Marriage, Family and the Nature of Spacetime

As the calendar year draws to a close, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and take note of the passage of time.  The year ends with a feast that celebrates the importance of families.  In Sunday’s scripture, the prophet Sirach reminds us to honor our father and mother, while Paul’s letter to the Colossians encourages us to “put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” virtues that are necessary in every family if love is to be put into action.   In the final two days of the year, scripture reminds us that the world is passing away, but Christ has conquered the world, “And whoever does the will of God will live forever.”  (1 John 2: 17)   Scripture for the last day of the year warns, “Children, it is the last hour… the antichrist is coming,” and the gospel reminds us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  (John 1:1)  What are we to make of this warning and promise as we end one year and begin another?

Contemplating the beginning and the end of time makes me think about the nature of time itself.  After all, our lives are essentially a passage through time.   Scientists have only recently agreed that time did not exist before the “big bang,” a notion St. Augustine wrote about 1600 years ago.  In his theory of relativity, Einstein explains that time is influenced by velocity and gravity.  This effect, referred to as time dilation, has been tested on fast moving space shuttles where clocks run slightly slower than on earth.  This is the nature of spacetime as physicists now understand it, and since all of nature seems to be a metaphor for the unseen realities in life, I wonder if this is why the years seem to go by faster as we age, and our lives slow down.   The older we get, the faster the years seem to pass, and maybe that’s because we’re moving slower than we did in our youth, and because each succeeding year is a smaller and smaller percentage of our entire lifetime.  In our youth, we raced through life, always wishing time would go faster.  School and work often seemed to drag on forever as we hustled through our busy lives.   But now that I’m retired and moving slower, it’s amazing how quickly the time seems to pass.  Maybe this is nature’s way of preparing us for the end of our lives, when we will no longer be limited by the boundaries of spacetime.

In death, our faith tells us, we will live in the eternal present, hopefully in the embrace of our loving God (heaven), and not in the eternal pain of being separated from Him (hell).  We have this lifetime (Life-Time) to make choices that determine who we are in the process of becoming.   Each decision we make has consequences on our character, defines our personality, and determines the state of our soul and spirit.  Choosing a life of faith, means choosing love and growing in our ability to become an instrument of God’s love.  After all, it is Divine Love that created the universe and all that is in it, including us.  Waiting in a doctor’s office last week, I picked up a copy of Discover magazine and read an article that described serious on-going research into whether or not the universe is a physical reality, or is nothing but a matrix, an ultra-sophisticated program in which each one of us is merely an artificial intelligence.  At first, I thought the article was just a spoof on the movie, The Matrix, but it described millions of dollars of multi-year research that is focused on trying to determine if there is a single source of all the background radiation in the universe.  Seriously!   The concept is based on the belief that all matter is really just tiny packets of energy, following specific laws of nature.  Although the article doesn’t acknowledge it, isn’t this is just another argument for “intelligent design,” or divine creation, if you like.

So, even if the atoms and sub-atomic particles that make up our bodies and minds are made up of energy, energy which may be described as “the Love of God,” the bottom line is that we are here, now, living in this universe for a finite time.  During this time we are alive, we have been given an intellect and free will to make choices about our lives.  If we are granted the gift of faith, we know that God, who is Love, created us in His image, capable of knowing Him, and capable of loving Him and one another.  Faith compels us to choose love, and to put the good of others ahead of ourselves, in imitation of Jesus who sacrificed Himself for us, despite our unworthiness.  By creating us male and female, God gave us the opportunity to participate in the inner life of the Holy Trinity, as instruments of His love in co-creating new life.  This privilege comes about because God meant for man and woman to become one flesh and bond with one another in love.  As spouses and parents, we are privileged to transmit the Love of God to one another and to our children, who are conceived in love and raised by a father and mother in the family. 

Family is so important that God commanded us to honor our fathers and mothers, and Jesus Himself upheld the sanctity and permanence of marriage.   Marriage is the source of new life and the means by which humanity continues.  Sadly, marriage is in decline, in part because people have a mistaken notion of love, putting themselves and their personal happiness ahead of their spouse and children.  And in part because our society has diminished the importance of marriage, treating it as nothing more than a legal contrivance which can be severed without cause, as if there were no consequences.  No one seems to notice that declining marriage rates, combined with contraception and abortion, have resulted in birth rates so low that many countries are no longer producing enough children to replace themselves.  Over the course of the next century, entire ethnicities will disappear, especially in Western Europe where secularism has had the worst effect on marriage and family.

As we celebrate the end of 2013 and the beginning of a new year, let’s give thanks for our marriages and families.   And let’s pray for the gift of faith which informs the decisions we make with regard to loving one another, so that at the end of our lives, when time ceases, we will have few regrets about the person we’ve become, and how we loved one another.  Happy New Year!

Christmas and the Abundance Mentality

Over the last 3 weeks of Advent, we’ve been watching Hallmark movies and Christmas specials that celebrate the importance and true meaning of Christmas, rather than the routine fare offered on TV.  The stories and music have been a reminder that Christmas really is a special time of the year, not because of the gift-giving and hubbub of the “holiday season,” but because the birth of Christ changed everything for humanity.  Because Our Lord came down to earth, we are a new creation, and the good news of God’s infinite love and mercy is proclaimed.

Sadly, there are many who insist that even the mention of Christmas is offensive to non-Christians, hence the many retailers who avoid using the word Christmas, but depend on the uptick in holiday sales for as much as half their annual revenue, hence the term “black Friday,” going from red ink (loss), to profit.  Even more egregious is the recent and very vocal trend of labeling Christian speech as offensive, insisting that it be eradicated from the public square and relegated to worship services alone.  It seems that our “tolerance” for gay marriage now means that Christians are no longer free to express their religious belief in Christmas, or the sanctity of marriage in public.  In other words, there is no tolerance for the expression of Christian beliefs.

