"Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."
-John 16:20-22
Recently, while in Adoration, I read this passage of Scripture and reflected on it for some time. I think that it is a beautifully poetic passage that speaks a great deal to me. Hardship and suffering is a universal experience; perhaps the most universal experience. And often it seems that we will never rise out of our hardships and suffering.
The question of evil ("Why does it exist?") is one of the most prominent philosophical questions in the minds of people from all walks of life, regardless of age, gender, race, or position in life. And rarely does an answer present itself that is convincing. There are reasonable answers that hold great truth, and I have found many of these through my own personal searching (and by that, I mean complementing my inner meditation with some Peter Kreeft, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton. But that is another blog post.)
But in this passage, Jesus Christ offers to His disciples an answer that is very difficult to accept, as it was for them. Yet Christ, as He so often does, offers an answer through a metaphorical analogy that is quite understandable:
Childbirth.
I will not claim to know the pains of childbirth. I will never know. But I imagine it's something awful.
That being said, we can understand that Christ compares the hardships of life to childbirth. No one will deny that it is incredibly painful. But how much joy does a woman take in gazing upon her child for the first time? How could anything else erase so great a pain save for so great a joy?
The Son of God speaks here with the history of all Christianity in mind. For centuries, the Jewish people awaited a savior; the Messiah. They suffered, they toiled, they wept and mourned and grieved. But then, the waiting was over, and the advent of our Lord arrived. The weeping, mourning, grieving was over. The angel of the Lord descended to Mary, bringing good tidings of great joy, and the Savior of the World came into the world as man, born of the Virgin Immaculately Conceived, and all evil was destroyed, all darkness cast out!
In this season of Advent, what greater joy is there then the knowledge that soon, all darkness will pass and only light will remain. You will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. Think about how long the people of God waited for the coming of Christ. It is allegorical of our waiting for Christmas at the end of Advent to make way for the Christmas season, allegorical of our waiting for the joys of Heavenly death at the end of life to make way for eternal life with Christ; the joy that cannot be taken away.
For all those suffering or enduring hardship, or even for those who have a difficult time waiting, this is a wonderful passage on which to reflect. Especially for those who fear death. Death is only the beginning; quite literally, childbirth. Through death, you are born anew into true life. True joy, true happiness, lies at the end of life, not within it. Christ knows all things, and He knows this and teaches this to us during this Advent season.
This Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent which is dedicated to joy, reflect on this passage and keep in your prayers all those who fear death.
And if your heart beats twice, then you can love twice as much. : )
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Why I (And Every One Else) Cannot Live Without Story
Stories are the backbone of humanity.
We love them. We crave them. We need them.
Think about a story that changed your life. A work of literature, prose or poetry. Perhaps it's a story you heard from a friend or family member. Not just the stories that you love because they're interesting. Not even the ones you enjoy because they were made into good movies. Think about the ones that really affected you. The ones that still affect you to this day.
I cannot remember a time when I was not writing stories. But, then again, that is because I cannot remember a time I did not love them.
From the time I was a little boy, I can remember that I was fascinated with the art of story. I learned to read at a very young age, and began writing not much longer after. Even before I learned to write myself, I would have my mom write down or record the stories I told her. Some of my earliest memories consist of my mother writing down my words by the side of the public pool, holding a tape recorder up to my mouth, or merely listening as she lay in bed, as it was still too early to be respectfully awake. Some of my favorite stories were fairy tales, of course. The more Disney they were, the better. Then Robin Hood, King Arthur, and even Ivanhoe. I remember firing arrows across the playroom with my brothers, or jousting each other from atop our couch-cushion steeds. Then, Star Wars came into the mix. The moment I learned how to make a lightsaber noise with my mouth, I became a Jedi Master. My brother's jump-rope became Indiana Jones' whip and, subsequently, George Mallory's climbing ropes (this was, of course, after my mother realized that the presence of my father's bullwhip in the house, despite it being high up in the closet, posed a serious threat to my two twin brothers, both older and bigger and bad-guyier.) When super-heroes became a part of the equation, and my early adolescent years became filled with reading as many comic books as a boy my age could handle (I am unashamed of this fact: I have read the first 150 issues of the original Spider-Man series), and I knew that I would never be the same. Then came the classics. Jules Verne remains one of my favorite, with Robert Louis Stevenson and William Shakespeare entering the fray as well, accompanying ancient classics, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, as well as all forms of mythology. (I will confess, I love but one Hemingway book, and that is "Old Man and the Sea." The rest I do not find appealing.)
