Today's Responsorial Psalm - And Thoughts on Sin and Sacrifice

Responsorial Psalm
50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
R.  (23b)  To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold."
R.        To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?"
R.        To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God."
R.        To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

God does not want our sacrifices if we insist on living in sin. He will show us our sins, make them apparent to us. Until we correct those, and live according to the right way, our sacrifices will be rejected.

So many of us think that if we say our prayers, make our charitable donations, do our good works, that God will look the other way if we lead a second, sinful life. He is always ready to forgive, but to receive forgiveness, we have to repent. And repentance is false - a bald-faced lie to God, if we know that we will turn back to that sin tomorrow.
We have to live His precepts first. That is the only sacrifice that He truly wants. Once we do that, we can offer true sacrifices - fasting, alms-giving, charitable works, mortifications, prayers - not as a quid pro quo for behavior we know to be wrong but indulge in anyway, but as simple, unselfish demonstrations of our love.
What means more to a woman: flowers given spontaneously out of love, with no ulterior motive? Or flowers given as an apology for a wrong that both she and her husband know he will commit again? If I say to her, "Sorry about lying to you, here are some flowers. I love you. But I will probably lie to you again tonight," she will probably throw those flowers in the trash. We should not treat our spouses that way, and we should not treat God that way.
We should first stop sinning and amend our lives, and stop focusing on ways to try to make up for our regular and habitual sin.

Sin as a Lack of Trust in God

It occurred to me tonight, as a short spiritual dry period suddenly gave way to a profound sense of Christ's presence in my life, that sin is fundamentally a failure of trust in God. I don't have definitive proof, but I think - or feel inspired to think - that ALL sin boils down to a lack of trust.
The original sin was clearly a lack of trust. Satan told Eve that God was lying. She trusted the snake rather than God. Adam trusted Eve rather than God.
For the rest of us, if we truly trusted that God wanted the best for us and that any sufferings or wants would cooperate with His plan of salvation and that we would eventually have the sweetest of relief, then we would not sin. We would be incapable of sin.
We sin because we want something and don't trust God to fulfill our wants in a way far superior.
We sin to escape pain and don't trust God that He will eventually comfort us, but until then that pain serves a greater purpose.
We sin because we think we know our own needs and don't trust God when He tells us that He know our needs more than we do.
A baby cannot sin. When I look at my infant daughter, she is perfectly trusting in me. She never fears that I will drop her or hurt her or fail to feed her. Physically, I have total power over her, but she isn't afraid. She is eager for my presence, my embrace. St. Therese says for us to be as little children. Little children trust perfectly, and they do not sin. If we could only trust perfectly, we would not sin.

The Kindness of God

Today's Office of Readings reflects on the kindness of God, this kindness being exemplified by his descent into humanity on Christmas day.
In these days, when there is so much to shield our children from, when the world seems to be rejecting Christ and redefining Him, rather than accepting and following him, when economic hardship, persecution, loss of freedom, and the threats of war keep fear and trepidation always on our hearts, it is easy to despair. It is easy to anticipate God's chastisement, his punishment for which the world is overdue. But these readings remind us of God's kindness. This season reminds us of God as lowly infant, sacrificing all out of love for us. Even in the midst of strife, we need to find joy and comfort in God's kindness. Remember, His mercy lasts forever.

Prophecy for Our Times in Maccabees?

The following reading from Maccabees gives me the chills:
1 Maccabees 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-64 ©

"There grew a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus; once a hostage in Rome, he became king in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks. It was then that there emerged from Israel a set of renegades who led many people astray. 'Come,' they said 'let us reach an understanding with the pagans surrounding us, for since we separated ourselves from them many misfortunes have overtaken us.' This proposal proved acceptable, and a number of the people eagerly approached the king, who authorized them to practice the pagan observances. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, such as the pagans have, disguised their circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant, submitting to the heathen rule as willing slaves of impiety.

  Then the king issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each renouncing his particular customs. All the pagans conformed to the king's decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the sabbath. The king erected the abomination of desolation above the altar; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah and incense offered at the doors of houses and in the streets. Any books of the Law that came to light were torn up and burned. Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practising the Law, the king's decree sentenced him to death.

  Yet there were many in Israel who stood firm and found the courage to refuse unclean food. They chose death rather than contamination by such fare or profanation of the holy covenant, and they were executed. It was a dreadful wrath that visited Israel."

