How many times did my mother say that to me in response to a "But Mommmmmm, everyone else is doing it!"
I thought of this today when I noticed an emerging trend on some blogs that call themselves Catholic. Maybe folks are just getting the carbon out of their systems before the purifying season of Lent begins. But, knowing that there is no time like the present, why wait until next week to be on your best behavior?
Some of the blogs that I link to are going in the time-out chair for awhile. I think their authors are inherently good people who have unfortunately jumped on a bandwagon that sounds anything but charitable, let alone Catholic. I think I have already had too much to say about this subject, yet at the same time, I'm disappointed in myself for not speaking up sooner.
Sometimes, charity dictates taking an unpopular stance, particularly when it means that I, who may be living in a glass house, must pick up a stone. OK, maybe not a stone, but a pebble. Either way, that's it on this subject.
Joyce,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry I did not comment on many of your recent posts (particularly where my name was graciously mentioned) but I have been in the hospital.
I am seeing the past dozen or so posts only now, and I am delighted to see you take action to cleanse the temple under your control.
If people read a post, and you are Christian, regardless of the topic, (religion, sports, politics, etc) they should leave BETTER than when they came in the door.
Further, they should leave edified and built up, for having read the post and comments.
One of your readers (or more) queried my blogging.
I do not blog. There are myriad number of spots around the globe who blog on anything.
I choose to comment and do so widely.
Most blogs contain banal commentary and I often wonder if the audience has read the post, or, if we are so dumbed down we cannot communicate with one another anymore.
At any rate, I have been readily accepted, as St. Paul was able to meet Roman jailers, at pagan sites, homosexual sites, and what the church refuses to communicate to. In so doing, I can bring a hint of Jesus to any forum.
Sadly, Christian blogs (not just Catholic) are the most lamentable areas for me to comment on a post.
The Crescat wrote on PEWS recently, and how folks make their spot an object of ownership. As a deaf person, I like to sit up front in row 2 or 1 to read lips of preachers on the run, doing their exercise as I try to glimpse what is coming out of their mouth. There is an attitude at Church and in blogland that is most unlike Christ.
Here is the effect Christians have had on Hindu:
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
~~~Mohandas Gandhi
When I read above that you are reconsidering who may grace your pages, I became extremely encouraged, and felt less groggy from the hospital anesthesia.
We clean our houses for we live in a dirty world.
We clean our souls, for they get stained with sin.
And if we clean our blogs, and disassociate with blogs who do not express Christ, lead folks to Christ, edify and build up the Church, and unchurched
as well, then the Lord Jesus Christ is edified in our words, whether painted as a post, or a comment.
I am grateful for your kind words of me in a prior post, and I am ecstatic at your renewed effort to cleanse the temple.....and YOURS is a clean spot already,.... compared to the rugged filth and mistruth I read, posted by supposedly Christian/Catholic and believer blogs.
If the blog pleads for attention to blogger, instead of attention to Christ, why is it even read?
I gotta go lay down.
That was more than 2 cents worth already.
Dominos vobiscum!
PS. There was a post a few back, with no comments as of yet. It was substantially on prayer.
I regret I did not ask for prayers for me there....prayers of protection would be the best.
I can pray easily for others, but it is hard for me to ask prayer for myself. But I need them, so I do ask. More on prayer another day.
Keystone, certainly I will pray for you. I hope you are on the mend and feeling better soon. I know my readers will join me in praying for you. I haven't forgotten little Emily and her family, and continue to pray for them as well. God Bless you.
ReplyDeleteI laughed when you talked about, "doing
ReplyDeletea time out", for some blogs that you read.
I don't expect anyone to read my blog
personally....even if I read their posts.
I suppose if a person is a Catholic blogger
then they should represent the Gospels
and the Apostolic tradition well enough
to not be dishonest.
In your previous post you talk about the
Phelps cult, and I know that as a person
who is a recovering racist, hate is inside
everyone and arises from original sin,
and is fueled by the manipulations of the
evil one.
I went through I period as an evangelist
type Christian where I thought a bunch of
people were going to Hell.
There are certain people who will go to
Hell for sure, and the Gospels and the
Church tell us who those people are. Still
I hope for God's mercy to extend much
farther than our ideas of who is going to
Hell or not.
We are taught what mortal sin is, and
what it's consequences are.
Personally I cannot judge anyone even
though I am learning what the moral
teachings of Christ are in the process
of becoming fully Catholic.
LOL, my mother never said that to me. She's an old fashion Italian woman, and we Italians don't seem to have that in our idiom. However, my wife says that to me ALL THE TIME...LOL!
ReplyDeleteNo idea what you're referring to Joyce. Is it the death penalty for that abortion fiend?
May God give you protection Keystone.
