Tag: Faith

Remembering at Passover and Easter

Passover is a divinely commanded remembrance ritual that celebrates the liberation from Egypt of the enslaved descendants of Jacob/Israel.
   The Bible describes the many, failed attempts to convince the Pharaoh to grant them freedom. Ten plagues or divine actions were meant to force his hand. He resisted nine, but with the tenth, the death of every firstborn son, he relented and allowed the Hebrews to leave Egypt.
   Through Moses and Aaron, God had instructed the Hebrew people what to do to safeguard their firstborn sons during this final, dreadful, and decisive plague.
   They had been told to sacrifice a lamb, to smear its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their dwellings as a sign to the angel of death to pass over them, and to make a meal of the sacrificed lamb.
   For many centuries the key element of the Passover ritual was an actual sacrificial offering, in the Jerusalem temple, of a lamb, followed by a sacrificial meal. But, with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, it was no longer possible to have the sacrifice.
   Gradually, the meal, the remembrance ritual changed. The remembrance included that of the sacrificial lamb itself, and the meal, no longer actually sacrificial, became more symbolic, a reminder of the ancient salvific acts of God.
   The Passover ritual meal (the Seder) also includes various other symbols that remind the participants of details of what they are remembering of the past with thanksgiving and hope.
   Jesus’s death is tied to Passover; his last supper meal with his disciples before his death is usually identified as a Passover ritual—and anticipatory to the great sacrifice of Jesus’ life (as the lamb of God).
   For Christians, this ultimate sacrifice of Jesus is at the heart of their version (the Mass) of the ancient remembrance ritual.

   Just as on the evening of the tenth plague a lamb was sacrificed and its blood became salvific, so the first followers of Jesus viewed his death on the cross.
   Just as, in the Seder, the sparing of the firstborn of the Hebrews and their liberation is symbolically celebrated, so too, in the Mass, our being spared and liberated by the death of Jesus is remembered and symbolically celebrated.
   Jesus himself gave the remembrance symbols to his followers: the broken bread, shared by all at the table, this was his body, broken for their and our salvation, and the cup of wine, shared by all at table, this was his blood, shed for their and our salvation.
   “Do this in remembrance of me.” he said.
   This Christian remembrance ritual, rooted in the Passover and associated with the Resurrection, began to be enacted every Lord’s Day (Sunday), not just once a year at Passover (Easter) time. It even became a daily ritual for many.
   Because of centuries of theologizing and analyzing of the specifics of the ritual and the exact meaning of the Lord’s words, as well as great religious divisions about the matter, a great emphasis was placed on transubstantiation and real presence.
   An unintended consequence was less attention to the original significance of the remembrance ritual’s principal symbolic actions, the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the wine.
   Liturgical reforms in the last century were not so much refinements of complex ceremonials, elaborate vesture, and special architectural arrangements as a challenge to us to rebalance our understanding of this core remembrance ritual of our lives.

16 April 2023
(Adopted from a
21 March 2021 original)

Ieri, Oggi, Domani

“Ieri, Oggi, Domani” (“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”) is the title of a popular 1963 Italian movie starring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren.
   The title also could be used to name three different attitudes about life and the people attracted to one or another of them.
   Most people tend to favor the life style, customs, and religiosity of either yesterday, today or tomorrow.
   – “Yesterday” people often have fond memories of bygone times, places, and people. Maybe because their past had mostly pleasant and happy experiences or maybe because they forgot or ignored or repressed the negative memories. (Be careful about your childhood memories, for a child doesn’t have the breadth of experience that an adult has.)
   – “Today” people can be a little naïve or narrow in what they celebrate or criticize. Maybe because they have not paid sufficient attention to their past or, to the contrary, not given enough thought to the consequences of their present choices and planned actions in the future.
   – “Tomorrow” people can range from optimistic dreamers to sad complainers as they look ahead to the next stages of their life. Their imaginations for tomorrow may be plausible and realistic, based on their lived experience to date, or hopelessly simplistic, impractical, and implausible.
   There’s a yesterday, today or tomorrow to almost every aspect of our lives, values, traditions, morality, beliefs, trusts, and faith.
   Why? Why because we are alive, because we are constantly advancing, falling back, learning, forgetting, progressing, and developing in our lives. That’s the way God made us. We’re ever-changing.
   Perhaps we should imagine our life as consisting of Before, Now, and Then, or, you could say, of what happened, is happening, and could happen.

