shouldn't!

Twice on vacation, I have ended up on a "clothing optional beach" unknowingly. Once was on the Dutch island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean and once on the island of Mykonos in Greece. Because of our Puritan background, Americans are obviously more prudish about things like that than people in many other countries. You experience it more in especially in European countries than you do here at home. 

The only problem I had with both experiences was who chose to parade around naked.  If you think it is mainly the young and beautiful, you'd be wrong! The fat, the old, the wrinkled and the ugly seemed to predominate. The more disgusting they were to look at, the more they seemed to parade shamelessly up and down the beach. The more you could not believe your eyes, the more you just had to look! They were what we used to call in the seminary, a "sure cure for concupiscence!"

Here is little lesson from an online theologian. Lust of the eyes speaks to the Ninth and Tenth Commandments. The Ninth Commandment is “Thou Shalt Not Covet your neighbor’s wife.” The Tenth Commandment is “Thou Shalt Not Covet your neighbor’s goods.” The sin of covetousness speaks directly to the “inordinate desire” described by the Seven Deadly Sins. Whereas “lust of the flesh” means overindulging in physical goods, “lust of the eyes” means wanting more than you have, and more than you should. Quite literally, we’re talking about seeing good things and selfishly desiring them. When Jesus teaches “You have heard it said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ but I tell you that whoever looks at a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” He is talking about lust of the eyes.

Lust of the eyes also includes the more “advanced” desires for money and possessions. These are “advanced” because they are not naturally attractive to us. We learn to desire these things because of the good they bring into our lives.

The lust of the eyes coincides with the Capital Sins of avarice and envy. Avarice, also known as greed, is the inordinate desire for money and possessions. Envy is the sin of sorrow over the good of another person. It is opposite of love, which is to will the good of the other. Lust of the eyes is a sure sign that we are thinking too much about ourselves and not enough about others.

The main virtue that combats lust of the eyes is therefore modesty. Modesty means thinking less about yourself and drawing less attention to yourself. It is also wise to practice “custody of the eyes.” Literally, this means controlling what you look at. If you’re drawn into selfish daydreams by looking at that boat for sale on the corner, don’t look at it! Make your first thought about how you can help others rather than how you can help yourself.

DON'T BE AMONG THOSE MISLED DURING TIMES OF UPHEAVAL

 

PASS THIS BLOG ON TO OTHERS WHO MIGHT BENEFIT FROM IT

I spend a lot of time and effort on my blog. I normally post something every other day. Quite a few people access it and tell me they enjoy it and get some benefit from it. If you are one of those people, feel free to pass the blog address on to others. It's free! To access this blog, An Encouraging Word, simply go to: fatherknott.com  For a list of available books go to ronknottbooks.com 

ONE LOVING COMMUNITY OF EQUAL PERSONS

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and

the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through

the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5

Today the church celebrates a feast in honor of God. We call God today “the Holy Trinity” because our God is one and three at the same time. According to legend, St. Patrick supposedly used a shamrock or three-leafed clover, to explain how God can be one and three at the same time. Just as a shamrock is one with three petals, God is one made up of three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Traditionally, priests and deacons end up telling you that the Trinity cannot be explained and then they spend twenty minutes talking to prove it. A better way to explain this mystery, for me at least, is to say that God is an inseparable and undivided community of three persons, relating to each other in love. Because God is a three-person community relating to each other in love, Jesus asked us to reflect this three-person God by loving each other as a community of persons.

I may not be able to explain the Trinity all that well, but I would like to say a few things about God from my own experience.

Over the centuries, people have always had a problem with God, but today people have a serious problem with God. The problem, of course, is not with God, but with people’s understanding and expectations of God. As someone said so wisely several years ago, “God may have created us in his own image and likeness in the beginning, but we have been trying to create him in our own image ever since.”

(1)   Some, of course, do not believe in God. I believe the only difference between a believer and a non-believer is that a believer has had some experience of God, because neither believer nor non-believer can actually prove the existence of God. To go from college seminary to theology seminary, we had to pass an oral exam in front of three monks who asked us about what we learned in our philosophy courses. The question I got was a question about St. Thomas Aquinas’ five “proofs for the existence of God.” I remember my answer even today. I told them that his proofs make perfect sense for people like me who already believed, but they probably would not persuade anyone who did not believe. My honest answer was a risk, but it obviously got me into theology!

(2)     Many do not believe because of the bad behaviors of those who say they believe. They do not experience God in the behaviors of believers. As Gandhi said, “I love your Christ. It is just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

(3)  For some other people God is like a Santa Claus who is supposed to bring you everything you want, just because you want it. Like ungrateful children, they believe that a parent God owes it to them to meet their needs.

(4)         For others, God is a scary, nitpicking disciplinarian who is “up there” keeping score and licking his chops in anticipation of frying us in hell for messing up.

(5)   For some, God is a fluffy stuffed bunny, cute to look at and quite harmless who can be brought out to make people feel better when they get a “boo-boo." He is there to take the pain out of life. Their God has been domesticated. He is harmless and actually irrelevant to ordinary life.

Personally, I grew up on (4) the “scary, nitpicking disciplinarian God.”  He was the God bent on exacting justice. He was tit for tat. If, I did this, he would do that. No matter how much I did right, it was never good enough. I would never admit it, of course, but I resented God for what he was putting me through – always expecting more than I could deliver.

In a late 1970’s dream, in a surprise gift from God, that old notion of God all melted away one night. I woke up knowing in my heart of hearts, in my gut, in the core of my being that I had God all wrong. With God’s help, I traded in my worn-out, distorted old notions of God. I woke up with a fresh new God, a companion God, a helper God, a hugging and affectionate God. I was left with no fear, no dread, no need to be perfect, no suppressed anger or resentment. I had discovered that I had created a God that did not exist from the bit and pieces of bad information and poor theology that I had picked up from other people.

