Abandoned and Desensitized

Yesterday afternoon, I was blessed to attend daily mass. Between mass and the stations that followed, I gained an understanding of something some of my students might be experiencing. 


It amazes me how many young people today are unaware of their own language. They are a product of what they consume through music, movies, games, and any other types of media prominent in their lives. While disciplining high schoolers is one of my least favorite things to do and some thing I have yet to develop a knack for, it is a rule that you do ten pushups for every foul word spoken in my classroom. While the instances have grown to be fewer are far in between when I am around, I fear it is worse in other environments. Yet, when they do say something, they don't even realize they have said anything. I'll say their name in a stern voice, and their response will be, "What? What did I say?" If our young people today are so desensitized to their own language, I can only imagine how deep that de-sensitization goes in terms of morals, relationships and other unmentioned areas of their lives. 


What has caused these young people to be so consumed by their own yearning for consumption of media? Perhaps they feel abandoned. So many of the students I interact with today come from broken homes and families, divorced parents or single parent homes. In our petitions at mass, we prayed especially for those who have been, are experiencing or feeling abandoned. I admit I have felt a slight sense of being abandoned this spring semester, but not to the extent of those students who have been left by a parent, or don't receive the love and attention they should from a parent. 


In FCA this week, a student mentioned that Christ has experience every temptation we will ever experience. I've heard that before, but it never sunk in as much as it resonates within me now. Perhaps because I have been tempted in new ways this lenten season... See below for our FCA reflection piece. The focus of our discussion following was how we can really build and have an intimate relationship with Christ. Being desensitized doesn't allow for it. Neither does being abandoned. I see a new way in which I can pray for my students. Peace in Christ. 

Are You Too Busy For Christ? Keep The Christian Busy

Satan Called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his assembled demons he said:

"We cannot keep the Christians from going to church. We cannot keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We cannot even keep them from conservative values. Nevertheless, we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So, let them go to Church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they cannot gain a relationship with God.

This is what I want you to do. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection!"

"How shall we do this?" shouted the demons.

"Keep them busy with the non-essentials of live. Invent schemes to occupy their time." He answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 to 7 days a week, 10-12 hour days, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressure of work.

Also: Super Stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that Still Small Voice.

Entice them to play the radio or C.D. player whenever they drive and to keep the TV, DVD, CD players, iPods, iPads and computers going constantly in their homes.

See to it that every store and restaurant in the world blares secular music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.

Fill their coffee tables with secular magazines and newspapers.

Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day.

Invade their driving with bill boards.

Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products services and false hopes.

In their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week.

Do not let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead.

When they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.

Let them be involved in soul-winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ in prayer. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of cause."

It was quite a convention. The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy, and rush here and there.

Questions to ask your self:

Has the devil been successful in his scheme?

How about this definition for busy: Being Under Satan's Yoke

Changing Direction

From time to time, my car needs a tune-up. I've been driving my 2000 Ford escort since February 2006. I am currently sitting at mid-way motors while my tires get realigned.  It seems the socket that holds my headlights also needs replacing. All in all, I'm hopeful this tune-up doesn't cost me too much. 


A profound thought. I hope this doesn't cost too much. I somewhat associate that state of my vehicle with the state of my soul. If my mode of transportation needs a tune-up, perhaps my soul does to. Honestly, in six years, my car has treated my quite well. I admit I could take a bit better car of it. The floor is speckled with pieces of mud, dirt and rocks. There is dust all over the dashboard. My trunk has an assortment of items that really don't belong there year round, and the outside could use a washing. There is a crack in my back bumper and a dent in the driver side right behind the door. How does all this compare to my soul? Again, I hope it doesn't cost too much. 


I refer to Matthew Kelly's analogy of our soul's being like the back seat of our cars. If we toss items back there from time to time, you notice new things that seem out of place. But as we add more and more, the little things become less noticeable, until that cleaning that comes with the sacrament of reconciliation. I wonder how many seemingly tiny sins speckle my soul like the un-vacuumed floor of my car. Sins like pride, lack of kindness, apathy, negligence, etc.  Any big sin wouldn't look too terrible amongst all those. 