So many of our Christian brethren have made the "deal with the devil" described above. They have bought into materialism, they have voted for anti-life politicians, they have contracted their marriages, they have treated Mass as a social hour or as an optional duty - or even burden.
But am I any better? Compared to the rest of the world, I live in great comfort. Do the sacrifices I make - the prayers, the offerings, the fasting, volunteer activities, monetary donations - do they make up for that? I am not the widow who gives out of her want. I know that. But am I the Pharisee, only giving out of his surplus? Will I be found wanting?
Am I caught up in the world? Am I helping to build the gymnasiums?
I wish I knew the answer to these questions. How much giving is enough? How much sacrifice is enough?
All I know is that if you think you have done enough, you have already lost. Perhaps that is it. Perhaps the key is to learn to give more every day, to never be satisfied.

On Advent, Lent, and Early Christmas Decos

This time of year, for Catholics, always involves a certain amount of tension between the secular Christmas celebration and the Catholic celebration of Advent. My family, as do most, walks that line, and I am constantly questioning myself to ensure that God stays at the center of our lives.
Lent and Advent are both times of preparation for the Church. We are called to increased prayer, fasting, and works of virtue. This leads many commentators to decry the secular elements involved and to stridently demand that the appropriate season be celebrated. "It is not Christmas, it is Advent". These people often insist on no decorations until right before the big day and think that only Advent music should be sung in December.
They have a point. We cannot forget the preparatory aspects of Advent. But I think it is a mistake to treat Advent as "Lent lite".
Lent is a time of repentance. In a way, it is a time of mourning. We meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries. We practice the Stations of the Cross. It is about the Crucifixion. When we fast we do it in spirit of mortification. If we could flagellate ourselves, we would.
Advent is different. It is the season of the Joyful Mysteries. We build mangers. We anticipate our Lord's return. When we fast, it is not out of sadness and repentance, but out of happiness and offering. Our attitude is and must be, completely different. This is the time of year when we must most enthusiastically emphasize our Christian virtue of hope. He is coming! We are excited about it!
We must prepare for that coming spiritually. We must cleanse ourselves at Confession. We must spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. We must spend time with the Word of God.
We must also prepare our selves externally. Just as when we prepare for a birthday or wedding, we cook and decorate, we must cook and decorate in anticipation of Our Lord.
For my family, Christmas decorations, in all their modern gaudiness, are a way to prepare our homes in anticipation of the coming of the Christ. The tree, the lights, the garland and wreaths: these are His welcome mat. And I can't wait to put out that mat! And so, every year over the long Thanksgiving holiday, we put up those decorations. We start playing Christmas music. No apologies. The glitter and lights inspire us to pray, to fast, to reflect, and to sing with joy at the salvation that is coming to the world.
(What is Thanksgiving, anyway, but the first step in the preparation for Christ?)
So, to those who say that decorating and celebrating takes away from Advent, I say phooey. I say that the celebration is the heart of Advent, and that a good fast or prayer or sacrifice made in a joyous and celebratory mood is as valuable and as important as one made in a sorrowful and repentant mood. Let us leave Lent for Lent. For now, let's get ready to party like the saints party, because Jesus is coming!

