I pray for the day when our nation and all our people will become dedicated to truth.  We have lost our respect for the sacredness of truth.  Truth is the essence of God’s being, and  we as Christians must be dedicated to truth and honesty.  It is almost impossible to believe what is reported in the media about almost everything, from the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, to what happens in foreign countries, especially those countries we don’t like.  I was shocked while doing research for my latest book to find out that Iran was the first country in the Middle East to have a democratically elected government.  Its prime minister was a well-known and highly respected scholar by the name of Mossadeq.   He was elected by 98% of the Iranian people.  On taking office in 1951 his greatest goal was to raise the economic level of the Iranian people, but soon found out that the worst obstacle was the problem of foreign oil.  The British oil compani, now British Petroleum was taking 96% of the profits from the oil they were extracting from Iran, making it impossible for the government to care for its own people.  So, Mossadeq instituted a host of internal reforms and then nationalized the British oil company.  As soon as he did that, Winston Churchill called President Eisenhower and they plotted the overthrow of Mossadeq, and after a short time the CIA succeeded in accomplishing that.  Mossadeq  was arrested, imprisoned for three years and then put under house arrest until his death. They then plotted to an army general and later, the Shah, who was a ruthless dictator, whom the Iranians hated.  Another interesting fact I discovered when I was doing research for my book was that the largest community of Jews in the Middle East outside of Israel is in Iran.  That Jewish community has been there for over 3000 years ever since their exile way back in ancient Jewish history.  And they have no interest in leaving. The Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 had the Iranian parliament declare them a privileged minority with representation in the parliament.

And it is not just our lack of truth about other countries, it also concerns reporting of our own national issues.  When the oil spill crisis took place, everyone panicked, especially as the news media kept interviewing people who were totally ignorant of what was happening, and everyone with a mouth was looked upon as an expert.  Daily they kept decrying that the devastation was so bad, it would take generations before the fishing industry would be able to get back on its feet.  And now that facts are coming out, the fishing beds are already being opened and not only the fishing beds but the shell fish have been declared safe and uncontaminated.  Complaints about people not being compensated for their losses are rampant.  But, interestingly, it is not the government’s fault.  The real reason I was told by friends of mine who have businesses there is that most businesses do not keep financial records, so they a have no documentary proof of their losses. Talk about honesty! That depressed me because my heart went out to those people, and I prayed for them daily.

And we see this lack of dedication to truth in what most of our people are willing to believe about our Muslim neighbors who have been living here for generations.  It is sad that we can be so miserable and hateful towards these people, and again because we are so willing to believe what is not true about them.  This has been a sad part of our history, the way we have treated our immigrants, not just today, but in the past.  We treated the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Polish and Catholics the same way, and smeared their reputations just like we are doing today to the Mexicans and the Muslims.

Our lack of dedication to what is true is not a political issue.  It is an unhealthy and dangerous moral crisis that can tear our country apart, and do untold harm if we don’t wise up and stop our willingness to believe evil of others. The least we can do is teach our children to have a respect for truth, and the importance of integrity and honesty, which is so sadly lacking.

Friendship is a wonderful gift that God gave us.  The ability to meet others and immediately begin to bond with them seems so magical.  Today most of my family came to a little gathering I arranged.  I hadn’t seen some of them in a long time, and I know some of the nephews and nieces and grand nephews and grand nieces had not even met each other.  There were forty or fifty all together, but all scattered out as the kids were exploring the house to decide if they wanted to live here, or come back again so to stay overnight, while others explored the ponds looking for fish or frogs.  It was fun watching the kids getting acquainted trying to figure out who belonged to whom and where they lived, and hoping they could get together again soon.  Some became best friends almost immediately and made plans to keep in touch, even though they were only five or six years old.  Little ones who were total strangers to each other even though they were cousins, started playing together as they were becoming acquainted.  Before long as they lost all their shyness, they were having fun together as if they were long time friends.  It was so beautiful and so much fun to watch them as they mingled with one another and moved from one group to another getting acquainted with other cousins.  The fun they were having was a remarkable experience.  It was so good and so healthy to see family having such a good time together.   I hope we can do it again soon. 

