Modern knights Part 3: Weapons each of us have to use.

Each person has two options in life: either to become lethargic and not care about the world or put on a helmet pick up a weapon and fight.  The simple reality is in the fact that these are the only two fundamental options to live.  All other courses through life are variations of these two.  If we choose to be lethargic then we cease to be human becoming tools and commodities to be used by others.  In this state we allow ourselves to be manipulated and molded into sheep.  Aristotle said long ago, "The sheep is said to be naturally dull and stupid. Of all quadrupeds it is the most foolish: it will saunter away to lonely places with no object in view; oftentimes in stormy weather it will stray from shelter; if it be overtaken by a snowstorm, it will stand still unless the shepherd sets it in motion; it will stay behind and perish unless the shepherd brings up the rams; it will then follow home" (History of Animals, 9.3).  Is this what we want to be, let alone are meant to be?  We are not meant to be sheep, to be fools who "saunter about with no object in view", we are meant to be people.  Living breathing people who walk in the world with our eyes open and our minds awake.  How do we cease to be sheep?  We cease to be sheep when we come before the Shepard.


The Shepard will ask us simply if we will fight with Him or against Him.  When we say yes to Him, He will hand us everything we need for the battle.  It is up to us to use them.  Each person has different talents, which should never be hidden.  Everyone has talents. Our talents are the weapons which we can fight.  The Shepard is the One who will teach us to use our talents.  When our eyes turn towards Him everything else melts away.  We become able to fight.  Not a fight with fists or guns, but a battle for the Truth.  When we look to the Shepard we look Truth in the eyes and He looks back into us.  He sees all we have been and everything we are now.  He will show us everything we can become when we turn to Him embracing Him and picking up our cross.  The battle is never won with guns or cruel words, it is won with sacrifice and redemption.  The Shepard won the war, the daily battles each of us are in the middle of fighting.  Do not fear we do not fight battles alone.  He will guide us and do all the heavy lifting, we need to come into His light.  When we look to the Shepard we find that we are not drifting sheep, but we are saints who can change the world one person at a time.

Every time we fall to our knees before the Master the world will change around us.  The King gives us everything we need to fight battles.  The choice to fight is up to us.  Dragons are real, every child knows it.  We have to learn that dragons can be defeated and even more so the enemy has been defeated.  The war is already won. It was won on the day the sun was darkened.  The battle for each individual soul is waged everyday.  We do not fight these battles with guns and weapons, but with choices.  The choice to love and walk in Truth, rather than in sloth and lies being feed to us.  The Truth will set you free is old truth, but it takes work to find Truth.  In seeking you will find Truth if you are really seeking.  You will find a sword that must not be hidden and left in the scabbard to rust. A sword must be carried and used, so to must the Truth. Truth must be spoken and lived.  One can speak anything, but how you live will show much more of who you are and the love you possess.  Live in the light of truth and love.

Dragons

G.K. Chesterton wrote, "Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear."  - Tremendous Trifles (1909), XVII: "The Red Angel"

Children have a better understanding of the world than many adults.  Adults rationalize and form opinions that fit their own ideas, not the truth.  Adults will ignore truth for money, power, knowledge, sex or many other temptations put before us.  Adults will deny the truth, denial is easy. Living truth is hard. Each person is molded into a zombie by society through education, media, politics and other sources; these sources do are not necessarily focused on the truth.  Media and education have never been concerned with the truth, these are businesses.  Though education should not be a business, but a place for people to seek the truth and learn to think.  Politics is the business of control in order to make money for those in office and get them re-elected.  Fairy tales are an education that cuts through politics and lies to reveal the world.

Fairy tales teach the most important lesson in the world: that we are not alone in the fight and the enemy can be slain.  The enemy of us all has been defeated, it was done over two thousand years ago, because the battle is with beings who exist outside of time the battle still rages.  The war has been won.  Christ won the war. Fairy tales teach us how to fight the dragons.  Each person needs to learn how to fight the dragons and stand up to the darkness.  These stories teach us to find the light that was lite for us.  We tell fairy tales to remind each other that there is light.

Fairy tales remind us that the war is over, the dragon is defeated, but each day we must fight the battles.  The war is over, but the battle rages. The tales help us to see the weapons in the arsenal.  Each of us takes into battle: honor, hope, faith, truth and love.  Each of us must choose to pick up these weapons or leave them laying on the floor.  These are our armor and swords to defend us.  It is up to us to fight. The war might be over but the battles for each soul must be fought.  Preparation for battle is the reason we read children fairy tales.

