Musings on the Passion and the Apostles

Musings on the Passion and the Apostles

 I commiserate with you on the current state of the Catholic Church the world over. Attendance at Mass by baptized people is very low and receiving forgiveness through confession extremely low. No wonder, when the many members of our clergy are committing or have committed sexual crimes against us. Some of our Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops have abetted their deviant clergy by reassignment rather than firing them. We are left with a huge scandal which has broken the trust of many people in the authenticity of our Church.

 We do see very positive signs within the Church of reformation. Yet the damage to our trust in them, results in even more people turning away. Most people have a view that being a priest means you live saintly lives. Much of their trust is based on their attitude toward the Church itself. Now that our Church has received a global wake-up call, positive results continue. However these men of God are men, just like the twelve apostles.

 We need to take hope that holiness will improve among our clergy which will engender a holier people in increasing numbers. Let us examine the Passion of 2000 years ago and learn about the weakness of these men and Jesus’ hope in their becoming good shepherds.

Jesus had a most important Thursday evening supper with his apostles who had been with Him for three years. They had witnessed most of His miracles, heard most of His preaching, and helped Him in performing corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Now, Jesus rewards them by training them to be priests. He performed for them a miracle of changing bread and wine into His Body and Blood which they all ate. Jesus explained to them the power and the glory of being spiritual leaders after He died. Wouldn’t all of them feel elated that each would have a leading roll in spreading Jesus’s message? Wouldn’t they be especially attentive to the needs of Jesus?

 Jesus leads them into the gardens of Gethsemane for an after supper stroll. Only Jesus knows he will be arrested there with the help of Judas one of His apostles. He asked His three most important apostles, Peter, James and John, to tarry with Him while He prayed nearby. Jesus prayed alone to His Father for courage and strength to endure His Passion. He walked over to His three leaders and found them asleep. What is this? After all Jesus had done with and for them, they didn’t keep Him company. Jesus probably started having serious misgivings about His apostles being ready to take charge. Jesus woke them and advised them to be alert. Jesus walked back to His prayer site and continued praying; but He was very troubled about His misgivings for entrusting His mission to them. He walked over to them a second time and they had fallen asleep.

 Jesus was very upset. He returned to pray to His Father to postpone His Passion because He had little or no confidence that His apostles were ready to take charge. The Holy Spirit talked with Him, as in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and showed Him the tremendous blow to His salvic mission and the absence of the blessings that the people of God would not receive. The Holy Spirit said that He resides in the souls of the apostles and would be vibrant in His continuous guidance to them and all disciples until the end of the world.

 Jesus realized that He also must have faith in the Divine plan of salvation. Jesus said to His Father that “not My will, but Your will will be done”. Jesus felt mighty encouraged and strong to endure His Passion. So he returned to His three leaders who had fallen asleep again. He awakened them with a scolding and they continued their stroll. Then Judas, His traitorous apostle walked toward Him accompanied by many armed men of the Temple guard. Judas hailed Jesus and kissed Him. Jesus was abruptly seized by the guard and enchained. Only loyal Peter defended Jesus with sword while the other ten apostles fled, fearing for themselves only. Imagine how Jesus felt! After three years with the twelve one betrayed Him and ten deserted Him.

 Jesus is taken to trial before the Jewish court and Peter trails behind. While Jesus is being tried, He likely hears Peter in the courtyard denying three times to people that He knows Jesus. Now Jesus is truly alone! Three years with twelve apostles has not yet yielded any fruit. Now Jesus faces His Passion suffering alone.

 What do you think of these apostles? They eventually were given power by the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus. We can only say these twelve were merely men, not Gods. They were part of the Jewish population which was referred to by God and prophets as stiff-necked people ~ “their way or the highway”. Yet after they were ordained by the Holy Spirit, they “walked the walk.” They became saints, proving that one can “walk the walk” by dedicating themselves to follow the inspirations and promptings of the Holy Spirit. This salvic mission has continued for 2000 years, praise be to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 We must pray for the Holy Spirit to prompt our clergy to put their primary mission of being shepherds to their sheep and lambs, rather than protecting their sinful clergy. Our trust in the truths of our faith should never be shaken. Our trust in our clergy needs to be earned, yet we must pray for them with a forgiving heart.

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Responses to: cispkearns@aol.com

March 18, 2008 © modified 09/09/08

Musings on Immortal Souls ~ V. OUR VOYAGE INTO ETERNITY

OUR VOYAGE INTO ETERNITY

060.         Man has been very successful in designing computers and devices that work. We can understand the internals of command, control and communication, internally and externally. We should also see the similarities in our own design; and wonder about the nature of souls. We can see a “chain of creation” from our Designer down to designer man and to designer computer. Aren’t we wonderful? Better yet, aren’t we a “wonderment”! We are now voyaging into the cosmos of God. We have specific places to reach and we need the navigation to get our “space” ships there.

061.         From the nature of our design of computers, we can know that three of the central functions of our soul are intellect, will and conscience. God is our Creator, the Messiah is our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit is our Navigator. God created man with all three. Adam started with a preternatural intellect, that is, he didn’t have to go to school – he just knew what God wanted him to know. However, God ordered Adam and Eve not to “eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge”; else He would severely punishment them. Using their free will they decided, with the urging of the Devil, to break God’s Law.

062.         So what happened? The intellect and will of our first parents were weakened – no more preternatural knowledge [the learning curve begins here] including a proclivity towards self-gratification. God also punished the Devil; promised the human race a Redeemer [the Messiah]. Man’s soul still had a conscience with a Navigator. So off the human race journeys toward their ultimate destination, somewhat weakened, with each one the “captain” of their ship using their intellect and guided by a navigator and his helpers [good angels]. He also has on board kibitzers [bad angels] giving bad advice, appealing to our needs for self-gratification. The actions of man’s will decide the actual course of his ship.

063.         We are on a journey to one of two destinations, heaven or hell. Our Creator keeps us moving through life, our Redeemer has completed His journey and defined the course we must take to reach Him, and our Navigator prompts us as to the course changes we have to make in our travels. Then, there is in each one of us the decision to do it the Messiah’s Way or our way. We have plenty of inter-soul communications and then we have external communications to deal with from our own bodies, kith, kin … Much of this data is in the form of promptings, do’s or don’ts, warnings, advice on how to steer our ship. We are deluged with info, while we deal with the adversities, needs and pleasures, life in general, which differs for each one.

064.         In our daily lives we need to take a break periodically to review our situation, get everything in perspective, evaluate the wins and losses, determine the need to change rules or course, or priorities, etc. I think the need for daily review of our actions on our trip to eternity is essential. Let the noise of the outside world and even the physical noise of your body be ignored and focus on the promptings in your soul. They are always there. Some are focused on good and others will be focused on evil. We can’t escape the Devil’s promptings; but we certainly can ignore it.  Awaken yourself to the need for course, attitude and other changes or adjustments to give you a better chance to reach the “Gates of Heaven”.

065.         In ships, computers, stock markets there are graphing devices to measure the ups and downs of daily operations. These graphs are used to compare operational status in terms of the best [“1”] and the worst “[0”]. In between are the measuring points of the current status of the operation. As in an ICU the blood pressure registers as a flat line to indicate death. In like manner we need to measure our travel into eternity. The first beatitude says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see God”. If one measures their current goodness with respect to the perfection of God, they can discern the gap in holiness. A good person will use that as an incentive to narrow the gap. This means modifying and enhancing your current operation resulting in increasing your submission of will to the will of God. The graph will also show the histogram of past operations. By examination you can revise the “avoidance of temptation” list to help you steer clear of dangers. Submitted by Paul D Kearns kearnsmusings@aol.com March 7, 2008 ©

Musings on Immortal Souls ~ IV. MORE ON CONSCIENCE

MORE ON CONSCIENCE

056.         Scientists have designed many various types of external monitoring devices to sense bodily reactions to various stimuli. Many of these in the medical field deal with internal physical responses. Some of these scientists attempt to determine where in our “flesh and blood” brain appear the reactions to external stimuli and what parts of the brain are involved in our external communications, including body language.

