Good morning! Advent has arrived! Praise God! We made it to the new Liturgical Year! Praise Jesus! Time to make a new start in our relationship with God, to seek his Face and call on his Name anew. Jesus has declared, Behold, I make all things new (Apocalypse 21:5). A New Year is very near, what are we looking for in 2015? The quote in the title is from a Bruce Springsteen song. People are busy at this time of year, so very busy with so many tasks. Jesus in the Holy Gospel seems to be demanding just one thing of us at this time, to watch for Him. Where do we look for Him? In the mall, in the Nativity scene? In the Church? In the office Christmas party? In the gifts we give one another? In the flu bug going around? In the weather? At the ice rink? On TV, with all the holiday specials? At the movies, with all the blockbusters being released for this special season? In our credit cards or expense accounts? Where is Jesus to be found? The third joyful mystery of our salvation and redemption is the Nativity of Jesus, and the spiritual fruit given for this mystery in Our Ladys Holy Rosary is a great detachment from the things of this world, a contempt of riches, and the love of poverty. What is poverty to us? Have we ever been temporally poor? Have we ever been hungry and depending on a local soup kitchen or food bank for our next meal? Why, when Jesus has blessed poverty and poverty of spirit as the first, greatest sign of beatitude, of Christ-likeness, do we find poverty so loathsome? Why are the poor demonized in their hunger and need, as if they are committing some kind of crime? When we were children, we depended on our parents and elders. And now we may be financially independent and think this economic freedom is our salvation, our manhood, our virtue, our justification. Does money justify a man, as capitalism teaches and preaches? Is a mans wisdom, virtue, and grace measured by his net worth? Are we so busy shopping for material things and giving material things this season that we forget that God and his Christ are purely spiritual? Where is our hunger for eternal goods? Where is our love of poverty? The Christian virtue of poverty is the 10th virtue and it opposes the supremely evil vice of covetousness, or the love of money. The Christian virtue of poverty means desiring and seeking to possess and possessing God alone, God alone in all things, and all things in God alone. Read the Beatitudes: poverty and poverty of spirit are the most Christ-like things of all. Leading up to the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Holy Father, Pope Pius XIV, and his right hand man, St. Karol Cardinal Wojtyla were calling for the wealthy nations to follow the Jubilee law of St. Moses, to forgive all the debt of poor nations. None of the wealthy secular nations showed anything but disdain for this call, which was also a command, for the Pope, does possess that authority, an indirect authority over temporal matters, from God. And lo and behold, what happened on September 11, 2001? The worldwide heart of capitalism and militarism were destroyed or damaged grievously. Why is something so beautiful to God so ugly to us? Why is our notion of work so bound up with its monetary value? Our most valuable works make us absolutely no money! The works we do to save our soul make us absolutely no money! People complain all the time that the poor just want a handout, they dont want to work. Some do work or want to work, others dont appear to work or want to work. But work is meant for much more than making money, and all the best works are invisible to the senses. The poor have to bear all this sins and iniquities of the rich and middle class, and that is hard work. On the other hand, Corporate America receives vastly more welfare than the poor do, is anyone complaining about that? Corporate America uses it vast finances to buy politicians and have them legislate and decree and create a system that oppressively favors them and denigrates the small businessman and the middle class and poor. We have all seen independent businesses being displaced left right and center by large corporate businesses? It is corporate totalitarianism, corporate fascism, corporate statism: these large corporations are like large empires, with more political clout than most other groups. Again, money talks and virtue and morality walk.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 15:02:28 +0000
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