Hope in Death part 2

While 'death' is an interesting topic in itself which I plan to write more about, the main reason I write this post is because early in the morning on June 14th, my Father died at the age of 63. Everything I believed in was shaken. (Please, do not offer condolences) To be honest, I was mad at God. Even though I don't care to admit it, I blamed God often in the months following my dad's death, and wasn't able to crush that anger until recently. I felt as though I had become a different person, someone who was hopeless and despondent. Several questions plagued my mind:

Why would a perfectly just, loving merciful God take someone away before they can say good-bye? Why would a perfectly just God let someone suffer so much and not act? Why would a perfectly loving God give no assurance that your loved one is alive and well in the afterlife, knowing full well the grief it causes?

And why would a loving God kill my dad when I was getting married in less than a year, and my brother was going to have his baby a month later?

I am writing this because I want to help those who go through these same emotions, the same emotions I experienced. Although these answers may not be the same for everyone, these are the things I experienced after the death of my dad:

You can call me crazy, but nearly all of my siblings had dreams of my Father saying goodbye and that he was well even though he wished he could stay. Almost identical every time. You can think whatever you want, but it happened... and strangely enough a barber I talked with two months before my Dad died had shared with me that the same thing happened to his family.

Not only that, but the night my Dad suffered a second heart attack he said he saw people in white in the room with him. He was almost sure they were angels so he started trying to ask what the people were doing to methodically figure out which ones were there and which weren't. Most people in hospitals wear scrubs, not white. Anyways, he said he saw the room begin to disappear like the matrix and it was Godlike.

So why does God let people suffer? I think the answer might be that evil exists and is real, partially because we let it exist. We actively participate in the spreading of evil by not spreading good. It was man that started the progression of sin.

I've met some genuinely amazing people throughout my life, and they've all taught me something very similar. We are meant for much more than we give ourselves credit. We are not meant to sit ideally by as the world turns to sin; we are supposed to act! Preaching fully convinced that the word of God is real-- that Jesus is behind our backs and in our hearts.

As to why God takes people at times that make it difficult to accept, I think the answer to that question is simply that there is a time and place for every thing in this world. We may not understand it now, it may be uncormfortable but as a wise theologian says, (I honestly don't remember who said this) God does not want what is comfortable for us, he wants for us to be holy, like He Himself is holy. Every moment is an opportunity for good or evil, and God puts us in the circumstances where we can do the best. In the end we will all die, and that day, we will be transformed.

"There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance... God has made everything appropriate to its time, but has put the timeless into their hearts so they cannot find out, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. I recognized that there is nothing better than to rejoice and to do well during life." 

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, 11-12)

12

The Dark Side

So today's topic is conflict resolution and Catholics or... The Dark Side! I want to discuss one method of conflict resolution that isn’t used enough, plain simple silence. Father Qui-Thac had a homily about its powerful effects a couple weeks ago, I just thought I would make a post on it because I was kinda forced into using it a few weeks ago. 


There are some people that are just more difficult to get along with in this world. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good people too   but, there are people who are set in their ways. Seemingly unchangeable, annoying, punks, who are enchanted with -1 to forgiving, and would never show mercy. (See below)

These are people (or space aliens) that cannot be reasoned with-- the ones that no matter how much you do for them, they will eventually hate you forever based off some arbitrary reason. This arbitrary reason in their mind will be a violation of common sense. (I mean I am sure that everyone has done this sometime in their lifetime...This is not to say that Catholics don't do it too.) I think this eventually happens to people who don’t realize that in order to love someone, it is absolutely necessary for you to tolerate at least some parts of them that irritate you.

Some base this off of scriptures, saying we can judge others... But I have yet to have found scriptures that support that view. 

"But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister  will be subject to judgment." (Matthew 5:5-7)

You will be subject to judgement because in your heart you have put them on the level of a thing, an object to be mad at... Its just like what the United States did when we went to war with Germany. Hamburgers were named after a city in Germany, but that was suspended and named, for a time, Salisbury steak. Why? Dehumanization of an enemy. Last time I checked this is not (in most scenarios anyways) a virtue.

Jesus never responded to any conflict with an eye for an eye, or justice, solution. When Peter struck the guard and cut off his ear, Jesus stopped him. Why? When Peter said that he would not let anything happen to Jesus what happened? Jesus actually got angry with Peter. He was stopping him from saving the world! When Judas betrayed Jesus, did he even rebuke Judas? No, he rebuked Peter. Imagine that you are standing by Jesus and you are watching as the guards strike at him… wouldn’t you attack them? Wouldn’t you do all you could to protect Jesus? Isn’t that justice?

           

In order to answer why Jesus did this we only have to look at the scriptures, 
“ for God so loved the world, he gave his only son.”  (John 3:16)
He loved the world and so he made a sacrifice. Why was the sacrifice necessary? Because of Sin. What is sin? Sin is evil. This is the legendary question, why does evil exist? God does not want to destroy evil but save it:
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”On hearing this, Jesus said to them,   “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”(Mark 2:15-17)
When you add yeast to bread, the yeast makes the entire loaf rise. Or for food that might taste bland you would add salt to increase the flavor of the entire meal. Evil exists because God loves the world so much that he doesn’t want to destroy it, but instead convert it. So, how should we go about conflict resolution?

There is something about watching a clear cut battle between good vs evil that sparks that "Aha!" moment within us where we can see good. We see a tyrant besides a humble, life giving servant, then we can then see which is right and which is wrong. But then there comes the question, how do we approach conflict when it comes our way? Many of us today see another performing a, “evil” deed and then, approach it with what some describe as righteous anger.

"Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19–20, ESV)

If someone else hurts you, you shouldn’t try to hurt them back.  You should try to restore their soul, or have we learned at all from Jesus’ example on the cross? I am pretty sure, last time i checked anyways, that killing someone on a cross is something that should be punished by death… but… ironically the opposite happened. Assuming that others should receive justice for their sins and you should receive forgiveness for yours is a double standard. We need to love the person, accept them for who they are, and love them despite the fact that there are some issues we might have with them.

I just tried this hardcore, for the first time, because of my girlfriend. I am usually abit of a, "if you’re doing something wrong I should immediately point it out to the other person," type person. Abit judgemental I suppose. And, you know, it made me realize something. What would saying any words possibly do? Has anyone every persuaded another person with just words? No. Even Jesus taught by example, not just words. We need to provide an example to the secular, moral relativistic society today and show them how to fight fire! Which is not with fire-- I mean that doesn't even make sense-- but with water. =)