057.         Then there are special areas dealing with detecting soul-to body reactions. One of them is in the “lie detector” area. I, myself, was frequently subjected to these tests as an intelligence officer. These devices are not 100% accurate. I think they are based on the principal of “good and evil”. If you knowingly lie and have some degree of shame, you will have some type of soul-to-body response. The obvious one’s, including clammy hands, sweating, twitching, etc., are obvious signs that further questioning is needed. So people, who normally exercise the choice of good over evil, tend to fail lie detector tests if they lie.

058.         The other side of the coin is when a spy, for example, has trained himself in amoral behavior, which dulls his conscience. He can lie and often pass a lie detector test. [He is like a computer hacker trying to take over control of God’s design of his system. It often works!!] These detectors, when used on hardened people, are successful whenever the interrogators are able to penetrate through this hardness and reach their conscience. [Maybe there should be similar devices in the confessional to catch lies and omissions. However in soul-to-soul communications, God will know whether you’ve been “naughty or nice”. Your confessor might not, unless God and he are “tuned in”, and God conveys this knowledge to the confessor.]

059.         Speaking of conscience as a soul function, doesn’t the Lord’s Prayer phrase “lead us not into temptation” imply that there is communication with God? There are good and bad angels. They would have consciences also, which indicate to them, before taking action, whether it was good or evil. I would suppose that, whether they committed a good or bad deed, they would have soulful response of joy or shame. Do you think Lucifer was the 1st  Hacker? In the book, “The Screwtape Letters” by C. S. Lewis [Ref 03], the devil is depicted as teaching his minions, the bad angels, how to modify the internal functions of our conscience.

Musings on Immortal Souls ~ III. MORE ON FREE WILL, CONSCIENCE AND JUDGMENT

MORE ON FREE WILL, CONSCIENCE AND JUDGMENT

041.         When God withdraws our soul from our body at our death, God judges the soul as to destination – heaven or hell. If God had not given us a free will, then judgment wouldn’t be necessary. Our soul would be ‘wired’ to do good deeds only – “not much glory in that for God”. With a conscience, we really are the ones who choose good or evil. Ultimately, the choice of heaven or hell is ours. God’s judgment verifies to us that we did the choosing. {There are souls who despise My graces as well as all the proofs of My love. They do not wish to hear My call, but proceed into the abyss of hell. The loss of these souls plunges Me into deadly sorrow. God though I am, I cannot help such a soul because it scorns Me; having a free will, it can spurn Me or love Me.” (Ref 01.Sec. 001.32 & 001.33)

042.         If we had no free will, there would be no Original Sin, no need for a Messiah, no sickness, no fights. With our preternatural intellect from Adam, unweakened by Original Sin, we could have a flying saucer in every garage. We would be travelers of the universe and experience the magnificence of God’s total creation. After all, why did God create the universe; “but to be the sphere of activity for humans”? If so, Adam was gifted with the smarts to build the means for all endeavors.

043.         We have heard of UFO’s near our planet, Earth. In fact, I have worked for a U. S. Air Force General who went on to head up the UFO Command. These UFO’s, if they really exist, seemed to have capabilities far beyond hopes of man ever achieving them, at least in this millennium. Wouldn’t this raise the possibility that another race of creatures were created that never defied God?

044.         As descendants of the fallen Adam and Eve we know the thrill of success and the agony of defeat. We know good actions bring glory to our friends, family and God, and brings rejection to the Devil. Defeat, whenever caused by an evil deed, brings shame to friends, family and God, malicious joy to the Devil. Were our first parents created with no free will, and innocent of the First Sin, then there would be no need for Devils to tempt the untemptable. Every person would a winner — no losers, no punishment, no glory to God.

045.          You can understand the enormity of the First Sin, and why God himself, after condemning Adam and Eve [and us]. He exiled them from the Garden of Eden and demoted them to a lower state of existence. He also promised atonement [redemption] for the First Sin. Man was forced to rely on the natural laws of God and of nature. This means that we must be tuned in to our conscience to guide us in doing good and avoiding evil. There will be a Judgment Day for us. Do we choose Heaven or Hell through our actions in life?

046.         When the soul leaves man, then death is easier to understand. Without the soul, our body decays. Our soul, which contains our store of intellectual data, is still active. This is important, because God judges our soul on our earthly performance. We have to be aware of what we did good and what we did evil. You know the phrase, “If you do the crime, you do the time!” To be judged guilty of crimes you have to know what the crimes are. [God is said to be all Just!] So our soul is not an inert immaterial object, like a football to be kicked without reason. Our sense phantasms are ‘interred with our bones’. Hopefully the ‘good lives after’.I believe that all men have eternal souls; including human embryo’s. I believe that all men, regardless of race, color or creed, will end up in Heaven or Hell. At Judgment, only souls who reject God’s mercy, will go to Hell. Those souls who have no temporal punishment due to sin will enter God’s presence. All other souls, who have temporal punishment due to sin, will first go to Purgatory, a part of Heaven before entering into God’s presence. All saved souls will see God as He wants them to see Him. I base my belief on the Natural Law, wherein God created man with eternal souls in His image and likeness to know , love and serve God here; and be with Him in the hereafter.

047.         God, being all Just, would likely, before sentencing, give the sinner a chance to answer to the charges. Our responses would be considered before judgment is handed down – Heaven or Hell. If you curse the Judge, you are instant toast in Hell where you can commiserate with the Devil for eternity. If you express sorrow and plead for mercy, then God, the King of Divine Mercy, determines the length of temporal punishment, if any. If there is temporal punishment, then off you go to Purgatory for you to be purged of evil thoughts, words, and deeds. If your temporal punishment is forgiven, off you go to the House of your Father. In the end it is either Hell or Heaven.

048.          For those souls, without sin, they are instantly embraced and brought to the House of their Father. In all cases, from embryo to old age, your soul sees God as He wants you to see Him. For some souls it is described as The Beatific Vision by the Catholic Church. However the souls of man, created by God, have Heaven or Hell as an ultimate destination, whether Catholic or not. To make a point, those souls before Abraham are in heaven or hell. The content of this vision of God? It’s the analogy of the glass being full, but there are different size glasses; and God fills the glass.

049.         Now we have God and His saintly souls in His House and the communications among souls could be “deafening”, or would it be. Maybe you are so perfectly happy; there is no need to communicate. If our intellect and will have achieved perfection, is there a suspension of cognitive activity? Is puzzlement! Add to this the good angels. More puzzlement!

050.         What about the souls in Hell, including bad angels and bad people. Are their souls frozen, inactive? Do you think God ‘pulled their plug’? I do not think so. I think we can assume there is communication and cognition among all in Hell. After all, people know after death what their crimes were on earth. Now the souls in Hell can remember their crimes and react in the knowledge that their punishment is eternal. Every function of their souls that sinned will be punished with no purging. In Heaven the souls have their own merited vision of God.

051.         What vision will these God haters have? Revelations, describing what the souls in Hell will experience, God gave to St. Faustina, [she recorded them on October 20 1936 In her daily journal for the whole world to know]. Having read these words, I, myself, have set my sights on getting to Heaven “God’s way”. Ref. 01, Sec. 001.50 thru 001.52 – p.296ff  – [Saint Faustina ] “Today I was led by an angel to the chasms of Hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: (1) the first torture that constitutes Hell is the loss of God; (2) the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; (3) the third is that one’s condition will never change; (4) the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it — a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; (5) the fifth torture is continual darkness, and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; (6) the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; (7) the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. These are special tortures destined for particular souls.

