Lumen Fidei #8: So Mote It Be!

From #23: He is the same God that Isaiah will later call, twice in one verse, the God who is Amen, "the God of truth" (cf. Is 65:16), the enduring foundation of covenant fidelity.

Welcome to another interfaith lesson from your favorite convert! So, what does "amen" mean? "So be it." What does "So mote it be" mean? "So be it."

What is "So mote it be"? It the traditional ending of prayers that was used by the Freemasons and has been adopted by Neo-Pagans.

Thought to ponder: "Witches" and Christians end their prayers in the same way.*

I want to speculate on what deeper truth this similarity could point to. What does this say about God?

The quote above talks about God as "the enduring foundation of covenant fidelity."

God's covenant with Abraham

Oftentimes, we pray because we're asking for something. It really doesn't matter what religion you follow. If you believe in a deity, you're going to ask that deity for something.

God's covenant with His people was and still is a covenant of trust. The people follow and trust in God. God stays with and favors His people.

It takes a lot of trust to ask for something and consider it done. "So be it," isn't a request. It's a statement.

We are supposed to trust in God and God is completely worthy of that trust.

* I put "witches" in quotation marks because I know some followers who are insulted by that term. I used it because that is the term that most outsiders know them by.

This is part of a series of reflections on quotes from Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen Fidei. For the other parts, go here.

Lawn Chair Catechism #8: What Was God Thinking?

This is the 8th part of a discussion occurring right now on Catholicmom.com. We are reading Sherry Weddell's Forming Intentional Disciples. It's a really interesting book and it is never too late to join us.

I skipped last week because my reflection was long and it rambled. I didn't like writing it and I didn't want to force anybody to read it. Hopefully it won't be so bad this time.

Knock on wood

Let's revisit my conversion experience. Here I was: I practicing Wiccan. I had played around with Christian symbols and I'd read some of the Bible simply to prove that the abuse I suffered from my grandfather no longer had any power over my life. I knew all about reincarnation and astrology. I meditated and I practiced yoga. I left offerings to the Goddess a couple times a day.

I walk into a Catholic Church because I had to do a paper on a religion I was unfamiliar with and I had a crush on a Catholic.

And it hits me. I feel at home although I have no idea what is going on. I feel like God/Goddess/Whomever wants me to join this Church. All I had ever heard of about this Church is that it's all about conformity. I've never conformed to anything in my life.

I was angry. I went to the sunken garden. I screamed at God and I cried. I could not understand what was going on or why.

Sunken Garden at Truman State University. Picture not taken by me, I'm not that good.

That night, I went on a walk with one of my friends who was a fallen-away Catholic. He ranted about what the Church teaches and why it's wrong. He told me that the Catholic Church was against both the death penalty and abortion. That made me pause, I had never met anyone who agreed with me on both points. I had always held a consistent life ethic and I thought I was a freak.

I still asked my RCIA teacher when we first met: "Is it okay that I still believe in reincarnation?"

So, openness to Catholicism was a huge problem for me.

Ironically, one of the first retreats I went on had the theme "Surrender." On that retreat, someone told me that I was a model of "surrender" to them. They admired me for leaving behind everything and joining the Catholic Church. This retreat happened only 5 months after my first Mass.

So, how did I do it? I don't know. I just did. People tell me from time to time that I'm a brave person. I really don't see that in myself. I just do what I need to do.

Source

There is no doubt in my mind that God can show Himself to those who do not believe. If He can make me Catholic, He can do anything. I really don't have any advice for people who are struggling to be open. It's still a struggle for me in different areas of my life.

Pray for me and I'll pray for you.

Lumen Fidei #7: An Absent God is not a God

Cool CD cover.

From #17: Our culture has lost its sense of God's tangible presence and activity in the world. We think that God is to be found in the beyond, on another level of reality, far removed from our everyday relationships. But if this were the case, if God could not act in the world, his love would not be truly powerful, truly real, and thus not even true, a love capable of delivering the bliss that it promises.

Our Bible tells the story of people's relationship with God. Everywhere along the way from Genesis to Revelation, God intervenes on the behalf of humanity by doing thing like: saving the Israelites from slavery, helping the Israelites conquer the promised land, giving the Maccabees strength to rebel from Rome, and coming in the form of man to save us from sin and death.

But God's intervention in our lives isn't just something of history. He still intervenes every. single. day.

If you envision God as some old man in the sky who watches us intently and waits until we die to either reward us or punish us, you're not envisioning God, you're envisioning a cosmic Santa Claus.

A God who only exists out there in some netherworld who is vaguely defined and has an undefinable relationship to humanity is not the Christian God and might as well not exist at all. What use is He? How can we know He exists? What difference does His existence make?

What would be the point to religion? If we can't define God and God has no tangible relationship to us, why should we care?

But we do care. At least 90% of us in the US believe that God exists.

The Bible tells us that God is Love (1 John 4:8). We know that love exists because we love our family and friends. We endlessly seek love. God intervenes in our lives every day through those we love and those we don't particularly like.

In the quote above, Mr. Rogers is looking for love/God in the midst of tragedy. He's looking for hope through the helpers.

Our God is not some being in the sky. He's as close to us as our own family, as our very selves. That is the only God worth knowing, the only God that has any relevance. The clock-maker God is no God at all.

This is part of a series looking at quotes from Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen Fidei. For the other parts, go here.

The Good Samaritan Today

In light of yesterday's gospel reading, I think we need a reminder of the good Samaritan stories of today.

