PEOPLE I CANNOT HANDLE

 

There is one thing that the Holy Spirit has difficulty teaching us: how to be humble and take ownership of our limitations.

 

There are types of people that we find very difficult to deal with and people that we clash with; we just cannot work together.

 

Wise families find ways to set up boundaries where clashing personalities will rarely have to deal with each other. ‘If they are at a distance, we all can survive as a family.’

 

In our life of faith, in the lives of sincere Christians, we too must name and work with our limitations. We cannot be all things to all people!

 

Many sincere people will name their difficulties dealing with adult members who   have addiction issues: prescription drugs, illegal drugs or cassino. They cannot grasp how anyone could be trapped in a non-stop preoccupation with obtaining the next fix. 

 

There are persons who cannot deal with anyone who are in the final stages of dying. They feel compelled to try to say something and are frustrated when they must be silent and only be present to the dying person and their family. 

 

We all have limitations when we must deal with the new-comers to our country. They are of a different language, religion, skin color and culture. Some people will not make the effort to get to know these new-comers and learn their culture. Some work situations have two groups of people sitting on opposite sides of the lunch-room and no friendship is shared. No one touches the other.

 

Some people cannot deal with the little ones under six years of age and others cannot deal with the elderly and the feeble maneuvering with their walkers.

 

In the spiritual life we are coming to a moment of honesty. I have serious limitations. I cannot deal with certain people. “I am too efficient and organized or I just find the limitations in these people too hard to work with.” We want to be able to say honestly to the Holy Spirit and ourselves: “I cannot do this!”

 

This is never an excuse to avoid helping another human being. Jesus also had serious limitations: he could not reach out to the rich and the powerful. His teachings and practice clashed with the people who had control in that society.

 

At the end of the day, we must take ownership of our own limitations and bring what we cannot do to the Lord in our prayer. “Here Lord, are the people I cannot deal with. May I be humble in my truthfulness.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE ORIGINAL CATECHISM BOOK

 

Our Catholic Church has the teaching (doctrinal) side of things under firm control and direction. We have the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is a clear, concise outline of the doctrine and beliefs of our Christianity. If you want to know what is true (what is the correct standard) you pull out the catechism and there it is - nblack and white!

 

But that is only one half of the purpose of the catechism book.

 

The true actual  half of the catechism book is the truth that is lived on the street! How well do the teachings of Jesus take flesh in the daily lives, the attitudes and the practices of believers? 

 

The teachings and the practice of the Gospels are only worthwhile as they are lived out in the lives and attitudes of the believers.

 

Our lives are  a direct statement of what is worthwhile to believe . Or our lives may be a clear indication t\o  walk away from Christianity.

 

One person may observe: I don’t go to church because I am of a different color from those people. Some of the people looked down on me the one time I tried to join them for worship. They were so unwelcoming!

 

The message coming through in the flesh is that people who are different are not wanted.  “If you don’t want me, then probably God doesn’t want me either.”

 

Sometimes we have music people in our parishes who lament that ‘nobody wants to join us.’ But the remainder of the parish knows that they are so perfectionist, so demanding that  everyone who musically inferior  stays away. They try so hard to do the best music only to be strengthening a wall between themselves and people with less talent.

 

Then there is the perfectionist who is so intent on following Jesus that there is an unspoken wall of judgement that keeps away anyone who is or has struggled with alcohol/drug addiction, the divorced and those who have made some mistaken choices in their lives. 

 

Every bishop, every priest and deacon, every teacher, and minister in the parish is a living catechism book. Their attitudes, their words all communicate: is God/ religion good and life-giving or does it throw out negative barbs? 

 

Every person in the parish is  a living statement of the goodness of the Gospels. Each life must be a living witness of Jesus Christ, living within that person.

 

No human being believes in God or choses to live the Gospel of Jesus because it is clearly spelt out in the doctrine of the Church. They believe because they have discovered the love and mercy of Jesus Christ in the lives of real people; deliberate believers. The lives of real people close to me testify to the love and mercy of God. I can believe and commit my life to Christ because of what I see of Christ’s love in the lives of these people. It is flesh and blood that makes our faith authentic.

 

Each person who identifies with God must examine themselves; what kind of message does my attitudes, my words, my response to people in need make clear that God is alive in us?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR WHAT DO WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT?

 

God’s plan for the salvation of the world directly involves you!

