Pio's Proverb 224: “Paradise is God” found
in/through
conjugal love.
Come Holy Spirit upon all we are about to
write and upon all the readers who are called to read and meditate upon this:
We all wish to go to Paradise. How do we
get there? Do we need to be a mystic like St. John of the Cross who used the
Song of Songs by Solomon to describe his covenant marriage to God? St. John of
the Cross used the deep intimacy of marital love as the closest image of his
own deep relationship with God. But so does Isaiah use the image of marriage to
show God's closeness to us: “As a young man delights in his bride, so your
Maker shall delight in you.” Also, since I was married and have six grown children
and fifteen grandchildren, all I am about to write to you today comes from personal
experience!
How is God paradise? Well when we are in
God, we are fully satisfied and all our needs are fulfilled. We are totally
loved and totally give ourselves to God. Happiness is the total giving
ourselves in love to our Beloved. When we see God face to face, we will behold
the Infinite Beauty of God, and experience his Infinite joy as much as our
souls can stand. We will be totally full. But it gets even better: we will
enter into the Trinitarian life of God. God will in His infinite power and
provide
Once, will let us see and feel the Love
between the Father and the Son. The Father loves the Son. The Son loves the
Father. The Holy Spirit is the Love between the Father and the Son. The Beatific
Vision of God is not our beholding God as outside of us but rather we will
participate in God Love for Himself in the Trinitarian Community of Love. And
all of us – all the Saints – will be caught up in God: “En-Theos” is the Greek
word that means “caught up in God” in an eternal crescendo of Love and Joy. We
get the English word: “enthusiasm” from the Greek word: en-theos.”
But we are alive today here on earth and
cannot wait till this Beatific Kairos (God's time) moment. What is the closest
to being “caught up in God” we can get while on earth. Well, you can become
like John of the Cross or Teresa of Avila and mystically be joined to God by a
holy life, and devoted life and by letting the Holy Spirit create in us the
Unity Way of mystical marriage with God. Every priest, nun or brother – or any
consecrated chaste layperson - can embark on this Unitive Way of Mystical
Marriage with God.
Yet, what about the vocation of Marriage
which is by far the vocation of most of us? Can we who are married or who
aspire to marriage get ready for such a mystical marriage with God through our
sacrament of marriage? Coming full circle to our beginning of this reflection,
we can surely enter into a mystical marriage with God through and in our
marriage since it is marriage that God uses as the very image of His union with
us! In Solomon's Song of Songs, the word “God” never appears. God's name does
not have to appear because: “God is Love; and wherever there is love, there is
God.” The same is true in our marriage: God is there in our devotion to one
another, in our sacrifice for one another, in our fidelity to one another, but
surely and most of all in our love-making, our sexual union. Let's see how:
1) Jesus said: “God made them male and
female....and the two shall become one body (the Hebrew does not have a word for
“body”; so Jesus used the term “one flesh”) and what God has joined let no man
separate.” There is so much more in what Jesus' words that the casual reader
may miss: First of all, “one body” is truly mystical in meaning beyond just being
joined sexually. And as to the second thought of Jesus' words, just think: can
the Persons in the Holy Trinity be separated? The Father loves the Son; the Son
loves the Father and their Love is the Holy Spirit. So, can this “Trinitarian interactive
Divine communal life ever be separated? If this Divine Life in God could be
separated, then God would cease to be God. Thus, it is impossible for the
Trinitarian interaction of the Three Divine Persons to cease or be separated.
Well, that is why Jesus is so against divorce within a marriage that God has
joined. Jesus sees marriage as an image of the Trinitarian Life of God. Just as
each of us is “created in the image and likeness of God”, so, too, each true
and holy marriage is made in the image and likeness of the Trinity's inner
Divine communal life. That is why marriage is a Sacrament:
2) Thus, Marriage is on earth the most
perfect image of the Triune God: In the Trinity, there is the Father (the One
who loves and knows: the Divine Lover. ), the Son (the One who is loved and is
known, the Beloved Word of God), and the Holy Spirit (the One who is the Mutual
Love between the Father and the Son). In Marriage, we see the same union of
three persons: In the fullest union of mind, heart and will, the loving sexual
act we have: The husband who is the lover, the knower; the wife who is the
beloved, the one known; and the child conceived, the mutual personal love
between the husband and wife made flesh. Thus we have in the full act of
marriage, three persons in one: husband, wife and child! And that is why holy
sexual union in marriage is so mutually fulfilling both spiritually and
physically and psychologically. We all want to be totally complete and
fulfilled: we can thus in Holy Marriage have perfect union with our spouse and
with Jesus in our spouse. And thus we can have perfect union with the Father
Who is in Jesus and Jesus in the Father with the Holy Spirit – a mystical
marriage with God – in three Divine Persons. Thus we even fulfill in our
marriage the words spoken at Mass when Jesus in the Host is held up by the
priest after Consecration as the priests prays: “Through Him, and with Him and
in Him - all Honor and Glory is Yours, Almighty Father, now and forever!” Jesus
is at that moment also holding us up to the Father with Himself! We are all
“one” just as Jesus once prayed: “That they may be one, Father, just as You and
I are one, that they may be one in us!”
