Pull Me Out Of the Net

Psalms 31:1-4

1.    In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

2.    Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.

3.    For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.

4.    Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.

I know what it’s like to be caught in the net of sin.  I know what it’s like to do what I, deep in my heart, don’t want to do, and thereby become ensnared in the chains of consequence.  I want to be free, I want to break the chains of enslavement to the flesh… but I am weak… the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is certainly weak.  And, sometimes… the spirit isn’t even all that willing.

 

I have made a vow.  No, I am not married and neither am I consecrated to a Religious Order, but, still, I have made a vow.  I have taken the leap of faith and given my heart, “credo,” to God.  My relationship with God is one of commitment and devotion to Him, through Christ Jesus, a loving surrender of self to be in union with Christ’s Sacred Heart and the Divine Way in giving myself to God.  Though most of my sentences thus far in this writing have begun with “I”, I know that I am not the beginning, I am not my own source, and neither am I the ultimate end – that is God.  In love I believe, I give my heart, my whole self, to God and I trust in God.  He is my salvation.  He is my Savior.  He is my rock.  He is my strength.  He is my hope…

 

And, so, with a contrite heart, repentant of my actions, fully aware of my weakness, my fallibility, my too often lack of love and fidelity, I turn to God who is my Rescuer, my Salvation, and God hears my penitential cry for mercy.  God does bow down His divine ear to me and hears my sorrow, hears my desire to be healed and made new.  God pulls me out of the snares of sin and stands me on His firm ground, to begin again, forgiven.  God invites me, calls me, to take refuge in Him to find my home, my strength and renewal, in His house, His fortress against all that would trap me, all that would weigh me down with the burden of unlove, the burden of selfishness.  God frees me and cleans me and gives me strength to try once more to walk in the ways of righteousness, the ways of love, faithfulness, and forgiveness.

 

And God wants me to be like Him and do the same for all of His beloved children.  And, yet… how often have I wanted people, even the people that I love, to suffer punishment for their wrongdoings, to hurt, to suffer, even to bleed?  Do I have no mercy in my heart?  If I have actually given my heart and placed my heart into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, into the endless font of mercy and love, then shouldn’t I, too, be merciful and loving?

 

God created everything out of nothing and, even out of darkness, God creates light; even out of despair, God creates hope; even out of wrongdoing, God creates right.  And, so, though I am a limited human being fraught with faults and failings, God loves me and teaches me in my weakness.  God takes pity on me.  From my own experience with sin, from my own falling down on my face in the ensnaring net of selfishness and infidelity, God, in saving me, shows me the beautiful strength and power of mercy, the unlimited rescue and goodness of love.  May I so love as God loves me.  May I, in His Spirit, lovingly strive to set other captives free.

Christina Chase

 

As Thou Art

1 Kings 21:36

Then said he unto him, because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee.  And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him.

 

Instant gratification. 

We see our favorite candy bar in the checkout aisle at the grocery store and, even though it was not our intent or plan to purchase and eat that chocolate that day, we immediately want its deliciousness.  So, we buy it, unwrap it before the bagger has finished packing our last item, and eat it all up while loading the car, before we even drive away.  And, for those few minutes of time, we experience pleasure.  Unconsciously, we develop an understanding that feelings of desire can be instantly gratified with pleasing results and, so, the things that we want for ourselves we get for ourselves – no wondering, no worrying, no waiting.

 

When our monthly check on our bank account reveals a lower-than-expected dollar figure, we lament over how fast money disappears.  When our next visit to the dentist reveals a cavity in need of filling, we groan with dread of the impending pain and bill to pay.  And when our clothes start to fit a little too tightly on our bodies, we become upset and frustrated, wondering what lengths we’ll have to go to in order to lose some weight – a gym membership or that tedious new diet people are talking about?  A lottery win would solve our first problem.  A filling then and there to get it done and over with would help us at the dentist’s office.  And buying new clothes would cancel out our third problem.  Because we’re used to instant results and getting what we want.
 

The results of that impulsively acquired candy bar go beyond the immediate feelings of pleasure.  What if we experienced those consequences as instantly as we taste its deliciousness?  What if the candy bar cost three times as much and, as soon as we put it in our mouths, our teeth would hurt and buttons pop?  I’m guessing that we would think twice about grabbing the chocolate the next time we saw it beside the cash register.  And what if this was true about more than just edible treats?  What if the second we told a white lie to our employer, we got fired?  What if the first time we took our frustrations out on a loved one in unkindness and unfairness that dear person left us and never came back?  What if, in walking past someone who has fallen without assisting to pick him up, we found ourselves beaten in an alley by thugs with no one in a cold, selfish world answering our cries for help? 