 

The earthly time of Jesus was divine revelation on a very human level. That mission was brief and was completed with the last appearance of the resurrected Christ in the Ascension. The disciples were told to wait: the resurrected Jesus would send the Holy Spirit. In Pentecost we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Notice the words of abundance: “out pouring.”

 

God wants to give the Holy Spirit to each and everyone of the human race in abundance. He wants human beings to be energized and moved by the power of the Holy Spirit within their own lives and their own culture. The giving of the Holy Spirit to us, today, is part of  God’s great plan to bring the human race to live in and through the energy of God.

 

Pour out your Holy Spirit into the hearts and actions of all the nations that are involved in war and violence at this very moment. We need the Holy Spirit not only between nations making war against each other, but we need a healing of the conflicts that can often erupt on our city streets. For every violent heart in the world, stir peace and compassion. Keep humanity aware of the  sufferings that all forms of violence inflicts on the poor and the little ones of this world.

 

Pour out your Holy Spirit on all people who live in North America. Help them to feel the pain of the earth and the warming of the climate. Only when we feel the pain of the disappearing species, the shrinking of the water channels and the threat of hard droughts, will we move to a more sustainable lifestyle. Holy Spirit, as you groan in the forces of nature, may we humans be moved to a more caring lifestyle that enhances the earth, our common home.

 

Pour out your Holy Spirit within all of us who are capable and mobile to seek out the lonely and forgotten, due to their old age.  The poor are so very close to us. Holy Spirit be the force that opens our eyes, moves our legs and our hands to care for the forgotten who live so close to us.

 

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon all individuals and families who struggle with addictions.  Give them insight on how to cope, to care of the family’s well-being and not to get trapped in the  nightmare of addiction destruction. We ask help to so many desperate situations.

 

Holy Spirit, pour out your strength upon all the citizens of Canada, that they work toward peace and reconciliation with our First Nations, welcome all the new-comers to Canada and look toward bringing all peoples to be blest with the good life that our country can offer.

 

Now, it time for you, the reader, to add what we need to Holy Spirit to do among us. What gifts of the Holy Spirit does our world need this season?

 

 

 

 

 

 

DRIVE OUT THE DEMONS

Does the feast of the Ascension of Jesus leaving you wondering, ‘Now, what do we do?”

 

There are several different ways that this last appearance of the risen Jesus is pictured in the Gospels. It is a time of completion of the earthy mission of Jesus. He now moves to glory within the Holy Trinity. At the same time, it is preparation time for the disciples to wait to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

 

Ascension is not only caught in the upward movement toward divine glory. It is directed outward: the disciples are now to carry on the life and the work of Jesus. It is time for the people of the Church to become empowered in their mission. It is time for the people of the Church to become the living extension of Jesus Christ in their own geography and theirown history.

 

One of the signs that they have been empowered by the Holy Spirit is that they will 

 ‘drive out demons!’

 

Our first reaction is ‘this is such old fashion language.’ It does not mean much to us in our highly scientific worldview. We know much better than to believe that there are  such things as evil demons controlling the life and health of people.

 

Step back a minute. Separate the noun used ( the demons) from the reality that is named. It does not matter what kind of label you use to describe evil, the reality is still the same! Evil by any other name is always evil. 

 

Christ sends you into the world to drive out the demons, just as he drove out the demons.

 

Drive out the demon of poverty, that is, where the powerful do not care about the plight of the countless poor, who barely scrap by, within their own societies. Drive out eh demon of indifference where the people with power in all our countries are indifferent to the people at the bottom who struggle with food shortages. 

 

Drive out the demon of war. At the momen, t the entire world is suffering the death and destruction of the people of the Ukraine, in Gaza and in the Sudan. People in power (and with the money) are convinced that war can further their cause and make their country a more powerful country. But what about the women and children who are killed?

 

Drive out the demon of racism. In every country there are is the majority of the people of the same skin color, same religion and education class who structure the society so that people who are different cannot advance. In the painful past there were signs that “blacks need not apply.” Blatant racism! But today it can be more subtle. Your skin color or your religion may be reason to overlook a person with for suitable qualifications for a particular position. The rejection is all based on race!

 

You will be able to label other demons that are active in our society and within the lives of our individual family members. It is not important how you label these evil forces, but whatever the label they are active and forceful. The world is full of  many demons (evil  forces) as there were in the days of Jesus. 

 

The Spirit of Jesus is given to drive, to be a force, to drive out the demons. What demons do you have to deal with?