I was reminded of this while listening to the traditional Christmas Carol, “I Heard the bells on Christmas Day.”   Here are the lyrics, with my comments to the right.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day                            Henry W. Longfellow, an abolitionist,
Their old familiar carols play,                                     wrote these lyrics in 1863 when his son
And wild and sweet the words repeat                       was fighting in the Civil War. 
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,                       Christianity has been around for 2000 years,
The belfries of all Christendom                                  proclaiming the good news of salvation,
Had rolled along the unbroken song                         guiding humanity toward peace and civility.
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:                              But there is much hatred in the world
"There is no peace on earth," I said,                         and it mocks Christian belief, destroying
"For hate is strong and mocks the song                   peace and shattering lives.
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:             Yet, there is reason for hope because we
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;                         know that the love of God is far greater
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,                      than human weakness, and “right” will
With peace on earth, good will to men."                 prevail in the end.

Although Longfellow misquotes scripture which says, “Peace on earth to men of good will,” probably to make the verses flow, his message is clear:  God IS NOT dead.  Right will prevail, no matter how bleak things may seem, or how much Christianity is mocked. 

One of the many reasons why Christmas is so very important is that Jesus revealed in word and action, how great is the love of God.   God’s love is infinite, it can never run out, no matter what transpires.  Even the mockery, humiliation, torture and death of His Son Jesus, could not prevent the love of God from reaching across time and space to save all humanity.  Jesus Himself demonstrated this over and over again when He said, “Be not afraid.”   We have nothing to fear because the love of God will overcome every adversity, every act of violence, and every sin.  For our part, we can choose to participate in God’s love and allow it to flow through our lives, or we can continue to depend on ourselves alone.

Choosing God’s love is to adopt what has been called the “abundance mentality.”  We have so much to be grateful for, we sometimes take it all for granted, and focus instead on what we want rather than appreciating what we already have in life.  We may unwittingly have a “scarcity mentality” in which we focus too much on what we don’t have, and rely too much on ourselves alone.  Taking ourselves too seriously is a symptom of the scarcity mindset, and leads to disappointment, anxiety, and depression.   With an abundance mentality, we realize that life is a miraculous gift of God, and is not much more than a short gestation period before we commence our eternal life which will go on forever in the Presence of God.  Appreciating what we already have, realizing that the love of God holds us in existence and loves us beyond our comprehension, allows us to look beyond minor disappointments.  I’ll never forget one of the lessons my mother taught me and my siblings about this.  When one of us was faced with a disappointment, mom would say, “If that’s the worst thing that ever happens to you in life, you’ll be the luckiest person on earth.”  She’d then go on to soothe our hurt feelings and remind us of all the good things we have in life.

Adopting an abundance mentality means believing in the good news of God’s love and forgiveness.  If life was fair, Jesus would not have been crucified.  Despite the hardships and pain He endured for us, He established a “New and Eternal Covenant” with God The Father on our behalf, offering His Body and Blood for our salvation.  Knowing this and believing it is not enough.  We must put the Word of God into action in our lives.  “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who builds his house on rock.” (Matt 7:24)  Embracing the love of God and allowing it to flow through us, will transform our lives and enable us to endure the inevitable disappointments of life, knowing that the true meaning and purpose of our lives is to be with God for all eternity.   All of this is possible because Christ came to earth.  This is the real meaning of Christmas which must not be swept aside by those who are offended by the Truth.

Man of the Year and Cause for Joy

Sunday was Gaudete Sunday, marked by the priest wearing rose colored vestments, signifying Joy as we approach Christmas.  In the gospel, Jesus questioned his listeners about what they were expecting from John the Baptist who was clearly counter-cultural.   In this modern era, no one is more countercultural than the Catholic Church and our new pope.  Yet, last week Time Magazine chose Pope Francis as their “Person of the Year.”  He succeeds Barrack Obama and beat out Miley Cyrus as well as the president of Syria who has been waging war on his own people, with special vengeance toward Christians.  No wonder Time CEO commented that it was an easy choice.  The pope was apparently chosen because of the media attention he has drawn since being elected a year ago.  Given how liberal Time and its’ readers are, and the fact that the pope and the Catholic Church are staunchly pro-life and anti-gay marriage, it is surprising that he would be chosen.   Pope Francis’ humble, direct style, and flare for ad hoc comments is a notable change from the past several popes, and it has endeared the world to him.  It has also caused millions of people to take a closer look at the Catholic Church, perceiving that “something has changed.”   Pope Francis speaks clearly and simply, and on several occasions said things that non-Catholics perceive as a major change in the Church’s position, giving rise to a flurry of questions and speculation. 

When Pope Francis published his first Apostolic Letter, The Joy of the Gospel, it was referred to by NBC News as “the pope’s manifesto on the new direction of the church.”  Taken out of context, the pope’s letter was cited as a critique of capitalism and Rush Limbaugh even called the pope a Marxist for his critique of “the idolatry of money.”  However, commenters, including Limbaugh, neglected to cite sections of the same letter that warned against the negative effects of the welfare state, and the risks of the growing bureaucracy of government which threatens religious liberty throughout the world.   In his Apostolic Letter, the pope also promotes the importance of job creation in lieu of welfare, “through free creative, participatory and mutually supportive labor in order that human beings express and enhance the dignity of their lives.”  The Apostolic Letter was never intended to become part of the official teaching of the Church (the Magisterium), nor did it change any existing dogma.  Instead, it was apparently meant to spark dialogue on the need to make programmatic changes in the way the Church engages the world, with greater focus on the need to address poverty and the re-evangelization of all Christians in a world steadily trending toward secularism and what the pope called, “ideologies that defend absolute autonomy.”

