A BADLY NEEDED CHRISTMAS

      Christmas, of course celebrates the birth of Jesus.  More particularly, Christmas celebrates the coming of  Infinite, Eternal Divinity to earth in  the form of a Hebrew baby who was named Jesus. 

     Little wonder that the Angels sang, "Glory to God  in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests." (Lk. 3:14)
Glory to God!!"

    Jesus, who is Divinity in human form, is  the perfect link  between God and all of humanity.  John (4: 6)    His birth calls for us to be the blessed representatives of God-in-Human-Form in and for today's society.

    So Christmas is a special time for us to receive the gift that is God, and to be re-inspired to do whatever we can to help our society grow and evolve in ever greater and deeper peace and love for everyone without exception.  As Vatican II said, we are called in the Spirit of Christ to work to make the world more human.  This means that we are gifted and called to be ever more loving and self-giving of service to others for the sake of  order, jusrtice, peace and love in our society.   

    This Christmas, given the condition of America,  we need the presence and influence of Divinity very badly.  We need a life renewing Christmas, a rebirth of Christ, who is the very meaning and presence of unity in love for one another without exception.                                                                                                

   Our "One Nation under God, with liberty and justice for all," is fast becoming five separate nations, White, Brown,  Black, red and Yellow, within a Godless land of social and political collapse.  

     Very importantly, we have become a nation in which a frightening number of us are giving  pagan-like allegience to a hopelessly self-serving man who had deeply infected our political system with his personal sickness.  

    Under his evil spell, one half of our government has  collapsed into a frightened heap of political cowards who are endangering our democracy in order to placate his sickness.  Those of his followers who should protect our democracy do nothing to move our country forward so they can be reelected and then continue to do nothing to move our country forward.  

   In this season of the birth of Him who is the Light of the World, many of us live in political and moral darkness.  In order to truly celebrate this Chrtmas, we will have to find a way through our self-imposed darkness of mindless prejudice and stupid, brutal, politics.  Unhappily, this Christmas, the prognosis is poor.       

   This year, we should celebrate Christmas with special spiritual intensity.  We should cry out.  "Come, Lord Jesus" from the very  depts of our hearts and souls.  .  "Dear Jesus, our society, our Constitution and our nation itself are in serious danger of collapsing because of our own inability to live and work togeter in mutual love and caring for one another and for our national unity.  

     You who are Divine Love and Unity in human form, open our hearts and minds to appreciate the miracle of your presence in our world, in our country and in every country.  You came to give us fullness of life in the form of the gift of love for one another witout exception.  

     In your Spirit of Divine Love, help us celebrate a Christmas that is a reneweal of our love for everyone, without exception.  Thus we pray with all our hearts, "Come, Lord Jesus!" 

    

   

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I GREET THE DIVINITY IN YOU

   When members of the Hindu faith greet one another,  they say,  "Namaste", which means, "I greet, (bow to) the Divinity in you."  They recognize the presence of Divinity in one another.

   In our own way, we Christians can understand the meaning of this custom.  When Moses asked Divinity's name, Divinity answered, "Yahweh."  "I am that I am."  In today's language. God said, "I am Living, Divine Existence."  

     Everyone and everything that exists is a created image of Divine  Existence.  And thus everyone and everything is a created, space/time image of the Universal Christ, who is Divinity in the Universe and World.  .  This is is why St. Paul proclaimed, "Christ is all in all."  (Col. 3:11)  So we can truly say to one another, "I bow to the Divinity in you."  

    As we look at ourselves and one another, we should be conscious of the fact that we are looking at a created expression of Christ, who is God in human form.  St. Paul said, "Ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what He has made."  (Rom. 1:20)     

   In today's society, in fact especially in today's society, we should take some time to remind ourselves that Divinity is present in everyone we meet and in every part of the world around us.  We must learn to see and appreciate that everyone and everything s a blessed image of Jesus Christ, who is the true presence of Divinity on earth. 

    Omnipresent Divinity shows itself as the omnipresence of Love.  As I have mentioned before, Thomas Merton told us of the time he and a fellow monk went to town for some shopping.  When his brother Trappist went into a store, he stayed outside and looked around and realized that we was totally in love with every person he saw.  He was seeing Divinity present in everyone, making everyone a living image of Jesus, who is the True Christ, the true presence of Divinity in our humanity.  