 

In the Bible we hear stories of instant punishment.  When God is disobeyed, the earth opens up and swallows the wrongdoers or storms of fire rain down on the heads of the unjust.  This thought terrifies us, but also delights us, in a way.  For we understand the language of instant gratification.  We want to be able to get what we want, when we want it.  And we imagine God being like us in this – if He wants to smite us for our wickedness, then He will smite us cold, sending a lion to slay us or turning us into pillars of salt.  For this is the kind of instant gratification that we want against our enemies, against those who we see as hurting us or as standing in the way of our own glory.  But, though God, in His Divine love for us, reaches out to reveal Himself to us in the language that we understand, He is not as petty and impatient as we are.  Throughout time, God has led us by the hand like little children, teaching us in ways that developing humans are taught, with instant reactions to our actions so that our little minds can make the connections between cause and effect.  But, we do not remain undeveloped forever.  There comes a time (in history as well as in our own individual lives) when, if we are to be fulfilled as human beings, we must understand to the best of our abilities the wide range of connections, the vast consequences of every small act.  We are called by God to see that we are connected, in the present, to both our pasts and our futures and that we are connected, always, to one another.

 

Nothing exists in a vacuum of time.  Nor in a vacuum of space.  Everyone and everything relates to each other, is connected.  Like it or not, everyone and everything leaves a mark of some kind.  We are not little islands living lives of little bubbles of time.  No one is isolated or removed from the interweaving of reality, for life is whole.  And we are all inextricably linked to our one, common source that flows all through us – “the ultimate reality that everyone calls God.”[1]

Christina Chase

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[1] St. Thomas Aquinas

Exercise Lordship

Mark 10:42-45

But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:

And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

 

Here in the United States of America, the people form the government.  We choose representatives and elect officials to whom we give authority to establish and enforce laws.  We also give them the authority to develop and manage entities and programs to promote national security and to help the poor and the needy.  Those elected or appointed to government positions who have the most responsibilities nationally have higher statures than others – like the President, who is the chief executive officer of the federal government.  It is easy for a President of the United States, or for a Senator or member of the House of Representatives with extra clout, to see himself or herself as a person of great importance and great authority.  But no one in the government, not even the Commander-In-Chief, has any kind of authority except what the people have chosen to give.  We the people have placed the President and the members of Congress in their positions and have given them the responsibility of working on our behalf.  They are our servants.  They are not our masters.  And when any of them act with a kind of self conceit, as though they have all the answers, as though they are entitled to act the way they do, as though whatever they do should be acceptable to us because they are the ones doing it – well, then it becomes clear that they just don’t get it.  The one who is given the most authority and responsibility is the one who is the servant – they serve at the pleasure of the people.

 

With much disappointment, I consider the actions and words of congressional members and of the president as they are working through a federal shutdown and trying to keep our government from defaulting on its loans.  It no longer seems to be about a difference in opinion or ideas, but rather a simple difference in political parties.  Victory for them, it seems, is for the other party to be blamed for any bad things that happen.  In other words, our public servants in the federal government seem perfectly willing to keep their paychecks and benefits, to keep their jobs, while discontinuing the paychecks or even ending the jobs of the people that they are supposed to serve – as long as it looks like it’s entirely the fault of the guys from the other party.  And I say – Really??? 

 

It’s as though their job is to engage in a competition to see who is the greatest among them.  They are too busy pointing fingers and puffing themselves up to actually do the work that needs to be done in the government.  We did not elect them and we do not send tax money to pay their salaries in order for them to vilify a political party while raising their personal clout within their own political party.  True Independents can work just as hard for the American people as a Republican or Democrat – and maybe even better because they won’t waste time trying to suck up to their party leaders while denigrating the other side’s leaders and supporters.  Both sides are guilty of this juvenile behavior, make no mistake about it, and I’m sick of it!  And I’m not the only one.  But I’m not going to resort to name-calling and pointless ranting.  I’m reminded, instead, of the limitations of government itself.

 

We, the people, have become too complacent with our Democratic Republic.  We have fallen into the trap of those who want to be counted as among the greatest by seeing high-ranking officials in government as people separate from us, almost in a class above us.  Yes, I know that we talk smack about them and do a lot of finger-pointing and denigrating ourselves, but we seem to do it because we have fallen into the error of thinking that we need to choose sides.  Do you agree with the Republicans or the Democrats?  And if one chooses the Democratic Party, then the Republican Party is seen as a joke, a disgrace, a terrible plague.  If one chooses the Republican Party, then the Democratic Party is seen as a joke, a disgrace, a terrible plague.  It’s like we think we’re spectators at a football game, choosing sides, sending out chants, holding up signs – but not actually in the game.  But, not only is it vital to remember that the working of the federal government is not a sport or a game, it is also vitally important to remember that we are not spectators.  We are the leaders of our society.