052.         Let us continue examining the language of the eternal and immaterial soul. We can describe, from the communications of these souls, the cognitive functions, the need for memory to store knowledge. However we can’t touch, feel, measure, examine the information. It’s like we can not show the idea of a line, triangle, leaf, color itself. We can show a concrete example; but never an immaterial idea in concrete form. I can only say that man can not know the language of a soul; but you know it exists because of its effects. This argument also pertains to the existence of God and angels.

053.          As far as to the nature of our free will: “There are 3 degrees in the accomplishment of God’s will: (1) the soul carries out all rules and statutes pertaining to external observance; (2) the soul accepts interior inspirations and carries them out faithfully; (3) the soul, abandoned to the will of God, allows Him to dispose of it freely, and God does with it as He pleases, and it is a docile tool in His hands. Ref. 01, Sec. 001.34 These words were spoken by God through the Confessor to Saint Faustina. At level one, which all start out on, we need to obey the guidance of our conscience. These laws were externally passed on to us by Moses and then by Christ and His Church.

054.         Level 2, of free will, is achieved by a person who is really tuned into the language of the soul and can discern the promptings and guidance of internal inspirations. This person will have the power of discerning the source of these inspirations as being Divine or Devilish; and choose the promptings of God. These Divine promptings are often in conflict with our “druthers”, which causes much internal conflict with our own views or those internal devilish urgings. One often feels pain at the thought of following the Will of God rather than our own. Among the many writings concerning this dilemma is “The Hound of Heaven”: Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it? Ref #05.00, ln. 135 This level is very difficult when we try to break an evil habit. It is painful to change when the habit gratifies us so much. However, the pain is our down payment on our atonement for our sins.

055.         Level 3 is right up there with heroic service to our Creator. I, myself, would be very fearful, probably from cowardice and my reluctance to give up my favorite selfish attachments to worldly things, to be so heroic. After all, it is very difficult to break attachment to worldly pleasures and submit your will totally to the Will of God.

Musings on Immortal Souls ~ II. CONSCIENCE AND FREE WILL AND COMMUNICATIONS

CONSCIENCE AND FREE WILL AND communications	V	034
026.         There are other types of communications within processors and between processors which deal with monitoring what’s going on internally, what data is being processed and what actions are to happen. In a computer and other equipment, monitoring devices are installed to help prevent unwanted events. When something unwanted is attempted the computer can shut down, the desktop can freeze, raise alarms, issue warnings and other “no-no’s”, based on system design. In man similar things occur both in our bodily realm, and in the spiritual realm.	026.00	035
027.         In the bodily realm, man’s designer put in reaction messages as feeling sleepy, hungry, pain, having chills, … In the spiritual realm messages are recognized in dealing with doing or wanting to do or remembering past deeds of good and evil. This monitoring function is called a conscience. This is how our Designer alerts man that what he is doing is good or evil.  We feel soulful pleasure, and at times psychological and physical pleasure for recalling, doing or contemplating doing good deeds. We often feel shame concerning our evil deeds. Some of these alerts can be called ‘promptings”	027.00	036
028.         In our souls we feel promptings concerning doing good or evil deeds. We are aware that thoughts about the pro’s and con’s of doing good or evil occur. Unlike the computer, we can freely choose what we will do. That is because our Designer gave us a free will, complete with an internal “handbook” of the Natural Law [a list of do’s and don’ts.] In the computer there is a list of do’s and don’ts also. The computer has to operate according to the list until its designer. A “hacker” can enter the computer and change the list and modify or add software. Man has the power to “hack” his own soul by creating his own personal (overwriting God’s list) list of do’s and don’ts to use as his personal guide to actions. Man is not able to overwrite completely the resulting reactions of shame installed by his Designer. However, as time goes on and man continues to “hack away” at the table of shame responses, these reactions of shame dim. The original list of do’s and don’ts is still imprinted in his soul.	028.00	037

 