 

   Our Christ consciousness  enables us to see the presence of the Divine in everyone.  Unhappily we can also see those in whom Christ is being crucified.  So it is very important that our love should  know no exceptions.  Christ gives us all the insight, the strength of soul to love everyone without exception.

        

   In Christ we have eyes to see the presence of Divinity's grace in everyone, in ourselves, our families, communities, corporations, political leaders,  et al.  We all have the ability to create a truly graced society.  We are all called and enabled to work to work toward building a truly human society in which we can see and bow to, God's universal, saving Love.          

      

   Our keen awareness of Divine Existence in ourselves, one another and in the world is called our Christ consciousness, our ever present awareness of Divinity in human form here on earth.  Moreover, our Catholic faith is universal.  We can see the equivalent consciousness of Divine presence in people who are not Christians, e.g., Jews, Hindus, Native Americans, and all people of good will. 

   We who live in the Catholic faith believe that we have access to the fullness of faith.  At the same time we should not believe that we are superior to any others.  In some of us, our faith can be poorly informed, even prejudicial.  The simplest soul in the world can be a great beacon of faith compared to some of us.

   Our faith is not some abstraction floating in the air.  It needs a compatible culture in which to live, grow and thrive.  That is why Church teaching, especially the almost forgotten teachings of Vatican II, leads us to be fully involved in the everyday world so we can live our faith to the best advantage for today's society.  A faith disconnected from the everyday world is a useless faith.  Even Trappist monks and cloistered nuns pray for us in our everyday world.  "Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven."

  The prayer does not mean that we should wait for God to straighten out our failings.   God has already given us the grace and strength to correct our own failures.  we Americans do not need to have the truly collapsed national culture we have created. Pope Francis is calling  a synod of bishops to develop contemporary ways to get the laity involved in today's society.  I pray that the bishops are capable of leading such a very badly needed effort.   

   Let us keep in mind:  God is with us.  God is within us!.   we are living, acting images of Christ, who has given us His Spirit. When we see a person let us be away that we are looking at an image of Christ.  And let us greet that person accordingly.  Let us remember that we are living in a fallen culture of e.g., fallen politicians, polluting and greedy corporations, failing urban schools, lingering rancid racism, , etc.  In all these example and more, people are being cheated of the opportunity to thrive.  In them, Jesus is being crucified anew.  

   We have eyes to see Christ in everyone, without exception.  From within everyone, Christ will look at us.  As long as we are doing whatever we can to alleviate his suffering and make Him more honored and obeyed, he will greet us with the great blessings, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

  

              

       

     

       

 AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL COLLAPSE

     I was in high school during World War II.  After D-Day, June 6, 1944, I bravely fantasized running onto the beach at Normandy with the invading Americans.  I would have proudly done everything I could for my beloved America.  Today I mourn for it.  

      I fear that an ever increasing number of us have lost respect for our  unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans, and for the rule of law contained in our Constitution.  

     our nation is experiencing an historical change.  The predominate color of our population is changing from White to Black and Brown.  In strong reaction, a frightened and frightening portion of White Americans, deeply committed to the notion of White privilege, have fallen into mindless, soul-sapping, aggressive social and political anger, and even violence against our fellow Americans of color.  Such behavior is not only immoral, but in its intensity it has it has fallen to the depth of our losing our God-given human dignity and integrity.  The result is that America is losing its soul and is falling beyond moral collapse into spiritual collapse.  

     We are losing touch with our deepest selves--with our humanity itself and with God.  If we continue on this path we will lose not only ourselves but our democracy and our country.  

     This spiritual collapse has been a long time coming.  I can think back to the 1960's when our World War II and 1950's culture fell apart and was followed by the naive immaturity of the Hippies, Woodstock and the "Coming of the Age of Aquarius," with its naive vision of "peace and understanding."  Unhappily, what followed was the 1970's and the "Me Generation."   

      We are choking in the ashes of an educational, religious and cultural collapse.  What we have left is a society in which people are murdered on the streets and in places of employment almost every day.  Today a former employee murdered eight of his former co-workers.  Then, in a symbol of our times, he killed himself.  Our culture is killing itself.  