   “Yesterday” is fixed. The paint has dried, the deed is done. And, we tend to either celebrate it or bewail it.
   “Tomorrow” is not yet. It’s the possible, probable, or unlikely. It’s the could-be, not necessarily the should-be nor the will-be.
   “Today” is what’s in process right now, a dynamic boundary between “Yesterday” and “Tomorrow”, between “before” and “after”.
   Your life is always “in motion”. You’re either braking and trying to return to what was, or you’re moving full speed ahead along a familiar route or following what you consider a trustworthy map.
   You can become distracted, have accidents, or lose your way when you’re driving or riding with another. Conversely you can progress, slow or fast, and safely arrive at your destination.
   (And, obviously, if you have no destination in mind, you never arrive at one—a destination, that is; you always arrive someplace!)
   The bottom line: You exist, you’re alive—i.e., you’re a “Today” person. But, what do you yearn for? Where are your memories, plans, hopes, and fears focused? Are you also a “Yesterday” or a “Tomorrow” person?
   You may and can be either, whichever you choose. But, be careful and beware. “Yesterday” may involve going backwards, and “Tomorrow” implies going forwards.
   “Yesterday” may seem more secure, but it really isn’t; it’s just a more familiar ground in your life journey.
   “Tomorrow” may seem problematic and riskier, but it’s the main way to progress, which includes both successes and failures.
   “Today” is Now. “Today” is what is happening. “Today” is what really counts!


5 March 2023

Ready, Set, Go!

During my five years in the major seminary, we did a lot of prayerful singing—especially Gregorian chant in Latin.
   For three of my seminary summer vacations I worked in the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s camp where five times each summer busloads of inner-city kids came for a twelve-day vacation.
   They would hear some religious songs, not chant and easy to understand. One that still sticks in my memory was a spiritual; it has different versions, but here’s some of what I remember:
   Did the good book say that Cain killed Abel? Yes, good Lord!
   Hit him on the head with a leg of the table! Yes, good Lord!
   Daniel in the lion’s den said unto those colored men,
   Get your long white robe and starry crown and be ready when the great day comes.
   Oh, Lord, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
   Oh, good Lord, I’ll be ready when the great day comes!
   Forget the leg of the table, but don’t forget to be ready when the great day comes!
   And, don’t overlook the part about being dressed in a long white robe and starry crown. It means to be spiritually clean and spotless with your mind and heart fixed on the promised great and beautiful things yet beyond our present experience.
   It’s sort of like Latin chant: beautiful thoughts in a foreign (symbolic) language that need translation to be fully understood!
   The great day is the great paradox of our faith. The great day is when we definitively totally surrender our mind and heart and life to the loving God who made us and guided us all our life long.
   Like the team ready to run onto the field responding to their coach’s last-minute charge, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.

   A whole lifetime may seem to be a bit much for preparation and practice for the great day, but compared to eternity it’s but a drop in the bucket.
   The ultimate purpose of our lives isn’t to endlessly drill and practice until we have no strength left to continue. Our ultimate purpose is to get ready and set to go on to that fullness of life and love that we were taught about, yearned for, and sacrificed for.
   When the moment comes, without hesitation, we charge onto the field of eternity, fired up in faith and responding in our hearts as we often did in our lives: Oh, Lord, I’m ready, indeed I’m ready.
   Don’t let any of this scare you! It may be that you’re so involved and occupied by your daily duties, tasks, and demands that all this may seem imaginative and remote.
   It’s a certitude that this present stage of the life of each one of us has an ending, but it’s also a certitude in faith that another, better stage of life awaits us.
   We’ve heard tales about it, predictions and promises and imaginative descriptions about it, but we haven’t played in the great game yet; we’ve only been practicing as we were coached and taught.
   We were coached and taught well, maybe not perfectly, but well enough. No need to fear the field if you’re ready and set to go.
   And, of course, the God who made you, loved you, and guided you all life-long is the one and the same God who calls each of us to a fullness of life beyond our imaging and experience.
   So, don’t forget or fear to get your long white robe and starry crown and be ready when the great day comes.



