Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Sunday, March 31, 2002 Hmm - Try Harder to Do Better One of my pet peeves toward priests and preachers is that every homily or sermon becomes the samo samo exhortation in one form or another to try harder to do better. How would you like to have been raised by parents who never thought anything you did was ever adequate but always insisted you could "try harder to do better"? How would you like to raise children like that. If you do, don't be surprised if they either kill themselves or you. Jesus didn't always harp on perfectionism either. But Fr. Shawn O'Neal at Onealism says in his Easter homily - "We are called to make this world new in the image of his glory. It sounds difficult, but remember that what many people thought to be impossible is the very thing that we celebrate today. The renewal of the world and its people is truly possible. So do not let your joy be a private joy today. Share your joy. The more that we share our joy, the more that the world will be made new in the image of the risen Jesus. This is a tremendous task, but it is the task that God wants all of us to perform. It is time for us to do more than celebrate the resurrection; it is now time, through the power of the resurrected Jesus, to take this world back from the clutches of evil and fear" This is impossibly silly. Jesus in fact tells us that this world is hopeless and the best we can do is to get ourselves rescued from it. If we have any goodness in us, we will of course treat others well and do our work the best we can, but we are not called to do anything to save the world from its evil and fear. We might help another soul from time to time, but that's about it. But a crusade? Come on, padre, where'd you get this from? What are they smokin' in the seminary you came out of? Remember John? The world chooses darkness because people hate the light? It's sad but true. Also, prove to me that you can change into the image of the resurrected Jesus before you start trying to change the world. Show me why other people are the problem while you aren't. How do I even know what the image of the resurrected Jesus is? It sounds like you have an idea, though. The problem is that images are generally false when we try to shove God into a picture. Haven't you heard, Shawn, that there shall be no new earth or new heaven until this old earth passes away and all its evil and fallen condition with it? There's no saving the world - only individuals - and if you look at the record of our faith, we fail a lot. posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:07 AM | |
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