THIS IS EASTER

(Yes, Jack is imperfect. He has His baggage. He comes from a broken home. He has made bad decisions in His past as He deals with the struggles with life. This is because He is human. He isn't Christ Himself, but he is a pretty dang amazing example of Christ nonetheless and of striving to be like Christ.)

I can't be the first person to note and be blown away by how symbolic this episode is of the love of God the father and Christ's life, death, and resurrection! If you actually watch Season 2, Episode 14 the resemblance is UNCANNY!


 

Christ suffered and died to save us in the most selfless fashion, and he didn't only want to save us for a decent life. He wanted to save us for an incredible one: which is why he left us all these treasures pointing to life with Him.




Even the words of the actors in the Aftershow to this episode are so symbolic of the sacrificial love of God the Father for His family and His Spirit never leaving them behind.



Even just now as I was looking for pictures I typed in "Kevin at Tree" and realized the Jack and Our Lord both use a tree as the symbol: "This is where you find out you are going to be ok."

 

Photo cred: https://lifeteen.com/blog/see-you-in-the-eucharist-no-really/

The analogies and symbolism keep growing! More than HALF of this stuff didn't even hit me when I first watched the episode!

Until this episode I saw a resemblance of the love of God in Jack, but it wasn't until this episode that I was absolutely blown away by its symbolism. Whether the writers of This Is Us are Christian or had any intentionality of resembling the Christ story I don't know, but WOW! These stories transcend time and always come back to us because they are a part of us.

I think This Is Us is a beautiful way to renew the incredibleness of the story for Christians who have felt their faith life going dry. Sooner or later we get used to the Crucifixion and Resurrection story. Their incredibleness and the feelings of awe, gratitude, love, and so forth that we experience in first hearing these stories begin to go dry.

How beautiful that new stories can remind us of that love. They can allow us to feel what we forgot to see and give us an incarnate example of living in God's image in the twenty-first century. They can allow us to grasp the truth, often in ways that we can more directly relate to.

Hopefully you will have a chance to re-watch this episode (and show), as I hope to do. Maybe realizing the reality of the story and the great hope we have for someday being reunited with this loving Father (symbolic in Jack) will ease the pain and help you to embrace the story.

"How great the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give is only Son

To make a wretch His treasure."

-*-Selah

So hopefully I can leave you with this. All the love, all the truth, and all the feels. ;)

This is Jesus. This is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is God.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

An Answer In A Fallen World

(Alternative Title: What My Faith Is To Me)

Alcoholism, drug addictions, codependent relationships, abusive relationships, casual sex, one night stands... 

this is the spiral that our world has skyrocketed into in the 21st century most especially in first world countries. Patterns have developed. Now it is normal to participate in these things, and it is often considered ABNORMAL to not participate in them. In fact, the very idea that these things might "not be a good idea" (or to even go so far as to say "bad") is considered bigotry by many people.

To consider that an action might be bad is now considered by many people to be simultaneous with saying that the person performing the action is bad. Some people might just think I am playing with words here, but if you think deeply I hope you can philosophically realize that A does not automatically equate to B.

Somewhere along the way in our defensive world we have decided that it is insulting to adhere to and actually recommend following a set of directions. Democracy becomes equated to "you do you" and any "guidelines" laid out are viewed as a roadblock to a person's full self-actualization, development, and freedom rather than as a helping hand in reaching towards these things.

"Don't engage in casual sex" is not longer compared to "don't touch the hot stove" rather it is now equated to "I don't like that color on you, so change." In one of these instances the direction is given out of love because the person providing the directions knows something that the other person may not, and he or she wants to help that person to live in happiness, comfort, and safety instead of that person having to learn the lesson the hard way: through experience. In the other instance, a person has an opinion of not central or moral gravitational value that he or she wishes to impose on the other person.

A loving father doesn't watch his child touch the stove and then say, "Whelp, that's too bad." A loving father guides the child. A loving father tries to help the child learn lessons the easy way and develop into a healthy person with knowledge and understanding of healthy boundaries. 

Mistakes will happen. It's a part of life. However, I don't think many of us would consider it appropriate or right for a person with an important piece of knowledge (ex: the stove will burn you or you will be hit by a car if you race across the street or you will get a stomach ache if you eat the entire cake in one night) to withhold this information from someone else and simply state, "Meh, they'll figure it out eventually."