From that day on, I began to notice that the God Jesus talked about was very similar to the new God that had been revealed to me, not through my head, but through my heart. Jesus talked about a God who loved both his sons, the one who kept all the rules, as well as the one who got down with the pigs; a God who invites the good and bad alike to his wedding feast; a God who gives all of us a full days pay, no matter how much or how little we work for him; a God who goes out looking for his lost and wounded sheep, only to rejoice when it is found – no lectures, no punishment and no demand for apologies.

That dream - that moment of grace - taught me more about God than all twelve years of theology studies that I had gone through in the seminary.  So today, I believe in the goodness of God, in God’s unconditional love for all of us, even though I still cannot explain concepts like the “Trinity.” I would rather “experience” God any day than be able to “explain” God. Since I have “felt” the love of God, I have no problem accepting the doctrine that God is not some static being above the clouds, but a “community of loving persons,” Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Because I have “experienced” God and have “felt” his unconditional love, I cannot think of a better way to spend my life than preaching this idea of God to those who doubt him, or who have never felt his love, in hopes that they will be open to receive this insight into who God really is! I certainly believe it can happen, not by my ability to prove God’s existence, but by modeling God-like unconditional loving behavior in my own personal life!  It's my goal, even though I am not there yet! 

    

 

 

"YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" #24

 

THEY DON'T SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE

In 2014, I had the pleasure of leading the Bishops and priests of the Dioceses of Saskatoon and Prince Albert.  The Bishop of Saskatoon unfortunately had the flu most of the week, but he would get up and show up from his bed a few times that week. The Bishop of Prince Albert was a down-to-earth former White Father Missionary in Africa,  Bishop Albert Thevenot.  The Diocese of Prince Albert was north of Saskatoon, but both in the Province of Saskatchewan. We met together in Saskatoon. 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon is a dynamic and vibrant diocese located in Saskatchewan, in the heart of Canada’s prairie provinces, largely situated on Treaty 6 territory, which is also the traditional homeland of the Métis.

Stretching across 44,800 square kilometers from Macklin and Leader in the west, to Kelvington and Wadena in the east, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon includes some 75,000 Catholics served by 93 parishes.

From many backgrounds, speaking a variety of languages, with a range of socio-economic profiles, Catholics in the Roman Diocese of Saskatoon live in both urban and rural settings. There are First Nations and Métis Catholics, many served by the diocese’s most-recently created parish, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Saskatoon, and there are newcomers to Canada who connect to their ethnic community when gathering to pray and worship.

In the west are the many parishes of St. Joseph’s Colony, established more than a century ago by German-Russian pioneers, and served for many years by Oblate priests.

Around Muenster and Humboldt are parishes established as part of St. Peter’s Colony, another German settlement: this one grew up around the Benedictine Abbey established at Muenster: St. Peter’s Abbey.

There are also French-speaking communities established in the area of Vonda, Prud’homme and St. Denis, as well as a French-speaking-Catholic parish in Saskatoon: Sts-Martyrs-Canadiens. The diocese also includes a wide range of other national groups: Irish, Filipino, Polish, Iraqi, Spanish, Italian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Sudanese, Vietnamese, and others.

As you can see, language can be a problem even in northern Canada. I was told a story when I was there that I still remember plainly. It still makes me laugh and I like to repeat it to anyone I meet from Canada. It's about two American tourists, a husband and wife, who were visiting Canada. They go lost right outside Saskatoon. The husband sent his wife into a gas station to ask where they were while he waited in the car! The wife went in and asked about where they were. The man behind the counter answered her, "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan!" The woman left and hastened back to the car and said to her husband, "It's hopeless! They don't speak English!" 

.....BUT WHAT IF GOD DOES NOT EXIST?

The current erosion of faith and religious practice has affected me more than I had previously expected. When I was younger, I would never allow myself to even think about the possibility that God does not exist. As I have gotten older and experienced the world on a much larger stage, I am constantly confronted with the question of whether God exists or not. It does not help to have an old friend who claims to be an atheist. My argument with her usually ends with me saying, "You may be right, but it is pretty arrogant not to believe in something most of the world has believed in, in one form or another, going back centuries and centuries! 

The quote above from Voltaire (1694-1778), a French Enlightenment philosopher and critic of religion, may have solved my problem. Even if God does not exist, I would choose to continue living as if God does exist because I would still want for myself what God would want to give me if he did exist. I believe from years of living out my belief in God's existence that my belief has made me a happier human being and has led me to be a more authentic human person - something I expect that I would never have experienced as a non-believer. 

With the erosion of faith and religious practice, I have seen and experienced a decline in honesty, truth, respect and general care for others as well as the planet on which we live. With the erosion of faith and religious practice. I have seen and experienced a rise in greed, selfishness, dishonesty, disrespect and lack of concern for and general  care for others, as well as the planet on which we live. If God did not exist, our survival as individuals and as a plant might depend on our inventing Him. 

I find great comfort in knowing from my belief in God that I am not the center of the universe, that there is something bigger than me and that I have an unbroken connection to those behind me, those here with me and those in front of me. Personally, I guess it finally comes down to this, as Blaise Paschal put it below, that I would rather live like I believe in God just in case there is a God, rather than live like there isn't a God and find out some day, when this is over, that there is a God! 

For those who argue that I could be a good humanist without believing in God, I would respond. "Yes, I guess I could, but what or who would motivate or inspire me to be a "good" humanist? What or who would prevent me from becoming a selfish "every dog for himself" narcissist?"