Stories are inescapable. They are essential to life. It is a rare occasion that some one goes through their life without hearing a story, telling a story, or experiencing a story. But why? Why are these stories so important to us? Why is it that men feel compelled to tell their stories, share their stories, listen to stories?
It is because without them, we fall apart.
We need stories to encourage us to do the incredible things that, elsewhere, we would never believe we could accomplish.
We need stories to keep us going when the going gets rough; that when the world seems too dark to go on, or when all hopes seems lost, the stories can show us the light.
We need stories to show us the good guys from the bad guys; to give us role models and heroes whom we aspire to be like.
We need stories to show us how to fight for good.
We need stories to teach us to believe.
We need stories to show us how to love.
In my experience, I have always looked to the stories I love to teach me to carry on. The human experience differs, and for this reason, there are many various stories. This allows for every one to connect to the stories that touch them the most.
An example of this is found in looking at the monsters and villains that our heroes have had to face over time. I find comic books to an excellent example of this. Take the heroes of the two most popular comic book publishers of the 20th Century, Marvel and DC.
When the comic book first took off with the emergence of Superman in 1938, Superman was fighting the average, ordinary, everyday criminal and rescuing the world from natural disasters. But with the USA's entry into World War II, Superman began to fight Nazis, as did a character who would later be introduced into the Marvel Universe, Captain America, created for the sole purpose to champion the American war effort.
During the 1950s, the heroes began to fight the last of the crimelords as well as Communists.
In the 1960s, the plethora of characters that make up the Marvel Universe was born out of the Cold War. Radiation created some of the most well-known heroes of our day and age, specifically the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and (my personal favorite) the Amazing Spider-Man.
The 70s and the early 80s saw the involvement of anti-war sentimentality, as well as heroes who fought to prevent substance abuse and racism, as well as the beginning of super-heroines.
The late 80s and 90s saw an interesting turn of events. As Generation X was coming to its summit, the world of comic books saw super-heroes that were no longer one-dimensional, but now fought many of the demons within, and even fought other super-heroes. Our heroes now fought robots, computers, artificial intelligence, and the looming certain doom that would be come the internet.
Then, in modern years, our heroes are born from genetic experiments and must fight similar experiments. Today's heroes are much like the 90s in that they are two-sided, but the increasing fear of terrorism and the fear of any one man gaining too much power has inspired a whole new world of villains to fight.
This is just one example of how the heroes of our times are both inspired by us and inspire us. And we need these heroes. We need all of the heroes who have endured throughout time, the ones that never die, the ones like King Arthur, Luke Skywalker, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Spider-Man. I could go on and on (and, in fact, I believe I will at some point. But that's another blog post.) The ones that fight the same villains we fight; that face the same struggles we face. The ones that overcome. The ones that teach us to persevere and overcome.
The fact of the matter is, we need these stories. They inspire us with hope, beauty, goodness, and the truth of the human experience. They give us heroes, models, ideals. They teach us many things, better than any other method of teaching. Nothing beats a good story.
Unfortunately, nothing that I have said in this entire article (blog...blurb?...rambling?...) can beat what I am about to show here. From the words of the great J.R.R. Tolkien, the direction of legend Peter Jackson, and the talent of Mr. Sean Astin.
Samwise Gamgee on the Power of Story
And there you have it. J.R.R. Tolkien would have agreed with me (he did, actually.)