Gattica, Here We Come

This post -
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006754.html - describes advances in human genetics that will have among their fallout two profound effects on our future as human beings. The first, as described in the original article:
<i> Human geneticists have reached a private crisis of conscience, and it will become public knowledge in 2010. The crisis has depressing health implications and alarming political ones. In a nutshell: the new genetics will reveal much less than hoped about how to cure disease, and much more than feared about human evolution and inequality, including genetic differences between classes, ethnicities and races. <\i>
To put it more bluntly, many of our more closely held but politically incorrect stereotypes have likely been proven true genetically. Some races are stronger, some are smarter, some are faster, some are more empathetic. How we handle this as individuals and as a culture will be precarious at best. In a secular culture, basic human equality is predicated not on our intrinsic value as creatures created in God's image but on politically correct fantasies that everyone really is the same, deep down, and that varying degrees of success are due to "unfair" advantages, disadvantages, and prejudices. When science shatters that myth, what will hold up our edifice of human equality? On what will we base our creed that "All men are created equal?" The fact is, we have already abandoned that creed. Our imperfect babies - with Down's Syndrome or other birth defects - are being killed via abortion with ever greater frequency. Sadly, with these new truths, the concept of equality that we treasure will eventually cease to exist.
This brings me to the second, more immediate, and probably more insidious ramification of this new technology. The age of true human genetic engineering is upon us. It won't be a government run program like the Nazis tried to create. It will be grassroots eugenics. We will know - it appears within the year - what genes lead to intelligence, height, good looks, and blue eyes. Couples of the future - if they have the money - will forego natural conception and will instead select sperm from a sperm bank that contains the genetics for the attributes they most desire. That will prove inefficient, as the mother's genes will be mixed in, so the serious - and more wealthy - couples will use the sperm donation and then go in vitro, and just keep trying until they get an embryo with the right gene combinations.
So children, instead of being gifts will be creations, and their success in life will be a direct reflection - in society's view - on how much the parents were willing to spend to get a smart and/or athletically gifted baby.
The loss of human life in the discarded embryos will be bad enough. But soon - within a generation - we will have a new caste system. The elites will be the engineered people, the selected people, and they will be smarter and faster and stronger than the rest of us. The rest of us? The poor and the faithful.
And once we see children as something to be designed, killing will be so much easier. Naturally conceived people will be considered disadvantaged, handicapped. And just as the right to life of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly is being taken away today, the right to life of the naturally conceived will be eroded in the future. Will it one day be illegal to knowingly give birth to a non-enhanced baby? Will such a person be a burden on society? It has been the frequent subject of science fiction - Gattica here we come.
But what is a Catholic to do? I am no Luddite. I do not believe in restricting technology out of fear. Nuclear technologies make bombs, but nuclear power plants will likely save us in the long run.
First, we have to fight the pro-life fight. The more pro-life our culture is, the more it will resist the dark side of this technology.
Second, we pray, and we humbly resist. None of this changes the fact that Christ will win this in the end. Tribulation and Antichrist will come, but Christ will bring them all to an end. Hope is the thing we cannot let slip from our grasp.

Act Justly
Love Tenderly
Walk Humbly With Your God

Micah 6:8

Is this the essence of the Little Way? Is that it? To be just? To love? To be humble?

Pretty much, I think. And it is probably the hardest thing to do.

How do we, as Americans, who are privileged even in the midst of this great recession, to live in comfort the likes of which the rest of the world cannot fathom - how do we live justly? How do we sacrifice enough, to justify ourselves? What is justice, when I fear that losing my job may mean my children may lose their home or their Catholic schooling, and at the same time I am supporting children in Kenya and South America for whom my home would seem a palace? What am I called to give up? I have no idea.

And what about Love Tenderly? I love my wife and kids. I find it easy to love strangers - or at least claim to love strangers who have no impact on my life, either way. But what about the blankety-blank at work, who seems intent on sabotaging my every step? What about my neighbor who never mows his lawn or even has a kind word? Do I love them tenderly? How should I do that?

Humbly? Humbly with God? Six hours pass at work and I haven't thought about God. Have I walked with Him? Have I included Him in everything I have done? No way.

I say my rosary every day. I pray the Morning Prayer and Office of Readings from the Daily Office. I read the Mass readings. I never miss a Holy Day of Obligation. I bless every meal. But can I do these 3 simple things? No.

Why?

Why?

Why? Because they are not SIMPLE.

We are not called to be Pharisees. We are not called to check off all items on our daily checklist of Pharasaical activities. We are called to love, to humility, to justice. We are called to these virtues to a degree that is impossible for a human - for any human other than Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, and even She falls infinitely short of His perfect example.

Almost every day, I find my prayer time interrupted by a crying baby or a dog needing to pee. And my reaction? Irritation! In the vernacular of modern internet parlance: "Epic Fail!" Do you think Our Lord was irritated when interrupted by his disciples during prayer? NO! He had patience! Patience is a virtue with which I have only passing familiarity, but which I know I have to nurture in order to get to the state of bliss I so desperately long for.

I don't want to sound like I am whining. We are supposed to struggle. We are supposed to fight, inch by inch, upward toward that great peak that we know we will not reach during this lifetime. The point I am trying to make, is that this reading:

Act Justly
Love Tenderly
Walk Humbly With Your God

should not be taken lightly. We too often pat ourselves on the back for our justice, our love, and our humility. That is a dangerous drug. It breeds complacency, pride, and sloth.

The bottom line is that we FAIL on those SIMPLE, SIMPLE tasks, when we measure them by Our Lord's standard. That is why we cannot stop striving. Cannot stop fighting. Cannot stop praying or fasting or mortifying ourselves.

We will not be good enough until that wonderful day, when our Lord breathes upon us those wonderful words: "Well done, good and faithful servant."