3) Since grace builds on nature, so on a
purely human level, what mostly is seen and felt, in the celebration of the
sacrament is a pure sexual union between those who are “sacramentally” married
in God and for God: So much affection, physically touching, kissing and
creative foreplay takes place. Just as the Song of Song is packed with sexual
imagery, I cannot speak of this without being somewhat explicit. First of all,
a woman's breasts – which King Solomon refers to many times – are the gateways
to paradise, that is, with her breasts, the wife is welcoming her husband to
enter into sexual foreplay. Proverbs says, “May her (your wife's) breasts
satisfy you at all times..” Men are visual; and the wife's breasts are the
“welcoming sign” that a woman shows to her husband. In his delightful attention
to his wife's breasts, this also causes her to be even more open to receiving
her husband into the paradise of herself.
4) All of the above notwithstanding, there is
still a caveat or warning that should be also introduced: Sexual Love even in
marriage is not the ultimate “sine qua non” basis of happiness in marriage.
Sexual Love in marriage is a most marvelous gift from God to the couple;
however, the ultimate basis of happiness in marriage is friendship and mutual
interests. Even the Song of Song hints at this in the heat of the couples’ love
making as the Bride says of her Husband:
“His mouth is sweetness itself;
he is all delight.
Such is my lover, and such my
friend,…” 5:16.
Therefore let us conclude from this that
Sexual union must be the response to mutual love and friendship. Sex cannot be
a substitute for love or friendship. Sexual embracing must flow in response to
one’s love and friendship for the beloved. The Bride also urges her husband to
go to the “garden” and see what is in bloom. Yes, this is metaphorical, too,
but also she is inviting him to do things together that are mutual but not
sexual: fostering mutual interests! The “garden” is their mutual interest; and
in fact, the Bridegroom King even goes so far as to call his wife a garden: “You
are a garden enclosed, my sister, my bride, and enclosed garden, a fountain
sealed” (Songs 4:12) thus showing the exclusiveness of their love because true
marital love is faithful, enduring, mutual and absolutely exclusive. It has
been rightly said that “True love” is a “friendship that has caught on fire.”
Therefore, the real warning is this: if sex becomes in marriage a substitute
for love and friendship instead a response of love and friendship, it will
become “sexual abuse” even in marriage. Conjugal Sacramental Love is a response
of love and friendship and never a substitute.
Another caveat: Marriage is not a
corporation. It is a relationship. Some men believe that if they work hard, fix
everything for the wife, work hard at their job, do the lawn, paint the house,
and do the dishes, even do the laundry sometimes, that the marriage will
promote them to “best husband” status with many dividends! What this husband
does not understand is the difference between his occupation and his vocation.
We all have had to work at out occupations: where the input does justify the
rewards. But a vocation is a spiritual call from God. The input does not always
result in equal dividends in this world. Our Mary said to St. Bernadette: “I
cannot make you happy in this world but will do so in the next” – thus
indicating that vocation can be a martyrdom. Perhaps he has also entered the marriage
with a marketing attitude: I have two degrees and she does, too. I have many
interests and so does she; so we must be compatible and be a mutually good
catch! She comes from a good family; and so do I. Therefore, this exchange is
perfectly balance and good. All of the above is wrong. Nada! If there was not a
bond or deep relationship to begin the marriage, nothing else will help: money,
position, education. And furthermore, if a man is not looking into the eyes of
his wife and revealing his emotions, sharing his concerns and hopes and dreams
but just working for her, the marriage has time-bomb-clock ticking that will blow
the marriage. How so? As soon as the bond or deep relationship dies, the
marriage is on the rocks and will totally die unless it goes to the ICU of
marriage: true positive verbal intimacy from the heart! There are 5 words that every marriage must
have as its protection: “I love you” in the morning; and “Forgive me” before
the sun goes down. Let the wise heed this “sine qua non” of marriage! Yes, “A word to the wise is sufficient.”
“Love” and “pardon” must be expressed verbally from the heart – daily.
5) But if there is truly love, intimacy, friendship,
giving of mutual devotion and fidelity – seeking the true good of the other –
then there will be God’s blessing of happiness in this sacred act, an act that
God, Himself, created for the couples' mutual love and creation of children,
then something very mystical takes place. The man will experience that his
wife's body is really his, that is to say, his soul occupies her body and he is
now aware that his body has been expanded to include hers. He is truly “one
body” with her. His body has become larger and expanded to now become
spiritually “one” even though there is a distinction still that remains just as
the Father and the Son are “one” but still have their own distinction
Person-hood. The Holy Spirit is also a Distinct Person even though it is the
Love between the Father and the Son. And how one is the Father and the Son?
Jesus said to Phillip, “How can you say, 'show us the Father?' Do you not know
that when you see me, you see the Father?”
Thus being distinct does not negate unity.
When husband and wife are “one flesh” there is a wondrous unity as well as
distinction of persons. But another analogy will help: you are both body and
soul. The union of body and soul makes you a one human person; but still your
spirit/soul is distinct from your body. Your body is mortal; your spirit has no
parts and cannot fall apart so thus is immortal. The soul can live without the
body but the body cannot live without the soul. Yet, how close a union is there
between the body and the soul? Closer than we can know. God only knows. But the
soul and body are so close that when Adam and Eve committed a “spiritual”
deadly sin, their bodies began from that moment to “physically” die as well.
So, our concept of distinctions do not in any way negate the tremendous Unity
of the Divine Persons, the union of our bodies and souls, and especially the
union of husband and wife in the sacramental conjugal act.