The power of story should not be underrated nor under-appreciated. The next time you hear a good story, take a minute to reflect on just how grateful you are that you live in a world with story, a world where story is so powerful and so necessary. Thank your Maker for having given you these stories.
And then, go tell some of your own.
Stories change the world.
We love them. We crave them. We need them.
Think about a story that changed your life. A work of literature, prose or poetry. Perhaps it's a story you heard from a friend or family member. Not just the stories that you love because they're interesting. Not even the ones you enjoy because they were made into good movies. Think about the ones that really affected you. The ones that still affect you to this day.
I cannot remember a time when I was not writing stories. But, then again, that is because I cannot remember a time I did not love them.
From the time I was a little boy, I can remember that I was fascinated with the art of story. I learned to read at a very young age, and began writing not much longer after. Even before I learned to write myself, I would have my mom write down or record the stories I told her. Some of my earliest memories consist of my mother writing down my words by the side of the public pool, holding a tape recorder up to my mouth, or merely listening as she lay in bed, as it was still too early to be respectfully awake. Some of my favorite stories were fairy tales, of course. The more Disney they were, the better. Then Robin Hood, King Arthur, and even Ivanhoe. I remember firing arrows across the playroom with my brothers, or jousting each other from atop our couch-cushion steeds. Then, Star Wars came into the mix. The moment I learned how to make a lightsaber noise with my mouth, I became a Jedi Master. My brother's jump-rope became Indiana Jones' whip and, subsequently, George Mallory's climbing ropes (this was, of course, after my mother realized that the presence of my father's bullwhip in the house, despite it being high up in the closet, posed a serious threat to my two twin brothers, both older and bigger and bad-guyier.) When super-heroes became a part of the equation, and my early adolescent years became filled with reading as many comic books as a boy my age could handle (I am unashamed of this fact: I have read the first 150 issues of the original Spider-Man series), and I knew that I would never be the same. Then came the classics. Jules Verne remains one of my favorite, with Robert Louis Stevenson and William Shakespeare entering the fray as well, accompanying ancient classics, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, as well as all forms of mythology. (I will confess, I love but one Hemingway book, and that is "Old Man and the Sea." The rest I do not find appealing.)
Stories are inescapable. They are essential to life. It is a rare occasion that some one goes through their life without hearing a story, telling a story, or experiencing a story. But why? Why are these stories so important to us? Why is it that men feel compelled to tell their stories, share their stories, listen to stories?
It is because without them, we fall apart.
We need stories to encourage us to do the incredible things that, elsewhere, we would never believe we could accomplish.
We need stories to keep us going when the going gets rough; that when the world seems too dark to go on, or when all hopes seems lost, the stories can show us the light.
We need stories to show us the good guys from the bad guys; to give us role models and heroes whom we aspire to be like.
We need stories to show us how to fight for good.
We need stories to teach us to believe.
We need stories to show us how to love.
In my experience, I have always looked to the stories I love to teach me to carry on. The human experience differs, and for this reason, there are many various stories. This allows for every one to connect to the stories that touch them the most.
An example of this is found in looking at the monsters and villains that our heroes have had to face over time. I find comic books to an excellent example of this. Take the heroes of the two most popular comic book publishers of the 20th Century, Marvel and DC.
When the comic book first took off with the emergence of Superman in 1938, Superman was fighting the average, ordinary, everyday criminal and rescuing the world from natural disasters. But with the USA's entry into World War II, Superman began to fight Nazis, as did a character who would later be introduced into the Marvel Universe, Captain America, created for the sole purpose to champion the American war effort.
During the 1950s, the heroes began to fight the last of the crimelords as well as Communists.
In the 1960s, the plethora of characters that make up the Marvel Universe was born out of the Cold War. Radiation created some of the most well-known heroes of our day and age, specifically the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and (my personal favorite) the Amazing Spider-Man.
The 70s and the early 80s saw the involvement of anti-war sentimentality, as well as heroes who fought to prevent substance abuse and racism, as well as the beginning of super-heroines.