COMPUTER of MAN of GOD	VI	038
029.         My original proposition that “God is to man as man is to computer” can be reversed to say, “Computer is created by man who was created by God”. By doing ‘reverse engineering’, using the Principle of “Effect-to-Cause”, and using “analysis-synthesis” we can arrive at a more illuminated understand of higher forms of “cognition”. One could arrive at concepts which would assist them to better comprehend familiar things in their current life. It also would open new avenues of wonderment. So by going from 0’s & 1’s to the brain’s flesh and blood, synapses, etc, we can get clearer idea about functionality of a soul.	029.00	039
030.         Incorporating into the exploration of cognition, the “stimulus-response” function of material beings at the levels of man, animal, vegetable and ‘mineral’ will also reap many more concepts. I hope to address these later.	030.00	040
031.         Generically we usually describe the composition of a computer system in terms of input, processing, and output. Is there another prime requirement? When you get a computer, it rarely is ready to go. You have to switch it on.  If it has its power source, then switching it on means that you are off and running – so too, the internal system operations. If there is no imbedded power source (battery) then you have to plug into one. As long as you have power your system is alive. So power is another component that must be present.	031.00	041
032.         If we look at man, we can say that man has input [5 external senses], processing [brain and mind], and output [various forms of external bodily functions]. Then what power source does man have? You don’t go to Radio Shack for it. There is no external receptacle; but man is alive. “Alive and kicking” is a common expression which indicates life, even in the womb. With man we don’t have to get him from the ‘factory’ before we can energize him. Often a slap on the rear end really gets its body going good at birth; but life already exists in him. Is life “installed” in the ovary after being energized with sperm? If so, then the life is a material life, without an immaterial component – not much different from an animal.	032.00	042
033.         I believe that man (Adam) was created by God with an immaterial soul as the life source within his body. God created the process of ‘manufacturing’ more people through the procreative function, wherein the sperm and egg merge and God creates an individual soul to produce an embryo. That moment is called “conception”. This gives each person an immaterial and eternal soul in a material body, distinct from any other soul at conception. Parents can’t create the soul because they cannot produce immaterial and eternal objects; but they produce our mortal bodies. Our mortality means that our body will corrupt; but our soul, from God, will live on throughout eternity. So the parents ‘manufacture’ the body with functionality of growth, assimilation, and reproduction along with our “mother board’ imprinted with a double helix describing our human essence. DNA studies will continue for years to understand our makeup. Today we use the results to develop new understandings, new approaches on corrective remedies, and many more areas of study and applications.	033.00	043
034. If DNA is strictly limited to body, I assume Adam got it from God. Whatever, his DNA came from God. How about Eve? If Adam’s rib was used wouldn’t Eve’s DNA be similar to Adam’s DNA or did God give her a new DNA [I don’t think so.]? If Adam was the first human, DNA studies being conducted probably do reverse engineering back towards Adam. However, if the story of Noah is true and only eight people were on the Ark, all others perished. Then the DNA line from them back to Adam and from Noah and the other seven forward in time needs to be explored. Does each soul have a spiritual DNA? I believe each person has their own unique “fingerprint.” God is aware of the birds in the air, the numbering of the hairs on your head, …. In some mysterious way this fingerprint has a spiritual DNA structure which powers our physical DNA structure.  Humans have differing talents which probably are related to the gifts installed by God at conception. Are these gifts passed on to one’s children. There is a lot of evidence indicating that. Is puzzlement!	034.00	044
035.      Man, with his eternal and immaterial soul, is a person, with or without body. This soul also would have the powers of input, processing, output, and power. What about this immaterial power? Mysterious to say at the least; but it is worth examining. In the first grade, the nuns taught me that God is everywhere. EVERYWHERE is a most important concept. As a child, it was a ‘wonderment’, not a ‘puzzlement’ as it is now. I also learned that God created the universe – more wonderment, more puzzlement. We also learned that we were made in the image and likeness of God – “how about that”! The nuns didn’t discuss the Principle of Cause and Effect. We know that there are laws governing the action of the universe. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Law of Gravity or the Law of Magnetism was suspended. Think about it! How about the suspension of the Law of Cohesion in terms of our clothes? Wouldn’t we look silly in the nude! The point is that God is everywhere. Wherever He is, He is there in some way. His power sustains life [sustains the life He gave us] and the Laws of the Universe. [How thankful we should be, that God sustains us!]	035.00	045
MORE ON COMMUNICATION	VII	046
036.         Now it is important to dwell further on the interactions or communications into, within, and out of an immaterial soul. What is the language that is used, if there is any? We easily understand how communications work in our computers – bits, bytes, different parts of the spectrum, etc. convey data into, within, and out. We translate info into the ‘language’ understood, by the receptor else we have babble. So a system has to have the process for conversion to a recipient’s language. We know this from the experience of man. Here, we are talking about the language used by an immaterial soul. Who would be the immaterial recipients? God? Angels? Good angels? Bad angels? Saints? Souls in Purgatory?	036.00	047
037.         Remember the biblical story of the Tower of Babel? That’s a real puzzlement! As the tower was being built, did the people only have one language? Did Adam have a verbal language before Eve was created? The Bible said that Adam named the animals, probably so that he could talk to them. Did verbal language start at the creation of Eve or after the Sin of Adam and Eve? Did Adam devise a language for him and Eve to use or was it only soul-to-soul, ESP? After their fall, did they have to form a language? When they had children, it seems they had to have a language. Was this language in use, in its original form or in a spin-off dialect, at the time of the “Tower of Babel”? These are important considerations, especially for those that explore the origin and history of language.	037.00	048
038.         I think the soul develops his soul language, using the cognition functions of identification and contradiction which differentiates objects but the relational aspects of one object to another and one relationship to another. Think of the unending strings of words and symbols to describe the size of the gap between identity “1” and contradiction “0”.  Look at the symbols we use in science to represent the relationship between objects. Whether our souls receive input from immaterial beings or through our senses, the natural cognition process defines and organizes the data and relationships. These are stored along with the input in our soul [for immaterial input] or in our brain as sense phantasms.	038.00	049
We then perform analysis, abstraction, synthesis and other cognitive functions to generate new ideas, images, etc. In this way we find ourselves in a learning curve limited by experience, dysfunctional problems in our “fleshware”. [Our bodies, fleshware, contain imperfections occurring from conception to the present]. Keep in mind that the soul “keeps on ticking” as designed by God. Unfortunately bodies do have imperfections, some of them are major.	039.00
039. (cont.)        We can teach others our language as well as learn new languages from others. Taking languages as a whole, it is a Babel of “babble”. Ponder on the instant that there was no understanding of one another’s words at Babel. Did God pull the plug on their linguistic function in all of the people so that there was no language? Did they use only sign language? There are many postulations possible; but could we identify the correct one? We only have to look at the existing languages today to marvel how inventive the cogitation talent of man is! What would happen if you and I could not communicate in English? All of our knowledge is stored in our soul in its own language which we verbalize into English. I was taught how to verbalize our thoughts in English, then Latin, French, German and Russian. The info in our soul is still their in its soul language. Maybe, at Babel, God blocked their ability to verbalize by “hiding” their language assets used to support verbalization. If this happened to us, each of us would have to find a way to verbalize, sign, and hieroglyphics. I have no idea what my or your efforts would produce. In English, a closed 3-sided figure is a ‘triangle’. Our soul has a descriptor [“label”] for it, unknown to us. So, if our word ‘triangle’ no longer is in our vocabulary; the idea is still recognizable and still has the same descriptor.  Imagine what we would have to do to verbalize to each other. I might draw a triangle and point it out to you and utter sound to label it. You could also come up with a different utterance; but both of us can draw our own version of a triangle. Keeping in mind that if no alphabets remained in us, the task of scribing your and my utterances would be a truly mind boggling effort.    We discussed the challenge to Adam [and Eve] on teaching Cain & Abel to verbalize beyond the words ‘goo-goo’ and ‘gah-gah’. The Babel people would have had a worse problem. Maybe that was the origin of the word ‘babble’. You then have to speculate further to the “why and wherefore”’s of world languages. It must have taken thousands of years [and still going] to generate our languages. Was Babel the beginning of our multi-lingual world? Was the language of Adam in use up to the Babel event?	039.00	050
040.         How about our soul language? God’s Third Commandment requires us to communicate through prayer, praise, petition, thanks, … . Therefore we have a language that God understands and we have a process wherein we can understand His language. If His language is the same as ours, there is one ‘soul’ language. If so “God is everywhere”, thus making communication with Him simple. If He abides in our soul. If He is the power source, then understanding is simpler. If His language is different from ours or if there are two languages, communications would be more complex and there would be greater puzzlement.	040.00	051