6) Not only does the holy sex act unite
husband and wife, the actual grace of the Sacrament lifts them up into the very
Trinitarian life as well. Thus during this most holy act, husband and wife are
one with each other and one with God. This act by the grace of God confers on
both spouses more Sanctifying Grace, which is intrinsically a participating in
the very life of God! Thus, God designed husband and wife in their love-union
to make them both more holy.
7) It even gets better: This loving act
welds husband and wife to each other and to God. Have you seen welding and the
union it causes between separate metal parts? These two metal part become “one”
part even those they are still distinct. Never does the marital couple so
“belong” more to each other and “belong” also even more to God. Yes, this does
happen in the when we individually participate in the Sacrament of Holy
Communion. But the Sacrament of Matrimony – during the most intimate
celebration of the Sacrament – cause us to belong to God and God to us!
8) In the light of all of the above, we
can more clearly see how incredibly wrong are the dangerously-addictive use of pornography
(which destroys relationship with God, spouse, children, and very self), as
well as fornication, same sex acts which are unnatural; and thus grace cannot
build on the unnatural since Scripture says that “sodomites and male prostitutes
will not inherit the Kingdom of God,” the “Rainbow Coalition” notwithstanding; and
finally, adultery which allows the devil
to come between husband and wife – all of which – war against one’s
relationship with God! Why? Those four things are “deadly” SINS! They take away
our union with God and our relationships with our family. But the Sacrament of
Reconciliation gives hope to those who given in to these four evils because God
is merciful if there is true sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment; but the consequences
of those actions will linger long in one’s psychological makeup until the Holy
Spirit begins to heal those memories and those broken relationships. There is
much healing for homosexuals in the Society called “Courage” which shows that
need for love can be met both as celibate and supportive love .
Sex was created by God to unite us to
Himself. But the devil wants to use sex to separate us from God. The devil
tries to kill people (abortion, murder, terrorism, suicide) because people are
made in the “image and likeness of God” and likewise wars against traditional
Marriage because it is the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God. Anything
that weakens marriage is the devil's work. God is all about Union in Love, Joy
and Life; the devil is all about separation in hate, unhappiness and death.
When there is separation of body and soul, husband and wife, families, friends,
you can be sure that the devil is there. But where there is true Union in Love,
you can be sure God is there!
9) Marriage, therefore, can be the
Sacramental gateway to Paradise: being in the very inner life of God –
En-Theos!
Let us beautifully end with a meditation
on some Sacred Scripture quotes which are what the Holy Spirit thinks about the
blessings of a holy marriage:
Proverbs 5:18-19:
“Let
your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer,
a graceful doe.
May her breasts satisfy you at all time;
may you be intoxicated always by her love.”
Song of Songs: 2:16, 4:3, 5, 10, 7:13,8:14:
Bride: “My beloved is mine and I am his..”
King: “Your lips are like a crimson thread, and your mouth is lovely.” Bride: I
arose to open to my beloved..” “I am my beloved's and his desire is for me.”
King: “How beautiful you are, my love, how very beautiful! Your breasts are
like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.” Bride: “Come ,
my beloved,..let us go out early to the vineyard...there I will give you my
love.” “I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers (welcoming)..I am in his
eyes as one who brings peace.” “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle,
or a young stag upon the mountains of spices!” (In the Song of Songs, the Holy
Spirit sings a divine song of love for the holiness and joy of marriage that so
mirrors the inner life of love in the Holy Trinity.)
Sirach: 25: 1, 26: 1-4, 13-18:
“With
three things I am delighted, for they are pleasing to the Lord and to men:
Harmony among brethren, friendship among neighbors, and the mutual love of
husband and wife.”
“Happy
the husband of a good wife, twice-lengthened are his days;
A worthy* wife brings joy to her husband,
peaceful and full is his life.
A good wife is a generous gift bestowed
upon his who fears the Lord:
Be he rich or poor, his heart is content,
and a smile is ever on his face.”
“*26,
1-4, 13-18: A good wife is a gift from God, bringing joy and peace, happiness
and contentment to her husband (1-4) through her thoughtfulness, reserve,
modesty and chastity, beauty, grace and virtue (13-18):”
“A
gracious wife delights her husband,
her thoughtfulness puts flesh on his
bones;
A gift from the Lord is her governed
speech.
And her firm virtue is of surpassing
worth.
Choices of blessings is a modest wife,
priceless her chaste person.
Like the suns rising in the Lord heavens,
the beauty of a virtuous wife is the
radiance of her home.
Like the light which shines above the holy
lamp stand,
are her beauty of face and graceful
figure.
Golden columns on silver bases
are her shapely limbs and steady feet.”
(How beautiful a description of a beautiful and loving wife!).
In nature, there is a phenomenon called
“Lightning” that mirrors both the Trinity of God and human Holy Marriage:
Lightning has three distinct entities that are totally in union to produce the
“one” phenomenon called “lightning”: Lightning has 1) Light, 2) Heat, and 3)
Power. We cannot have “lightning” without all three simultaneously interacting.