     Too many of us have forgotten who we are as humans, Americans and the People of God.  We are living a lie.  St.  John tells us that Satan is the Father of Lies.  (Jn. 8:44)  And perhaps the worst lies are the lies that we tell to ourselves.  It is immoral to lie; it is spiritual collapse to not know or not care that you are lying.  

     Many corporate executives lie to themselves and believe that they deserve to be paid hundreds of times more than the employees.  Lies flood the Internet.  The self-deluded Evangelical preachers lie about their "messages" from God.       

     We are drowning in political lies.  President Trump told 30,000 lies during his tenure in office.  There is a reason for his behavior:  he is the victim of the emotionally and spiritually brutal treatment inflicted on him by his father.  But as president, he found a vast number of  Americans who, in their own way, had begun to lose their sense of truth and humanity.  Together, they formed a perfect storm. 

      The storm particularly showed itself on January 6th when a mob of demented Trump followers attacked our Capitol, causing five deaths and coming horrifically close to harming and maybe causing the death of members of Congress and even of Vice President Pence.  

     And yet, the storm continues.   A politician appeared on TV and calmly stated that the lethal attack was no different from an ordinary day when tourists visit the Capitol.  In Arizona, Trump's followers are  conducting a recount of votes, idiotically looking for bamboo in the ballots.  The House of Representatives removed a member from her duties because she told the truth, while, as above, it permits other members to tell truly insane lies.  Such human emptiness is beyond immorality.  It is a fall into evil!

     So, what are the People of Christ called to do in this present spiritual collapse?  Well, the Catholic bishops have one answer:  denying Communion to President Biden because he is "pro choice" regarding abortion.  And then what?   

     What are the Catholic laity (ever decreasing in number) being trained and commissioned to do in their everyday lives to help bring our society back to life?  They are the Church in today's broken society.  The Spirit of Christ fills the world, giving them the grace of enlightenment , strength and vocations to get actively involved in our society to help make it ever more clearly the Kingdom of God on Earth.  

     They are personally engaged in society every day.  And they enjoy the grace of Christ to give them insight into the worlds of the family, education, work, politics, etc.  They are the ones called by God to physically, morally and spiritual care for and elevate our society to make it more Christ-like in justice, order, peace, respect, etc., etc., all of which are expressions of love.

     So I suggest that the bishops put down the Book book of Canon Law and pick up the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and see how the Church really should operate.  Of course, I recommend as absolutely necessary, that they read the teachings of Vatican II, for which they have never shown a real understanding or will to implement.  

     In the meantime, may God give the laity the insight and will to implement their faith to help bring our everyday society one little step closer to being the Kingdom of God on Earth that Jesus prayed for.

  

  

 

NOT WHO, BUT WHAT KILLED JESUS

    There is a persistent misunderstanding among many Christians that the Jews killed Christ.  No.  Jesus was killed by a small group of religious/political leaders.  So to say that the Jews killed Christ is akin to saying  something like on January 6th the American people invaded the Capitol and killed five people.

    To be clear, God the Father did not send Jesus into the world to be killed.  Parents don't give birth to their children so they could be killed.  Jesus was sent to show us how to live our human lives within Divine Love.  He was killed by a very few people who were blinded by their own human power.  And he has been crucified ever since by the same human blindness.

   Example abound.  Our Catholic bishops, blind to Divine Love and to human love, permitted priests to kill children's spirits by sexually abusing them.  

   It appears that the killing of George Floyd by a police officer was an act of murderous power that blinded the officer to  both human and Divine Love.     

   Our true enemy, therefore, is blindness to Human and Divine Love.  And this blindness is self-imposed.  For example, I have lived long enough to see our American culture deteriorate from small town closeness and city neighborhood closeness to a scattered array of Americans who live in the same areas but don't know the people who live next door.

   Our schools are failing us, not because teachers don't care or don't work hard.  Most all of them care very much and work hard.  But the cannot overcome both a poor educational plan, e.g., that fails to teach human values for fear of being accused of teaching "religion," and the plight of children who are sent to schools almost hopelessly unprepared to learn.

   In sum, the collapse of neighborliness, effective education, strong family life, our political life and of Church effectiveness is crucifying our society today.  And sadly, there is no true resurrection in sight.