What the world finds so refreshing about our new pope is how engaging he is, and how informal he can be when compared to his predecessors.  But make no mistake, Pope Francis is staunchly conservative, and while he is committed to restructuring the Roman Curia and the way the church manages its affairs, he shows no intention of changing or minimizing the Church’s long-standing belief in the dignity of every human life and the sanctity of marriage.  In fact, his decision to confer sainthood on popes John XXIII and John Paul II at the same time next year, points to the continuity of his belief in the Church’s most sacred teachings.   You will recall that Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council, and John Paul II, who attended that Council, was a powerful advocate for implementing it.   Pope Francis, like John XXIII is a gifted pastor, likeable, and much loved by his flock.   In a recent photo, he even looks like John XXIII.  In contrast, Pope John Paul II was a man of immense intellect whose understanding and teaching in the areas of philosophy and anthropology culminated in his ground-breaking work entitled Theology of the Body.  John Paul II altered the course of modern thinking about theology when he wrote “The Splendor of Truth,” in which he forever changed the way philosophers and theologians understand human reason.  He artfully and convincingly demonstrated that there is not, and never will be a disconnect between faith and reason, or the truth of science and faith in God.   Pope John Paul II and the force of his intellect had a major role in the defeat of Communism in Europe, even as he set the stage for a new evangelization that would be taken up by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Benedict, another towering intellect, is unquestionably the greatest theologian of the last several centuries.  The body of his work has yet to be fully realized, in part because so few are familiar with it, and perhaps because of the rising tide of secularism which discounts the value and importance of religion.  Now, along comes Pope Francis, a man who instinctively reaches out to people of all ages, ethnicity, and persuasion, and in doing so, captures the attention of the world.  His down to earth style and his ability to engage listeners are just what the Catholic Church needs right now, if it is to have any success in promoting and implementing the new evangelization, launched by his two predecessors.  The fact that Francis is different from Benedict XVI and John Paul II is a good thing, especially if it draws people to observe and listen, when in the past they were indifferent to the treasures of our faith.

Clearly, the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing when He guided the electors to choose our new pope.  This same Holy Spirit guided John the Baptist to call people out of their doldrums and flock to baptism, seeing value in repentance while seeking to reform their sinful lives.  Let’s pray for Pope Francis and ask the Holy Spirit to guide him in the years ahead, so that the riches of our faith may be more widely recognized and sought.  

Fruits of the Spirit, or not?

The second Sunday of Advent features the gospel reading about John the Baptist wearing a camel’s hair shirt and leather belt, preaching in the desert: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  People flocked to him to be baptized, while he prophesied the coming of Jesus.  When John recognized Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he shouted out, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”   It must have been quite a sight.  We also heard Isaiah’s prophecy about Christ coming with “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD.” Notice the repeated use of the term “spirit.”

All this reminds me of what the Church calls, the “fruits of the Spirit.”  These fruits prove to us the power of God’s grace at work in our lives when we abide in Him and lead a moral life.  The catechism of the Catholic Church lists these fruits as: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. (CCC 1832)  Wouldn’t it be great if this list of attributes described our character?  Last week in this blog, I wrote about peace, being the product of putting our life in order so that our spirit directs the physical aspect of our lives and our spirit is ordered to God.  St. Augustine called this “the tranquility of order.” Conversely, allowing physical desires to direct our lives leads to disorder, and failing to order our spirit to the Spirit of God, causes us to miss out on the fruits of the Spirit.

Advent is traditionally the time for preparing for the coming of Christ, not just the Christ-child at Christmas, but the coming of Christ at the end of our lives, and at the end of time.  This preparation should include a reflection on whether or not we are cultivating the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, preparing our spirit to encounter Christ when we will have to give an account of the person whom we have become.  Of course none of us will ever be perfect, and we know that Christ came for our salvation, despite our sinfulness.  Yet, meeting Him face to face will be all the more difficult if we die in the state of sin.  How could we possibly be comfortable living for all eternity in the Presence of God if our sinfulness remains?  We need to be purged of our sinfulness in order to remain in His Presence and experience the mystery of God’s infinite Love.  This “purging” is the source of our concept of purgatory.  Describing purgatory of as a place of pain and suffering that we must endure for some specified time, is probably the best we could do to depict the process of burning away our sinful imperfection.   My own belief (not necessarily a good explanation of Catholic dogma) is that we will definitely suffer, but since there is no time in eternity, it will not be for a specific amount of time.  Rather, the extent of our pain (whether physical, emotional or spiritual) is likely to be proportional to the degree of our sinfulness and imperfection.  Facing the errors and consequences of our sinfulness, in the presence of God, will undoubtedly be incredibly painful, but a necessary action if we are to become capable of living joyfully in the presence of God.  Perhaps this is what Jesus was referring to when He said we must become perfect, like our heavenly Father.  We cannot accomplish this on our own, but only through the saving grace of Jesus. 

In the meanwhile, while we’re here on earth, plodding along through our lives, we still have the opportunity to build a moral life, and in doing so, enjoy the fruits of the Spirit.  During Advent we hear songs and stories about joy, peace, faithfulness, charity, and gentleness, all fruits of the Spirit.  Isn’t about time we considered how to make these enduring qualities a permanent attributes of our life and spirit?

Part 2 – The opposite of the fruits of the Spirit

Think now for a moment about what life would be like if we chose to ignore the importance of cultivating a moral life.  The Word of God (Scripture and Jesus Himself) give us a template for leading a moral life, and the foundation upon which to build our lives.   In the parable about building a house on sand, Jesus warns that unless our lives are built on a strong foundation, on the Word of God, we are likely to be swept away when faced with the storms of life.  What if we fail to recognize that human life is sacred because it springs from the Life of God Himself?  If human life is not sacred, can it be cast aside when it is in convenient?   Are human rights inviolate, or do they depend on whether or not that person is contributing his fair share to society?   Society has become so comfortable with abortion that we now turn to euthanasia to help solve the problem of too many elderly compared to the smaller number of young people which has resulted from declining birthrates.  The Province of Quebec is on the verge of legalizing euthanasia as part of their new statement of values, and to address the financial crisis which is worsening as their population dwindles and they cannot afford the healthcare required by the elderly.