19 February 2023

Shout with Joy

Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth;
   break into song; sing praise.
Sing praise to the LORD with the lyre,
   with the lyre and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn
   shout with joy to the King, the LORD.

Let the sea and what fills it resound,
   the world and those who dwell there. Let the rivers clap their hands,
   the mountains shout with them for joy,
Before the LORD who comes,
   who comes to govern the earth,
To govern the world with justice
   and the peoples with fairness.
(Psalm 98:4-9)

   In 1719, Isaac Watts, an English Congregational minister and hymn writer, inspired by this psalm, composed “Joy to the World”, the now well-known Christmas Carol.
   C.S. Lewis, speaking of joy, said, “Joy…must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and Pleasure. Joy…has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again… I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the world.”
   The modern world, with all its innovations, diversions, and pleasures, seems strangely joyless.
   St. Luke tells us in his Gospel story of the nativity of Jesus that the angels told the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord…”
   Please note, not good news of great happiness nor good news of great pleasure, but good news of great joy!

   Curiously, joy can coexist with pain, with fatigue, with confusion, with difficulties, with fear, with rejection, even with suffering and with death.
   The angels’ good news of great joy was for all people, not just for Mary and Joseph, for the shepherds, for the wise men (Magi), for the children of Israel, for the future followers of the newly born child.
   It still remains good news of great joy for you, for me, for everyone. But, again, it is good news of great joy, not necessarily of great pleasure, happiness, contentment, ease, or satisfaction.
   Joy is something stronger, deeper, more powerful, more lasting. If you’ve ever tasted it, you know what I mean; if you never have, it’s a word that refers to your deepest hunger, yearning, and life search.
   I’m no expert on joy.
   I’ve had moments of indescribable feelings of joy in my life, but not often. I also have had, in spite of so many things to the contrary, a sort of deep strength and fundamental contentment about my life in spite of its many challenges, failures, and successes. This, too, is a kind of joy.
   The message of the angels is still a powerful pointer for each of our lives. Don’t forget it and don’t fear it. But, it’s not a recipe for happiness and pleasure; it probably won’t resolve or respond to your every question, doubt, fear, or yearning.
   Remember, Jesus was born in a stable, far from home, and when he was still only a few days old his parents had to flee with him to a foreign country (Egypt) to escape his certain death.
   In the midst of life’s worst challenges, you too can have and be strengthened by joy!




5 February 2023

They Did Not Remember

How often they defied him in the wilderness
   and caused him pain in the desert!
Yet again they put God to the test
   and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his deeds
   nor the day he saved them from the foe;
(Psalm 78:40-42)

   Often among the psalms there are short references or even long lists, like this one, of the deeds and powerful interventions of God on behalf of his chosen people—deeds which seem to have been forgotten among the discouragements, dangers, and even despair of later years.
   The psalmist bewails their feeble and forgetful faith; his regret is that they don’t remember the so many interventions of God and his guidance in their lives.
   Be careful! It’s not just a criticism of ancient Israelites—it’s also a criticism of the feeble and forgetful faith of you and me!
   This long, lengthy psalm, and others like it, are powerful reminders of the continued interventions and guidance of God in the history of his people.
   Oh, how we forgetful ones need someone or something like the psalmist to remind us of the so many interventions of God in our own lives.
   What’s wrong with you and me that we so easily forget or fail to recognize the so many extraordinary, unexpected, and powerful acts of God in our lives?
   Oh, Lord, forgive me for not remembering!
   As I write this, certain half-forgotten memories are coming back to me, and I’m ashamed to admit how forgotten I let them become.
   These moments and experiences may have altered the course of our lives and led to significant decisions. How could we forget!
   It’s not some small thing that slips from our memories—it’s the direct actions of God in our lives!