Musings on Immortal Souls ~ I. SO WHAT ABOUT SOUL

SO WHAT ABOUT “SOUL”	III	016
010.         What’s about the soul? It’s an eternal life force containing many functions. It is analogous to a computer which has within it the system architecture including motherboard with printed circuits and software; and its functions can emulate many functions of man, cognitive and otherwise.	010.00	017
011.         Knowing depends on 3 major Principles: I – Identification [a ≡ a], II – Contradiction [a ≠ b], III – Cause-and-Effect [a => c]; Effect-to-Cause [c <= a]As you can see by the formulae, each statement has a language: syntax – subject, relationship, predicate, This indicates that our souls have a natural language. [More on this later]	011.00	018
012.         God also created animals. ([a definite beginning and end] – [not eternal] – [has an animal soul] … {Animal knowing depends on 3 major principles: I – Identification [a ≡ a], II – Contradiction [a ≠ b], III – Stimulus-and-Response [a -> c].}	012.00	019
013.         To know, a soul needs input to process. Even an angel’s soul, when its gets input, the input must be in a form that the soul can recognize. The angel, unlike man, has no material brain and external senses to process and store sense phantasms to study and generate conclusions and ideas. Ideas are immaterial and remembered but not stored in a material way. Whatever the form of input, the angel formulates conclusions which are stored in the soul in an immaterial way. How? I don’t think we will ever know; but we can examine what is stored along with a functional description.	013.00	020
LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL	IV	021
014.       I believe that the soul has its own language for recording and organizing knowledge. When we want to communicate externally, the language we use has to be compatible to the recipient. Thus one has to learn the language of the recipient unless he already knows my language. When a baby sees an object, it will be remembered. The soul forms a distinct “label”. When the baby sees the same object again, he will, through comparison, identify it to that same “label”. This process of knowing, a=a or a≠a is automatic. When a new object appears, and it can not be identified to one already known; another “label” will be formed. When the baby sees another object which is similar to on he already knows, his soul will form a new “label” probably similar to the label of the one he has. What this language is that labels inputs, conclusions, relationships is unknown. The process of dealing with inputs from the other senses is similar. I think this language is common to every soul of man. Man uses many external languages now, (although man started with one, I call soul language). Computers use many languages and they are stored in the computer’s “brain”, usually as bits of 0’s and 1’s. — An unformatted string of characters is “babble” to the computer. One of the first computers I used had a “four address” language structure to its command language. Actually each command line of code had a 5th component, the operation code. A simple arithmetic command had the following syntactic structure; eg. add a and b and store results in c and go to d ( the address of the next operation in the program). Then computers went to “2 address” and “1 address” for more operational efficiency; but the structure of the commands was broken up into pieces that were chained in a sequence to execute the command. Initially, however, the “4 address” language closely resembles our human language which was natural for us to use. “Parsing” a sentence is normally taught in learning a human language. So, from an “effect-to-cause” relation, man built language structure which emulated their own “soul” language. Is this language structure the same or similar to the language of the soul of its Creator? How about angels? I believe angels, like man and computers, have a processor, a memory, an acquisition system. In addition, they would have one or more languages to communicate with other recipients. But to communicate his knowledge, the angel also needs to communicate in a language understood by the recipient and receivable by that recipient. Souls have a cognitive function, which receives processes, generates knowledge, stores and transmits its knowledge. But what is the communication language of the soul of an angel? Is puzzlement!	014.00	022
015.          Before exploring the language of the soul further, I want to discuss who can communicate with whom. There is much historical testimony of God communicating with angels and man to warrant exploring two-way communications among all three. Angels and man have souls which are eternal and immaterial and God’s soul is infinite. Catholics talk about the “Communication of Saints”. Does this mean that non-Saints, who also have souls, can’t communicate? — What about ESP? Does that count? Is their a common language for all souls to communicate? Or is there one language with different dialects? Or are there different, but interpretable, languages, [one for God, one for the soul of an angel and one for the soul of a man]. If so,  wouldn’t this require interpretation “software” in the soul of each?	015.00	023
016.         Do you think the angel has to go to school to learn how to “speak”? It would seem to me that the soul of an angel, at the time of its creation is “ready to go” Do you think Adam had to go to school to learn how to “speak”? Why wouldn’t the soul of a man be ready to go at conception? There are many more aspects of the functionality of the soul, including intellect, will and conscience, which I will dwell on later. Of course, man has to learn the external language of the recipients so he can verbalize and communicate in our external world.	016.00	024
017.         We speak of man having a “sixth Sense”. Wouldn’t that mean the language of souls is another source of input for a man along with his five external senses? Or would this be the “seventh Sense”? “Is puzzlement”! However, it has been said that God speaks to good and bad angels and He also speaks to man; and angels speak to man. I think there is a ‘soul’ language which comes already installed when the soul of an angel or man is created, which implies that the cognition process is active.	017.00	025
	018.00	026
019.         There are many examples in history of God or angels talking to man and being understood. Some of these involve oral speech, and others involve internal communications. Some of these examples involving oral speech might not be so; but the soul on hearing the words reproduces them internally in the language of the hearer. Computers talk to man and also talk to other computers, especially when there is a central computer giving information in the form of instructions or data to networked computers. No wonderment or puzzlement here! After all, man designed it this way. How about God, the “Grand Designer” regarding Angels and man?	019.00	027
020.         The bible says that:   a, God talked to Adam and Eve; b. God talked the devil (bad angel); c. God talked to Abraham; d. God talked to Moses, … e.   an Angel talked to Mary; f. an Angel talked to Joseph; g. Angels announced “Glad Tidings” to shepherds; h. God talked to a throng at the Baptism of Messiah by John the Baptist; I. an Angel talked to Apostle’s at Ascension of Messiah.  —   These are a few examples that many are aware of.	020.00	028
021.         Previously, I said that communications from God or angel require a material form or immaterial form and that they be understood by the other party. Computers are naturally excluded. However the analogies are there. Using 0’ & 1’s, the content of a communication must be composed in the computer language and then formulated into the language and form needed by the recipient. This rule applies to the above examples. I have already discussed soul –to-soul communications which are not at the same time “verbalized”.	021.00	029
022.         Did God verbally talked directly to Adam, Abraham and Moses through their external sense of hearing? If so, material sound waves would enter their ear and they would materially process, analyze, synthesize and abstract meaning and info into the immaterial language of the soul. However, to comprehend God’s words they would need to know the language God used. Then, cognitive man could respond using that language. If God communicated directly to the soul, then verbal communications, even if they occurred, were not needed. Man would already know the ‘ soul’ language God used without having to ‘learn’ it. The man, in either case, then could describe to himself or to others in an external language, known by each, what God said to him. The same principle of a natural ‘soul’ language applies to one-on-one communications between an angel and a man.	022.00	030
023.         The ‘one-to-many’ communication is a very interesting situation. Some examples in the Bible include God talking to the group at John the Baptist’s baptism of Jesus, at the Transfiguration of Jesus; and angels announcing “tidings of great joy” to the shepherds at the Nativity of Jesus, at the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. The same issue occurs, as above, as to whether there was a necessity to have sound waves to communicate. Usually these communications were one way messages, which didn’t require a verbal response; but were meant to trigger actions on the part of the receivers of the messages. I believe the ‘communication of souls’ exists at the beginning of life for every soul of man or angel.	023.00	031
024.         If messages were transmitted in one language, and only once, in a single set of sound waves, to an audience with mixed languages, the message, would require each individual to understand that transmitted language. If the principle of soul-to-soul communication applies, then, regardless of whether there were sound waves or not, each one would understand the message. The situation simplifies if there were no sound waves from the outside. Man, on getting the immaterial message directly, enunciates it to himself internally in his normal external language. That is, his ears had no noise input, but his soul’s processor can reproduce the verbal sounds. At times, don’t we say the words internally before transmitting them?	024.00	032
025.        But that leaves the problem of the use of only sound waves, which would be understood be some and noise to others. The Pope communicates to mixed language groups in different languages, repeating the message in the language of some of the groups. Still there could be members in the audience who would hear, but not understand. I think it was a miracle that the first Pope, Peter, after receiving God, the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost, went out to the balcony and preached to thousands of people, each understanding Peter in his own language. That might mean that the thoughts of Peter, voiced by Peter, were immaterially transmitted simultaneously (soul to soul) to each individual that heard and understood Peter. Wouldn’t this be a case of simulcasting of a message in Aramaic in ‘soul’ language and understood by people in their own language? These people could then voice the message in their own language. Possible? Well, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit gave the twelve apostles the ability to communicate in different languages much to the amazement of the crowd, having many groups with their own language.	025.00	033

