Connor's Question

I didn't realize that a 9 year old boy could be such a "deep thinker".  This morning we are driving Connor home after he slept over with us (his Mema and Papa) when he asks, "what is the purpose of life, if we're all going to die anyway?"
Wow! I certainly was surprised to hear such a question coming from a child.  I felt so sad.  Does a person have to deal with the reality of death at such a young age?  Won't there be plenty of time for this in years to come?  I felt a bit overwhelmed as I scrambled to find a satisfactory answer. 
I told him that death is a birth into another life and it isn't the end of us.  I told him that when a baby is in the Mommie's womb, it probably doesn't want to to leave because it is so at home there, but then when it is born, it is happy that it entered this new life.  I said that when people have to die, they don't want to leave this world because they are so at home here, but then when they do die and leave this life, they enter the next life and they are very happy that they entered this new life with God.
I wonder if this was a good thing to say.  I don't want him to be too eager to go to the next life. 
And, as you probably know from my previous blog entries, I really just hope and pray for the realities I shared with him today since they are none too clear and concise in my own mind.   Even my faith-filled father had uncertainty.  I was trying to offer some comfort to him as he lay dying by saying, "Daddy, you'll be seeing Mommie and Charlie and little Joseph and your Mom and Dad and he answered me a bit too clearly, "I sure hope so".  
 Still I want Connor to have hope.  I also wonder what he is being taught about life, death and infinity at St. Pius X School?  
Tonight I'm trying to fall asleep and I start thinking of the Baltimore Catechism answer:
"God made us to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this life and to be happy with Him in the next".  I'll also have to tell Connor that the purpose of life is to Love God with his whole heart, his whole soul and His whole strength and to love his neighbors as himself.   I think this is the very best answer.  I sense this at my core when I experience love.  I don't doubt that, I just don't have a clear, concise mental picture of what the next life will be.   I also think the word Him is not the best description of a Being who is beyond description. 
The photo was taken this morning shortly before we drove Connor home.  He is standing with Nancy Krueger, a woman we know from Ridgewood, Queens.  She was visiting for the weekend. We have known Nancy since 1973 when Bob & I taught her in a "religious ed class" at St. Matthias Church.

How can I take this Synod Seriously?

 I can barely stand to read anything about the Synod going on in Rome.  It makes me so upset to hear what some of these "celibate" man are preaching.  Don't they understand that God is love?
  
Thank God this Cardinal said something I can agree with:

Cardinal Walter Kasper said  “A Church without women is like a mutilated body,”  He also said that  “Without them, parishes would close tomorrow.”   Kasper remarked that it was “absurd” that women did not hold “high-level” positions in the Roman Curia.  He added that women should also be included, as consultants, in major discussions at the congregations dealing with education, saint-making, doctrine and consecrated life “since 80 percent of Religious are women.” (The Tablet, 03/08/14)

On the other hand, Cardinal Raymond Burke states: 
“If homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are — reason teaches us that and also our faith — then, what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living [in] a disordered relationship with another person?” asked the cardinal.

How can he say that an all-loving God creates people who are "intrinsically disordered'?    Why would an intelligent human being, in this day and age, make a remark like this???    It is so absolutely frustrating to hear someone who is in a decision making position in my church say such a ludicrous thing? 

I am so discouraged by this group of men in Rome!

Honesty and Truth

This blog entry is dedicated to my feisty red-headed cousin, Judy.  Her thoughts and insights are amazing.  Maybe this is egocentric on my part since she describes my feelings and thoughts about the official Catholic Church so precisely.
Her dialogue is honest, open and challenging.
These are some of my thoughts she has brought to the forefront:
 If there is a Supreme Being ( I say "if", not to offend anyone but because this belief is really a matter of faith) than there is also an ultimate truth. 
The word "supreme" by its very meaning is the "top" or the "best" and it is singular.  There is only one since if there were two than the fist one would no longer be supreme.  The second one would be the second best or the next best.  If there is one Supreme Being than it really doesn't matter what we name this being, it is still the one and only!
Our human minds search the truth about, but never really fully understand, this Supreme Being since we aren't that Being.  Also it doesn't really matter what we call this Being because, in essence, we are all referring to the same Being since there is only One.   Therefore it doesn't really make sense to fight or argue over what we name this Being.  It is and always will be Supreme.  I guess!  I say "I guess" because anyone who pretends to know for certain is, I believe, arrogant.
Discussing truthfully can offend a lot of people.  I know from personal experience that you can't ask certain questions or state your "truth" without causing an uproar.   This is too bad since finding the truth (as best we can) about this Supreme Being appears to be an ultimate goal of existence (at least to me and possibly Alfie). 
There is a new expression floating around a lot lately - "speaking truth to power".   Power doesn't like the truth because it may show them to be fraudulent.   Also truth can be painful.  I know that from personal experience also.  When I was an adolescent I asked my cousin, Susie, if I was pretty and she said, "your average" and this hurt since I really wanted to be gorgeous and a famous singer. In many ways it is a lot more comfortable to live in fantasy.  Oftentimes I  like to hear lies, "beautiful" lies.   Oftentimes I don't feel strong enough to hear the truth.  But when someone speaks the truth, they challenge us and they make us grow.   Hopefully the truth can be so lovingly given that we don't block it from getting into us.

AWAKE!

So it is now 5AM and I have been awake since approximately 2:30AM.  I lie in bed and my mind starts wandering to this thing and that.  I wish I could put it, i.e., my mind, to sleep so I can be rejuvenated in the morning when most normal people are getting up and moving.  But, there is always so much to think about.  Does anyone else have this problem?  Typically I think about some deep issues such as love, relationships, the meaning of life, the truth about an Almighty Being, Eternity, etc, etc.  Then I think about everyday things - "my to do list" - deciding what should be done first and the most effective means to get the job done.   I think about the people I haven't called in awhile, the people I miss seeing and/or talking to.  I think about
deciding what to pack for Mike and Shelby's wedding;
what to include and how to organize the slide presentation for the Friends of Fontaine Annual dinner on Oct. 18th.    I think about people from my past - people who helped form me into the person I am now - good parts and bad.  I remember lessons I learned that never left me; for example when I was 17 years old I went to speak to our pastor at St. Michael's Church in East New York, Brooklyn, Father Owen Shelley.  I was in my first "serious" relationship with a guy named Jerry and I was beginning to see things weren't going to work out for us.   I remember that Father Owen said that as difficult as it would be for me to change and become like him, that was how difficult it would be for him to change and become like me.   That bit of advice has stayed with me throughout my life.  It is a very powerful statement and I have thought of it and returned to it in many circumstances throughout my life.  Change does not come easy for anyone.  When we are strong in a belief and it has been ingrained over many years, it takes a huge amount of desire and then effort to change - even a tiny little change.
Another lesson I learned by experience, is that love is profound and unconditional love is nothing short of a miracle so when a person really loves you, you are changed forever by that love.  It leaves me with a great sense of gratitude. 
It is now 5:22AM and I will attempt to go back to sleep for a little while.  Lucky for me I am retired and I have no appointments this morning.