In our own country, our president proudly announced how great it is that our government enacts policies that reflect our national values, and in the next sentence touted the fact that under Obamacare, contraception is now free to everyone.   So much for the virtues (fruits of the spirit) of modesty, chastity, and self-control.   One of the moral imperatives we receive from God’s law is truthfulness.  We’ve been taught to believe that it is sinful to lie, and to this day, we require people to “swear to tell the truth, so help me God,” when testifying in court.  However, in recent months, lie after lie has been repeated with respect to Obamacare, and no one seems to take note, it’s just business as usual.   Lying has become so pervasive as to go unnoticed and unreported, over and over again, in part because it perpetuates the false notion that everything is just fine, the way it is.  One of the more egregious lies came out this week in the so-called “jobs report” which stated that 203,000 new jobs were created last month.  A closer look at the BLS data reveals that in fact, only 83,000 more people are working than were working 3 months ago.  During that same period 640,000 people have left the workforce permanently.   That’s what accounts for the unemployment rate dropping to 7%, not more people working, fewer people looking for work.   The net increase of 203,000 jobs last month counted the 400,000 federal workers who had been temporarily furloughed for a couple weeks.  This data is not a secret, anybody can read it in the federal government’s BLS website, but nobody questions any of it.  The truth is that our economy is hanging on by a thread, bolstered by government spending which is funded by borrowing money which will be increasingly hard to payback because the workforce has been steadily shrinking as a proportion of our total population.  

All this reminds me of the words of John the Baptist, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”  Oddly enough, anyone who tries to point out the fallacy of the president’s statements or the government reports is viewed as though they were a raving maniac, wearing a camel’s hair shirt.

Advent and the Path to Peace

This weekend we put up the Christmas tree, window candle-lights, wreaths, icicle lights, advent wreath and an assortment of angels, in preparation for Christmas.  Advent is a time of preparation for both Christmas, i.e., the coming of the Christ child, and also a time to prepare ourselves for our ultimate destiny.  After all, Jesus came into the world, not to establish a year-end holiday, but for our salvation.  While most of the world is busy with decorating, purchasing gifts, and preparing for family gatherings over a long holiday weekend, Christians are supposed to be using Advent as a time to prepare our souls for the coming of Christ, not just the commemoration of His coming to earth 2000 years ago, but for His second coming, and our encounter with Him at the hour of our death.

Despite the frenetic activity associated with the holiday season, we are called to pause and reflect on where our lives are headed, and what we might need to do in order to be prepared for life after death.  Scripture readings for the first Sunday of Advent make this clear:

“For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;
Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”  (Romans 13:12-14)

In the gospel, Jesus warns us to be prepared:

“So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field;
one will be taken, and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken, and one will be left.  Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.  Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.  So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Mt 24:40-44)

So just how do we prepare ourselves amidst the hustle and bustle of the Christmas/Holiday Season?  Fifty years ago, it was common for Catholics to make sacrifices, similar to those made in Lent, such as giving up candy, fasting between meals, or making an effort to perform good deeds.  The purpose of these disciplines was to force ourselves to exercise control over our bodily desires and “offer it up” as a spiritual exercise.  While these spiritual exercises have for the most part gone by the wayside, the wisdom behind them is profound.  Asserting self-control over our human desires is a means of directing who we are, and whom we are becoming.  Throughout our lives, we spend most of our early years, preparing ourselves, making sacrifices to get an education, learning job-skills, and improving our bodies and minds.  When we order our lives in such a way as to exert self-control and focus our efforts, we succeed in our endeavors, and if we don’t, things become dis-jointed or disordered, leading to disappointment and anxiety. 

Despite the prosperity we enjoy, living in a free country where 93% of those who want to work have jobs, there is still a great deal of stress, anxiety, and discontent.  Perhaps the reason for these maladies is a mistaken notion of peace.  We tend to think of peace as the absence of problems, but when we remove the obstacles in our lives, what is left is a void.  Peace is not merely the end of war and violence, the resolution of conflict and the absence of noise, but rather, peace is what St. Augustine called, “the tranquility of order.”  Seeking true peace is to seek the proper order in our lives, starting with the needs and demands of our flesh.  Using human reason to control and direct our passions is a start, but not the end-game for true peace and happiness.  Another way of putting this is that our spirit needs to order the physical aspect of our lives, so that we are not ruled by our appetites and passions, lest we fall victim to dis-orders of various sorts.  When our passions are in charge, reason is absent and things don’t turn out well.  So the first order is to use our spirit to direct our passions toward the good of the person and humanity.

The second form of order, according again to St. Augustine, is to order our spirit to God.  Having been created in the image and likeness of God, our souls cannot be at rest unless they are ordered to God and the truths He has revealed in nature itself.  This is why we feel closer to God when we observe the tranquility and beauty of nature, because it reminds of God, our Creator.  God further revealed Himself through His Son Jesus who told us:

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives, do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  (John 14:27)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). 

Jesus has given us the prescription for true peace.  “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Phil 4:7)

In a world torn by violence and political discord there can be no peace unless there is first peace in the heart of all people.  The forced atheism of communism has been defeated, but replaced by secularism which is more subtle, yet no less destructive to peace.   There can be no peace as long as the world and the country are ordered to human desire alone, to the exclusion of God.  When Jesus was born and the angels proclaimed His birth, they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."  (Luke 2:14)   In other words, peace is conditioned to those who are pleasing to God.   Advent is a great time to remind ourselves that pleasing ourselves is meaningless unless we order our lives to God.  One way to do that is to pray for the courage to seek God’s will in our lives, and in the life of our nation.

