Kings under the King

Airplane Rock

While hiking with my brother between Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls I pointed to some high, sandstone cliffs above and to our left. I mentioned that when I see those and other similar rocky places I have this almost uncontrollable urge to climb up there. I have this urge to jump the trail and explore. The trail we are on is great, the sites are aweso
me, but there is something inside that says, "what's up there, what's off the trail, what can you discover?"

Men are born with that sense of adventure built in. Where would we be without it? We certainly wouldn't be on the International Space Station. We probably wouldn't be in North America. I'd venture to say that we, as a race, may not even be in existence if it weren't for that adventurous spirit that says, "I wonder, I'll bet, let's try" and so on.

Behind our house to the southwest is a small patch of woods that my boys are always begging to go explore no matter the season. To them, it's like going on a jungle adventure. They look for all sorts of treasures: turtles, sticks, skulls, and rocks. Even a pocket full of hickory nuts is booty to bring back to the castle. They follow the trails paved by the whitetail deer and the small stream might as well be a raging river. On another part of the property there is a sandstone ledge that is about 5 feet high that they love to visit. They climb up the face grabbing crevice and roots and slide back down the dirt bank on wet leaves. The adventurous spirit is built in.

What if we could use that God-given spirit for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful? What if we could raise up wild, adventurous, bold, brave, chivalrous, Godly men or become one ourselves? Would you try? Even if it meant unspeakable pain? Even if it meant struggle, failure, hardship, and testing like you have never experienced before?

If you are not willing, ask yourself why? Are you afraid? Christ says, "fear is useless." Are you weak? St. Paul says, "it is when I am weak that I am strong." My advice to you, "trust God." He can be trusted. He made you for this and He would never put you through anything above and beyond what you can handle, with His grace.

If you are willing, let's go. Let's start the adventure together. I'm no expert but I know the voice of God is calling us. He is calling men to reclaim their rightful heritage as kings under the King of Kings. There's a term to look at - King of Kings. There aren't too many kings left today so what is this title referring to other than the fact that we are those kings or at least we are destined to be, when we are ready. That is what Adam should have been.

The Catechism tells us that, "The anointing with sacred chrism, perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop, signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly baptized, who has become a Christian, that is, one "anointed" by the Holy Spirit, incorporated into Christ who is anointed priest, prophet, and king." (CCC 1242) He is the King of Kings. He is the King, we the kings. We are incorporated into Him and therefore we share in His priesthood, His prophetic office, and His kingship.
Our adventure, for the purpose of this blog, will begin with three things.

First, prayer. I would challenge you in some way to increase your prayer life. Go to Mass during the week, pray the rosary on Sunday with your family (if you have one) or alone, pray the Liturgy of the Hours (the official prayer of the Church.) In your prayer, talk to God as you talk to your very best friend in plain language and then listen, repeat, rinse (just making sure you're paying attention).

Second, get out. Go for a walk, work out, bike or something that gets the heart pumping a little bit. God never meant for us to sit and stare at this screen all day. We are a total package - body, mind and soul. The soul needs the prayers as much as the body needs the exercise and the other way round too. The mind comes next...

Third, read. As stated in the "about this blog" section, I'll be following both Wild at Heart
and The Way of the Wild Heart by John Eldredge as well as the companion journals. The other two essential books for this adventure are The Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The old adage is so true - garbage in, garbage out. If all we are reading is the newspaper, magazines, and the like our brains will turn to mush, or worse. Saint Paul says, "Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:2) We must be transformed. Rather, we must accept that this adventure will transform us and we must let it. The transformation will take place in the three areas listed above and in that transforming adventure we will learn to "discern what is the will of God". We will learn through prayer, physical transformation, and study how God wants us to rule our (His) kingdom.

I hope you stick with me, no, let's stick together for we cannot do this alone. We need each other and Him. Pray for me, I'll pray for you.

