Lent and Freedom

As  we continue our march through the desert of what frequently feels (at least to me) like the longest liturgical season known to mankind, I am reminded to look back to the book of Exodus and to remember what this whole thing is all about.  In many ways it is about religious freedom. When Moses went to Pharaoh he didn't ask him to let the Israelites move out of Egypt. No, he asked that the Israelites be allowed to go out into the desert and worship God the way God had asked them to.  I couldn’t help but notice some of the similarities to the way things are currently steering in our modern world, even here in the United States. In Europe studies have shown that 85% of hate crimes are directed towards Christians, here in the US we are increasingly told that our Catholic ideas and beliefs are outdated or unattainable and should therefore be “modernized.”  When I say “unattainable” I am referring in general to the area of chastity and purity.  In one internet forum that I was on last week someone was making fun of the idea that any Catholic man could enter into the Sacrament of marriage as a virgin.  The person online made it sound like having such a standard was the dumbest and most ridiculous idea anyone could ever have.  

When people say that we need to “modernize our beliefs” what they really mean is we need a new god.  We need to throw out the God of the Bible and embrace the secular gods of sex, money, and power.  Laws are being written, and have already been approved that will make this ideal increasingly difficult to resist.  Laws that require Catholics to go against their religion and begin start financially supporting practices that we have held for over 2000 years to be sinful. We will be required to support the secular worship of sexual pleasure. Catholics will be required to pay for men to mutilate their bodies and for a woman to take drugs that halt her natural functions or kill her unborn child.  Good, God fearing men and women across the country who believe this is morally reprehensible behavior will be forced against their will to fund these actions with their hard earned money.  They will not be free to say no. They will be in bondage to a culture of death, supporting the worship of gods they do not know and do not want. 

As I read the Exodus account in scripture this year I do so with a new level of understanding and empathy towards God’s chosen people.  I do not know what it means to be a physical slave.  I do not know what it is like to have my body beaten and my will broken by a whip in the hot desert sun. I do, however, know what it is like to be told that I may not worship the God of my Father’s in the way He has commanded me.  I do not know what it is like to have the government (Pharaoh) tell me to kill all my sons, because the population of slaves is getting out of hand. I do know what it is like to be told that no one cares if I am against abortion; I am still going to be forced to pay for the drugs that will help a mother kill her child.  I know what it is like when I tell people I plan to have 7 or 8 kids (true story) and they look at me like I am an idiot (let alone the sneers they offer my wife for going along with me). I know what it is like to live in a culture that hates children and tries to kill them.

I hate it when people tell me that what my Catholic faith calls holiness is unattainable and that I need to lower my standards and have some fun.  Those people are wrong. What our faith asks is NOT unattainable. It is not some impossible task or trick.  It merely requires faith and love. It requires that we believe in a God who loves us so much that He died a gruesome and humiliating death on a cross for our sins. Why would He die for an unattainable ideal?  I do not think so.  My wife and I were both virgins when we got married and she had never even kissed another man.  I shared her first kiss on the altar on our wedding day.  It was far from easy, but it was even further from unattainable.

Our God has not abandoned us, He never does.  He has given us priests, bishops and our Pope as a Moses to lead us out of slavery and into the Promised Land.  Will it be an easy journey? I doubt it, a journey of faith never is.  Did Pharaoh let Moses and the Israelites go the first time they asked, not hardly; but in the end he did let them go.  Remember that next time someone tells you that you are trying to live up to an impossible standard or that you believe in an old and outdated belief system. Take comfort in knowing that the reason our beliefs are so old is because the key to happiness has not changed.  We are all still broken and still trying to do our best to figure it all out.  I would rather have a high standard that I know is based on truth than a low standard that constantly shifts and changes because it is based on other people.  Lent is about freedom and the cost of that freedom.  We need look no further than the Cross to know that.

The Unsung Heroes

     I recently read a fun book titled The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp. It was about Alfred Kropp (imagine that) who in general is a pretty normal 15 year old. He is average at everything and lives with his uncle until his uncle is killed. The long and the short of the story is that Alfred and his uncle are paid to steal Excalibur, King Arthur's legendary sword without knowing what it really is.  Alfred then joins up with the descendants of the Knights of the Round Table in an effort to get it back from the bad guys before they take over the world.  Throughout the whole book I kept waiting for the author to reveal some sort of secret about Alfred.  This is a pretty standard practice in books and I have come to expect it as a general rule. The mediocre hero suddenly discovers that he is good at the one thing which happens to be the bad guy’s weakness.  Suddenly the hero isn't mediocre, he is amazing.  He (or she) defeats the bad guy, gets the girl (or guy) and lives happily ever after. Alfred Kropp was different, very different. He never discovers some secret hidden power deep within himself, he doesn’t get the girl, and most of his friends are dead before the end of the book.  Alfred really is just a normal guy.  I think that is why I like him so much.  Sure the book is fiction and the story gets a little bit carried away at times, but Alfred never does.  Those around him may be larger than life and wielding swords and bows and arrows against guys on motorcycles armed with shotguns, but not Alfred.  He is just normal and average.  He steals the sword at the beginning of the book and then spends the rest of the book trying to get it back because he knows he has done something wrong and he wants to help fix it.  One of my favorite lines from the book is where Alfred has agreed to take up the sword of the last Knight of the Round table if he falls in battle. Alfred is feeling pretty mediocre and Bennacio (the Knight) tells him, “As for being a hero-who can say what valor dwells in the soul unless some test comes?  A hero lives in every heart, Alfred, waiting for the dragon to come out.”  

     I personally believe this is true with all my heart.  A hero lives in every heart, waiting for the dragon to come out.  Every man can be a hero if he wants to be, and most are.  The real heroes are the ones that never make the headlines. Man Returns Home After Another Day at Work Providing for his Family wouldn't sell many news papers, nor would Stay at Home Mother of Five and All Children Survive Another Winter Day Inside Without Killing Each Other.  These are the real heroes; the average people who live out their average lives with great courage.  They are the husband and wife who work through their problems instead of getting a divorce. They are the wife of the drunk who sticks with him and prays for him in spite of all his faults. They are the husband who gives up buying a new TV because he knows what his family really needs is a new washer and dryer. They are the people who work 10 hour days at minimum wage to put food on the table or their kids through college. They face the temptation to quit and give up but instead they slay the dragon. When they fall they realize that the important thing is to get back up and keep going.  If they get punished for making the right choice, they make it anyway. These are the heroes that make our world great. These are the unsung heroes of holiness. The Saints who will never be canonized because the miracles they performed were so frequent that they became seen as mundane and normal. These are the heroes that can be you and me.