Christ The King vs.The Emperor's New Clothes

Today is the last Sunday in the liturgical year and the day on which we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  This got me thinking about what kind of king Jesus is, compared to worldly kings and leaders.  The bible is full of stories about kings who were chosen to lead their people, but failed in one way or another, leading to the downfall of the kingdom.  Perhaps the power that goes along with kingship corrupts people or detaches them from an understanding of what is really best for everyone.  The attributes of Christ, Our King, are quite different from the trappings of royalty as we know it in the worldly realm.   Jesus was the most powerful person to have ever walked the earth, but He lived a simple, humble life and never used His power to benefit Himself.  He was so meek that He accepted torture and death without complaint, but rather with a prayer that His captors be forgiven for not knowing what they were doing. 

The hallmarks of Jesus Kingship were truth, mercy, forgiveness, and love, always in the service of others.  Christ, our king, came to reveal the truth about God Our Father and almost everything He said and did was countercultural.  He forgave sinners, rather than repudiating, banishing, or punishing them.  His parable of the prodigal son and His treatment of the woman caught in adultery, reveal a King with the mercy and courage to put love and forgiveness ahead of convention and retribution. 

Compare this to the motives and actions of worldly kings and leaders who never seem to be satisfied with what they have.  They tend to want more and more power and authority, whether they lived in ancient times or more recently with titles like Premier, Prime Minister, or President.   After the Czar was overthrown in Russia, Communist leaders invaded and imprisoned one country after another, creating the USSR.  Not satisfied with the Communist Bloc in Europe, they set their sights on Central and South America where they would have surely taken over that continent, if it had not been for President Kennedy standing up to them over the Cuban missile crisis, and Ronald Reagan boldly supporting anti-communist forces in South America.

Throughout Europe, many counties have now elected leaders who are proponents of Socialism.  The notion of the benevolent king has given way to the false promises of the welfare state.  Having shed all attachments to its Christian heritage, Europe is consciously attempting to become a secular state, advocating equality, even if it means abandoning morality and redistributing wealth.  In doing so, it has devalued and in some cases abandoned the virtues that led to Europe’s greatest successes in the past.  In the process, Europe is creating a nanny state in which people believe they are entitled to economic security, regardless of their personal effort and without the necessity of acquiring the virtues that in the past, led to success.

This past week, we all heard and saw recordings of President Kennedy’s many speeches, including his inaugural when he famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”   He advocated personal effort and responsibility, not government-imposed equality.  In another speech on the economy, JFK called for personal and government budget cuts, coupled with tax reductions for corporations and individuals, in order to create more jobs and ultimately more revenue for the federal government.  He was clearly NOT a tax-and-spend Democrat.  But of course, people have selective memory and they don’t seem to realize that JFK’s brother Teddy was just about opposite in his views, taking a much more liberal and progressive approach to equality through health and welfare benefits, funded by ever-increasing taxes.

So here we are approaching the end of 2013 and the beginning of President (king?) Obama’s 6^th year in office.  One of the hallmarks of his reign seems to be untruth.   He signed several Executive Orders which he subsequently ignored and violated, having promised no federal funding for abortion, and strong conscience clauses to protect religious freedom.   He changed his views on gay marriage to the extent of working to overturn (rather than uphold) the Defense of Marriage Act.  He “refused to negotiate with a gun to his head,” when Republicans asked for modest changes in the Affordable Care Act, knowing full well that the promises he had made about “keeping your coverage” and “saving $2500 a year on your healthcare costs,” were outright lies.  But perhaps the most disturbing thing about our current President’s leadership is that he is doing his very best to “fundamentally change America.”  Like the European leaders who are driving toward a secular state and socialism, President Obama is now attempting to use his power to enforce his own brand of secularism on everyone, whether they agree with him or not on the issues of abortion, contraception and gay marriage.  He has taken dead aim at the moral underpinnings of American society, the very morals and values that made us a great nation, and he wants them banished, claiming that those who oppose him “are on the wrong side of history.”

Ten or fifteen years ago I ran across a little book titled simple, Jesus, CEO.  It was a book about the leadership attributes of Jesus and how to use them as a guide for leading a business organization with love and compassion.  Although not a great book, I kept it in my office as a reminder that the most valuable asset in our organization was the people we worked with, and the more we could help people grow and succeed in their own right, the more successful our company would be.  I have no doubt that President Obama means well, but rather than helping Americans cultivate virtues and success in their lives, he seems to be pandering to people’s desire for absolute freedom from any moral restraint.  Democracy simply does not work unless society has a common understanding and commitment to objective Truth and agreement on the difference between Right and Wrong.  For example, instead of advocating human dignity, we debase and devalue it.  The new Common Core curriculum undermines parental guidance and advocates sexual freedom (more on that in a future blog).  Obamacare forces people to violate their religious convictions under penalty of law, and contains an explosion of new government funding for abortion.  Even the Obamacare ads aimed at young people, are an affront to morality, encouraging promiscuity: “Lets Get Physical, OMG he’s hot… all I have to worry about is getting him between the sheets.” Another ad boldly states that “If you break your arm doing a keg stand, you’re covered.”  Think I’m making this up? Just google “Obamacare ads.”  

So what I’m hoping is going on here is a case of what Hans Christian Anderson described in his classic tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes.  The emperor thought he had these wonderful new clothes that were invisible to the “hopelessly stupid” and the incompetent, when in reality, the Emperor had been swindled.  Obamacare is no magical solution to our nation’s healthcare problems and the people opposing it are neither stupid nor incompetent.  Moreover, our country is headed in the wrong direction and hopefully we will wake up in time to put ourselves back on the right track.  Electing leaders who respect and emulate Christ the King will be a start.

The Dictatorship of Relativism and the Truth about Obamacare

Before retiring, I had the opportunity to serve on Nationwide’s Diversity and Inclusion Executive Council.  It was a great experience and I learned quite a bit, much to my surprise, because I never thought of myself as prejudiced.  I discovered that although I had always thought of myself as “colorblind,” when it came to race, I was also ignorant of what it was like to live in a society where you are perceived as different and treated differently because of the color of your skin, or other aspects of appearance.  Nor did I realize how much racial and ethnic tension continues in our society, even when expressed merely by a glance, or a snub.   Nationwide set up diversity councils throughout the company, and established intercultural groups to address the concerns of all minorities, including the handicapped, gay, elderly, and every imaginable race and ethnicity. 