The Waters

Over the centuries life has been compared to the sea.  The waters are all of life's events and we are ships navigating the waters.  The waters get rough and toss us to and fro.  In the rough times we must do the unthinkable.  There is only one thing to do.  In the hard times, when the storms toss us up against the shores the only thing we can do is step off the ship.

Each one of us must do as Peter did.  When Christ bids us to come to Him we must step off the ship and walk on the waves (see Matthew 14:22-32).  As long as we keep our eyes on Jesus we can walk on the waves without fear.  Being a fallen people as we are, we doubt and see the fierceness of the waves taking our eyes off Jesus.  When we take our eyes from the Lord we will sink as Peter did on the sea.  Peter instantly does what it takes years of sink for many of us to do.  Peter called out to Christ to save him.  It is not a salvation of just water, the come, believe then do whatever you want brand, when Christ saves Peter from drowning.  Saves him bodily.  Salvation is not only a spiritual act, it is a physical act as well.  Peter enters into the water and is drawn out by a hand that is nailed to the cross.  Salvation is not water, but is also blood.  It must be both.  Without the cross and resurrection, the real historical act, baptism is meaningless.  If there is no  cross and Easter Sunday in history, then everything that is believed by Christians is a fantasy.  It is merely moral principles.  We are saved by entering into the waters and participating in Christ's death and resurrection  each and everyday.  Each day water and blood is given forth for us.  We must choose to be washed in it each day.  At the end of our days when we come before judgement; we will be judged according to how we lived in the body (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Faith will be expressed in our actions, just coming to Church on Sunday is meaningless if it is not reflected in everyday life.  If we do not live the faith each day then we have sunk into the sea not asking the Pierced One to reach down to pull us back up.  When we do ask Him everything changes, we will falter and stumble, He stumbled under the weight of the cross as He carried it.  We are asked to carry a cross too.  Not on a chain around our necks or as a tattoo on our body.  We are asked to carry the same cross Christ carried.  Are we up for the challenge?  Christ thought so.

Modern knights Part 2: Who is a knight?

If a knight is a servant warrior, than who today would be a knight?  Are they only the ones who serve in our armed forces?  The armed forces are important and deserve our support, but not all serve for love of their lord.  A country is not really a lord anyways, the country is not a mutable idea.  A knight serves principles that are a rock foundation of their lives.  Yes, there are many modern knights in the armed forces and many who are not.  Those who pick up swords and fight because principles and justice demand it are knights.

Every person is called to be Princes and Princesses, the King of kings calls us to come into His family to be His sons and daughters.  The primary knights have always been the nobles, the family of the king and queen along with those who have been taken into the royal family for their deeds.  Every one of us is invited to become a member of a royal family, not an Earthly and temporal royal family, but an eternal royal family.  Every human being is invited to become a child of the living God; brothers and sisters of Christ.

Entrance into this family though carries a price though, we choose sides.  In entering the family of God we choose sides in a war we only partially see.  We choose to pick up a sword and shield and fight.  Our enemies are not liberals, Jews, Muslims, Taoists, conservatives, China, Mexico, or any other group you can think of being at odds.  The enemies we are in a fight with are principalities and powers who have rebelled against God, putting themselves first.  The battle is not about having all the money, power, food, the fastest car or biggest house; this war is about whether or not eternal  souls will spend eternity in Heaven.  The price of entrance into God's family is being willing to fight for the salvation of all souls.  No politics or nuances to the battle.  The salvation of all souls is the battle we are in, every Prince and Princess in the Kingdom of God is called to be a knight in this battle.

Modern knights: Part 1 what is a knight?

This is meant to be the first in a series of posts about the need for knights in the modern age and men to be men. Along side of men being true men, women need to be true women.  Both are molded from young ages by everything around them.  The molding can be to strength, courage, faithfulness and hope; or it can mold us into a mindless gollum.  A gollum is a mythical creature formed out of mud and has no will of it's own.  Human beings are not gollums, we have been given the gifts of a will and reason to guide us.  All of us need to remember who we are and made to be.  We live in a world that wants us to forget and turn into mindless gollums to do bidding of those who have bent themselves into power for themselves and their benefit.