A Peak Inside the Devil's Playbook

He is relentless

This past Sunday I was able to attend my second Holy League meeting for our deanery.  I've only attended twice but have experienced powerful consolation, healing, and insight into my own spiritual life.  I know it must be a great thing for me because I never want to go!

That's how the devil likes to work in my life.  I believe he knows that certain things will bump me back onto the right path and so he likes to steer me in other directions.

Going in to this particular meeting I was feeling deep depression and despair about my life.  I've been struggling with meaningful work for myself, the possibility of my wife needing to go back to work to support us, etc., which is really depressing for me.  We have this system or way of life that we enjoy and it appears that things are going to change dramatically.  So, all of this and other things have been making me feel like less than a man.  Queue devil pounce....

In the days leading up to the Holy League event I felt more and more pressure to abandon the idea of attending. Should I really be taking time away from the family?  Couldn't you be working on the deck which needs stained?  How about not wasting 2-3 hours and instead looking for a job?  You know, you could spend this time writing your next book?

I knew in my heart that this was happening to me.  It wasn't something of my own thoughts and emotions.  I decided to commit.  I told my wife I was going.  She wants me to go to such events and so now I would have to come up with a really good excuse not to go!

The event, as I mentioned, was incredible.  We start with 30 minutes of discussion about problems facing masculine spirituality.  Then, we move to the church for a Holy Hour and Confession.  It is here that the "fog of war" begins to lift.  It was here that I began to see what was happening to me with my cooperation.

Modus Operandi

Since the garden, the modus operandi of Satan hasn't changed - doubt, sin, despair (rinse and repeat).  At any given moment things can not go as I planned and the Evil One is there by my side in an instant.  Really, you still think God loves you after this?  How's that daily rosary working for you when this happens?  Prayer life?  Seems more like you are talking to God and He's playing on His iPhone.  Has God really answered any of your prayers, you know, the really important ones, like ones not even for yourself but for the good of others?  and on and on....

Once that seed of doubt is firmly planted my natural sinful response is to comfort myself with some sin, big or small.  I think, if God isn't there or doesn't care and I need to feel loved, I'll comfort myself with 1) Indulging in surfing the internet, 2) Drinking to drunkenness, 3) Looking at pornography, 4) Gambling, 5) Eating to excess, 6) Playing video games, 7) Hiding from my family and obligations in my man cave, 8) _____________________ (insert favorite personal sin here).

It is at this point that The Tempter transforms into The Accuser and despair enters.  Too often the despair is a catalyst for more comfort sin and the cycle continues to spiral downward.

I've learned that this is always the game plan.  However, I almost never see it coming.  Knowing that I'm often like a spiritual Bill Murry in Groundhog day, I wrote it all down here for you and for me to come back to again and again, day after day.

3 Fold Solution to a 3 Fold Problem

The solution is simple, almost too simple.  It's so simple that Satan will be at your side in an instant and say that it can't really be the answer or won't really help (DOUBT!!!).  Here's the antidote for his MO.

1. Doubt - Trust: Trust that God loves you.  You can build this trust by having a daily prayer life.  Pray the Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Read Scripture, just do something that puts you in daily communication with God.  It will strengthen you against doubt.

2. Sin - Hedge: Build a hedge around your favorite sin.  In other words, make "avoiding the near occasions of sin" easier.  If your favorite sin is drinking, give your wife a key to the cabinet. If your favorite sin is porn, install filters, make your wife your accountability partner or a close friend.  Ultimately, you want to make your sin hard to get to so when you do doubt, you'll have time to pause and reflect on why you are reaching for the sin.

3. Despair - Confess: Confession is the field hospital of the spiritual life.  But trust me, the devil doesn't want you to make it to triage.  He doesn't want you dead.  He wants P.O.W.'s!!  Period.  If you find yourself resisting Confession, that ain't Jesus doing that brother!  Remember how you were healed the last time you went to Confession and nearly bumped your head on the ceiling of the church?  God wants to give you that again.  (Caution - it is at this poi
nt that doubt, sin, and despair will be strongest, be ready)

His plan is simple, the remedy is simple but none of it is easy.  Come back to this post as often as you need because I know I will, probably in the next day or so...