It all made me realize that God made us his human children to thrive and grow on friendships.  It is the secret to healthy family life, as well as healthy community life and healthy life among nations.  I can see how world leaders getting to know one another and cultivating friendships can be mutually beneficial to each others countries, and is much more effective in promoting cooperation among nations and helping each other to prosper than seeing evil in others and creating stressful competition and confrontations that eventually lead to wars and mutual destruction. A kind and caring God has given us all we need to live peaceful lives on this earth.  All we have to do is appreciate the resources he blessed us with as instruments of peace.  One of the greatest and most beautiful is our ability to appreciate the value of friendship.

When I read about Dr. Stephen Hawkings yesterday, saying that God had no role in the creation of the universe, I felt sad about the man.  I am sure he feels that way, but if he was logical, he would have been more correct if he said it is difficult to understand scientifically that God had played a part in the creation of the universe.  But, for him to make the statement that he did, was not based on anything scientific but just a personal belief, even though scientists are not supposed to make statements based on belief.   But ever since the evidence of the Big Bang has become so widely accepted among scientists, it is surprising that Dr. Hawkings did not take that into his consideration.  Even Einstein eventually accepted it although he refused even to consider it for a long time.  It was only after Dr. Le Maitre explained to him that his own mathematics leads to the existence of the beginning of the universe, Dr. Einstein told him that he realized that but did not want to discuss it, because he was not ready to go that far, namely, to accept a beginning of the universe because it points graphically to the existence of its creator. However, when other scientists ridiculed Le Maitre, who was a Catholic priest, Einstein came to his defense and backed up his mathematical and scientific conclusions.  Since then most scientists accept not only the Big Bang as a fact, but that it does point to a creator. 

 

But, that is not the most beautiful phenomenon about God.  What is most important to all of us is that this God loves us, and shares so much of himself with us all day long.  Look at how wonderfully we are made. We’re not accidents of random chance.  That takes too much faith.  It is so clear that we were made very carefully and lovingly, and blessed with endless gifts, for which he never asks much in return, only that we share.  And it is for that reason, we should share willingly and generously and not begrudgingly with others.  Since God has been so generous with us, and asks very little, and demands little accounting of how we use his gifts, we should not be demanding of how others use the few cents we give them, or critical if they use our trivial alms on some small pleasure.

At the Last Supper, Philip said to Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

That is part of the great mystery that is our faith, the intimacy of the presence of the Father and the Son, and the Spirit all in one, and yet each manifested in his own unique identity, but still radiating the essence of each other’s being.

What makes Christianity and our faith so different from every other religion is the beautiful reality that Jesus draws us who have been infused with a sharing in his divine life through baptism into an identification with himself that is so intimate, that we are expected by God to reflect the image of Jesus just as Jesus reflected the image of his Father.  As Jesus could say, “When you see me you see the Father,” so people should be able to say of each of us, “When we see you we see Jesus.”  That is the test of whether we are genuine followers of Jesus, and children of his heavenly Father.  People should be able to know that Jesus is alive and real by the graphic vision of his presence glorified in the way we live our lives.  If Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and others and even people with no beliefs could see the living Jesus and his divine love shining brilliantly through us, in the way we live and think and act, the whole world would flow to Jesus in vast numbers eagerly desiring to live the life his showed us.  How many times people say to persons who live beautiful lives, “You are so beautiful. I want to be like you.”  If people are not drawn to Jesus by knowing us, then we have sure knowledge that we are not genuine followers of Jesus.

As you live with Jesus over a long period of time, you sense things about his personality that were not noticeable before.  One that just struck me for the first time was how calm Jesus is in a conversation.  I have friends whom I have never heard speak in a calm quiet tone.  When you read the gospels carefully, and notice the wide variety of people Jesus talks to, you begin to notice he always speaks in carefully measured words, each word pregnant with a variety of meanings, all thoughtfully calculated to force the listener or audience to look deeply into what he is trying to teach them.  And he does it with such delicacy and finesse.  There is never anything crude or rude in the way Jesus speaks to people.  He speaks to each one and each group with a loving concern for each, always aware of the personal pain and burdens they all carry.

 

He never says anything calculated to hurt, though at times he is sharp, like a surgeon with a scalpel, making a clean-cut incision that for a moment may hurt, but a hurt that is carefully calculated to heal or make the person search his soul.

