Justifiably Irreverent

Okay, so anyone who knows me knows that when the Holy Spirit was giving out the gift of reverence well... I was in the mens room at that time. Really folks, we all have areas of growth. Here's the deal. Our faith is a little peculiar and down right funny at times. And having been in the seminary I was blessed to see a whole other side of the Church. And since we are a family, I feel it okay to poke fun at my family; the Church. Of course not everyone is okay with my position, but hey I won't judge them as being uptight. So this leads into the whole, I can pick on and poke fun of my family, but no one else can. The no one else is the non catholics and even the non practicing Catholics. Why? Because they aren't involved and aren't part of the family. And while it is okay for me to be critical of the Church and some of the goings on that have been well, going on, it is not okay, for those outside the family. Why? because often times they sound ignorant. Case in point. I attended a service at an Episcopal Church and the homily happened to be on Mary and some comment on the shrine in Orlando. And while I talk about Mary and wonder if she was hot, or refer to her as the BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary for those who didn't know), it is not acceptable for non Catholics to talk about Our Mamma. I do appreciate the BVM as I totally get who she is, what she has done, and all the theology that goes behind the Immaculate Conception dogma. And I believe it. But really, I can also imagine Mary, yelling (in a New York jewish accent): Jeeeesus, dinner's ready. Jeeesus, they don't have anymore wine. Here, here, do what my boy tells you. Jeeesus, you can't just let them run out of wine, do something for your mutha." And.. I digress. So after the sermon, the pastor and I engaged in dialogue. He asked my opinion on his sermon. I said it was tacky. And that it serves churches better if they just focus on themselves and not try to bad talk other denominations. So if I seem irreverent at times, remember that I'm justified because we family and we can talk, fight, poke fun at each other... but no one else can.

Confession is that like a Therapy Session?

When over-hearing a dicussion on confession a jewish friend asked: "What is that like some sort of therapy session?"
Although it is very therapeutic to off load your personal crap onto the Lord, it wouldn't limit Confession to a therapy session.
So I told the lady, that it was more like a personalized individual Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement. Then I high fived myself for coming up with some really cool way to relate a sacrament to another faith.
I reality, Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is the day where a faithful Jew seeks forgiveness and tries to amend for wrongs done. So I wasn't too far off because in reconciliation a catholic seeks forgivenss and then does penance to amend for wrongs.

As a side note, overall Catholics tend to be mentally healthier than other faiths due to the sacrament, because as science shows, that getting the burdens off our chest are very healthy and healing for the individual.

So go get your personalized Yom Kippur going and go often, it's not only good for the soul but for your mind as well.

Toe Jam Jesus

So, I was giving a talk to a group of parents. The topic: Reconciliation. And the Biblical story was that of the lady who was a sinner and used her tears to wash the feet of Jesus.
It's very cool, has a nice feeling of repentance and over all a feel good story.
So then I decided that the parents need to really understand scripture so I broke it down for them.
And it goes a little something like this:

One day Jesus was eating at this tax collectors house (he is scum due to his profession). There was a hooker there too. (I guess prostitute is more dignified but hey really, dignity comes into play here)? So the hooker realzizes that Jesus is the Lord (Messiah/Savior) and has a change of heart (metanoia). So she takes her perfumes and with her tears washes Jesus feet, dries them with her hair and pour oil over them.
But wait... there is more.

Judas gets his tunic all wadded up and says: Lord, she wasting the oil, it could have been sold and the money given to the poor (read self-righteously).
Of course Jesus lauds the woman's actions and tells Judas to unwad his undergarments.

I have taken literary liscense with the above story, but you get the idea.
So during the talk, I mentioned that what this woman did was incredible since Jesus had dirty, smelly feet. In fact he may have even had toe jam.
Imagine: Jesus with Toe jam. Wow, Toe Jam Jesus.

Needless to say, there were individuals in the audience who were okay with hooker but not with Jesus having toe jam. Well I gotta say that since Jesus is true God and true man as professed in the Creed... he probably had toe jam. But thanks to the repentant woman, he got it all cleared out.

So, when you have toe jam, be like Jesus, go eat at some sinner's house and hopefully they will wash your feet.

Me, Hookers, and Jesus

I want to really be a disciple of Jesus and live how he lived. And so I too chose to eat with sinners. Since the scriptures mention that Jesus ate with hookers and tax collectors I decided to start there.
As it turned out I'm not keen on giving a free meal to the IRS and so they are off my list.
So Hookers it was. I guess the proper name is prostitue but I figured that hookers will suffice in today's world.

Thinking that the women of the night didn't have a lot of money for food, I would have them over at my house for a meal.

For some reason my wife doesn't want me following Jesus that close.

I thought she would be proud of my commitment to the Lord and living out Gospel values. It never crossed my mind on how I would explain our guest's attire to my kids. Would daddy say halloween was early this year? Maybe they were the wives of pirates (ayyy matey).

Regardless, I'm trying Jesus to be a better disciple... blame my wife if I'm not doing a good job.