One of the things he talked about was how God made us to live in freedom. I've written posts before about how free you really can be when you have the confidence of knowing that you're doing the will of God. It's unlike anything else.
One of the things Father talked about was how God made us to soar with eagles, so why do we spend our time walking with turkeys? It's an interesting question. We know that misery loves company, and people who live in the darkness of sin not only want others there with them, they want people there who tell them, the turkeys, that they are in fact eagles. But through our baptism, in continuing with this analogy (which is now mine and not Father's), God makes us new creations- we go from being turkeys to eagles. (Maybe this would have worked better with caterpillars/butterflies.)
It's difficult to be an eagle among turkeys at first, but then after a while, even the proudest eagle starts to think he may also be a turkey, if he never spends any time working out those wings, and seeing how high he can fly. But God calls us to make eagles of all turkeys.... the hardest part for me is finding a balance.
(I swear I'm not on drugs.)
Moving on from the worn out analogy.
One of my colleagues and I got into a conversation about same sex "marriage" after the decision. It was the perfect example of why I don't think I could ever really be friends with any of my colleagues. I LOVE a good debate but I can't stand talking to people who unknowingly hold multiple opposing "truths" to be true and haven't even realized it. As the conversation went, we ended up on the topic of abortion. He said that he thought it should be legal for women in their first trimester, because... "its a woman's body." I said that the first decision that had to be agreed upon before we could have a conversation was the question of when life begins. He immediately said that life begins at birth, and had no idea why he thought abortion should only be legal in the first trimester.
It sounds calm as I type it, and I don't think I ever let him know fully how frustrated I was, thank goodness. After the fact, I was so mad that I had to walk away. And then after calming down, I was mad at myself for how mad I got. I suppose it may be considered righteous anger, that someone (and so many people) can be so careless about the value of a human life. But after spending some time reflecting on it, I realized that there's no way that I can convince someone of the love of Jesus by showing them why I'm right and they're wrong... even if I have non-religious reasons for the beliefs that I hold (which so happen to be truths of Natural Law and upheld by the Church). And isn't that the ultimate goal? To show them that they are infinitely loved by the God of life? People don't need Catholic Social Teaching Apologetics. They need a relationship with Jesus. I have to keep reminding myself of that.
Holy Spirit, give us the words of eternal life.
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