Musings on Immortal Souls ~ Introduction

Musings on Immortal Souls	000.10	001
“Sum ergo Cogito!”	000.20	002
“I am, therefore I think!”	000.21	003
Knowing or Cognition is a function inherent in the souls of God, Angels and Man.	000.22	004
I      - INTRODUCTIONII     - BASIC CONCEPTS or Chain of AttributesIII    - SO WHAT ABOUT “SOUL”IV    - LANGUAGE OF THE SOULV     - CONSCIENCE AND FREE WILL AND COMMUNICATIONVI    - COMPUTER of MAN of GODVII   - MORE ON COMMUNICATIONVIII  - MORE ON FREE WILL, CONSCIENCE AND JUDGMENTIX    - MORE ON CONSCIENCEX     - OUR VOYAGE INTO ETERNITYXI    -		006
001. First, I will muse about the process of knowing. Knowing precedes action. Secondly, I will muse about the destination of the soul and what the trip would entail.I once mentioned to my Jesuit philosophy professor the proposition that “God is to man as man is to computer”. “Blasphemy!!!” he said. I said “the philosophical Principal of Cause and Effect – God’s cognition function was replicated in some way in man; man replicated the cognition function in computers” My argument wasn’t accepted. I went away and years later I designed a cognition function in the MAC+ compute; and another one later using high-speed computers. One application was to process data and “connect the dots” regarding relational aspects of various information relating to the military-industrial complex or terrorism. My original proposition that “God is to man as man is to computer” can be reversed to “Computer is ‘created’ by man who was created by God”. By doing ‘reverse engineering’, using the Principle of “Effect-to-Cause”, and using “analysis-synthesis” we can arrive at a more illuminated understand of higher forms of “cognition” Most people are more familiar with computers than with formal learning in logic, epistemology, ontology, cosmology, fundamental and advanced psychology, natural law, ethics and apologetics. They could, by using the Principle of “Effect-to-Cause”, arrive at concepts which would assist them to better comprehend the functions of their soul which govern their current life.	001.00	005
INTRODUCTION	I	006
002.         This monograph is not a scientific treatise. This monograph puts forward my own views and notions which I continually revise as I learn more. I want to explore different concepts relating to the soul in my own vernacular. In the computer vernacular, I am “dumping core” or “downloading” the last 60 years of my learning about cognition and the soul. I don’t want to talk too seriously; but I would like to provoke meditation by the readers. Whether you agree or disagree with statements I make, you might learn something new or explore further the ideas expressed.	002.00	007
003.         Part of the cognition process is like trimming a Christmas tree. You have a tree which starts out empty of ornaments, lights and tensile. These are scattered in boxes or just lying around. In our cognition process we accumulate knowledge of many things. We naturally try to place these data on our own tree of knowledge. Some of our ideas are strewn around in our mind, largely unorganized.  You know the word “scatter brain”, someone who doesn’t seem to have his thoughts together in a particular area. It’s fairly easy to be that way. It takes thinking energy to hang them together in a cogent way to present a clearer relational picture of Christmas.	003.00	008
004.         Man, “homo sapiens”, enjoys hanging their thoughts on the “Tree of Knowledge”. He can stand back and perceive the likely relationships among thoughts and fill in various branches in different areas of the tree. When you perceive new concepts there is a cheer in your soul, which is often expressed externally. “Eureka” was used by some of the ancients.	004.00	009
005.         Thoughts can be put up as ornaments (concrete reality), lights (basic truths) or tensile (the ambient context). When a light goes out, you might discover the truth it represented no longer has a filament of truth. You can either remove it or leave it there.	005.00	010
006.         This paper describes my Tree of Knowledge as of now regarding cognition and the soul. By the time I finish this paper, there will be more additions and deletions. Knowledge doesn’t stand still.	006.00	011
BASIC CONCEPTS or Chain of Attributes	II	012
007.         God is infinite! ([no flaws] – [always was and always will be] – [all knowing] – [perfect in all His attributes] – [no beginning, no end] – [immortal] – …  “Who God is in His Essence, no one will fathom, neither the mind of Angels nor of man. Get to know God by contemplating His attributes”. (Ref. 01, Sec. 001.10)	007.00	013
008.         God created the Angels ( [a definite beginning, no end] – [eternal] – [given a soul, but no body] – [immaterial being] – [has an eternal soul] – [given intellect and free will] – [has a conscience to govern actions] – [subject to sinning – re; Devil] – [has preternatural intellect]	008.00	014
009.          God created man – in His Image and Likeness] – [a definite beginning, no end] – [eternal] – [given a soul, with body] – [has an eternal soul] – [body is mortal and will die] – [given intellect and free will] – [has a conscience to govern actions] – [subject to sinning] – [has natural intellect] … (Adam had preternatural intellect; but it darkened when he disobeyed God).	009.00	015

Musings on Torture

Musings on Torture

 The word “torture” is considered by many as an evil. The verb “to torture” does not automatically make those acts of torture evil. The question “Is torture evil?” can not be answered with a “yes” or “no”. Simply, it is pain inflicted on one’s spiritual, mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing.  “Torture”, torturing” need to be evaluated first in its relationship to God. God is all truth, all good, all justice, all loving, etc. Where did torture begin? Surely before Adam was created! God created the angels before Adam. He created them as immaterial beings with immortal souls in His image and likeness to know, love and serve Him and only Him. He gave each angel a free will. He did the same for humans but He embedded our immortal souls within an earthly mortal body. Angels and humans have a relationship to God as servants, under specific orders to do good and avoid evil. Whether a good or evil deed is performed there are consequences – good and evil. Doers of good deeds merit rewards. Doers of evil deeds merit punishment. Why punish an evil doer? God’s being all just demands it as atonement. God sent His only Son, as a God-man, to atone for the sin of Adam who suffered and died in atonement. God created hell as an eternal torture chamber, first for those angels who refused to do God’s will. Yet these evil angels, headed by Archangel Lucifer, were allowed by God to continue influencing other angels and eventually humans into temptation to do evil deeds. On the other hand, good angels continue to guide us in doing no evil, along with the promptings of the Holy Spirit. So “torture” started with God for punishing evil angels. How can God be truly God if His Justice isn’t used? If Justice isn’t used then do-gooders and evil doers are treated equally. God has no contradictions. The act of God inflicting pain on evil doers is a good act.  In the “Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska”, (published in 2004 by The National Shrine of Divine Mercy, Eden Hill, Stockbridge, MA), the tortures of hell are described: 

loss of God

perpetual remorse of conscience

awareness that one’s condition will never change

fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it — a purely spiritual fire

continual darkness, and a terrible suffocating smell,

the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil,

the constant company of Satan

horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies

undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to how it has sinned

Very gruesome don’t you think? God’s choice of torture is His prerogative, therefore just. However another attribute of God is His Divine Mercy, which St. Faustina elaborated on in her diaries. A great example of granting mercy to a very evil person occurred on Good Friday. One of the thieves, being crucified with Jesus by the Romans, spoke to Jesus. He said to Jesus, he believed Jesus was innocent and confessed he was guilty and subject to the torture of crucifixion. He asked Jesus for mercy when he asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom. Jesus responded by promising this thief that he will be in Paradise that day. This thief trusted in Jesus, escaped the tortures of hell and ended up in the kingdom of God for eternity. 

Human souls were created by God in His image and likeness which gives us the attributes of God but in an imperfect way. We are children of God and heirs of His kingdom. We received free will along with a list of do’s and don’ts which comprises the natural law for us to obey under pain of punishment by God and loss of our inheritance in His kingdom. Our souls are subject to promptings to do good or evil deeds. Our lives are sometimes like a mine field where we need to avoid a misstep that merits punishment. We have a conscience installed by God in our soul to guide us in our actions. Good actions produce elation. Evil actions produce shame. Not all of our evil actions merit eternal torture. God did create another torture chamber called purgatory. Souls are purged through fire and remorse for their “misdemeanors” before “seeing” God. Every soul has true hope that his torture is temporary and not eternal. They willingly accept their torture because they know they deserve punishment for offending God whom they all love. 

When each person is conceived, God creates their soul which is ‘embedded’ in their body. There is no person where there is no soul. Each of us is a child of God and a child of their natural parents. Each of us is subject to the laws of God and parents. Pain for us starts early. We suffer the pains of pregnancy and birth. Some of our pain is inflicted on us because of parental lifestyle or medical treatment. The soul feels all pain in the womb though the person is not consciously aware. At birth we enter the world of pain, punishment and torture. Similar to God, parents make the rules of behavior after our birth. Obeying rules merit parental reward and disobeying rules merit parental punishment. Parents have a natural right to reward or punish. When does inflicting pain become an evil action? The spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well being of the person can be inflicted by pain from parents, by himself and others. 