So, too, we cannot have God without the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit;
nor can we have true marriage without husband, wife and child (although the very
mutual love between them is the third entity; so that even if a loving sexual
act does not always result in a child, the mutual love must always be the third
entity.) Lightning is so apt a natural sign as well because under the entities
of light and heat and power, there are so many comparisons to be made between
the three persons in the Trinity and the three persons in marriage. I will
leave those comparisons to your own imagination. But Lightning sure is an apt
image of Divine Love! For example: When Pope Benedict stepped down from the
Papacy, a great bolt of lightning struck the ball on the top of St. Peter's
Basilica. Newscasters could not understand the meaning of this phenomenon that
coincided so perfectly with the action of Pope Benedict. But the Holy Spirit
gives us the gift of an understanding eye to see that in this event,
The Holy Trinity was showing His approval
and confirmation of Pope's Benedict's great humility and love for the Church,
to pass on the papacy to the next successor of St. Peter for the good of the
Church.
There are also three realities that are
inseparable in that if you have one you have the other two no matter which of
the three you begin with. These are Beauty, Truth and Goodness. After the Father
created the beauty of the universe, He said, “It was good.” After He created
man, He said:” It was very good.” So you can readily see how Beauty and
Goodness go together. Likewise what is Beautiful and what is Good, is also
Truth. What is…is what is true. Thus, this trinity of realities applies to
human love as well: it is beautiful, good and true.
The very bottom line from all this article
is this: the beauty and truth and goodness/dignity of the human person, the
sacredness of the union between two people – man and woman – in Holy Matrimony
which reflects the very Life and Love in God, and our need to defend the
sacredness of traditional marriage because anything less is not marriage and
not for the glory of God and not bringing us to God but away from God. Sexual
union in marriage is God’s plan to bring His people to Him in love and in
fidelity and in joy. God made sexual
union in marriage to be a sign of His incredible generosity and joy over his
couple He has called together for not only their own happiness but to be a sign
of Jesus’ love for His Church and as a sign of the inner life and love within
the Holy Trinity. How Holy, then, is the Sacrament of Marriage! In Christian Marriage, Jesus, Himself, at His
mom’s behest (They have no wine.”) changes the water of our human love into the
wine of Divine Love: truly a miracle!
This wonderful gift of Marriage was not
even taken away by the fall of Adam and Eve. God’s provided marriage for them
before and after the fall because this special gift is His very sign of love
for them which He cannot withdraw because He is a Daddy (Abba) who cannot stop loving His beloved
children!
In conclusion: As I read and write all of
the above as the Holy Spirit gives me to share with you, I cannot help, myself,
to be so very awed by the blessings of a good and holy marriage within which
God so generously gives a man (who is awed in the Lord) a good and life-giving
wife, a holy marriage and the blessings of children. I wish I could have at
least two more children: Pio Antonio Raphaeli and Pia Antonia Raphaela.
I so earnestly pray with
all my heart that God will send me today a very loving wife so that I can enter into paradise through and with her
into God's very inner Life of Sanctifying Grace: a prelude to the Beatific
Vision here on earth.
Much peace, affection to all my beloved readers, Pio Z.
who can be reached on 1-248-991-2093
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An Addendum to Conjugal Love on St.
Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2014”
I have just seen a live broadcast from St.
Peter’s in Rome in which the Pope Francis greeted thousands of engaged couples
some of whom asked him some interesting questions like: How can love be forever
in this culture of nothing lasts. How can love be sustained from day to day? How
can the marriage ceremony truly be made beautiful and meaningful? The Pope had some very good
answers…practical and down to earth. I will try to give you a few of his ideas
as close to quoting him as I can.
“Per sempre” means “forever” in Italians; and
most of the questions and answers were in Italian. The Pope said that God does
not ask us to have the whole of your lives together all in one hit..all at once
so that it is scary to make a life commitment. No, God asks you to love each
other moment by moment. Ask God and pray
like this: “Give us this day our daily love…”
Show courtesy: “Please”, “May I,” “Can we do this…” “Excuse me..” “Thank
you”, “Pardon me..” “Courtesy conserves love. Courtesy is the sister of
charity. God is courteous. Thus, it is in these little details that life is
lived out moment by moment. You do not have to be afraid of this forever
commitment because it is just moment by moment; and you are asking God to give
you the Love to give to one another each moment of each day. We must be devoted
to the other’s happiness…not just our own satisfaction. If this is mutual, you
will not have to worry about being satisfied. The spouse will take care of all
your needs if you are totally devoted to each other’s happiness. Make you
marriage day special by having the “best wine”….that is Jesus present in your celebration
of your vows. Make your marriage day holy and spiritual like the Wedding Feast
of Cana where Jesus and Mary were present. Don’t do as the world does. Do as
Christ and Mary would love your wedding to be:
Invite them both to your wedding! Make Jesus your “Best Man and Mary
your Maid of Honor!
But in marriage there will be stress. Even
in the Holy Family, there was stress. Jesus was missing for three days. So even
in the holiest of families, there can be misunderstanding. So, in your marriage,
it may happen you may argue and even throw a dish across the room. Remember,
any argument that ends up with a hug and a kiss, was a good argument. Be sure to say, “forgive me. and I love you.”
Never let the sun set without asking for pardon of one another. After Jesus was
found in the temple, He never stressed his parents again. He went home and was
obedient to them. So, too, be submissive to one another and be resolved to not
stress each other but to love one another and anticipate the needs of one another.
Pope Francis is the guardian of Holy
Christian Marriage and the family.