In a journey into knighthood we must first ask, "What is a knight?"  Simply put a knight is a person who fights for the a king or ruler with honor, virtue, fidelity and courage.  These four are the foundations of being a knight.  We will get into each of them later.  These virtues have been lost in the modern world or are so watered down that they do not even have meaning anymore.  Even more importantly we have forgotten for Whom we fight.  A knight knows the will of his lord.  The truest knights know the will of the Lord and live according to His will.  When we loose sight of the will of our Lord we will loose sight of ourselves.

A knight without a lord to serve was lost, not only lost in knighthood also in who he is.  Every knight is meant to serve a master.  Freedom comes in submission to the just will of the Master.  Free not to do whatever he chooses,, but free to conform himself to the will of his Lord.  This is true freedom.  When we go against what we are made to be then we make ourselves into slaves.  A knight is a servant by nature so for a knight freedom comes in serving the Lord.

Lenten fires.....

There are times when it seems to me like people think Lent is a time of darkness, sorrow and mourning. Lent is not a dark time, it is the beginning of the light growing again in the world. That is at least what nature teaches us in the northern hemisphere, southerners get that going towards Christmas. Both are teaching us one thing, out of the darkness we come into light and life our Resurrection.

In Lent is not a time of sorrow and darkness, it is a time of fire. In lent we rekindle the fire that burns in us from the Sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary, becoming more of a light to the world. We do not sacrifice so that we are praised or recognized in the world. We sacrifice so we are joined with Good Friday each and everyday. On Good Friday lived each day we die to ourselves becoming Christ to the world. We start to live in the world but not of the world. We begin to burn with love and truth because we are becoming more like He who is Love and Truth. The darkness around us starts to dissipate with the light of Christ. It is only through Good Friday that we will come to Easter. With our eyes on Jesus we will go through the cross and grave to the resurrection, the impossible becomes possible when we keep our eyes on Jesus.

Every Sunday we celebrate Easter, everyday of the week we live as pilgrim people travelling from Good Friday to Easter Sunday; this is the mystery of our lives. The mystery is not a sorrow but a joy. A joy that makes life worth living in the light of Christ's love that is shown to us on Good Friday. Out of darkness comes a great Light and we carry that Light into the world. Lent is not sorrow, but is hope and light. A time of fire to be kindled in us on our daily journey from Good Friday to Easter.

In the darkness

There is an old proverb, first recorded by Thomas Fuller, "The darkest hour is just before the dawn." The dawn is the beginning of a new day when everything is fresh and born anew. When we look east each morning and see the sunrising, we always know that we can begin again. There was a time when the whole world would look East to welcome each new day. Even in the darkest of days when the castles that have been built in the sand are on fire and the tide is coming in, people still looked East. Why look to the sunrise and the East though? The answer is a simple act of faith, but not faith in a man or a woman. We look to the sunrise because the One who created the whole of the universe wrote into our hearts hope in a new day. Hope not in a person, but just Hope. Hope in the darkness as freshly lite candle begins to glow brighter. Hope is not an abstract idea, as the sunrise reminds us. The sunrise is not abstract it is concrete and very real, hope is real as well. In the darkest hour the world has ever known Hope showed us a new light. In the hour humanity committed deicide, Hope stepped forward and took the strips for our sins. In the darkness Hope stood up and allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross. We are given a sunrise to remind us that after the darkness of the night, Hope has risen. People look east the Son has risen; Hope has risen.

To day is the very beginning of the sunrise. Christmas is the day when the Light came into the world to shine for all. Some choose not to see the Light, others only want to see parts of the Light so it is easy and not bright enough to change their lives. Others look straight into the Light and everything changes. Once we look fully into the Light nothing can ever be the same. Everything burns with a fire bright reflecting the Light. In the darkest night we become the lights reflecting the only real Light in the universe. Shine on the world around you.

It has been a long time.......

It has been a long time, since I have written anything in these musings. I will try to do better. Now that the house keeping is finished........

The Saturday past I had the great pleasure to see Great Big Sea in concert in Minneapolis. In today's rush rush society, where everything is wanted to be my way right away, the idea of slowing down and enjoying life is lost. The old wore down reminder, "Stop and smell the roses." There is more to this than an old saying, it is a way of life. When you slow down and allow your stress to subside life becomes a joy rather than a burden. Life is worth living, not a rush to the grave. Great Big Sea is a group that lives this out in their music and performances. They are out there performing for the audience and for the music. They are doing what they love and loving each day of what they do. In the performance they brought the petals of the music they carry with them and gently sprinkle them on the heads of all those listening.

