Excavating Our Souls

A friend of mine recounted this personal story to me recently. When this young man was a boy, he and some friends were playing in an empty construction site near his home. While playing, he fell on some pieces of wood and several small splinters lodged in his right hand. After he stood up and clean himself off, he removed several large splinters from his hand. However, several tiny splinters had penetrated deeply into the fleshy part of the ring finger of his right hand. After he got home, he took a needle (sanitized, of course) and tried to remove some of the small splinters. He was able to remove a couple, but the rest remained inside his finger.

Years went by and those splinters remained in his finger, and a hard, tough callus built over and around the splinters. Every few months, he would take some tiny scissors and remove the callus, but the splinters remained. About once a year he would summon some courage, take a needle and dig deeply into his skin and perhaps he would remove a small splinter, or a piece of a larger one. But he would never get all of it, and the callus would build back up.

One day, toward the end of his senior year of high school, he looked at his finger and got fed up at having the callus and still having splinters in his finger. After school, he went home, sanitized his finger and a needle and began to dig deeply into his finger. As he dug, his finger became increasingly bloody and the process began to hurt. He dug and dug until he had tears in his eyes. And finally, he no longer saw any small splinters in his finger. He bandaged himself up and went on his way. After a few days he took off the bandage, and there was no more callus on his finger. He finally removed all the splinters in his skin.

This story is a direct analogy to our souls. As we walk our journeys, we fall often. Falling down in sin, and other activities that "infect" our souls, are an expected part of our individual and collective journies on earth. Sometimes we fall because we willingly put ourselves in situations that infect our souls. Other times, we fall when we are not being careful. Either way, the results are very similar, our souls become infected, just as this young man's finger got infected by the splinters.

Certainly when we fall we must repent and receive The Lord's forgiveness. However, we must be mindful that we might need to excavate our souls, just like this young man needed to "excavate" his finger, to remove the spiritual splinters that have accumulated over time. Many times, we need to allow The Lord to reveal to us those things in our souls that need to be cleaned out and removed. Sometimes, The Lord removes those splinters Himself. Other times, He revelas to us that those splinters are there and then relies on us to remove them through discipline, penance, and prayer.

I realize that this reflection is far too short and needs to be expanded upon. I hope, however, that it is long enough for some readers to find encouragement.

Blessings to all.

Saint Barnabas, pray for us.

Language and Feelings: One of the Many Graces from Our Lord.

I've been having these thoughts lately that I feel compelled to share. These are my thoughts, really, and to my knowledge do not appear in a lot of theological literature. Please let me know if I need to be corrected.

The other evening I was thinking about forgiveness. Then I realized, hmm, what an amazing thing this forgiveness thing really is. I am amazed that there is a word (forgive) that we use to describe a complex series of personal emotions/feelings and experiences. Think about it. What are these feelings/emotions and experiences? What is going on internally, spiritually within us such that we resonate with the word forgive? Secondly, what is the process by which we attach words, like forgive, love, etc., to those feelings/emotions and experiences?

Also, isn't it curious that one of the functions of language is to universalize our feelings/emotions and experiences? It would seem that we all experience the same sort of spiritual/emotional orientation when we employ words like forgiveness and love. But is that really the case? Do we all really mean the same thing when we speak about forgiveness and love and other spiritual/emotional orientations? I don't think we always do.

And yet, I believe that everything I've described above is part of The Lord's complex gift of Grace. How many people live on planet earth? 6.5 billion? Can you imagine if we did not have a common system of languages to understand each other? How terrible would it be if we each could not communicate with each other.

So there must be a middle ground. There must be a balance between the very possible reality that what I feel and mean by forgiveness is not exactly the same as what you feel and mean by forgiveness. So how do we understand each other? The one thing I can think of is the Spirit. Those of us who have been baptised in The Lord, and who live in the Spirit, can communicate intuitively, I think. We can carry each other's burdens and feel each other's pain by living lives in common through prayer and the Spirit.

I hope this post was neither too obtuse not discursive. I tried to be as concise as possible. And yes, there are element of Ludwig Wittgenstein in this post, but my reflection really goes beyond his thought and writing.

Blessings to all.

Saint Barnabas, pray for us.

The Sins of Politics

One of the enormous difficulties of political affiliations, especially for Christian Catholics in the United States, is that we are given a false choice. We are somehow led to believe that our choices for political affiliations really boils down to two political parties. Republicans, so the myth goes, are "pro-life," which means anti-abortion, pro-family, and anti homosexual marriage. The Democrat myth is that the party stands for "social justice," and a more biblical notion of distribution of wealth. All of the so-called Third Parties are actually morphs and splinters of the two major ruling parties.

Notice that our Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, was not a member of any of the ruling parties of Judea. He was not a Zealot, not a Saducee, nor a Pharisee. He did not call His disciples to join a political party or a religious sect. He used the simple, yet daunting words, "Follow Me."

Jesus' preaching centered around the Kingdom of God, not the polis or the state. He called His disciples to join and enter the Kingdom of God, not ascribe to a political ideal.