 

In everything that we say and in everything that we do, we are setting an example, forming a path upon which others will walk.  And as they walk, they will shape that path as well.  We, the people, are the government, are the elected officials within the government, are those who have been given leadership roles in the government.  They are human beings just like us.  We are human beings just like them.  Next election, when the choices on my ballot are people who care more about their stature or their party than about the job that needs to be done, then I am going to write in the name of a person I know who is honest and kind, who is reasonable and mature, a person with integrity.  Because, if you think about it, the people who run for public office are the people who really think that they should be there – so we only get to choose from people who are already full of themselves.  Now, yes, I know that there are exceptions.  There has been and are some very good public servants who truly have the interest of the people at heart and who don’t resort to juvenile, bipartisan games no matter what the cost to their own stature or clout among the rest of them.  We need more people like that.  And perhaps the best way to start changing the government is by changing ourselves. 

 

Let’s lead by our own examples.  Let’s not make discussions of what’s going wrong in our nation’s Capitol all about who can make the best joke or most cutting remark about this party or that.  There are only 535 members of Congress, plus 1 president and 1 vice president – and there are over 314,165,191 people in the United States.  If the majority of us in our country devoted ourselves to being honest, reasonable, mature and selfless, then that small percentage of us who we send to work in the government will have a much better chance of acting the same way.  If we only take care of our own – our own selves or our own family members or our own political parties – then we should not expect our representatives to act differently.  The president, the senators, and the representatives are a reflection of the people – after all, the people become presidents, senators and representatives.  And now it’s like they’re holding a mirror up to us – and it isn’t pretty, is it?

 

The only real and true greatness comes through humble and selfless service to others.  If we the people don’t know that and act accordingly, then the government we form will be likewise ignorant – and selfish.

Christina Chase

Members One of Another

Romans 12:4-5

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

We often think that the little things we do, the small lives that we live, have no great impact on the world.  And perhaps we don’t… most people will not be like a tsunami, altering an entire shoreline in just a few minutes of time.  But… that great and powerful wave is made up of individual drops of water.  Without tiny drops of water, there is no tsunami.  Without small, individual lives, there is no great and mighty force.  When one person unites intentions with another person… and then another… and then another… the largeness of their impact on the world multiplies.  Together we are strong. We may think that our one drop is of no consequence, and certainly our one drop is not the one that did the ultimate deed – because the ultimate deed is not done by any single drop.  All are needed together.  If one defects or strays or stays behind lazily, then others may follow, as is the course of things in life, and then what?  The strength is diminished, the impact altered irrevocably.

And even one tiny drop alone has an impact – though it may not be noticed by the world… or even by the drop itself.  One single drop dislodges one single grain of sand on the shore – and the shore is changed.  One person, fully alive, can move a person sized island.  For even one atom, well directed, can change other atoms.  At the atomic level, this is change profound.  Just so, one person’s thought, well directed, can change other persons’ thoughts.  At a personal level, this change is likewise profound.  It should never be taken lightly.  One person’s thought aimed outward at another can be as useful as clean energy… or as destructive as a bomb.

As we are all connected one to another, like members of one body, we each have the ability to affect another and, so, the whole.  It takes the entire human body to willfully move one finger – the brain, spinal cord, nerves, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and even the respiratory and circulatory systems are needed for this movement, the immune system to allow the body to be healthy enough for such movement, and the bones to hold together and the skin to stretch.  Not to mention the imagination and will to inspire and initiate the movement of that one little finger.  One tiny and seemingly insignificant act of kindness to another human being is not only good because it may inspire another such act – it can actually change the entire day of that one person, allowing him or her to be open to receive something of great impact that he or she would not have been able to receive otherwise.  It can be life altering.

A small, seemingly menial act, like helping a man clean up the coffee he spilled himself, can remind that man that there is kindness and gentleness in the world, that he isn’t left alone to fend for himself in a cruel and hostile world, as he had been feeling.  And then, when his estranged wife calls him an hour later, hinting again that she may like to talk things over and try to heal their relationship, he will not be defensive, like he usually is, and he, refreshed in believing in goodness without even remembering why, will be moved to respond gently and generously.  And the one who helped the man clean up his spilled coffee that day will never know that a family was eventually healed and children returned to a stable and loving home.

One drop in an ocean.  One member in a body entire.  This is the truth of one, small human life, profoundly powerful.

Christina Chase