It is not a complex idea. Take time to do what you enjoy and life is better. Do not just spend all of your time working and worrying. I am not advocating laziness, rather joy. Life is worth living. True joy does not come from money or power. True joy comes when we come to know the One who loves us and made us for Himself. The only source of true joy is Him. Want joy in life come to know the One who is Joy.

Cardinal Arinze Webcast Theology of the Body on Marriage

Christ centered education, formation for life.

In the life of a Christian there comes a time that we must learn that people have agendas of their own. People form agendas to get their own way and beliefs to be promoted. This is not learning or education, it is manipulation of people through finding data to fit conclusions that are already made. Education is a presentation of evidence and allowing people to come to conclusions that follow from the evidence. In any education people must be willing to say to others that they are wrong, presenting them with evidence and showing how the argument fails to follow from the evidence.

The biggest problem with arguments is in the meaning of words. The only reason this problem ever came into existence is because people started to forget that words have meanings and those meanings are important. The only reason that words are important is that words have in them the power to create, destroy and change. They are not simply arbitrary letters given a meaning through societal conventions. Words have a meaning for one reason and one reason alone. The reason is simply, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not" (Jn. 1:1-5). The Word was spoken in the darkness and all things came into being. What's a word? It's a name. A name for an idea, a thing, a place, etc. All words are really names of a sort. But what's in a name that gives it power? Moses asked that question and was answered. I AM.

When we realize that it is I AM (YHWH) gives all things being, than we realize that we must submit to One who is greater. The One who gives us being. In the Gospel of Luke (5:1-11) Jesus comes to the shores of a lake and is being followed by a great crowd of people. He got into the boat belonging to Simon and cast off from the shore alittle to teach the crowds. After He was finished teaching, Jesus told Peter to cast out into deeper water and cast the nets over the side of the boat. By doing as Christ commanded Peter caught a great catch, so great that he could not bring it in on his own. So is it with us, when we follow Christ and push out into the deep waters of life. Not staying in the safe shoals of what we want and personal agendas, but going into the depths of faith guided by Christ.

Do you ever get the feeling it's going all wrong?

It could be worse, this could be you.....

Roses, Suffering and the Cross

Human life is very fragile, much like the life of a flower. Almost all flowers wilt and die when their stems are harmed, so some flowers, like the rose, have developed defenses against the dangers of the world. A rose is also recognized as one of the most beautiful flowers in the world.

A rose is a flower, which reflects each person in a mystical sense. A rose blooms slowly over time with much loving care; it is the same way with our soul. Our soul requires us to shape and mold our life to Christ’s life. We develop defenses to protect the fragile bloom of our soul from the goats of the world who would come to eat it. The thorns do not come only from our own designs, but from the Cross. We must suffer in this world, because Christ suffered, pierced by our sins out of love for us. When we choose to follow Jesus, we must “deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow him” (Luke 9:23). As Christians none of us have any right to expect an easy life, but rather all Christians must expect and be expected to be imitators of Christ in all things. Pope John Paul II teaches in Salvifici Doloris, “The Redeemer suffered in place of man and for man. Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the redemption was accomplished” (19f). In the denial of the world, believers come to share in the redemptive power of the cross through sharing in the suffering of Christ. Each person is to redeem the world around them by being Christ to the world daily. But how does one become Christ to the world? Each person must daily reach out to the lowly, the sick, the hopeless, the despairing, the hungry, the naked and the homeless, since Christ came forth to each Christian when we were in a similar place. Every person has spiritual needs as well as physical needs and as a community of believers, we must be attuned to these needs. Unity grows out of love lived each day in action for our brothers and sisters. We are not meant to be fighting amongst ourselves; people are not the ones who we are fighting in the world. Hollywood is not the enemy, nor are all the Larry Flynts and Bill Clintons of the world. They are our patients, the ones entrusted to us to declare the healing of the Gospel of our Lord. They are the weak, sick, and broken parts of the rosebush of the human race. Christians are the leaves of the human race, who are working for food that will not pass away (cf. John 6:27). The leaves give a rosebush strength and color by spreading the food to all parts of the plant, even the sick and dying parts (i.e. the Larry Flynts of the world). These sick parts are usually given more food (i.e. the time we need to spend praying for them) that rebuild the cells of the plant to become healthy. The beautiful blooms of the saints struggle to bring the sick and lowly to the glory of our Father’s loving plan, so each person may know the beauty of the love of God blooming in their lives. But with the bloom comes the thorns, each person must be pricked in order to become the rose that Christ sees in them. In the winter of society, when all things seem to be dead or dying, we can still look at the roses and see the thorns, remembering the beautiful scent of the rose. Michael Phillips said it best in his series The Secret of the Rose, “For those who love the blooms even the thorns have a scent.” May Mary, who is the Mystical Rose, guide us to her Son, so we may become the beautiful flower which he planted on the hill of Calvary.