   Martin Luther King used to say, “I’ve been up the mountain!” It’s a reference, of course, to Moses’s experience of God on Mt. Sinai.
   Moses never forgot his experience of God, nor did Dr. King—nor should we. We’re meant to remember such things for the rest of our lives, and it’s not for God to constantly remind us.
   We shouldn’t live in the past, but it’s vital that we remember the past key interventions or manifestations of God in our lives—and we have all had them, even if we failed to recognize them for what they were and are.
   From time to time, we need to stop wrestling with our lives, stop allowing its daily diet of distractions and duties to overwhelm us, and, worst of all, stop forgetting what God has done for us.
   If you wonder whether or what God has done for you that you should remember, for starters, think about some basic things like:
   Why am I?
   How is it that I even exist?
   What’s my purpose?
   How have I survived life’s vicissitudes of live?
   Am I grateful for my survival or entrapped by my past?
   Why am I still here?
   Do I dwell more on God’s blessings in my life or my failures?
   Do I celebrate the saving interventions of God instead of blaming others for, or brooding over, my regrets and failures?
   What can I do to compensate for my imprudent and unsuccessful decisions?
   Do I entrust every day and thing to God?
   No matter what, don’t fail to remember!


15 January 2023

DDP

It’s the one daily exercise that we hardly ever miss. In fact, it’s the one daily routine that’s hard to skip, even if we want to.
   Sooner or later, every day of our lives we tire and need rest. We usually try to find a secure and reasonably comfortable place and then surrender our consciousness, but no matter what we intend, it usually happens anywhere, anyhow, no matter what our intentions, sooner or later!
   Of course, it’s falling asleep—but, in a way, falling asleep is DDP, a kind of Daily Dying Practice. Of course, we don’t call it that, but, in effect, it really is something like that.
   Mysteriously, daily we somehow surrender our consciousness, some healing processes takes place in our bodies, and then we return to consciousness, we wake up.
   It’s curious, why in the world would we consider “resurrection” as something strange and mysterious, when, in a way, it’s so similar to our daily routine?
   Dying and sleeping, reviving and awaking—they’re similar and easy to confuse.
   Not everyone would agree to this. Some, trusting only in medical science and scientific observation, would deny that any revival from death is possible; others, trusting additionally in divine revelation and religious belief, would disagree.
   In any case, we all engage in the same daily, somewhat deathlike, process, willy-nilly, which we identify as sleeping.
   And, as a matter not merely of science but also of faith, religious believers see dying as a kind of sleeping from which there is an ultimate future awakening or resurrection.
   Unique historical data supporting this confidence and belief is associated primarily with what we have come to call the “resurrection” and “ascension” of Jesus.
   In any case, health and exercise conscious folks that we are, we need to be sure that we’re following a good DDP routine.

   First, before putting out the light and falling asleep, remember that this could be your last day! Presuming that it is, give thanks to God for the day (and all the past days) and all the good things, graces, and blessing that you receive.
   Then, give thanks for all the people, near and far, who have loved, guided, and strengthened you recently and all through your life—and commend to God all those who are now part of your life and who may be relying on your help and support.
   And, examining your conscience, don’t forget to ask God to forgive your impatience, exaggerated self-concern, and other failings and beg his favor and grace for those you know to be in need.
   Don’t be afraid to close your eyes and drift away. You can be fearless: you’re not going to fall off a cliff, you’re not in any ultimate danger, and there will be a tomorrow—though it may not be like all the thousands of tomorrows that you have experienced to date. Remember, God is love and loves you!
   Grateful—concerned for others—without fear of what comes next: these all parts of “dying practice.”
   Waking up, the first reaction should be more gratitude—gratitude for the new day or for the startling, never previously experienced, new stage of life, whichever the case may be.
   This is Daily Dying Practice: awareness, gratitude, contrition, trust. Like all exercises, if you practice them each day, they become like second-nature, and the stronger and more developed you become.
   And, beware of the deadly opposites that can make you sleepless—fear, absorption in self and self-regret, and clinging to the past.




8 January 2023

Freedom of Spirit

It’s curious how sometimes a relatively familiar thing suddenly catches your eye and all of a sudden you see it in a new light.
   I was praying the Divine Office, when a concluding Morning prayer struck me like that:

   God of power and mercy.
   Protect us from all harm.
   Give us freedom of spirit
   and health in mind and body
   to do your work on earth.