 

I don’t think anyone ever walked away from Jesus, without being emotionally and spiritually enriched by their encounter with him.  Everything he said was calculated to heal or inspire, and even his enemies had to feel a guilt that was like a fish hook in their hearts, words intended to burn out the evil embedded deep within their souls.  It may have taken a long time for his words to penetrate their stony hearts, but in time it accomplished its purpose, even if it was long after his resurrection before they realized the true identity of this calm and gentle teacher who had tried so hard to reach their hearts.

Why is it when people’s money is threatened whole countries turn to hate?  It happened in Germany before World War II.  It happens in countries in the Middle East where people live in harsh economic conditions and where their rulers are despots. And it is happening here.  I get sick to my stomach when I hear public figures parading their Christianity and their devotion to family values, and their sacred ideals, and then see them spew such hate against political opponents, and people of other religions, knowing full well that what they are saying with such saccharin piety are pure lies, and hateful smears. 

Let’s be very clear about religion and people’s practice of religion.  While these sanctimonious hypocrites spread hatred across the airwaves, and in stump speeches, how profound are their commitments to what Jesus really taught.  Jesus never taught hate, but our news media are filled all day long with so-called pious Christians spewing hate against anyone who is different from them.  Jesus commanded that we forgive, but when a public figure reaches out to hostile countries they call him a traitor.  Let’s be real.  How Christian are our people?  I know so many crooked judges and district attorneys it makes me sick, and it makes me sicker when I see priests and bishops fawning over them. All good Christians, of course!  There may be 1% of priests who are pedophiles, but most of the pedophiles are fathers of families, and sometimes mothers, sadly enough. And pedophiles are very common among professional people, and across the whole spectrum of society, even among those dedicated to safeguarding our citizens.  All good Christians, of course!   And adultery is perhaps the most popular sport in the country, even among members of the strictest of our Christian denominations who parade their dedication to family values.  All good Christians, of course!  And it breaks my heart when I see heads of corporations firing thousands of workers just before quarterly financial reports are due, just so they can justify their multimillion dollar bonuses for having done such a good job.  I cringed when I saw these corporate officials so piously coming to Communion on Sunday mornings.  All good Christians, of course!  And how many crooked business people justify their business practices on the ‘principle’ that it is just good business.  And to say nothing of the whole financial world collapsing and almost bringing about the collapse of the whole world economy by their grossly immoral business practices, so glibly justified by chalking it up to free market economics, and in the process destroying the lives of millions of people worldwide.  All good Christians, of course!

And one incident that I have a hard time forgetting is about a very well-known political and business figure who went around the country mouthing family values and good Christian living, while talking his wife into allowing him to invest her vast inheritance, and then putting it in his name and then divorcing her.  A good Christian, of course.

And then theses same pious Christians all of a sudden transform themselves into models of righteousness and condemn Muslims wholesale, as if every single Muslim was evil and a threat to our survival.  If we fail to survive it will not be because of Muslim terrorists, but because of our own sick society that pampers itself while enjoying evil practices as if they were virtues. 

If the fact be known, just as we Christians don’t do very well at practicing the beautiful ideals that Jesus gave us, so the Muslims don’t practice many of the things in their sacred writings.  But, there a difference.  Many, and I mean many, Muslims are more impressed with Jesus’ teachings and in their hearts live Jesus’ teachings than they are with some of their own, and practice many of Jesus’ ideals in their own lives, but can’t dare let anyone know that, even among their own close friends.  I think I can safely say that there are more Muslims than we could imagine who secretly practice what Jesus taught because they see the beauty and purity of Jesus’ life.  The sad thing is that the rampant hatred of self-righteous, phony patriotic Christians, is showing to Muslims of good will just what we Christians are all about, from a whole sect of political leaders down to the masses of rank and file bigots.  This can only be a humiliation and cause of shame to the millions of decent Christians who take their love of and loyalty to Jesus seriously.