(Originally published in the Ave Maria College newspaper in Ypsilanti, MI).

Ransom, Till We Have Faces and sharing in redemption

What follows below is an essay that I have been working on. It is alittle on the long side and is far from finished. But, just the same I would like some feed back about it.

One of the greatest gifts we have been given is the ability to share in the redemptive act for the sake of another. In the fiction of C.S. Lewis there are great examples of this idea in Perelandra and Till We Have Faces. In both of these books one character must suffer, so another may find a path to God. Ransom and Orual both suffer for another in the world around them to regain, in the case of Psyche, or never lose, the King and Queen of Perelandra intimacy with God.
In the case of Ransom the entire future of a planet rests on his intersession for the first parents of the planet. Not just in prayers and arguments, but even more so in actions. Ransom becomes the price paid for the future of Venus. The future of the world rests on the decision of the great Mother of her race to obey the command of Maleldil.[1] The command was not to reside on the fixed lands, but to live on the floating islands. The Un-Man, the fallen angel who entered into Perelandra through Dr Weston, tries to convince the Lady of Perelandra of the good of living on the fixed lands over the islands. The Un-Man attempted to show this through the example of Earth, because all men on Earth live on the fixed lands therefore it cannot be evil. The Un-Man is correct; living on the fixed lands in itself is not an evil. The evil is in disobeying a command of Maleldil. Throughout the arguments between the Lady and the Un-Man, Ransom knows that he is there for a reason but he cannot tell why he has been brought to the planet.
In the dark night, the night itself and the future were both black, before any action is taken Ransom is told something that he did not expect. The voice in his mind told him, “It is not for nothing that you are named Ransom.”[2] Ransom himself did not realize that there could be more than chance to his name being Ransom. He did not think that his surname would have anything to do with the act of ransoming any more than a mere pun. If he was not to be the ransom for this world, then it would have to be redeemed. Maleldil, Himself, would be the ransom for this world just as He was for the Earth. No matter the choice of Dr Ransom the world of Perelandra would be redeemed, it is just a question of when. Either at its beginning or later by Maleldil, whose name is Ransom also, for He is ultimately the only one who ransoms any from the bent one.[3] It is through Dr Ransom that Maleldil wishes to ransom Perelandra at the beginning. In Creation Maleldil uses others as instruments of his acts for the benefit of His servants. Either intelligent beings freely choose to co-operate with Maleldil, that is God, or they rebel against His will. This is the revelation that spurs Dr Ransom into action for the sake of others going beyond his fears and doubts.
The salvation of Perelandra comes when Maleldil casts the Lady into a deep sleep leaving Dr Ransom with the Un-Man. This gives Ransom the chance to deal with the Un-Man without corrupting the innocence of the Lady. The process of dealing with the Un-Man is completely unknown to Ransom. The only thing Ransom knows for certain is that he must act quickly. The first step Ransom takes is to attack the Un-Man with physical force. To the attack the Un-Man responds, “But this is very foolish. Do you not know who I am?”[4] Ransom has a simple response that he knows what he is, which one does not matter at all. The Un-Man proceeds to mock Ransom trying to get him to despair from the task at hand by way of the Crucifixion of Christ and the cry of Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.[5] But Ransom is not deterred by the mocking of this bent creature, not because it was untrue, but the voice of the Un-Man was that of perfect remembrance of events long ago. The words of perfect Aramaic pronunciation of one who was there when those words were uttered and remembered with relish of a victory over Maleldil. The suffering of that day did one thing. Ransom is co-operating in the same act. The act of the redemption of a world. The first world had already fallen into the rebellion of the Bent-One and suffered every day since. The world of Perelandra where Ransom now walks had not yet fallen for the lies of the Bent-One. It is on the razors edge as Ransom walks on it.