How do you see others?

I once heard a phrase that went something like this, - think the best of someone and if you are wrong, the fault is theirs. Think the worst of someone and if you are wrong, the fault is yours.

I was reminded of this while out hiking a couple weeks ago with John Bradford from Wilderness Outreach. We were discussing the fact that we, as fallen men, can have false beliefs about things and people.

He gave the personal example of how he feels about people who tailgate him while driving. He said he usually has this nearly uncontrollable urge to make them pull over, drag them from the car, pulverize them, and then ask why they were doing that. He said he realized, with the help of a priest friend, that he was assuming the worst. He was seeing those people tailgating as evil, as hateful, as scum, as idiots and the like. He wasn't seeing them as someone who was racing to be with a dying parent. He didn't see them as someone whose month-old child had recently been diagnosed with cancer. He didn't think the best or try to imagine why this person might be acting this way.

As we continued hiking I stooped to pick up an empty Coke bottle someone had left on the trail. In the time it took for me to pick it up and ask John to throw it in my backpack, I had saw, judged, and condemned the person to whom it belonged. I saw this person thumbing his or her nose at God and his creation while spitting on the ground and tossing the Coke bottle in contempt. All of this I imagined. It never happened. I thought the worst. For all I know, that person could have felt absolutely terrible when he or she returned from a hike to find that it had fallen out of their pack.

My tendency is to see others in this negative light and I think it says a lot about me. And what it says is not good, I need serious work. It will take a concerted effort on my part to reprogram my thinking. It will take work to see people and their actions with a more positive light but with God's grace I can do it.

So, how do you see others? Do you try to see the best in them and their intentions or do you jump to conclusions, accuse, and condemn? It's something to pray about.

Come forward!

I was in prayer this morning and God really read me the riot act, in a loving sort of way. I was asking why everything has to be so hard, "Is life really meant to be such a struggle? Can't I ever get a rest from temptation? Is this what life is all about, merely surviving rather than thriving? Why does there have to be so much suffering - physical, spiritual, emotional?"

In hearing the answers I felt a little bit like Job of old. "Jim", God says, "you write about an enemy. Do you expect that to go unanswered? You write about the battle, do you really expect a cease-fire? You write about the tricks of the devil and his lies, do you think he won't use your own words against you? Do you think that since you work hard to pray often that you will be exempt? No, you become a target! He would love to see you fall! It's not a Nerf cross I am asking you to carry. This isn't a game. There are no time-outs, cease-fires, or commercial breaks. This is the real deal. Wake up!"

After all of this He adds this little nugget from the beginning of today's first reading from Sirach - "My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation." Temptation. I think the word temptation is the devil's own trick with words to lessen the reality behind the word. When most people hear the word temptation they think of cookies sitting on the counter. Not me. When I hear the word temptation I instantly think "attack". Not that I would rewrite the Bible but Sirach's warning hits a little bit harder with the word "attack" - "My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for attack." Has a different ring to it, doesn't it?

The whole second chapter of Sirach is a warning and an encouragement for us to stay close to God - "Set your heart right...Cleave to him...Trust in him...hope in him...prepare your hearts..." and on and on. It is really a great reading to ponder the day before Lent begins and perhaps all during Lent. Is God speaking these words to you? Is He calling you out? Will you answer? Will you come forward? We need you to! Your family needs you to come forward. Your friends need you to come forward. Read the rest of Sirach chapter 2 and then come forward. We need you in this battle.