In difficult times like we are experiencing today, there is nothing more dangerous than fear.   I have had problems since my publisher dropped me, which created a very difficult situation for me.  At first I was concerned, especially at my age, but then I realized that fear accomplishes nothing.  It only paralyses us and prevents us from developing creative ways to forge ahead.  And that is just what I did. I have a new publisher who will do something the major publisher did not do for me, and that was advertise my books when they were released.  Some of my oldest friends had no idea I had twenty-four books published. 

The situation is similar with our economy.  We can curl up and hide and cry about how bad things are, and allow ourselves to be paralyzed by listening all day long to fear-mongers, or we can do something about it.  And we can do a lot.  The temptation to just save and not spend is the worse thing we can do, because we consumers are the very ones who keep the economy moving.  While it is wise to save, and we should, there is no reason why each of us can spend at least 2 or 3 hundred dollars.  Imagine 1,000,000 people spending $200 each.  That’s $200,000,000.  Not a small amount, but imagine if 5,000,000 people spent $200 dollars.  That’s $1,000,000,000.  And with that much money going into buying manufactured goods, the stores would have to buy more products, and the manufacturers would have to produce more and they would soon have to hire more workers, and the whole economy starts moving again.  And we have more than 5 million consumers. Imagine 100 million people spending only $200!  That’s 20 billion dollars.  So, rather than live in fear, and bemoan the miserable state we’re in, let’s get things moving.  Talk to your friends.  Pass the word around.  Each one of us can make a difference, and in this way we help out each other and pick ourselves up and start moving again.  Patriotism is a virtue.  Fear can destroy us.  So, let’s get started. I went out and bought a Soleus heat pump for $375 which provides air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter, and the whole unit fits in one room and provides what I need for my whole apartment.  And it is manufactured in the United States.  But, even though it is hard buy anything manufactured here, our stores and our economy still benefit from the sales.  So, don’t let that stop you.  I hope you pass this message around, so we can fire up our economy again and help one another.  We ourselves have the power to get our country back on its feet.

If I were to deliver the following counsels in my sermons, would I be popular? 

“If you have a difficult time with your brothers or sisters, or mother or father, don’t cut them off from your life, but talk to them and make peace with them, for they are your gift from God.”

“Do not be vengeful, and if someone offends you, don’t try to get even but forgive him. In fact, learn to love your enemies, and be kind to those who do evil things to you.”

“Don’t waste your life by accumulating riches, whether they be material goods or money.  Be content with just what you need, and lend to others generously with whatever money you have left over and don’t charge for your generosity, as God doesn’t charge you for his generosity.  And whatever you have left of what you don’t need, give it to those who are in dire need.”

“Remember, if you fall in love with money, you spend your time and energy accumulating money that you should spend on serving God and meditating on his goodness.  If you love money with your whole soul, and most of your thoughts, what is left of your life for God?”

“Don’t look to money and earthly riches for security.  They are all made of dirt, and are of little value.  Trust only in your Father in heaven, for he alone can protect you from all harm and assure you of what you need in this life and in the life to come.”

“Do not think evil of anyone, for if you judge others harshly, your heavenly Father will judge you harshly when you appear before him.  Be kind in your thoughts of others, and your heavenly Father will be kind in his judgment of you.”

“Never turn down anyone if they ask you for help.  There is always someway you may be able to help that person, even if it is only a kind word or a smile.  And when you do help, do not ask for or expect any compensation.  Give of yourself generously as your heavenly Father always gives generously to you.”

“Go to God when you are hurting or depressed.  Don’t try to find comfort in sinful pleasures which can give you no lasting joy, only guilt and misery.”

“Don’t keep testing God when you want something.  Too many people expect God to be their servant, and become angry with him when he doesn’t do what they want.   Be humble and approach God with a humble spirit, and trust him.  He will respect your humility and protect you in all you do.”

“Be grateful to God because he has given you everything you have.  And he gives to you generously so you can share with others, not so you can keep everything for yourself.  You will have to answer for your greed.”

“Spend more time in prayer and thinking about God than you do thinking about money and material possessions, otherwise there is reason to wonder which has been your god.’”

 “Never pass a person in need and not try to help in some way, because that person is Jesus whom you have met, even though you may be tempted to judge him harshly for no good reason.”

“Be a good  example to your children, because they will imitate you. If your heart is on God, their hearts will be on God. If your heart is on things of this world, they will drift away from God, and you will be answerable for them.”