Not that I have any intent to make any big sins... regardless. I typed those first three paragraphs a few days ago. My absence from blogging is largely in part of my confusion, frustration, and the costly need for me to overcome the momentum of continuing on the same path to change direction. What direction? Honestly, I don't know yet. But I do know that I am resistant to change. However, when you reach the bottom of a hill, there is not always enough momentum to get you climbing again. The change of direction, the effort to begin a new climb is costing me an act of will and self-discipline; an alignment of my will with God's and some new headlights with which to see clearly. 


This season of Lent has been a bit of a doosey. I look forward to entering into Holy Week. 


p.s. Here is a link that was recently shared with me that might provide you will some intense Holy Week reflections, including Christ's interior sufferings during his Passion.


I believe in you, Lord,
when I cast out my nets one and one hundred times,
and I draw them in wet, empty, almost broken.
I believe that you test your chosen ones,
because when the seed is sunk down into the earth
then it can better take root in God.
I want to abandon myself to you,
that you may place me near you,as a seal on your heart. 

Temporarily

We are only here temporarily, in exile, to be tested in love...

There is No Duplicity In Him II

From Regnum Christi

March 2, 2012

Friday of the First Week of Lent

Father Alex Yeung, LC

Matthew 5:20-26

"I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ´You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.´ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ´Raqa,´ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ´You fool,´ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for this time I can now spend with you. You constantly fill my life with so many blessings. How ungrateful I am at times! I wish to collaborate more perfectly in establishing your Kingdom on earth. I love you Lord, and with the help of your grace I will strive to become someone to whom any soul can come in order to discover your truth, your life, your love. Take my life, take this day and make it yours. Amen.

Petition: Father, help me to shun hypocrisy and seek true holiness.

1. Subjective Impressions: How much righteousness would it take to surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees? Not much, we suspect. Theirs was holiness in appearance only, which is to say no holiness. And what would one discover on the “inside” of such a soul? Plenty of self-deception; plenty of self-indulgent complacency in a subjective impression of holiness; a repugnant holier-than-thou demeanor. It’s easy enough for us to read the Gospel and wrinkle our noses at those bad ol’ Pharisees. In fact, it’s about as easy as telling ourselves that we could never come under the spell of our own subjective impression of holiness. That is why we must always be ready to examine ourselves, before Christ and with an acute awareness of our misery and limitations. Do I live my life engaged in a genuine pursuit of holiness or in a genuine pursuit of my own vanity and self-glorification?

2. Humility is the True Test of Holiness: Pride and personal holiness mix about as well as oil and water. Where our ego is, little if any room is left for God. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ but to be someone who fills himself totally with God in order to bring him within the reach of everyone. But what union, grace or friendship with God can there be in a proud soul? What fervor, what degree of holiness? There is no possible compromise between God and a proud soul – either the soul would have to let go of itself, or God would have to stop being God.

3. Integrity is the Heart of the Matter: At the heart of genuine holiness is the virtue of integrity, a virtue rich in nuances and meaning. Integrity means being a person with only one face, a person who is the same on the inside and on the outside: “what you see is what you get”. Indeed, integrity is foundational for holiness, because it constitutes the very essence of personal honesty and sincerity, which are fundamental for the moral life and the seedbeds for a host of other virtues. In our pursuit of holiness, we should never tolerate duplicity of any kind in our behavior. We should avoid like the plague the least hint of ambivalence in our motivations, or incongruity between our thoughts, judgments, choices and actions. There can be no holiness without integrity. In fact, there can be no genuine human happiness unless it lies on the bedrock virtue of integrity.

Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, I want you to be the meaning and center of my entire life. Let me disappear and you appear more and more in my life so that, with a holiness that is genuine, humble and true, I will always be an instrument for the salvation of all people. Amen.

Resolution: I will take a hard look at my life to identify the areas where duplicity manifests itself and take a concrete step toward living with more integrity.