Happy St. Valentine’s day. St. Valentine
was martyred in Rome on this day, Febraury 12, 269 AD. He was the Bishop; and
was known to have married a couple who came to him for counsel. One was
Christian and the other was pagan. Many other couples heard about this and came
to him to be married.
One last thought that comes from Blessed
John Paul II soon to be canonized: He said that man and woman find themselves
when they give themselves away to one another as total gift. That can ever
happen in the abuse of sex (masturbation, fornication, adultery, pornography,
and twisted same sex acts: There is no total gift of self in those actions but
rather making pleasure for oneself as the goal.) But the true and total gift of
self can only happen in authentically true committed, exclusive, faithful and
permanent union of the sacrament of marriage. Man and Woman find themselves
only in the total gift of themselves to another in love. Jesus did this for us.
Every true marriage therefore is an image of Christ totally giving Himself to
His Bride the Church. A husband and wife
totally lay down their lives to one another. They die to selfishness and sexual
intimacy with others to devote themselves to just one another, faithfully,
permanently, exclusively and lovingly just as Jesus does to us. Peace and love, Pio
Pio's Proverb: 225: “Beauty, Truth, and
Love”
by Pio Peter Zammit, painter
When God creates the soul, He creates the
soul beautiful in His eyes. He places immediately in that soul a deep sense of
Beauty, an intrinsic sense of the Beautiful so as to make us totally compatible
with His own Beauty: the Beatific Vision of Himself which is our final
destiny.
“Beatific
comes from the Latin “Beatus' – Happy, Blessed. Thus the root word, the
etymological meaning of the Word Beauty comes from Beatus from which we get
Beatific from which we get the word: Beauty. Only the last three letters are
different; but the meaning is the same.
“Thus
whenever we see something 'beautiful', we say to ourselves or even out loud:
“That's beautiful!” because the person, place or thing, an event or truth, a
story or classic piece of music or art, or even an act of unselfish love causes
us to feel our own deep inner (intrinsic) beauty that God placed within us.
Therefore, all true beauty makes us feel truly beautiful which God has placed
in us!
“So
when we see something Beautiful that is outside of us, we are really only
opening a window to the divine Beauty inside us.
“This
Beauty in us is also the Holy Spirit within us - placed there by the Father at
our baptism and confirmed even deeper at our Confirmation and purified by our
holy confessions and increased all the more in us in our every Holy Communion –
all this being done in us by the Holy Spirit. We are thus created in God's
image and sustained in that image by the Holy Spirit.
“So
you can see more clearly how Divine Beauty and Divine Love are thus so related
and contingent on one another.
“In
fact, Beauty and Love are almost synonymous. So we can say: 'God is Love. God
is Beautiful; and wherever there is Love and Beauty, there is God.'
“Surely
Jesus is the Beautiful Image of the Father: the Verbum, the Word, the Logos of
God. John 1:1 says: “In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God;
and the Word was God; and the Word became man and lived among us.' This print
that I am giving you of Jesus which I painted on the sanctuary wall of a church
is called: “In the Beginning was the Word.' and meant to show His Divine
eternal origin, His being begotten from all eternity; and the Love between the
Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit: the Source and Summit of all Beauty.
Pastor Bill also calls this painting: “It is I” which is the declaration of the
Word to all of us, an assurance not only from Jesus to not be afraid as He was
walking to His disciples on the water. He comes now in this painting saying the
same thing: “It is I', do not be afraid” (Mark 4 vs. 50). He comes walking
toward us not “on the water” but on the clouds. He is smiling at each one of
us...assuring us that He is Our God coming to save us with His Love now at Pentecost,
His Power in His Word and Sacraments, His gentleness in His utter forgiveness
and Divine mercy!
“When
Father Saji came to see this Jesus on this wall, at Bethel Temple , on Base and
Main street in New Baltimore. The first thing he said out gently out loud was:
“That's beautiful” - and thus all artists who hear those words have in their
hearing been 'paid in full by God' because it was Fr Saji's own inner beauty –
his own inner sense of beauty - that was saying this – especially as being and
'alter Christus', his own inner sense of his Beloved Jesus within him that
cause him to be proclaiming this. Father Saji was merely and really proclaiming
to Jesus: “You are all beautiful and my whole life is yours. You, Lord, are the
cause of all the beauty in my life and in me. Even cause me to remain in You
and You in me.'
“All
happiness – 'Beatus' in us is thus the Word of God made flesh in us so that
Jesus can make us beautiful for His Father and enjoy the Beautiful Vision
forever with Him! - which is beyond our imagination.
“It's
Spring and all Nature is coming alive with Beautiful flowers smiling at us and
birds singing for us and clouds sailing happily and lilac trees in full bloom
perfuming the air all around us: all are reflecting God's Beauty and Love
around us. Let us utterly devote ourselves to thankfullness.For in heaven we
will enjoy an everlasting Spring time of Beauty and Joy: (But we can have JOY
even now if we put Jesus first, Others second and self last. - sin only has the
'I' in the center not Jesus).
“The
Spirit of God gave me all these words in the wee morning hours of May 24, 2013,
the birthday of my first born: Christin which is a name that means 'the
anointed one' or 'Christ within'. She is beautiful because Christ is within
her; and she shows His love as a nurse in ICU, thirteen hour shifts at
Beaumont. She is Christ's love to so many. It seems to me that all Beauty in us
and about us and through us is really Jesus living His life out within us anew.