It is through the suffering that Ransom is now enduring Perelandra will be redeemed or else it will become like our world. The world of Perelandra will be either kept in the in grace or it will be brought back into grace. If Perelandra is brought back into grace at a later time than it will have to suffer each day sharing in the redemptive act that brought it back to grace. Humans use suffering as a proof that God does not exist. We do not realize that it is something very different. The silence heard in a suffering soul is not because God does not exist or care. Our Great Mother and Father chose to fall from the grace of unity with God, but there is a way back to the unity with God. To go back there must be a cost. Unfortunately, we can never totally return to the time prior to the fall, the affects will always be with us. The fall cannot be undone. God has the power to remove the results of the first sin, but there would be no point unless God was willing to remove the results of the second, third, forth to infinite by the same miracles. If the miracles stopped than we could end up in the same situation that we are in, otherwise the world is being controlled through the direct and constant interference of God.[6] In that case we would not have free will and not be able to love God, choosing Him above all else, choosing love. With the ability to love and choose also comes the chance for suffering.
In our world, that is Earth, suffering came into existence as a result of a choice. In the beginning Adam was told to eat from any of the trees in the garden but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day man eats from that he will be doomed to die.[7] When the woman was created the man told her of the command in regards to the fruit of the garden, so it was the case that God did not tell it to her. So the serpent did not lie in part, but in the end did. The lie was that the warning was given to the entire human race, not just man as in the male and that they will “become like gods, knowing good from evil.”[8] Man and woman already knew the difference between good and evil in virtue of having the gift of reason. As a result of listening to the lie of the serpent pain and toil was introduced into the world.[9] Suffering resulted from sin; sin would be healed through suffering. It could not be the suffering of just anyone though it would have to be a sacrifice without blemish or taint from sin. It must be one who is like to man but free of sin to be sacrificed for sin.[10] In Perelandra things will be different.
In Perelandra it will not be God who takes the suffering onto Himself but will be a sinner who was chosen to protect the first parents of this planet. Ransom must do what every Christian is called to do, bring Christ to the world. Lewis wrote, “…Ransom (to some extent) plays the role of Christ not because he allegorically represents him (as Cupid represents falling in love) but because in reality every real Christian is really called upon in some measure enact Christ.”[11] Ransom is not the personification of Christ, but is a second Christ as are all Christians. Not to say that Christians are Incarnations, but Christians are mirrors of Christ to the world. It is the task of all Christians to go out into the world and bring Christ to the world. Christ commanded it saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."[12] Ransom’s task is not much more difficult than ours. Ransom must teach about sin and death to someone who has no idea what they are, someone who is ‘young’[13], without leading her into sin and death. It is no different in the modern world that denies the existence of sin. Every Christian is called to bring Christ’s redemptive act to the world, so the world may be renewed.