The late 80s and 90s saw an interesting turn of events. As Generation X was coming to its summit, the world of comic books saw super-heroes that were no longer one-dimensional, but now fought many of the demons within, and even fought other super-heroes. Our heroes now fought robots, computers, artificial intelligence, and the looming certain doom that would be come the internet.
Then, in modern years, our heroes are born from genetic experiments and must fight similar experiments. Today's heroes are much like the 90s in that they are two-sided, but the increasing fear of terrorism and the fear of any one man gaining too much power has inspired a whole new world of villains to fight.
This is just one example of how the heroes of our times are both inspired by us and inspire us. And we need these heroes. We need all of the heroes who have endured throughout time, the ones that never die, the ones like King Arthur, Luke Skywalker, Robin Hood, Cinderella, Spider-Man. I could go on and on (and, in fact, I believe I will at some point. But that's another blog post.) The ones that fight the same villains we fight; that face the same struggles we face. The ones that overcome. The ones that teach us to persevere and overcome.
The fact of the matter is, we need these stories. They inspire us with hope, beauty, goodness, and the truth of the human experience. They give us heroes, models, ideals. They teach us many things, better than any other method of teaching. Nothing beats a good story.
Unfortunately, nothing that I have said in this entire article (blog...blurb?...rambling?...) can beat what I am about to show here. From the words of the great J.R.R. Tolkien, the direction of legend Peter Jackson, and the talent of Mr. Sean Astin.
Samwise Gamgee on the Power of Story
And there you have it. J.R.R. Tolkien would have agreed with me (he did, actually.)
The power of story should not be underrated nor under-appreciated. The next time you hear a good story, take a minute to reflect on just how grateful you are that you live in a world with story, a world where story is so powerful and so necessary. Thank your Maker for having given you these stories.
And then, go tell some of your own.
Stories change the world.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Loneliness
There is a certain
element of truth to the idea that there is only so much loneliness a
man can take. When placed in solitary confinement for too long, a man
can literally lose his mind. It is because the mind is a social
thing, and a society cannot function in the mind of one man. There
must be some greater form of society unknown to man. Something
invisible to the eyes of man.
Yet this is not our
topic of discussion. Rather, I would like to bring up a point.
There is only so
much loneliness a man can take because there is a such thing as a
collective soul.
That is not to say
that there is one great soul that we all take part in; no “oversoul”
such as is implied by Vedantic Hinduism, or even Ralph Waldo Emerson
(although Emerson does make some good points.) There is an individual
and individually created soul in each individual person. It is what
grants them said personhood. However, there is, to a certain extent,
a form of unity between the souls of humanity.
We, as humans, are
called to be social beings. Yet this aspect of humanity, unique to
humanity, is often misinterpreted. Being social and being extroverted
are not equivalent. Rather, being social is more similar to being
considerate.
I discovered a
better understanding of the nature of society, ironically, through
loneliness. I have often found myself missing one or many person(s)
of great importance to me. And it is in these times that I have
realized that I miss having some one to talk to, but that I miss
having some one talk to me even more. And therein lies the nature of
society.
The nature of
society is to communicate and interact and to be communicated to and
interacted with. We are all integral members of a molecular
community, each person a critical atom in a molecular chain that is
both adaptable and fragile; adaptable in that when a member is lost
or removed, the community continues to function, yet fragile in that
the community is still easily upset by said loss or removal. Due to
this, we not only have a calling to cultivate our own lives by
engaging in community, but we are called to cultivate the community
by participating in the social lives of its unique and numerous
individual persons. Consequently, the nature of loneliness is dual,
to be engaged and to engage.
There is a certain
element of truth to the idea that there is only so much loneliness a
man can take.
Yet it is also true
that man is never truly alone.
Let us thank our
Creator for our social souls and for the collective community of souls he has provided for us to care for all souls.
The Lord God said,
“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper
suitable for him.” -Genesis 2:18
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