1 My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation.
2 Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be hasty in time of calamity.
3 Cleave to him and do not depart, that you may be honored at the end of your life.
4 Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient.
5 For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.
6 Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.
7 You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; and turn not aside, lest you fall.
8 You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not fail;
9 you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, for everlasting joy and mercy.
10 Consider the ancient generations and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who ever persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken? Or who ever called upon him and was overlooked?
11 For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of affliction.
12 Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands, and to the sinner who walks along two ways!
13 Woe to the faint heart, for it has no trust! Therefore it will not be sheltered.
14 Woe to you who have lost your endurance! What will you do when the Lord punishes you?
15 Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words, and those who love him will keep his ways.
16 Those who fear the Lord will seek his approval, and those who love him will be filled with the law.
17 Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and will humble themselves before him.
18 Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, but not into the hands of men; for as his majesty is, so also is his mercy.

A United Front

I suppose this posting could be part 3 in a related series of posts. In part one I discussed the fact that You Have and Enemy. In part two I discussed his plan to Divide and Conquer (actually posted on my other blog). In this post I would like to discuss the real and urgent need for a United Front in order for us to make any gains for the Kingdom of God.

Imagine a platoon of soldiers working to try and take a hillside in order to advance the front and push back the enemy. These soldiers, however, are scattered all over the hillside. They have no communication with one another. They are each surrounded by numerous enemies. They cannot see one another through the fog of war. In their disorientating they often cannot tell whether they are going up or down the hill.

This picture or parable, in my mind, is a image of the modern Christian life. There is an army of Christian men in the world but they have very little communication with one another. The communication they do have is often shallow or superficial either due to circumstance in life or the plans of the enemy. Every Christian man is surrounded by an enemy. He, with the light of Christ, is a special target for the enemy because he can be seen more easily. In the fog of this spiritual war we often hurt one another through words or deeds without really intending to. We are often hurt by "friendly fire" if you will. Finally, Christian men today often do not have a clear sense of where they are going let alone where they should be leading others.

This confusion, this disarray, this lack of a united front makes us all easy targets for our common enemy. We appear to him, and perhaps to some in the world, silly at best. We preach a good sermon but when it comes to battle were cutting each other and ourselves with our sword.

Our culture, and remember who has control of this world, preaches this macho-man image. It screams from the movies, magazine, and books that to be a man one must be a loner. Think of Rambo, Die Hard, or Death Wish. This is a farce. How many battles have been won by a single man? How many of the wars in history were fought by a single person? Even David wasn't alone when he fought Goliath, he knew God was with him! Yes, many a battle turns on the actions of an individual but no battle is won, no war is won, alone.

I feel this is the greatest problem in our Church today. We do not have a united front. We don't have a united front on many different levels. This is what is needed in order for us to go forward and win these crucial battles against our enemy. Let's look at what a united front could look like in our parish and in our home.

Before looking at these two areas I suppose I should give some sort of definition to what I am referring to as a "united front." A united front implies a united goal, purpose, idea, tactics, implementation, etc. It means that every person, at least on the leadership level, is united in what is presented. This doesn't imply that we need a bunch of robots spewing out the same message. Rather the idea or theme is the same while the presentation is different in respect to each person's gifts or talents.

PARISH
It takes a great number of people to operate a parish. These may include the Pastor, Associate(s), and Deacon(s), secretary and other office personnel, religious education director, and maybe a school principal. Imagine if once a quarter all of these people met for a retreat. The goal of these quarterly retreats would be for the staff to grow spiritually and to plan for the coming months. This planning would include looking at both the liturgical calendar as well as the Sunday readings for the coming months or weeks. These items would be discussed and certain themes or messages would be drawn from them. Once the themes were established, the staff would consider the different ways each theme could be presented.

For instance, let's suppose that beginning with week X they saw that they Holy Spirit was guiding them toward talking about the need for frequent Confession in the life a Christian. Those with the duty of preaching would then gear their homilies toward encouraging Confession and perhaps offer extra Confession times for that week. The office staff would promote this through the bulletin and bulletin boards (examination of conscience inserts, CD's, websites, etc,). The religion director would make sure that materials were given to the adults and children to encourage Confession. The principal could do the same through their own means of communicating with the parents.