[1] Maleldil is the name of the Son of God in Lewis’ Space Trilogy
[2] C.S. Lewis, Perelandra, (Scribner, New York, NY), 147.
[3] C.S. Lewis, Perelandra, (Scribner, New York, NY), 148. The exact quote is “My name also is Ransom,” said the Voice.
[4] Ibid, 153.
[5] Mathew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” This is the first line of Psalm 22, which starts in pain and suffering, but ends declaring the glory of God.
[6] CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain, (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996), 63.
[7] Genesis 2:16-17 (NJB).
[8] Cf. Genesis 3:1b-3, 5 (NJB).
[9] Cf. Genesis 3:16-19.
[10] Cf. Romans 8:3.
[11] Walter Hooper (ed.), The Collected Letters of CS Lewis: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. 1005.
[12] Matthew 28:19-20.
[13] In Perelandra someone who lacks understanding is referred to by the Lady as being young and is in need of teaching about the ways of Maleldil. She knows herself to be very young and is willing to learn.

Jack Sparrow - Captain Kidd

Everyone's favorite pirate.

Food, Cheer and Song....

So I was listening to the recordedbooks version of The Hobbit last week. A particular line in it jumped out at me: "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world," Thorin Oakenshield said to Bilbo. There is alot of truth in this. Imagine a world that valued peace, food and cheer above all else as the Hobbits did. Things would be very different from the world that we know where money, fame, oil, and prestige are put before all else. What would happen if we took a step back from our lives and took a look at our priorities? What would we find? Would we find division? Would we find peace and happiness? Would we find a complex net that we have wooven around ourselves to hide reality or would we find simplicity in life? In the world of Thorin and Bilbo it is food, song and good cheer that are found in lands of peace. Greed, wanting to be rich and have powerful, causes the problems in this world. All of those who came to the battle of the five armies wanted to the dragon's hoard. This caused war. Bilbo was willing to sacrfice all of his claim to his share of the hoarded treasure to avoid a battle for himself and his friends. It says a great thing when a person, or hobbit, is willing to go out of their way to bring peace about and do what is right as well. We would be much happier and merrier as well. So food, cheer and song are a good thing when they remind us of peace.

Gollum and scientists....not really connected though.

I was reading The Hobbit a couple weeks age and had an intresting thought about Gollum durning the riddle game. I have no evidence for this being true or intentional on the part of Tolkien. But I noticed the spelling of Gollum and what it actually was. In mythology a gollum was a creature that was made of mud, slime, or some other lower creature (frogs for example) that do not have a will of thier own. The realization that I came to was that Gollum was one of these creatures. When he took posetion of the ring he ceased to have a will of his own. He in fact ceased to be Smeagel, but became totally subject to the will of the ring. He no longer was one of the river people, but became a creation of the ring and subject to his will. In the taming of Smeagel we see the battle between two distinct creatures, one meak and innocent being Smeagel who longed for his freedom. The other creature is viscious and treatorous, Gollum. Gollum had become as the ring is, a cricle closed upon itself and empty in the middle.

But the short note concerning scientists is simply this: science must be guided by the true, the good and beautiful. The guide posts for all morality. There are limits to scientfic research, which it seems many present day scientists have forgotten or were never taught. The first is stay within the bounds of the truth of what things are and respect the dignity of the human person. The second is work for the good of all man kind. The best example of science getting away from moral teachings is cloning and embrionic stem cell research. The two are closly linked together. Both cease to respect the truth and dignity of the human person, by making them into tools to be used for the so called betterment of man. The one problem with claiming that the betterment of man is the reason is that embrionic stem cell research has shown no progress. There have been no medical cures from this research. Where adult stem cell reserach that does not involve the distruction of millions of babies per experiment has shown progress and has saved many lives by healing organs. The issue between the two is not cures it is money. There are billions of dollars in corporate grants given each year for embrionic research. Often this is by people who support Planned ParentHood and are funding the culture of death in our society. Perhaps my two topics are not seperate and scientists have become gollums to money, rather than scientists.

Something that stuck with me.

Over this past weekend I was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Woredrobe for the I really don't know how manyth time. But something jumped out at me. When Lucy and Suzan are hidding in the bushs just before the Witch kills Aslan. As he laid tied to the Stone Table shaved and seemingly in disgrace. Lewis writes this of that moment, "...the first shock was over the shorn face Aslan looked to her braver, and more beautiful,and more patient than ever." Christians know the meaning to suffering, we get it from Christ. Suffering is to heal the heart of the world and bring all back to the One who made the world. Aslan was the one who brought the world of Narnia into existence and promised that the greatest wickness of the Withc would fall upon Himself (see The Magician's Nephew). In that moment when the triump of the Witch seems most certian, the Great Lion looks more beautiful than ever. There is a beauty in the Cross of Christ as well. God is bringing down the worst of the punishment of all sin upon Himself, because no man could bare it. Why did Christ do this for us? Why did Aslan do this for us? Aslan and Christ did it for one reason alone....out of love. Pure, unconditional love for creation. Look into the eyes of any image of the crucfixtion or the Etche Homo (sp?) and you will see there the love that came to save the world. After you have seen that love nothing can be the same. Everything changes......

Lack of anything to say....

As the title of this entry says, I really don't have anything to say. However, I did come across a new video from Rebecca St James that I thought I would share. It is very similar to the skit Rag Man, if any of you are fimliar with it. It is very well done.

So passes the Crock Hunter Steve Irwin......

In this video Steve Irwin morns for a crocadile, now the animals will morn for him. Rest in peace.

Yes, It is true Steve Irwin has died this weekend.

Why are there no more examples like this?

We need more people with values like John Wayne had....