First, there is the old woman in China living in poverty saving the babies she finds in the trash.

And, also in China, another poor woman trying to help a child who has been run over.

Here's a list of another 10 modern day good Samaritans.

Here's a video of people who returned lost money and valuables.

And here is the story of a Good Conductor who helped a young man get to say goodbye to his dying mother (warning: the story does contain a lot of British slang).

Source

I'm noticing an overall trend in these good Samaritan stories that I'd like to briefly point out.

The good Samaritan is almost always a poor person.

People living in poverty get a bad rap nowadays with stereotypes like the welfare queen or the wino. We need reminders that when we're talking about poverty, we're talking about real people. The stereotypes are just that, stereotypes. They have little if anything to do with reality. We're all human beings. We have a lot more in common than we have differences.

Some statistics to ponder.

Lumen Fidei #6: "Make Straight in the Wasteland a Highway for Our God!"

John the Baptist

From #13: Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history.

 I have a pretty colorful history. When I was younger, I hung out with a different crowd. Goths, potheads, you name it! I never participated in any drinking or drugs, but I was close to people who did. We were the outsiders at school. By my senior year, we joked that I was the "mother" of the outsiders. I did have quite the protective, mama-bear attitude going around with my friends.

I would not win any prize for having the most colorful history, though. Many saints have more colorful histories than I: St. Ignatius of Loyola- the ambitious soldier, St. Francis of Assisi- the spoiled pretty boy, St. Augustine of Hippo- wine, women, and song.

God still makes radical changes in everyday lives. I've met one man who was a part of a motorcycle gang with all the worst that that can entail: drugs, crime, and hedonism. He found Jesus after having a stroke and radically changed his life.

God truly makes straight the crooked lines of our history. I remember my first time in Eucharistic Adoration. I had the overwhelming feeling that everything I've ever done, every event in my life was orchestrated to get me to that place in that moment. I felt like I had known all of the people in that chapel forever, even though I had never met them before in my life. As little sense as it has ever made to me, I truly feel I was made to be a Catholic. This is where I belong.

This is part six of a series looking at quotes from Pope Francis' encyclical Lumen Fidei. The others can be found here.

Lumen Fidei #5: Idols, Idols Everywhere!

From #13: Idols exist, we begin to see, as a pretext for setting ourselves at the centre of reality and worshiping the work of our own hands. Once man has lost the fundamental orientation which unifies his existence, he breaks down in to the multiplicity of his desires; in refusing to await the time of promise, his life-story disintegrates into a myriad of unconnected instants.

I don't wanna go to sleep
I wanna stay up all night
I wanna just screw around
I don't wanna think about
What's gonna be after this
I wanna just live right now - C'mon, Ke$ha

Above is the bridge of a current popular song. The whole song is about drinking and hooking up at a party. Now, I listen to classic rock, so I'm not going to even pretend to be a puritan when it comes to these lyrics. But I think this illustrates quite nicely what the Pope is talking about in today's quote.

Without God, without community, our life becomes disconnected. We start to live only in the moment. No, I'm not talking about the religious practice of living in the moment; the practice of giving each moment your full attention. I'm talking about immediate gratification of desires. As we do whatever we want whenever we want, we ultimately become our own idol.

I actually really like Happy Bunny, I'm looking at my desk calendar right now.

Life can't be all about you. That leads to an empty existence. Forget the afterlife or God, your current life will suffer if you worship at the altar of yourself. You'll be lost in a haze of desires and moments. You'll just live to get past the next hurtle. You'll be attached to the self. But the self is always changing, always growing. God is never changing. Don't you want to be attached to something bigger and more permanent than yourself?

This is part 5 of a series discussing parts that struck me out of Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen Fidei. For links to the other parts, go here.

Lumen Fidei #4: God of History

Source

From #12: Gothic architecture gave clear expression to this: in the great cathedrals light comes down from heaven by passing through windows depicting the history of salvation. God's light comes to us through the account of his self-revelation, and thus becomes capable of illuminating our passage through time by recalling his gifts and demonstrating how he fulfills his promises.

Every year, I attempt to go to a Passover Seder. At the Seder, the experience of the Exodus is remembered. A couple years ago, I went to one where the family let me keep a copy of the book of prayers that was used. Let me share a couple of them with you so you can get a taste of what the Seder is like:

Leader says: In every generation, each of us should feel as though we ourselves had gone forth from Egypt, as it is written: "And you shall explain to your child on that day, it is because of what the Eternal did for me when I, myself, went forth from Egypt."-pg. 17

Leader says: Tonight we have told the story of our Exodus from Egypt; we tell the story to our children so that someday they will tell it to their children and to their children's children. By telling the story again and again we express our hope that each of us will be a link in the chain that stretches from G-d to Moses and Miriam, to our grandparents and our parents, to us and to our children, our hope that each of us will be a strong link in that chain that stretches from generation to generation, like hands holding hands across the years.-pg. 23

In the Passover Seder, the diners don't just remember the Exodus as some good thing that happened to their people millennia ago. It's God's action in history. It's God's intervention yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

It's like the Eucharist. The Passover Seder and the Mass both make history present. They link us with everyone who has come before and everyone who will come in the future. God isn't some clock-maker, He didn't just do good things in some distant time and then disappear. God is here. God is still working. He's never left the building.

This is part 4 of a series where I share parts of Lumen Fidei that struck me. Here are links to the others.