40 Bags Inspiration from the Gospel

Last Lent I mentioned this same scripture as something of an inspiration for this challenge.  I found it rather fitting that this was the scripture reading the last Sunday of Ordinary Time.  I meant to write about this earlier, but alas the day to day activity of a young family prohibited it.  So here is my inspiration for our continued journey to de-clutter this Lent.  

Gospel MT 6:24-34

Jesus said to his disciples:
“No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

Much of our life revolves around our quality of life.  For many of us this quality of life centers around our house, our belongings, our clothing and for our little children the number of toys they have compared to their siblings.  As the gospel points out we cannot serve two masters.  So the question is, are we serving our desire's hold over us to attain a certain status with stuff, or are we serving our Lord with the blessings he has gifted us.  

So this Lent, as I've mentioned before, I'm eliminating duplicates.  I have two knife stands on my counter.  Do I need both?  NO!  I do use knives from both, but I can get by with one so another family can use the one I don't NEED.  My closet has a couple of items that look similar.  Do I need both of them or are they similar enough to be interchangeable?  My children have too many toys.  Does my son really need matchbox cars and the Tonka cars?  No.  So I will be teaching my children the lesson of simplifying our lives.  

Good luck on your 40 Bags.  I hope you are able to use this as a teaching/evangelizing lesson for your family or community.  

Words on Baptism

Well what timing do we have for our discussion on the Sacraments?  Sunday was the celebration of the baptism of Christ. This was wonderfully insightful for me in prep for our meeting.  I happened to be in Pasco, WA for the weekend so I heard a different homily than most of you.  Here are a few of the main points I got from Mass.

This first point can be used for all age groups, but I'm thinking I will use it mostly for the younger kids.  Fr. Luta used the analogy of a "Seed of Grace."  When we're born we're all born with the desire for God's Grace or soil rich for cultivation.  Baptism serves as a way of planting the "Seed of Grace" and the additional sacraments serve to water that seed. I found this to be an easy way of describing it in terms my 5 year old could understand.

The other portion of homily that really struck me was with regards to infant baptism.  This is a good conversation to have teenagers or converts to the faith.  Often times when our teens (I'm writing in general as I don't have teens yet) have discussions with friends regarding faith, their N.D. Christian friends don't understand why we baptize babies.  The example given was that of vaccinations.  We don't wait to vaccinate our children until their old enough to choose to be safe from mumps or diphtheria.  So why would we wait to plant the "Seed of God's Grace" in our children.  Fr. Luta reminded us that during the conversion of early Christians entire families were baptized:  parents, children, babies, grandparents, cousins.  God's Grace was freely given as it should still be today.

As always your experience and wisdom is encouraged and welcomed.

The Sacraments at all ages

This winter we'll be focusing on the sacraments. Our intention is to learn how to teach our children the faith.  Many of us are knowledgeable on all 7, while others only have the educational level of our CCD classes.  In thinking about our upcoming discussions I was struck with the need to be prepared based on age groups.  I'm quite certain I'll discuss these beautiful mysteries differently now for my little children than I will in 10 years from now.

Words or phrases I can remember as a kid are gifts, physical actions, representations. These were used to describe the sacraments in general.  I'm not sure how old I was when these were taught to me.   I remember images of grapes, bread, water, fire, doves and candles from my long ago CCD classes.  My hope is that by the time we're done with our study, each one of us will be better prepared to take our initial knowledge, the groups experiences and a spiritual connection to each sacrament and talk freely with our children about what we've know.

In prayer for this session, a word I've thought of (or been inspired with) in regards to the sacraments is Promises.  The sacraments serve as a promise, both from God and from us.  I'll explain further in a different post.  Take some time to think of ways you've had the sacraments described to you or that you've used to describe them.

Hitler and Mysterious Ways

This image was posted this morning by an Atheist friend of mine on Facebook.

As some of you know I have a very strong reaction to anything and everything Hitler related as I am a direct decedent of a concentration camp survivor.  So I felt incredibly compelled to address the questions.  Below is my response to him.  Now my friend and I have had many civil discussions regarding our beliefs so I know that he will appreciate my response.  I also feel as though this were perfect timing.  On the way home from my folks this weekend I listened to an audio referenced below.  It is a marvelous ~50min presentation.  I have found a link to it online if you have time to listen.

I must address the first question by relating to you the difference between Theists and Pantheists.  Pantheists believe that god is in everything and everything is god.  So all of the matter, people, and circumstances around us are god; both good and bad.  Theists on the contrary believe that God is an unseen, divine creator who has a will for all of the earth and the creatures in habiting it.  God is only good and is not present in evil (circumstances, behavior, or events).  All people are created in the likeness of God so each person has the capacity for good, yet many chose not to follow good but chose to follow evil.

Since what Hitler did was so evil, the first question is flawed in its very nature.  This is not to say that many God fearing individuals were not fooled by this evil man.  C.S. Lewis, in his “Screw Tape Letters” articulated that the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the human race that he did not exist.  And if he has convinced the world that pure evil does not exists, his plan could then be multiplied into God does not exist. 

The second question to me is the easiest to answer.  As a Christian I can say without “faith” we have history.  Peter Kreeft, in his audio lecture “7 Reasons to be Catholic” articulates this very well.  If Jesus’ bones were to show up in some tomb in Palestine, then archeology could absolutely dispel all of Christian teaching and history in an instant.  However, as he points out, his bones have not been found.   I’m sure there are many would love to find them and prove all of us Christians wrong, but they haven’t.   Kreeft also points out that there has been no scientific discovery to disprove any of Christianity.  There have been remarkable discoveries in the area of science and archeology, but none of them can pinpoint the “creator” element which many in the science (physics community in particular) have been trying to discover to disprove the idea of a Divine Creator. 

As for the third question, as with Abraham, I would if God commanded take my child to sacrifice.  I would do everything I possibly could to take their place instead.  Thankfully, as a Christian I believe that Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient for all of humanity and am confident I will not be asked to make that choice.  God himself made this sacrifice for us when his Son was crucified.

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.  Any additional input would be great to pass along to my friend.