   Of course, I would ask for health of mind and body to work for God—but to ask for freedom of spirit…? (Were I Hamlet, I might say, “there’s the rub!”)
   To work for God usually involves obeying the commandments, following the laws of the Church, and “doing what you’re told.”
   “Freedom of spirit,” that’s skating on thin ice. It implies that you might be going against tradition to work for God—at least in the sense that you become convinced that God is pushing or pulling you in a new direction!
   “Freedom of spirit” implies that you are seeking to be open to the action of God in your life, no matter how strange or innovative it may be for you.
   To exercise freedom of spirit suggests that you are open to new possibilities, that you are not afraid to be a trail blazer, that you may decide to go “where no one has gone before”.
   Of course, this can be a recipe for disaster, too! We can mistake our desires for God’s action and will! We may be courageously stupid!
   But, isn’t that what freedom of spirit implies? We don’t always get things right, especially at first.
   We learn by doing! We learn by trial and error. We learn by experimenting and experiencing.

   From one point of view the Sacred Scriptures, the collection of writings that we call the Bible, are a record of our collective learning experiences over the long past centuries, a record of successes and failures.
   A God-given freedom of spirit includes freedom to make mistakes, to better understand the will of God, to stumble and bumble to get things right.
   From the point of view of keepers of records, of curators of museums, of defenders of the past, it may seem an invitation to chaos.
   A God-given freedom of spirit includes both the courage to risk innovating and the courage to risk failure—in other words, the courage to learn new things.
   The great prophets of the Bible innovated and often paid a steep price for their innovations. Jesus’s teachings were not always fully understood nor accepted.
   It’s curious, when it comes to scientific research and development, we unhesitatingly applaud the great (and successful) experimenters.
   But, when it comes to religion and belief, it’s the opposite; we hesitate to applaud experimenters.
   Doing the work of God absolutely may include experimenting, trial and error, and mistakes and successes. But, all this is part of the plan of God for human life.
  Progress is not possible without freedom of spirit as well as health in mind and body. And, freedom of spirit is not without failures as well as with successes.
    But, beware blithe spirits. Remember, before asking God for freedom of spirit and health in mind and body, we pray to be protected from all harm!


1 January 2023

Symbols

A symbol is something that represents or stands for something else. For example, the Star of David is a symbol of Judaism and the cross is a symbol of Christianity.
   Every culture has its own symbols and its own customs regarding how its symbols are to be respected and understood.
   If we salute our national flag and treat it with great care, respect, and reverence, it’s not for the flag itself but for the nation and its values that it represents.
   Symbols are important “ingredients” of the Jewish Passover seder, a ritual meal recalling the loving care of God for his people. Special foods are served that are symbolic reminders of events of Jewish history.
   Jesus’ last supper was a seder. According to Luke 22:14-20:
     When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
   Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you that from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.”
   Jesus introduced two new symbols at this last Passover meal with his disciples.
   At the beginning he broke the blessed bread and distributed it to the apostles saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”
   At the end with the final cup of wine he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.”

   Writing to the Corinthians some years later, the apostle Paul said (1 Cor 11:23-26):
   For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
   As the centuries passed and as Christian customs developed and became traditional, these two symbols became the core of the Christian Passover ritual, better known as the Mass or the Eucharist.
   Over the centuries some great saints have reflected deeply about the nature of these symbols and what they symbolize.
   The important thing, of course, is not so much to study and celebrate the symbol itself but what it symbolizes—that’s why we give the care, respect, and reverence to the symbol that belong to what it represents.
   Eating together the broken bread and drinking together the wine is to reaffirm the new covenant and our shared allegiance to it and to proclaim and celebrate the salvific nature of Jesus’ death on the cross.
   The broken bread reminds us that the broken body of Jesus was a sacrificial offering for all of us. The wine reminds us that Jesus’ blood shed on the cross sealed the new covenant.
   Mass is a time for thankful remembrance and for renewing faithful commitments.