Here's my final remarks that comes from a
very short poem I wrote 40 years ago:
“Wonder
says, Socrates, is the beginning of Wisdom. And to be open to all the Beauty is
in us about us and through us, that is true humility; and Wonderment is
humility's handmaiden. We look but cannot see the incomprehensibleness of
Being. We can only look and remain open, see!'
Proverbs says that he who gives truthful
reply gives a kiss on the lips. So it seems that Beauty and Love and Truth are
the triplets that we can all give birth to in our lives. And the Artist's
vocation is to make people feels beautiful.
Blessed Pope John Paul II – soon to be
declared a Saint by the Church – wrote a letter to all artists telling them
that they have the deep sense of what is beautiful and are called by their vocation
to manifest that Beauty to the world. For example, Renoir’s gardener asked him:
“Do you wish me to pull up the weeds?” To which Renoir replied, “What
weeds!” To Renoir, he saw the beauty in
all plants. Leanardo DeVinci ordered his carriage to be stopped..with a shout
of vehemence. All those in the carriage and the driver were alarmed. The great
artist got out of the carriage and walked back a few yards and picked up a
large beetle from the road and placed it in the grass on the road side. To
which the driver said, “You stopped this whole carriage for that beetle?” The
Artist replied, “Can you make one?” We artists are all called to do the same:
to show the Beauty in all things and make them manifest to those who cannot see
the goodness and truth and beauty in all God has created.
Sincerely yours in love, and peace and in
the Truth! Pio
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Pio’s Proverb 226: Atheists are brothers and
sisters we must love.
Since Geneticists over the last decade’s intensive
study of DNA have accidentally discovered a great truth – that all humans who
ever lived on this planet and whoever will live on this planet ALL OF HAVE COME
FROM ONE WOMAN – this means that we are
all brothers and sisters. Yes, we cannot ever any longer put the word, “race”
in the plural. There is only one race: the “human race”. All differences are due to nationality. The
KKK must now understand that their
prejudice since the 1920’s had caused them to hang their own innocent “brothers”
for no real “reason” at all except for their own hatred that they inherited
from Cain who is the one they blame for the origin of “black” people which they
consider to be the “mark” God placed upon him to protect him. So, the KKK
followed the example of Cain in killing his brother and not Abel who loved God.
But misapplication of reason is the “false
abstraction” of our times and in the past as well. In the French Revolotion,
many heads rolled for “Fraternite’, Liberte’, and Equalite’”; but no one knew
what those things meant because in killing others, the masses broke the very
basis of “fraternity, liberty, and equality.”
The false abstraction of our very own time
is “Abortion”. The “right of women to an abortion” takes away the female
fetus’s “right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” – not to mention the
male fetuses who have a right to life as well. But there is a great contradiction
to human reason that women want the right to abort their female babies.
All that being said as an introduction, we
come to the basis of atheism: the god they believe in is “reason” itself. Human
reason, even by atheists is considered in great high esteem! Since we are all brothers and belong to one
human race, we do all agree on this for sure that all humans hold reason to be
in very high esteem: if not in the highest esteem.
Well, let us listen to what our atheist
brothers have to say based upon their use of reason:
1) The Universe came about by chance.
2) Life on this planet has come about by
chance from mini microbes that just happen to be here in the water or accidentally planted by aliens’ dumping of their garbage
on this planted that all led to evolution of higher life forms.
3) I – as a Christian-Catholic writer – came
about by chance, too. I have not freely chosen to be Catholic but have just by
chance have been born into a Catholic home and have been environmentally been
conditioned to be a Catholic. No freedom of choice.
4) There are no absolutes in this universe,
no absolute dogmas, no absolute
morals. There are no absolute absolutes. Therefore, there is no absolute God.
Well,
that is enough for now. That is a mouthful and a brain full.
Well,
let’s look with reason alone at those four above arguments that atheists mostly
seem to be in consensus. We will take them one by one: Actually 1) and 2) that the universe and life
on the universe both came about by chance can be combined – since they are so
related in their fundamentals. So, let us reasonably say:
1) & 2): Reasonably: how can something –
matter (dead or living) come about by chance -- when “nothing” can never
produce something? Thus before the Big Bang, there would have to have been
nothing….actually there would have to have been “nowhere” as well. So how would
the Big Bang know where to explode or when or how to explode and bring about
the universe – by chance?
3) If I am a Catholic-Christian writer by
accident, then why are I writing this blog? I have freely chosen to be Catholic
and to write about my faith. I have free will and am freely wishing to share this
faith with you because I have love for you. Love is seeking the good of another
for the sake of the other. I do not need to write this blog but have a need and
a desire to love my readers and share with them my 75 years of experience on
this planet for their sake. I also enjoy loving them since my name, “Pio” means
“loving.” My name truly defines who I am. But if you still insist that all my
faith is by chance and by conditioning, then that means that your faith in
atheism – I say “faith” because you cannot prove there is no God and take it by
faith that He does not exist – then your atheism is not freely chosen by reason
but rather is because you were conditioned by chance to be an atheist. You
could not have reasonably chosen to be an atheist but are only one by chance
not by free decision. I feel sad for you that you are not independently in
control of your own life but only have fallen into it – by chance.