What happens here is that the parishioners see and hear a united message. The Sunday readings, homilies, inserts, and take-home literature all point to the same direction. There is a united front. There is leadership. There is support and encouragement in the Christian walk. This would naturally flow over into the family.

FAMILY
My wife and I try to meet once a month to discuss finance. We sit down with a beer, look at the spreadsheets, and talk about where we are heading. We make plans for our home and our money. We practice NFP so there too we meet and discuss not only the size of our family but our physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being.

We are united on so many fronts but not in the spiritual front. We pray the rosary as a family, when we remember. We pray at meals, go to Mass and all that but we don't have a set goal for the family. Even if we say our set goal is Heaven, we don't have a map on how to get there laid out for our family.

If we took a similar approach, as mentioned above for the parish, with our family, I believe we would see results. If we met once a month and discussed the readings, feast days, and liturgical calendar we would be able to see more clearly where God was guiding us. We could give each week or month a theme or focus for our family. We could focus on virtues, sacraments, prayers and more. We could work on coming up with activities for our family that would focus our attention on these themes and help us to be united in our spiritual life. We would have a united front.

This united front is so needed in our life today and I would encourge anyone who agrees to take up this idea and apply it their life and family. In my next post I will discuss how this united front is needed among men and couples and about the desperate need the Church has today for real community.

Almost

I started watching Mel Gibson's Apocalypto the other night and I was struck by one particular scene. In this scene, the character Jaguar Paw is fighting to save his village and his father from the Mayans who are carrying everyone off for human sacrifice. His attempt to free his father from his captors fails but only after a valiant effort. In his sorrow, as the two men are being bound, he whispers to his father that he is sorry. The enemy hears this, and realizing that this is a father and son situation, decides to hurt the son in retaliation for pain endured during the battle.

The villain then stands the father up in front of the bound and kneeling son. The father says to his son, "don't be afraid." The enemy then slits the throat of the father and leaves him to die in front of his son. After the father has died, the enemy kneels down and whispers in the son's ear, "Almost. That is your new name, Almost." He is saying, "you almost saved him but didn't, you almost came through but you failed, almost but not quite is the story of your life."

If this isn't a picture of our spiritual life I don't know what is. We are beloved sons of the father. In fact, as Jaguar Paw was probably named for something his father saw in him, we too have a name given to us by God. We may know this name or we may not but regardless we have a special name given to us by Our Father. "To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it." (Revelation 2:17)

However, the devil, the Father of lies, seeks to give us a new name too. He is always mocking God. When we fail, when we falter, when we despair he is there in an instant whispering a new name in our ear. These names given to us often haunt us all of our days. We can even begin to believe that it is our true name.

I can think of a few instances in my life where the devil has whispered a new name and now I struggle to cast that name off. These names may be hard for you, the reader, to understand but they are names I have been given nonetheless. The first of these names would be "shut up". Someone I love very dearly said this to me when I was about 5 or 6 and the devil was there in an instant, "shut up, yes, that is your new name. keep your mouth shut. no one wants to hear what you have to say. whatever it is, it's not important. shut up." I have struggled and continue to struggle with this name. There is a part of me that wants to keep everything inside and never speak again because the enemy told me that my name is Shut Up.

The other name, one among many now that I think of it, is related to the first "bad idea." When I was younger I used to have all of these ideas for go-carts, forts, etc., but no one would ever help me see them through, no one had the time but the devil told me it was my fault, "they have the time, your ideas are just stupid. don't share them because no one cares. you're an idea guy but all of your ideas are worthless. you are all alone so any idea you do have you will have to make it happen yourself." All of these whisperings could be new names in fact but Bad Idea was the one that stuck. There is a part of me that has so many ideas, many of them incredible, but I don't share them, rather, I hide them thinking they are bad.

The new name or names given to us by the enemy cast a sort of spell upon us. We see as in a fog and begin to live as though those names were our true name. They are not! God has given us a name and we must ask him what it is. He will tell us our true name, and if we embrace and believe that name, we will be set free from the shackles of the false names given to us. But it won't be easy, again, from the book of Revelation, "To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it."