When is inflicting pain a good act? Obviously God’s inflictions of pain were good acts. Jesus suffered pain as atonement for the sins of humans against His Father. Jesus inflicted pain on Himself when He fasted for 40 days in the desert to prepare Himself for beginning His mission of atonement and redemption. Early in our life we start to inflict pain on ourselves in atonement for an offense against ourselves or others. God, at the same time, inflicts pains of shame spiritually through our conscience. So we have God, our parents and ourselves rightfully inflicting pain. Then society, including schools, local, state and national plus military inflicting pain whenever they think it is the right action. If all of these earthly inflictors of pain were just, all “torture” would be justified.  However I, parents and others often inflict pain unjustly. We have no common standards of letting the “punishment fit the crime”. Where the pain is inflicted as a good act this same pain is an evil act when it is unjust.

Clearly “justification” determines whether inflicting pain is good or evil. Are there pains, which are inflicted, always good or evil? Judging from the history of God’s actions, none of His acts of torture were evil. We humans can unjustly inflict pain (torture) on ourselves, on other humans, on Jesus Christ and on animals. Injustice is the crime of disregarding rules of behavior from authorized authorities. Each person has a judgment function as a natural part of their conscience. Rules of behavior are ‘hard-wired’ by God and our conscience internally notifies us if an action to be taken is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Then we exercise our justifying function to determine if the action to be taken is justified. We then choose, using our free will, to do evil or not. Then our conscience notifies us of God’s approval or disapproval through creating feelings of joy or shame. In our personal lives we inflict pain on ourselves to combat a disease, crimes of self-gratification, including food, drink, smoking, sex, drugs, arrogance, pomposity, hard-heartedness, soft-heartedness, etc. To cure ourselves from these unjust acts we need to inflict pain on our self by dieting, abstaining, detoxing, humbling, and practicing just love. Most people have difficulty in doing this suffering, yet we usually understand the justice in doing it. The word crime is appropriate when we enjoy over-doing, inspite of our conscience’s disapproval. We relish over-doing for the self pleasure we get even though we are inflicting pain on our humanity. These are evil acts of varying degrees of penalty to be atoned for. Even nagging, teasing, yelling, derision, etc. become evil acts when you relish doing them without fair justification. 

A person has, if he has given an oath to a high civil authority, to obey rules to defend and protect against enemies who seek to attack, harm or injure people within this civil authority. Having qualms of conscience is normal for many people because of their personal “do no harm” principle. Other people who have a personal principle of “do no harm unless someone threatens or does harm to that person or his kith, kin or neighbor”. The principal of self-preservation is natural to humans. Most of us would feel suffering when we carry out orders to inflict pain on enemies. However, those who relish the inflicting of pain with or without justification are committing personal evil acts. Their superiors are not; but they often are punished for these acts because of lack of oversight. 

For people with the authority to inflict pain as a punishment, the principle of “let the punishment fit the crime” is common. Who is to be the judge of that? People have as a yardstick used in judging the fairness of the punishment attitudes, ranging from “spare the rod and spoil the child” to “spoil the rod and spare the child”. This makes it impossible to have a standard for inflicting punishment. Punishment can affect the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well being of the ‘sinner’ as well as you. Great care needs to be taken in avoiding the sin of self-gratification, which reduces your real authority to punish.

There must always be the element of mercy to be used in your judgment of what punishment. Jesus bestowed Divine Mercy on one of the two thieves being crucified with Him, because this thief confessed to his guilt and ask Jesus for mercy. Jesus granted this thief Divine Mercy immediately. Our bodies are called temples of the Holy Spirit because He dwells in our soul which He created. Not only does He influence our conscience to guide as to whether an act we want to do or did is good or evil, He provides within our soul promptings to do good and avoid evil. This is expressed in the Lord’s Prayer” through the words “lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil”. We get a lot of help and guidance to do good and avoid evil; but the bottom line is that we use our free will to ignore or obey.

Every one is personally responsible for heeding the judgments of their conscience. As to spiritual promptings to take an action, one has to discern whether their conscience approves or not. The reason is that Satan has, only God knows why, the power to infiltrate our being to prompt one to do evil. Satan has the power to deliver a rationale for one to consider, to convince us to do evil, as he did to Adam and Eve. Each one goes through life with this battle of good versus evil being waged in our soul. God will judge us on our choices. As our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, we have to respect the bodies of others as to their spiritual, mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Deliberately inflicting pain on another needs valid justification, otherwise it is an evil act.  When we look at the world around us, we are bombarded by pictures and stories of man inflicting pain. We are appalled and sickened by these visual and mental images. Many of us have relatives and friends being the receivers or inflictors of pain. We often are so incensed that we want strike out in anger at others. Sometimes we get obsessed to the point that we actually inflict pain on others. Others take a spiritual attitude and offer prayers and their sufferings to God as their atonement for the crimes of others. Many are appalled at war deaths; but much less appalled about deaths due to drugs, alcohol, smoking which results in many, many more deaths than war. 

Perspective and balance is needed in our making judgments. A historical view of God’s and man’s infliction of pain shows that God’s infliction of pain is harsher than ours. So what can we do? Do we just wring our hands, moan and groan? What we need to do is to treat others within our ambit with justice tempered with mercy. Within the Commandment of Love, “Thou shalt love the Lord …. and your neighbor as yourself” we have an obligation to our neighbor to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We are also obliged our selves to act in accordance with the “beatitudes” given to us by Christ. 

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Responses to: cispkearns@aol.com

June 18, 2007 ©  modified 09/09/08

 

Musings on Obedience

Musings on Obedience

I have no wish to be a ‘burr under anyone’s saddle blanket’ concerning the legitimacy of disobedience to the Vatican when you think their rules and regulations are wrong. Let us examine another view in critiquing actions of others within the context of obedience to legitimate authority. Manyemphasize the word ‘love’. Even though God created mankind out of love, the word ‘love’ does not appear in God’s commandment to Adam, or His “Ten Commandments” to Moses” or the “Our Father”, the Prayer that Jesus gave us. What it does contain are God the Father’s rules and regulations regarding our moral conduct.  In the “Our Father” we are asked to “hallow His name”, “do His will on earth”, “forgive those who trespass against us”, to avoid temptation and evil.  

Obedience is our basic responsibility because God created each one with a free will and in His image and likeness, to know, love and serve Him here so that we can be with Him eternally when we die. Thus, we are children of God and heirs to His kingdom. With our free will we can choose to disobey God and incur a penalty.  “Serving” Him requires obedience. At death those sins of ours, not yet forgiven and atoned for when we die, will be judged by the God of Justice. We would suffer punishment for our sins either in Hell eternally or in Purgatory temporarily; unless Jesus Christ exercises His Divine Mercy.

God’s Divine love brought about the creation of Adam, then Eve, the promise of a God-man to redeem us, the issuing of Commandments, Prayers. Jesus repeated the Commandments, taught us the “Our Father”, commanded we do spiritual and corporal works of mercy and wrapped these “commandments” within His “Divine Commandment of Love”.Jesus was commanded by God the Father to be Our Redeemer for the crime of Adam which required much pain and suffering to atone for that crime, original sin. All sin has consequences, be it reparation, atonement, punishment; and someone has to do it, unless Divine Mercy “wipes the slate clean”.

In the Garden of Olives Jesus, the God-man, knowing the pain and suffering He was to endure, asked His Father to relieve Him of His Redemptive mission; but Jesus agreed to obey His Father with the words “… not My will but Your will be done!” This is the essence of “obedience”. Jesus had grievances against Herod who slew all boys around His age of 2 ~ no playmates. If, during His public life in the Jerusalem area when preaching to the crowds, He asked all men, born in the area to rise, and then asked those older than 33 or younger than 30 to sit down, who beside Himself would be standing? Who killed His cousin John? How many members of the House of David were killed by Romans, etc.? I think these are legitimate grievances. Did He rant and rave against these murderers?