“Be merciful to others, and your heavenly Father will be merciful to you.  If you are not merciful to others, don’t expect your heavenly Father to be merciful to you.”

“Spend you life caring for others, for every good deed you do for others is the only investment that has meaning to your heavenly Father.  A life spent only for ourselves is meaningless to God.”

“When you appear before God, he will ask you, ‘What are you bringing to me?’  And you will ask him, ‘What do you mean?’ And he will say, ‘What have you done for others during your lifetime?’  And you will look back over your life, and will you be hard pressed to come up with more than just a few things, the leftovers of your life, or have you given generously of yourself to others?”

Do you think Jesus would be popular if he said these things?  Which he really did!

I am surprised at how many supposedly intelligent people today make judgments based on perception rather than on facts.  It is so prevalent it is frightening.   We often make a judgment about a program or a company based on advertising or publicity rather than on solid knowledge based on facts.  I have seen many community leaders’ reputations ruined by gossip and rumors that had nothing but jealousy or envy as the foundation of the smear.  Every now and then an extremely intelligent leader will come upon the scene and because lesser people cannot compete with him, their smear campaign will almost certainly in time destroy his credibility, as ordinary people who can’t distinguish between fact and smear, will judge him as inept because of their manipulated perception of the person.

Wnen Joshua first came out, immediately people who didn’t like the book, spread all kinds of rumors about me being a disgruntled Catholic priest who was out to destroy the Church.  Since these people published a widely read newspaper read my many Catholics, including bishops, my reputation was ruined by their perception of me that had been manipulated by those who accused me of teaching ideas which I never talked about, and spreading the rumor that I admitted I did not believe in God.  That was particularly destructive as they sent this newspaper to bishops around the country.  So their perception of me from that time was that I was some kind of a ‘nut.’

And I know of a young man, who was accused of a crime, and the local newspaper in that young man’s neighborhood, who knew nothing about that young man, wrote a scathing article about him calling him all kinds of malicious names, and tried to convince the populace that that young man should be sentenced to prison.  When the fellow was asked to plea to a lesser charge, he refused on the grounds that he would not plea to a crime he did not commit.  The perception of many people about that young man was clearly negative.  The judge accused him of being arrogant for refusing to accept a plea.  He said that even what he would be pleading to would be just a lesser crime, and again a crime that he did not commit. When asked if he was afraid of being sent to prison, his answer was no, “If I go to prison it is only because Jesus must have somebody or some others there whom he wants me to help, so that doesn’t bother me.”

Again the judge thought that was arrogance.  My perception of the judge was that he did not understand the difference between arrogance and integrity, and my further perception, which I could not say was based on facts, is that the judge may not have been familiar with integrity.

Watching the documentary on Katrina and its devastation of New Orleans and other cities in Mississippi and Alabama, it was easy for me to sense of how hopeless the situation was for those people.  Yet, they never lost hope.  They lost their homes, everything they ever owned: their money, their treasured possessions, their family heirlooms, relatives, sometimes mothers and fathers, and children.  What more could a human being lose?  And the remarkable phenomenon is that these brave people never lost hope, and now hardly five years later, they are well on their way to recovery, not of all they lost, especially their loved ones, but they have been miraculously recovering their lives and are facing the future with pride, with hope and with determination.

It is clear from all those poor folks who were interviewed in the midst of the catastrophe that they were people of faith, and their trust in the Lord never wavered.  They were crying and desolate but their spirit was not crushed. 

And this is a powerful lesson for all of us.  When the worst that can happen happens, and when things seem most bleak and hopeless, hope and trust in a God who cares will see us through.  We can never peer into the mind of God, but God has the genius to bring good out of the most impossible situations.  How he does that is a mystery, and the resolution of most difficult and impossible situations is just as impossible for out human minds to understand, but it happens, and the storm that we thought was inevitable, mysteriously turns calm down and passes in an instant.  And we wonder what happened.  Miracle? Yes, but miracles are everyday happenings with God, so it shouldn’t be surprising.  When situations are at their worst and most hopeless, God is at his best.  So, never lose hope in our loving God who cares for us more than we could ever understand.