This is what I think today's secular society does not grasp. It turns guidelines and directions into jail bars instead of into a helping hand.

This is why so much of the world is even afraid to consider the possibility that there might be appropriate boundaries to set in regard to things such as sexual engagement, cohabitation, abortion and contraception, among other things.

Having guidelines (when they are for good reason) doesn't diminish our freedom! It expands our freedom by helping us to flourish by not touching the hot stove, by waiting for things to cool, by controlling impulses to engage in behaviors at the right times under the right circumstances. It helps us avoid ending up in the rut that certain missteps lead us to.

As noted before, missteps will happen. But let's do the best we can to help each other along the road. Providing advice. Explaining ourselves. Lamenting our errors. Providing forgiveness, healing, and helpful knowledge to the one who laments and to our brothers and sisters before they come to lament.

Which brings me to my title (An Answer In A Fallen World) and subtitle (What My Faith Means To Me)...

I'm speaking about truth here. I'm speaking about helpful knowledge and guidelines. And I believe those can be found in the Catholic Church. I believe this not only because I have been raised in a Catholic family but because I have asked questions and the answers the Church has provided have made sense.

I believe that just as the man and woman came before a child, a loving Creator came before the man and the woman. And as a loving and all-knowing parent He provided us with a set of guidelines for us to live our lives to attain happiness. While this happiness does not mean living without pain, His guidelines will lead us on a path where we are likely to avoid much unnecessary pain. 

From there I hope and believe that if we follow these guidelines we will grow in closeness to the One who Created us and will ultimately get to spend eternity with our Creator in the Heavenly realm once He has purged us of our erroneous ways. Then we may live in perfect peace and joy with Him.

So am I saying that the you become Catholic and "Whalla! All your problems are solved!"? No. As I noted, there will be pain, but that pain will be put towards growth and life will have meaning.

The words "answer" and "simple solution" are not simultaneous. As long as sin is in the world, we are going to experience pain. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to be tempted. We are going to be hurt. But the greatest answer we can set our hearts on is having something to HOPE in...

And in a world where people fell so hopeless, confused, lost, unloved, and desperate, that HOPE is sure something we need!

In summary, this is why I do not consider Catholicism to be bigotry. Because I believe as Catholics we are part of a family under the protection and guidance of the Church and that God is Our Father who knows all things and hands down knowledge and guidelines to His children out of LOVE with Mother Church at His side.

This is why I consider Catholicism to be attractive and joy-filled and consider it key to my living a happy and fulfilling life.

For specifics on why Catholics believe and teach certain things: ASK! Ask a Catholic friend, a parish priest, etc. etc. If they do not have the answers, you can search for them together and find someone who does.

Being A Witness For Christ At Work

"And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, 'This man also was with me.' But he denied it saying, 'Woman, I do not know him.' And a little later someone else saw him and said, 'You also are one of them.' But Peter said, 'Man, I am not.' And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, "Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.' But Peter said, 'Man, I do not know what you are talking about.' And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed."

~ LUKE 22: 55-60

(Why) Failures

I have been Peter countless time in the last year and even in the past weeks. My denial is a silence rather than an outburst. This may seem less terrible, but it really isn't. It's cowardice. The situations I am in are far less intimidating and penalizing than the one Peter was in. Last Fall some of my coworkers were talking about their relatives and faith. They even got onto the topics of horror films, exorcism, and why family members had left the faith. I stood by quietly, sad and troubled but too shy to speak up and volunteer that I am Catholic and could even try to answer some questions if they had any.

God has given me other opportunities to be a witness to him. Not a witness as in galavanting or acting as though I am better than others, but a witness that there are still young Catholics in the world who love and embrace Jesus and His message. Someone who doesn't blush or shrug her shoulders at words like "Jesus" or "Heaven."

This Easter, naturally the topic of faith came up again. One coworker flatly denied believing in Jesus Christ (something the coworker is not afraid to share regularly), another shared "I suppose I technically identify as Christian," another shared that due to not having much family around she wouldn't be doing a whole lot to celebrate the holiday. A different coworker even openly rejoiced in not having to celebrate Easter anymore, as the family members that believed are now deceased. If only I were even half as animated about my joy in celebrating Easter as my coworker was in not celebrating Easter. Being my squeamish and cowardly self, I brushed it off simply stating that I wouldn't be doing a whole lot for Easter either since I don't see much of extended family anymore. "Probably just a celebratory breakfast," I quipped. I didn't want to be conciliatory! Even in the moment I wanted to be a witness, but I was weak! My actions were quite automatic even if in my mind in the moment I was asking myself how I could show my love of God and support for Easter.