One thing that concerned me about all this however, was the notion of “tolerance.”  The very term connotes the idea that we perceive a difference between ourselves and others, and perhaps have divergent views about the world, but we must “tolerate” everyone.  Gradually I began to realize that I was expected to “tolerate” views that were morally at odds with my own beliefs.  It was not enough to simply work alongside people with whom I disagreed, I was expected to accept and even endorse their lifestyle choices, rather than simply agree to disagree.  When I expressed my religious belief in the workplace, that gay marriage was wrong, I was considered intolerant and inappropriate.  Clearly, the gay members of the diversity council expected more than mere acceptance, they demanded endorsement.  They succeeded in squelching any discussion about dissenting views, labeling them as hateful and a denial of their civil rights. 

The same thing has happened to society in general.   Any discussion about morality and religious belief is now expected to be restricted to private discussion, confined to church and family, but never discussed publicly.  Public policy has now shifted in the direction of dictating a set of non-Christian morals that have been codified in law and are being enforced by the government.  This is exactly what Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI both warned about, calling it the “dictatorship of relativism.”  Wikipedia defines relativism as, “the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration.”   In Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) John Paul II warned that once the idea of universal truth about what constitutes good is lost, the individual conscience becomes the sole arbiter of what is good.  He went on to explain that this freedom destroys itself by detaching from all forms of tradition and authority, including even the most obvious evidence of objective and universal truth.  Benedict XVI warned that this radical individualism is propelling society, “towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.” 

We are now at the point that much of Western civilization embraces this mistaken notion of absolute freedom (relativism) and is consciously attempting to establish a secular society which disavows Christian belief, substituting instead, Relativism as the law of the land.  For example, citizens who object to abortion on moral grounds are never the less required to fund it, not only with tax dollars, but insurance premiums.   Catholic hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, universities, and social service agencies are required to do the same or face massive fines. Parents have no right under the law to object to school curriculum that teaches that homosexuality is normal and healthy.  Florists and photographers have been taken to court for refusing to participate in gay marriage ceremonies.  It is no longer enough to merely “tolerate” homosexuality, we are forced by law to accept it as normal and have it taught to our children.  Ironically, those who just a few years ago demanded “tolerance” are completely intolerant of Christian beliefs.

Besides the abortion and gay marriage issues, our federal government also wants to dictate every aspect of our health care.  They have deemed that every person in the country must have insurance that includes a broad range of services, whether we want them or not.  The 5 million people whose insurance has been cancelled because it did not meet the new, much broader standards, are just the first victims of Obamacare.  The replacement coverage they need, will cost far more than what they had been paying because it includes a lot more coverage for things they don’t want and will never need.  Couples who are too old to have children, or who are sterile by choice, are forced to pay for coverage for maternity, infertility treatment, birth control, and abortion services which are all required coverages in the new plans.  Rather than allow people to purchase affordable coverage with limits, the government now demands everyone have broad unlimited coverage and goes even further in demanding that younger, healthier people pay higher than necessary premiums in order to offset the cost for sicker and older people.

What’s been going on the last couple weeks with Obamacare is only the tip of the iceberg.   The 5 million who’ve lost their coverage thus far, are mostly from the individual insurance market.  Only about 20 million people buy their insurance directly.  The vast majority of Americans get their coverage through their employment.  If you’ll recall, President Obama delayed implementation of the employer-mandate for another year, probably so that the fall-out will occur after the 2014 mid-term elections.  More than 100 million people get their health insurance from their employer and a great many of those employers will be forced to expand or cancel their coverage in January 2015.  Next year, millions will lose their employer-sponsored coverage, and/or be forced to pay much higher premiums.   The president’s suggestion that individuals be allowed to keep their current (inferior?) coverage another year, does nothing to change the underlying problem, it merely delays the inevitable.  

There are many things I find troubling about all this, but perhaps the worst is that the president thinks he can simply change the duly-passed law without involving Congress to amend the existing legislation.  This is the 3^rd or 4^th time he has unilaterally amended the Affordable Care Act, based on political necessity.    This past week, in addition to his apology, the president met with the nation’s top health insurance executives, in a display of effort to address the problems which have “caused problems for the Democrats” (the president’s own admission).   He apparently offered the Insurers government funding to help offset the tremendous costs associated with Obamacare because already, pundits are talking about a $1 trillion “bail-out” for the health insurance industry.   What the president seems to be doing is suckering in the Insurers by waving money in front of them, and then he’ll turn the tables and blame them for the cancellations, the higher costs, and the need for yet another government bailout.  Of course none of this would have happened if the health insurance marketplace had not been turned upside down by Obamacare.

All this is part of the dictatorship of relativism in which the government dictates what everyone must do, whether they want it or not, rather than allowing people the freedom to choose what they want and need from a free market.

Why We Need Hope

Sunday’s scripture readings all point to the importance of hope.   When challenged by the Sadducees about the resurrection of the dead, Jesus explains that those who rise from death will be like children of God, and can no longer die.  Hope is more than just optimism or a positive attitude, it is the result of faith in the Word of God and belief in the Truth as revealed by Jesus.  “The three Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Love dispose us to live in relationship with the Holy Trinity.  These three virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity, enabling us to act as Children of God.  They are the pledge of presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being.”(Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) - #1812-1813).  “Hope is the virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promise, not relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit .” (CCC #1817)

In other words, hope is the virtue by which we place our trust in God, not ourselves. This coming week the liturgical calendar calls for reading the Book of Wisdom in which we will hear how foolish it is to place our hope in ourselves and in worldly rulers.  We will be reminded that “God formed man to be imperishable; and in the image of God’s own nature.” (Wis 2:23)  This is our destiny and our final destination.  What happens here and now in this world is of little consequence, as long as we remain faithful to God.  We will also hear that, “All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing Him who is, and from studying the works, did not discern the artisan;” (Wis 13:1-2)