To him who conquers....that is the key. We must do battle. We must conquer. We must win back our hearts and God will reveal that new name. Is it really possible? Will God really come through and help me to cast off these false names? Yes, but we have to be willing to engage. We have to do battle because the enemy is not going to let go of your heart easily. The battle begins with prayer, self-sacrifice, penance, study, the sacraments, and rejecting "all his empty promises".

We cannot agree with the enemies whisperings. When he calls you by your false name you cannot agree with it. You must reject it, "I will not shut up when God needs me to talk. I will not keep my ideas to myself when my family depends on that creativity."

Like Jaguar Paw you have a real name given to you by your father. Find it and you will find your heart and purpose. Like the Mayans in the movie, the devil is after your heart and even now has his filthy hands upon it. Do battle, receive your true name, and rescue your heart.

You have an enemy.

This is a re-post from my other blog. It applies especially well to our situation as men.

I heard the devil laugh this morning. No, it wasn't an audible send-chills-up-your-spine laugh. It was somewhere off in the distance of eternity. It was his, "why do you even bother", laugh. You know what I mean. It's the laugh you hear when a great revelation enters your heart and you want to share it with others and then, the devil tries to laugh you to scorn. He laughs and says, "nice thought, come up with that yourself? Do really think anyone will listen? Do you think they'll take you serious? Please, do yourself a favor and get a cup of coffee and read the Bible instead. Trust me, it will be less humiliating." I've learned to ignore that laugh and those taunts and have often paid a price for it.

Before some of you click on another link or jump to another blog let me explain to you that I am not crazy. I'm not hearing voices or taking medications. I have just recently come to a very serious realization that we would all do well to consider.

You and I have an enemy. Wait! Don't click away, I'm serious. You and I were born into the midst of a world at war. We have an enemy. How does that make you feel? Hopefully a little bit uncomfortable. All our lives we have been told that "God loves you", "Jesus loves you", "you are a beloved son or daughter." All of this is fine and good but it's only half the picture. You are loved more than you can ever imagine. However, you are also hated more than you can ever imagine. Not your typical CCD lesson is it?

Imagine a group of Marines that were told all during their training that they were special. During their training they learned how special they were, why they were special and how to live special lives. Now imagine them being sent into war. You get the picture! Not only have they not been told the workings of their enemy or the enemies goals and tactics, they haven't even been told they have an enemy. The perfect scenario for total disaster and loss of life.

Why do we not want to hear or accept this? The Bible, yes even the Gospel, no, especially the Gospel is filled with warnings, teachings, explanations, and tactics concerning our enemy. Were the demons Jesus cast out just quaint stories? Why do we skip over those in CCD? Jesus talks about the enemy over and over - "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy,...(John 10:10). Okay class, now let's make a collage about that passage! Next we'll make a felt picture about what Jesus means when he says, "An enemy hath done this" and "Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them."

How can we or our children fight the battle for our very souls if we don't even recognize that we have an enemy? Okay, before you think I've watched Braveheart one too many times, take a look at Salvation history. Look at Genesis, the devil is after the human race by the third chapter. Look at Revelation, "Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus." (Revelation 12:17) Are you one of those offspring described? From the beginning to the end the enemy is present or as St. Peter puts it, "Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings." (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Are you awake yet? Are you sober and vigilant? Do you get the picture, soldier? We are at war. We have an enemy. We have to start living like it! What would happen if you started living as though you have an enemy? What would happen if the Church started really living like that? What would happen if all realized that we are under attack? I would like to say that we would fight and kick butt. However, this is a war and like a physical war we have to deal with not only the enemy but with our own wounded warriors as well. Many of whom are so wounded that they are dazed and confused, no longer accepting that they are in a war or worse yet, they are POWs.