Today when we listened to "The Ants Go Marching" in class and number seven was rhymed with "pray to Heaven" a number of my coworkers stopped singing when they got to the word Heaven and openly rolled their eyes or looked uncomfortable. I made sure to at least sing that word as openly as the rest of the words. A small sign of some strength in me.

God is generously giving me the opportunities I've asked for to witness to Him at work! This week a small wooden clasp with two icons inside -- one of the Blessed Virgin and Baby Jesus and another of Jesus as a gown man -- popped up in our classroom out of the blue. My atheist coworker commented on almost feeling a temptation to take it home because it was pretty neat. He joked that since he didn't believe maybe it was a sign. I agreed with this, even welcoming his taking it, but he most obviously didn't know that while he was joking about it being a sign I wasn't, and I didn't make it in any way-shape-or-form apparent that I wasn't really joking. He asked a few other coworkers if it was theirs. They flatly denied it, some even noting that it was not an "APPROPRIATE" thing to be in our work zone. At the end of the day I noticed it was gone and my heart skipped a beat, wondering where it could have gone to. I saw it on a different table and quickly picked it up and put it in my pocket to make sure it would be shown the reverence it deserved and not simply tossed out. A Catholic coworker walked in just minutes later. I showed her the clasp and we awed over it. I then learned the coworker alongside her was also Catholic. They were wondering whose it was as well.

The Why

Now that I've listed many of the experiences I've had at work related to speaking up for or AT LEAST NOT BLUSHING (I'm that weak?) at faith references, I would like to address a few questions. Why am I so weak? Why does God allow this? <-- (not in ANY way to put the blame on God as if He's not doing His job!!!) My failures are by no means honorable or a good thing. The fact that God can bring good out of evil does not excuse my behavior or lack of it. The reason for my mistakes is nothing other than cowardice. I may try to excuse this with overthinking like "Well I wanted to be careful not to..." or "I just wasn't sure this was the right time..." but in all truth it comes down to cowardice.

Whose Power Is It?

So where does the good our of evil part come into play? I think it comes into play in the same way that God gives me weaknesses to save me from my prone-to-pride nature. While cowardice is evil, what is even more evil is a heart that GLOATS in its successes as if the human connected to it acted well out his or her own strength and goodness. As Pete the Cat would say, "Goodness, no!" And so, through my failures Christ is emphasizing to my conscious awareness the fact that on my own I am a weak failure. Even with the desire to do His Will, my desire is not enough to give me superpowers. It is not through my own strength that I witness to the Lord. I am entirely dependent on God. I need to beg Him on my knees to give me the strength and to work and act through me. Because of how many failures I have had, I can finally see clearly that I 100% cannot do this without the generous grace of God! Where I do witness successfully, it is an answer to a prayer! It is ALL HIM! It is generosity, not Him giving me my dues.

I would rather experience 12 failures followed by 1 success after a heartfelt prayer on my knees for God's mercy and generosity than 13 successes with a gloating heart. The evil of that gloating heart would be greater than the good brought out through my successes, because pride is the greatest evil (the greatest LIE) of all!

Hope and Action

And so the greatest goods come through trial and error and an open and honest dependence on the Father. I have denied Him more than three times in my weakness, and this has left me with GREAT gratitude to be able to speak the words "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."

My I now approach God with humility, tenderness, and true love, and ask Him to pour His Spirit into my heart to witness to Him with openness and pride (the good kind; the glowing pride in Him, not in myself).

Prayer is necessary. There is no perfect formula for success, because in the end it is all up to God whether or not He will answer my prayers to give me strength. But He wants and knows what is best, and when I do succeed may I not only bring glory to Him but maintain an utmost gratitude stemming from humility in knowing that IT IS ALL UNDESERVED GIFT. IT IS ALL HIM: The King of Mercy who has given us the utmost honor in transforming us into His vessels here on earth.