4) Are
you absolutely certain that there are no absolutes? If you are absolutely
certain, then you do believe in absolutes. You believe that you are absolutely
right that there are no absolutes which means you believe in absolutes. But surely since you love scientific
measureable facts, then you know that there are 20 absolute and unchangeable laws
that keep the cosmos together, laws of the universe: for example the speed of
light. This law does not very. Nor do
the other 19. But if there were just a minutest variation in any of these laws,
there would never have occured the phenomena called life. Life cannot occur by
chance since there immutable laws in the universe that must be perfectly so for
life to occur at all. So, these 20 immutable laws are absolute. And if there is
one absolute you believe in – even your own belief that there are no absolutes
– then you must concede there is at least one absolute -- your own. And lastly, if there is one absolute, then
there must be one Absolute Absolute – God!
We
need to lighten up here, too. As T. K. Chesterton said: “If there were no God,
then there would be no atheists”.
Dearest
Atheists, our brothers and sisters, please know we love you all as well as we
love all our brother and sister Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Agnostics.
May God bless you and love you all and lead you to all truth. O…does that mean
that “truth” exists, too? Well, it is “true” that you are an atheist or were an
atheist? If you are or where, then there must be as many “truths” as there are
atheists or ex-atheists. Hmmmmm…….seems
that “truth” is another absolute!
King
David wrote Psalm 14 which begins with these cryptic words:
“The fool says in his heart
“There is no God.” Now this is very
poignant that the word, “fool” is used. Why could not have David used so many
other words? Why “fool”? The reason is
that King David – who faced Goliath – noticed that Goliath was a fool in the
sense the giant in his pride “fooled himself” in thinking that he was
invincible. The giant believed his own lie to himself. This is the ultimate
foolishness: to lie to oneself and believe it.
For
those of you who wish to know the 20 reasons why God exists, just read www.StrangeNotions.com. You will have an
eyeful and a mindful. First of all, you will not only encounter great proofs
for the existence of God, you will encounter a famous atheist blogger who was
converted to Catholicism. This journey to faith is a personal one. She was an
ardent atheist and wanted the world to know why; now she is an ardent Catholic
and also wants to the world to know why. She is a St. Paul who made a 180
degree trun towards Christ. So, please see www.StrangeNotions.com or email them
on strangenotions.com. You will fall into the great grand canyon on knowledge
and come out high enough to touch Mt. Everest!
One
last point: Faith and Science. How are they linked? Well for Catholics like the
monk, Copernicus, science was a religious motivator. He thought that the more
he could learn about the natural world, the more he could learn about God. He
saw order in the natural world and felt that John’s Gospel 1:1: “In the
Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God; and the Word was God; and the
Word became flesh……without Whom nothing came to be…”..means that the Word was
involved with all Creation.
Are
there any other men of faith who loved science and love to study it to find God
in it? Yes: Newton, Paschal were believers in God. How about the Catholic
priest who first proposed – all by himself – the Big Bang Theory? It was his
faith and devotion to God that let him discover the origins of the universe.
But even closer to our own time: Albert Einstein who said: “Science without
Faith is blind. And Faith without Science is lame.” He did not believe in God
as Campbel did – a mere impersonal force. No, Albert Einstein believed in a
personal God who designed the entire universe. So, what then is the basis of
your atheism? Actually it is fear. You fear that if you posit a God, then you
are a weak person who has to use faith as a crutch. You fear to lose your independence.
You do not humbly want to depend on a God. You want to be your own man:
superman – above faith and having only reliance upon your very self. Well, that
is pride. And pride has its basis in fear: fear of losing yourself. But the
very opposite is true. When we humbly depend on God, we truly find our very
self. We find love when we give ourselves away to another as a total gift to
that person. So, too, when you give yourself to the Truth totally, you find
that that “Truth will set you free.” Man does not use Faith as a crutch against
the fear of death. Man uses Faith to find the God of love who created him for
love…and to be one day happy totally with God forever. The great minds of
Science have seen clearly the ordered world God has created and the ordered
Universe that is so precise in its immutable laws. There is a Great Designer
behind the universe. God’s infinite mind is shown in His creation. Creation is
not haphazard or by chance. It is ordered and purposeful.
For
example: An ecological society or company went to a rain forest and studies
that ecological region for two years to find out what is the purpose of this
rainforest. The study started with microbes and how on life form fed on another
or supported another. After exhaustive study, the company concluded that a
magnificent yellow flower was the sole true purpose of this rain forest. Yes,
the many inter-purposes were very important; but the sole end of the ecological
region was the Beauty of this flower: a living Beauty.
So,
too, what is the purpose of our Universe? In the first 13 seconds of the Big
Bang, all the isitopes of the the universe were formed. From these basics came
all matter…eventually carbon – the building block of all life. So, what is then
the whole purpose of the Universe: to support the existence of intelligent
Life: See Pierre De Chardin’s Noosphere. And he was a Catholic priest anthropologist.
The purpose of man is to show that Goodness, Beauty and Being are linked in the
ability of man to know and love. And this is because he is made in the image
and likeness of God Who’s life is to Know and Love. God’s Being has Infinite
Beauty, Goodness and Love. We are all destined to see God in His fullness in
the Beatific Vision for all eternity. Since God’s Being is Infinite, He can
continually reveal His Beauty of Being to us more and more throughout eternity
without every running out of new things to show us about Himself. We will be
continually awed and wowed by God …forever!