I will pray for Keystone as well.
ReplyDeleteI am gratified to see that my name is still on your links. :)
You have mine, too, Keystone.
ReplyDeleteOh, and yes, I may jump off the cliff. I depend on level headed people like you, to take my cues! I am slower on the uptake than some, and it seems whatever is presented to me first, seems like the best thing, till I hear something else, and go, Oh! that makes more sense...what was I thinking? My picture may be in some dictionary somewhere under the definition for sheep.
ReplyDeleteI remain groggy this morning, but not so much that I can not stop here and say "Thank You" to all who pray for me. It is uplifting, and edifying, to know I do not battle alone.
ReplyDelete@Pete
Please know that "Do Not Judge" is often tossed out as a bone of truth. But it is often misread.
Matthew 7:3-5 sheds truth and light:
"3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, FIRST take the plank out of your own eye, and THEN you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
V 3 and 4 are alwats quoted to say "Don't judge".
But V 5 clearly says judging is ok, provided you judge after discernment, by clearing planks out of your eyes FIRST. Then, judging is just fine.
Note the FIRST and THEN. These are steps in judging and discernment.
A poison mushroom must be discerned from a good mushroom or it will kill you. Judging correctly is critical.
Peter is the first Pope, but Paul told him to his face he was in error. Galatians 2:11...
Paul Opposes Peter
"When Peter came to Antioch, I told him to his face that I was against what he was doing. He was clearly wrong." (Read it all there).
Judging is done all over the Bible.
All must judge what to confess in penance as sin.
@kelly
You are refreshingly honest. Agreeing with the last message you read or heard is common.
Christ specifically had the same hassle with disciples.
His name was Philip.
Philip heard Christ for 3 years, and in his words, he often clued us that "He just didn't get it".
John 14: 8-10 is but one example of many for Philip.
" 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work."
Philip just didn't "get it". Nor do we. Why?
All disciples were chosen by the Father.
I believe that each of us, carry traits of ALL the disciples within us.
At times, we are hot headed as Peter, (he lunged in Gethsemane, and cut the ear off Malchus at the Arrest of Jesus)...yet he alone walked on water.
At times, we are doubtful as Thomas.
At times, we are as loyal as John.
At times, we are "bringers" like Andrew.
He brought Cephus, Peter, to Christ and said "I found the Messiah....come". Andrew also brought the boy with loaves and fishes, for the Miracle of Multiplication. What do you "bring" to Christ?
You are an Andrew too.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Kelly, you are reflecting the disciple Philip, but all the others are in all of us (their character traits). I think that is why they were chosen.
Who among us has not betrayed, just like Judas?
Who among us fails to desire to be great in the Kingdom....a final argument among disciples during the Last Supper of all places.
You are in good company Kelly.
See you in Heaven. :)
I was told: "If everyone puts their head in the fire, would you?" Cliff or fire, the effect is the same. Not sure I would be too concerned about what Ghandi might have said, Keystone. I am not too keen on some elements of Hindu worship, or of Ghandi's reputation with his cohort of young women.
ReplyDeleteTrue Mr. Collins.
ReplyDeleteWhether Ghandi, Keystone, Collins, or any name on Earth, sin abounds in our lives.
As a Christian, I have no "keeness" on Hindu worship, for I worship the Risen Christ, Jesus.
However, Ghandi often preached the Sermon on the Mount, and many of Christ's words himself. So he was asked why he did not become a Christian.
The quote above is his answer.
Ghandi found too many 'christians" who talked the talk, but did not walk the walk. Imagine the effect on India today had Ghandi found genuine followers and believers exhibiting the aroma of Christ!
This man of influence could easily have made the nation Christian. But it was not to be.
As for his personal shortcomings and babes galore ala Hugh Hefner, I don't know why, but King David came to my mind, as a person Christians emulate and admire....a man after God's heart. Ironic, eh?
I am sure Mr. Ghandi would feel at home with King David.
But the focus of the quote is on none of these people or their beliefs or actions. The focus is on Jesus Christ, and his appeal to Ghandi, to the extent Ghandi preached Christ words too.
But those words were met by a simultaneous experience of folks who called themselves "Believers" and were yet, repugnant people to him. That does not fit the paradigm of Followers of Christ.
It is a sad commentary that believers, led a great man.....AWAY from Christ, despite Ghandi's penchant to want Christ in his life too.
My lack of appetite for the Caste system, reincarnation, sacred cows in a land of starving people, and more, hold no weight to the damage of a few christians, who were able to make Christ appealing to another soul, but by their behavior, made him go another route in life.
No wonder Jesus wept.
Thanks @Keystone.
ReplyDeleteNo, I wouldn't. Certainly not.
ReplyDelete