20 November 2022

Testing for Orthodoxy

With two, going on three, years of living with Covid, we’ve all become accustomed to certain dangers and also protective measures—and testing procedures and kits.
   Besides concern for physical health and well-being, how about spiritual? Is there any way we can test ourselves about our religious belief and practice? Is it good? Is it right? Is it Orthodox? Is it in accordance with the will of God?
   Especially with the kind of polarization that seems to afflict modern thought, including politics and religion, it gets harder and harder to get things right.
   Is there a simple, easy, and reliable test we can use?
   Believe it or not, St. Vincent of Lérins, a Gallic monk, who lived about 1,800 years ago in what we now call France, proposed a simple and easy test for healthy faith:
   Believe that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.
   In other words, test for universality, antiquity, and consent. He identified this as being truly and properly “Catholic” (meaning “universal”).
   He explained, “We shall follow
   -universality if we acknowledge that one Faith to be true which the whole Church throughout the world confesses;
   -antiquity if we in no way depart from those interpretations which it is clear that our ancestors and fathers proclaimed;
   -consent, if in antiquity itself we keep following the definitions and opinions of all, or certainly nearly all, bishops and doctors alike.
   Is this an iron-clad, absolutely effective, always faultless test? Of course not! No human devising ever can be—but it’s pretty accurate and a useful tool for self-examination.
   Remember, St. Vincent of Lérins also wrote strikingly about the difference between development and alteration:

   Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.
   Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.
   The understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning, and the same impact.
   Vincent compared this kind of development with that of the body: Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were.
   If you sometimes feel uncomfortable with certain changes and developments in the Church, which you may consider to be too “newfangled” to be trusted, it may be of some consolation to realize that change and development have always been part of the life of the church—and part of the growth of the church.
   St. Vincent was trying his best to assure his monastic brothers and others who read his writings that all is well.
   Growth, development, and new insights and understandings can be very valuable, healthy, progressive—and vice-versa! Sorting out the differences is a pretty tricky business.
   It’s reassuring to realize that this is not a new or exclusively recent phenomenon. St. Vincent was trying to clarify a similar situation centuries ago. His test is still good!


13 November 2022

You Think You’re Thinking?

Think is a general word meaning to exercise the mental facilities so as to form ideas, arrive at conclusions, etc. The dictionary gives a lot of meanings for the word. Here’s a few:
   1. to use the mind for arriving at conclusions, making decisions, drawing inferences, etc.; reflect; reason.  2. to weigh something mentally; reflect.  3. to call to mind; recall; remember.  4. to have an opinion, judgement, etc.  5. to determine, resolve, work out, etc. by reasoning.
   You know what happens sometimes? We think we’re thinking, but we’re really not thinking at all. Frequently we may simply be:
   Parroting – mechanically repeating the words or acts of others, frequently without full understanding, or:
   Quoting – reproducing or repeating a passage of or statement of another.
   You’d think that being well educated would mean being an effective and critically thinking person, but, alas, that’s not always the case.
   Beware of confusing liking with thinking. Just because we’re fond of something, or prefer something, or used to something, or belong to something isn’t the same as reflecting on, reasoning about, working out, and critically deciding about something.
   And, it’s not just about things; it’s also about others. For example, we may prefer the company of and trust someone who may not be so good for us, nor so good as we may imagine.
   When we were very young, we learned to accept, repeat, and obey what we were told by adults. But, as we matured and were educated, hopefully we learned to think critically about what we were told by or learned from others.
   Others includes, for example, family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, even doctors, lawyers, officials, newscasters, preachers, teachers, and authors.

   When you read, hear, and/or view the daily news, think! When you listen to “experts”, think! When your doctor prescribes for you, think! When someone gives you financial advice, think! When you’re shopping, think. When, you’re betting, think! When you’re proposing, think! When you’re listening to a sermon in church, think! When you’re reading a book, even the Bible, think!
   No parroting or quoting. No “deference to authority”. No blind obedience. No unreflective decision making. No being swayed by desires, hopes, and fears. Mature adult people think!
   It doesn’t mean that you always get it right. You can think you’re thinking something through completely and adequately, but you may be wrong. The solution: rethink!
   There are some things that no amount of thinking can resolve or fully understand, but which still require making decisions and choices. That’s okay.
   There is a role for trusting the judgement and insight of another, especially an older, wiser, more experienced other. There are times where choices are required in situations where you can’t think it out alone.
   You know an important area where this is the case? Religion, especially belief, faith, and trust. It’s not inappropriate to act on faith and trust, if you have thought things out to the limits of your ability and experience—but it may be inappropriate if you first didn’t bother to think things out as best you could.
   God gave us eyes, ears, and a brain to think with and intervenes in our lives more than we fully realized or thought!
   Think about that!


16 October 2022