Would you want to miss that by clinging to your little…so very little
atheism?
Peace and Love, Pio
May the God Who IS….bless you!
Pio
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Pio’s
Proverb 227: Three kinds of evil: what can we do about it?
1) The first evil is “personal evil”. We have lots of examples: nearly every
statesman in history. The King of France who was put on the throne by Joan of
Arc did not pay her ransom from the English. She was burned to death. This
“betrayal” was the King’s personal sin.
Judas did the same. Jesus even tried to get Judas to repent by saying:
“Do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
Obama – the greatest liar on the planet – said that he would not use
federal tax funds for abortion if we passed his Obama Care. As soon as it was
passed, he gave over 500 million dollars to Planned Parenthood – the number one
abortion provider in the world. Without these funds, PP would collapse. A further evil is the PP was founded by
Margaret Sanger who wished to get rid of the “weeds of society” (she called
negroes “weeds”. She sided with Hitler
in hating the minorities. But these acts are personal sins: Obama is betraying
his own national heritage. What can be do? How does one counteract such
personal evil? Seems that Jesus told us:
“forgiveness”. He forgave; but He was no
wimp. When he was struck in the face by the temple guard, he said to the guard:
“If I spoke the truth, why do you strike me?” But hanging on the cross, He
said: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus
was speaking of the Romans. The temple leaders knew exactly what they are
doing. This is why Jesus told Pilate, that the one who betrayed Him had the
greater sin. We – who have been hurt by anyone maliciously – have seen the
fallen nature of the persons who have done this…and have seen their personal
sin. We must forgive them.
2) The second kind of evil is “institutional
evil” that makes social sin easy and social virtue hard to practice. These are
so many, too: Nazi’s passed a law that civilians could assist in exterminating
Jews. 350 civilians joined in killing Jews. This is social sin at its worst. If
you have seen the movie: “The boy in the striped pajamas”, you will have
witnesses how the Kommandant accidentally killed his own son when gassing the
other men and children. 6 millions Jews were killed this way plus
indiscriminate killing of 4 million Poles when the Nazis occupied Poland.
Legalized
pornography, same sex marriage are social evils that under-mind the family: the
sacred nucleus of society.
Judge Blackman caused a social evil in Roe v
Wade – giving abortion on demand legal status. Since his decision in 1973,
there have been 53 million babies aborted in the womb: more than the American
casualties in all American wars. And this is nearly the number killed in all of
the WWII: including Europeans, Russians, Americans, Japanese, and Germans,
themselves.
My taxes and yours go to killing innocent
babies: this is social sin. What can we do to combat these social evils?: Love
your fellow man. And vote out evil statesmen. Do not vote for any persons who
has a record for voting for abortion. Work for pro-life. Do not support unjust
wars. Write History correctly. Pray for your enemies to be converted. Write
blogs to expose these evils. J.
3) The third evil is spiritual evil. This is
the evil that stands behind all the above evils. This is demonic and satanic
evil. This is personal evil in a true sense; but the person who is evil is a conscious,
self-reflective being. Does this mean we can say: “The devil made me do it?”
NO! The devil can suggest, he can stimulate the imagination. He can tempt as he
did tempt Jesus Christ.
You can resist the devil with prayer.
Jesus said to Peter: “The devil has asked for you to sift you like wheat; but I
have prayed that your faith will not fail.”
So prayer is good to fight the devil. But what of those who are
possessed with evil spirits?
Jesus said: “Only by prayer and fasting
can you cast them out!”
The devil did not like the movie: “The
Exorcist” because the devil wants everyone to believe that he does not exist.
But do not be afraid, the “Lord will not
let you be tempted beyond strength and give you a way out.” But those who watch porn, who vote in sinful
politicians, vote for immoral laws, who advocate same sex marriage, who
advocate fornication and adultery, who allow semi-automatic weapons and
encourage guns in the home, and who slam the Catholic Church in the media and
persecute Christians all over the world – those are people who not only allow
the devil into their lives; they unwittingly work for the devil.
At our very last moment when we are just
“out of the body and present to the Lord:” We will surely see one of two faces and hear
one word either for sure: We will see the loving face of Jesus or the ugly face
of the devil; and the one word coming from either will be “Mine!”
What can we do about this? Repent! Go to
the sacrament of confession and accept God’s mercy. It has also been said that
Jesus in our last moment will ask all of us: “Do you accept me as your Lord and
Savior and accept my forgiveness and mercy?”
He will forgive all of us except those who three times reject his love
and mercy with the eternal sin of final un-repentance. This is a sin against
the Holy Spirit’s love, mercy and goodness.
Those who know this and go on sinning
commit the sin of presumption – using God’s love and goodness against Him and
as an excuse to live a sinful life. Also, those who think God is too small to
forgive them are making God in their own image and likeness and commit the sin
of despair. God is big enough to forgive
all sins if we but accept His love and mercy.
God never tires of forgiving us. We tire
of seeking forgiveness. Most people live their who life without knowing God at
all. He is a loving Dad who has loved us from forever. “Before, I knit you in
your mother’s womb, I knew you.” says the Lord!
“With an everlasting love, I have loved
you!” says the Lord!
Love, Pio