When He was on the Cross, did He deliver a polemic against the Jewish religious and civil leaders? Did He rant to Caesar to eliminate the death penalty? If He did, neither the gospel writers nor others wrote about it.What did He do? He became subject to His parents after being “AWOL” in the temple. To the centurion, He praised him for being a good and obedient boss who demanded obedience from his subjects and was good to them. To the people He said “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, to God the things that are God’s”. Jesus thought Caesar had legitimacy as a ruler and subjects had an obligation to obey.  He did not castigate Herod or Pilate. On the cross He asked God the Father to forgive His tormentors. When asked for mercy from a condemned thief, He granted that thief Divine Mercy.

Evidently His Father’s promise to Adam, the first disobedient person, to redeem mankind for Adam’s crime had priority. Jesus focused on doing what He was obligated to do. St. Faustina¹, Jesus’ Secretary and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000, promised Jesus that she would do His will. When her confessor, superior or Bishop thwarted her efforts, she would get angry or ‘wrapped around the axle’. She ‘ranted’ to Jesus about her inability to do what Jesus ordered. He lectured her to be always obedient to her superiors, her Confessor and her Superior. If she had a legitimate gripe she was to obey then complain to Him, so that He can decide how else to accomplish His plan. He reminding Her that her suffering was like a drop in the ocean compared to what He suffered for her on the Cross.

He encouraged her to continue doing His will through her Confessor. On Nov. 11, 1924, in St. Faustina’s Diary[1], para. 0534, Jesus said: “I have come to do My Father’s will. I obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors and now I obey the priests.”  In Mar.1936, [para. 0639], Jesus said: “My daughter, I desire that even in the smallest things, you rely on your confessor. Your greatest sacrifices do not please Me if you practice them without the confessor’s permission; on the other hand, the smallest sacrifice finds great value in My eyes, …  On Jan. 22, 1937 in St. Faustina’s Diary, [para. 0894], Jesus said: “My daughter, know that you give Me greater glory by a single act of obedience than by longer prayers and mortifications.”

King Henry VIII had serious grievances against the Vatican regarding refusal of annulment of his marriage and many other requests. Though he got the proverbial bureaucratic treatment in most of his dealings with the Vatican, King Henry VIII, under his mantra of the “divine right of kings”, (like Caesar), chose to disobey the Pope, Vicar of Jesus, in the area of moral rules and regulation. In fact he appointed himself and his heirs “vicar” and formed the Church of England [C.O.E.]. Roman Catholics were coerced into exchanging their obedience to the Pope to obedience to Henry to become English Catholics. Henry VIII’s disobedience has its terrible evil consequences, still continuing to this day. Those, that refused, faced martyrdom, imprisonment, confiscation of property, and more. The obligation for obedience to Henry, who usurped the “faith and morals” authority of the Pope, is really binding on no one; but out of human concern for themselves, their families, and their status thousands obeyed Henry VIII and deserted Christ’s Vicar. These people were led by clerical authorities who had also deserted Christ and His church. 

Many people assumed that the priesthood of these clerics required their obedience even though they separated themselves from the dynamic role of Jesus in their daily life through Confession and Communion. The disobedience of members of the C. O. E. continues; but many clerics and parishes with many members are returning to papal obedience.Martin Luther, a Prince of the Church, having taken a vow of obedience to God and the Pope, had, what he thought was legitimate grievances against the Pope and his staff. His civil ruling hierarchy also had grievances against the Pope, and they inveighed upon Martin Luther to do something about it. If he went up the chain of command to his “Confessor”, the Pope, requesting satisfaction, he received none. Martin Luther’s response is to be a “whistle-blower”. He ranted and raved in public against the Pope and his staff, which agitated the public who were put in a position to take sides, creating a rift. Breaking his vow of obedience to Christ and His Vicar was his answer. Unfortunately many members of his flock followed this bad shepherd.

Obedience to God through the Pope, Christ’s Vicar, was forbidden. He was going to do things his way. He was going to create his own command structure, the Lutheran Church, with himself as their “vicar” backed by civil authority. He tried to placate some of his flock, by saying that whenever he decided that Rome had repented and reformed he would subordinate himself and them to the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. [If you don’t play ball my way, I’ll pick up my marbles and go home”!] He wasn’t going to do things God’s way. There was no humbling of self to continue performing in accordance to God’s will.

The above historical events show the horrendous results of direct disobedience to moral authority on others. In a synopsis of the book “Jesus of Nazareth”, which was written by Pope Benedict XVI, the following excerpt applies: To save humanity “He must recapitulate the whole of history from its beginnings” (Page 26), he must conquer the principal temptations that, in various forms, threaten men in all ages and, transforming them into obedience, reopen the road toward God (Chapter 2), toward the true Promised Land, which is the “Kingdom of God” (Page 44). , ROME, APRIL 15, 2007 (Zenit.org)

Obedience to the will of God within ourselves begins after birth, first to our parents and onward through life to people and organizations due our obedience. Some of us took Baptismal vows, Confirmation vows, reconciliation vows, Nuptial vows and Priestly vows. Some also take vows of obedience to their country, “Caesar”, and to various organizations. Not many of us “grin and bear it’ when we don’t want to obey. Most of us do our own ranting and raving at authority. Many times our reasons are legitimate. In families, schools and other groups, as children, we are called “tattle tales”. In business and government we are called “whistle blowers”, sometimes “traitor” is used. Whatever the case we most always receive punishment in some form. As adults, penalties including firing, blackballing, jail, damage suits are awaiting us. We are often conflicted with choices that would violate God’s will. For us to resolve moral conflicts, whether under King Henry VIII, Martin Luther, our parents or other legitimate authorities, we have to choose obedience to God’s will or theirs.

At conception God gave us a moral conscience to discern between good and evil, which gives us feedback of shame, [when choosing evil] or honor, [when choosing good].Can our personal disobedience to moral authority have terrible effects on others? Disobedience to parents can badly influence other siblings. If not corrected your disobedience likely will continue with school and civil authorities which spreads this ‘disease’ to others – and on it goes. A horrendous example is when one uses drugs, then influences others to use drugs, then sells drugs to purchase more drugs. Thus our drug culture has enslaved millions of people since the mid 1900’s, and resulted in millions of other crimes including theft, human assaults, and deaths.Moral disobedience, whether by parents, clergy or religious to God or Vatican, influence children to do the same. This has a cascading effect. Today, less than 40% participation in Christian worship services, less than 10% in seeking direct reconciliation with God through clergy for forgiveness of their personal sins. In effect God has been exiled from our lives even though many still go through the religious motions for social and other reasons.  

Obedience to God’s will is our life’s work. True success will be recognized through our corporal and spiritual works of mercy. These emphasize our love of God, ourself and our neighbor. This in turn has a cascading effect on others who are influenced to obey God’s will and do good works. The mantra, “know, love and serve God” acts like an eternal reciprocating engine propelling us to God’s kingdom through obedience. ¹At 14, after 3 yrs. of elementary education, St. Faustina became an indentured servant in a private home. Despite pleas from family and friends, she entered convent life at the urging of God. God appeared to her and asked her to be His secretary and record His messages. She started a diary which has illuminated for people, throughout the world, the essence of God. The major impact was the establishment of The Feast of Divine Mercy [annually celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter] for the provision by God’s mercy, forgiveness, remission of punishment for all those who seek salvation; and who reconciled themselves and said The Chaplet that God dictated to St. Faustina [canonized by Pope John Paul II – 4/30/2000]. [‘Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska exists in English. The latest English version was publish in 2004 by The National Shrine of Divine Mercy, Eden Hill, Stockbridge, MA]

Submitted by Paul D Kearns

Responses to: cispkearns@aol.com

May 4, 2007 © ~ rev. 1 01/28/08; rev. 2 09/09/08