END TIME PROPHECY, RAPTURE AND ESCAPISM MENTALITY

In the past couple of days, I have been thinking about the recent events of the predictions of the end of the world to the date. I have also been wondering what would be the reason why anyone would assign himself the task of trying to calculate the end of the world. Learning that this person; "Harlod Camping" is a proclaimed Christian almost took me by suprise but really did not shock me. The method of prediction being a mathematical equation was absurd, but although I can't judge his conscience, I can only speculate the motivation of such actions. Abandoning the task of trying to figure out why someone who reads the bible everyday would ignore a verse that Jesus said that "but of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father," (Mark 13:32) I will try to suggest and lay down a few observations from previously being inside circles of Christians who were really into the end time theory of "the rapture."  My first real introduction into this thinking came about as I watched the movie "left behind." Being young and gullible, I might have for one second started to believe what I was watching, but my skeptical mind and by God's grace sound reason started to play the part and I soon dismissed this jargon as a mix of delusion and misguided interpretation.  I didn't stop there in my observation. The Catholic Church being displayed as an evil institution and the Pope as the antichrist only concluded my fear that this was another erroneous private interpretation of the Scriptures. Fast forward a few years to May 2011, and the recent predictions of end time only confirms this for me. When people pick up the Bible and rely totally on their own private interpretations, there arises a great deal of chances for deception. The unfortunate thing is that many people fall prey to these teachings.
        The more I see such things, the more I see the importance of being inside the flock which is the Church and specifically the Catholic Church which is the only church that can rightfully claim the authority it teaches with being from Christ who founded it. To not listen to the voice of truth is to become prey to many false teachers. Indeed how true the words of Christ that "in the last days, there will be many false teachers."  Now, our task doesn't stop at exposing this but it goes further to acting out in charity to our brothers and sisters who have been misled in this way and help them begin to listen to the sound of the true Shepperd. Indeed prayer and love may conquer the evil of divisions among Christians and one day come to the unity that Christ prayed for "that they may be one as We are one."  The only thing we should be worried about doing is to "keep watch" since nobody know the day or the hour that he may return, but like many saints have stated, when He returns, "may He find me at my post."
Oh Lord, have mercy upon your poor children.

Infants, toddlers and the spiritual life

     
One of the greatest tragedies of our times have got to be the countless children who have been denied the opportunity of having any siblings.  Apart from the physical bonds that come from this, it will also deny them a great spiritual reflection that can only come from spending time with children. Being the last of five children myself, I didn't have this opportunity of having a younger sibling, but the lessons that I have learned lately while spending time with my two year old nephew have left me awe struck and has opened my eyes to an expedient strategy by the devil to make sure that the spiritual component of watching children grow is denied to many. I am extremely thankful to God for my parents and siblings, and though I am fully content with my place as the last born, I have lately thought what it would have been like to be the first born and watch all the rest being born and develop through all the inevitable stages that accompany human development. I guess I will never find out what it would have been like, and I will leave that to those who have younger sibling to answer while I move on to my findings of late. Maybe

Poetry for the soul: To The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Oh Sacred heart of Jesus
Wounded by love of man
I've treated you all too badly
I've heeded not your love

By my many sins pierced
What have I done to love
Which so generously poured
By you o lover of my soul
Yet unappreciated by me
For my life I've too often loved
Wishing not to lay it down
For you my greatest good
While yours you did not spare
For the sake of love
But all that will now change
My life I now surrender
To your tender and loving heart
Never again to be separated
From you my eternal love
I wish to return my soul proclaims
Love for love so greatly offered
But indeed all comes from you
Oh love who is above all
Pierce me with the arrow of your love
And my heart will never fail in love

A call to holiness

 

      "Patience is a virtue!"  Those words still ring in my head years after one of my friends at the time made that statement. Although I had heard that word before, this time it struck me in a very profound way. I can only attribute that to the movement of the Holy Spirit in my soul. To date, I thank God for her. Now in 2011 looking back, I can see how God works in ways we don't comprehend.
   To go further, this statement was said to me by my then girlfriend. At the same time, I was going through a period in my life where I was searching for something but I wasn't sure what it was. I knew I desired something, just wasn't sure what. When she said that however, my first reaction was anger, I was angry because that meant I had to wait for an answer that I wanted.  As much as I didn't like that, the word "virtue" being associated with patience made me think for a long time. I knew that she had said something very wise but I didn't understand. God took that statement however and opened a whole new world to me; one that I had taken for granted or was just ignorant of. Yes the "world of virtues."
   I started thinking what that meant, and the more I thought of it, the more I found the answers. At the same time, I was starting to read the lives of the saints. Their practice of virtues was the one thing that stood out in all of them. They all excelled in different virtues even to the heroic level. The more I read about the lives of the saints, the more I admired them and the more I wanted to imitate them. One question remained however, how were they able to distinguish themselves. That was answered by the great Apostle Paul in the scriptures "It is God's will that you may be holy".   One thing about the saints is that they were never double minded for like we hear in the book of James "a double minded person is unstable in all his ways"  The saints do God's will and they understand that to do God's will is to be holy and to be holy is to do God's will.
    My dilemma was making itself out of my mind more and more as I started realizing that while we are all called to do different things; some to teach, some to  preach, some to be doctors, others lawyers, some parents and others priests and religious, the universal call for all of us is that of holiness. We are all called to be holy without which no one will see God.
     Finally, I was able to make the connection between patience and virtue. Yes patience is one of the many virtues, and when we exercise virtues, we become more like Jesus who is our example and helper in everything. The more I strive to be virtuous, the more I realize that left to ourselves, we can never be virtuous, it is only by God's grace. But strive we must for we are called to be holy and be "perfect as Our Father in Heaven is Perfect."  Virtue simply put is the habit of being righteous. When habit overtakes our good practices, we can say that we grow into being more Christlike and hence become Holy. We ought to answer generously to that universal call to be Holy which God has called all of us to.
   Now whenever someone cuts me off in the traffic, before I react, I recall that statement, "patience is a virtue."