We must wake up! We must fight! We must realize that we have an enemy and we are at war. If we don't, if we refuse to recognize that we are hated, we are lost. Does this mean that the turning of the battle rests solely on our shoulders? No, Christ is willing to fight for us and with us but will you invite Him to help, will you ask for His assistance in each skirmish if you don't even know you are at war? How can the Lord send in air strikes if He doesn't get the request? How could He ever get the request if His soldiers think they are on leave when they are in the midst of an epic battle? You get the idea.

Now, not everything that happens during the day is a bombing from our enemy. However, when things do happen that are not what we planned for, he's there in an instant. He is there saying, "See, if God really loved you He wouldn't have allowed this (car breakdown, sick child, marriage problems, etc) to happen. You can't trust God. You aren't loved.", and on and on and on. He is brilliant, crafty, unrelenting, and a professional. He took shots at Adam, Moses, David, and even Jesus. You and I are certainly not beyond his sights.

I know this sounds harsh but you have an enemy, you are hated. Get over it and let's get going. Prepare for battle - read scripture, make frequent recourse to the Sacraments, consult God often in prayer, learn the tactics of the enemy, and be sober and vigilant. Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter. Who is this king of glory? The LORD, a mighty warrior, the LORD, mighty in battle. Psalm 24:7-8

Rambo Jesus

Rambo Jesus by Fr. Andrew Trapp

Who doesn't enjoy a good action movie, especially the ones involving top-secret rescue missions? Some of my favorite scenes in these movies are the sequences showing the commandos preparing for battle: putting on their camouflage, greasing their faces with paint, and strapping weapon after weapon onto their bodies! Then, under cover of darkness, they set off stealthily into the jungle, to rescue prisoners of war from their evil captors.

Four thousand years ago, our heavenly Father quietly began preparations for a rescue operation of his own. Starting with the "yes" of one faithful man, Abraham, he planted a family tree that would soon blossom into an entire nation: the people of Israel. By the time of David, a thousand years after Abraham, Israel had become a powerful kingdom in its own right. And a thousand years after David, when everything was finally ready, God sent his Son into the midst of his chosen people. Like a commando from heaven, Jesus plunged bravely into this jungle of ours, on a mission to save us from sin and death.

We are like the prisoners in the rescue movies, held captive by bad guys in the middle of the jungle. Our prisons are small mud huts, with only the hard ground to sleep on. Our faces are emaciated with hunger, our clothes in tatters, and our bodies stained by mud and bruises. Suddenly one day there is great commotion in the camp, and before we even have time to realize what is going on, the doors of our prisons are flung open and blinding daylight is spilling in!

As our eyes adjust to the daylight, we see that it is Jesus, all decked out in battle gear and sweaty from fierce combat! Our hearts leap with joy as he cries out, "I have come to rescue you! I know you are weak, but I will support you. I know that you are hungry, but I will feed you. I know that you are broken, but I will heal your wounds. Come with me! I have defeated your enemies! Come with me! I will lead you to safety and freedom!"

Jesus has destroyed sin and death, breaking down the walls of our prison. Without his commando-like victory at Calvary, none of us could ever be saved. He is there, standing in the doorway, reaching down to pull us into the daylight. But sometimes, rather than grasping his hand, we decide we kind of like our mud huts. We like our lives the way they are, dirt and rags and bruises and all, so instead of following Jesus out of the hut we turn away from him and hold on even tighter to our cell walls.

Christmas is the celebration of the Lord's entrance into our jungle, to finally begin his great rescue mission. Perhaps as we start this new year we can reflect on what is keeping us from following Jesus. Maybe there is a family member or friend whom you refuse to forgive and reconcile with. Maybe you struggle with sinful weaknesses that are hurting your relationship with God or others. Maybe there are things in your life that are not bad in themselves, like career or hobby or sport, yet have become idols causing you to neglect your walk with Christ. What things are you clinging onto, while the Lord is standing at the door, beckoning you to freedom?---------* 2/5/09 by Father Andrew Trapp*

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