   We have many corrections to make in our Churches, our politics, ourselves and our society in order to be truly receptive to the Good News of Easter Resurrection.  With both our churches and schools not really ready to lead us, we are own our own. So we have to accept the cross we have created for ourselves and begin to work toward our personal resurrection and the resurrection of our o[ our educational programs, politics, society and culture.  

     Only in the love and power of the Risen Jesus can we succeed.  We have fallen far behind.  From our self inflicted cross we must reach out to the Innocent Crucified One and pray to him to help us toward the resurrection of our personal, family, social and political life.  And where necessary, of our spiritual life.  

   Only with Him and in Him can we succeed.  But as we do succeed, as we become newly resurrected in Christ, we will be able to proclaim to one another in His Love, HAPPY EASTER!    

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                     LORD, PLEASE LET ME SEE (Mt. 19:16-24)

   There are many ways to be blind besides physical blindness.  We can be personally  blind like the rich young man who identified himself as his money.  In order to get him to find his true self and human dignity and integrity, Jesus told him  to get rid of his riches.  Trapped in his false self, the young man walked away from Jesus.  

   We can be morally blind when we fail to see right from wrong.  A deeply sad example comes from political leaders who cater to the worst emotions of their people in order to get re-elected so they can continue to cater to their people's worst emotions.    

   We can be socially blind when we restrict our American citizenship to our own little physical and social "hometown" values, and look with suspicion and even hatred upon people who are different from us.

    Also, many of us are refusing to wear masks in public.  Blind to the truth that every right carries a responsibility, they claim that they have a right to act dangerously without caring for the people they may harm or even kill, 

    All these forms of blindness are examples of spiritual blindness.  These acts are examples of the loss of the dignity and integrity of our very soul that makes us humans.  

   "Lord, please let me see."  Christ has already answered our prayer.  In his Light, which is the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12) we are "everyday mystics" who can see the truth of our humanity and spirituality.  And we are "everyday prophets" who are called and enabled to "proclaim" Christ's truth by our actions to help people open their eyes and see the truth that in the One Body of Christ, we are all one regardless of color, nationality, social standing, etc., 

   In the darkness of today's society, Christ is depending upon us.  

COMMENTS:  amassimini"gmail.com

"Blind to the truth that every right carries a responsibility."  I like that idea.  LSP New Jersey

   

   

      

WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US

   Back in 1970, Walt Kelly put these words in the mouth of his cartoon  character, Pogo.  Last week they came true, "thanks" to no one other than the President of the United States.

   In normal times an attack on our Capitol by insurrectionists would have been condemned at the highest levels of our government.  But these are not normal times.  This unholy attack was caused by President Donald Trump, aided and abetted by Congressional Republicans, who have lost all sense of duty, honor and patriotism.  The Republican Party has passed into history and has been replaced by the Trumpist Party.

   Why do I write this in a blog that deals with spirituality?  Because the attack on our Capitol is more than just a moral disgrace.  I can't say that the attackers had any real understanding of what they were doing.  They were beyond clear thinking and judging.  Beyond morality.

   Aided and abetted by our President, they showed that they had dehumanized themselves.  As a result they fell into the spiritually deformed hell of mindless killers--killers of our government, of our Constitution, and even of our fellow humans.

   I am furiously angry at what the insurrectionists did.  But I am not angry at them.  I mourn for them.  More than correction, they need resurrection. I specially mourn the youngest among them, like the young man pictured hanging from a balcony.  All that youth, all that possibility, all that hope and love, being horribly wasted!  Because of a spiritually dead President.

   Donald Trump leaves behind him a wasteland of millions of Americans who permitted themselves to be led into a spiritual swamp of ignorance, suspicious and hatred.  It will take a miracle to restore far too many of our brother and sister Americans to reasonability and genuine caring for the soul and wholeness of America.

   Benjamin Franklin famously said, "We have given you a republic, if you can keep it."  Our founders knew that in order for America to live and thrive, we need a strong family life, a a strong faith life and a strong sense of public service.  Our President and the insurrectionists attacked all three.  But they are not "others."  They are our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We have a very serious family problem.

    May God bless us with the understanding and will to restore our beloved country to the ideals of our Founders, and to be graced with the love and beauty that God desires for us and enables us to achieve.

Comments:  Massimini7@gmail.com