When we place our hopes in earthly things, we are easily led astray from God.  Worse yet, when our earthly possessions and sources of happiness fail us, we are prone to depression or worse.  Perhaps this is why more than 20% of all Americans take medication to treat depression, and millions more probably should be.   Don’t misunderstand my meaning here, I’m not minimizing the horrible impact depression has on people, or the fact that it is very, very real.  I also know that it can be caused by many things and that the human mind is an incredibly complex organ, capable of producing a wide variety of chemical compounds that can alter moods and affect behavior.  But the things we do can also cause our minds to produce many powerful chemicals, for example:  exercise releases endorphins and sexual encounters cause the release of oxycotin, to cite just a couple of the thousands of compounds our brains can conjure up. 

The treatment of behavioral health illness in America is deplorable.  Most of the prescriptions for anti-depressants are written, not by mental health professionals, but by primary care doctors, most of whom are neither trained nor willing to be the patient’s counselor.  In most other countries, the administration of these drugs is limited to mental health professionals, and renewal of prescriptions is attached to the requirement that the patient be attending counseling.   Here in the USA, patients take these powerful drugs for years, even decades, without ever receiving mental health treatment, perhaps avoiding or simply unaware of the underlying causal of their condition. 

This past week the federal government announced that it will now require all insurance plans to treat all mental health treatment the same as any other illness.  While this may sound wonderful because so many people are in need, it is fraught with problems.  There are already numerous state and federal laws requiring insurers to cover mental illness similar to the way it treats other health benefits, but these statutes also define what constitutes mental illness according to careful guidelines.  The problem with the new announcement is that it covers behavioral health in general, with no limits on coverage.  Unlike the cognitive impairment of serious mental illness, or biologically based mental illnesses, behavioral health illness includes a broad spectrum of conditions from mild to extreme, based not necessarily on measureable medical fact, but opinion.   There are of course many behavioral health diagnoses, but the degree of illness is difficult to ascertain, and therefore easily misdiagnosed and subject to fraud and abuse.   For example, when is a person so incapacitated by depression, anxiety, or grief that they should be hospitalized?   With unlimited coverage for inpatient behavioral health treatment, how long will people be cared for, based on the “opinion” of the provider (who by the way makes their living caring for these patients)?   In the past, even with limited coverage for behavioral health care, we had a very difficult time monitoring, detecting, and dealing with fraud and abuse.  With unlimited coverage, this holds the potential to be phenomenally expensive, at a time when healthcare costs are already skyrocketing to the point of being not only unaffordable, but clearly unsustainable.

At a time when health care is such a hot button topic, with so many intractable problems to be addressed, we need hope in something better, something everlasting.  Pray for Faith, Hope and Love.

Are We Living in George Orwell's 1984?

This past week we celebrated All Saints Day, followed by All Souls day, acknowledging the saints who have gone before us and praying for the souls of our departed friends and family.  The readings for these wonderful feast days remind us that dying is not the end of our existence and that those who have died are more fortunate than us because they are enjoying eternal life in the presence of God. 

“The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.”  (Wis 3:1-3)

While the faithfully departed enjoy the Beatific Vision, we continue the struggle to practice our faith and discern the truth.  We take religious freedom for granted in America, but increasingly, Christians are being marginalized, penalized, and even prosecuted for living our faith in the public realm.  Our president makes reference to the “freedom to worship,” but he and his administration insist that we may not assert our belief in the course earning our living.   It is as if we are expected to check our religious beliefs at the door, before entering the workplace.  There are now over 200 lawsuits filed by organizations and corporations who object to the HHS mandate, and not all of them are religious organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor who will face millions of dollars in fines next year for operating their 50 nursing homes in the USA.  They do not qualify for a religious exemption because they do not care exclusively for Catholics, nor do they require all their employees to be Catholic.  ­There are 30 private, for-profit, employers who believe that abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization are intrinsically evil, and they refuse to pay for it in their health plans.

How did we get to the point that our government is forcing compliance with rules that violate the moral convictions of so many Christians?  I believe it is because we have gradually descended into a situation very similar to what George Orwell described in his dystopian novel, 1984.  In this literary classic, the government controls what people think by using newspeak, a method of controlling thought through language.  The form of government in the novel is English Socialism (Ingsoc in newspeak) and they maintain power by altering everyday thought through language.  The party in control of government persecutes independent thinking as thoughtcrimes, and justifies their actions in the name of supposed greater good.  They employ a tactic called doublethink to brainwash people into believing almost anything.  Here’s how Orwell describes doublethink:

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again…”

What makes me think we’re living this Orwellian nightmare?  Consider the fact that prominent politicians claim to be faithful Catholics, but at the same time support abortion, not only by advocating for it, but funding it with ever more tax dollars.  Our president repeatedly campaigned for Obamacare with the twofold promise that, “everyone who likes his health insurance can keep it,” and “the average family will save $2500 a year on the cost of their health insurance.”  He promised over and over again that there would be no federal funding of abortions (even signing an Executive Order to this effect) and that the new law would include a strong conscious clause so that no one would be forced to violate their religious convictions.   Now we know for certain that all of these promises were boldfaced lies.  The new law made millions of health insurance policies illegal, forcing people to adopt new policies with almost unlimited coverage and much higher costs.  Millions of people are now losing their health insurance and are forced to replace it with much more expensive coverage.  Health insurance costs were bound to increase substantially when the new restrictions on underwriting and the new unlimited coverage took effect.  If this isn’t doublethink, what is it?  By Orwell’s definition, was the president “conscious of the truth but telling carefully constructed lies?”  Will he now, “forget whatever is necessary to forget…?”  Will the American public do the same?