For Christians (of any sort, really) to give their allegiance to any political party over the Kingdom of God is misguided at best. We do not put our faith in earthly rulers to solve the problems of humankind. Our faith is in The Lord, not the kings, princes, presidents and earthly rulers. We who are disciples of the Living Christ, Jesus, are called to relieve suffering, perform miracles, and be a compelling power of love.

Saint Barnabas, pray for us.

Recovering the Sacred

I'm reading a book on contemplation and spirituality by an English monk. This monk begins each section of his work with the words, "In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

The first time I read those words I saw the monk's practice as charming. He was using a common symbol to Catholic Christians. In a sense, by beginning each set of thoughts with a common vocabulary, he established that the reader and the writer are both speaking the same language.

But then, as I let those words sink into my spirit, I realized that he was doing much more than adding a series of well placed words at the beginning of a paragraph. This monk understood that his writing this "book" of instruction on spirituality and prayer was itself an act of worship!

We Catholics begin evey liturgy in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are doing much more than dedicating this act of worship to them. We are participating in this act of worship under the authority of the Tri-Une God. There is so much to write on this reality alone, but I want to proceed to recoving the sacred.

So then I realized how much I need to recover the sacred in my daily, moment-by-moment life. I'll never forget watching a modern day Hebrew scribe copy portion of a Torah scroll. This man spoke, breathed and prayed every single letter he would literally scribe on to the parchment. His act of writing was indeed an act of prayer and worship.

But, I suppose that it is very easy to compartmentalize the work of this scribe, and of this English monk, as acts that are distinctly and particularly "religious" so as not to take on the "burden" of our making the details of our daily lives sacred. If we entertain those thoughts, however, we lose the reality that our acts of worship are not things we do as un-connected, free-standing individuals. Rather, we worship in the Name of the Tri-une God, because we are His, we bear the mark, we are His children. It is a matter of identity and not a matter of an empty choice of action.

How would our lives change dramatically if we were to recover the sacred in our daily lives? This question is not rhetorical. It is meant as a thought on which to ponder. It seems that if we directed everything we do in our daily lives as an act of worship to The Lord, our lives and the Kingdom of God would indeed be transformed.

Of course, we would all have to abandon our individual and collective addiction to mediocrity. And abandoning habits that serve our selfishness is indeed a Herculean task. But without that abandonment, we will never enter into the richness of Love, Peace, Grace, Mercy and Joy that The Lord has for us -- day by day and moment by moment.

An amazing example of today's relfection is St. Francis Solano, the saint whose feast day we celebrate today. You can read about him here: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/default.asp

Saint Barnabas, pray for us.

The Birth of the Saint Barnabas Blog!

Wow. I can't believe that I'm actually doing this! I've felt for some time that I should begin this blog site, but have suffered from the usual self-doubt and caution that is more-common-than-not in these endeavors. Well, here it is.

This Blog's "patron saint" is Barnabas, the companion of the Apostle Paul. We learn and know of Barnabas' existence from the New Testament letters of Saint Paul the Apostle.

I decided to dedicate this blog to Barnabas because I hope that this simple site will become a companion to believers, seekers, and others on a journey -- a companion in learning more about the "how" of the Christian faith, in the Roman Catholic Tradition, rather than the "what" of the Christian faith. There are plenty of informative sites on the internet where we can learn about the "form" of Christianity in the Roman Catholic tradition. There are few, sober sites, however, that offer a challenge to embracing the "how" of living as a Roman Catholic Christian.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a site about Christian/Catholic "ethics." This is a site about Christian/Catholic "ethics + spirituality," about gaining "faith through understanding." But, it this site is by no means meant to be definitive. It is meant to be a companion -- ergo Barnabas. :)

Some specifics. This blog will exist anonymously. It will exist anonymously for some important reasons. First, I will not be the only poster. Hopefully, others I know who can offer sober, learned reflections will also add their thoughts, and I want to underscore that their participation is of the same spirit as mine, the blog "owner." Second, I want to highlight that the Truth that we will publish will not be all about us, but rather all about the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Third, I've noticed, much to my own sadness, that we seldom digest thoughts and reflections that run contrary, or challenge, our sense of security. Instead of wrestling with those troubling ideas, we attack the people who speak them. I am very much aware that Jesus of Nazareth Himself suffered his fate at the hands of people who chose to attack Him instead of wrestling with His words. Those of you who will attack me, and others who post here, will do so whether I post anonymously or whether I add my name. I realize this situation implicitly. Yet, for now, to make this a welcome forum for the other posters, this blog must remain anonymous.

I pray that everyone who comes by this site will be refreshed, nourished, challenged, uplifted, encouraged, and if at all possible in cyberspace, loved.

Blogspot is definitely the most awesome place on the internet, as without them this flow of ideas would be severely limited.

Thanks for staying and thanks for reading. Please come back from time to time.

Saint Barnabas, pray for us.