The president and his minions want to convince us all that this doublethink is in the best interest of our society.   This process doesn’t just apply to the new health care law.  Over the weekend the president went on the air with a new assault of doublethink.  He asserted that our economy is strong and vibrant, claiming that he’s “cut the deficit,” when in fact all he’s done is slow down the growth of the deficit.  He also said we’ve created over 7 million new jobs in the past 5 years, when in fact the worker participation rate has never been lower, and 65% of the new jobs created in the past several years have been part time.   Our economy is capable of creating twice that number of full-time jobs, and did exactly that during the Reagan recovery.  We are told that buying up $85 billion of our own bonds each month (effectively printing money), is good for the economy.  Anyone with any common sense knows that when this artificial puffing up of the economy comes to its inevitable end, there’s going to be economic chaos, not to mention the mountain of debt our children and grandchildren will inherit.  Never the less, the public seem to have bought in, because the stock market is at all- time highs, despite the terrible economic fundamentals that show no signs of improving. 

Things will undoubtedly get even worse as the full effects of Obamacare kick in.  Employers are cutting people back to part-time to avoid health insurance expenses and penalties.  Despite the 20,000+ pages of new regulations that have already been printed regarding Obamacare, we still don’t know all the consequences.  One of the more nefarious side effects is yet another assault on marriage.   The new law provides for income-based subsidies for low income people purchasing their health insurance from of the new State Exchanges (if they ever get the website working).   In a real life case, a couple in Michigan lost their health insurance because their employers had to drop their coverage which was no longer compliant, and could not afford the new, more expensive policy.   They are a married couple whose combined income is $60,000 but they DO NOT qualify for a subsidy. When the couple went to the Michigan Exchange, they were shocked to learn that even if they purchase a “bronze” policy with a $6000 deductible (for each person), their monthly premium would be $1000.   However, if that same couple were to divorce and live together, each earning $30,000 a year, they could each purchase a policy with a $1500 deductible and pay only $150 each per month, using the federal subsidy to offset the rest of the cost.

Lest I end on a sour note, let’s return to the first reading from All Souls Day, and pray for the ability to discern Truth while reminding ourselves that all this is temporary, and our ultimate destination is heaven:

“Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.”  (Wisdom 3:9)

 

 

The Wages of Sin

This past week the liturgical calendar called for reading chapters 6 thru 8 of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans on the subject of sin and redemption.  Like every human person, St. Paul struggled with sin:

“I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh.
The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.
For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.
For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,
but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind,
taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Miserable one that I am!  Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” (Rom 7:18-20, 22-24)

Every one of us struggles with sin.  Our mortal bodies crave many things: pleasure, gratification, power, comfort, convenience, security, and occasionally retribution or revenge.  In the heat of the moment we think these things will bring us happiness and satisfaction, but instead they only result in fueling our desire, sometimes to the point of becoming habitual or even obsessive.  We may think we are exercising freedom when they make selfish choices, but in reality we are becoming enslaved by sin.  Again, St. Paul: “But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.” (Rom 6:21)

St. Paul warns us that, “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23)  This is no exaggeration.  We rationalize that our actions are harmless as long as no one gets hurt, or when they are done in private, but we are wrong.  Everything we do, matters.   Our actions define our character and our manner of thinking.  For example, pornography is considered a victimless crime, but it demeans the dignity of another person, reducing them nothing more than an object for self-gratification.   The guy from Cleveland (Raul Castro) who enslaved three women for years, claimed that he watched so much pornography, his desires were uncontrollable.  While this may be an extreme case, every time we put our bodily desires ahead of respect for the dignity of another person, we sin.  The reason the Catholic Church is opposed to contraception and sterilization is that they separate sex from the responsibility for controlling our sexual appetites, making us selfishly think we are entitled to unlimited gratification, on demand.  This kind of thinking destroys relationships, not just because it may lead to sexual infidelity, but because of the self-centered mindset it engenders.  Self-centeredness is at the heart of many, if not all broken relationships, including marriages.  God has given us the wonderful gift of sexuality as a means of bonding a man and women together in permanent relationship, and empowering us to participate in the creation of new life.  But when sex is turned into a plaything, and an assumed entitlement, regardless of our marital status, it is demeaned and perverted.  This is why sex outside of marriage is sinful.  It also results in death: the death of unborn children; death caused by AIDS; and death by many forms of cancer, some of which can only be transmitted by sexual contact with multiple partners.   Promoting contraception and abortion is not “women’s health,” it is quite the opposite.  Birth control drugs are class A carcinogens, and there is a very well-documented link between the early use of birth control by teens and breast cancer.  Even greater is the risk of breast cancer among women who have had abortions.   This is the real “war on women,” and it is being launched, funded, and now mandated by our federal government.  Despite an Executive Order promising no tax dollars would be used to fund abortion, every new Health Insurance Exchange plan must provide coverage for both contraception and abortion, including plans subsidized with federal tax dollars.  This doesn’t’ even count the $360 million given each year to Planned Parenthood, or the millions given to the UN Population Council for the purpose of funding “women’s health.”

It seems to me that our country is now in the business of promoting sinful activity, and the result is the culture of death that now pervades our society.  Not only have 40 million souls been sacrificed by abortion, the incidence of breast and cervical cancer has skyrocketed, and the basic unit of civilized society, the family, has been devastated.  Forty per cent of children (those who survive the threat of abortion), are born to single mothers, and 50% of marriages end in divorce, all because we have come to believe that we are entitled to personal happiness at any cost. 

How can we ever find our way out of this mess?  The answer lies in Sunday’s gospel in which Jesus gives us the parable to two people praying in the temple. One, a Pharisee, thanked God that he was better than everyone else, and the second was a penitent sinner who repeatedly said, “Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  (Luke 18:13)   If we persist in thinking we are better than others, and entitled to happiness, we are doomed as individuals and as a nation.  But if we acknowledge our sinfulness and humbly beg God for mercy, we will be rewarded with eternal life.  What could possibly be more important than that?